AECP All AbOUT LAyering 7

I recently completed the Altenew All About Layering 7 course as part of my Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) journey. While I often use layering stencils in my cards, the advanced techniques in this class were challenging, and I had to make a few projects until I landed on a card I was finally proud of.

I will share some tips I learned along the way, because we can always learn from our mistakes, along with details on my final project.

Techniques used from the class include:

• Stepping up stencils with colored pencil,
• Die cutting before stenciling to better ensure your stencil is properly aligned,
• Layering embossing paste with stencils.

The image above is my final project featuring a stamped and stenciled floral image selected from the Billowing Peonies Bundle, enhanced with color pencil, before being added to a pattern paper background.

But… before I arrived at my final project I first started with attempting a card using layered embossing paste onto a pattern paper background. This was a technique demonstrated by the amazing Jaycee Gaspar that I was unable to execute to my satisfaction.

For my first attempt, I selected a piece of Honey Bee Stamps pattern paper from my stash with a soft watercolor pattern. I mixed my embossing paste with re-inkers to achieve a color palette similar to my paper, and I applied my first layer using a layering stencil from the Craft Your Life: Sunshine Flowers set. This is where I encountered mistake number 1. Most pattern paper is a lighter weight cardstock, in this case my paper was 65lbs. This weight is too light to support the dampness of the embossing paste. My paper immediately buckled to much to be salvaged and had to be discarded.

I had a second sheet of this same pattern paper, so for attempt number two, I glued my pattern paper first to a piece of 110lb white cardstock. I then did a partial die cut of the floral using my accompanying die, before again layering my first layer of paste. This stencil had 6 layers total and for my final layer, I didn’t have enough color contrast with my paste colors so I added a clear glitter embossing powder to the paste before heat setting. I finished everything off by gluing the design onto a white 5″ x 7″ card base and adding a brushed gold sentiment using the Fancy Thanks Die. The card was complete, but the stencil I chose was too large for this technique and there was still not enough contrast in my paste colors. It ended up as a big salmon colored blob on the page.

I decided to keep to the same card layout but try a technique I enjoy more, color pencil with stencils.

I selected another pattern paper from the same Honey Bee paper pad, this time in shades of soft blues and grays. Next I went through my stash until I came across my Billowing Peonies set. One the images on the stamp set was a perfect match the flower shapes in the paper. I stamped the image in a very light gray before die cutting the shape for stenciling. I removed my sticky mat from my Stampwheel, laid down my die cut, and applied inks with my stencils in shades of blues and grays. For the leaves I also added an some light touches of green, blending into the grays. The finished stencil is shown above

Pro-tip: You can always blend multiple ink colors using just one layer of a stencil to create more shadows and highlights.

Once my stenciling was complete, I pulled out my pencils. I primarily use Prismacolor pencils when layering over ink blending or alcohol markers, though I am also a fan of Polychromos for detail work. I grabbed my white for highlights, 70% warm gray for my shadows, and two shades of blues for the leaves. Following the shapes of the stencil layers, I softened the edges, enhanced the shadows, and added in highlights. The picture below shows the changes made with the pencil compared to the stencil-only image above. Both are beautiful. The pencil just adds in a little more realism.

Too finish things off, I matted the card panel in a dark gray cardstock. The mat was the same color I used to cut my Fancy Thanks sentiment. I also added a little shimmer pen to the sentiment for an added pop before finishing with a few silver sequins.

I really love how my final project turned out, and some day I might try layering embossing paste again too!

Thanks for reading!