AECP Easy Ink blending techniques

Next up in my Altenew Certified Educator Program (AECP) course list was “Easy Ink Blending Techniques” taught by Amy Lee. I first want to say that this has been one of my favorite courses so far. Amy is a wonderful instructor, her cards are just beautiful, and her tips were ones I know I will keep with me. The technique from the course I am applying to my class project comes from Lesson 3, “Adding Details to Ink Blending.”

In the Lesson, Amy demonstrates using a finger sponge dauber to create overlapping circle shapes onto her ink-blended background to create a soft Bokeh design. For my own project, I decided to adapt that technique by using a stencil to overlay my ink-blended background.

To start, I grabbed my Summer Afternoon set of Altenew Fresh Die Inks and usedthe lightest color from the set, Buttercream, to ink blend a soft background across the upper left portion of my Neenah Solar White 80lb cardstock panel. I kept the blending in a loose triangle shape to later frame my leaves and floral image. Next, I grabbed my Feeling Dotty Stencil and I very lightly overlaid the ink-blending with small sections of dots in both the original Buttercream and the Caramel Toffee inks, also in the set. The stenciling gave my background texture and visual interest without becoming the feature image.

Next it was time to create the focal point of my design, the flower!

Since this was a project focused on ink-blending, I knew I had to use ink-blended die cuts alongside my background. I pulled out my Sulfur Cosmos Layering Die Set and die cut all of the pieces for one of the two blooms in the set along with all of the accompanying leaves. I ink-blended each of the three leaves first, again using my Summer Afternoon dye set, starting with the lighter color, Warm Sunshine, covering the whole leaf. Next I used Caramel Toffee, blending lightly from the base of the leaf towards the tip for a nice gradation of color before finishing with my darkest color, Paper Bag, which I blended from the base just to the middle part of the leaf. For the Sulfur Cosmos flower I wanted an unconventional color that would pop against all of the warm yellows. I chose a range of 3 blues, starting with a light aqua for the base of the petals followed by a darker teal and navy blue radiating out from the center of the petals for shadow and dimension.

Now it was time for assembly…

I adore dimension with floral die cuts and to achieve this I do two things… 1.) I very lightly curl the petals using either a pencil or the side of my picking tool, and 2.) I use a LOT of thin foam tape.

Once my flower was assembled, I arranged all of my pieces onto my ink-blended background in a loose triangle shape. After seeing things laid out, I decided I needed a few more subtle die cuts so I grabbed my Itty Bitty Branches Die Set and cut few floral springs in brushed gold cardstock. I must also say, the Itty Bitty Branches set is awesome to have on hand as you can use die cuts from this set to enhance any floral design. After everything was glued down, I stamped a simple Smile sentiment in a darker brown ink, added a few matte gold embellishments, and my card was complete.

I do really love this design. Thanks for reading!