I am getting near to the end of my Altenew Certified Educator Program (AECP) Academy 2 classes, and the latest, Polychromatic, focuses on the use of color within card design. For my feature project, I decided to leverage the tips from lesson two and create a monochromatic card design. During the course, the facilitator, Nina-Marie Trapani, used outline stamps to stamp images on colored card stock in nearly identical dye ink colors. She then added shadow using Copic markers in the same hues. Instead of stamping and Copic coloring a monochromatic design, I instead decided to stencil one.
Since Valentine’s is the next cardmaking season I chose to create a Valentine’s Day card in pinks using the newest Altenew Stencil Art: Playful Watercolors Stencil Set. I grabbed a piece of soft pink cardstock and four coordinating shades of pink dye inks from PinkFresh Studios and I got to work. Using the lightest 3 shades of pink, I stenciled the flowers. Next, using the 3 darkest shades of pink, I stenciled the leaves. Using 4 shades of pink allowed the image to pop against the background while still keeping everything in a nice monochromatic color palette.
To further jazz up my card panel, I grabbed another piece of cardstock in the same shade as my darkest ink, and used that to create a border on both the left and the right. For a little extra shine I also added a thin strip of rose-gold metallic cardstock on the left and then I cut a sentiment using the new Timeless Sentiments Die Set also out of rose-gold. To finish everything off , I added some clear drop embellishments in a soft pink color to add a little extra.
I am so pleased with how pretty this card turned out and this is definitely a technique I will be keeping in my arsenal.
Gorgeous!