Altenew Educator Certification Program: Seasonal Scene Building

My last class for the Level 1 Altenew Educator Certification Program is called Seasonal Scene Building.

I’ll be honest, I usually avoid creating scene cards since they are a bit more time consuming than a nice clean and simple card.

I’ve purchased a few scene building stamp and die bundles and they tend to sit idle on my shelf.  Working full time really cuts into my creative time!!

As I took this class, I realized that I only had a couple of Altenew stamp sets that would make good scene building cards.  The instructor for the class was truly amazing.  She mixed and matched stamps from a variety of scenes and then did the most amazing coloring techniques to bring her scenes to life.

Needless to say, I ordered a couple of scene building sets from Altenew and they are on the way to me as I type this!  After taking this class, I want to create some of those scene cards with stamps.

The card that I created today was built using stamping and die cutting as opposed to just stamping and some artistic coloring techniques.

I had fun creating this!

In two of the class sessions, the instructor created cards that look like scenes that you might see out of a window.  She actually used a window die cut for one and built the scene behind it.  In another, she created a stamped scene using a rectangular frame and a window sheet as I have done here.  She actually made her card a shaker card with a beautiful silhouette scene.  I did not want this to be a shaker card.  As I added the flowers, I felt like sequins or confetti would take away from the simplicity of the scene.

My background is an ink blending technique using Buttercream, Arctic, and Caribbean Sky inks with a blending tool.  I really liked the way that turned out.  The more I practice the ink blending, the smoother it looks.  You really must practice these techniques.  I actually saw a video chat with several super successful stampers and they all said that everyone thinks they can watch a video and just do a technique.  They realize that they make it look easy in the videos, but what we don’t see is the hours of practice it took perfecting the techniques that they are sharing.  It was nice to hear that the experts had to practice and experiment to perfect their craft.

I’ve used two Altenew stamp sets here.  The Vintage Flower stamp and die set was used to create the small blossoms.  I used Arctic and Sapphire inks for those.  I stamped a few directly on to the background.  Those are not shadows, those are tiny stamped images tucked in there! The larger blossoms are popped up on foam tape as is the branch.

That branch, the sentiment, and that fabulous bird use Altenew’s Birds of a Feather stamp and die bundle.  This bird was easy to layer.  The set actually includes 3 birds in all.  I have stamped this in Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss, and Heart Beat.  These are some of the new inks I got with Altenew’s February release as is the Birds of a Feather bundle.

You can see that I stamped one of the sentiments in StazOn Black ink directly on to the window sheet.  I actually used my heat tool to speed up the drying time and set the ink.  The window frame is cut from Chocolate Chip card stock and the card front is mounted to a craft card base.

I feel like it looks like a scene that I might see out my window!

I will admit that I did not have high hopes for the outcome of this card, but I really like the way it turned out.  I combined a few techniques from the various classes to create the card.

I can’t wait to take more of the classes.  Some of the classes in level 2 look fabulous!!

Thank you for visiting today.  I hope that you have enjoyed the card!  I can tell you that I will not shy away from scene building cards in the future.  Practice leads to improvement.

I can say that it does require more time to create cards like this.  I saved this one for Friday night crafting since I don’t have to get up early in the morning.

I’m also really learning to embrace the imperfections!!

Have a wonderful weekend!