Altenew Educator Certification Program

Earlier this week I got some great news that my application for the AECP was accepted. I’m a big fan of Altenew products and have been wondering how to take my crafty passion to the next level. The AECP seems like a good marriage of increasing my capacity for learning stamping, connecting me with other crafty people and giving me an outlet to teach others about stamping and creating.
To learn about the journey and my first submissions for AECP, read on.

AECP-What is it?

Within the AECP, once accepted, you complete 10 classes and showcase a project for each class culminating in a final project before receiving level one educator status. To achieve level two educator status, you take ten more classes and complete a final project. Level three status has some additional challenges but the benefit is the ability to teach for Altenew. Since I am a teacher and I love crafting, I figured this program was up my alley.

Submission #1

The first class is All About Layering 1 which is a series of video lessons that showcase 10 of Altenew’s layering stamp sets. Within the lessons, the instructor had a lot of tips about working with layering stamps.
Tip 1: practice
Tip 2: outline image first, than add the solid image followed by the stamp with the most surface area.
Tip 3: use the layering guide to draw arrows into specific areas on the outline image to help you line up the stamps.
I noticed that the examples were very clean and simple which showcased the intricate details of the layering stamps. I used that inspiration to make two cards. My first example uses Altenew’s Teacher’s Rule layering stamp set.

Teacher thank you notes are always appreciated and I really liked this set from Altenew because of the depth the layered apple shows. I first practiced my layering with different color combinations and to figure out how to line up the stamps. The final color combination I used was Distress Ink in candied apple and Hero Arts Burgundy. The leaf was stamped using Momento Bamboo leaves and Momento pear tart. I wanted the sentiment to look like it was written on a chalk board so I used some slate cardstock from my stash and cut it to size, used Versamark ink and Brutus Monroe Alabaster Embossing Powder to highlight the sentiment. Ranger enamel dots in white added a whimsical touch. A piece of 80lb Neenah solar white was embossed using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and mounted to the card with a piece of funfoam underneath to add dimension. The apple was adhered with foam squares to add further dimension. The whole panel was attached to a piece of Gina K Red Velvet cardstock cut to side folding A2 size.
For the inside of the card, I attached a piece of Neenah index cardstock on which I had added a sentiment from the stamp set, punched the side using an EK success ABC123 punch and cut out a thin strip and some apples on a piece of scrap cardstock I had colored with Distress Ink candied apple and then spritzed with Tseukineko Shimmer Spray.
​On the envelope, I stamped a Hero Arts plaid background on the envelope flap and adhered some more apples to the front. This card is now ready to make a teacher’s day.

Submission #2

For my second submission, I used a collaboration stamp set between Altenew and Simon Says Stamp that was released for 2018 Stamptember. The set is called Dainty Sprig. On a piece of watercolor paper, I washed the background with Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor. On a piece of Bristol marker paper, I stamped the Dainty Sprig outline twice using Tombow markers in 177 and 195 for the greens and 636 for the flowers and buds. To layer the flowers, I stamped the base in Hero Arts Passion Flower and the details in Hero Arts Grape Soda. Using a waterbrush, I colored in the leaves using ink from the green Tombow markers. I used the coordinating dies to cut out the flower sprigs and I cut out the same image from fun foam to evenly popup the springs.
On the water colored background, I used Versa Mark Ink and Hero Arts clear embossing Powder to Stamp and highlight the Hero Arts Flourish background Stamp. With a Krylon 18kt gold paint marker and a straight edge, I drew lines on the water color piece to add a border without adding weight. The sentiment is from the Dainty Sprig set and was stamped and then Hero Arts gold heat embossing powder was used to give it a nice shine on the vellum. The card front was adhered to a piece of Gina K green cardstock cut to A2 top folding size. The inside was a piece of index cardstock, stamped with the same Flourish background stamp but in Catherine Pooler Grass Skirt and then finished with a piece of purple Washi from my stash. I added some individual flowers from the Altenew set to tie the front and inside together. The sentiment is stamped in gold pigment ink.

My favorite thing about using Altenew layering stamp sets is how the different colors add such interest and dimension with little effort. I also like Altenew’s sentiments that really inspiring and thoughtful. Thank you for joining me on this first step of my crafty journey with Altenew. I hope this gives you some inspiration to try a layering stamp set and check out the classes Altenew offers on their website. I’m looking forward to my next Altenew video class. Have a great crafty day.