I just finished another class for the AECP, Altenew Education Certification Program. This one was one of my favorites, so far. As I take them they all might be a favorite. In one lesson she talked about using luxury paper, such as gold or wood grain. In a different lesson we created our own backgrounds and I yet another lesson she talked about metallic details. I combined those ideas to create these two cards. The first one uses Ditsy Print stamp set. First I stamped the outline layer in a light grey using my MISTI. I wanted to add the silver embossing outline but needed to do that last. So I kept the outline stamp in the MISI so that when I stamped with Versamark for the silver embossing, the stamp would line up exactly with the grey ink I stamped first. Next I stamped base layer of the flowers in a light blue and then the second and third layers in darker blues. I then stamped the leaf layers in greens. When The center flower was done I went back and re-stamped the outline with Versamark ink and then heat set in silver. Once the center flowers were complete I stamped the outline stamp in the same grey ink to fill the background. To add a little more detail I ran the edge of the white card along the Versamark ink pad and embossed the silver around the edge. I did the same around the blue sentiment strip. I mounted the white flower paper on dark blue paper then mounted it all on a white notecard. I had some metallic edged ribbon that set the sentiment off nicely.

For the next card I had some black glitter paper I wanted to use. I also happened to have black circles left from a previous project that I die cut using the Fine Frames Circle die that I wanted to use. Because I was using black glitter paper and black circles I wanted to keep the card simple and elegant so I stamped the flowers in grey. Afterward a friend said she’d never send a black birthday card to any one, so maybe I should have made it a sympathy card. Anyway I still like it.