I’ve finished all the required classes for AECP Level 1. My final project is to create 2 sets of cards, one Feminine and one Masculine, 4 to 6 cards in each set that coordinate. I also had to choose 3 techniques that I learned in the classes to use on my cards. I’m sure I’m using more that 3 techniques because I learned so much. For the Feminine cards I chose to use stamp layering, mostly because my flower stamps are layering stamps; die cutting, because I like a little dimension on my cards; and let it shine, because everyone needs a little bit of glitz in their lives.

Ok, the feminine cards were easy. I started by choosing my color palette. I have a Pinterest board of color palettes and originally thought I’d want purple and green.

But when I tried to make a card using these colors it came out too dark for what I was going for. I then got an inspiration from this post and photo on Altenew’s website.

This image is gorgeous and had exactly the look I was going for. So I changed my color palette to pinks, greens and greys.

For the first card I used the Beautiful Day stamp and die set. I’ve had this one for quite a while and just love it. I started stamping with the lightest color which was Frosty Pink.

I didn’t want an outline to show but I needed one for aligning the stamps. It was very light but just what I needed. The next layer was the solid layer and I used Cotton Candy, then Coral Berry and finally Ruby Red for the darkest.

I then masked the flower and did the leaves in Frayed Leaf and Forest Glade. Those are the greens I use most often and also the first ones I ever bought. One of the things I liked about the inspiration photo was the light pink leaves around the edges of the flower. I am in love with the wispy leaves in the Pen Sketched Silhouette stamp set, so I stamped the leaves around the flower in Frosty Pink.

I liked the look of that but thought it needed just a little more oomph. So I took out the Frosty Pink Alcohol Marker and highlighted just the base of the flowers.

That gave those leaves just enough definition but still kept them pale. The flower needed a dark center, which I would have gotten if I had stamped the outline stamp in black. I needed some shine on the card so I used Black Diamond Stickles for the stamens and then Fruit Punch Stickles for the very center. I decided this would be a birthday card and die cut Happy from Script Words 2 set from both grey and black card stock. I then offset the grey on the black to give Happy more definition. I stamped Birthday from the Gradient Stripes stamp set. I mounted the card on black and then grey cardstock to keep to my color scheme. Finally, to add just a little bit more shine I added the Clear Wink of Stella to the base of the light pink leaves. I think it came out beautiful.

My second card was a similar layout to the first but this time I die cut the flower and the leaves to give some dimension. I ink blended a strip in Velvet color near the bottom of the card and ink blended a stencil in Frosty Pink for some interest.

I added the Stickles to the center just like the first card. For the sentiment I stamped in grey ink first then in Versamark and heat embossed in clear just to add little more shine. I mounted it on black and then grey cardstock to match the rest of the set.

For my next card I got my inspiration from this photo on Altenew’s website.

I originally thought I’d put my sentiment in the center, surround the sentiment with the light pink leaves like the other two cards and then have raised greenery around the card. It’s amazing that as you create a card what you want, or what you end up with is not what you thought of in your mind. But that’s what inspiration is, a starting point that you can expand and change to suit yourself.

I did stamp my sentiment in dark grey and heat set it with clear embossing. There’s that shine. I did stamp the light pink leaves around the sentiment and enhanced them just like the last two cards.

Then I began deviating from the original inspiration piece. I wanted green leaves around the edge and I thought it would look better just at a corner instead of around the entire card. So I mounted the leaves on foam tape before adding them to the card. And just like the other cards I mounted it on grey and black cardstock.

For what I thought was going to be my last card I used the Grateful Heart stamp set. I used the same colors for the flower, but this time I put yellow in the center with yellow Stickles for the shine. I used the leaves from the Beautiful Day set but stamped those in pink, along with pink leaves from the Pen Sketched Silhouette set. After I masked off the flower I used the leaves from the Grateful Heart stamped in green. I also enhanced the pink leaves just like the other cards. My intention was to put the Happy die cut sentiment over the flower for a Happy Birthday card, but I liked this card with no sentiment at all, and let the flower stand out.

I was loving this color combo so much I just couldn’t stop at 4 cards. So I made another one.

Here is the final set.

I also had to use something recycled in either the cards themselves or the packaging. I chose to use something recycled in the packaging.

I have plastic pockets left over from some Close to my Heart stamps I purchased years ago. Even though its a square package I thought it would work great.

I also have many, many die cuts left over from other projects that I never used. Either the stamping wasn’t perfect, the colors weren’t right, or I just made too many.

I also had a very old bottle of Mod Podge. I mean VERY old. It certainly wasn’t liquid, more like a paste. I did use a foam brush but almost had to scrape it from the bottle. I smeared the Mod Podge along the bottom of the plastic pocket and then put some flowers down. I then put some Mod Podge on portions of the flowers that would be overlapped so they would stick down. Once I had the bottom flowers adhered I kept adding Mod Podge then flowers and more Mod Podge and finally tucked smaller flowers at the top. I even found a little Shrinky Dink lady bug I made years and years ago. I didn’t cover the entire thing because I wanted my cards to show through. I was really afraid that the Mod Podge wouldn’t actually dry and my whole package would be sticky. But while it was still a little wet I was able to wipe off any Mod Podge that was left on the plastic and within an hour it was completely dry and not sticky.