I am so excited to share this post today. This is my FINAL for the Altenew Educators Certification Program! This has been a year in the making, and I have learned so much, and I’m really happy to move forward.

There are specific criteria that is required for the final assignment challenge. One of those criteria is to teach a 2 hour class in a classroom or workshop setting.  Because of COVID-19 I was given the option to either wait and do an in-person class, or to move forward and conduct on online virtual class. I chose to do the virtual class.

I approached my final class project with a lot of excitement because I knew I wanted to put my focus on “The Versatility of Inks” for beginners. To really be able to show there are several different ways to use these types of ink on cards for all occasions.

I included a supply bag of the items the participants would need as well as PDF instructions for each of the 3 cards we would be creating in a 2 hour time frame. I did some die cutting, and some embossing on the card fronts (top layer) for the class ahead of time. Since all the participants had never stamped or made cards previously to this class, I knew they would not have all those tools available to create the cards I designed. I also provided them a “snapshot” of how to set up their workstation that would allow everything to be right there for them.

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For the first card, it was simply stamping the ombre effect “happy” from the Halftone Happy Stamp set with the Northern Lights ink cubes, creating a splatter background using the watercolor paint brush, and adding some embellishments. Fairly simple and straightforward.

AECP-Final Project Card 1

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For the second card, we advanced a bit further by creating an ink blended background and water colored the butterfly using the dye inks as a watercolor medium. For this card I embossed the open script “happy” from the Halftone Happy” Stamp set in black ahead of time for the participants. I pre-cut the butterfly from watercolor paper as well.

AECP-Final Project Card 2

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For my third and final card I pre-cut the “happy” from the Halftone Happy matching die with a foam adhesive backing, and pre-cut the Halftone Cover Die to use as a stencil for creating the background. I then used the dye ink to color in the background and the “happy”. Lastly, I added some gold washi tape strips to the edge for a bit of shine.

AECP- Final Project Card 3

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The class participants have been kind enough to share their creations!

 

 

 

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I have had such a positive experience with the Altenew Educators Certification Program. I definitely have advanced in my personal card making skills. For me the best part of this experience has been getting the feedback from Erum Tasneem and Virginia Wu on the individual project submissions. Even when I had to re-create a project because it fell outside the class parameters, their input was done in a positive way to help me grow as a creator and artist!

I feel so grateful for this experience in helping me build my confidence and skill level to a point where I felt like I could teach a class. That can be overwhelming to someone not trained to teach! However, I had both of them with me during my online class, and I got real time feedback. That was so helpful, and valuable moving forward. I want to say “Thank You So Much” to Erum and Virginia, but also to all the Altenew instructors I have taken classes from. You’re all very talented, and creative!

Thank you for stopping by the blog today! I hope you’ll leave me a comment.

Rachael

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Each class participant received a supply kit with the following:

Halftone Happy Stamp Set

Northern Lights Mini Ink Cube Set

Altenew Mixed Media Craft Mat

Permanent Black Ink

Med Acrylic Block

5 ½ x 4 ¼ Card Fronts

5 ½ x 4 ¼  Folded Card Bases & Envelopes

Pre-Cut Die Cuts

Altenew Med Watercolor Brush

Ink Blending Tool w/applicator sponges

Tape Runner

Removable Tape Runner

Liquid Glue

Gold Washi Tape

Rhinestone Embellishments

Stamp Cleaning Wipes