AECP - Clean and Simple Boutique Cards

   One of my goals in starting the AECP program was that I wanted to take the time to try some of the techniques that I might have seen in the past, but haven't had the time (or nerve) to implement.  So I am trying different techniques and using the stamps and tools in my stash that have not received the attention they should.  On the upside, I'm having a great time and learning a lot, but on the downside, it is taking me a long time to get through each class.  I'm not the type of person who puts together a card in 20 minutes or even an hour or so.  So I'm a little bit worried about my slow pace.

  In this post, I will be writing about my experiences with the Clean and Simple Boutique Cards Class with Jennifer Raza as the instructor.  I should start out by saying that I love CAS cards, but I struggle sometimes with keeping it simple. What can I say? White space intimidates me! 

    In any case, I was very excited to take this class and was not disappointed.  Each lesson gave me a new idea to try out.  I made the following three cards for this class.  As you can probably tell, I didn't quite manage to keep them all Clean and Simple.  That having been said, I love the way they all came out.  In the interest of not repeating the entire class, I am only going to focus on the second card.  I chose this card because it is both representative of the class and a departure from my usual style.

Repeating Patterns

    The assignment for this lesson was to use an image in a repeating pattern. I didn't really have an image that was the right size, so I decided to use three different small images from the Wonderland and Peony Bouquet stamp sets.  Of course, I couldn't just free-hand this, so I started by testing out my pattern on a scrap piece of paper.

    Most of the time, my cards are 5x7 inches. I've started cutting  my scrap paper into 5x7 inch rectangles.  so I have a stack of them on hand to do some quick test stamping.  I tried a couple of arrangements using a stamp block.  Once I had one I liked, I tried to figure out the distances between the images.  Strictly speaking this step was completely unnecessary, but that is the math teacher in me. Finally, I stamped the images on Canson XL watercolor paper.

Coloring the Images

    I used the Color Catalog to choose my colors. I started looking through images that had a blueberry blue and some green and landed on these colors.  I was able to match the colors using the Altenew 36 Watercolor Pan.  I used Midnight Violet for the flowers, Caribbean Sky  with some Midnight Violet accents for the blueberries and mixed Lagoon and Evergreen to create the color for the leaves. Fortunately the images are really small since I am by no means adept at water coloring.

Finishing Touches

    I looked through my colored paper and found the perfect match in my scraps.  (And my family wonders why I can't throw anything away).  I liked the hugs die cut from the Hello and Hugs die set. but the loops of the "h" and "g" got lost in the white space of the card. I cut a second hugs in black and glued it slightly offset from the white.  That gave it just enough contrast to be easily legible.  I considered adding a sub-sentiment or embellishments, but I decided that it was enough.  Below is the final card.

Extra Cards

    I've been wanted to doodle these flowers ever since I first got this Billowing Blossoms stamp set years ago.  I was happy with the result, except that white space in the top left corner!  I had to add some embellishments there to finish it off.  I used the Gradient Sunset stamp set for the sentiment. 

    The last card was inspired by a blue and gold artwork I saw online.  I created the background by smooshing Persian Blue and Sapphire Crisp Dye Ink as well as  Tumbled Glass and Blueprint Sketch Oxide Inks on blue cardstock.  I foiled the leaves in the Leaf Cluster stamp set using Versamark ink and embossing powder. The sentiment is from the Eucaluptus stamp set.  I wanted to foil that too, but the fine text became too difficult to read.  The circles are from the Fine Frames Circles Die.