AECP – Beyond Basic Background

I am continuing on my journey to become an Altenew Educator. One of the recent courses I had took in Level 2 was Beyond Basic Backgrounds This class challenged me to go beyond the typical backgrounds I have done and experiment. I purchased a gel printing plate a while back and decided this was the perfect card to give it a whirl.

To begin I used my Altenew Dye ink pads in Autumn Blaze, Orange Cream and Firebrick, and applied the ink directly onto the gel plate in a random manner and then spritzed the ink on the gel plate with water to allow the ink to move.
Next I placed a 4.25″x5.5″ piece of cardstock on top of the gel plate and pressed it down with my palm. When I removed the cardstock panel I had this beautiful organic background. The upper right hand portion of the card illustrates this perfectly.
The stunning flowers were then stamped onto the card panel using Altenew's Incredible Stamp Set with Altenew Jet Black ink.
I splattered black watercolor paint on the background as well for additional contrast.
I decided to bring the flowers to life with Altenew alcohol markers. I applied Caramel Toffee and Orange Cream alcohol marker colors in multiple layers to add just the right amount of shading to compliment the beautiful background. It is wonderful that the gel press design still peeks through the alcohol marker layers in a somewhat mottled manner.
I also added additional impact by applying Ranger Glossy Accents to the flower centers to give them an enamel look.
I then die cut the panel using Gina K's stitched large rectangle 3.5″ x 4.75″ and glued that to a 4″x5.25″ black cardstock panel.
I added sparkle by coloring the black cardstock with a clear Wink of Stella pen.
Next this panel was mounted to an A2 card base with foam tape (A2 = Neenah 110# – 4.25 x 11″ that was scored and folded in half).
Altenew White Embossing Powder was applied to the Your Are Very Special sentiment from the same stamp set and heat embossed and mounted to the card panel with foam tape as well.

I truly enjoyed using my gel press for the first time and love the organic design that appears to have so much texture. As always, I hope you will give this technique a try and I hope my blog will provide inspiration to you and spark excitement and joy in your life and those you create for.

Until next time…Happy Crafting!!

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