Let It Shine - AECP Journey

Hello crafty friends! This is my 6th assignment on my AECP journey and this course is called Let It Shine! This was right up my alley as it was all about adding shine and glitter to your cards, in several different ways and you all know I'm never one to shy away from adding a bit of shine and/or sparkle to my cards. The class was taught by Clarissa Wiley and was very useful and informative, as are all the Altenew courses. I had forgotten about some of the different mediums that I have tucked away and after this I most definitely plan on pulling them out and putting them to good use. I have 2 cards to share with you today, so today's post maybe a bit longer than usual, so let's jump right in.

This first card came to me at about 2am as I was laying in bed and I thought I have to give it a try and see how it turns out. So the next day I went to work. This card doesn't use a whole lot of supplies. but it definitely gives that WOW factor! For this one I pulled out my Sunburst Stencil from Altenew, some opal foil transfer sheets, my DecoFoil Transfer gel and my mini Minc machine. The transfer gel is a bit like the texture paste I had used in my previous post and although you apply them in both the same way, that's where the similarities end. The transfer gel has a thinner, glossy and much smoother consistency compared to the texture paste and once dry, it works differently as well. The texture paste once dry has a matte finish and dries hard, while on the other hand, the transfer gel dries to a clear finish and remains a bit tacky so you can add your foil to it using whichever method you decide. I cut a piece of black cardstock down a bit larger than the 6x6 stencil and using my palette knife, spread out the transfer gel as evenly as I could. Once I was happy with the application, I removed the stencil and cleaned them off promptly, so as to not have the gel harden on them, although you do have a bit more leeway with this gel. I then set aside the cardstock to give it time to dry. It starts off as kind of a milky colour and then dries clear.

Once it was dry I got out my Minc Mini Foil Applicator machine and some Opal DecoFoil transfer sheets. I love the effect the foil has! As the name suggests, it has a beautiful opal sheen to it and it kind of changes a bit with the light. It's also semi-transparent and for that reason it will look different on whatever colour cardstock you adhere it to. I was pretty excited to see how it would turn out on the black! This was also the first time using the Opal foil, so I had no idea what to expect.

After I ran it through the machine, I cut down my piece a bit smaller than my 4.25"x5.5" white card base. I adhered it using a bit of fun foam to give it a bit of added dimension. Then all that was left was to add my sentiment from Altenew's Painted Inspiration stamp set using some black ink on white cardstock. I was originally going to add the sentiment right in the centre to cover up a bit of a "mess" with some of the transfer gel and the foil, but I really love how it looks off centered and it still covers up my little oopsy. And of course I couldn't not put a few extra bits of sparkle on it, so I added sone crystal clear sequins in 3 different sizes and it was perfect! I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. The opal foil on the black cardstock is giving me total mermaid vibes and especially how it changes colour with the light and the different angles...from a sort of teal colour to a purple. This most definitely delivers on the shine!

For my second card I kind of made it on the fly, as I still had my stencils, transfer gel and foils out, this was another experiment and kind of a create as we go, as I had no plan ahead of time. I got out my Cube Builder stencil that I had used in the previous post and started blending some Cotton Candy ink on a piece of white cardstock again trimmed down slightly bigger than my stencil. The cotton candy ink wasn't quite dark enough so I started blending some Puffy Heart on top, until I had achieved the perfect shade of pink that I was after. I then re-positioned my stencil and added some transfer gel and then set it aside to dry once I had it all applied evenly. Once it was dry I added a sheet of gold DecoFoil on top and put it through my Minc machine. The foil didn't come out perfect, but I was happy with it.

I then trimmed down the cardstock and cut out and adhered 2 black frames using Altenew's Fine Frames Cover Die. I stamped out 2 different flowers from the Wallpaper Art stamp set and kept going back and forth between adding 1 or 2 flowers...I had to ask my husband several times what he thought and also messaged my mother to see what she thought 😂 So in the end I was out voted 2 to 1, but I do think that 2 would have been too much. I cut out the leaves from a die set from Little B and added some sparkle to them using my Nuvo Glitter Gloss pen and although you can't see the sparkle in the photos, it's there and beautiful! Then I picked out a sentiment from the Regal Beauty stamp set, trimmed that down, added a bit of black behind it and adhered that. In the end all that was left was to add a few iridescent jewels from Little Things from Lucy, because you can never have enough sparkle (okay well maybe you can), but I think these were the perfect touch as they didn't take away from anything on the card and are actually a bit more subtle than you may think.

Although this second card was kind of a create as you go and also that I never really had a plan in my head beforehand for it, I think it turned out pretty good in the end. It's a totally different look to my previous post using the same stencil. The possibilities are really endless for it!

Both of these cards were "experiments" but I am quite happy with their outcomes! Definitely step out of your comfort zone sometimes and just go for it and try something new. It may not always turn out how you had hoped or expected it to, but you may end up pleasantly surprised and end up with some happy little accidents!

I hope you take some time out for yourself and get creative! As always, thank you very much for taking the time to stop by and visit and don't forget to leave a comment down below...I'd love to hear what you think and if you've ever had any happy little accidents while creating! Have a wonderful and creative day 😊

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