Hello creative friends! Today I’m sharing a card that I made after participating in Altenew Academy’s Masking Unleashed online course. This is my last course in the Level 2 Altenew Educator Certification Program! Soon I will get to see what my final project assignment will be! I can’t wait!

The inspiration for this card came from one of the backgrounds that was demonstrated during the second lesson in the course. The instructor used a wreath shaped die to create a mask out of masking paper. She blended a lighter toned neautral ink over that, and then lifted the mask off, rotated it slightly, and placed it down again. She blended ink over the top of the mask a second time. She thoroughly ink blended over her entire panel, so in the end, the panel was a consistent color, except for the wreath images of course. It was a very classy card, in my opinion.

I used her masking idea. I created masks of the leaves out of the Jumbo Garden Picks Layering Die Set. These leaves seemed to be better laid out in a straight line, so that’s what I did. I placed the leaf masks on a piece of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock, and lightly blended over them with Frayed Leaf Crisp Dye Ink from the Green Fields set, using a blending brush. If I had to pick only one set of green ink pads, this would be it. I just love these colors! I carefully removed the masks, turned them around on the card (from top to bottom) and blended over them again. I intentially did not cover the whole panel with the Frayed Leaf ink, leaving some white space. I then added some of the darker green in this grouping – Forest Glades – around the edges of the panel. Covering my masked areas, I spattered the darkest green (Evergreen) and some white Gouache onto my panel.

To give the edges of the panel some interest, I die cut the panel with a wonky stitched rectangular die. I think any kind of decorative edge would look nice with this card. Use what you have. You could even add some handdrawn lines if you prefer. A white Gel pen would look nice!

I wanted to add another layer of leaves, so I die cut another set out of vellum. I also decided to diecut the leaf layers from vellum. To give the leaf layers some color, and to make them more defined, I blended a little of the Evergreen ink onto the back of the vellum pieces. This is a great idea, because you can add a waterbased ink for color, but it won’t rub off, because it will be on the back side of the layer. I used the tiniest bit of Ranger Collage Medium to attach the green layer to the bottom layer of the leaves, and then glued those pieces in place on my card, setting them askew to the masked leaves. For my sentiment, I chose the Fancy Hugs die. I cut it out of a pearl white specialty paper, and then layered it on two more pieces of cardstock for dimension.

I just love the ethereal feel that I was able to create with this card. It seems so calming and soothing to me, using this green color scheme. The two layers of masking, combined with the vellum, is just a match made in heaven! Thank you for stopping by my blog, and Happy Making Season! Although this isn’t really a seasonal card, I’m looking for just the right poinsettia die that I could use this technique with. After all, part of this whole making thing is the collecting thing, am I right?

Altenew products used:
Altenew Jumbo Garden Picks Layering Die Set
Altenew Fancy Hugs Die
Altenew Crisp Dye Ink mini cube set – Green Fields