Magical Marker Techniques for AECP

 Hi, and welcome back!

This is my first post for Level 2 of the AECP program.  The way Sara Naumann explains her ideas for Magical Marker Techniques is so clear and concise... and so creative! I am going to have fun with these techniques, for sure!

Card 1

The gold fish are back!!

I have quite a few different techniques here... one of which is not Altenew based, but it was soooo much fun! I will try making a video of that at some point, but let me explain for now.

For the background panel I put a small amount of water in a shallow bowl with some dishwashing liquid and mixed it up.  (I actually used a milk frother to make it extra bubbly!) Then I painted (Yes! Painted!!) the bubbles with liquid food coloring. Then I gently placed the photo paper onto the bubbles, and I ended up with this fun and bubbly background!!  I knew right away that it would end up as a background for these goldfish!

If you have followed my blog you may remember that when I purchased the goldfish dies the stamps were out of stock, so I have to draw in the details for my fish.  Fortunately it is very easy to follow the pictures on the packaging!

I cut the fish out of both white cardstock and vellum.  I used the fine tip end of the black alcohol marker to draw the outlines on the vellum, then flipped the fish over and colored on the backside so as not to mix the colors with the black.  I used the markers seen in the photos to color the fish.  I especially like the mottling effect on 2 of the fish. Basically I colored the fish, then added "spots" with a lighter marker to make this effect.  It is perfect for the fish!!

Then I used the white cardstock and cut away what would be the tails so that I was left with only a white body.  I attached the vellum fish to the white body for more interest and definition by using just a dab of liquid glue.  

Here is a close up of the mottling.. and the bubble background.

Tip: I like to put a small dot of glue onto my glass mat, then pick up the glue with a scrap piece of cardstock and lightly rub it onto the colored part of the fish.  This way there are no glue blotches showing through the cute little fish.

I cut the lily pads from white cardstock and colored them with different green alcohol markers.  

The bubble background was cut to 5" x 3 3/4".

I attached that onto a sheet 5 1/4" x 4" (where I had colored just around the edges with a matching blue alcohol marker) using foam tape. 

Then I attached the lily pads with liquid glue and the fish with foam tape so that they would look like they were swimming. 

I just printed out the free sheet of sentiments, so I added one to the bottom of the panel.  

I finished off by using some clear plastic dots (what are they called??) and colored the backside of them with the matching blue marker and attached them with liquid glue to look like bubbles around the fish. (Another great tip from the class!)

Tip: You can color your embellishments with alcohol markers to match the colors on your card exactly.  These are clear, but you can also color pearls, buttons, etc. to match your project!

Card 2 

I really wanted to try the technique coloring on metal, but I didn't have the right products, so I tried using heavy duty aluminum foil.  I made it work, but it is so flimsy and delicate that I probably won't do it again.  I do like the look, but I will need to find a heavier metal.

I started by scribbling lines of different colors onto sheets of the aluminum foil, then spritzed with alcohol to blend the inks together.  It gives a dotted look where the spray was finer, or a more mixed look where the alcohol was heavier.  I like the dotted look, and thought it would be great wrapping paper for this card.

I used the Altenew Time to Celebrate die set and cut and assembled the packages.  Here I am using my acrylic block to hold the glue in place while it dries.

Next step was the background panel.  I used the same technique, but I scribbled 2 different green markers onto my craft mat looking a bit like a Christmas tree.  

I scribbled the lines

I sprayed the alcohol

I pressed my card stock onto the inks

I then cut the panel down to 4" x 5 1/4" and lightly ran my brush end of the marker around the edge of the card stock.  I added that to a slightly larger piece of white card stock, then adhered to the card base.

The packages were added with double sided tape and foam tape for dimension.  I then cut stars from the aluminum foil to add as embellishments for the card.  The sentiment is from the Altenew Happy Holidays stamp set.  

Card 3

My last card for this class uses up some scraps from the previous cards, plus a couple new ideas.

I die cut different size stars from the colored aluminum foil that I had from the previous project.  I attached them to white card stock stars for stability.  I then used one of the small negative stars as a stencil and traced along the inside of the stencil to form stars around the edges of my white card stock panel.

I filled them in with 2 slightly lighter blue markers and added green dots around a few of them for added interest.

I then scribbled again onto my craft mat, and sprayed with alcohol to blend the inks together.  I used a scrap piece of craft paper (it has almost a plastic feel to it) and smooshed that onto the ink for the background of the stars.  

The stars were attached with very thin foam squares for a little dimension.

I ran my dark green marker around the edges of both of the card stock panels and adhered them with foam tape.  I then glued them to the card base. 

The sentiment is from the free printable sheet of sentiments from Altenew.

Please leave me a comment if you enjoyed my tutorials.  

Have a great day!