As part of my Altenew Educator Certification Programme (AECP), I recently took their Clean & Simple Boutique cards class; this class is packed full of inspiration and ideas to help you achieve the CAS look. The class is also the inspiration behind my fourth AECP post & project.

CAS isn’t my natural instinctive style, but I have been trying to work on it recently and this class helped me to see that there are no strict ‘rules’ one has to follow in order to achieve this style. It doesn’t have to be as regulated as I falsely believed it was, and once I relaxed a little I found that I was able to create some CAS projects that I really love!

I knew that I wanted to use this gorgeous Lavender stamp I have had in my stash for a while and not yet used; So I took out a few different ink pads and tested which ones would look best together. After a number of experiments I settled upon Distress Oxide, in the colours of Shaded Lilac & Wilted Violet, for the Lavender flowers and Altenew’s Crisp Dye ink in Olive for the stem. I stamped these out on some Neenah Solar White and then left it to dry; this takes much longer when using Distress Oxide because of its pigment formula. I also stamped the ‘thanks’ sentiment from the same Lavender set in black ink.

Once dry, I decided I wanted to dry emboss the fine frames dye over my panel ; this is really easy to do with a rubber impressions mat and your usual die machine! I use a Big Shot by Sizzix, so your sandwich may vary depending on the type of machine you are using; it’s best to check the setup you will need for your machine via their directions.I found I needed to experiment a little with the sandwich I used in order to get a really good, impression.

(I settled on removing the thinlets board, and replacing it with 3 sheets of paper, putting my impressions pad between the bottom cutting plate and the cardstock.)

I really love this technique because if offers new ways to stretch your current supplies by using them in a completely different way than intended, and also offers the look of fantastic depth whilst still keeping it basically 1 layer.