Heart Cards with Stephanie Ackerman

Ah-maze-ing!

I recently went to Phoenix, Arizona to participate in a scrapbook gathering with about 25 ScrapHappy members. We took a class with Stephanie Ackerman from Stephanie Ackerman Designs. This engaging woman with a unique sense of fashion and bright sparkly eyes captured my attention quickly.

I think I was hiding under a rock, because I wasn’t very familiar with Stephanie’s artistic endeavours. I had definitely heard of her, but boy was I in for an exciting surprise! Class started with a palette of paint in front of us, along with a jar of mixed media medium and a deck of 52 playing cards.

“Ooh! This looks interesting!” I thought.

Stephanie gave everyone a hand-decorated envelope of supplies.

These playing cards became the base of the heart cards we created.

Then she did the unthinkable. She pulled out old books and started ripping out pages! For real!

Rip! Stephanie tore the pages out of old, unloved books and passed them out.

Soon Stephanie had us covering the cards with book paper, playing with gesso, paint, multi-medium and then she won over any last hold-out corners of my heart… she pulled out… WASHI TAPE!

Have I confessed my love washi? Yes, I LOVE this stuff. But I’m getting distracted…

After adding washi tape to our already fun project I was totally into this. Then  Stephanie taught me a bold application method, using my fingers.

She said, “SWIPE that gesso on, don’t dab it!”

She had me attacking my project with (nearly) reckless abandon.

I was painting with baby wipes.

It seemed the crazier I went with the paints and goops the better the project looked. Awesome!

The next step involved adding words from old book pages. She recommended a large print book, because the words would be a better size to work with. She explained that we were going to read for words and phrases that inspired us, not for the story.

Then we cut them out and pasted them on another old piece of book paper so we wouldn’t lose the little bits. Later, when we chose the words we wanted to use we had a sheet that contained tons of great choices. (She’s so smart!)

Soon we had added hearts, more layers of paint… the secret is all in the layers, and ink for shadowing. The results were gorgeous!

Another  thing I loved about the class was what Stephanie called, “Open House”. We would all straighten out the cards we’ve been working on and we’d get up and walk around to admire everyone else’s projects. It was so cool to see the variations and uniqueness of each project, even though we were all taking the same class!

Confession: I think I really loved it because I’m a bit snoopy and I want to see what everyone else is doing… kind of like peeking around at an open house! 😉

The cards I created in Stephanie’s class.

I am in love with these cards!

I am in love with these techniques!

I am in awe of the genius of Stephanie Ackerman!

Here’s an individual photo of each card so you can see how the layers and details make the cards so enchanting.

If you’d like to try these techniques, and learn how to do this from the pro, Stephanie has an class! It’s called 52 Pick {Me} Up. Click HERE for details.

If you’d like to experience a smaller class with Stephanie there is a great one in the Layout A Day store called ‘A Few of My Favorite Things’. Sign up for immediate access to this class! *affiliate link

I can’t wait to use these techniques in my art journal!

Let your creativity shine!

Alice.