As You See It Challenge

Playing Along with a Colour Challenge

I’ve felt as though something has been missing in my world of Stampin’ Up!® and I finally realized what it is!

I miss playing!

I’ve been completely focused on designing cards for others to make at events and classes, that I forgot to do the one thing that drew me into this art form in the first place. I need to create for the sake of creating!

When I make cards for a class, I have to consider the skill level, how many steps are involved, how to work within the time available for the class, and adhere to the limits of the supplies available to the number of people involved. However, when I create for the sake of creating, I can be free of limits and can let myself become absorbed in the joy of the moment. It’s delightful. It’s when I’m at my happiest in my craft room.

For those reasons, I thought, “What if you did a colour challenge?”. Of course, my first thought was to go to my favourite challenge blog: As You See It Challenge! I used to be a designer for them a couple years back, but I really love their challenges. I also like that theirs are posted every two weeks, giving you plenty of time to create a card and share it.

Here’s the colour challenge that they posted last Friday:

My Card

I chose to use the Crafting with You Bundle for my design. You can see that there’s a bit of everything on this one: A watercolour technique, some ink blending with a mask, die-cuts and heat embossing, OH MY!

Technique for the Floral Image

I think some of these methods are familiar to you. However, you may not be able to achieve the floral image without a bit of explanation. With the Poppy Parade, Tahitian Tide, and Crumb Cake Stampin’ Write Markers, I applied ink to the floral image stamp, than stamped it on the Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper. Little dots were applied around the image with the same coloured markers. I then very lightly misted the image with water from my Spritzer to soften the image and the dots.

I let this dry while I worked on other aspects of the card. Once dry, the markers were used again to accentuate the outline of the flowers and leaves. This allowed the image to appear watercoloured, but still have some definition. The final touch was to add a bit on Basic Black splatter. To do this, I simply flicked the brush tip of my Basic Black Blends Marker across the lip of the marker lid (this frays the brush tip, so be warned!). A little curl of the watercolour paper in the upper left hand corner, some Classic Matt Dots, and it’s just as I hoped it would be!

Other Products Used for this Design

Artistic Mix Decorative Masks, Black Baker’s Twine, White Embossing Powder, Versamark Ink, Heat Tool, Mini Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Blending Brush, Blends Markers (Poppy Parade, Crumb Cake, Gray Granite, Basic Black), Cardstock (Crumb Cake, Tahitian Tide, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Gray Granite.

You can purchase all the elements that I used on this design by going to my Online Store or clicking on any of the specific links. And, hey, if you’re wondering who the heck I am, you can go to my About Page and find out. 🙂

Got questions? Ask me in the comments. I’m happy to help if I can.

Make this Jolly Pets Holiday Card

I have a sweet Christmas design to share with you featuring the Sweet Stockings Designer Series Paper, the Snowy White Velvet Sheets, the Cabin Dies, and the Holly Jolly Wishes Stamp set from Stampin’ Up!®

A Fond Farewell to As You See It

My card for you today is the last card that I will be sharing as an As You See It Designer for the As You See It Challenge Blog. I’ve been doing cards with the blog for years and can hardly even remember when I WASN’T part of this awesome design team!

It has been an incredible honour and a pleasure to be among those fantastic creators. Not only have I enjoyed designing some of the challenges and sharing my sample cards for them, but it is also a privilege to vote on our winners. I have to say, most times it is VERY difficult to pick my favourites.

In addition to sharing my card designs for each challenge, I also created the current graphics for the blog. Developing the digital graphics was a labour of love (there were days when I forgot to eat … or pee!). Many hours were spent working on the different challenge banners, the digital badges, the blog header, and the bio images, and I loved every minute of it! My ADHD hyperfocus superpower kicked into high gear during the process; 8 hours could easily fly by and it felt like only half an hour had passed! I suppose, in a small way, my graphic designs allow me to continue to be part of the blog.

The Theme Challenge

My design begins, of course, with an As You See It Challenge.

As designers, we take turns coming up with ideas for the challenges. This theme challenge is my own idea: pets.

Because I designed the base graphics for all the theme banners, I was able to take this graphic a bit further and make it my own. I think the animals are super cute, peeking their heads into the frame! Special attention was spent adding the splash of water for the fish to jump into the scene and bringing the turtle into the foreground. Since this is my last challenge on the As You See It Design Team, it seems fitting to be finishing with my own challenge, don’t you think!

The Card

I don’t have a lot of stamps that would fit into this theme, but I did have the Sweet Stockings Designer Series Paper. This paper is adorable with the various pets in their holiday poses. I fussy-cut the two furry festive friends from the patterned paper for my card!

The card base is Thick Basic White cardstock with a layer of the Sweet Stockings Designer Series Paper layered on the front. Stampin’ Dimensionals were used to layer the Granny Apply Green cardstock to the card. It is on this layer that all the fun happens!

I stamped the sentiment from the Holly Jolly Wishes stamp set with Versamark Ink on the Basic White cardstock and heat set it with White Embossing Powder and my Heat Tool. Then I used a Blending Brush and Pool party Ink to apply the colour to be boldest in the centre and softening to the edges. After wiping the excess ink off of the embossed sentiment, I tapped some water droplets over the inked area to create the spatter in the background.

Next, the Cabin Dies were used to cut the Snowy White Velvet Sheets. These pieces were layered on the card with glue dots for some subtle dimension. Then, I added the crazy Christmas canines with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The sequins are the perfect finishing touch to the wintery background!

I hope you like this card as much as I do! This is my last time to share a project as a designer for the As You See It Challenge Blog, so be sure to play along for this one!

Repeat the Sounding Joy

Sometimes I start making a card with a very specific plan, then something happens and my plan morphs into something completely different. That’s exactly what happened with this design.

Not that my original idea was bad, it just wanted to be something else, LOL!

I made this card as one of the samples for the As You See It Challenge blog. You can go over there and check out some of the other ideas posted. If you’d like to try this challenge, then you can also share it over there on the blog. We love to see your beautiful designs!

Today, the AYSI blog has an assortment challenge for us. You must include all of the items listed to participate in the challenge.

Originally, I wanted to work with Crumb Cake and Basic White for a classic and clean design. However, as I went along, I ended up with a Smoky Slate card and only a pop of Crumb Cake! The black accents were not part of the original plan, but once I reached for the black gingham paper from the Pattern Party designer paper, that’s when everything started to shift.

As you can see, my one word sentiment is “joy”. Using this word on a card inevitably has me singing “Joy to the world”. Am I just weird or do you do that, too? The sentiment is stamped and embossed with White Embossing Powder on a Crumb Cake label, which was cut using the Ornate Frames Dies. I sponged the edges with Whisper White Craft ink. Cute, right!?

The Basic White layer lays over a layer of Gray Granite. I used the beautiful Merry Melody Embossing Folder to give it some texture and, of course, to make sure I have that embossed element required for the challenge.

The three little Black Glitter Paper trees are die-cut with the Christmas Trees Dies. I love these little trees!

The White Baker’s Twine and the black stars from the Cute Stars Adhesive Backed Sequins pack add just the right amount of texture and interest to catch the eye.

As always, you can go to my online store to order Stampin’ Up! supplies from me in Canada. If you don’t want to order, you can show your support by leaving me a note in the comments. I love to know that you stopped by!