January 4, 2019

The Sweetest Thing

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques blends markers, Butterfly Gala, embossing, fine-tip glue, Organdy ribbon, sweetest thing 0 Comments

Happy New Year!!

I took a break over the holidays to spend time with my family. My kids aren’t back in school until Monday and we have taking advantage of the time with restful pajama days wherever we can fit them in. These are special moments in my house. We eat too many sweets and unhealthy foods and sit around all day – sometimes we play board games (the kids like their new Bananagrams game) or watch movies or just waste time on our cell phones, the computer, or tablets. I enjoy wasting time, but eventually, the guilt seeps in and the restlessness starts to take over and I need to get up and do something. I don’t mind this at all, though, because that’s the time when I actually WANT to do something. I spend so much time in my life doing things that I don’t want to do, that it’s nice to have it turn around on me like this once in a while.

Even though my craft room is such a disaster that I have to carefully maneuver around the many boxes, papers, and tools strewn all over the floor and I have to push aside the neglected loose stamps, scrap papers, and tossed aside ink pads, I managed to get a card done for you today. And I wanted to. I was excited to. I needed to do something. It feels good to craft again after the holiday break!

The card design today, starts with a challenge, as most of my blog posts tend to do. The As You See It Challenge has a sketch for us this time:

The Sweetest Thing stamp set from the new Occasions Calalogue was not a set that immediately jumped out at me. However, the more I looked at it, the more I thought it would suit my personal needs and the crafty needs of my customers. My youngest child is a sugar monkey. Some of my customers have young kids, grand-kids, and there are a couple ladies who make birthday cards for kids at their church. This stamp fits all those needs as well as just a fun card for my friends and family on their birthdays! Maybe I’ll actually be able to get birthday cards mailed out this year!

I knew immediately that the black and white diagonal striped pattern from the Butterfly Gala Designer Series Paper would be really sharp with the Lovely Lipstick Foil Paper. You can get both of these items for FREE through the Sale-a-bration promotion. How cool is that!?

Let’s talk about the candy. I stamped the candy jar and the candies from the Sweetest Thing stamp set onto Whisper White cardstock with Tuxedo Black Momento ink, then die cut it with the Big Shot and one of the circles from the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies. I coloured the candies with Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral, and Lovely Lipstick using my Blends Markers. Then I coloured the jar and around the candies with my newly purchased Balmy Blue Blends Markers. I even did a very careful outline and shadow using the light Smokey Slate Blends Marker. To give the look of glass and make the colours pop, I then used my Fine-Tip-Glue Pen and worked on each section of the jar from one side to the other, until I covered the entire jar with a layer of the clear glue. This needed a bit of drying time, so I set it aside and worked on the Happy Birthday sentiment.

I stamped the sentiment with Versamark ink on Basic Black cardstock, after rubbing the Embossing Buddy over the surface to reduce the risk of my powder sticking to where it doesn’t belong. Then I heat set White embossing powder. I carefully cut the sentiment apart using my paper trimmer (I had to cut it very close) and was ready to add it to my card front.

The glue doesn’t take too long to dry, so it was ready for my assembly. The card base is Thick Whisper White cardstock, then I applied a layer of Grapefruit Grove cardstock. The Lovely Lipstick Foil Paper, thin matte of Whisper White cardstock, and the diagonal strips patterned paper, are all attached to the Grapefruit Grove with Stampin’ Dimensionals. The circle die is attached to the cardfront with MORE Stampin’ Dimensionals with a sneaky bit of Grapefruit Grove ribbon from the Sale-a-bration Organdy Ribbon Combo Pack peeking out underneath. I tied a finger bow with the Daffodil Delight Organdy Ribbon (also part of the combo pack) and adhered it to the jar with a Glue Dot.

Finally, I adhered my sentiment with a Stampin’ Dimensional on one side (where it needed to be raised off the cardfront) and a sparse dab of Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue on the other (where it needed to be all snuggly on the circle die).

Many of the supplies on this card are from the Sale-a-bration brochure and are items that you can only get for FREE with any $60 purchase during the Sale-a-bration period. This is a favourite time for many customers and demonstrators in the Stampin’ Up! family. Free stuff is always a good thing!!

Be sure to go to my online store where you can order Stampin’ Up! products or you can just go there to peruse the pretty things and contact me via email to order. If you are outside of Canada, then sadly you cannot order from me, but leave me a comment on my blog and say “hi”. I like to know that I’m not just talking to myself, LOL!

November 30, 2018

Copper and Figgy Joy

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2018, As You See It, card, challenge, Christmas, embossing, pretty pines, wishing you well 1 Comment

Making Christmas cards is a huge source of joy and creative satisfaction for me. I love the themes and the colours. I love trying different colour schemes that still feel like Christmas to me. The colour combination today is inviting and peaceful, yet somehow warm and cozy, too.

It starts with a sketch from the As You See It Challenge Blog.

Garden Green, Copper, and Fresh Fig are a beautiful colour combination. The Wood Textures Designer Series Paper adds to the cozy, rustic feel of this winter wreath design. Sometimes, the traditional red and green – though beautiful, cheerful, and cozy – can become tiresome to work with in over and over again. It was refreshing to still feel traditional, but pull in the Fresh Fig to liven things up a bit!

The card began with stamping the wreath image from the Wishing You Well stamp set. I wanted to give the illusion of depth, so I stamped it first using Gray Granite ink. Then, after rubbing the surface with my Embossing Buddy to remove the stickiness of any oils from my fingers or from the ink I just applied, I stamped the wreath image again using Versamark ink, being sure to stamp it slightly offset from my original image. Then I could apply the Copper Embossing Powder and heat set it with my Heat Tool. Once the embossing was finished, I assembled my card layers to the base: the piece of Wood Textures Designer Series paper is adhered to matte layers of Copper Foil and then Whisper White. All of which are adhered to the Garden Green cardstock base of the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Next came the swag and banner for the front of the card. I die cut the Garden Green boughs and the Fresh Fig accent foliage using the Pretty Pines Thinlit Dies and attached them to the wreath with Mini Glue Dots. I added a swirl of Copper Metallic Thread under the bow. The bow itself is an image from the Wishing You Well stamp set and was stamped on a scrap piece of the Wood Textures Designer Series Paper with Fresh Fig ink. I fussy cut that beautiful gauzy bow with my handy dandy Paper Snips and it was adhered with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The final piece of this card is the banner. The sentiment from the Christmas Pines stamp set was stamped in Fresh Fig ink on Whisper White cardstock. The ends of the strip of cardstock were flagged by hand with my Paper Snips.

If you like this card, please understand that YOU can make cards just like this. If you are a Canadian resident, head on over to my online store to purchase all the supplies you need for great cards and scrapbook pages! If not, then you can go to stampinup.com to access a demonstrator in your part of the world. I hope you do!

Happy stamping!

November 15, 2018

Colour Block Deer

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2018, As You See It, card, challenge, Christmas 0 Comments

It’s a sketch challenge!! Whoohoo! As a designer for the As You See It Challenge blog, I love where the sketches lead my creativity. This card is an example of a design that I would have never come up with if I wasn’t guided by a sketch. I always enjoy a unique layout that is also pleasing to my eye and this one has hit it on the head!

The sketch:

I knew right away that I wanted to use the Detailed Deer Thinlit for this card design. It took a while to find it in my disaster of a craft room, but I finally uncovered it under a pile of cardstock on my paper cutting station. Phew! (A craft room clean up is WAY overdue!)

It’s difficult to tell in the photos, but the deer is die cut from Glossy White cardstock, which gives such a nice professional look to this soft design.

I did a colour block for the rectangular background behind the deer using 1″ strips of Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, and Gray Granite cardstock. The deer is attached to the colour block background with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals. Behind the colour block piece, I placed two Gold Foil leaves, punched out with the Leaf Punch and adhered with glue dots to the card.

The colour block piece is attached to the layered card front also with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I chose to use three layers for the card front: Thick Whisper White card stock was used for the base, then a narrow matte of Sahara Sand cardstock with a piece of patterned paper from the Festive Farmhouse Designer Series Paper. You can see in the above photo, that the greeting from the Wishing You Well stamp set, was heat embossed with Gold Embossing powder for a nice professional finish. Unfortunately, if you look closely at the photos, you can see that I did not erase my pencil line as well as I should have. This is not as noticeable in person as it is in the close up photos. I’ll probably go over that with my eraser again. *sheepish grin*

I finished the inside of the card with another narrow matte of Sahara Sand carstock under Whisper White cardstock. The deer image and the sentiment from the Dashing Deer stamp set were both heat embossed with Gold Embossing powder. So pretty.

I love the Dashing Deer bundle from Stampin’ Up! It includes the Dashing Deer stamp set and the Detailed Dear Thinlit Dies.

So, how do you see this sketch? What will you do with it? Share your cards, scrapbook pages, or home decor crafty creations with us at the As You See It Challenge Blog. We love to see what you design!