As You See It Challenge

August 25, 2017

Coloured Embossing Paste

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques 2017, As You See It, birthday, card, challenge, embossing paste, Stampin' Up, technique 1 Comment

I’ve been spending some time online keeping a close eye on the forest fire that is burning just about a 15 minute drive from my home. I video-recorded the belongings in my home for insurance records. I also put aside important documents like birth certificates and passports. People (some of them are my friends) and their livestock have been evacuated.

The wind changed yesterday and our neighbourhood is filled with hazy smoke. In BC, we’ve had more than 1000 forest fires since April 2017 (that’s more than one million hectares of land!) and more than half of them are caused by human carelessness. Often it is cigarettes tossed out the window of a moving vehicle, sometimes is a spark of a hot vehicle on dry grass, sometimes it’s from a poorly attended campfire. If you travel to Canada in the summer (it’s beautiful here in the Okanagan when the air is clear of smoke), be aware of your smoking habits. It’s often the cigarettes out the window that threaten neighbourhoods. That is likely the cause of the fire that could threaten my own home today, if the wind blows unfavourably. So, please be in the habit of butting your cigarettes in your vehicle, don’t smoke in our forests or grasslands AT ALL, and don’t flick your butt, EVER! You may not have the same risks in the area where you live, but good habits could protect you and the people you love, wherever you are.

I also ask that everyone be on watch for people who are not being responsible and say something to them. Report them, if need be. It’s not worth risking our lives, our homes, our pets, our beautiful forests or the creatures who live in them. It breaks my heart to think of all of those who have been affected by fires over the last few years.

My card design today is not intentionally related to this topic, although, I read the sentiment and realize that it is! LOL! I did not plan this at all!

Here is the As You See It Challenge sketch from which my design was inspired:

Here is my fire-safety card, lol! The sentiment is from the Birthday Banners stamp set.

I used a small amount of Embossing Paste from Stampin’ Up! in three separate little containers. Then I added a tiny drop of colour to each of them: Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, and Tempting Turquoise. I mixed each one until the colour was fully blended into the paste before spreading each colour over the diamond- shaped mask from the Patterned Party Decorative Masks. I love how each colour blends ever so slightly into the next.

The sentiment and banner were stamped in Stampin’ Up! Archival Black on Watercolor Paper. I was careful to make sure it was fully dry before adding a Bermuda Bay colour wash over the banner area. I also added some little white decorative dots to the words on the bottom banner using my White Chalk Marker (not sure if I like that as much).

The 3/8″ Mini Chevron Ribbon in Bermuda Bay was added behind the banner along with the Black Mini Sequin Trim and the Gold Metallic Thread. The banner and metallic thread was adhered with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals, while the ribbon and sequin was attached on a strip of Tear and Tape.

I added the Metallics Sequin using the Fine-tip Glue Pen, then assembled my layers:

Card base is Basic Black cardstock, then a delicate layer of Whisper White and a slightly wider layer of Melon Mambo cardstock. The completed top layer of Basic Black with the embossing paste and sentiment were attached to the Melon Mambo cardstock with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals.

I used the same layering to complete the inside of the card, finishing with a layer of Whisper White cardstock for writing a personal message to the recipient.

I’m writing this late this morning and a bit hurried as I have to take my kids to swimming lessons and I haven’t finished video-recording my craft room supplies or my ski equipment. I think I will take my dog to swimming lessons today, just in case (we will have to watch the kids through the windows from outside, of course).

Try this As You See It sketch for yourself and show us what you come up with by uploading it to you As You See It challenge website.

And be fire-safe!! Candles, too!!

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August 11, 2017

Emboss Resist with a Twist

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas, Techniques, tutorial 2017, aysi, carols of christmas, colour challenge, emboss resist, emboss resist with a twist 2 Comments

What happens when something goes wrong on your card or scrapbook design? Do you start over or see if you can fix it?

My memory of an old technique saved the day and enabled me to fix a problem with gunk getting embedded in my heat-embossed image. And I love it!

It all began with this colour challenge from the As You See It Challenge blog:

I was a little worried with the intensity of these colours, but by using the coloured ink instead of coloured cardstock, I was able to keep my design from getting too loud.

I wanted to get a jump on my holiday cards, so I went with a Christmas design using the Carols of Christmas stamp set and the Card Front Builder Thinlits.

I call this technique, “Emboss Resist with a Twist” or “Emboss Resist and Wipe”. The second name definitely gives you a better understanding of what this technique involves.

The regular emboss resist technique, as you may know, is when you heat emboss an image, usually with clear embossing powder, then sponge or paint with a water-based ink over the image. The embossed area resists the ink and often it is advised to use a paper towel to polish any ink residue off of the embossed image to make it really pop. With the “Emboss Resist with a Twist” technique, you take it another step: Heat the clear embossed image and, while the embossing powder is still warm and soft from being reheated, wipe it with a paper towel to remove it from the surface of your paper!

Wait, WHAT!?

Why would you want to remove it, you ask? Once it’s removed and all the shine has been wiped clean from your cardstock, the image remaining will be more crisp, more white, and will have a beautiful matte finish.

Another reason to remove it is when you make a gunky mistake, like I did! I used the regular emboss resist technique, then ran my piece of cardstock through the Big Shot to cut the beautiful border from the Card Front Builder thinlit dies. To my dismay, I discovered that my dirty embossing plates left a bunch of dark specs of old paper dust and bits embedded into my embossed image!! EW! Heating and wiping the embossing finish away allowed me to clean up my mess without having to start over again!

I absolutely love how it looks!

The rest of the card came fairly quickly. I used my markers to ink up the rubber on my holly stamp from the Carols of Christmas stamp set so that I could have Lemon Lime Twist leaves with a spackling of Elegant Eggplant around the edges, but still have Real Red berries. After doing the old huffing-with-your-breath-on-the-stamp-to-remoisten-the-ink technique, I stamped the holly image and die cut it with the co-ordinating die from the Card Front Builder Thinlits. This was attached with half of a Mini Dimensional to my card front.

The beautiful little ornament image was also coloured with markers. I used Real Red and Elegant Eggplant to only colour two of the three ornaments, then used Basic Gray for the string of the ornament. I used a sticky note to mask the bottom of the sentiment as my stamp was too tall for where I wanted it, then I huffed once again and stamped the image. I also used a Blender Pen to blend some of the ink in the each ornament on my paper, then added a small bead glue with the Fine Tip Glue Pen to the center of each ornament to I could apply Dazzling Diamonds Glitter. The Linen Thread, tied into a tiny little bow was attached with a carefully rolled Glue Dot.

I wanted a little something-something behind my card front, so I adhered a piece of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper to my card base before attaching my completed card front to it with Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals. Tip: Because of the nature of glitter, even on Glimmer Paper, I was liberal with the Dimensionals and used generous pressure to ensure good contact the the Glimmer paper. If this isn’t done, you might find that your card front detaches without your permission!

If you’re in my area, this card will be offered at my technique class. Contact me if you’d like to join us!

Be sure to give this colour combination a try and load it up on the As You See It Challenge page so we can see your beautiful creations.

July 14, 2017

Music Note of Thanks

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques 2017, embossing paste, sheet music, thankful thoughts 0 Comments

I like thank you cards.

I like to say “thank you”.

I am Canadian, after all, eh. “Thank you” and “sorry” are some of the most frequently spoken words in my vocabulary.

Sorry that I didn’t post a card for the previous As You See It Challenge. Thank you for coming back to visit my blog even though I’m not very consistent in posting.

I have a cute and sweet thank you card to share with you today that I designed for the As You See It Challenge blog. Here’s the sketch that inspired this design:

I wanted to use my new favourite Stampin’ Up! product, the Embossing Paste. I love this stuff so much and need more! More paste and more masks! So fun!

I started this card with the 3.5″ x 4.75″ piece of Whisper White cardstock and dragged my Powder Pink ink pad across the bottom at an angle. Then I dragged the Lemon Lime Twist ink pad across the bottom of the cardstock at the opposite angle. I covered the Lemon Lime section with a scrap piece of paper while I stamped the Sheet Music Background stamp in Powder Pink ink over the Powder Pink section. Then, I covered the area above the Lemon Lime Twist section with a scrap piece of paper so I could use the Lemon Lime Twist ink to stamp the same background stamp over the Lemon Lime Twist area. This turned out way cuter than I expected.

Bermuda Bay ink was used for the sentiment from the Thankful Thoughts stamp set. This sentiment was the perfect pun to use along with the Sheet Music background stamp set (more than one note of thanks!). I was delighted to discover that this sheet music is a section from Beethoven’s Fur Elise. A brilliant score!

Once the stamping was complete, I chose the medallion mask from the Pattern Party Decorative masks from Stampin’ Up!. Even though you can add ink to the embossing paste and make it coloured, I decided to keep it white for a quieter impact. If I were to create this card again, I think I would use some scrap pieces of paper to mask off my angles at the bottom, for a cleaner look. The way it is in this picture adds a little bit of character, though, which I also like.The paste takes about 15 minutes to dry. Once dry, I added a few of the Pink Pirouette Subtles Enamel Shapes. A couple 1.5″ pieces of Bermuda Bay 3/8″ Mini Chevron Ribbon were used to add some extra pop to the card. Each piece was folded in half and attached to the sides of the card. The one on the left side was trimmed with angled ends, folded in half and attached with a couple Mini Glue Dots to the back to the stamped and pasted Whisper White cardstock so that the ends would be peeking out from the left edge of the card front. The one on the right side was simply folded over the edge of the Soft Sky cardstock layer and adhered with Tear and Tape. This gives the impression that the ribbon goes all the way across the card.

It’s a cheat. I’m a rebel that way.

I also added a loop of Silver Metallic Thread to the left side of the card and attached it with Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals to the back of the Whisper White cardstock.Finally, it was all ready to be assembled. The Whisper White cardstock was attached to the Soft Sky cardstock with Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals. The Soft Sky cardstock was attached to the Sahara Sand card base with Multipurpose Liquid Glue.

Check out the other designs created using this sketch from the As you See It Challenge blog. You just might feel inspired to try it for yourself!

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