July 23, 2021

Exciting New Product Sneak Peek with Watercolouring

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2021, colour challenge, Feels Like Home, Sale-a-bration, watercolour 6 Comments

It’s always exciting when we have a new catalogue coming out! As a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, I have the privilege to order new products before they’re released to customers. That means that I have new products to share with you today!

As You See It

My card is inspired by the gorgeous fall colour combination in the As You See It colour challenge.

I have been on the As You See It Design Team for many years, which has helped to shape my creative skills. Each challenge invites me to push myself to work within the guidelines provided. You might think that working within limits would restrict creativity, but, in actual fact, it has helped me to learn how to use my creativity in different ways.

Challenging ourselves is how we grow and learn.

Free stuff!

The Feels Like Home stamp set is only available for free.

Yup, you read that right!

We have a summer Sale-a-bration starting August 3rd and running until September 30th. As you probably know, during that time, you choose a free item for every $60 CAD that you spend.

The process

This Sale-a-bration stamp set just begs to be coloured, so I gave it a try. My first attempt looked a bit too “clean”, which didn’t meet my expectations. The second attempt looked a bit too dark, which also wasn’t what I was looking for.

I looked at some water colour artwork and used what I found as a guide for my third attempt. Third time’s a charm! I’m so happy with how it turned out!

Once I was happy with my watercolouring, I added a thin matte of Crushed Curry cardstock behind the watercolor paper. Linen Thread is wrapped around the layers and tied in a bow.

Then, to keep things warm and bright, I used my Blending Brush to add some Cajun Craze ink to the edges of Calypso Coral cardstock. What a delightful effect!

I wanted to add a sentiment, but in the end decided I would let the image have all the attention. Instead of a sentiment, I placed some Holiday Rhinestones. As you can see, they give a sweet tickling of interest.

Join in!

Let me invite you to try this colour challenge, so as to exercise your creativity. The more you use it, the more easily your creativity flows!

Don’t forget to share it with us at the As You See It challenge blog. We love being inspired by your designs!

July 9, 2021

How can you NOT love the Hand-Penned Suite!

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2021, hand-penned, heat embossing 2 Comments

The more I use it, the more I love it!

I shared a video in my last post, where I made a frame-able scrapbook page with elements from the Hand-Penned Suite. You can see that post HERE.

Today, I have another project featuring the gorgeous Hand-Penned Petals stamp set, coordinating dies, the Hand-Penned Designer Series Paper, and the Genial Gems. I created this card for the Virtual Stamp Camp event a couple months ago.

Because I loved this card so much, I used it as my inspiration for the sketch challenge over at the As You See It Challenge Blog. As designers for the challenge blog, we take turns coming up with the different ideas for the challenges, so why not create a sketch from my own card! LOL! For once, I was done my design in advance!

(okay, so I made one teeny-weensy alteration, but it was mostly done!)

Making the card

Mint Macaron looks great with the Evening Evergreen, don’t you think? I die-cut the evergreen cardstock with one of the Rectangle Stitched Dies. Those dies are a serious work-horse in my craft room! I use them A LOT!

Before adhering the stitched layer, I stamped the floral image with Mint Macaron ink on the base of the card. I love how this peek-a-boo effect can transform a plain card base into something much more interesting. Of course, the strip of Hand-Penned Designer Series Paper adds the flare, but this little bit of stamping helps pull everything together.

My favourite element on this card is the swirl of Linen Thread. This, with the die-cut flower and leaves creates a sweet little wreath for the heat embossed sentiment to nest in.

The Genial Gems are the final touch and are just as important on this card as everything else. They fill in the empty space without taking our attention off of the focal point of the design.

Now it’s your turn to give this sketch a try. Make a card and share it with us at the As You See It Challenge Blog. Your creativity is always a joy and an inspiration.

June 25, 2021

Fast Masking with Foliage

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute, Techniques 2021, Biggest wish, Forever fern, Speed challenge 0 Comments

Haha! What kind of title is THAT!! “Fast masking with foliage”! Ah well. I’m just going to run with it.

And run I did! Figuratively speaking, of course, because the card that I have to share with you today is for the As You See It Speed Challenge.

What is a Speed Challenge?

A speed challenge is when you make a plan for the card you want to make, gather all your supplies (no pre-cutting allowed!), set your stopwatch, and make a card in 10 minutes or less!

It used to be really difficult for me to do this challenge. If you’ve seen other cards I’ve made, you may have noticed that my designs tend to be … involved. However, I’ve had lots of practice and now feel quite confident. More often than not, I am very happy with my finished design!

Making the Card

For this card, I used the Biggest Wish stamp set. The sentiment is stamped in Bermuda Bay Ink and Tuxedo Black Momento Ink on the Basic White die-cut Stitched Rectangle.

To stamp the images from the Forever Fern stamp set so that they didn’t end up with a mess of stems on top of my sentiment, I used a sticky note (aka a Post-It Note). I place the sticky note and stamped the fern images. Bermuda Bay, Granny Apple Green, and Mango Melody are colours that make me so happy! The dots from the same stamp set were added using Tuxedo Momento Black Ink.

After stamping the ferns, I removed the sticky note. I wrapped the twine from the Playful Pets Trim Combo Pack around the stitched rectangle and tied it in a bow.

This layer was then applied with Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals over the Thick Basic White card stock and the layer of Polished Pink Shimmer Vellum from the 2021-2023 In Color Vellum pack.

Step It Up

I made another version of this design with a few extra elements to step it up a bit!

For this one, I added more foliage above the sentiment and applied some Mango Melody ink along the masked edge before removing the sticky notes. I also created an embossed line above the sentiment with my Simply Scored Tool.

And do you see the little Bee Embellishment! So cute!

I’m not sure which version I like better! Which one do you prefer?

Try out the speed challenge and share it with us at the As You See It Challenge Blog. We love to see your beautiful creations!

If you’re in Canada and are interested in purchasing the products I used for this card or if you want to see what else Stampin’ Up! has to offer, click on the SHOP circle on my blog anytime, or click HERE.