October 16, 2015

A Fairy for Lola

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, bold butterfly framelits, card, challenge, embossing, lighthearted leaves, photopolymer, Stampin' Up, watercolour wings 3 Comments

I’m so excited to share my card with you today. Because today, I get to show my support for a brave 9 year old girl whom I’ve never met. Lola has been battling Leukemia since 2011. You can learn more about her on the Team Lola Facebook Page.

The As you See It Blog has dedicated the card challenge to Lola this week. I hope you will show your support to her and her family by making a card for her, too. Just imagine the smile on that beautiful face as she sees all of the cards and projects created just for her!

Lola, I chose to use pink and to put a fairy on my card for you. Not everyone knows that Gold is the colour to represent childhood cancer, so I have lots of gold on my card for you, too. I hope you like it!

I love fairies, so of the images for this challenge, I decided to do a fairy card.

Only problem was that I didn’t have any fairy stamps – I have butterflies (lots of butterflies), I have dragonflies, I have dinosaurs, I have robots and I even have gnomes, but no fairies and no unicorns anywhere. But I did have a retired stamp set that I’ve loved forever that had images of people – specifically, of the girl variety of people.

The set is called “She’s All That” and, though it’s not available from Stampin’ Up anymore, you can actually purchase it on Ebay.

Now, the image wasn’t perfect for my needs; as you can see, she was originally walking upright and holding a cake! However, I was able to do a bit of crafty work to stamp the image without her cake and with her legs bent to give a bit of the impression that she was not touching the ground. All I’m going to say is that it involved some scotch tape and the Stamp-a-ma-jig from Stampin’ Up.

If I had the Confetti Hearts border punch, I would have had multiple little hearts blowing off her hand like kisses in the wind.

I don’t have that punch.

Instead, I used the Hearts Border Punch and took one of the little hearts from that for my fairy to hold.

There are a lot of artistic elements to this card (which means I was having a lot of fun!). I first stamped the girl on Whisper White cardstock with Versamark ink so I could heat set Black Embossing Powder over the image so she could be very black and shiny. Then I got to work with a sponge and three pink inks (Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, and Melon Mambo) to sponge my background.

The fairy wings are created with Vellum Cardstock, White Stazon ink, the Watercolour Wings stamp set and my Big Shot with the Bold Butterfly framelits. The butterfly die cut image was then folded in half and the body of the butterfly was trimmed away before adhering the wings to my wee lassie. I used Fast Fuse, but you can totally see it if you lift that top wing out of the way.

My black frame was created with Basic Black cardstock, the Big Shot, and the largest of the Lots of Labels framelits. After cutting out the center of the cardstock, I used my Lighthearted Leaves stamp set with Versamark ink (by the way, I always use my Embossing Buddy before I stamp for heat embossing!) and stamped them on the card, heat setting them with Gold Embossing Powder. I also added the three wee stars from the Jingle All the Way stamp set and embossed them with gold.

Whisper White Craft ink was lightly sponged around the inside edge of the frame, which was then adhered over the fairy image using Stampin’ Dimensionals. All of this was matted with Gold Glimmer paper before adhering it to the Pink Pirouette cardstock card base.

On the inside of this card, I stamped the ‘believe’ sentiment and added another Gold Glimmer heart to embellish it.

I do believe in fairies, I do, I do!

Hang in there, Lola. We’re all rootin’ for you, praying for you, and sending love your way.

And, dear readers, don’t pass on the opportunity to bless a brave girl with digital cards of support and encouragement. Do the challenge this week and share your finished project on the As You See It Challenge blog so Lola can enjoy your gift to her!

October 9, 2015

Glade Jul

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas As You See It, challenge, Christmas, embossing, Stampin' Up, star framelits 8 Comments

I used to work at a care home for people with brain injuries and dementia, primarily elderly men and women who were at risk of wandering and getting lost or of being confused to the point that they could become aggressive. I was a student nurse at the time, so was often asked to simply visit with the residents and help maintain a calm environment. Sometimes, I would walk around the hall with a very very VERY tall, elderly Norwegian man and he would correct me on what little Norwegian I knew. I would count to ten with him “en, to, tre …” or sing with him.

My favourite thing would be to walk arm in arm with him and sing “Silent Night” in Norwegian. “Glade jul, hellige jul …”. Silent Night is one of my most loved Christmas carols. I think fondly of that time with that lovely man.

I never did see him act out in violence when I was there. Probably a good thing, since he was so very very tall.

My card for you today is inspired first by this sketch from the As You See It Challenge Blog and second by my favourite Christmas carol, “Silent Night”.

I just love the patterned paper with the notes on it in the Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper from Stampin’ Up! I wish we could by sheets and sheets of that one pattern for this time of year!

Tip Top Taupe cardstock was used for this card base with a bit of light sponging in Tip Top Taupe ink around the edges of the cardstock. I also sponged some Tip Top Taupe ink around the edges of the sheet music patterned paper from the Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper. This was adhered along side the strip of Black Glimmer paper (not just for Halloween!!) to the card base.

But my favourite elements on this card are all in the middle with that star! I stamped the tree image from the Wonderland Stamp Set in Versamark ink and heat embossed it with Black Embossing powder. All this on the Happy Haunting piece of Designer Series Paper. WHAT! Yes, folks, I used Halloween paper on a Christmas card! The vanilla stars on the black background represent a beautiful ‘silent night’. I sponged some Tuxedo Black Momento ink around the edges of the star and adhered it to the card with some Stampin’ Dimensionals so it could be raised off the page a wee bit.

My friend, Stacey, was working with me in my craft room while I was designing this one and it was her suggestion to use the Window Sheet for the banner element. It was the perfect way to add a banner as per the sketch, without taking away from the image on the star.

I stamped the notes from the Jingle All the Way stamp set with Versamark ink onto the clear acetate Window Sheet, then heat set it with Gold Embossing powder. This was die cut using my Big Shot and the Bitty Banner framelit before very carefully wrapping the Gold Metallic Thread around the end and tying it into a bow. A Mini Glue Dot hides behind this cluster of gold thread to adhere the Window Sheet banner to the star.

For the final touch, the three Gold Sequin pieces were added to the card using my Fine-Tipped Glue Pen.

Glad you could check out my blog today. You can purchase stamping supplies online by clicking the “shop now” button on this page. Or you can contact me by email to order or ask questions.

Don’t forget to also check out the creations from other designers on the As You See It Challenge blog. They have some lovely versions of this very same sketch.

Here are some beautiful Norwegian voices singing ‘Silent Night’ for you. Enjoy:

October 2, 2015

Jingle Jingle Little Star

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas, Events As You See It, card, challenge, Christmas, home for christmas, jingle all the way, Stampin' Up, star framelits 0 Comments

My title makes me chuckle. Not that clever of a title, really, but I chuckle just the same.

It’s been a CRAAAAZY week. My family has hardly seen me. When they have, they find me completely distracted and disengaged from reality. I’ve been working on my preparations for the BC Crop for Kids event which takes place in Abbotsford this weekend. I am sponsoring a class and hosting my own vendor table on Saturday. I haven’t participated in this particular event, making it all new to me. I also don’t do vendor shows often – maybe once per year, so it takes a lot to get organized. The class I’ve chosen to do has a TONNE of prep, but I have been incredibly blessed with friends who gave their time to cut the gazillions of pieces of paper, ribbons, and dies to help me. Not only that, but many of them also donated supplies toward the class in honour of the BC Children’s Hospital foundation, for which the event is raising funds.

So, I want to give a shout out and a HUGE THANK YOU to all of those gals who spend hours at my house cutting and embossing!

Part of my prep involved having a make and take project at my vendor table for 40-50 ladies to enjoy. The As You See It Challenge this week seemed like a good opportunity to hit two birds with one stone. Here’s the challenge sketch:

My make and take card will be very similar to this one, but the patterned paper will vary, of course.

I used Crumb Cake cardstock for my card base, then a Very Vanilla mat under another layer of Crumb Cake cardstock. The next two layers are Cherry Cobbler and a strip of Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper.

I used some Gold Foil paper with my Star Framelits and embellished it with a triple swirl of Metallic Gold Thread. I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to pop it up off the page a bit.

In the image above, you can see how the Very Vanilla banner is curled a bit. I did this by sliding the banner between a bone folder and my thumb until the paper curved to my satisfaction. I tacked down the ends of the banner to the paper with Tombo Multipurpose Liquid Glue.

The stamped images are from the Jingle All the Way stamp set. I used Real Red ink for the sentiment and Crumb Cake ink for the musical notes.

The final step was to add the Gold sequin with my Fine Tipped Glue Pen.

I think that’s the fastest post I’ve ever written! Back to prepping and planning. I have to be ready to go by one o’clock today. EEK!