March 6, 2015

Butterfly Bliss

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques Adventure Bound, As You See It, butterflies, card, challenge, photopolymer, speed, Stampin' Up, thinlits 3 Comments

Oh, speed challenges, how I love thee. Let me count the ways: I love you because you are quick; I love you that you push me; I love you that you’re quick; I love that I have time for you; I love that you are simple; I love that you are quick!!

My card today was designed for the As You See It Challenge Blog. The challenge is to create a card from start to finish in 10 minutes or less!! Can you do it? I’m usually just under the wire and find it very challenging. My design style is very … involved. Making a quick card is NOT my usual style at all! But I love that these challenges stretch me and force me to do something simpler. Sometimes I’m very unhappy with my final results, but today, I quite like how it turned out.

Here’s the speed challenge theme:

I decided to try working with a cute technique I saw using the Butterflies Thinlits. The card I saw was simple white cardstock, that had the butterfly cut out of it, then put back in place so that a colourful patterned paper showed through the detailing of the wings. I thought I would turn it inside out just a little bit and have the patterned paper on the topmost layer, with the solid colour showing through. Of course, if I HAVE to use purple (not my favourite for cards), I choose to use the gorgeous, rich, Blackberry Bliss!

9:47

Blackberry Bliss is very striking along side the soft neutral tone of Sahara Sand, so I chose one of the patterned papers from the Adventure Bound Designer Series Paper Stack that has a nice tone-on-tone plaid pattern. This I stamped with the leaf image in Sahara Sand, then thoroughly rubbed my Embossing Buddy over the paper before stamping the sentiment in Versamark ink and heating the applied Black Embossing Powder with my Heat Tool.

Once all the stamping was taken care of, I grabbed my butterfly die and headed on over to my Big Shot to cut it out from the stamped patterned paper. The Blackberry Bliss Satin Ribbon is wrapped around this paper and tied in a bow, then applied to the Blackberry Bliss cardstock layer with many Stampin’ Dimensionals (thin paper that has been heated for embossing, tends to get a bit curvy and needs support). Next, half of a Stampin’ Dimensional was used to attach the cut out butterfly back into its place in the patterned paper. And, finally, all that is attached to the Sahara Sand card base.

Love it, love it, love it. Simple, pretty, elegant, and QUICK!! I could easily whip up a bunch of these in different colour combinations and package them up to give away as a gift. Hmm. Maybe I’ll do just that!

I hope you’ll give the speed challenge a try and share your finished result on the As You See It Challenge Blog. I’d love to see what you do with purple!

Amy

February 27, 2015

Find Yourself

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, blendabilities, card, challenge, Gorgeous Grunge, paper piercing, postage due, simply scored, Stampin' Up, tag topper, Typeset Specialty, world map 3 Comments

The Alphabet Rotary Stamp from Stampin’ Up! offers so many possibilities!! This card began with As You See It Challenge #76 with some stripes and a late start. But I think it finished well.

I did this sketch once before. I tested it out and didn’t like my results. Sometimes, an idea doesn’t come out how you intended. Many times, my designs are a journey, but to where, I don’t know until I arrive, lol!

Here’s my card this week:

076Amy

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Basic Black, Lost Lagoon, Very Vanilla
Designer Series Paper: Typeset
Stamp Sets: Gorgeous Grunge, Postage Due, World Map, Alphabet Rotary Stamp
Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Lost Lagoon, Crumb Cake, Wild Wasabi Blendabilities, Skin Tone Blendabilities, Smoky Slate Blendabilities
Tools: Sponges, Simply Scored Tool, Paper Piercing Tool, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercing Mat, Postage Punch, Project Life Pen, Angled Tag Topper Punch
Embellishments: Linen Thread
Adhesives: Glue Dots, Stampin’ Dimensionals, SNAIL, Tombo Multipurpose Liquid Glue

Feel free to ask questions by leaving me a reply to this post!

Be sure to give the challenge a try this week. Hope to see your card on display on the As You See It Challenge Blog!

Amy

February 20, 2015

Simply Pressed “Cake”

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques alphabet rotary stamp, alphanumerical mold, As You See It, card, challenge, Fingertip double loop bow, simply pressed clay, Stampin' Up, technique 3 Comments

Stampin’ Up Simply Pressed Clay is something I loved the idea of, but up until now had little interest in using the flower or button molds that were available. I finally tried my clay when my new Stampin’ Up, oh-so-fun, Alphanumerical mold arrived!

I love words – the shapes, the meaning, the linear order of them. They are powerful and beautiful and can be smart, witty, sarcastic, sweet, painful and wise. Words give us so many possibilities. Though, I am often tongue-tied by the deeper introvert within me and may not be as eloquent as I would like to be in my writing style, I love that words have the power to evoke emotion, philosophical thinking, a search for meaning, and can open up all sorts of doors in our lives.

(literally – i.e. “open sesame” in the tale of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, as well as “Speak, friend, and enter” from The Lord of the Rings. lol!)

Check out the sketch for this week’s As You See it Challenge #075:

Here’s my Simply Pressed Clay card design:

I started with a Whisper White cardstock base. It was one that I had accidentally smudged with ink, so I cut a 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of the Sale-a-bration paper called Best Year Ever and adhered it to cover the entire front of the card base. I felt so clever, covering up that smudge, lol!

I changed the orientation of my card from landscape to portrait and rounded the corners with the Project Life Corner Rounder Punch. I used Blushing Bride cardstock for the squares and I lightly sponged the edges of those squares with Blushing Bride ink. The EAT banner at the top is stamped using my new Alphabet Rotary stamp (more words! So fun!) with Momento Tuxedo Black ink on Whisper White cardstock, matted with Gold Foil paper. I hand-cut the flag end of the banner.

The Simply Pressed Clay was carefully pressed into the letters in the mold, then I place it in the freezer for a few minutes to allow the letters to set before removing them from the mold so they could continue to dry. The first time I used the mold, I dabbed the Embossing Buddy over the mold so it could act like flour in a cake pan and prevent the clay from sticking. This was not such a good idea as it discoloured my white clay with stained gray powder. (I’ll used those letters when I want to take the time to colour them). Once the letters were completely dry, I used Tombo Multipurpose Liquid Glue to attach them to my card front. Then I tucked in my Gold Sequins under the letter “K” in accordance with the stars on the sketch.

For the gold strip, I cut a thin piece of Gold Glimmer paper and adhered the Venetian Crochet Trim to the back with Tombo liquid glue, the attached both together to my cardfront with more glue. Finally, I tied the double bow, using the Fingertip Double Loop bow technique as seen in this Youtube video, and applied it to the Glimmer paper with a Glue Dot.

A fun and pretty word card, playfully commanding that you “eat cake” on your special day!

On a personal note, my family likes chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. We went cross-country skiing last Saturday (as we often do) and found that the warm weather had melted all the snow in the parking lot, leaving us to maneuver through a muddy mess.

The kids commented that it looked like chocolate frosting! lol!

Thanks for visiting today! Hope you’ll play along at the As You See It Challenge Blog and share your take on this sketch!

Amy.