December 19, 2014

Groovy White

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, card, challenge, Groovy Love, Itty Bitty Accents, quick and cute, speed, Stampin' Up, Sweetheart, wedding 1 Comment

An all white card designed for the As You See It Challenge blog. I used the Groovy Love stamp set with the coordinating Sweetheart Punch from Stampin’ Up!

Gotta love the strain of a speed challenge. It’s a good exercise to stretch your creativity and push yourself. These 10 minute challenges are probably the toughest for me. Having to use all white definitely added another creative stretch. Technically, you could add vanilla or grey for this challenge, since they would be considered “shades” of white, but I opted for primarily white.

I managed to finish this card in 9 minutes and 53 seconds. Not too bad, considering the state of my craft room and that I made the mistake of cutting my nails nice and short. (Peeling off the backing of sticky strip with no fingernails and with a time limit can be very frustrating)

The card is nice, but needed a bit of a refining, so I did a second one. See if you can spot the subtle differences and tell me which one you like better.

You can see that I have fewer of the Basic Rhinestones on the second card. I also only rounded one corner with my Corner Rounder punch and lowered the placement of my ribbon. I added the small heart punch from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack. The biggest improvement for me was how I attached the strips of White Organza Ribbon. On the first card, I only put Sticky Strip on the back of the Whisper White Cardstock. This caused the ribbon to float a bit on the front of the card. I tried to anchor it after the fact by slipping a couple pieces of Sticky Strip underneath, but it just got more untidy. The second card used full strips of Sticky Strip across the front of the cardstock to anchor the entire length of the Organza ribbon, then a couple pieces on the back of the cardstock to secure the ends of the ribbon on the back. A much smoother and tidier finish on the second card.

Both cards have the sentiment from the Groovy Love stamp set stamped in Smoky Slate ink. Both cards have Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals under the heart, the first rectangle layer and the second rectangle layer. After all, an all-white card demands layers and texture!!

By the way, did you miss me last week? With the Christmas season upon us, I just couldn’t find the time to share a project with you. Each of my 3 kids had Christmas concerts that week (separate nights), and I was shopping all week to find something to wear to my husband’s staff Christmas party.

(Me + shopping for clothes = forever!!)

Life has been very busy. Take a look at the current state of my craft room. Consider it a representation of my head these days.

I suppose you can guess what I’ll be working on the next week or two. Gotta get this room functional again before the new year!

I know how busy the season can be, but why not take a 10 minute time out from it all and make a card? Load it up to the As You See It Challenge #67 and tell us how long it took. Even if your a little bit over, that’s okay. Stretch your creative brain!

December 5, 2014

Bauble and Gold

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas As You See It, blendabilities, challenge, Christmas, Christmas Bauble, Gorgeous Grunge, Holiday Invitation, sketch, Stampin' Up 3 Comments

Every Friday I share a card with you designed specifically for the As You See It Challenge blog. I quite like the card I have for you today created with the Christmas Bauble stamp that I received as a free gift from the Abbotsford Fall Conference, the Holiday Invitation stamp set I received from the Inspire Create Share Stampin’ Up Convention in Utah, and my favourite Gorgeous Grunge stamp set of which I happen to have an extra set that I won at the Abbotsford Fall Conference. How awesome it that!!

I love the simplicity that this sketch offers and I decided to go with it as a simple design, but with a LOT of colouring using my Stampin’ Up! Blendability markers and a bit of fussy cutting. I chose a Very Vanilla card base, on which I stamped two of the splatter images from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set in the Encore Gold ink. Then I used a ruler and my Gold Dazzle marker to draw a frame directly on the card base.

Then I stamped the Christmas Bauble stamp on Very Vanilla card stock twice with Momento Tuxedo Black ink – once as a full image and once just for the center circle of the image. These I coloured with the Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive Blendability markers and hand cut the image with my Paper Snips (LOVE these scissors!). I added a touch of the Gold Dazzle marker to the tiny dots on the image as well as some Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details to the red holly berries and set that aside to dry.

The center circle has been given a layer of Crystal Effects, which I gave ample time to dry overnight before applying it to the Christmas Bauble with Stampin’ Dimensionals. I attached the bauble itself to the card base with Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals as well, then added the Linen Thread bow with a Glue Dot which I first rolled into a smaller dot so it wouldn’t show under the thin Linen Thread.

The sentiment from the Holiday Invitation stamp set was stamped on a strip of Very Vanilla card stock in Cherry Cobbler ink. I hand cut the flagged edge of the paper strip and slipped the end under the center circle of the bauble and secured it in place with Multipurpose Liquid Glue on the bauble side and a Dimensional on the flagged end.

And I love how it turned out! Have you ever hand drawn anything directly on your stamped card? I don’t do it very often but am pleased with what it added to this card.

Why don’t you give the challenge a try? We love to receive inspiration from all the designs that come in. So link up your card or project that you do with this As You See It Challenge sketch and show us what you came up with!

Amy

November 21, 2014

Winter Bird

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas An Open Heart, As You See It, aysi63, blendabilities, card, challenge, Christmas, Petite Pairs, Stampin' Up 0 Comments

Check out my design this week for the As You See It Challenge blog using An Open Heart stamp set from Stampin’ Up! I love the blended ombre effect in the winter background.

I was leery of the sketch this week. The small center square bugged me. But the funniest thing happens when I am lacking inspiration with a particular layout or colour scheme: I end up really liking the final product!

I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with for this one. I found it so challenging! I decided to use the little bird from the An Open Heart stamp set in place of that square. The snowflake sequins (which were too stark white, so I coloured them with my Light Coastal Cabana Blendability marker), are in place of the flowers on the As you See It layout above. The rest is eye candy for me! Techniques and fun! The stuff I thrive on!

I started with a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and began using sponge and ink to shade the evening sky background. I was inspired by an image I found on Pinterest for this colour scheme and I love it! With a sponge, from top to bottom, I applied Night of Navy, Island Indigo, and Bermuda Bay ink. Once I was satisfied with the saturation of colour, I added a touch of Momento Black to the very top edge to complete the look. The most bottom edge of the Very Vanilla cardstock was left un-inked and I tore the edge for a bit of texture detail.

Then I stamped the branch image from An Open Heart in Night of Navy ink. The pearls were coloured with the Medium Cherry Cobbler Blendability marker and added for the berries on the branch. I then decided to use my Chalk Marker to accent the buds on the end of the branch. The snowflakes were also coloured (as mentioned above) and adhered to the card with a small dab of Crystal Effects. The Merry Christmas sentiment is from the Petite Pairs stamp set and was stamped with Real Red ink.

The blue bird was stamped with Momento Black ink and coloured with Night of Navy and Coastal Cabana Blendability markers and a touch of Dazzling Details glitter was applied to the bird as though a wee bit of snow was glinting in the moonlight. His beak was coloured using a Tangerine Tango Stampin’ Write Marker. I cut out the bird with my Paper Snips and cut his little legs right off so he could be sitting all comfy-like on the branch. I also used my Project Life journaling pen to darken his beady little eye so it would have a little more life in it (a trick I learned in the watercolouring class I took last spring). That sweet little winter bird was then adhered to the cardstock with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

After wrapping the Cherry Cobbler Baker’s Twine around that layer of cardstock, I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to layer it over the thin mat of Very Vanilla Cardstock. This all was adhered to the Night of Navy card base which looked a little flat next to all that deep blue ink, so I added a bit of Night of Navy ink to the edges of the card base with a sponge.

What will you do with this sketch? I hope you’ll share it with us over at the As You See It Challenge blog!!

Amy.