April 2, 2021

Bloomin’ Fast

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute 2021, free as a bird, quick and cute, speed, Speed challenge 2 Comments

One of my favourite challenges that we do at the As You See It Challenge blog is the speed challenge! If you haven’t tried the speed challenge yet, I strongly encourage you to give it a whirl!

Here’s why:

Forces you to think fast, exercising your creative muscles – My usual design style is to overthink it. I trial and error different colour combinations, I’m indecisive about placement of accent elements, I end up removing an entire card front just so I can try it on a different colour, and I often just change my entire plan and do something completely different! When I do a speed challenge, it helps me to learn to trust my instincts and reject my unhealthy perfectionism.
Takes very little time out of your day – you need a few minutes to plan in your mind what you want to make, then gather your stamps, putting them on their acrylic blocks, have your ink pads and tools close, and have the paper (whole sheets, because cutting before you start the clock is a big no-no) and your paper trimmer ready. Then you have 10 minutes or less to actually make the card! Total time is maybe 15 or 20 minutes!
Is a great jumping-off point – I’m often not completely satisfied with the cards I design during a speed challenge, but one thing that always happens, whether I like my design or not, is inspiration for a design based on my speed challenge process. I’ll like an element on my super-fast card and will use that on the next card I make. The speed challenge jump starts my creative mojo!
It starts your creative engine – Do you ever feel like you’re not really “into it”? You feel blah and can’t find any inspiration on Pinterest or your favourite blogs? You scroll and scroll and scroll … and scroll. When you’re experiencing a creative slump, try a speed challenge. It will get your blood pumping again and increase the creative mojo flow into your brain. I don’t have any actual research to back me up on this, but I bet if we studied our brain before and after a speed challenge, you would find an increase in endorphins and dopamine.
You get better at it – I mentioned above that I’m often not satisfied with the final result of a speed challenge, but you know what? … I’ve improved. I used to like the resulting cards about 20% of the time, but now that I’ve had more practice and completed quite a few speed challenges over the years, I find that I’m really happy with my finished cards about 80% of the time. I think that’s pretty cool!

The challenge over at the As You See It Challenge blog today is a speed challenge to make a card in less than 10 minutes with a blossom theme. Blossoms are a perfect choice for March here in beautiful BC as the crocuses and early bulbs are starting to bloom and we are so looking forward to the blossoms on the fruit trees!

The flowers on my card are from the Free As A Bird stamp set from Stampin’ Up! I started the stopwatch on my phone and stamped the images in Tuxedo Black Momento Ink on Basic White cardstock. I used the Small Bloom Punch to punch out the larger blossom, then used my Flirty Flamingo, Mango Melody, Granny Apple Green, and Daffodil Delight Blends Markers to colour the blossoms and leaves. The Color Lifter on the larger blossom helped to soften the Flirty Flamingo a little bit.

9 minute and 44 seconds – just under the wire! Phew!

After my “bloomin’ fast” colouring, I trimmed the Basic White cardstock down to a square and used Stampin’ Dimensionals to attach it to the Sahara Sand card base. I stamped the sentiment on the Magenta Madness cardstock and cut it down to the size I wanted, attaching it to the Basic White square with more Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I tied a piece of Linen Trim into a bow and attached it and the larger punched out blossom to the card with Mini Glue Dots.

The final result is one that I can give to someone just to say hi and let them know that I’m thinking of them.

I might play around with this idea again and see if I can tweak the card base a bit. Maybe an embossing folder to add texture or maybe stamping a couple more leaves to the card base, peeking out from under the Basic White square. I’m feeling inspired with this particular jumping-off point, but I’m also happy with how this turned out. It’s a win-win!

March 19, 2021

Hope Changes Everything

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2021, brick & mortar, easter, embossing, Love of Leaves, playful patterns, watercolor 3 Comments

This card combines the Playful Patterns Designer Series Paper with the Brick & Mortar 3D Embossing folder from Stampin’ Up! I added some watercoloring and heat embossing to make this design really pop!

I am a designer for the As You See It Challenge Blog. That means that I have the privilege of designing projects for the sole purpose of giving you ideas with the hope of encouraging you to play along with us and share you own creations using the challenge that we present to you.

The challenge today: an Easter themed project!

I don’t really do Easter cards. I don’t have any Easter specific sentiments or images, so I created my own cross using the wood grain patterned paper from the In Good Taste Designer Series Paper from Stampin’ Up!

The card base is Thick Basic White, layered with a piece of patterned paper from the Playing with Patterns Designer Series Paper with a layer of Calypso Coral underneath the Watercolor Paper. I used the wide flat Water Painter to apply Coastal Cabana and Daffodil Delight ink to the Watercolor Paper. When it was fully dry, I ran it through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine with the Brick & Mortar 3D Embossing Folder.

The cross is created with 3/8″ wide strips of the In Good Taste Designer Series Paper, on which I sponged some Early Espresso ink on the edges to give a rich depth to the colour before gluing it together to form the cross shape. The cross is attached with Black Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The sentiment is from the Love of Leaves stamp set and was stamped on a strip of Basic Black cardstock with Versamark ink, then heat set with White Embossing Powder and my Heat Tool. I cut the words apart and attached them with Black Stampin’ Dimensionals to the card.

Some Artistry Blooms Adhesive Backed Sequins add the final touch to the design.

Now that I’ve made this card, I love it! I might have to make a few more and actually give some Easter cards this year.

March 7, 2021

Winner of the $25 Shopping Spree!

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, not a card 0 Comments

As I shared in a previous post, I celebrated 15 years with Stampin’ Up! last month! Time flies when you’re having fun!

To celebrate my 15th Stamp-aversary, I created a video and shared it as an Instagram story (new experience for me!), a Facebook story, put it in my newsletter to my Canadian peeps, and posted it here on my blog. I had so much fun creating the video (thanks to CANVA!) that I wanted to share it as many places as I could.

In the video, I invited people to comment for a chance to win a $25 Shopping Spree.

I get to announce the winner today!

WHOOHOO!!

Let me know how you choose to spend your $25, you lucky winner, you! You can email me at amy@inkingonthefly.com or send me a message on Facebook with the items you want and your mailing address. Thanks for playing along and helping me celebrate!