January 28, 2017

Hugs and Kisses (but mostly kisses!)

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute, Techniques 2017, card, coloured emboss, emboss, occasions 2017, Stampin' Up 0 Comments

Let’s start at the beginning – it’s a very good place to start.

This card design begins with a sketch.

Almost as soon as I saw this sketch, I thought of using lips instead of the stars. I have been obsessing over my lips a little bit lately as I have discovered some new lipstick that stays on all day! (I may or may not have a mild addiction at this point, but I’ll keep you posted). A unique thing about my new lipstick is that you finish the application with a clear and very glossy gloss to “seal” in the colour and to nourish and moisturize your lips. I’m not used to having such glossy lips and, let me tell ya, I had to apply a LOT of that gloss in the beginning as my lips adjusted to the change in my pucker routine. All that to say, I wanted the lips on my card to be GLOSSY!!

The stamps used on this card are from the Sealed with Love photopolymer stamp set by Stampin’ Up. I attached the image of the lips and the word “kiss” on the same block so I could stamp them together. Because I wanted glossy lips, I used Clear Emboss powder and heat set them. Now, if you have ever added emboss powder to Stampin’ Up Classic inks, you may have noticed that the ink often dries faster than you can apply and heat the powder, resulting in a flat, very un-glossy (let’s call it … “matte”), finish. I wanted glossy, dag-nab-it! So, I first inked my stamp in Versamark, then in the classic ink of my choosing. That way, the Versamark ink would help the area stay moist long enough for my powder to stick to it to be heated to a beautiful glossy gloss finish.

You may be wondering how I stamped the image 12 times and didn’t go just a little bit nutty having to clean off my stamps each time before inking again with Versamark (we all KNOW what happens when you use a dirty stamp on your Versamark ink pad – let’s all try to avoid that, shall we!). So, after inking my stamp with Versamark, I would then ink it into the coloured ink, stamp it, then reapply only the coloured ink, stamp it, then I did it a third time. After that, I quickly cleaned off my stamp and started again with Versamark and the next colour. Until I filled in the area with lips and kisses.

The hugs and kisses sentiment was stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink. I wrapped the Basic Black Baker’s Twine around the Whisper White Cardstock twice before tying a bow.

I didn’t feel like using doilies (as the sketch shows), so I used one of the photopolymer stamps from the Sealed with Love Stamp Set and curved it on my block as much as I could (it kept lifting up in the middle because I curved it so sharply, but I persevered!). I stamped it twice on the card base with Tuxedo Black Momento ink.

For added interest, I used the Project Life Corner Rounder Punch on the upper right hand corner of all my paper layers. The Basic Black Cardstock is adhered directly to the Flirty Flamingo card base, then the Whisper White layer is attached with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals.

The final touch was to add the tiny Basic Rhinestones to the heart flourishes on the card.

All in all, this card was pretty easy to make. I would even go as far as to call it quick and simple! You could even skip the embossing and call it easy-peasy!!

How about you try the sketch for yourself now. You might even feel pretty happy with it and upload it the the As You See It Challenge. Hey, you might even be picked as a favourite!

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January 27, 2017

Blue and White Wishes

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute 2017, embossing, floral boutique, quick and cute, simple and cute 2 Comments

I have a sweet and simple card for you today AND I have another sweet and simple card (but a little less so) for you tomorrow! WHAAAAA!!?? Two blog post in a row!? I KNOW!! I can hardly believe it myself!

My card today was inspired by the As You See It Challenge #142 – a sketch. AND it was also inspired by NOT pink, lol! When all of the As You See It designers unveiled our designs for this challenge, we discovered that the majority of us used PINK! I guess we all have Valentine’s cards on the brain.

So, friends, tomorrow, you will see my pink card, but today you will see my blue and white wishes card that I threw together at the last minute and loved how it turned out – so fresh and clean.

Here’s the As You See It Challenge sketch:

When I was thinking of “not pink”, my thoughts turned to the unopened pack of Floral Boutique Designer Series Paper that has been sitting in my stamp room (I keep trying to make myself call it a “studio”, but it always sounds too pretentious). It has some pretty images that I thought could work for this sketch.

I like the simplicity of this card AND it only took a few minutes to put together. BONUS!

I used a Thick Whisper White card base, on which I used my Project Life Corner Rounder Punch on the top right corners for added interest. The supplemental layers also have the top right corner rounded.

The 3-1/4″ x 3-1/4″ square piece of Floral Boutique Designer Series paper was applied to the bottom portion of the 3-1/4″ x 4-1/2″ piece of Whisper White cardstock. The sentiment from the Window Shopping stamp set was stamped with Night of Navy ink and embossed with Clear Emboss powder and my Heat Tool. To have the powder stick properly to the ink, I first inked my stamp with Versamark ink, then inked it with Night of Navy, resulting in a perfectly embossable (it’s a word, right?) sentiment!

The Night of Navy Solid Baker’s Twine was the perfect match with the Floral Boutique paper and the Night of Navy Cardstock. This I wrapped around the Whisper White cardstock and designer paper combo and attached it with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals to the 3-3/8″ x 4-5/8″ Night of Navy layer (which was adhered directly to the Thick Whisper White card base). The little rows of three Basic Pearls were the perfect finishing touch for this simple, yet elegant, card.

Now you try! Use the sketch from the As You See It Challenge blog and see what wonderful things you can create!!

January 20, 2017

Watercolour Carousel

Amy Jasper simple and cute, Techniques, tutorial card, emboss resist, markers, occasions 2017, quick and cute, Stampin' Up, technique, tutorial, watercolor, watercolour 2 Comments

Watercolouring is such a beautiful look and can seem like a difficult venture. But it doesn’t have to be a challenge. This card is created using a simple watercolour technique combined with the emboss resist. Easy peasy! Watercolour Carousel card by Amy Jasper www.inkingonthefly.com

I started by stamping the carousel image from the Carousel Birthday stamp set with Versamark ink on Stampin Up’s Watercolor Cardstock. Then I added some clear embossing powder to the image, tapped off the excess and heat set it with my Heat Tool until the image was clear and shiny.

Next, I applied water over the image. Just clear water using my Aqua Painter for a mess-free experience. I put the water only where I wanted my colour and applied it quite liberally to get the watercolour cardstock good and wet!

The inks came next: First I picked up some Bermuda Bay with my Aqua Painter and applied it to the top most section of my wet cardstock. I didn’t have to move the ink around very much as the water I had applied first did most of the work for me. I cleaned off my brush and picked up some Calypso Coral ink and applied it to the middle section of the area being careful to avoid having it touch the Bermuda Bay too much (that would just get muddy looking and nobody likes a muddy fairground!). Lastly, I cleaned off my brush again and used it to apply some Peek-a-boo Peach ink to the lower portion of my watered cardstock. To get the best colour saturation, I made sure that I used a drop of Ink Refill in the lid of each of these colours. This allowed me to pick up a nicely concentrated amount of ink on my Aqua Painter brush.

When I was happy with my colours, I set that aside to dry and continued with the rest of the card. The image doesn’t end up coloured with the rest of the paper because the embossing repells the ink, not allowing it to saturate those areas of the watercolour cardstock.

Sahara Sand cardstock was used for the card base, then a layer of Tip Top Taupe. The patterned paper used is from the Cupcakes and Carousels Designer Series Paper Stack from Stampin’ Up. I used one larger strip across the front of the card and another smaller strip as an accent behind the Very Vanilla banner. The sentiment, also from the Carousel Birthday stamp set, was inked using my Stampin’ Up Markers (Bermuda Bay, Early Espresso, and Calypso Coral), on which I “huffed” with my breath to re-moisten the ink before stamping it on the Very Vanilla cardstock.

When my watercoloured image was dry, I could add it as my next layer using Stampin’ Up Dimensionals. The banner ends were hand cut with my Paper Snips; the patterned paper banner adhered directly, while the Very Vanilla banner with the sentiment was adhered using Stampin’ Up Dimensionals.

Almost done! It just needed some bling, so I added a strip of three Basic Rhinestones just below the right side of the banner and one single larger Basic Rhinestone to the center of the carousel image.

I hope you like it. I sure do! It’s sooo pretty!

Be sure to leave me a hello and let me know if you’ve tried this watercolouring technique before and how it worked out for you.

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