May 18, 2018

In Color Blocks

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques 2018, challenge, quick and cute, sketch, technique 1 Comment

Are you excited for the new catalogue?! I am! There are so many new colours and fun things that I wish I could get them all at once! But, alas, I must be wise with my spending and pace myself. So far, I have two of the new inks, a sampling of all the new colours, all of the In Color inks and most of the In Color cardstock. I also decided to get the early release products in the Share What You Love Suite (of course, I had to choose the “Gotta Have It All” bundle so I could get all the free gifts with it!) You can check out the bundles by clicking on my SHOP button here on my website.

The card design today features four of the five 2018-2020 In Colors. These colours are bright and playful and full of cheer!

Here’s the challenge sketch that I started with:When I saw this sketch, I immediately thought of using the acrylic blocks to stamp the rectangle and square shapes and that is exactly what I did!

I used Clear Block C and Clear Block A from Stampin’ Up! to create this playful, colour blocked background. I simply pressed the block onto the ink pad, spritzed the ink on the block with 70% rubbing alcohol using my Stampin’ Spritzer, then pressed the block on my paper where I wanted it. I used Lovely Lipstick, Blueberry Bushel, Pineapple Punch, and Call Me Clover.The Pineapple Punch yellow die cut star is cut using the Wood Crate Framelits Dies and attached with a piece of Foam Adhesive Strips (no reason, it was just closer to me than my Stampin’ Dimensionals!). I looped some Gold Metallic Thread to stick behind the star for some extra flourish. The sentiment, “smile”, is from the Tabs for Everything stamp set and was stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black ink. The stars from the Tabs for Everything stamp set and the stars from the the Wood Words stamp set were stamped with the coordinating colours of the blocked area on which they are placed.Once I was happy with my stamping and the star elements, I used the Envelope Punch Board to punch the upper left and lower right corners with the corner rounder part of the punch board. I did the same on the Lovely Lipstick matte layer and the same again with the Crumb Cake card base. Dimensionals were used to adhere the Lovely Lipstick layer and give the card some pop.The final touch was to add the gold sequin from the Metallics Sequin Assortment pack. I used the Fine-tipped Glue Pen to adhere these to the card front.

If you want to order these ink colours and you are in Canada, you can order them from me through my online store. Just find the SHOP button on my website and it will take you to my online store. These cheerful ink colours are available on the Share What You Love link on the left side of the online store page. The coordinating cardstock and sooo many other amazing new products will be available June 1st! Whoohoo!!

May 4, 2018

Casual Grey

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute 2018, Ribbon of Hope, speed, Stamparatus 0 Comments

Grey isn’t just for old ladies and sweat pants anymore.

Grey has become one of my favourite colours to wear because it’s not as harsh as black (I look terrible in black!!) and it goes with almost anything. It has also become a very common colour for home decor – there are a lot of grey walls out there!

Grey can be elegant and classy, but I don’t think I have seen many fancy evening dresses in grey. I think of grey as a cozy, casual colour. It is a colour of river rocks, misty skies, and foggy roadways. Casual grey is a comfort colour for me – in the same way that mac and cheese for some people is a comfort food.

Today’s card is all about grey – shades of grey!

(good grief, NOT the movie!! *shudder* LOL!).We haven’t had a speed challenge for a while. I LOVE the speed challenges because they really push me to work fast and keep it simple. I don’t always love how my cards turn out, but I ALWAYS find inspiration. It’s as though the pressure to complete a card is just the right catalyst to get my creativity to flow.

I did this card in 8:28 minutes! It was a good thing, too, because when I started making it, I had 10 minutes before I had to leave my house to pick up my daughter at school. This is another reason that I love speed challenges – I can get ‘er done!!!Friends, I have a terrible time photographing my white cards lately. The white never looks right AND it just looks worse the more I fiddle with it in my photo editing program. I think I need to consider trying some different light bulbs for my light box.

I started with the heart stamp from the Ribbon of Courage Stamp set and used my Stamparatus to stamp it multiple times in a row on my Whisper White cardstock with Smoky Slate Ink.

(I am so excited for you all to be able to purchase this awesome tool in June! It is “da bomb!”)

The sentiment from the same stamp set was stamped on Whisper White cardstock using Tuxedo Black Momento ink. I die cut it using one of the circles from the Stitched Shapes Framelits. That is layered over top of a Sahara Sand (we would categorize this as “greige”, I believe) scallop circle from the Layering Circle Framelits Dies.Behind the circle are the leaves made from Basic Black cardstock punched with the Leaf Punch and adhered to the back of the circle. I attached a triple loop of the Basic Black Metallic Thread to the back of the circle/leaf combo using Stampin’ Dimensionals, then attached the entire ensemble to the card front.

Behind the “hearty” Whisper White layer of of the card, you can see a thin matte of Sahara Sand cardstock over a Basic Grey card base.All of this classy, cozy, casual grey goodness in less than 10 minutes!! 8 minutes and 28 seconds, people!! I take hours to do some cards – literally HOURS!! It is quite an accomplishment to design a card in such a short time for me.

And I actually LIKE this one!

So, now it’s your turn. I challenge YOU! You can think it through, gather your supplies (no precutting allowed!) and set your timer for 10 minutes. Show us over at the As You See It Challenge blog what you come up with and get your creative mojo flowin’ in the process!!

April 20, 2018

Love and Fishes

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques 0 Comments

As You See It Challenge has made it easy and fun for us this time!

See! How fun is that!!? It’s a great excuse to call up a friend and borrow something that you’ve been coveting in their craft room, lol!

In my case, I was super excited to try out the Jars of Love Stamp Set and their coordinating framelits, Everyday Jars.

I played around with the jar image on Window sheets for a while, trying some different things with the Blends Markers. Not a lot was working out as planned, so I ended up inking up my jar image with Versamark ink, then inked again with Momento Tuxedo Black ink before stamping on my Window Sheet. Knowing that Stampin’ Up is retiring the current Archival Black ink, I wanted to try the Momento, but then use clear embossing powder over it and heat setting it (very carefully, so I didn’t melt the acetate). It ended up not being very black AND looked a little bit like glass – which sort of worked out.

Once I got my jar image on the Window Sheet, I coloured the back side of the sheet with my Pool Party Blends Marker. Then I cut out multiple jar pieces (4, I think) with the cut out in the center of each jar, so that I could layer them on top of each other, creating a shaker frame with the Window Sheet layer on top and a solid jar on the bottom where I also stamped my li’l fishy in Pumpkin Pie ink.

Before sealing the shaker frame closed, I added the little Bermuda Bay and Pool Party die cut hearts in the jar. I love that the framelits were designed so you could die cut multiple hears all at once. So smart!

The lid of the jar is stamped in Smoky Slate ink and also die cut before adhering to the top of the jar. I then added the Solid Basic Black Baker’s Twine around the jar and the Corregated Elements tag with another heart on it, this one cut from Flirty Flamingo cardstock.

The rest of this card is simple layering. The card base is Thick Whisper White, then there is a super thin mat of Crushed Curry cardstock behind a layer of Whisper White. Then there is a thin matt layer of Pool Party cardstock behind another layer of Whisper White. Over that is a wide strip of Wood Textures Designer Series Paper and a super thin strip of Basic Black cardstock. I had a piece of Bermuda Bay cardstock that was already die cut with the large Stitched Shapes Framelit square, so I cut that at a diagonal and layered it over the Wood Texture DSP.

Finally, the completed jar was attached to the card front and the BEST FISHES sentiment was stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black ink.

C’est fini!!