January 29, 2016

Hello (from the other side?)

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, birthday, card, challenge, embossing, fringe scissors, Gorgeous Grunge, hello, Stampin' Up 3 Comments

I can’t get Adele’s song out of my head!! Every time I see this “hello” stamp, that song starts playing inside my mind- then, I start singing it out loud. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful song, it’s just that I only know the one line “Hello, from the other side”. It plays over and over and over and over and over … yeesh!

But I do love that stamp set. You’ll see it on my card today.

Here’s the As You See It Challenge sketch that I started with:

And here’s my Hello (from the other side?) birthday card:

Is the song stuck in your head, yet?

My colour combination was inspired when I received an order of the packages of cardstock that I happened to run out of all at the same time. I pulled them all together out of the box and thought, “Boy, these are really fun and pretty colours together!” I tried really hard to include Chocolate Chip as it was in the bunch AND I hadn’t used it in such a long time, but I couldn’t make it work. My colours include Blushing Bride, Bermuda Bay, Cucumber Crush, and Daffodil Delight.

I started with a Blushing Bride cardstock base, then a thin matte of Bermuda Bay. The striped Cucumber Crush layer is from the package of 2015-2017 In Color Envelope Paper. It’s not only great for making envelopes or envelope liners, but also works well as a layer on your cards.

I used one of the splotches from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set, once with Cucumber Crush ink and once with Bermuda Bay ink where I was planning to put my “hello” sentiment. Then I used my trusty Embossing Buddy over the paper and stamped my “hello” (from the Hello Stamp Set only available until February 15th) with Versamark ink. I sprinkled White Embossing Powder over the image, dusted off the excess, and heat set it with my Heat Tool. Once that was completed, I used my Embossing Buddy again so I could do the same process with the “birthday girl” sentiment from the same stamp set and Gold Embossing powder.

(I let out an audible “phew” when I saw how straight it was! … stripy paper is not very forgiving if you stamp crooked)

I was quite excited to use my Stampin’ Up Fringe Scissors. I don’t use them enough! I love how they easily add texture to any paper project. I found that my layers were too perfect for my liking, so I grabbed my Paper Snips and carefully hand cut curved on three of the four fringed layers.

Ah, yes, that’s what it needed.

The 1/8th inch Gold Ribbon was the final touch. I struggled with this. I tried a few different ribbons before deciding on this one.

I didn’t adhere the Bermuda Bay layer to the base with my Stampin’ Up Dimensionals until all the layers were complete.

It didn’t turn out quite how I had it in my head, but I’m happy with the cheerful colours, the stripes (I do very much like stripes), and the way my embossed “hello” turned out. I still wish I could have used Chocolate Chip somewhere. Perhaps that will be my next challenge – use Chocolate Chip. It’s been sadly neglected in my craft room for quite sometime.

Have you done an As You See It Challenge, yet? You should give it a try! It’s a great way to get your creative juices flowing!

January 22, 2016

Hogs and Kisses, Baby!

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, barnyard babies, confetti hearts punch, Valentine's Day 7 Comments

Valentine’s Day is coming.

I’ve never bothered myself much with a day that dictates I should tell someone I love them. However, this year it feels right to brighten up the February drearies with a bit of colour. It’s been looking very grey and brown outside our house as the snow has melted a bit (but not enough to show the green lawn) and the sanding truck has left its mark. How about adding a spark of life in the home? I haven’t seen any Primrose plants in the grocery store yet, but I might grab a couple to put on my windowsill when they are available. The promise of spring.

What colours would spark some life in your house right now? Pinks and reds seem to be the traditional shades of love, but don’t let that stop you from showing off your own flair for colour with some fancy hearts of purple and teal. I just might add some of those myself. My project today is more on the traditional side. I don’t like pink much, so I’ve used the bright of white for my design base today with a flash of shining red.

I’m a designer for the As You See It Challenge Blog, but thought I would design a card that would also work with a couple other challenges that I’d like to play along with.

Just “spreading the love” – fitting, don’t you think?

I am playing along with the Global Design Project and their “love” theme. I’m also playing along with the Paper Players and their “clean and simple challenge”.

Here are the images for the As You See It Blog sketch and the challenges that I started with:

I used the adorable and surprisingly versatile Barnyard Babies stamp set from Stampin’ Up for my clean and simple, love-themed card.

Can you see the shiny!!?

I started with the Thick Whisper White cardstock for my card base (I’m SO glad Stampin’ Up has this cardstock now! It’s awesome!) I used the Red Foil paper to matte another layer of regular Whisper White cardsock, then added the three stamped pieces with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals to pop them up off the page.

I had to stamp them first of course. For that, I used my trusty and very loved Stazon Jet Black ink with the Barnyard Babies stamp set. After stamping the images, I used Stampin’ Up Blender Pens with Blushing Bride classic ink to colour my three wee piggies.

I wanted to create a visual of the kisses that go along with my hogs.

Hogs and Kisses, Baby! That’s what it’s all about!

I used the Confetti Hearts Punch with more Red Foil paper and some Red Glimmer paper to punch out some pretty little kisses (hearts represent kisses, of course). The Fine-Tip Glue Pen from Stampin’ Up was just the ticket to glue these little sweet bits of love onto my card.

I hope you like it. I look forward to making a couple more and giving them to my co-workers with a yummy chocolate to let them know I care. But maybe I will give it to them before Valentine’s Day – just to be clear that I don’t need a designated day to show my appreciation.

Ha!

I encourage you to try the As You See It Challenge, but check out the others also, they have some great designers with fabulous ideas!

I’d love to hear how you get through the February drearies. Leave me a comment and share your wisdom!

January 15, 2016

Soaring Birthday

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques birthday, card, challenge, emboss resist, Occasions 2016, Sale-a-bration 2016, Sky is the Limit, Stampin' Up, World Traveler 7 Comments

It’s FRIDAAAAAY!!!

Today, I get to share with you one of the new Sale-a-bration stamp sets that are only available for a short time. This one is particularly great for masculine cards, but is also suitable to congratulate anyone who reached a goal in their lives.

As usual, my Friday blog post starts with a challenge from the As You See It Challenge blog for which I am a designer. I love being part of this design team because of the weekly push to create from a different angle than I’m used to. You’d think it gets easier as I go along (and it does come easily sometimes), but it can be like pulling teeth when I get stuck trying so hard to fit in a particular element required by the challenge.

This week we have a sketch. These are often the hardest for me, I think. However, some of my best cards start with a sketch.

I wanted to use some of my new items from the Stampin’ Up Occasions catalogue and the Sale-a-bration brochure for this sketch. I chose the Sky is the Limit stamp set and the World Traveler Textured Impressions Folder.

The card base is Basic Grey cardstock. I put a layer of the Typeset Specialty Paper over that to matte the world image created with the embossing folder. Before embossing the cardstock, I inked the folder using my brayer and Wild Wasabi ink. Then, I carefully placed the Soft Sky cardstock in the folder and ran it through my Big Shot to transfer the ink to the cardstock and get the look I wanted.

A strip of Hello Honey cardstock was sponged around the edges with Smoky Slate ink and a Sponge Dauber, then attached to the World Traveler embossed piece. The piece of Cucumber Crush cardstock with two corners rounded using the Project Life Corner Rounder punch was sponged around the edges also and embossed with the World Traveler folder in the Big Shot, being careful to match the pattern of the background (it’s a subtle touch, but I’m all about the fussy details).

I wrapped the Silver Baker’s Twine around these layered pieces three times, finishing it with a bow. You can also see the two Garden Green Candy Dots applied to the bottom right of the piece of Cucumber Crush (in order to be true to the elements in the sketch). The layers over and including the embossed World Traveler cardstock were attached with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals to the Typeset Specialty Designer Series paper layer.

Now comes the accent piece – the focal point of the card. I started with a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock (larger than I needed, just to be sure), and stamped the airplane image in Black Stampin’ Up Archival ink. Then I placed one of the Oval Framelits over the cardstock so that it intersected with the image. I used a pencil to mark where the image would overlap the oval.

(I’m so sorry I don’ t have pictures to help explain this process!)

I fussy cut around the image ONLY to where the oval would be cut, then I placed the oval framelit over the image where I wanted it with the image sticking out OVER the Oval Framelit so that the image wouldn’t be cut off.

Oh my gosh, does this make ANY sense? LOL!

After I cut it out with my Big Shot, I tidied up the area around the image with my Paper Snips. Next, the Happy Birthday sentiment was stamped with the Stampin’ Up Black Archival ink before running my Embossing Buddy over the entire area in preparation for the heart-shaped smoke image to be stamped with Versamark ink and heat embossed with Clear Embossing powder and the Heat Tool. With that completed, I sponged over the entire area with Soft Sky ink. The ink doesn’t stick to where the clear embossing powder is (Emboss Resist Technique), allowing the smoke image to remain the colour of the Very Vanilla cardstock.

I added some more sponging around the edges of the oval and the airplane with Smoky Slate ink and coloured the airplane with my Stampin’ Up Tangelo Twist marker. I also did an outline around the image with my Stampin’ Up Smoky Slate marker to give the image more pop. The finishing touch on the airplane was to stamp the image again on Stampin’ Up Vellum and fussy cut around the propeller, then to attach the propeller with a Mini Glue Dot.

I tried to throw on a splatter of glitter or something shiny on the upper left of the card, but it didn’t like it, so I took it off and added the Silver Metallic Thread loops under the oval piece before attaching it with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals to the card front.

Who would have thought that it would take this long to explain it all! PHEW! Sorry about that. I won’t be offended if you don’t read it all, lol!

If you like the Sky is the Limit stamp set, you can get it for FREE! All you have to do is order $60 in Stampin’ Up product through my online store and then you can choose that Sale-a-bration stamp set as a FREE item! This particular stamp set is only available until February 15th, so don’t wait too long!

I just love this time of year! Free stuff makes me happy!!

Amy