May 1, 2015

Retiring Light of My Life

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques argyle embossing, As You See It, aysi#85, card, challenge, glowing lights, Stampin' Up, technique, today and everyday, top note die, watercolour 0 Comments

There are so many favourite things that are retiring as the 2014/2015 Stampin’ Up! catalogue comes to a close at the end of May. They need to make room for NEW favourite things!! I’m purposely featuring retiring product in my next few posts so that you won’t miss out on your chance to order these items before they’re gone for good!!

My design for As you See It Challenge #85 features the Today and Everyday stamp set, the Top Note Bigz Die, and the Argyle Embossing Folder, all of which are on the retiring list. The Argyle embossing folder also happens to be 50% off! If you haven’t seen the retiring list, you should definitely have a look. A lot of items are discounted.

Here are some colours that definitely screamed “FOR THE CHILDREN!!” to me, lol! However, I resisted the urge to make a kid themed card (though these colours are absolutely perfect for that purpose – so crisp and playful).

Instead, I went for bright and happy!

I really wanted to play around with light in my water colouring for this design. I cut my Top Note shape from some Watercolour paper and stamped my image with Jet Black Stazon ink. Starting with Daffodil Delight ink and an Aqua Painter, I highlighted all the areas that I wanted to appear to be glowing with light, focusing on a spot inside the lanterns as well as colour-washing around the lanterns. After allowing that to dry, I went in again with each of the lantern colours (Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, and Daffodil Delight) working around the area where I had already applied the Daffodil Delight highlights and focusing darker, more saturated colour on the edges of each lantern. Less water and more ink allows for greater saturation of colour. I love that I can squish the ink pad when it’s closed so that the ink smudges onto the inside of the lid. Then, when it’s opened, you can use the inside of the lid as a palette for your colouring. You can also just apply a drop of re-inker in the inside of the lid.

When the colouring was complete, it was time to work on the second layer of this design. I chose Daffodil Delight cardstock for my base and a layer of the same colour over it with texture for added interest. That’s where the Argyle Embossing Folder comes in. I only put about 2/3 of the piece of cardstock into the folder, leaving that 1/3 untouched and smooth. I like this look. Sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing, so this eases off on the weight that embossing adds to a project. I did my two line scoring technique at the junction of the embossed and the smooth, just to give it a more finished look. Then, the Basic Black Baker’s Twine was wrapped around three times and tied in a bow with lovely long tails.

If you have ever visited my blog before, then you KNOW how much I use and LOVE my Stampin’ Dimensionals. This design has them too, of course! Each layer is popped up on these lovely little hexagon shaped foam stickers. Rarely a flat card you will see in my hand-made collection!

Lastly, one of my favourite things to do with the Top Note Bigz Die: A decorative inside to finish off my design. The same image on the front was stamped with coordinating Daffodil Delight ink onto a die cut piece of Whisper White cardstock and adhered for a pretty little writing space.

What do you think? What’s on your list of supplies to buy before June 2nd. Some things are already sold out! Be sure to put your order in sooner than later so you aren’t disappointed.

Make sure you give this colour challenge a go. It’s fun, cheerful, bright, happy, crisp, and playful, too. Great colours to cheer someone up with – to light up someone’s life!!

Amy

April 24, 2015

Snapshot Smile

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques As You See It, blender pens, card, challenge, Designer Series Paper, embossing, sequins, Shaker card, Snapshot, Stampin' Up 1 Comment

Check out the shaker card I created kicking off from As You See It Challenge #084. I used the Snapshot stamp, shaker frames, and In-Colour Sequins (all on the retiring list!).

Here’s the sketch challenge for this week.

I just realized, I even used the same colours of the flowers in the sketch! Look at me go! Whoop whoop! Here’s the card I designed from this fun layout:

This will make a great birthday card or even a “just because”. The card base is Tangelo Twist. I then layered over that with a playful sheet of the Birthday Bash Designer Series Paper. The “smile” sentiment was stamped with Versamark ink and heat embossed using Whisper White embossing powder to make it really crisp and stand out on the Crushed Curry cardstock. After stamping the sentiment, I used it as a guide for where to cut my diagonal cut out with my paper cutter (I cut out about an inch).

I ran the upper piece through the Big Shot with the Polka Dot embossing folder, being sure that about half an inch of the paper was NOT in the folder so it would not get embossed. I then used my Simply Scored tool and my stylus to impress two score lines where the embossing stopped.

Next was to stamp and colour the Snapshot image. I stamped it on Whisper White cardstock with Stazon Black ink so that I could colour it with my Blender Pens using Mossy Meadow and Bermuda Bay ink. I stamped the image a second time and punched out the lens portion of the image with my 3/4″ circle punch and again with my 1 1/4″ circle punch so that I had a remaining doughnut shaped piece of the zoom lens with the black center discarded. A piece of Window Sheet (cut with a Circle Framelit) was added to the back of this. Then, a Shaker Frame (sadly, they are also on the retiring list) was placed on the larger image, to which I added a few of the In-Colour Sequins (also retiring) and carefully placed my doughnut piece, now complete with the Window Sheet, on top so that it lined up with the Shaker Frame.

The Linen Thread loops were an afterthought that add some texture to the card. I adhered them with a line of Fastfuse Adhesive before applying the Snapshot image with Dimensionals to the card front.

Be sure that you don’t miss out on the Retiring product from the current Stampin’ Up! catalogue!

It’s 8:45pm on Thursday night! Whoohoo! I’m off to bed as my head cold continues to drag me down. But I still stamped today and so can you!

Amy

April 17, 2015

Butterfly Fancy Gate-Fold Card

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques As You See It, butterflies thinlits, card, challenge, Gorgeous Grunge, Stampin' Up, technique 1 Comment

Just a quick post today with a card that was more of a prototype than a finished piece. I was hoping to tweak it a bit before sharing it with you, but hopefully you’ll see where I’m going with it!

Here’s the challenge from the As You See It Challenge blog this week – an assortment challenge!!

I wanted to try to create a card for this one to mimic a very simple concept that I saw online for a birthday invitation. It was a gate-fold card with a butterfly opening. So, I pulled out my Butterfly Thinlit Dies and started to figure it out. This card was my first attempt:

It was a bit of an awkward fumble to extend the cardstock beyond 11″ in order to make room for the butterfly cut out. This one ended up with a lot of fussy cutting to make it work. I then tried creating a second card with less pink on it (this is a LOT of pink for me, lol!).

So, I went from all pink to almost no pink (just the In-Colour Sequins), but still I don’t feel like I’ve hit the mark with the design or the technique to get there. The second card uses two 5.5″x11″ pieces of cardstock to get the effect on the front. A bit of a cleaner finish that works, but I still want to work on this card design a bit more. I’ll keep you posted.

What do you think? Is this something you’d like to try?

What would you create using the elements of this Assortment Challenge? Can’t wait to see it!

Amy.