September 8, 2017

Everything is Pumpkin Spice

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2017, As You See It, cable knit, card, challenge, coffee, fall, Stampin' Up 1 Comment

BAAAHHHHH! IT’S SEPTEMBER!! Where did the summer go!?

I am sad that the warm days are coming to an end, but I admit that I love the fall. It is my most favourite season of the year. There’s just one thing that is a little bit annoying …. everything is pumpkin spice! Pumpkin spice lotion (no real surprise here), pumpkin spice oolong tea (yup, I can go with that), pumpkin spice Oreo cookies (okay… ), Instant Oatmeal (I’d probably give that a try), Hershey’s Kisses (um… I’ll pass), Pumpkin Spice Peeps (no thank you), pumpkin spice Cheerios (definitely not!), Pumpkin Spice Popcorn (it’s Boomchickapop popcorn, so it’s probably really good, actually!), and even Pumpkin Spice Pringles potato chips (yikes!)! It doesn’t really stop there, but I won’t go on. You can also find spoof photos for Pumpkin Spice cigarettes, rifle cartridges, mouth wash, feminine hygiene products, contraceptives, and weed killer!

I’m pretty sure it all started with Starbucks and their Pumpkin Spice Latte that is adored and sought after by so many of you latte junkies out there. I’m actually not a fan of having cinnamon or nutmeg in my lattes. If I choose flavouring at all, I order the cascara latte (my fave when it’s available) or the toffee nut latte.

As far as pumpkin spice goes – bring on the pumpkin pie!! That’s all I need.

… and maybe a scented candle.

… and those Boomchickapop popcorn (if you can get your hands on some, send them my way!)

Okay, enough about all things pumpkin spice! Here’s the As You See It Sketch Challenge.

I love my coffee stamps. This card uses the Merry Cafe stamp set and the Coffee Cafe stamp set with the Coffee Cups Framelits dies.

You can see the beautiful Cable Knit embossing folder in Soft Sky cardstock on the card base. I love the large gingham/plaid patterned paper from the Merry Little Christmas Designer Series Paper Stack! I used patterned paper from the Color Theory paper stack for the coffee cup and the lid. The sleeve for the coffee cup is stamped on a piece of patterned paper from the Coffee Break designer series paper.

A little bit of sponging with Crushed Curry ink on the base of the coffee cup and on the edge of the lid adds some depth to the colours. Linen Thread is the perfect fall touch to wrap behind the coffee cup over the Old Olive and Basic Black layers. The Pear Pizzazz Enamel Shapes are just a fun pop of playfulness. And I love the stitched edge on the Basic Black circle that was die cut using the Big Shot and the Stitched Shapes Framelits. The stitching marks make a boring black circle much more interesting, don’t you think?

Stampin’ Up Dimensionals really make things pop on a card. Flat cards are a rare thing for me. I love my Dimensionals, particularly the new Mini Dimensionals that Stampin’ Up put out. The smaller size allows for much more functionality and for a longer lasting package (without cutting them in half!!)

If you like doing sketch challenges, make sure you try this sketch and share it with us at the As You See It Challenge blog. We love seeing what you’ve created. So be sure to post a picture of your creation on a public social media site and link it to the As You See It blog!

Happy Stamping!

***Like these products? If you live in Canada, you can order Stampin’ Up! products from me just by clicking on the SHOP button on this website ***

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August 25, 2017

Coloured Embossing Paste

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques 2017, As You See It, birthday, card, challenge, embossing paste, Stampin' Up, technique 1 Comment

I’ve been spending some time online keeping a close eye on the forest fire that is burning just about a 15 minute drive from my home. I video-recorded the belongings in my home for insurance records. I also put aside important documents like birth certificates and passports. People (some of them are my friends) and their livestock have been evacuated.

The wind changed yesterday and our neighbourhood is filled with hazy smoke. In BC, we’ve had more than 1000 forest fires since April 2017 (that’s more than one million hectares of land!) and more than half of them are caused by human carelessness. Often it is cigarettes tossed out the window of a moving vehicle, sometimes is a spark of a hot vehicle on dry grass, sometimes it’s from a poorly attended campfire. If you travel to Canada in the summer (it’s beautiful here in the Okanagan when the air is clear of smoke), be aware of your smoking habits. It’s often the cigarettes out the window that threaten neighbourhoods. That is likely the cause of the fire that could threaten my own home today, if the wind blows unfavourably. So, please be in the habit of butting your cigarettes in your vehicle, don’t smoke in our forests or grasslands AT ALL, and don’t flick your butt, EVER! You may not have the same risks in the area where you live, but good habits could protect you and the people you love, wherever you are.

I also ask that everyone be on watch for people who are not being responsible and say something to them. Report them, if need be. It’s not worth risking our lives, our homes, our pets, our beautiful forests or the creatures who live in them. It breaks my heart to think of all of those who have been affected by fires over the last few years.

My card design today is not intentionally related to this topic, although, I read the sentiment and realize that it is! LOL! I did not plan this at all!

Here is the As You See It Challenge sketch from which my design was inspired:

Here is my fire-safety card, lol! The sentiment is from the Birthday Banners stamp set.

I used a small amount of Embossing Paste from Stampin’ Up! in three separate little containers. Then I added a tiny drop of colour to each of them: Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, and Tempting Turquoise. I mixed each one until the colour was fully blended into the paste before spreading each colour over the diamond- shaped mask from the Patterned Party Decorative Masks. I love how each colour blends ever so slightly into the next.

The sentiment and banner were stamped in Stampin’ Up! Archival Black on Watercolor Paper. I was careful to make sure it was fully dry before adding a Bermuda Bay colour wash over the banner area. I also added some little white decorative dots to the words on the bottom banner using my White Chalk Marker (not sure if I like that as much).

The 3/8″ Mini Chevron Ribbon in Bermuda Bay was added behind the banner along with the Black Mini Sequin Trim and the Gold Metallic Thread. The banner and metallic thread was adhered with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals, while the ribbon and sequin was attached on a strip of Tear and Tape.

I added the Metallics Sequin using the Fine-tip Glue Pen, then assembled my layers:

Card base is Basic Black cardstock, then a delicate layer of Whisper White and a slightly wider layer of Melon Mambo cardstock. The completed top layer of Basic Black with the embossing paste and sentiment were attached to the Melon Mambo cardstock with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals.

I used the same layering to complete the inside of the card, finishing with a layer of Whisper White cardstock for writing a personal message to the recipient.

I’m writing this late this morning and a bit hurried as I have to take my kids to swimming lessons and I haven’t finished video-recording my craft room supplies or my ski equipment. I think I will take my dog to swimming lessons today, just in case (we will have to watch the kids through the windows from outside, of course).

Try this As You See It sketch for yourself and show us what you come up with by uploading it to you As You See It challenge website.

And be fire-safe!! Candles, too!!

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August 11, 2017

Emboss Resist with a Twist

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas, Techniques, tutorial 2017, aysi, carols of christmas, colour challenge, emboss resist, emboss resist with a twist 2 Comments

What happens when something goes wrong on your card or scrapbook design? Do you start over or see if you can fix it?

My memory of an old technique saved the day and enabled me to fix a problem with gunk getting embedded in my heat-embossed image. And I love it!

It all began with this colour challenge from the As You See It Challenge blog:

I was a little worried with the intensity of these colours, but by using the coloured ink instead of coloured cardstock, I was able to keep my design from getting too loud.

I wanted to get a jump on my holiday cards, so I went with a Christmas design using the Carols of Christmas stamp set and the Card Front Builder Thinlits.

I call this technique, “Emboss Resist with a Twist” or “Emboss Resist and Wipe”. The second name definitely gives you a better understanding of what this technique involves.

The regular emboss resist technique, as you may know, is when you heat emboss an image, usually with clear embossing powder, then sponge or paint with a water-based ink over the image. The embossed area resists the ink and often it is advised to use a paper towel to polish any ink residue off of the embossed image to make it really pop. With the “Emboss Resist with a Twist” technique, you take it another step: Heat the clear embossed image and, while the embossing powder is still warm and soft from being reheated, wipe it with a paper towel to remove it from the surface of your paper!

Wait, WHAT!?

Why would you want to remove it, you ask? Once it’s removed and all the shine has been wiped clean from your cardstock, the image remaining will be more crisp, more white, and will have a beautiful matte finish.

Another reason to remove it is when you make a gunky mistake, like I did! I used the regular emboss resist technique, then ran my piece of cardstock through the Big Shot to cut the beautiful border from the Card Front Builder thinlit dies. To my dismay, I discovered that my dirty embossing plates left a bunch of dark specs of old paper dust and bits embedded into my embossed image!! EW! Heating and wiping the embossing finish away allowed me to clean up my mess without having to start over again!

I absolutely love how it looks!

The rest of the card came fairly quickly. I used my markers to ink up the rubber on my holly stamp from the Carols of Christmas stamp set so that I could have Lemon Lime Twist leaves with a spackling of Elegant Eggplant around the edges, but still have Real Red berries. After doing the old huffing-with-your-breath-on-the-stamp-to-remoisten-the-ink technique, I stamped the holly image and die cut it with the co-ordinating die from the Card Front Builder Thinlits. This was attached with half of a Mini Dimensional to my card front.

The beautiful little ornament image was also coloured with markers. I used Real Red and Elegant Eggplant to only colour two of the three ornaments, then used Basic Gray for the string of the ornament. I used a sticky note to mask the bottom of the sentiment as my stamp was too tall for where I wanted it, then I huffed once again and stamped the image. I also used a Blender Pen to blend some of the ink in the each ornament on my paper, then added a small bead glue with the Fine Tip Glue Pen to the center of each ornament to I could apply Dazzling Diamonds Glitter. The Linen Thread, tied into a tiny little bow was attached with a carefully rolled Glue Dot.

I wanted a little something-something behind my card front, so I adhered a piece of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper to my card base before attaching my completed card front to it with Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals. Tip: Because of the nature of glitter, even on Glimmer Paper, I was liberal with the Dimensionals and used generous pressure to ensure good contact the the Glimmer paper. If this isn’t done, you might find that your card front detaches without your permission!

If you’re in my area, this card will be offered at my technique class. Contact me if you’d like to join us!

Be sure to give this colour combination a try and load it up on the As You See It Challenge page so we can see your beautiful creations.