November 30, 2018

Copper and Figgy Joy

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2018, As You See It, card, challenge, Christmas, embossing, pretty pines, wishing you well 1 Comment

Making Christmas cards is a huge source of joy and creative satisfaction for me. I love the themes and the colours. I love trying different colour schemes that still feel like Christmas to me. The colour combination today is inviting and peaceful, yet somehow warm and cozy, too.

It starts with a sketch from the As You See It Challenge Blog.

Garden Green, Copper, and Fresh Fig are a beautiful colour combination. The Wood Textures Designer Series Paper adds to the cozy, rustic feel of this winter wreath design. Sometimes, the traditional red and green – though beautiful, cheerful, and cozy – can become tiresome to work with in over and over again. It was refreshing to still feel traditional, but pull in the Fresh Fig to liven things up a bit!

The card began with stamping the wreath image from the Wishing You Well stamp set. I wanted to give the illusion of depth, so I stamped it first using Gray Granite ink. Then, after rubbing the surface with my Embossing Buddy to remove the stickiness of any oils from my fingers or from the ink I just applied, I stamped the wreath image again using Versamark ink, being sure to stamp it slightly offset from my original image. Then I could apply the Copper Embossing Powder and heat set it with my Heat Tool. Once the embossing was finished, I assembled my card layers to the base: the piece of Wood Textures Designer Series paper is adhered to matte layers of Copper Foil and then Whisper White. All of which are adhered to the Garden Green cardstock base of the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Next came the swag and banner for the front of the card. I die cut the Garden Green boughs and the Fresh Fig accent foliage using the Pretty Pines Thinlit Dies and attached them to the wreath with Mini Glue Dots. I added a swirl of Copper Metallic Thread under the bow. The bow itself is an image from the Wishing You Well stamp set and was stamped on a scrap piece of the Wood Textures Designer Series Paper with Fresh Fig ink. I fussy cut that beautiful gauzy bow with my handy dandy Paper Snips and it was adhered with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The final piece of this card is the banner. The sentiment from the Christmas Pines stamp set was stamped in Fresh Fig ink on Whisper White cardstock. The ends of the strip of cardstock were flagged by hand with my Paper Snips.

If you like this card, please understand that YOU can make cards just like this. If you are a Canadian resident, head on over to my online store to purchase all the supplies you need for great cards and scrapbook pages! If not, then you can go to stampinup.com to access a demonstrator in your part of the world. I hope you do!

Happy stamping!

November 15, 2018

Colour Block Deer

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2018, As You See It, card, challenge, Christmas 0 Comments

It’s a sketch challenge!! Whoohoo! As a designer for the As You See It Challenge blog, I love where the sketches lead my creativity. This card is an example of a design that I would have never come up with if I wasn’t guided by a sketch. I always enjoy a unique layout that is also pleasing to my eye and this one has hit it on the head!

The sketch:

I knew right away that I wanted to use the Detailed Deer Thinlit for this card design. It took a while to find it in my disaster of a craft room, but I finally uncovered it under a pile of cardstock on my paper cutting station. Phew! (A craft room clean up is WAY overdue!)

It’s difficult to tell in the photos, but the deer is die cut from Glossy White cardstock, which gives such a nice professional look to this soft design.

I did a colour block for the rectangular background behind the deer using 1″ strips of Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, and Gray Granite cardstock. The deer is attached to the colour block background with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals. Behind the colour block piece, I placed two Gold Foil leaves, punched out with the Leaf Punch and adhered with glue dots to the card.

The colour block piece is attached to the layered card front also with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I chose to use three layers for the card front: Thick Whisper White card stock was used for the base, then a narrow matte of Sahara Sand cardstock with a piece of patterned paper from the Festive Farmhouse Designer Series Paper. You can see in the above photo, that the greeting from the Wishing You Well stamp set, was heat embossed with Gold Embossing powder for a nice professional finish. Unfortunately, if you look closely at the photos, you can see that I did not erase my pencil line as well as I should have. This is not as noticeable in person as it is in the close up photos. I’ll probably go over that with my eraser again. *sheepish grin*

I finished the inside of the card with another narrow matte of Sahara Sand carstock under Whisper White cardstock. The deer image and the sentiment from the Dashing Deer stamp set were both heat embossed with Gold Embossing powder. So pretty.

I love the Dashing Deer bundle from Stampin’ Up! It includes the Dashing Deer stamp set and the Detailed Dear Thinlit Dies.

So, how do you see this sketch? What will you do with it? Share your cards, scrapbook pages, or home decor crafty creations with us at the As You See It Challenge Blog. We love to see what you design!

November 2, 2018

Buffalo Check Christmas

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas, simple and cute 2018, challenge, Christmas, quick and cute, speed 0 Comments

Oh my, oh my!! I haven’t done a speed challenge for a while and I forgot what a rush it it!! Whoohoo! Making a card in less than 10 minutes isn’t easy and I don’t always like how it turns out, but it ALWAYS gets my creative mojo flowing!!

Here’s the inspiration for Shades of Red from the As You See It Challenge Blog:

After considering what I wanted to do and gathering all my supplies (no cutting ahead of time!), I started my card design. Why I insist on adding bows to speed challenge cards, I’ll never know. I probably would have been done under eight minutes if I avoided the Linen Thread all together!

My completed time: 9 minutes 52 seconds

I used Crumb Cake ink with the Sheet Music background stamp on the Crumb Cake card base. I cut a piece of Real Red cardstock the same size as my card front and used the Buffalo Check background stamp with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink. I find it easier to use these background stamps so that the rubber faces up on the table. That way, I can place my cardstock on top of the stamp and have more control to make sure the image is stamped straight – particularly with any stamp image that needs to be parallel with the edge of my paper. I adhered my checked cardsock at an angle on my card, then trimmed the excess from the edges with my paper trimmer.

I still love the Half Full stamp set because it has images of one of my favourite things: wine! I love wine, particularly red wine. Sadly, wine isn’t very kind to my stomach these days, so I have started reserving it for Sunday dinners with my family.

I stamped the wine glass image on Whisper White cardstock with Crumb Cake ink, stamping off once on a scrap piece of paper so I could have a slightly lighter image. The Merry Christmas sentiment from the same stamp set was stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento ink over top of the wine glasses image. I then trimmed my Whisper White cardstock to the size I wanted and flagged the end with my Paper Snips. The Linen Thread is tied around the end of the Whisper White cardstock into a bow and the completed banner was attached to the card front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Voila! This is what a 10 minute speed challenge card looks like! Sweet and Simple, don’t you think!?

Your turn! Give the challenge a try. Set your timer for ten minutes and see if you can beat the time. If you get it under, be sure to share your finished work with us at the As You See It Challenge blog so we can ooh and ahh at your creative genius! (we always do!)

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Happy stamping!!