October 19, 2018

Congrats on Greece

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques 2018, double slider, embossing paste, fancy fold, greece 2 Comments

Do I have a fancy card for you today!!

Here’s part of the inspiration from the As You See It Challenge blog:

The other part of my inspiration is my friend, hairdresser, and fellow Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator who earned the trip to GREECE!! She worked so hard this past year and SHE DID IT! I am amazed and wowed by her success and I have not yet made her a congratulations card.

So, to fill in the blanks, I need to say CONGRATS ON GREECE to SUSANNE! (sunnstampin.com)

It’s also very important that I put a shout out to the video where I found this amazing card design. Samantha Clayton at Mixed Up Craft on YouTube has a wonderful tutorial that I followed for the base and inner workings of this card. I loved her instructions and found her very easy to follow. I will post a link to her video at the bottom of this page so you can follow it as well.

I choose to change the measurements of the card so that it could fit (just) into a regular Stampin’ Up! envelope. My card is 4-1/4″ high instead of the 4-1/2″ high card that Samantha makes in her video.

Because my friend, Su, will be going on a trip to Greece, FOR FREE!, my card is Greece inspired. My husband and I went to Greece 18 years ago on our honeymoon and one of my favourite places was the island of Mykonos. I remember the maze of a town with the stone pathways, the white buildings, the blue doors, and the bright flowers in full bloom. I’m so excited that Su gets to go to that very town. She’ll love it!

One of the things I like about this card design, is that it has it’s own built in stand. I have made many cards similar to this one in the past, but they either had to be attached to a normal card front or they laid flat like a postcard. This stand is a fabulous idea.

The other VERY cool thing about this card is that the tabs on each side pull out to reveal MORE! I used Pacific Point cardstock for the base colour of this card. It’s not exactly “Greece Blue”, but I think it’s the closest one that Stampin’ Up! has. The door is created with images from the At Home With You stamp set and die cut with the coordinating At Home Framelits Dies. I used Embossing Paste and the brick pattern from the Pattern Party Decorative Masks to create the white walls on the card front. I used the same brick mask, but sponged Pacific Point ink through it onto the Whisper White cardstock. Then I sponged more Pacific Point ink over the edges of the cardstock. Those slide out panels also have stamped images which are no longer available. Stampin’ Up! statement of the heart is on the left panel, while the You Did It image is from a stamp set designed just for demonstrators.

The Lovely Lipstick cardstock flowers are cut using the Seasonal Layers Thinlits as is also the Shaded Spruce cardstock branch.

The door is cut from Pacific Point cardstock, but I also used my Night of Navy Stampin’ Blends to add a little depth to the surface of the door image.

If you are interested in knowing more about other specifics on this card, be sure to leave me a comment.

As promised, here is the link to Mixed Up Craft so you can see how this card is made.

September 7, 2018

Birthday Squirrel

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute 2018, As You See It, birthday, challenge, foxy friends 0 Comments

Though I’m excited to get back into routine after a wild summer, September is always a crazy time in my home. Every year, I seem to forget how stressful the start of school is for my kids (and therefore also for me!)

To add to the stress, my youngest daughter has her birthday right at the beginning of the month and we usually end up postponing her party so we can get invitations to her friends at school and give the parents time to settle into September a bit before having to jump in to the birthday scene! My card today is the design that she and I came up with for her party invitations.

As always, we started with the As You See It Challenge. The theme this time is “back to basics”.

I think Back to Basics with stamping means no fancy tools, just stamps, paper and ink! I remember when I first started stamping and what supplies I had. I didn’t have a Big Shot or dies. I didn’t even have any punches, yet! I stamped at the dining room table into the wee hours of the night while my new baby rocked in her swing and my toddler was asleep in his crib.

Ah. Good memories!

My 10 year old daughter loves the Foxy Friends stamp set. She requested the squirrel image and the wood stump for her invitations. I stamped the squirrel with Crumb Cake ink and his little face was stamped with Soft Suede ink. I then created a mask using a sticky note so that I could stamp the stump to make it appear as though the squirrel is on the stump. To do that, I stamped the squirrel image on the sticky note and trimmed around the image. Then I placed it precisely over my good squirrel image. With the sticky note in place, I used Soft Suede ink to stamp the stump image to overlap the bottom of the squirrel image. Then I removed the sticky note mask and VOILA!, I had a squirrel sitting on a stump!

Just for fun, I decided to trim down the paper around the squirrel. I used my Stampin’ Up paper trimmer as far as it could go without cutting off the tip of my squirrel’s tail, then I fussy cut around it.

Linen thread is tied in a lovely bow around the top of the Whisper White banner. The banner bottom was hand trimmed with my Paper Snips. The little heart was stamped with Real Red ink and hand cut before placing it in the little squirrel’s hands (paws) with a piece of a Stampin’ Dimensional. The banner was then attached to the Soft Sea Foam card base with more Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Here’s the inside of the invitations. Of course, I still need to add the when and where for the party, but at least we are a few steps closer to getting these invitations to her friends next week.

July 27, 2018

Letter Board Card

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques, tutorial 2018, As You See It, card, challenge, coffee cafe, easel card, frame, make a difference, technique, tutorial 2 Comments

What are you obsessed with? That is the challenge for the As You See It Challenge blog this round. I actually had to do some soul searching to figure out if I was obsessed with anything in the first place, then determine which of the many obsessions I discovered I have was worthy of a card design.Here are some items that I had on my list:

Fitness (running, cycling, hiking, strength, endurance)
Wine
Outdoors (nature, sunshine, peace, escape)
Doctor Who
Self-discovery (reflection, self-care, solitude, self-improvement, resilience)
Words (witty, inspirational, punny, jokes)
Coffee
My phone (this is actually an unhealthy obsession – I’m working on it … sort of)

There were a few others, but we’ll just stop there.

I thought more specifically about my obsession with words and realized that it has become focused on letter boards. Have you seen any letter board images on Pinterest or Instagram? They seem to be the latest thing and have definitely caught my attention. I don’t have my own letter board, but it is on my Christmas wish list! How fun to create sayings that suit your mood or your current state of mind. Or maybe some words that reflect how you want to feel or think?

Here’s my card, inspired by the latest As You See It challenge:I chose to try to create my own letter board card with a funny saying I found on Pinterest. Conveniently, the saying also allows me to bring in another obsession I have – coffee. LOL!

Most letter boards have black felt backgrounds with white lettering. I have seen others that are grey, some that are white with black letters, and even pink ones with white letters.

I started with trying to create the appearance of a letter board first. For that, I used a black journaling pen and a ruler and drew lines across the Basic Grey cardstock.The letters used are from the Make a Difference stamp set from Stampin’ Up! It required some finesse to get them all straight – not an easy task and definitely the most time consuming part of this design.

The Embossing Buddy was an absolute must for all this embossing!!

I did one line at a time, wiping my cardstock with the Embossing Buddy, stamping the letters in Versamark ink, sprinkling with White Embossing Powder, tapping off the excess, then heat setting the powder with the Heat Tool. One line. Then I would take out my Embossing Buddy and start the process again with the next line. Eventually, I realized if I placed a piece of washi tape on my block, it made it a bit easier to get my words straight. It was challenging to create the words with appropriate spaces for any letters that I needed more than one of, then add any missing letters afterward.The next thing to do was to create a frame for my letter board. Many of the boards I’ve seen have a simple natural light-coloured wood frame. Thankfully, Stampin’ Up! has just the right paper with lots of wood patterns to choose from! The Wood Textures Designer Series paper is one of my favourites and it is included in the Buy 3, Get One Free offer for paper packs now until the end of July.To create the look of a frame, I cut the desired length of paper for the size of frame I wanted. Two pieces cut at 5-1/2″ and two pieces cut at 4-1/4″. I made each piece 9/16th wide so that I could keep a black matte visible around my 3″ x 4-1/4″ letter board cardstock. I wanted to create the appearance of mitered corners, so I held two strips of the Wood Texture paper together and cut from the inner corner to the outer corner with my Paper Snips.

I really only needed to trim one end of each of the strips of paper. That way the angled end of one strip of the frame could overlap the straight cut end of the same corner. This allows for a nice clean corner that looks like a well-glued mitered wood frame. The strips were attached using Stampin’ Up Dimensionals to give a three dimensional appearance, just like an actual frame.

The thing that really makes this design work, is making it an easel card. If you’ve never made an easel card, be sure to google it and find a quick tutorial. It is a super easy thing to do.

My card base is made with Basic Black Cardstock. I used a piece of Whisper White cardstock as a layer inside the card as a blank canvas on which to create the lower portion of the easel design. For this, the Coffee Cafe stamp set and coordinating thinlits from Stampin’ Up! were the perfect choice! I also used an image from the Timeless Textures stamp set from Stampin’ Up! that looks like a coffee cup stain.

To prop up the front of the easel well, I made sure to add extra loft to the lid of the coffee cup with a piece of Adhesive Foam Strips. Additional Stampin’ Up! products used include: Leaf Punch, Solid Black Bakers Twine, 5/8″ Burlap Ribbon, Mossy Meadow cardstock, Garden Green cardstock, Crumb Cake cardstock, Stampin’ Sponges, Tranquil Tide ink (sponged on the Garden Green leaves and the Mossy Meadow paper strip), Crumb Cake ink (for the coffee stain image and sponging around the coffee cup, lid, and sleeve), Tuxedo Black Momento ink (for stamping the coffee happens sentiment, coffee beans, and coffee cup lid).Now it’s your turn. What are YOU obsessed with? Share it on the As You See It Challenge blog as a card design and/or leave a comment on this blog post!