November 20, 2020

Purple for Christmas

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas, Techniques 2020, As You See It, aysi, Christmas, markers, Stampin' Up, watercolor, watercolour 0 Comments

We all have our go-to colours. The ones we know will lead us with a devout certainty to creating something beautiful. My colours are often blues and greens with soft neutrals and white to pull it all together. Those are my loyal colours. I trust them. I know what to expect from them. I know who they play nicely with.

But there are a few colours who aren’t trustworthy. They are the trouble-makers. They only want to play with very specific friends and become irritating when they are around any others. This is how I feel about purple. Not all purples wreak havoc, but most do. Currently, the worst of these hooligans is a colour called Gorgeous Grape. The purplest of all the purples. The worst of the worst.

You might want to defend purple in this moment, saying purple has been a comfort to you. Perhaps you would rather point your finger at orange instead. (how dare you! LOL!)

I think we all have an offending colour that we avoid using in our self-expression. We use what inspires us and makes us feel happy. It’s amazing how powerful a colour can be!

This brings me to announcing the fill in the blank challenge from the As You See It Challenge blog for which I have the pleasure of being a designer: The colour I avoid using most is _____.

Oof! This was a tough one. I really struggle with using purple in my card-making. It doesn’t inspire me and I only feel safe pairing it with gray and white. Well, I decided that this was my chance to play with it and give it a respectful effort. I would bring purple and “not gray” together. I didn’t really know what “not gray” was going to be, yet, but I was determined!

And you know what? I really like this card!

I started out with a piece of Feels Like Frost Designer Series Paper, which I sponged with Gorgeous Grape in an ombre from dark to light. I was off to a pretty safe start with purple and silver.

Next I stamped my little Christmas gnome from the Gnome for the Holidays stamp set on watercolor paper with Stazon Jet Black Ink and pulled out my set of Water Painters and got to water colouring my little bearded bearer of Christmas delight. I took my time and enjoyed the process of choosing my colours and waiting patiently for sections to dry so my colours wouldn’t bleed into one another. I even finished it off with some Wink of Stella to give my gnome image some holiday shimmer! Unfortunately, the Wink of Stella detail doesn’t show up well in these photos. You’ll have to take my word for it that it adds a an additional touch of whimsy.

I added even MORE purple to my design by using the dark Highland Heather Blends Marker to colour the Silver Metallic Edged Ribbon. I love how you can make any white ribbon coordinate with your paper using markers! You’ll notice where the ribbon is wrapped around the card, the lightly sponged designer series paper suddenly becomes a darkly sponged area. That was a simple chopping off the top of my sponged paper and moving it to the bottom. I did a lot of crazy thing to make this darn purple work for me, by golly!

I’m not going to get into all of the products and techniques I used to make this card. It’s pretty late and time to cozy up in my blankets and pillows. If you have any questions about products I used or how I did anything on this design, I’d be happy to have a conversation in the comments. Ask away!

I hope you’ll take on this challenge. I warn you, though. It’s not an easy challenge. Give yourself time to get to know the colour you’ve been avoiding. This is your opportunity to learn more about it, who it plays well with and who causes it to be nasty and miserable. Maybe, like me, you’ll be surprised what you’ve come up with.

I wonder if I’d like this card even more if I made it “not purple”

November 6, 2020

Framed Winter Scene

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Home Décor 2020, As You See It, aysi, challenge, Christmas, embossing, framed art, framelits, home decor, Stampin' Up, winter 3 Comments

I had the joy of my 14 year old daughter staying home with me on Wednesday for “take your kid to work day”. Basically, she got to stamp with me and I got to talk about what I love about Stampin’ Up! with her! It was a delight to work on this As You See It challenge together. I showed her how to use the Sponge Brayer to create a sunset sky and she thought it was very cool when I splattered water on the ink to create white spots that look like snow!

I was going to have her write part of this blog post, as she is quite the wordsmith, but we ran out of time. I’ll have to convince her to write for you another day.

Today’s challenge is a colour combination. I love pinks and greys together, so this was right up my creative alley!

I think these colours are stunning together! So soft and warm. I used the tree stamp from the Campology stamp set. I hadn’t used my new stamp set yet, so I was super excited to have the chance to break it in!

As you probably noticed, I decided that my sunset winter scene would be suitable as a framed piece of artwork. This would still make an amazing card, but I decided to create a 5×7″ art piece that I could display through the winter months.

I used my Sponge Brayer with Petal Pink and Flirty Flamingo ink to create the sunset sky. Then added some wisps of shadowy clouds with a sponge and some Basic Gray ink. I flicked water over this to create the falling snow effect. The trees from my Campology Stamp Set were stamped with Momento Black ink and the trunks were coloured in with a Light Basic Black Blends Marker.

I even added some additional white dots of snow using the Chalk Marker.

This sponged and stamped piece was layered over a thin matte of Whisper White and Basic Gray cardstock and adhered to the Whisper White/Plush Poinsettia Specialty Paper background with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The Petal Pink frame was cut using the Stitched Rectangle Dies and adhered to the Plush Poinsettia Specialty Paper with Foam Adhesive Strips so it would frame the winter scene.

The sentiment from the Itty Bitty Christmas stamp set was stamped on Basic Gray cardstock, then heat embossed with White Embossing Powder and my Heat Tool. I sponged Tuxedo Black Momento Ink over the sentiment to make that white embossing really pop! This was adhere to the front of my artwork with more Stampin’ Dimensionals over a swirl of Linen Thread that I placed on the left side of the sentiment.

The final touch was to tie a double finger bow with the White Crinkle Ribbon and attach it and the Glitter Star Ornament over the swirl of Linen Thread with Glue Dots.

I popped it in a frame over a photo of my son when he was a baby (he was so chubby and smiley!!). When winter is done, I’ll switch the artwork out and put my son’s chubby little grinning face back on display!

I love this colour combination! I think you should try it to and share it with us at the As You See It Challenge Blog! We love seeing your beautiful creations!

As always, you can purchase any of the Stampin’ Up! products that I feature here on my blog. Just click on the SHOP button on my website and see all the gorgeous supplies that Stampin’ Up! has to make your crafting experience the best it can be!

Stay safe and get crafty!!

October 9, 2020

The Beauty of Friendship

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute, Video 2020, butterflies, heat embossing, Speed challenge 0 Comments

I love speed challenges! They get my creative mojo flowing AND I get a card completed lickety-split!

This card came together in my mind really easily. Let me tell you, these used to be REALLY hard for me! The more I do them, the easier they seem to be. It’s such a great creative exercise. I highly recommend you give a speed challenge a try. If you don’t know how it works, you basically think about the card you want to make. Once you have a plan, you can gather your supplies together, but you CANNOT pre-cut any of your paper or ribbon before you start the clock. When you DO start the clock, you move with confidence until your card is complete. Stop the clock and record your time!

Sometimes, the finished product is a little bit lacking, but you will ALWAYS find that your creative brain has jumped into high gear and something about the card you made has inspired you to try it another way. I love how a speed challenge gets my creative mojo flowing freely!

The As You See It Challenge this time, is a Speed Stamping Challenge with a butterfly theme! You can check out what other people created for this challenge and also share your own design with us over at the As You See It Challenge blog.

I borrowed the Beauty Abounds stamp set from a friend for this challenge because I don’t have ANY butterfly stamps! Can you believe it!!?

I stamped the sentiment on the Whisper White cardstock with Tuxedo Black Momento ink, then stamped the bokeh circles with Balmy Blue ink and Granny Apple Green ink. The butterfly images were stamped with Versamark Ink, Gold Embossing Powder was applied and heat set with my Heat Tool.

I added a second layer of Whisper White behind this piece, partly to create a stiffer layer, but also to give a subtle layered look with the white on white edges.

Linen Thread was wrapped around the white layers and tied in a bow before attaching it to the Artistry Blooms Designer Series Paper and Crumb Cake cardstock card base with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

You can check out the video of this card that only took 9 minutes and 3 seconds to make. In our busy world, even 9 minutes can feel like a long time, so I sped the video up for you! LOL! You’re welcome!