February 28, 2020

Painted Petal Label

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2019, 2019-2020 annual catalogue, 2020, As You See It, card, challenge, photopolymer, Stampin' Up, watercolour 0 Comments

The As You See It Challenge has a very pretty and fresh colour challenge for us today! I thought I would try using the beautiful Petal Label Dies from Stampin’ Up! along with some watercolouring to create my design..

Here’s the colour combo that inspired the card in today’s blog post.

Isn’t it a precious image! The little swan makes me think of the Christmas ornaments my mom made out of felt one year. She never made a swan, but she did make a little dove. I get a lot of my creativity from her, of course. Thanks mom!

I used the Petal Labels Dies and the Stitched Retangle Dies to cut the Watercolor Paper for my card front. I don’t think the 2019-2020 Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalogue gives the Path of Petals Bundle enough air time. It really is a gorgeous bundle and is only part of the Pressed Petals Suite by Stampin’ Up!. The entire suite is so stunningly beautiful, but I feel like it has been lost in the shadows of the many show-stopping suites in the catalogue. I want to give this one a little more attention! The Petal Labels Dies are delicate and beautiful. The Path of Petals Photopolymer stamp set has the most beautiful fonts for the most eloquent sentiments.

I chose to use a Thick Whisper White card base for this card. Let’s be honest here, I use Thick Whisper White A LOT for my card bases. It is so easy to just add a layer to a white base. I don’t need to do anything fancy to the inside and it makes such a clean and crisp card every time! I struggle to use coloured cardstock for my card bases. I think I need to try to branch away from that a bit. Maybe, I’ll try Very Vanilla. LOL!

With an Aqua Painter and my three ink colours, Mango Melody, Grapefruit Grove, and Poppy Parade, I added colour to the floral edge of the oval die cut watercolour paper. I started with the lightest colour first, then worked up to the darkest colour. I was careful to colour only the floral shapes, trying to keep a clean edge so the oval area would remain defined.

To some of the fronds, I added black sequins from the Peaceful Poppies Sequins pack using Glue Dots to hold them in place.

On a separate piece of Whisper White cardstock, I stamped the beautiful sentiment from the Path of Petals Photopolymer stamp set using Tuxedo Black Momento Ink. I did stamp it a little bit crooked, but that’s why I did it on a separate piece rather than stamping it directly on the card base!! (I’m smart like that, LOL!). I adhered it (with the sentiment straight) to the water coloured, die cut layer using Stampin’ Dimensionals. I needed to do some trimming with my Paper Snips (since the Whisper White layer was now sticking out, crooked, under the die cut layer), then I was ready to attach those two layers to my card base using my trusty Multipurpose Liquid Glue.

Now it’s your turn. Get into your craft supplies and make a card using these colours (or colours as close to these as you can get). This is an opportunity for you to get creative and use this colour challenge as a jumping off point. Sometimes, you just don’t know where you might land!! Don’t forget to share your finished card on a public internet site (Pinterest, public Facebook Page, public Instagram page, Flicker, Splitcoast Stampers, your blog, etc), then share it with us on the As You See It Challenge Blog! We love to see what you’re creative brain does with the challenges.

As always, if you like any of these products, head on over to my Online Store and get them into your shopping cart! Stampin’ Up! makes it easy to create beautiful things!

If you’re outside of Canada, you can’t legally shop from me, but I hope you will continue to visit. Don’t forget to comment and let me know that you did!!

January 4, 2020

New Year’s Resolutions

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute, Techniques 2020, block stamping, card, do the impossible, markers, occasions, quick and cute, watercolor wash, watercolour 0 Comments

I know, I know, nobody really takes New Year’s Resolutions seriously these days. The problem is that we are all gungho to make change and be better, but we often don’t have a plan to make those changes stick. I don’t have the answer for that problem. I can barely stick to a plan in a day, let alone stick to one for a year! I keep trying to find that thing that will turn on the part of my brain that gives me discipline and perseverance. I’ll let you know if I ever do.

In the meantime, I feel like we have to keep trying. Where would we be if we just stopped trying to be better. Nobody would invent things, nobody would make new discoveries, and we probably wouldn’t have any stamps!!! It would be disaster!

I don’t have any official New Year’s Resolutions, but I do know that I will continue to push to be healthy, to be more organised, to spend less time on the internet and more time with my kids, to declutter my house, and to share more of my love of stamping. There are a lot of things that I am always working on. I don’t know that I want to focus on just one thing. And it certainly doesn’t have to be decided for my whole year.

Being healthy is important to me and that’s why I’m drawn to the Do the Impossible stamp set in the new catalogue. I also have some athletes in my life that I can make cards for, using this stamp set.

If you were on my blog yesterday, you would have seen this set altered for a card I designed to give to my niece. That card was pretty involved and shows how making your own cards allows you to personalize it to the recipient. I wanted to show you another design with the same stamp that you can easily replicate. (Because not everyone wants to lay down all that extra ink or even knows what cross-country skiing is!)

The fanciest part of this card is the colour wash background behind the joggers. If you want to see that technique in a Facebook Live video by clicking HERE.

If you don’t want to get caught in the Facebook vortex, the technique involves applying ink with Stampin’ Write Markers to an acrylic block, spritzing it with water using your Stampin’ Spritzer, then “stamping” that colour onto your watercolour paper with the block as your stamp. You might need to blot off some excess water to take control of the look you’re going for, then let the colour wash fully dry before carrying on with the rest of your card.

The rest is simple stamping. Here’s the supply list: Sahara Sand cardstock, Peaceful Poppies Designer Series Paper, Whisper White cardstock, Watercolor Paper, Daffodil Delight Stampin’ Write Marker, Crumb Cake Stampin’ Write Marker, Coastal Cabana Stampin’ Write Marker, Stampin’ Spritzer, Clear Block E, Daffodil Delight cardstock, Jet Black Stazon Ink, Do the Impossible stamp set, Black Stampin’ Mini Dimensionals.

Do you have a New Year’s Resolution? I hope it involves stamping. You know that if you’re in Canada, you can order all you stamping and paper crafting supplies from my Online Store, right!? And that there’s a bunch of new products AND it’s time for Sale-a-bration when you get free stuff just by purchasing stuff that you were already going to get anyway!! How awesome is that!! Go to my ONLINE STORE and have a look!

January 3, 2020

Do the Impossible

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2020, alter it, card, challenge, do the impossible, markers, masking, woodland folder 2 Comments

My niece is a competitive cross-country skier and has qualified to compete in the Biathlon World Youth Championships in Switzerland this month! Her entire family (my brother, his wife, and the two daughters) all compete in biathlon. I think they’re a little crazy, but I am crazy proud of all of them and their determination and discipline to compete.

The card I made for today’s blog post is for my niece for her birthday (shhh, it isn’t until February). I am so pleased with how I was able to use an image of a jogger and make it look like a skier with a little extra simple drawing skills.

I had this As You See It Challenge to get me started:

For my card, I used the “Do the Impossible” stamp set from Stampin’ Up! One of the images is of two people jogging together. I inked up only the one with the long hair and stamped on Smoky Slate cardstock with Tuxedo Black Momento ink. Then I used a Basic Gray Stampin’ Write Marker to carefully draw in the lines for ski poles and skis. The skis were a bit difficult to get the angle right, but I think it came together. This sketch-style image makes it very forgiving to add to the image like this.

I coloured her ski suit with the Poppy Parade Stampin’ Write marker, trying to make it look like her Canadian racing suit. I even wrote “Canada” on the lower leg, just like the suit has (I thought that was pretty clever, LOL!).

I gave her a headband to keep her ears warm by using that Basic Grey Stampin’ Write Marker again. I used it for her gloves, boots, and some detail on her skis as well. I coloured her hair with a So Saffron Stampin’ Write Marker, but I coloured her face and neck with the Ivory Blends Marker, adding a touch of colour with the Light Petal Pink Blends Marker.

To create the snowy background behind my skier, I stamped the image again on a sticky note and fussy cut it so I could place it over my image to use as a mask. Then I tore a piece of cardstock and lay it over the upper part of my skier and sponged Craft White ink. Then I added a bit more light sponging of the Craft White to the edges of the Smokey Slate cardstock. I stamped the snowflake image from the “Colorful Seasons” stamp set with Craft White ink. The snowflake sequins are from the October 2019 Paper Pumpkin kit!

The rest of the card is pretty self explanatory. I sponged a bit of Craft White ink on one side of a strip of Real Red cardstock before stamping the sentiment using Tuxedo Black Momento ink. Just to the left of that you can see my subtle peeking of silver paper – this is patterned paper from the Feels Like Frost Designer Series Paper pack (not available to purchase again until September). Behind all of this, I have a piece of Smoky Slate cardstock that was dry embossed with the Woodland Embossing Folder from Stampin’ Up! and matted with a thin matte of Basic Grey Cardstock on a Thick Whisper White card base.

And if you have ever seen my cards before, you KNOW I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to pop up some of these layers. Oh yes!!

This card layout could easily be simplified by taking out the extra drawing and the sponging. I think I might make another one with the two joggers from the original image in the Do the Impossible stamp set from Stampin’ Up! I’ll make sure I add a link to this post when I share it!

Now, stop looking at card ideas on the internet and go stamp something!! Why not try the challenge at the As You See It Challenge with us? Don’t forget to share it! We love to see your creations!!