January 9, 2015

Birdie Soiree

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques An Open Heart, As You See It, card, challenge, envelope punch board, floral framelits, Gold Soiree, Stampin' Up, technique 1 Comment

I’ve got what I call an uber-card for you today. Every now and then I get to make something fancy. This one is a 5×7″ retirement card designed for many people to say their well-wishes and farewells to someone who has brought meaning and inspiration to their lives and has earned the title “Retired”. A time where you get to live off of your savings and live out your golden years. I used Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper and my beloved An Open Heart stamp set from Stampin’ Up!

I decided to use a challenge sketch to find some inspiration and creative mojo to get this card going. This is the sketch I used:

When I make cards with multiple writing pages inside, I like to create the card with a 1/8″ to 1/4″ spine to allow for the extra bulk of the pages. This one started with a 7″x10.25″ piece of Soft Suede cardstock which I scored at 5″ and 5.25″ to make two folds for the book-like shape of the card base.

Unfortunately, I realize that none of the pictures taken of this card allow you to see the spine, but you can see the same extra depth added to the envelope beside the card in the photo above. The spine of the card is narrower, but this gives you an idea of what the spine would look like.

I chose to add some layers on the card base to frame the Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series paper (DSP). You have the base layer of Soft Suede, the second layer of Crisp Cantaloupe, another layer of Soft Suede, until the final matte of Whisper White cardstock to frame the geometric gold base of the artwork. This Gold Soiree Specialty DSP is very unique as it has a sheen and texture that is cool and smooth, a bit like plastic. It makes for a nice professional finish on your projects.

The bow was created using a fingertip double loop bow technique and the long tails were twisted into submission a bit at a time and strategically adhered with glue dots along the way.

Isn’t that bird from the An Open Heart stamp set cute? You can see that he was stamped twice, once in the center of the circle and again on a seperate piece of Whisper White cardstock from which he was carefully cut out with my Paper Snips (I didn’t cut out the legs, but relied on the legs from the first image). I coloured both birds, with more detail on the top layer, using my inks and blender pens. I chose Calypso Coral for the breast, Tangerine Tango for the beak and feet, and I carefully added a shadow outline with Sahara Sand and a blender pen. That little guy is raised up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.

To create the pages of this card, I cut two 6.75″x9.5″ pieces of Whisper White cardstock and scored and folded them to create two 6.75″x4.75″ inserts which were placed one inside the other and tied together at the “binding” with Whisper White bakers twine. I added a little bit of the 1/8″ gold ribbon for a simple embellishment. The back of the last page of this insert was adhered directly to the inside back of the card base, allowing it to be secure inside the card.

Due to the size of the card, a custom envelope was required. I used the matching Gold Soiree Specialty DSP and my Envelope Punch Board (which just so happens to be on sale this week!) to create a 3D envelope that is deep enough to fit the dimensions of my card. When I do custom envelope that are hand delivered rather than delivered by the postal service, I prefer to close the envelope with a belly band of paper rather than seal it with adhesive. It’s a bit of a prettier presentation, I think.

I hope you give the sketch this week a try and link your creations to As You See It Challenge #69. I love how your designs offer new inspirations each week!

Happy stamping!!

Amy

November 21, 2014

Winter Bird

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas An Open Heart, As You See It, aysi63, blendabilities, card, challenge, Christmas, Petite Pairs, Stampin' Up 0 Comments

Check out my design this week for the As You See It Challenge blog using An Open Heart stamp set from Stampin’ Up! I love the blended ombre effect in the winter background.

I was leery of the sketch this week. The small center square bugged me. But the funniest thing happens when I am lacking inspiration with a particular layout or colour scheme: I end up really liking the final product!

I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with for this one. I found it so challenging! I decided to use the little bird from the An Open Heart stamp set in place of that square. The snowflake sequins (which were too stark white, so I coloured them with my Light Coastal Cabana Blendability marker), are in place of the flowers on the As you See It layout above. The rest is eye candy for me! Techniques and fun! The stuff I thrive on!

I started with a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and began using sponge and ink to shade the evening sky background. I was inspired by an image I found on Pinterest for this colour scheme and I love it! With a sponge, from top to bottom, I applied Night of Navy, Island Indigo, and Bermuda Bay ink. Once I was satisfied with the saturation of colour, I added a touch of Momento Black to the very top edge to complete the look. The most bottom edge of the Very Vanilla cardstock was left un-inked and I tore the edge for a bit of texture detail.

Then I stamped the branch image from An Open Heart in Night of Navy ink. The pearls were coloured with the Medium Cherry Cobbler Blendability marker and added for the berries on the branch. I then decided to use my Chalk Marker to accent the buds on the end of the branch. The snowflakes were also coloured (as mentioned above) and adhered to the card with a small dab of Crystal Effects. The Merry Christmas sentiment is from the Petite Pairs stamp set and was stamped with Real Red ink.

The blue bird was stamped with Momento Black ink and coloured with Night of Navy and Coastal Cabana Blendability markers and a touch of Dazzling Details glitter was applied to the bird as though a wee bit of snow was glinting in the moonlight. His beak was coloured using a Tangerine Tango Stampin’ Write Marker. I cut out the bird with my Paper Snips and cut his little legs right off so he could be sitting all comfy-like on the branch. I also used my Project Life journaling pen to darken his beady little eye so it would have a little more life in it (a trick I learned in the watercolouring class I took last spring). That sweet little winter bird was then adhered to the cardstock with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

After wrapping the Cherry Cobbler Baker’s Twine around that layer of cardstock, I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to layer it over the thin mat of Very Vanilla Cardstock. This all was adhered to the Night of Navy card base which looked a little flat next to all that deep blue ink, so I added a bit of Night of Navy ink to the edges of the card base with a sponge.

What will you do with this sketch? I hope you’ll share it with us over at the As You See It Challenge blog!!

Amy.

August 29, 2014

They Call Me Mellow Yellow

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge An Open Heart, As You See It, card, challenge, Gorgeous Grunge, quick and cute, speed 1 Comment

Paper, ink, stamps and tools from Stampin’ Up! make me happy! Yellow makes me happy, too. Today’s project uses both!

We have a speed stamping challenge for you over at the As You See it Challenge blog! These timed challenges are tough, but I like that I can get a project done fast (though a little furious, sometimes). This time, it was fast, but mellow.

I decided to try to mimic a layout that I found on Pinterest for my card this week. I was actually pretty relaxed for this challenge. I planned it all out in my head, got everything ready and 9 minutes 11 seconds later, completed my card!

TIME: 9 minutes 11 seconds

My husband asked me “what are those vinyl records doing floating around the birds head?”, lol! I guess the photo doesn’t show that those are gold sequins. I could hand draw a few little musical notes in there, though. (Rockin’ Robin).

This card is simple and I like it. Hope you do too! The stamps are from An Open Heart stamp set. I used the Beach House Designer Washi Tape and Hello Honey cardstock that was cut with the Finishing Touches Edgelits to frame the right side of my bird. The bird and sentiment are stamped with Stazon Black ink and I coloured my bird with Hello Honey and Tangelo Twist using my Blender Pens. The splatter stamp from my Gorgeous Grunge stamp set was stamped on the Whisper White cardstock with Hello Honey ink.

If you think you’re up for the 10 minute speed challenge, go on over to the As you See It Challenge Blog and check out the details.

Amy.