May 5, 2017

Stormy Weather

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques 2017, As You See It, card, challenge, framelits, photopolymer, sketch, Stampin' Up, technique, umbrella weather, weather together 4 Comments

Hi all. It was pretty hot here today. It almost felt like summer! We have an amazing thunder and lightening storm this evening. Crazy!

It’s that time again for a card designed for the As You See It Challenge blog. Here’s the sketch:

My card has an umbrella and two clouds in place of the balloon images in the sketch. I used the Weather Together Stamp set and the Umbrella Weather framelits from Stampin’ Up!

I’m actually not going to go into detail about this card, but will just share a couple elements with you. I started with a piece of the not yet available Wood Texture Designer Series Paper stack. It is a very light, almost white wood pattern that I sponged with Soft Sky ink using the Sponge Brayer, just to make it a little less stark.

The rounded corners framing the wood texture patterned paper was created by using my Layering Circles and Layering Squares framelits with my Big Shot. I simply chose one circle framelit and one square framelit that were close to the same size. Then I cut out first, the square from a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock. Then I lay the circle framelit over the newly cut square piece of cardstock, dead center. Then I ran it through the Big Shot again, so that the circle cut off the corners of the square, giving me four corners to adhere in the corners of the woodgrain patterned paper.

The card base is Pumpkin Pie cardstock. I used a thin matte layer of Soft Sky cardstock and another layer of Crumb Cake cardstock.

I am IN LOVE with the Wood Texture Designer Series Paper stack! I can’t wait until all my customers can buy it when the new catalogue comes out in June!!

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April 21, 2017

Watercolour Birch Trees

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques As You See It, colour challenge, watercolor, woodland folder 0 Comments

Welcome all who are faithful followers and all who wandered over here by chance. I hope you enjoy your stay!

I admit to scrambling for this As You See It Challenge. I missed telling you all about the challenge two weeks ago – card made, but blog neglected. That’s how it goes sometimes when your Stampin’ Up life takes a back seat to your family life. As it should. Family first.

I did not want to disappoint you this time (or let myself down again). My card was created very last minute and I am writing this post at 5:30 am, scrambling to complete it for the 6am deadline. (I’m already 15 minutes late!). I was actually a little bit grateful to my husband last night who started watching Monty Python’s “And Now for Something Completely Different” with my 13 year old son when I had already said I would spend time with my son watching Merlin on Netflix. They got caught up in the hilarity of their show (I even had to pause to watch a bit), so I took advantage of my sudden free time and used scraps from a class to create my card for this colour challenge from the As You See It Challenge Blog.

I love the Woodland Embossing Folder from Stampin’ Up! It is one that I use over and over again. I just recently discovered how easy it is to watercolour around the embossed edges of the paper. This is what my scraps from my last class look like combined with this colour challenge:

Pretty pretty pretty!! I think I’m in love!

With my Woodland Embossing folder and the Big Shot, I embossed the trees on a 2-1/2″ square piece of Watercolor Paper from Stampin’ Up! Then I used my Aqua Painter and picked up ink from my ink pads (Pink Pirouette, So Saffron, and Garden Green) and coloured between the trees, careful to stay within the guidelines that the embossed edges provided. Once I was happy with my blended background, the trees looked too plain, so I dipped my Stampin’ Up Aqua Painter into some Tip Top Taupe ink and accented the birch bark. With some watered-down Tip Top Taupe ink, I then washed some shading on the right side of the tree trunks to give them some dimension.

Once I was happy with my final result, I allowed the watercolouring to dry. Then I used the Clear Wink of Stella to create some shimmery splatter among the trees by tapping the brush over my finger above the paper. Glorious!!

The rest was just like we did in my class the night before: I used the blade of my Paper Snips from Stampin’ Up to texture the edges of the Watercolor Paper. This is an old technique that I haven’t used in quite a while. I think it creates a nice contrast to the smooth white background on this card.

Assembly was easy after that. Adhere the 2-5/8″ square piece of Pink Pirouette cardstock to the top middle of the 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Whisper White cardstock. Stamp the sentiment from the Weather Together stamp set below and to the right of the pink square using Garden Green ink. Wrap Linen Thread around the cardstock and tie a bow to the left of the pink square. Adhere the watercoloured piece to the Pink Pirouette square using Stampin’ Up Dimensionals. Finally, use Stampin’ Up Dimensionals again to adhere the entire assembly of layers to the Thick Whisper White card base.

VOILA! A lovely card that I will be proud to give to someone to thank them for putting up with my inconsistencies and blunders!

Seriously, thank you for continuing to come back even after I forget to post each week 🙂

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March 24, 2017

April Showers

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques 2017, As You See It, card, challenge, framelits, love you lots, photopolymer, Stampin' Up, technique, watercolour, woodland folder 2 Comments

What do you get when you combine the Woodland Embossing folder, Watercolor Paper and the Watercolor Pencils from Stampin’ Up? Well, scroll on, crafty friends, and find out!!

The As You See It Challenge Blog has a new challenge every two weeks. Sometimes it’s a sketch or a colour combination. Sometimes it’s an assortment challenge or a theme challenge. This one is a fill in the blank challenge! Whoohoo!!

Though autumn is my favourite season, there is something about every season that I love and there is no season that I dislike. Although, of all the months of the year, I dislike February the most. By the time February comes around, I’m very “done” with winter. February is so dreary and dirty as the snow starts to disappear and the dirt and brown grass becomes exposed. Yuck!

But usually, part way through March and moving into April, we start to see more sunshine and the green leaves of spring bulbs show signs of life and renewal. Soon the colours of spring begin to appear. But it’s the spring rain, that I love the most. It’s the rain that helps wash the old winter dirt away and makes the plants grow and become green again. It’s the rain that makes the earth smell so vibrant, so fresh!

So, for this challenge, I focused on the rain and the colours of spring.

The beautiful background with the Woodland Embossing folder was inspired by my lovely friend and adopted team leader. She showed me how she used the de-bossed side of the paper (where the trees were indented rather than raised) and coloured the indented tree images with her Watercolor Pencils from Stampin’ Up. Once coloured, she used a Stampin’ Up Aqua Painter to blend the colour with water. It was so pretty, I had to try it! I love the look, don’t you!!?

I added a touch of the Clear Wink of Stella on the right side of each tree trunk to indicate the glimmer of rain in the spring sunshine. The Clear Wink of Stella spatter over the Watercolor Paper also makes me think of raindrops sparkling in the sun.

The rest of the card is all about layers and paper cutting, really.

The ladybug duo is from the Lots of Love Hostess set. I stamped them on Watermelon Wonder cardstock with Jet Black Stazon ink and used the Real Red Watercolor Pencil and a Blender Pen to the outer edges of each ladybug. Then I fussy-cut around their bodies (cutting off their arms, legs, and antlers … I mean antennae). I drew in their arms and legs with my Project Life Pen afterward.

The umbrella canopy image was stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black ink on Daffodil Delight cardstock and the handle image on Smoky Slate cardstock. Both were die cut with the coordinating Umbrella Weather Framelits.

The sentiment is from the Love You Lots Hostess stamp set and is stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black ink on the Bermuda Bay cardstock.

As for the rest: Basic Black cardstock for the card base. A layer of Basic Gray cardstock. A few Basic Rhinestones. And a flourish of looped Silver Metallic Thread.

Be sure to try the Watercolor Pencils with this Woodland Embossing folder. So pretty!!

Happy Spring!!

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