May 6, 2016

Cleverness with Vellum

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques As You See It, challenge, Stampin' Up, technique, vellum 4 Comments

Ah. It’s good to be back and have something to share. I hope you will be patient with me and my sporadic posts. I’m hoping to post at least every two weeks from now on, in line with the new As You See It Challenge schedule. I hope you will keep coming back to check things out.

Here’s the sketch for today’s challenge:

I decided to play this one up a bit and try a technique that I found online. I can’t for the life of me, remember who posted the tutorial that I followed to create this card, otherwise, I would have just posted a link to her video. If you know who, please say so in the comments. I have a simple picture tutorial to guide you through how this design is made. It’s pretty awesome!!

(June 2017 edit: One reader found the tutorial for me! It was Jennifer McGuire and you can find it by clicking here. Special thanks to Jessica G. for taking the time to share the link in the comments. <3 Thanks Jessica!)

Here’s my card:

I used Thick Whisper White Cardstock, Schoolhouse Designer Series Paper, and Cardstock Vellum with Whisper White Cardstock for the card base. Here’s a photo tutorial to show how you can create this kind of Cleverness with Vellum:

The Cardstock Vellum is scored 1″ from the top.

Use your Bone Folder to make that score line into a crisp fold, then adhere the 1″ flap to the wrong side of your Designer Series Paper (DSP). I like the look of a bright and bold DSP.

You will end up with the right side of your DSP looking like this, with the Vellum attached at the top.

Then you will attach a piece of cardstock (I used the Thick Whisper White) to the wrong side of your DSP. Not only will this give your cardbase more structure, but it will also hide the 1″ piece of Vellum and your adhesive marks.

The next step is to cut the top of your two Whisper White cardstock pieces. I cut them both at the same time so that they will match each other EXACTLY. Because the Whisper White Cardstock is so thin, the die cuts through both layers with ease.

To create the half circle shape at the top, place your circle framelit where you want it, then only have the top plate cover where you want the cut part to be. It won’t cut where there isn’t any pressure. Doing it on an angle like this is an option that makes the card playful and fun.

This is what it will look like when you take the two pieces of whisper white out. Keep them together for the next step, too.

Place the two pieces of Whisper White cardstock in your cutter, so that the ruler cutting area lines up with the ends of the half circle cut in your cardstock. You will use the sliding trimmer blade to cut one side, then the other, keeping the paper in place. Be sure to lift the blade in between, so you don’t cut the circle clean off!!

Now you will have two identical pieces to attach to your vellum on the card front! The cleverness ensues!!

It’s easy to attach the two cut Whisper White pieces. Just apply adhesive to the front of one, hold the Vellum up and out of the way while you lay your piece over the patterned paper piece (adhesive side up!). Then lay the Vellum layer down flat over it. Then you can stamp and washi tape your other piece before adhering it over top to create a vellum sandwich.

The stamp set used here is the Feel Goods set. Sadly, it is retiring at the end of May, so if you love it, GET IT!

The washi tape at the bottom of the card is from the “This is the Life” Project Life kit from Stampin’ Up! This is on the retiring list as well AND is on sale.

Now that you’ve read through this tutorial and know how to make the bones of this card, try it out and see what you can create. I added a bit of flourish with a Gold Basic Metal Button (retiring), Black Baker’s Twine, Gold Metallic Thread, and two die cut leaves using the Rose Garden Thinlits: one cut from Vellum Cardstock, the other cut from Tangelo Twist Cardstock.

Be sure to check out the other cards created by our Design Team over at the As You See It Challenge Blog. And now there are no excuses, you have two whole weeks to participate in the challenge – hey, you could even submit more than one!

You can also click on the SHOP NOW button on this website to see what else is on the retiring list.

Stamp happy

&

don’t let your busy life

interfere with your creative living!

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April 8, 2016

Happy Birthday Pop-up

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques As You See It, card, challenge, Gorgeous Grunge, pop-up, technique, thinlits 0 Comments

This week’s As You See It Challenge is an assortment challenge! Check it out!

I wanted to use the Party Pop-Up thinlits this week. I love how easy it is to make a cool pop-up card with these! So fun!

The outside of the card is simple layering, but I used a partial die cutting technique to only cut part of the Happy Birthday die for the front of the card. Sorry, I don’t have a tutorial for you (yet). The striped washi tape at the bottom of this card is from the “This is the Life” Project Life Accessory pack. It almost looks like the paper has been cut out!

I used Lost Lagoon cardstock from the 2014-16 In Colors, which are retiring at the end of May! (Oh, how I will mourn for the loss of Blackberry Bliss!)

Soft Sky and Basic Black Cardstock along with stars of Gold Glimmer, Gold Foil paper, some Gold Sequins, and a splash of Gold Metallic Thread, adorn the front. I used Archival Black ink with the spatter from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set. In fact, this is the ONLY stamping I did on this card.

I kept the inside simple with Whisper White cardstock and a few stars. This way, there is lots of room to write, if you need it.

Super cute, super fun, and super easy!

If you don’t have these Party Pop-Up Thinlits dies, you should get them!

And get some stamping done this week! Play along with the challenge and stretch your creative mojo!

March 12, 2016

Pedal Pusher Reflection

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques As You See It, card, challenge, embossing, markers, masking, photopolymer, SAB2016, Stampin' Up, technique 5 Comments

Life is full of re-evaluations, reflection, and adaptation. I am smack dab in the middle of all of that as I try to figure out the priorities and values in my life. Sometimes, my stamping has to take the back burner while my family or other adventures take over. I want to learn how to play the guitar, I want to sew more, I want to be more active – these things will take some of my time, but I still want to stamp. I’ve been less consistent on my blog because of my ventures in life and I can’t be sure how each week will look for me on my blog. However, today, I do have a card to share with you!

I started with these beautiful bright happy and inspiring colours from the As You See It Challenge blog.

I love all of the Sale-a-bration free products from Stampin Up! The stamp set that I used for this card is one of the more recent stamp sets you can now get for free with a $60 purchase. It’s adorable and perfect for this happy spring colour challenge!

Don’t you just love these colours!! I was so excited to learn that the Stampin Up Silicone Craft Mat can also be used as a surface to transfer a reflected image on a project. All I had to do was stamp the image on the silicone mat with Jet Black Momento ink, then huff on the stamped image, turn the Silicone Craft Mat over, line it up with my original image on my page, then press the Silicone Craft Mat on the cardstock to transfer the image! It worked like a charm! It’s important to use a water-based ink like the Momento Black so that it won’t dry too fast before you can position it AND so it will not leave a permanent image on your Silicone Mat.

I coloured my original image (it was stamped with Archival Black ink) using my Stampin’ Write Markers. As I often do, I used Smoky Slate to do an outling of my image as it adds a shading that makes the image pop a bit on the page – it doesn’t look so flat that way. The reflection image was coloured using a Blender Pen and the same colours on the main image so that the colours would be faded in the reflection in the sand.

I chose this small “thinking of you” sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set from Stampin’ Up for two reasons: first, because I wanted something small and simple so it wouldn’t take away from the rest of the card; second, because I was commissioned to create some “thinking of you” cards for my husband’s co-worker. A bicycle for two represents teamwork, so if you don’t have one of the cyclists, it would be harder to pedal. I think it’s a great analogy to working together, don’t you?

The sentiment is stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with White Embossing powder and my Heat Tool. The twine is from the Baker’s Twine Combo pack. I just separated the black strands from the Melon Mambo strands and voila! A whole new look!

Some of you might be wondering where the Cucumber Crush diagonal stripes came from. Well, I actually was a bit wasteful with my paper and took the horizontal striped paper from the 2015-2017 In Color Envelope Paper and cut out what I needed on a diagonal. I love the look! I’m sure I can get use out of the scraps, anyway!

I know I didn’t touch on all of the elements of this card, but I think I covered a lot. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! I’m happy to tell you more!

If you love this stamp set as much as I do, just click on my SHOP button on this page and order product that you know you want anyway, so you can choose this stamp set for FREE! Just $60 and this set or any other Sale-a-bration set can be yours! Who doesn’t love free stuff!