June 26, 2015

Celebrate it!

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, card, challenge, embossing, masking, motivation, Stampin' Up, timeless elegance 1 Comment

Welcome to my blog where I have the privilege to share my love of designing with Stampin’ Up products. Check out the beautiful Timeless Elegance designer series paper on this inspiring card for today’s project.

This card began with As You See It Challenge #093:

This card is to celebrate achievement that comes from hard work and perseverance, but also from turning your dreams into plans.

While designing it, I was thinking of goal-setting and the chaos of a summer schedule now that the kids are out of school. I’m not great with goals, but I REALLY want to be. Goals have the potential to give me the focus I need to accomplish things that are important to me, my family, my business, and my day job. The crazy summer months with scheduling child care, juggling my work schedule so that either my husband or I are home with the kids as much as possible, getting as much camping in as possible, and keeping my stamping friends creating even through their own busy summers, all makes goal-setting even more of a priority.

My husband refers to this sort of planning as “sharpening your axe”. Apparently it was Abraham Lincoln who used this phrase:

We need to take the time to reflect on habits in our past and determine where improvement needs to take place. This can be prioritizing, goal-setting, planning, scheduling, reflecting, learning, gathering supplies, and even just taking a break to refresh ourselves. It can be hard to take the time for these things when our lives are busy, but this is when it is even more essential. Without “sharpening your axe”, you are likely to be less efficient, less effective, less productive, and more likely to burn out or become overwhelmed.

So one of my goals this summer is to start each week with some quiet time where I can sit down and sharpen my axe. It will start with a basic to do list, then prioritizing, planning and scheduling. With a flexible plan (you always need to allow wiggle room to foster relationships), I can have a great summer and start some new habits. And, feel successful in my accomplishments.I hope to be able to read this statement at the end of the summer and glow a little bit, knowing that it applies to me!

As for the details on this one:

Basic Black, Very Vanilla and Blushing Bride cardstock were used for the colour combination. I love the Timeless Elegance Designer paper – soo pretty. The strip of Blushing Bride Cardstock across the front of the card is embossed using the Boho Embossing folder and the Big Shot machine. I sponged Blushing Bride ink around the edges of the piece so that the embossing would “pop” that much more. The Venetian Crochet Trim is just peeking out under that strip of embossed cardstock for an added touch. I chose Basic Black, Blushing Bride, and a small piece from the Typeset Specialty Designer paper to create the little 5/8″ wide little banners. The Banner Punch comes in handy to snip perfect little banner ends.

The sentiment is one of my favourites from the Feel Good stamp set. I stamped it using Jet Black Stazon ink on the Very Vanilla cardstock. It was cut into a circle using the Big Shot and Circle Framelits. To add a light sponging of Blushing Bride ink, I left the framelit in place and used a Sponge Dauber in gentle circular motions. This leaves a subtle, but effective, thin outline on your die cut shape.

Of course, most of my cards are not complete without using Stampin’ Dimensionals somewhere! I used them to raise up the Blushing Bride mat on the Basic Black card base. I also used them under the circle shape with the sentiment.

What do you think? Is this a card that I can give you at the end of the summer? How will you sharpen your axe so you can reach your goals?

Amy

June 19, 2015

11 Year Old Birthday

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, card, challenge, embossing, markers, masculine, Stampin' Up 0 Comments

The Big News stamp set from Stampin’ Up! is a great choice for an 11 year old boy. My son has a TONNE of birthday parties scheduled for these last days of the school year and that means I have boys on the brain!!

Here’s the As You See It Challenge sketch this week:

And the card I designed:

I used my new Whisper White thick cardstock for the base of this card and let me tell you – it is AWESOME!! This paper holds it’s shape so beautifully for a very professional finish. I’m so glad that Stampin’ Up! decided to offer it.

I heat set the Gold Embossing powder for the sentiment on this card. Cherry on Top Designer Series Paper was used as the colour inspiration as I pulled out the Cucumber Crush, Bermuda Bay and the yellow (but instead of Crushed Curry, I wanted to use the brighter Daffodil Delight for my candles).

I REALLY wanted to put a ribbon somewhere, but as my intent was to create a more masculine card design, I withheld!

My favourite part about this design is the candles. I stamped them very close together in Jet Black Stazon ink in groups of four so I could cross the fifth one over them (fussy cut and on pieces of Stampin’ Dimensionals) to complete the counting in groups of fives. They are coloured with Stampin’ Write Markers in Bermuda Bay and Cucumber Crush with Daffodil Delight for the stars. I also used a Sponge Dauber with Daffodil Delight ink to create the glow around each star.

I like glowing. Glowing is good.

I also like to hear about you. What are your tricks to creating a masculine card? Ribbon? Colours? Styles?

Leave a comment in my “reply” section and tell me what you know!

Amy

June 12, 2015

Thanks a Melon!

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2015, alphabet rotary stamp, As You See It, card, challenge, quick and cute, Stampin' Up 1 Comment

A summer-themed watermelon card using the Alphabet Rotary stamp to create a play on words. How convenient that Stampin’ Up has the perfect colour, Watermelon Wonder, to make this cute design!

Here’s the sketch for this week’s As You See It Challenge #91:

I was short on time this week, but my design came together super fast! (this is a very rare occurrence, believe me!!). The most time-consuming part was to try to think of a cute saying that worked in watermelons or seeds, or even spitting! You never know what you might find on the internet!

Basic Black was used for the card base over which is a layer of Watermelon Wonder cardstock and Cucumber Crush cardstock using Stampin’ Up Dimensionals. A piece of Whisper White Organza ribbon covers the seam where the two colours meet and is simply wrapped around the back and secured with Tear Tape (a new product from Stampin’ Up!). A second piece of the Organza ribbon is tied in a single knot around the first piece of ribbon to create a faux bow.

Originally, I was going to use my Tree Builder Punch to create the watermelon seeds. However, I completely forgot that I loaned it out, so I used a black permanent marker on some Basic Pearls and placed them with “careful randomness” (pretty sure that’s an oxymoron, lol!). I think the pearls are actually the better choice as they add some texture and dimension to the card, while the water drop part of the Tree Builder Punch would have only created flat black seeds – much less interesting. A win for me!

Before putting it all together, the 1 3/4 inch Scallop Circle punch was used to create the bite out of the top of my card. Then, very carefully, the sentiment was added using the Alphabet Rotary Stamp with Jet Black Stazon Ink. There is coordinating ink sponged around the edges of the two pieces of coloured cardstock to bring some extra richness – kind of like creating a vignette border around the card. This can help pull the eye into the center of your artwork.

You can see other designs that use this sketch by going to the As You See It Challenge blog where you can also link the project that you make with this sketch! I hope you do! It’s amazing to me how much variety can develop from the same starting point.

Glad you stopped by!

Amy