As You See It

Lovely As A Tree Christmas

053headerI’m so glad you stopped by to check out my latest design for the As You See It Challenge Blog! Stampin’ Up makes designing easy and fun with their inks, stamps, paper, and tools. This week’s card was created for my Monthly Stampers Group.

I’m afraid my post will be short and sweet today. I’m writing this at 11PM on Thursday and am exhausted after a busy week. I hope you’ll be able to figure out the details of the design if my explanation is too brief! Just ask any questions you may have in the ‘reply’ section and I can give you more info if you need it.

Here’s the sketch challenge that I was working with:

075And here’s my Lovely As a Tree Christmas card:

053AmyColours include Lost Lagoon, Smoky Slate, Cherry Cobbler, and Silver Glimmer Paper. I used the Confetti Stars punch to show my Silver Glimmer paper. The sentiment is from the beautiful hostess exclusive set that is available with a minimum party total for FREE this month! It’s not too late to book your party!

053dimensionClose up shows off the Dazzling Details and the use of Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals to pop out the first and last panels. See that Washi Tape behind the ribbon? It’s from a beautiful selection of 5 rolls called All is Calm. And I LOVE the All is Calm Snowflake charm. So fun!

Don’t forget to play along at the As You See it Challenge Blog with this super cute sketch challenge!

Amy

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A Trip Around the Sun

052headerI’m excited to share with you my love of designing using Stampin’ Up stamps, paper, ink, and tools! I love playing with the Blendabilities and wish they were available in EVERY colour! Alas, I had to use my Classic Ink and a blender pen for some of this project. Colouring is therapeutic, though, no matter what tools you use!

I decided to combine the As You See It cqc257Challenge with another challenge this week. I loved the colours for Colour Q #257, so I thought I’d play along.

I sure do miss Lucky Limeade. It was my favourite green while it was available. Sadly, it has retired, so I used Old Olive instead.

As You See It Challenge #52 is a theme challenge!! You can use any colour you want, you can choose any layout you want, and you can make anything you want! Maybe use paper though, lol!

 

#52

Can you believe that the challenge blog has survived an entire trip around the sun?!! 52 weeks of challenges. One whole year of fun! YOWZAUZ!!

(that’s how you say “yowzers” with a poor British accent, in case you’re wondering, lol!)

I have to admit, I was not feeling the creative mojo for this challenge. I just couldn’t get started! I wanted to try to keep it simple, as everything seemed like too much effort. But one stamp on a single layer of paper was not going to get me by, lol! So I started with my colours and a stamp.

It’s funny how you can’t get going until you get started. After a couple of false starts, I was able to get into a groove and ended up with a decent card (actually, I quite like it!). Can I just say, as a reminder to myself, that this process isn’t unlike exercise. How often do you just not feel motivated to get going for a walk, or jog, or whatever. But if you get your running shoes on and get out the door, you find it’s not so bad after all and you actually feel pretty good about yourself once you’re done.

sigh.

guess I’ll strap on my shoes and get out the door tomorrow morning. Time to “just do it”.

052Amy

The one thing that I don’t like all that much with this card is the outlining that I did around the images with a Smoky Slate marker. In hindsight, I should have had a much lighter hand, or I should have used Sahara Sand for the shading. Not terrible, but something to remember for next time.

I used the Night of Navy Blendabilities for the large flower of the Bloom with Hope stamp set. I added some subtle touches of Bermuda Bay Stampin’ Write marker over top in some areas as well. The centre of the flower is mostly Old Olive, but it needed some highlights of Daffodil Delight in there as well. I used the Old Olive Blendabilities for the leaves, and painted the daisies with a Blender Pen and Strawberry Slush ink as there are no Strawberry Slush coloured Blendabilities.

The butterfly is stamped with Stazon Black ink on Bermuda Bay cardstock, punched out with the small butterfly punch, then sponged along the edges with Night of Navy ink. I added a bit of sparkle to that little guy as well. Just globbed on a small bit of Dazzling Details and smudged it around with my fingertip. There’s some glitter on the berries that you may be able to see in the photo below. No smudging for them, just a little dollop for each berry.

052dazzlingdetails

The sentiment from the Bloom with Hope stamp set is stamped on the strip of Whisper White cardstock with Jet Black Stazon ink and I flagged the end of the strip of paper by using my Banner punch.

My center piece of Whisper White cardstock has the opposing corners rounded by using the corner punch on my Envelope Punch Board, as does the matting Bermuda Bay piece of cardstock. These are attached to the card base with Dimensionals for added interest. The card base was embossed only 2/3 of the way up the card front using the Honeycomb embossing folder. I then used my Simply Scored tool to score two lines above the embossed area just to give it a defined edge.

I also used the Envelope Punch Board to round the corners on the card base so it would coordinate with the centre pieces.

I’m so glad you stopped by today to see what I’ve been up to. Why don’t you give the challenges a try? Click on the images above and they will take you to the websites. Make your project and link it up to inspire others with your take on those challenges. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Amy.

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They Call Me Mellow Yellow

051header

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.

#51

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!

051Amy

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.

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