card

July 27, 2018

Letter Board Card

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques, tutorial 2018, As You See It, card, challenge, coffee cafe, easel card, frame, make a difference, technique, tutorial 2 Comments

What are you obsessed with? That is the challenge for the As You See It Challenge blog this round. I actually had to do some soul searching to figure out if I was obsessed with anything in the first place, then determine which of the many obsessions I discovered I have was worthy of a card design.Here are some items that I had on my list:

Fitness (running, cycling, hiking, strength, endurance)
Wine
Outdoors (nature, sunshine, peace, escape)
Doctor Who
Self-discovery (reflection, self-care, solitude, self-improvement, resilience)
Words (witty, inspirational, punny, jokes)
Coffee
My phone (this is actually an unhealthy obsession – I’m working on it … sort of)

There were a few others, but we’ll just stop there.

I thought more specifically about my obsession with words and realized that it has become focused on letter boards. Have you seen any letter board images on Pinterest or Instagram? They seem to be the latest thing and have definitely caught my attention. I don’t have my own letter board, but it is on my Christmas wish list! How fun to create sayings that suit your mood or your current state of mind. Or maybe some words that reflect how you want to feel or think?

Here’s my card, inspired by the latest As You See It challenge:I chose to try to create my own letter board card with a funny saying I found on Pinterest. Conveniently, the saying also allows me to bring in another obsession I have – coffee. LOL!

Most letter boards have black felt backgrounds with white lettering. I have seen others that are grey, some that are white with black letters, and even pink ones with white letters.

I started with trying to create the appearance of a letter board first. For that, I used a black journaling pen and a ruler and drew lines across the Basic Grey cardstock.The letters used are from the Make a Difference stamp set from Stampin’ Up! It required some finesse to get them all straight – not an easy task and definitely the most time consuming part of this design.

The Embossing Buddy was an absolute must for all this embossing!!

I did one line at a time, wiping my cardstock with the Embossing Buddy, stamping the letters in Versamark ink, sprinkling with White Embossing Powder, tapping off the excess, then heat setting the powder with the Heat Tool. One line. Then I would take out my Embossing Buddy and start the process again with the next line. Eventually, I realized if I placed a piece of washi tape on my block, it made it a bit easier to get my words straight. It was challenging to create the words with appropriate spaces for any letters that I needed more than one of, then add any missing letters afterward.The next thing to do was to create a frame for my letter board. Many of the boards I’ve seen have a simple natural light-coloured wood frame. Thankfully, Stampin’ Up! has just the right paper with lots of wood patterns to choose from! The Wood Textures Designer Series paper is one of my favourites and it is included in the Buy 3, Get One Free offer for paper packs now until the end of July.To create the look of a frame, I cut the desired length of paper for the size of frame I wanted. Two pieces cut at 5-1/2″ and two pieces cut at 4-1/4″. I made each piece 9/16th wide so that I could keep a black matte visible around my 3″ x 4-1/4″ letter board cardstock. I wanted to create the appearance of mitered corners, so I held two strips of the Wood Texture paper together and cut from the inner corner to the outer corner with my Paper Snips.

I really only needed to trim one end of each of the strips of paper. That way the angled end of one strip of the frame could overlap the straight cut end of the same corner. This allows for a nice clean corner that looks like a well-glued mitered wood frame. The strips were attached using Stampin’ Up Dimensionals to give a three dimensional appearance, just like an actual frame.

The thing that really makes this design work, is making it an easel card. If you’ve never made an easel card, be sure to google it and find a quick tutorial. It is a super easy thing to do.

My card base is made with Basic Black Cardstock. I used a piece of Whisper White cardstock as a layer inside the card as a blank canvas on which to create the lower portion of the easel design. For this, the Coffee Cafe stamp set and coordinating thinlits from Stampin’ Up! were the perfect choice! I also used an image from the Timeless Textures stamp set from Stampin’ Up! that looks like a coffee cup stain.

To prop up the front of the easel well, I made sure to add extra loft to the lid of the coffee cup with a piece of Adhesive Foam Strips. Additional Stampin’ Up! products used include: Leaf Punch, Solid Black Bakers Twine, 5/8″ Burlap Ribbon, Mossy Meadow cardstock, Garden Green cardstock, Crumb Cake cardstock, Stampin’ Sponges, Tranquil Tide ink (sponged on the Garden Green leaves and the Mossy Meadow paper strip), Crumb Cake ink (for the coffee stain image and sponging around the coffee cup, lid, and sleeve), Tuxedo Black Momento ink (for stamping the coffee happens sentiment, coffee beans, and coffee cup lid).Now it’s your turn. What are YOU obsessed with? Share it on the As You See It Challenge blog as a card design and/or leave a comment on this blog post!

June 1, 2018

Be Parquet

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques, tutorial 2018, As You See It, card, challenge, Stampin' Up, technique, tutorial 0 Comments

When I was nine years old, we moved into a new home – well, new to us. The yard was full of tall yellow wild grass and grasshoppers. So many grasshoppers! The house was built in the 80s, I think. It was a two story, white stucco house with a nice layout where the staircase was at the center. When you walked in through the front door, you were welcomed with a large foyer that was as tall as the two floors of the whole house! The large entry way was a great spot for happy hellos and long, lingering good-byes.

I remember skipping with my jump rope on that open foyer space. I played board games on that floor. I remember the comforting “click click” sound of dog nails on the floor as our small honey-coloured maltese/cocker spaniel made her way through the house. We raced around the staircase and would watch the floor flash past as it changed under our feet – beige carpet in the living room, linoleum in the kitchen, beige carpet in the TV room, parquet flooring in the foyer – carpet, lino, carpet, parquet, carpet, lino, carpet, parquet.

The parquet pattern was in squares. It has since been updated and now there is laminate wood flooring throughout the foyer, TV room and kitchen. My own kids have raced around the house when we visit my parents for Sunday dinner – lately it’s during a rubber band war.

Good times. Good memories.

My card design today reminds me of that parquet flooring. Instead of squares, I tried a herringbone pattern. Of course, it all begins with some prompting to get that creative mojo going. Here’s the assortment challenge from the As You See it Challenge blog:

I get pretty excited when I find a fun way to use paper scraps, especially with paper that I LOVE! The Wood Textures Designer Series paper is on the top of my list, so you you can imagine how satisfying it was to turn my scraps into something awesome!

The herringbone pattern is created using short, narrow strips of patterned paper and adhering them to a piece of cardstock. I used my Multipurpose Liquid Glue to adhere the strips (remember, less is more – nobody wants a sticky oozy mess!).

I started by scoring a line in the center of the paper and laying my first five strips down without adhesive first, so that I could use the line as a guide for straight placement. Then I was able to pick up and adhere one piece at a time until my piece of cardstock was full. Once full, I trimmed the paper to size and carried on with the rest of the card.

I trimmed my herringbone parquet into a square and then thought about something crazy – what if I used my Stitched Shapes Framelits to add a decorative stitched edge to this large square!?

I know – CRAZY!!

But it worked! And it wasn’t even that hard!!

I used the largest square from the Stitched Shapes Framelits and placed it, blade up, on my Big Shot clear plate so that I could see the cutting edges clearly. I placed my parquet piece right side facing down, so that the paper lined up in the corner of the framelit.

(Oh my goodness, I need to give you photos of this process! SERIOUSLY! … I’ll try to add them later)

I put my top plate over the corner that I wanted to cut (and ONLY over that corner) and ran it through the Big Shot. The Big Shot cuts when there is pressure, so where the top plate didn’t make contact with the die, cutting did not occur. I repeated this process three more times to make a border around my entire 3-3/4″ parquet.

So cool!!

The rest is detail.

I sponged Crumb Cake ink all around the edges of a layer of Crumb Cake cardstock, then adhered it to my Early Espresso card base.

It’s not super noticeable in the photos, but there is a piece of Night of Navy cardstock matting the upper left corner of my parquet square, which is adhered to the Crumb Cake layer with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals. The tree image from the new Rooted in Nature stamp set, is stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock with Blueberry Bushel ink (new ink! new ink!), then die cut with the coordinating framelit. To make it pop a bit more on the card, I sponged the edges of the tree with more Crumb Cake ink.

The sentiment is also from the Rooted in Nature Stamp Set. I stamped it on Whisper White Cardstock with Early Espresso ink, then cut it out by hand to use the pieces individually. I adhered the tree and the sentiment with Mini Dimensionals, cut in half so they would fit.

The Copper Metallic Thread was looped and stuck on one of those Dimensionals before that tree was planted on my card.The final step was to add a few copper sequin from the Metallics Sequin Assortment to the card front using Mini Glue Dots.

And there you have it! It has a tree. It has a square. It has woodgrain. It has blue. AND it is masculine! It has it all, Folks!

I think I like it!

What will you do with this assortment challenge? Give it a try and share it on the As You See it Challenge blog!

December 29, 2017

Wine with Friends

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2017, As You See It, card, challenge, Stampin' Up, thinlits 0 Comments

My entire family came down with a nasty bug (probably a type of flu bug, since my husband is the only one who got the flu shot and didn’t get sick!). My son got sick first, then my youngest daughter followed two days later, then my middle child a couple days after that. They were all sick for one whole week each! I kept thinking I was going to go unscathed, but I guess sleeping beside my youngest child through her week of fever and dry cough, I was bound to get it eventually. I only had a fever one day (the kids had it off and on for the whole week!), but after being stuck at home taking care of my kids for 2 weeks, I was laid up for a week as well! That’s a long time to be bound to my house!! When I finally wasn’t glued to the couch, spending most of my time sleeping, I had to force myself out into the real world to catch up on Christmas shopping, decorating and food prep for turkey dinner. As a result, my body has yet to fully recover. It’s been two weeks since I got sick and it’s still lingering. I have that “sexy” raspy voice and I still cough like a smoker in the morning, lol! But I’m grateful that my energy seems to be back to about 90% and I can enjoy some outdoor activities again.

All that to say that I’m happy to get back to my craft room. Even when my kids were sick, I wasn’t able to get away to my room in the basement and stamp. I got a few other things done, like carpet clean my daughter’s new room, while the kids were resting. That felt pretty good. I accomplished something, but was still within ear shot if they needed me.

Now my daughter is fully moved out of the room she shared with her younger sister and is in her new room with the clean carpet! It felt so good to finally do that for her. Having grandma help with the room clean up and purge (the shared room was a junk heap!!), made it a huge success. Next task in the new year is for the girls to pick out their paint colours, so we can make the rooms their own! It’s all very exciting!!

This is a lot of writing already, but let me just add how grateful I am that I was able to quit my job last May and be a stay-at-home-mom first and a Stampin’ Up Demonstrator second. Being at home has made life feel much more under control and less stressful, not to mention more fulfilling. The kids have access to me whenever they’re home and I have been able to begin the process of getting a handle on my home environment. While being sick and while having company visit over the holidays, I have been free to take care of my home and family without having to worry about scheduling around my job or dealing with the stress of finding someone to replace me. Quitting my part-time job to be at home is the best decision I’ve made for me and my family since saying “yes” to getting married to my husband.

My first assignment in my stamping room after the holidays is, of course, an As You See It Challenge card design! I thought about using something new from my Occasions or Sale-a-bration pre-order, but in the end, I decided I should get a bit more mileage on one of my favourite Holiday stamp sets. After all, you CAN still purchase this set until the end of the year – so after reading this, go to my SHOP link on my website and get this stamp set while you still can!I love this Half Full stamp set. It has a few playful sentiments, but I love wine, so, sentiments aside, this set makes me happy!

The card base is Smoky Slate card stock that I ran through the Big Shot with the Brick embossing folder and then lightly sponged Smoky Slate ink around the edges to make that embossed pattern pop.

The next layer is Pool Party cardstock. I added sparkle to it by colouring it with my Wink of Stella Glitter Brush. So pretty and sparkly!! I added a thin Basic Black cardstock mat under a layer of Silver Foil paper and attached it over the winky Pool Party layer.

The silver Foil Snowflake (just half of one) was adhered to the Silver Foil layer before attaching the Whisper White die cut on top with Stampin’ Dimensionals. I used a die from the Celebration Thinlits (what a cute set of thinlits, that is!). The wine glasses were stamped on the Whisper White die cut with Tuxedo Black Momento ink, then coloured using Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, and Smoky Slate Blends Markers.

The final touch on the card front is the ribbon swag – Mini Silver Sequin, Basic Black Solid Baker’s Twine, and a little peep of the Bermuda Bay ribbon from the upcoming Sale-a-bration Shimmer Ribbon pack (so so shimmery!).I didn’t have room for a sentiment on the front, so I chose “the best wines are the ones we drink with friends” (from the Half Full Stamp Set) for the inside of the card. Behind it, I stamped the large wine glass from the same wonderful stamp set in Pool Party ink (stamped off once to reduce the intensity of colour).

I can give this card at any time to ANY of my wine-lovin’ friends. Wine IS best when it’s shared. So who wants to come over for a glass of wine this week!?

(I’m very grateful to finally have my taste buds returning to normal – wine and coffee just aren’t the same when you can’t taste them!!)

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