February 10, 2017

Sunshine is on Its Way

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques 2017, As You See It, card, challenge, Stampin' Up, technique, thinlits, tutorial, water stamping 2 Comments

It’s still winter. Yup, sure is. There are road closures and travel advisories and delayed UPS packages. There is snow where there normally isn’t snow, like the west coast of BC, where they’ve closed schools because the city isn’t equipped to handle so much snow and the average person doesn’t have proper tired to drive in those kind of conditions.

So. Much. Snow.

I like snow. I like how it covers everything with a quiet, peaceful, clean, white, cotton-batting of fluff. It’s beautiful and it’s cozy somehow.

But, I have about had enough. It’s only the beginning of February and I have been longing for spring for about a month already. Mostly, for the warmer air and the sunshine. But I’d settle for just the sun at this point.

The card I have to share with you today is a reflection of my desire for better days ahead. They will come and it won’t be long before I’ll be cursing the heat and complaining that it’s too hot to move! That’s our weather here. We get all seasons, which I really love. and hate. and love. (mostly love).

Here’s the colour challenge that inspired this week’s card. It is from the As You See It Challenge Blog for which I am a designer. The challenges stretch my creative mojo and keep me bloggin’.

I not only took inspiration from the colours, but also from the sunset image. I used a Sponge Brayer to apply the colours to the Whisper White cardstock, Dapper Denim on top, Sweet Sugarplum in the middle, and Flirty Flamingo on the bottom.

With the flourish from the Timeless Textures stamp set, I stamped a repeating pattern on the sponged cardstock using only water. If you haven’t tried this yet, it is very cool. Basically, the water picks up the ink that you laid down with the sponging and leaves a lighter tone image behind. I added a sponging of Crumb Cake ink with a regular Stampin’ Up sponge around the edges of the inked piece of Whisper White cardstock, then flicked my Gold Wink of Stella over the paper to add some pretty sparkly spatter.

The ombre word, sunshine, was created by first using the Sponge Brayer on Whisper White cardstock with Dapper Denim ink, then die cutting the word using the Sunshine Wishes Thinlits dies and my Big Shot. By sponging the cardstock first, I have more control of ink placement. The words “is on its way” is from the Sunshine Sayings stamp set. It was stamped with Dapper Denim ink on a strip of Crumb Cake cardstock. I hand cut the flagged end of the strip of cardstock, sponged around the edges with Crumb Cake ink, then used another image from the Timeless Textures Stamp Set to add the appearance of texture to the cardstock with Crumb Cake ink (I stamped it off first on a scrap piece of paper so it wouldn’t stamp too dark). I used the same texture stamp and more sponging around the edges of the Crumb Cake layer on the card base as well.

A layer of clean Crumb Cake cardstock was added behind the sponged and stamped Crumb Cake banner, hand cut for a close fit. Behind the brayered denim to flamingo piece of Whisper White cardstock is a narrow layer of plain Whisper White cardstock and this layer is toggled on the card front. There is a 3 loop nest of Gold Metallic Thread and a swag of the Ruched Sweet Sugarplum ribbon tucked in behind the sunshine die cut.

I quite enjoyed making this card. My creativity was satisfied with the finished result. All thanks to a colour challenge and the weather!

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February 2, 2017

Macaron Dreams

Amy Jasper Techniques 2017, card, markers, occasions 2017, photopolymer, Stampin' Up, technique 0 Comments

Today I want to share a card with you that I CASEd from the very talented Teneale Williams. If you don’t know her artwork, you definitely should have a look. This gal makes beautiful things!! Her original card used a different stamp and a different colour combination, but the layout and the background technique is pretty close.

I think the background technique is the most interesting part of this card. This is created using the small woodgrain stamp from the Timeless Textures stamp set and Versamark ink. The image is stamped repeatedly over the page first horizontally, then again vertically, overlapping the images over and over. So easy!

The dragonfly image from the Dragonfly Dreams stamp set was stamped with Tuxedo Momento Black ink, then the solid wings image was stamped over top after applying ink to the stamp itself with markers – Emerald Envy on the tips and Bermuda Bay closer where the wings would connect with the body. I also added some shading around the dragonfly using a Blender Pen and some Crumb Cake ink. After stamping the images, I die cut the circle using the largest circle of the Stitched Shapes Framelits. This I adhered to the textured backgound layer with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals.

After adhering the circle, I used the Gold Wink of Stella brush and tapped it on my finger over the two layers to create the splash of gold flecks. The layers were then adhered to the card base.

The sentiment was stamped on a strip of Crumb Cake cardstock, of which I flagged the one end with my paper snips. I folded a strip of the Flirty Flamingo and tied it to the back of the Crumb Cake cardstock with a doubled up piece of Linen Thread. This was all attached to the front of the card with one Stampin’ Up Dimensional and a few well placed Glue Dots.

I’m happy to report that this card is pretty enough that I would be happy to show it off, but easy enough that my 8 year old was able to make one as well. I’d show you a picture of her perfect stamping, but she already wrote inside and stuck it in an envelope to give to her sister for her birthday.

I could learn a few things from this girl!

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January 28, 2017

Hugs and Kisses (but mostly kisses!)

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute, Techniques 2017, card, coloured emboss, emboss, occasions 2017, Stampin' Up 0 Comments

Let’s start at the beginning – it’s a very good place to start.

This card design begins with a sketch.

Almost as soon as I saw this sketch, I thought of using lips instead of the stars. I have been obsessing over my lips a little bit lately as I have discovered some new lipstick that stays on all day! (I may or may not have a mild addiction at this point, but I’ll keep you posted). A unique thing about my new lipstick is that you finish the application with a clear and very glossy gloss to “seal” in the colour and to nourish and moisturize your lips. I’m not used to having such glossy lips and, let me tell ya, I had to apply a LOT of that gloss in the beginning as my lips adjusted to the change in my pucker routine. All that to say, I wanted the lips on my card to be GLOSSY!!

The stamps used on this card are from the Sealed with Love photopolymer stamp set by Stampin’ Up. I attached the image of the lips and the word “kiss” on the same block so I could stamp them together. Because I wanted glossy lips, I used Clear Emboss powder and heat set them. Now, if you have ever added emboss powder to Stampin’ Up Classic inks, you may have noticed that the ink often dries faster than you can apply and heat the powder, resulting in a flat, very un-glossy (let’s call it … “matte”), finish. I wanted glossy, dag-nab-it! So, I first inked my stamp in Versamark, then in the classic ink of my choosing. That way, the Versamark ink would help the area stay moist long enough for my powder to stick to it to be heated to a beautiful glossy gloss finish.

You may be wondering how I stamped the image 12 times and didn’t go just a little bit nutty having to clean off my stamps each time before inking again with Versamark (we all KNOW what happens when you use a dirty stamp on your Versamark ink pad – let’s all try to avoid that, shall we!). So, after inking my stamp with Versamark, I would then ink it into the coloured ink, stamp it, then reapply only the coloured ink, stamp it, then I did it a third time. After that, I quickly cleaned off my stamp and started again with Versamark and the next colour. Until I filled in the area with lips and kisses.

The hugs and kisses sentiment was stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink. I wrapped the Basic Black Baker’s Twine around the Whisper White Cardstock twice before tying a bow.

I didn’t feel like using doilies (as the sketch shows), so I used one of the photopolymer stamps from the Sealed with Love Stamp Set and curved it on my block as much as I could (it kept lifting up in the middle because I curved it so sharply, but I persevered!). I stamped it twice on the card base with Tuxedo Black Momento ink.

For added interest, I used the Project Life Corner Rounder Punch on the upper right hand corner of all my paper layers. The Basic Black Cardstock is adhered directly to the Flirty Flamingo card base, then the Whisper White layer is attached with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals.

The final touch was to add the tiny Basic Rhinestones to the heart flourishes on the card.

All in all, this card was pretty easy to make. I would even go as far as to call it quick and simple! You could even skip the embossing and call it easy-peasy!!

How about you try the sketch for yourself now. You might even feel pretty happy with it and upload it the the As You See It Challenge. Hey, you might even be picked as a favourite!

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