July 21, 2023

Playing Along with a Colour Challenge

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Cards As You See It, challenge, technique, watercolour 6 Comments

I’ve felt as though something has been missing in my world of Stampin’ Up!® and I finally realized what it is!

I miss playing!

I’ve been completely focused on designing cards for others to make at events and classes, that I forgot to do the one thing that drew me into this art form in the first place. I need to create for the sake of creating!

When I make cards for a class, I have to consider the skill level, how many steps are involved, how to work within the time available for the class, and adhere to the limits of the supplies available to the number of people involved. However, when I create for the sake of creating, I can be free of limits and can let myself become absorbed in the joy of the moment. It’s delightful. It’s when I’m at my happiest in my craft room.

For those reasons, I thought, “What if you did a colour challenge?”. Of course, my first thought was to go to my favourite challenge blog: As You See It Challenge! I used to be a designer for them a couple years back, but I really love their challenges. I also like that theirs are posted every two weeks, giving you plenty of time to create a card and share it.

Here’s the colour challenge that they posted last Friday:

My Card

I chose to use the Crafting with You Bundle for my design. You can see that there’s a bit of everything on this one: A watercolour technique, some ink blending with a mask, die-cuts and heat embossing, OH MY!

Technique for the Floral Image

I think some of these methods are familiar to you. However, you may not be able to achieve the floral image without a bit of explanation. With the Poppy Parade, Tahitian Tide, and Crumb Cake Stampin’ Write Markers, I applied ink to the floral image stamp, than stamped it on the Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper. Little dots were applied around the image with the same coloured markers. I then very lightly misted the image with water from my Spritzer to soften the image and the dots.

I let this dry while I worked on other aspects of the card. Once dry, the markers were used again to accentuate the outline of the flowers and leaves. This allowed the image to appear watercoloured, but still have some definition. The final touch was to add a bit on Basic Black splatter. To do this, I simply flicked the brush tip of my Basic Black Blends Marker across the lip of the marker lid (this frays the brush tip, so be warned!). A little curl of the watercolour paper in the upper left hand corner, some Classic Matt Dots, and it’s just as I hoped it would be!

Other Products Used for this Design

Artistic Mix Decorative Masks, Black Baker’s Twine, White Embossing Powder, Versamark Ink, Heat Tool, Mini Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Blending Brush, Blends Markers (Poppy Parade, Crumb Cake, Gray Granite, Basic Black), Cardstock (Crumb Cake, Tahitian Tide, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Gray Granite.

You can purchase all the elements that I used on this design by going to my Online Store or clicking on any of the specific links. And, hey, if you’re wondering who the heck I am, you can go to my About Page and find out. 🙂

Got questions? Ask me in the comments. I’m happy to help if I can.

October 1, 2021

Send Holiday Love with this Peaceful Christmas Card

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas 2021, As You See It, challenge, Cork, Knit Together, Peaceful Place, sketch 0 Comments

The weather is getting cooler and the leaves are changing colour. For me, that means it’s time to cozy up and prepare for winter. This is the season to wrap yourself in your most comfy knitted sweater, make a cup of tea, slip your feet into those slippers and do some holiday crafting.

The only thing that would make my holiday crafting even better is a gas fireplace in my craft room! That would be glorious! It’s not a realistic goal, by any means, but I do wonder if I could make room for a small electric fireplace. My crafting studio is in the basement, so it gets chilly. The ambience and warmth of a fireplace would be so delightful, don’t you think!

As You See It Challenge

As a part of the As You See It Design Team, I get to share another card inspired by today’s As You See It Challenge blog.

It begins with a sketch!

Events & Classes

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been having fun creating with the Peaceful Place Specialty paper. I showed my September technique class how to make a very special fancy fold card using this patterned paper along with the coordinating Cabin Dies. My technique cards and tutorials are exclusively available to those who purchased the class. That means they get VIP Access to the tutorials for two months. After that, I get to share the projects with you! So keep watch for that fancy fold card to show up here on my blog in November!

To find out more about my virtual classes (only available in Canada) or about purchasing VIP Early Access to the technique class tutorials, go to my Events & Classes page.

You can also find lots of tutorials on my YouTube Channel.

Peaceful Christmas Card

Since I’ve had the Peaceful Place patterned paper on my mind AND on my desk, it made its way into this design.

I LOVE this paper!

The Cork Specialty Paper and the Knit Together cling stamp have been waiting so patiently for me to bring them into a project. They both offer such a warm and cozy texture. Stamping tone-on-tone with Gray Granite ink on the Gray Granite cardstock works beautifully with that stamp.

I wasn’t sure what colour of cardstock to use for this design. Many of the neutral colours that I considered were too drab, while some colour options seemed too loud. Finally, I tried the Evening Evergreen.

It was perfect! Neutral enough to feel calm, but rich enough to feel cozy and inviting.

Also on this design, you can see the soft layer of Vellum, the white embossed sentiment from the Snowman Season stamp set, and the red stitched ribbon from the Playful Pets Trim Combo Pack.

Give this sketch a try and share your final take on the As You See It Challenge blog. We love to see what you design with that creative brain of yours!

August 6, 2021

You’ll Love the Beautiful Effect of Layered Vellum

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques 2021, animals, challenge, Nature's Beauty, Peaceful Cabin, vellum 0 Comments

The As You See It Challenge Blog has us sharing our favourite animal as the starting point for our designs today. I don’t know about you, but I had to work within the limits of my supplies! There aren’t any images of moose among the current Stampin’ Up! products!

Since my favourite animal is under-represented at the moment, I chose to go with my close second favourite animal, instead. A deer!

The Layers

This card shows off a layering technique with vellum to create the feeling of distance on a misty morning.

I stamped the cabin first on a piece of Basic White cardstock with Tuxedo Black Momento ink. The cabin image is from a new stamp set called Peaceful Cabin that was just released along with the new Mini Catalogue! It’s so exciting to be able to play with new products! I used Soft Suede and Crumb Cake Blends Markers to colour the cabin, then coloured the area around the cabin with Old Olive and Balmy Blue to give a little bit to the earth and sky.

The next layer is vellum, on which I stamped the trees from the same stamp set. I used black ink again, then coloured behind it with an Old Olive Blends Marker. I also added some Smoky Slate with my Blends Marker to create a bit of a shadow under the trees.

Next, I stamped the deer from the Nature’s Beauty stamp set on a second piece of vellum, colouring it with my Soft Suede and Bronze Blends Markers (on the back of the vellum. I added the grass image at the deer’s feet, using the olive Blends Marker to accent the grass.

Each layer was adhered behind the Early Espresso frame, created with one of the Rectangle Stitched dies. I cut a narrow Basic White matte to go behind the frame and attached it to the Crumb Cake card base with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Finishing the Card

With all my vellum layering complete, I then stamped the sentiment from the In Your Words stamp set on Pool Party cardstock with black ink. This stamp set is only available for FREE during Sale-a-bration to anyone who hosts a qualifying workshop or personal order over $375. I was surprised at how nicely the Soft Succulent paper works with the Pool Party.

The two paper strips were flagged on the ends with scissors and attached together before adhering them to the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Finally, I added the Linen Thread bow and the adhesive-backed dots from the new Decorative Matt Dots embellishments.

If you made a card for this challenge, then what animal would you use? Why not share it with us at the As You See It Challenge Blog! We love to see your beautiful creations!