challenge

Wonderful Romance Frame

I will not be able to write many details today as one of my fingers is impeding my ability to type on my keyboard. You see, I had an incident with a knife while chopping vegetables and seriously injured the index finger of my left hand (not my dominant hand, thankfully). I have not been crafting much since this happened over a week ago as everything takes a bit longer to do with the limits and pain that my finger has been causing me.

I was able to do some crafting yesterday and am happy to share my finished project.

This is the sketch challenge from the As You See It Challenge Blog that inspired my design.

I chose to use the Wonderful Romance Stamp Set and my Stampin’ Blends Markers for this pretty card.

The stamped and coloured paper was cut into a rectangle frame using the Stitched Rectangle Framelits. The soft colours in corals and greens make this design soft and bright at the same time.

In the close-up, you can see the polka dot pattern paper from the Botanical Butterfly Designer Series Paper and the vintage gold seal embellishment with the beautiful ribbon. As usual, all of the supplies I use are from Stampin’ Up! and are available for purchase on my online store.

Leave a comment to say hello or ask any questions. I’ll be happy to hear from you!

Copper and Figgy Joy

Making Christmas cards is a huge source of joy and creative satisfaction for me. I love the themes and the colours. I love trying different colour schemes that still feel like Christmas to me. The colour combination today is inviting and peaceful, yet somehow warm and cozy, too.

It starts with a sketch from the As You See It Challenge Blog.

Garden Green, Copper, and Fresh Fig are a beautiful colour combination. The Wood Textures Designer Series Paper adds to the cozy, rustic feel of this winter wreath design. Sometimes, the traditional red and green – though beautiful, cheerful, and cozy – can become tiresome to work with in over and over again. It was refreshing to still feel traditional, but pull in the Fresh Fig to liven things up a bit!

The card began with stamping the wreath image from the Wishing You Well stamp set. I wanted to give the illusion of depth, so I stamped it first using Gray Granite ink. Then, after rubbing the surface with my Embossing Buddy to remove the stickiness of any oils from my fingers or from the ink I just applied, I stamped the wreath image again using Versamark ink, being sure to stamp it slightly offset from my original image. Then I could apply the Copper Embossing Powder and heat set it with my Heat Tool. Once the embossing was finished, I assembled my card layers to the base: the piece of Wood Textures Designer Series paper is adhered to matte layers of Copper Foil and then Whisper White. All of which are adhered to the Garden Green cardstock base of the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Next came the swag and banner for the front of the card. I die cut the Garden Green boughs and the Fresh Fig accent foliage using the Pretty Pines Thinlit Dies and attached them to the wreath with Mini Glue Dots. I added a swirl of Copper Metallic Thread under the bow. The bow itself is an image from the Wishing You Well stamp set and was stamped on a scrap piece of the Wood Textures Designer Series Paper with Fresh Fig ink. I fussy cut that beautiful gauzy bow with my handy dandy Paper Snips and it was adhered with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The final piece of this card is the banner. The sentiment from the Christmas Pines stamp set was stamped in Fresh Fig ink on Whisper White cardstock. The ends of the strip of cardstock were flagged by hand with my Paper Snips.

If you like this card, please understand that YOU can make cards just like this. If you are a Canadian resident, head on over to my online store to purchase all the supplies you need for great cards and scrapbook pages! If not, then you can go to stampinup.com to access a demonstrator in your part of the world. I hope you do!

Happy stamping!

Colour Block Deer

It’s a sketch challenge!! Whoohoo! As a designer for the As You See It Challenge blog, I love where the sketches lead my creativity. This card is an example of a design that I would have never come up with if I wasn’t guided by a sketch. I always enjoy a unique layout that is also pleasing to my eye and this one has hit it on the head!

The sketch:

I knew right away that I wanted to use the Detailed Deer Thinlit for this card design. It took a while to find it in my disaster of a craft room, but I finally uncovered it under a pile of cardstock on my paper cutting station. Phew! (A craft room clean up is WAY overdue!)

It’s difficult to tell in the photos, but the deer is die cut from Glossy White cardstock, which gives such a nice professional look to this soft design.

I did a colour block for the rectangular background behind the deer using 1″ strips of Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, and Gray Granite cardstock. The deer is attached to the colour block background with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals. Behind the colour block piece, I placed two Gold Foil leaves, punched out with the Leaf Punch and adhered with glue dots to the card.

The colour block piece is attached to the layered card front also with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I chose to use three layers for the card front: Thick Whisper White card stock was used for the base, then a narrow matte of Sahara Sand cardstock with a piece of patterned paper from the Festive Farmhouse Designer Series Paper. You can see in the above photo, that the greeting from the Wishing You Well stamp set, was heat embossed with Gold Embossing powder for a nice professional finish. Unfortunately, if you look closely at the photos, you can see that I did not erase my pencil line as well as I should have. This is not as noticeable in person as it is in the close up photos. I’ll probably go over that with my eraser again. *sheepish grin*

I finished the inside of the card with another narrow matte of Sahara Sand carstock under Whisper White cardstock. The deer image and the sentiment from the Dashing Deer stamp set were both heat embossed with Gold Embossing powder. So pretty.

I love the Dashing Deer bundle from Stampin’ Up! It includes the Dashing Deer stamp set and the Detailed Dear Thinlit Dies.

So, how do you see this sketch? What will you do with it? Share your cards, scrapbook pages, or home decor crafty creations with us at the As You See It Challenge Blog. We love to see what you design!