November 2, 2018

Buffalo Check Christmas

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas, simple and cute 2018, challenge, Christmas, quick and cute, speed 0 Comments

Oh my, oh my!! I haven’t done a speed challenge for a while and I forgot what a rush it it!! Whoohoo! Making a card in less than 10 minutes isn’t easy and I don’t always like how it turns out, but it ALWAYS gets my creative mojo flowing!!

Here’s the inspiration for Shades of Red from the As You See It Challenge Blog:

After considering what I wanted to do and gathering all my supplies (no cutting ahead of time!), I started my card design. Why I insist on adding bows to speed challenge cards, I’ll never know. I probably would have been done under eight minutes if I avoided the Linen Thread all together!

My completed time: 9 minutes 52 seconds

I used Crumb Cake ink with the Sheet Music background stamp on the Crumb Cake card base. I cut a piece of Real Red cardstock the same size as my card front and used the Buffalo Check background stamp with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink. I find it easier to use these background stamps so that the rubber faces up on the table. That way, I can place my cardstock on top of the stamp and have more control to make sure the image is stamped straight – particularly with any stamp image that needs to be parallel with the edge of my paper. I adhered my checked cardsock at an angle on my card, then trimmed the excess from the edges with my paper trimmer.

I still love the Half Full stamp set because it has images of one of my favourite things: wine! I love wine, particularly red wine. Sadly, wine isn’t very kind to my stomach these days, so I have started reserving it for Sunday dinners with my family.

I stamped the wine glass image on Whisper White cardstock with Crumb Cake ink, stamping off once on a scrap piece of paper so I could have a slightly lighter image. The Merry Christmas sentiment from the same stamp set was stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento ink over top of the wine glasses image. I then trimmed my Whisper White cardstock to the size I wanted and flagged the end with my Paper Snips. The Linen Thread is tied around the end of the Whisper White cardstock into a bow and the completed banner was attached to the card front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Voila! This is what a 10 minute speed challenge card looks like! Sweet and Simple, don’t you think!?

Your turn! Give the challenge a try. Set your timer for ten minutes and see if you can beat the time. If you get it under, be sure to share your finished work with us at the As You See It Challenge blog so we can ooh and ahh at your creative genius! (we always do!)

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Happy stamping!!

September 7, 2018

Birthday Squirrel

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute 2018, As You See It, birthday, challenge, foxy friends 0 Comments

Though I’m excited to get back into routine after a wild summer, September is always a crazy time in my home. Every year, I seem to forget how stressful the start of school is for my kids (and therefore also for me!)

To add to the stress, my youngest daughter has her birthday right at the beginning of the month and we usually end up postponing her party so we can get invitations to her friends at school and give the parents time to settle into September a bit before having to jump in to the birthday scene! My card today is the design that she and I came up with for her party invitations.

As always, we started with the As You See It Challenge. The theme this time is “back to basics”.

I think Back to Basics with stamping means no fancy tools, just stamps, paper and ink! I remember when I first started stamping and what supplies I had. I didn’t have a Big Shot or dies. I didn’t even have any punches, yet! I stamped at the dining room table into the wee hours of the night while my new baby rocked in her swing and my toddler was asleep in his crib.

Ah. Good memories!

My 10 year old daughter loves the Foxy Friends stamp set. She requested the squirrel image and the wood stump for her invitations. I stamped the squirrel with Crumb Cake ink and his little face was stamped with Soft Suede ink. I then created a mask using a sticky note so that I could stamp the stump to make it appear as though the squirrel is on the stump. To do that, I stamped the squirrel image on the sticky note and trimmed around the image. Then I placed it precisely over my good squirrel image. With the sticky note in place, I used Soft Suede ink to stamp the stump image to overlap the bottom of the squirrel image. Then I removed the sticky note mask and VOILA!, I had a squirrel sitting on a stump!

Just for fun, I decided to trim down the paper around the squirrel. I used my Stampin’ Up paper trimmer as far as it could go without cutting off the tip of my squirrel’s tail, then I fussy cut around it.

Linen thread is tied in a lovely bow around the top of the Whisper White banner. The banner bottom was hand trimmed with my Paper Snips. The little heart was stamped with Real Red ink and hand cut before placing it in the little squirrel’s hands (paws) with a piece of a Stampin’ Dimensional. The banner was then attached to the Soft Sea Foam card base with more Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Here’s the inside of the invitations. Of course, I still need to add the when and where for the party, but at least we are a few steps closer to getting these invitations to her friends next week.

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!