collage

July 3, 2015

Beautiful Friend

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques alphabet rotary stamp, As You See It, Awesomely artistic, card, challenge, collage, dyed ribbon, embossing, masking, Stampin' Up, technique 0 Comments

Welcome to my blog where I have the joy of sharing my love of designing with paper and ink using my beloved supplies from Stampin’ Up! Today’s design shows off the new Awesomely Artistic stamp set and begins with an As You See It colour challenge.

I love the whimsical beauty that a dragonfly image automatically adds to artwork, whether it’s a photograph, a painting, a scrapbook layout, or a card design.

This colour combination calls for Not Quite Navy, which is a colour that has retired from Stampin’ Up’s colour collections. It was a favourite of mine. However, since it isn’t available, I chose the next best thing: Night of Navy. It’s a lovely rich navy blue, that when a bit of the same colour of ink is sponged around the edges, it makes it even more rich and gorgeously deep!

I wanted to add some ribbon to my card, but didn’t have anything that worked. Since necessity is the mother of invention, I chose to dye some satin ribbon to match my project!

Tips:

Use gloves. I am pretty good at keeping my hands and my workspace clean, but dying ribbon is a messy process. Gloves will be a member of my craft studio from now on.
Use a small container. A small container allows you to be frugal with your ink refill. A small ziplock baggie works great and gives you freedom to squish your ink and ribbon around, ensuring total coverage. I chose to use an empty embellishment container and coiled my ribbon inside. It was very cool to watch the colour wick up the ribbon until it was saturated.
More ink gives a darker colour. I started with 12 drops of ink refill and a couple teaspoons of water and my ribbon came out a lovely steel blue, but it wasn’t quite as dark as I wanted. I added 20 more drops of ink to the same container and placed my coiled ribbon in it again. This gave me the desired colour.
Dry the ribbon. If your ribbon is wet, it will colour anything it touches. You can lay your ribbon on a paper towel and let it dry overnight. If you’re impatient (like me), you can dab it on a paper towel until most of the wet comes off, then hold in in your (un-gloved) hand and use your heat tool over it like a blow dryer (not too close). Holding it in your hand will prevent you from melting your ribbon (because you will feel the heat on your hand). If your ribbon isn’t dry, you will see marks of ink on your project as you add your ribbon. Also, it will not adhere well if you use glue dots or other adhesive to attach a bow.
Different ribbon give varied results. Satin ribbon takes colour beautifully. Others will take colour differently, so test it out and see how it goes. Some ribbons are treated with sizing, which make them repel water, so they require extra work to get them to absorb the colour. You can wash them ahead of time in the sink or just take the time to massage in the colour (plastic bag technique would be the best container choice in this case).
Not always true to colour. Some inks won’t give true colour on your ribbon. Sometimes it’s the ribbon, but sometimes it’s as though the ink separates. For example, I have seen Chocolate Chip ink end up a dusty rose pink colour when used on ribbon!

I ruched the ribbon using a length of Tear Tape to adhere it as I ruffled and attached, ruffled and attached. The photo above also shows the piece of Daffodil Delight cardstock, which I textured by running it between my bone folder and my thumb multiple times until the fibres in the paper began softening. I actually softened it enough that I could separate it into two layers which makes a sort of suede-like finish (can’t really see it in the photo). This process makes the paper really pliable for a nice distressed look. I stamped it with the textured image from the Awesomely Artistic stamp set for an added amount of colour and texture.

And I’m quite pleased with the use of the black Candy Dot in the Candy Dot brad! I can’t remember the last time I used one of these brads with the Candy Dots! It looks great!

The sentiment is a combination of the Greeting Thinlits “hello”, which I created using Daffodil Delight cardstock with that same texture stamp image over it; the “beautiful” is created using the Rotary Alphabet stamp; and the “friend” image from the Awesomely Artistic stamp set.

I was very pleased with my circle section of this card. I started by rubbing my Embossing Buddy over the paper and stamping the floral image from the Awesomely Artistic stamp set by first inking the stamp with Versamark ink, then inking over that with Daffodil Delight ink. This allows the ink to stay “wet” longer so I could cover it with Clear Embossing powder and heat-set it with my Heat Tool. Once set, I added Night of Navy ink over it with a sponge and circular motions. Torn pieces of sticky note paper were applied as a mask to create the vacant area on the circle.

After sponging to my heart’s content, I used my Embossing Buddy again and stamped my dragonfly with Jet Black Stazon. Then I applied Black Embossing Powder and used my Heat Tool. I applied the Night of Navy splatter with the splatter image stamp from the same stamp set.

The thin mat of Daffodil Delight cardstock was a great finish to the overall card. It looked so plain before adding that splash of light. That Daffodil Delight mat is on Stampin’ Dimensionals, as is the circle of Whisper White cardstock with the dragonfly image.

I had the pleasure of stamping with a friend while creating this card. I think that’s why the sentiment says “hello beautiful friend” – because I was thinking of her. She was my muse for the day. Thanks Gwen!

What would you do with this colour combination? Try it and share it with the As You See It Challenge blog! We love to see what you create!

Amy

October 24, 2014

Work of Art

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, assortment, card, challenge, collage, Gorgeous Grunge, kinda eclectic, Stampin' Up, star framelits, trust god, watercolour 3 Comments

Check out my design this week using the Trust God stamp set with a little flare. This card shows off my artistic side using layers of sponging, stamped images, and even a bit of a watercolour technique. I had fun with it. It might just end up in a frame and given as a gift.

Do you ever consider that a card you’ve designed could be a gift? You really should. With the love and attention that each card receives as you choose your colour scheme, your layout, the mood of your project and the sentiment that speaks to the one who receives it – your card is an offering of a part of you. We think of greeting cards as a means of communicating our thoughts and well-wishes to the recipient. But they are so much more than that! If we wanted only to communicate, we could write a note on a plain piece of paper and give that instead.

No, our cards are more than a written note. They are a piece of us – an extension of our hearts, of our love, of our personality. I think that’s why I can’t give away a card that I don’t like. It just doesn’t fit; it feels wrong!

(sometimes I can’t give away a card that I really love either – because it’s so much of me. It’s like it needs to go to the perfect person; one who would understand the love that I am giving away)

My design today is inspired by this week’s As You See it Challenge. Assortment challenges can be a bit more difficult at times, but they are also an opportunity to really stretch those tight creative muscles.

(I like the “more than four words” element. The blah blah blah blah made me chuckle.)

Somehow, I knew what I wanted to do with this card right away. I envisioned a sunburst image made up of a circle surrounded by triangles as rays of light. Light makes me think of God (Light of the world), so I immediately looked at my Trust God sentiments to see what would fit in the circle. The sentiment I chose fit perfectly considering that my card itself would be a bit artistic, than paper crafty.

I really wish you could see this one in person. I am really pleased with how it turned out! Photos never do cards justice. They are always better in your hand.

It began with a circle cut with my Circle framelits from a sheet of Watercolour paper. I inked up the sunburst stamp from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set in Strawberry Slush ink, then spritzed it with a fine mist of water until I was able to see a few droplets of water on the rubber. This I stamped on the watercolour paper and allowed it to dry before stamping the sentiment from the Trust God stamp set in Jet Black Stazon ink. I first tried to mat the image using the next size up of the Circle Framelits, but that was just too much black. So I took the black circle that I didn’t want and punched out a circle from it with my 2.5″ Circle Punch. I was left with a remaining ring of black, which I decided was going to be used on my card!!

The card base is Basic Black cardstock. On it is the sponged and stamped layer that was transformed from Calypso Coral cardstock, to the finished result that you see on my card. Using Stampin’ Up sponges, I added Tangerine Tango, Strawberry Slush, Melon Mambo, and Rich Razzleberry ink until the cardstock was filled with rich colour. I also sponged Tuxedo Black Momento ink all around the edges of the cardstock. This draws the eye in and, I think, gives a more finished look to the paper.

The triangles from the Geometrical stamp set were stamped in Real Red and Melon Mambo around the circle. I also stamped the dots image from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set and the sketched line image from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set using Rich Razzleberry ink. The leaves from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set were stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento ink.

Once I was happy with my image placement, I adhered the layers. The matted circle is raised up with Stampin’ Up dimensionals (whatever would I do without these precious sticky-foam risers!)

The final touch was to add the gold sequins. I prefer to use Crystal Effects for my sequins as it dries clear and is no longer sticky when dry (unlike other Stampin’ Up adhesives that stay sticky where it isn’t covered). The sequins on their own just didn’t seem like enough, so I grabbed my Gold Stampin’ Dazzle Marker (who names these things?) and with shaky hands, worried I would ruin my ENTIRE card, I added little hand-drawn circles so they could play with the big kids. I only had to add one or two extra sequins to cover up little circles that got out of hand.

And there you have it.

I hope you will give this challenge a try. Just head on over to the As You See It blog, check out the other designers’ projects, then get in your crafty space and make something! Don’t forget to link it to the challenge page so we can all be inspired by your take on this one!

I’m heading off for a stamping weekend at a the beautiful Rockridge Canyon Conference and Retreat Centre! I hope to finish the weekend with lots of projects that I can share with you over the next few weeks or through classes that I will offer in the next couple months. I’m so excited for some ultimate design time!!

Hope you get some amazing design time this weekend, too!

Amy

May 23, 2014

So Very Happy Birthday – As You See It Challenge #38

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, collage, Flowering Flourishes, So Very Happy 8 Comments

Welcome to my blog where I share my love of designing with Stampin’ Up tools, inks, and stamps! It’s time for another As You See It Challenge!

When I think of a collage, I automatically go to my elementary school days when we cut out images from a magazine and glued them all together in overlapping layers onto a sheet of poster paper. That’s definitely a collage. But you can basically think of a collage as a collection of images or elements layered onto a page. They can be organized or be randomly placed. They could be a collection of items that represent a theme, or items that simply coordinate well together. It’s a style of art which I feel like many cards and scrapbook pages already depict just by being layers of paper, embellishments and photos.

I decided to go with stamps for my collage elements. Stamps and ink are what I know best. I think it would be really fun to play around with this theme more and see what else I could make into a collage … maybe a collage of butterflies! Hmmm, YES! The creative mojo is flowin’!! I’ll leave that for another day perhaps, lol!

This card makes me happy. It shows off the So Very Happy stamp set that we received from Stampin’ Up at the Leadership Conference in Houston, Tx. They like to spoil us! This set will be available on June 1st withe the launch of the new catalogue.

Layers of Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, and Cool Caribbean ink were sponged for the background, then layers of stamps in those same colours were placed over the ink. I added the Flowering Flourishes image over top in Jet Black Stazon (I didn’t stamp it very evenly, so I coloured over it with my Basic Black Stampin’ Up marker). I used the Window framelit to cut the large label shape, then the Festive Paper Piercing template came into play to help me paper pierce all around the edges of the label. Faux stitching with my White Gel pen completed the look that I wanted!

Over the colourful layers of ink was added a punched out flower (Blossom Punch) in Basic Black cardstock. Then I was able to play with my Blendability markers (available to you on June 1st) to colour the flower stamped from the So Very Happy stamp set and also punched out using the Blossom Punch. I used Cool Caribbean and Daffodil Delight to colour it, then added Dazzling Details to give it some glitter and fun!

I added Dimensionals under the coloured flower and the Window framelit to give the card a bit more pop and interest.

Of course, you can see that the card is square with layers of Basic Black and Cool Caribbean. I will use my Envelope Punch Board to make a custom envelope for this 4.5″ card.

So glad you stopped by to have a look today! Be sure to head on over to challenge #38 and link up your collage project to share your creativity and give us some inspiration over at the As You See It Challenge Blog!

Don’t forget that if you leave a reply here on my new blogsite, you will have your name entered into a draw for a Stampin’ Up care package provided by me! I will draw a winner on the evening of June 15th.