January 29, 2016

Hello (from the other side?)

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, birthday, card, challenge, embossing, fringe scissors, Gorgeous Grunge, hello, Stampin' Up 3 Comments

I can’t get Adele’s song out of my head!! Every time I see this “hello” stamp, that song starts playing inside my mind- then, I start singing it out loud. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful song, it’s just that I only know the one line “Hello, from the other side”. It plays over and over and over and over and over … yeesh!

But I do love that stamp set. You’ll see it on my card today.

Here’s the As You See It Challenge sketch that I started with:

And here’s my Hello (from the other side?) birthday card:

Is the song stuck in your head, yet?

My colour combination was inspired when I received an order of the packages of cardstock that I happened to run out of all at the same time. I pulled them all together out of the box and thought, “Boy, these are really fun and pretty colours together!” I tried really hard to include Chocolate Chip as it was in the bunch AND I hadn’t used it in such a long time, but I couldn’t make it work. My colours include Blushing Bride, Bermuda Bay, Cucumber Crush, and Daffodil Delight.

I started with a Blushing Bride cardstock base, then a thin matte of Bermuda Bay. The striped Cucumber Crush layer is from the package of 2015-2017 In Color Envelope Paper. It’s not only great for making envelopes or envelope liners, but also works well as a layer on your cards.

I used one of the splotches from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set, once with Cucumber Crush ink and once with Bermuda Bay ink where I was planning to put my “hello” sentiment. Then I used my trusty Embossing Buddy over the paper and stamped my “hello” (from the Hello Stamp Set only available until February 15th) with Versamark ink. I sprinkled White Embossing Powder over the image, dusted off the excess, and heat set it with my Heat Tool. Once that was completed, I used my Embossing Buddy again so I could do the same process with the “birthday girl” sentiment from the same stamp set and Gold Embossing powder.

(I let out an audible “phew” when I saw how straight it was! … stripy paper is not very forgiving if you stamp crooked)

I was quite excited to use my Stampin’ Up Fringe Scissors. I don’t use them enough! I love how they easily add texture to any paper project. I found that my layers were too perfect for my liking, so I grabbed my Paper Snips and carefully hand cut curved on three of the four fringed layers.

Ah, yes, that’s what it needed.

The 1/8th inch Gold Ribbon was the final touch. I struggled with this. I tried a few different ribbons before deciding on this one.

I didn’t adhere the Bermuda Bay layer to the base with my Stampin’ Up Dimensionals until all the layers were complete.

It didn’t turn out quite how I had it in my head, but I’m happy with the cheerful colours, the stripes (I do very much like stripes), and the way my embossed “hello” turned out. I still wish I could have used Chocolate Chip somewhere. Perhaps that will be my next challenge – use Chocolate Chip. It’s been sadly neglected in my craft room for quite sometime.

Have you done an As You See It Challenge, yet? You should give it a try! It’s a great way to get your creative juices flowing!

December 18, 2015

Under a Starry Sky

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas As You See It, card, challenge, Christmas, embossing, Sleighride edgelits, Stampin' Up, star framelits, technique, washi tape 2 Comments

So glad you stopped in for a visit. I am a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and a designer for the As You See It Challenge Blog.

Here is the sketch challenge this week:

And here is the card I designed with my Stampin’ Up! supplies, using the sketch to get my creative mojo started:

I inked up one side of the Star Embossing Folder with Hello Honey ink, so that when pressed in the Big Shot, the ink transferred onto the Very Vanilla cardstock. I used some patterned paper from the Timeless Elegance Designer Paper for the housed that are die cut with the Sleighride Edgelits and the Big Shot.

Season of Cheer Washi Tape was used to create the rays behind the Gold Glimmer paper star that was also die cut using the Big Shot and the Stars Framelits. The sentiment is from the Versatile Christmas stamp set and is stamped with Jet Black Stazon ink.

I don’t always spend much time on the inside of my cards, but this one needed something to write on. Plus, I accidentally scored the cardstock in the wrong place, so I decided to make it a design feature. I scored 4 lines and used them as dividers for the sentiment. This actually made decorating the inside really simple with only 3 pieces of paper: a practice run of my embossed stars was used for the top piece, Very Vanilla for the sentiment (again from the Versatile Christmas stamp set), and a piece of the same pattern of the Timeless Elegance designer series paper.

I also used Black Stitched Satin ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, and the Project Life corner rounder punch to add some detail.

Have a great weekend!!

December 8, 2015

JOY!!

Amy Jasper Christmas Christmas, embossing, Stampin' Up, wonderous wreath 3 Comments

What brings you the most joy in your life? I find joy in my children, my family, my friends. I get the most joy from my relationships.

But there’s also ice cream, ice cream definitely brings me joy.

… and lattes. Lattes bring me joy.

My children, my family, my friends, ice cream and lattes.

… and wine. Yup, wine brings me joy.

My children, my family, my friends, ice cream, lattes, and wine.

… and maybe vacations. Vacations, too. They bring me joy.

My children, my family, my friends, ice cream, lattes, wine, and vacations.

…

… and stamping.

Ok, there are actually a lot of things in life that bring me joy. Life is pretty joyful if you stop to think about it. There’s a lot of things to be sad about or angry about. But I can choose joy.

And so I do.

(most times)

I am pleased to be able to announce the winner of the blog candy from last week! This woman’s smile brings me joy, her cards bring me joy, her knitting brings me joy, and her hugs bring me joy – Congratulations, Seana!! You have won the blog candy! You will receive it next week when it arrives at your door!

Thank you to everyone who entered and shared their Christmas traditions with us.

I would love to hear from more of you. So tell me … what brings you joy?

Write a reply/comment on this post and tell me what brings you joy. Maybe we find joy in some of the same things?

Amy.

Like this card? Here are the details: Soft Suede cardstock base, Whisper White layer, stamped with Wonderous Wreath stamp set in Lost Lagoon ink leaves, then rubbed with the Embossing buddy before stamping the Versamark ink leaves that are embossed with Gold Embossing powder, and Soft Suede ink berries that were glittered up using the Fine-Tip Glue Pen and Gold Glitter. The JOY was die cut using the Wonderous Wreath framelits and Basic Black cardstock with my Big Shot die cutting machine. The Linen Thread bow was adhered with the Fine-Tip Glue pen as were also the Gold Sequins. The strip of Basic Black cardstock was added to the bottom of the card to give it a bit of balance. Stampin’ Dimensionals were used to adhere the Whisper White later to the Soft Suede card base.