February 19, 2021

Cosy is a Feeling

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2021, As You See It, campology, card, challenge, embossing, framelits, sponging, technique 8 Comments

Let’s begin with a discussion on the English language, shall we? LOL!

I’m Canadian. Canadian culture, language, and numerical systems are a bit … wonky. We’ve been strongly influenced by both our British connection and our American neighbours. Thus, the title of this post uses the British influenced spelling of “cozy”, even though my spellcheck underlines it in an irritated, red squiggly line! However, I will continue to measure my cardstock in inches, my height in feet, and my weight in pounds. Celsius stands firm, though, because I will never understand what any number in Fahrenheit means! I will spell “favourite”, not “favorite”, “catalogue”, not “catalog” and “counsellor”, not “counselor”. We’re weird like that.

Let’s just call it a cute little quirk and move on.

So, how ’bout we talk stamping!

The card for today’s post is inspired by the As You See It Challenge, which happens to be, what we like to call, a “fill in the blank” challenge.

I had to really think about what it means to me to be cosy. Often it’s about being warm, comfortable, and becoming one with the couch (or do you prefer “sofa”, “settee”, or “chesterfield”, LOL!). But, as I considered what colours make me feel the most cosy, I realised it’s less about the colour and more about the environment. So, I thought, “which environments make me feel the most cosy and what colours are associated with those environments?”.

I’m pretty sure I’m overthinking this, LOL!

I feel cosy curled up under a blanket watching the flames dance in the fireplace while sipping a hot beverage from my favourite mug. I couldn’t really associate a colour with that image, though.

My final thought was the cosy comfort and security of a glowing light source in the deep colours of the evening sky.

I found my colour. The deep colours of the evening sky!

Pretty Peacock is the closest I have of this colour. When paired with the contrasting warmth of Bumblebee, it’s as cosy as cosy can be!

I enjoyed all the sponging on this card! I started with a piece of Pretty Peacock and sponged around the edges with Pretty Peacock ink, Night of Navy ink and Tuxedo Black ink. I stamped the trees from the Campology Stamp Set with Tuxedo Black ink on the Pretty Peacock, then die-cut the paper with one of the rectangles from the Stitched Rectangle Dies and the Stampin’ Cut and Emboss Machine. That was layered on Bumblebee cardstock, wrapped with Linen Thread, and attached with Stampin’ Dimensionals to the Pretty Peacock cardbase which I had lightly sponged around the edges with Pretty Peacock ink to add a bit more of a rich and full colour.

I fully admit to going a little crazy with the details around the lantern image from the Campology Stamp Set. I first stamped it with Tuxedo Black ink on Basic White cardstock. Then I used a Sponge Dauber to apply Mango Melody ink to the centre of the light and used circular motions to blend the colour out as I increased the circumference of the circle. I then went in with the Pretty Peacock and Night of Navy to darken the surrounding areas on the Basic White. I coloured the lantern a bit here and there with some Stampin’ Blends. I used a bit of Bronze, Soft Suede, and Crumb Cake. I even went in with my Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker to sharpen up some of the black lines in the image. I finished the lantern by applying a bit of sparkle to the glass on the image with my Wink of Stella Brush.

Now this is where it gets a little crazy …

I cut around the bottom of my lantern and straight out from the sides so that I could attach that piece to some woodgrain patterned paper in the In Good Taste Designer Series Paper, giving the lantern a picnic table to stand on. This piece needed to match the colouring of the lantern piece, so I grabbed my sponges again and applied the Mango Melody, Pretty Peacock, and Tuxedo Black.

When the lantern felt cosy enough, I used another of the rectangles from the Stitched Rectangles Dies and cut it out so I could adhere it to my card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The final touch was to grab the sentiment from my stash. This sentiment is from the awesome background stamp called Many Messages. What makes it so awesome, is that it is one stamp with … well… exactly that – many messages. I had already stamped all these sentiments on Basic Black cardstock with Versamark ink and heat embossed all of them at once using White Embossing Powder and my Heat Tool. Then (now this is the coolest part) I used ONE die, to cut out ALL of the sentiments at once! Now I have a little stash of sentiments on labels ready for me to use at my greatest of convenience! If you haven’t considered the Many Messages Bundle, check it out on my online store or have a look in the January – June Mini Catalogue on page 35. I love it!

I’m so glad you visited me today. Be sure to take a moment to leave a hello in the comments so I know you stopped by!

November 6, 2020

Framed Winter Scene

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Home Décor 2020, As You See It, aysi, challenge, Christmas, embossing, framed art, framelits, home decor, Stampin' Up, winter 3 Comments

I had the joy of my 14 year old daughter staying home with me on Wednesday for “take your kid to work day”. Basically, she got to stamp with me and I got to talk about what I love about Stampin’ Up! with her! It was a delight to work on this As You See It challenge together. I showed her how to use the Sponge Brayer to create a sunset sky and she thought it was very cool when I splattered water on the ink to create white spots that look like snow!

I was going to have her write part of this blog post, as she is quite the wordsmith, but we ran out of time. I’ll have to convince her to write for you another day.

Today’s challenge is a colour combination. I love pinks and greys together, so this was right up my creative alley!

I think these colours are stunning together! So soft and warm. I used the tree stamp from the Campology stamp set. I hadn’t used my new stamp set yet, so I was super excited to have the chance to break it in!

As you probably noticed, I decided that my sunset winter scene would be suitable as a framed piece of artwork. This would still make an amazing card, but I decided to create a 5×7″ art piece that I could display through the winter months.

I used my Sponge Brayer with Petal Pink and Flirty Flamingo ink to create the sunset sky. Then added some wisps of shadowy clouds with a sponge and some Basic Gray ink. I flicked water over this to create the falling snow effect. The trees from my Campology Stamp Set were stamped with Momento Black ink and the trunks were coloured in with a Light Basic Black Blends Marker.

I even added some additional white dots of snow using the Chalk Marker.

This sponged and stamped piece was layered over a thin matte of Whisper White and Basic Gray cardstock and adhered to the Whisper White/Plush Poinsettia Specialty Paper background with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The Petal Pink frame was cut using the Stitched Rectangle Dies and adhered to the Plush Poinsettia Specialty Paper with Foam Adhesive Strips so it would frame the winter scene.

The sentiment from the Itty Bitty Christmas stamp set was stamped on Basic Gray cardstock, then heat embossed with White Embossing Powder and my Heat Tool. I sponged Tuxedo Black Momento Ink over the sentiment to make that white embossing really pop! This was adhere to the front of my artwork with more Stampin’ Dimensionals over a swirl of Linen Thread that I placed on the left side of the sentiment.

The final touch was to tie a double finger bow with the White Crinkle Ribbon and attach it and the Glitter Star Ornament over the swirl of Linen Thread with Glue Dots.

I popped it in a frame over a photo of my son when he was a baby (he was so chubby and smiley!!). When winter is done, I’ll switch the artwork out and put my son’s chubby little grinning face back on display!

I love this colour combination! I think you should try it to and share it with us at the As You See It Challenge Blog! We love seeing your beautiful creations!

As always, you can purchase any of the Stampin’ Up! products that I feature here on my blog. Just click on the SHOP button on my website and see all the gorgeous supplies that Stampin’ Up! has to make your crafting experience the best it can be!

Stay safe and get crafty!!

April 12, 2019

Sweetest Berry Burst

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2019, As You See It, aysi, card, challenge, embossing, framelits, Stampin' Up, watercolor, watercolour 0 Comments

It’s time for another As You See It Challenge post. The challenge today is a sketch and I chose to use the Sweetest Thing Stamp Set from Stampin’ Up! for this sweet card.

But first, here’s the sketch:

Stampin’ Up! is coming close to a new annual catalogue and with that, there will be some products retiring to make way for new products. I’m so excited to see all the new things this weekend at the Stampin’ Up! OnStage Local event for Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators in Vancouver, BC, Canada!

My card today, shows off two of the In Colors that will be retiring at the end of May: Berry Burst and Powder Pink. I will be sad to see them go, but am excited to see what the new In Colors will be!

The candy jar image, the gummy bears, and the label image are all from the Sweetest Thing Stamp Set. I used the coordinating Jar of Sweets Framelits dies to die cut the jar and the label. It’s so awesome to have dies that work with your stamps! The jar image is stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock in Berry Burst ink and coloured with the use of a Stampin’ Up! Blender Pen and a little bit more Berry Burst ink to create a soft watercolour effect. I stamped the label image on Very Vanilla cardstock with Versamark ink, and heat set it with Basic Black Embossing Powder and my Heat Tool.

At the top of the jar is some Black Glitter Organdy Ribbon tied with a bow in Basic Black Baker’s Twine. Behind the jar are loops of Silver Metallic Thread.

I used the Subtles Textured Embossing Folder and my Big Shot to add texture to my Basic Black banner. The Pearlized Doily was coloured on the non-pearlized side with Soft Sea Foam ink. After attaching all of that to the Sahara Sand and Powder Pink cardstock, the final touch was to add the Gingham Gala Adhesive Backed Sequins.

And there it is! A sweet card for the As You See it Challenge. You know what? You should play along. Why not! You can totally come up with something awesome using the sketch and I would love to see what you create!

You can still order the retiring products, but remember that they can sell out quickly. The retiring list will be out soon, but don’t wait. Just order now and avoid missing out on the products you know that you love!