April 2, 2021

Bloomin’ Fast

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute 2021, free as a bird, quick and cute, speed, Speed challenge 2 Comments

One of my favourite challenges that we do at the As You See It Challenge blog is the speed challenge! If you haven’t tried the speed challenge yet, I strongly encourage you to give it a whirl!

Here’s why:

Forces you to think fast, exercising your creative muscles – My usual design style is to overthink it. I trial and error different colour combinations, I’m indecisive about placement of accent elements, I end up removing an entire card front just so I can try it on a different colour, and I often just change my entire plan and do something completely different! When I do a speed challenge, it helps me to learn to trust my instincts and reject my unhealthy perfectionism.
Takes very little time out of your day – you need a few minutes to plan in your mind what you want to make, then gather your stamps, putting them on their acrylic blocks, have your ink pads and tools close, and have the paper (whole sheets, because cutting before you start the clock is a big no-no) and your paper trimmer ready. Then you have 10 minutes or less to actually make the card! Total time is maybe 15 or 20 minutes!
Is a great jumping-off point – I’m often not completely satisfied with the cards I design during a speed challenge, but one thing that always happens, whether I like my design or not, is inspiration for a design based on my speed challenge process. I’ll like an element on my super-fast card and will use that on the next card I make. The speed challenge jump starts my creative mojo!
It starts your creative engine – Do you ever feel like you’re not really “into it”? You feel blah and can’t find any inspiration on Pinterest or your favourite blogs? You scroll and scroll and scroll … and scroll. When you’re experiencing a creative slump, try a speed challenge. It will get your blood pumping again and increase the creative mojo flow into your brain. I don’t have any actual research to back me up on this, but I bet if we studied our brain before and after a speed challenge, you would find an increase in endorphins and dopamine.
You get better at it – I mentioned above that I’m often not satisfied with the final result of a speed challenge, but you know what? … I’ve improved. I used to like the resulting cards about 20% of the time, but now that I’ve had more practice and completed quite a few speed challenges over the years, I find that I’m really happy with my finished cards about 80% of the time. I think that’s pretty cool!

The challenge over at the As You See It Challenge blog today is a speed challenge to make a card in less than 10 minutes with a blossom theme. Blossoms are a perfect choice for March here in beautiful BC as the crocuses and early bulbs are starting to bloom and we are so looking forward to the blossoms on the fruit trees!

The flowers on my card are from the Free As A Bird stamp set from Stampin’ Up! I started the stopwatch on my phone and stamped the images in Tuxedo Black Momento Ink on Basic White cardstock. I used the Small Bloom Punch to punch out the larger blossom, then used my Flirty Flamingo, Mango Melody, Granny Apple Green, and Daffodil Delight Blends Markers to colour the blossoms and leaves. The Color Lifter on the larger blossom helped to soften the Flirty Flamingo a little bit.

9 minute and 44 seconds – just under the wire! Phew!

After my “bloomin’ fast” colouring, I trimmed the Basic White cardstock down to a square and used Stampin’ Dimensionals to attach it to the Sahara Sand card base. I stamped the sentiment on the Magenta Madness cardstock and cut it down to the size I wanted, attaching it to the Basic White square with more Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I tied a piece of Linen Trim into a bow and attached it and the larger punched out blossom to the card with Mini Glue Dots.

The final result is one that I can give to someone just to say hi and let them know that I’m thinking of them.

I might play around with this idea again and see if I can tweak the card base a bit. Maybe an embossing folder to add texture or maybe stamping a couple more leaves to the card base, peeking out from under the Basic White square. I’m feeling inspired with this particular jumping-off point, but I’m also happy with how this turned out. It’s a win-win!

January 8, 2021

Little Bit Late

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute 2021, birthday, quick and cute, Sale-a-bration, speed 1 Comment

Welcome to 2021! This will be a year of hope and a promise of better days to come! I just know it!

It’s good to be back after a break over the Christmas holidays. I didn’t do much. It was glorious!

Question: Are you a person who’s often early for things? Or maybe you arrive right on time?

I can be early and I can be on time, but it doesn’t come easily for me. I have a very poor concept of time and often misjudge how long it will take me to get ready to go somewhere or how long it takes to actually get there. I’m late for a lot of things – including sending birthday cards.

The card I designed for the As You See It Challenge this week has a sentiment that is a great choice for acknowledging a late birthday wish. As You See It has some new graphics on the blog, too!

We have a speed challenge, folks! This is undoubtedly my favourite challenge because it helps train me to be more aware of my time and it gets my creative mojo flowing!

I used scraps from some cards I was preparing for an upcoming event. The patterned paper is one that you can get for FREE during the Sale-a-bration Promotion with Stampin’ Up! – Flower & Field Designer Series Paper. I thought using scraps would make my card come together faster, but I still used up extra time as I fussed to get my bow straight, so this card took 9 minutes and 28 seconds to complete. I cut it a bit close!

After placing the 1/2″ strips of patterned paper (see the subtle weaving I did in the corner?), I inked up the sentiment from the Happiest of Birthdays stamp set from Stampin’ Up! with Just Jade ink, then I carefully inked over the “happy” and the “birthday” with Tuxedo Black Momento ink, before stamping it on my Whisper White cardstock. The little Matte Black Dots that I placed on the card are a new item in the January – June Mini Catalogue, while the Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon is an old favourite of mine. So lovely to work with and one that I often like to colour using the Stampin’ Blends Markers, though the white was just what I needed for this design.

I really like the simplicity of the angled background on the card base. I used Basic Black for the base, then cut a 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ piece of Blushing Bride cardstock in half on an angle and attached it to the front of the black base, before adhering my white layer with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I have a few birthday wishes that are running late … late enough that if I send this card out, maybe it should actually read HAPPY little-bit-early BIRTHDAY.

Oh man. I’m just going to have to put my shame aside and send it, one way or another!

Click the SHOP button on this page to browse the online store and see what new products are available. There are so many beautiful things just waiting for you to make them!

April 24, 2020

Speedy Spring Flowers

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute 2020, As You See It, host stamp set, quick and cute, speed, sweet and simple 2 Comments

“Behold, my friends, the spring is come;

the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun,

and we shall soon see the results of their love”

~ Sitting Bull

I know that spring has officially arrived when the crocuses in my front yard begin to bloom. I love when the grass gets greener and the street sweepers clean all the sand and grit from the neighborhood streets. You start to hear the red-winged blackbirds and the robins whistling their cheerful tunes. And the kids actually WANT to go outside.

Spring is a sign that the worst is over. Winter can’t throw much more at us. We can look forward to warmer days, barbecues on the patio, and longer hours of daylight. The earth wakes from it’s sleep and we, in turn, feel more alive! It’s a beautiful thing.

The theme for the speed stamping challenge today, is flowers. As in every speed challenge from the As You See It Challenge Blog, you have to make a card in 10 minutes or less. You can gather your supplies and have a plan, but you cannot pre-cut anything. I put my stamps on their blocks, I pull out the paper and inks that I want to use, and I start the clock!

I always seem to push it to the limit of my time. I usually know to avoid colouring, sponging, tying ribbon, or even die-cutting and embossing, as they just take too much time. I didn’t quite avoid all those things this time. Have a look at what I was able to create in 9 minutes an 50 seconds! Oh man! I just squeaked through, didn’t I?!!

This card has a Merry Merlot Cardstock base, to which I added a layer of my favorite Pressed Petals Specialty Designer Series Paper. So pretty! The stamped layer is Whisper White Cardstock, on which I stamped the flower image from the host stamp set, Soft Spring. This is such a pretty stamp set with multi-step stamping. I stamped the outline of the flower image four time using Momento Tuxedo Black ink. Then I stamped the leaf filler using Old Olive ink. Finally, I added the Merry Merlot flower filler to complete the image. At first, I though these flowers were lupins, but I realize that the leaves are completely wrong. I spent some time trying to figure out what kind of flowers they are, but nothing I found looks right. Either the flowers are wrong, or the leaves are wrong, or the stems are too tall. Whatever flowers these images are supposed to be, they’re very pretty.

After stamping all the parts of the flowers, I used Crumb Cake ink and sponged aroung all the edges to give a bit more of a warmth to the image. I used a small circle punch on both sides of this stamped cardstock to make notches for the Braided Linen Trim. I wrapped the trim around the cardstock and tied it in a bow, then attached the cardstock to my card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

This is where I should have stopped and called it done, but I wanted to add a sentiment. I chose words from the Peaceful Moments Stamp set and stamped it on a strip of Whisper White cardstock with Old Olive ink. I flagged the end and realized I was RUNNING OUT OF TIME!!

I SLAPPED on a couple of Mini Glue Dots and POPPED it on my card, STOPPING the clock with only

10 SECONDS TO SPARE!

Phew!! DONE!

That was close! I think I’m getting pretty good at making quick cards, though. I feel like I’ve come a long way! Practice practice practice!

Oh my gosh! There’s dog hair in my picture! Can you see it? LOL! I can’t escape it. It’s everywhere! If you have a dog or a cat, then I know you understand. If not, then all you have to know is that I’m an imperfect person and you just have to take me as I am or go enjoy someone else’s dog-hair-free, perfect pictures! HA!

Thanks for stopping by, my stamping friends. I hope you try this speed challenge. It really is a great creative exercise to get your blood pumping and your creative juices flowing. Do share it with us at the As You See It Challenge blog. We love to see your creations!