February 20, 2015

Simply Pressed “Cake”

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques alphabet rotary stamp, alphanumerical mold, As You See It, card, challenge, Fingertip double loop bow, simply pressed clay, Stampin' Up, technique 3 Comments

Stampin’ Up Simply Pressed Clay is something I loved the idea of, but up until now had little interest in using the flower or button molds that were available. I finally tried my clay when my new Stampin’ Up, oh-so-fun, Alphanumerical mold arrived!

I love words – the shapes, the meaning, the linear order of them. They are powerful and beautiful and can be smart, witty, sarcastic, sweet, painful and wise. Words give us so many possibilities. Though, I am often tongue-tied by the deeper introvert within me and may not be as eloquent as I would like to be in my writing style, I love that words have the power to evoke emotion, philosophical thinking, a search for meaning, and can open up all sorts of doors in our lives.

(literally – i.e. “open sesame” in the tale of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, as well as “Speak, friend, and enter” from The Lord of the Rings. lol!)

Check out the sketch for this week’s As You See it Challenge #075:

Here’s my Simply Pressed Clay card design:

I started with a Whisper White cardstock base. It was one that I had accidentally smudged with ink, so I cut a 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of the Sale-a-bration paper called Best Year Ever and adhered it to cover the entire front of the card base. I felt so clever, covering up that smudge, lol!

I changed the orientation of my card from landscape to portrait and rounded the corners with the Project Life Corner Rounder Punch. I used Blushing Bride cardstock for the squares and I lightly sponged the edges of those squares with Blushing Bride ink. The EAT banner at the top is stamped using my new Alphabet Rotary stamp (more words! So fun!) with Momento Tuxedo Black ink on Whisper White cardstock, matted with Gold Foil paper. I hand-cut the flag end of the banner.

The Simply Pressed Clay was carefully pressed into the letters in the mold, then I place it in the freezer for a few minutes to allow the letters to set before removing them from the mold so they could continue to dry. The first time I used the mold, I dabbed the Embossing Buddy over the mold so it could act like flour in a cake pan and prevent the clay from sticking. This was not such a good idea as it discoloured my white clay with stained gray powder. (I’ll used those letters when I want to take the time to colour them). Once the letters were completely dry, I used Tombo Multipurpose Liquid Glue to attach them to my card front. Then I tucked in my Gold Sequins under the letter “K” in accordance with the stars on the sketch.

For the gold strip, I cut a thin piece of Gold Glimmer paper and adhered the Venetian Crochet Trim to the back with Tombo liquid glue, the attached both together to my cardfront with more glue. Finally, I tied the double bow, using the Fingertip Double Loop bow technique as seen in this Youtube video, and applied it to the Glimmer paper with a Glue Dot.

A fun and pretty word card, playfully commanding that you “eat cake” on your special day!

On a personal note, my family likes chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. We went cross-country skiing last Saturday (as we often do) and found that the warm weather had melted all the snow in the parking lot, leaving us to maneuver through a muddy mess.

The kids commented that it looked like chocolate frosting! lol!

Thanks for visiting today! Hope you’ll play along at the As You See It Challenge Blog and share your take on this sketch!

Amy.

February 13, 2015

Sweet Birthday

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques As You See It, card, challenge, Hooray it's your day, little letter, photopolymer, Stampin' Up, technique, thinlits 1 Comment

What!!? It’s Friday again?!!

The weeks just fly by with my goals for things-to-complete left far far behind! I bought a magnet for my fridge that says this:

So, maybe I didn’t get my craft room cleaned up. Maybe I didn’t get around to getting ahead on any craft projects. Maybe next week will be better … or maybe it won’t. But, you know what? The world keeps turning, which means I get another chance to get those things done.

1. Set a goal

2. Don’t reach goal

3. Revise goal

4. Repeat as needed

Here’s a simple and appropriate theme challenge in the week with Valentine’s Day:

My card is simple, but uses a technique that I saw shared by Jennifer Timko. I have her adorable project pinned on my Papercrafting Ideas Pinterest board HERE. She has a tutorial video to help you create the look with the letters as I have done in my card for the challenge.

I have to admit, that the big chocolate on the front of this card made it off-balance and impossible to stand on its own. In hindsight, I would have used my 1-3/4″ circle punch on the front of the card to allow the chocolate to be adhered inside the card in such a way that it would peek-a-boo through the circle. Then the weight would be more centered in the card base.

Here’s the card without the chocolate heart. Still cute.

I used Pistachio Pudding cardstock for the card base, then there is a thin matt layer of Strawberry Slush cardstock. The patterned paper is a sheet from the Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series paper. This paper has a unique, almost plastic or magazine glossy finish to it, giving it a wonderful, professional finish for your projects. The Little Letter thinlits were partially cut from the Strawberry Slush cardstock top layer that was stamped with the “birthday girl” image from the Hooray It’s Your Day photopolymer stamp set.

The Gold Bakers Twine is wrapped and tied around the three top layers before they were adhered to the card base with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals. The candy heart was attached with many Glue Dots to make sure it was secured well to the card.

I hope you try this theme challenge over at As You See It this week. So many ways to interpret themes! You could do a card, a 3D project, home decor, or anything to do with “sweet”. Babies are sweet. Success is sweet. Cupcakes are sweet. So many paper-crafting possibilities!!

Happy crafting!

Amy

February 6, 2015

Just Mail it Already!!

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Events, Techniques As You See It, blendabilities, challenge, embossing, leadership2015, masking, photopolymer, Stampin' Up, technique 0 Comments

Oh, how I missed you last week. How’ve you been? I was away at the Leadership Conference for Stampin’ Up! down in Orlando, Florida. The time change was harder for me than ever! But I learned so much and have a lot to work on to improve my business and my home life! I was especially touched and inspired by what our keynote speaker had to say about the power and significance of handwritten notes and letters in this world of emails, texts and Social Media updates. His words and the stories that he shared of people reading messages from loved ones who have passed on, sparked a flame in me to change my ways – just a little bit.

I love making cards. Really love it. And I love showing others how to make cards. But do you think I can get myself to send a card? To remember to send one before the birthday or event for which that card is intended? No. I am TERRIBLE at that! I have an ever-growing collection of hand-made cards that have been mailed to NO ONE!!

So, this week, I decided to share the inspiration with my Monthly Stampers group. I gave them each an envelope with a postage stamp and encouraged them to use one of the cards that we finished in our class that day to mail to a loved one. To write the address on the envelope right then and there. To write in the card, and mail it on their way home. I did this for them, yes, but I did this for me. My card will go to my Granny, whom I seldom see, and it seems as though she is a world away. I have written in my card. I have addressed the envelope. It has been mailed. My hope is that lives will be touched by our hand-written notes of love and gratitude. The notes and cards that share a bit of us. Our hand-writing is only ours. These notes are not about the words on the page so much as they are about the hand that wrote them. Hand-written notes have a personal touch, and therefore, a personal and relational connection, that typed messages will never carry.

Oh ya, and here’s the As You See It Challenge Sketch for my design this week:

And the card that I made:

This card kinda makes me smile. I can’t say that it’s my favourite, but the colours are happy and fun. It’s playful.

I started with the Coastal Cabana card base and added the piece of Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper (only available for FREE through the Sale-a-bration promotion). I adhered that piece with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals simply because I have the added bulk of the Baker’s Twine around it, making it lumpy if I were to adhere it flat to the card base. I have a White Paper Doily behind the Basic Black piece of cardstock. That piece is where the real fun began!!

I used one of my free stamps from Leadership, out of the Balloon Bash stamp set, and inked it up with the clear Versamark ink, stamping it on the Basic Black cardstock and heat setting some White embossing powder on it. I stamped it multiple times over the cardstock, being careful to mask off the words under the candles on this particular image. Then I used my Blendability markers (I received 4 new colours from Prize Patrol at Leadership!) over the embossed candles. It makes them so fun and colourful! I love this technique!!

The Basic Black embossed piece was attached to the card with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals. That same stamp, from which I masked off the words, I now masked off the image and used the words with Tuxedo Black Momento ink on the Pink Pirouette banner. The HB image was inked with Melon Mambo ink, stamped on Whisper White cardstock, and hand-cut to apply (yes, with Dimensionals again!) to the 1-3/4″ circle punch of Basic Black cardstock.

The hashtag sentiment was stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento ink by masking off the HB part of that particular image, so I could just capture the word on that piece of the card. This resulted in a Melon Mambo smudge of ink just under the hashtag symbol, but, guess what, you can barely see it!! Why can’t you see it, you ask? I used my White Gel pen to colour over the pink smudge! Phew! Saved!

I hope you’ll try this technique with your Blendability markers. It only works with the alcohol markers as the water-based markers will wipe right off of the glossy finish. Keep in mind that if you spend too long colouring over the heat embossed areas, the alcohol in the markers will start to break down the embossed material, so keep your colouring brief!

Now, go, make a card for this sketch challenge, load it up to the As You See It Challenge blog so we can all ooh and ahh. Then … just mail it already!!! Bless someone with a hand-made, hand-written, personally to them, card. You’ll make their day better 🙂

Amy