January 2, 2015

Enjoying Life

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques card, challenge, embossing, from my heart, Stampin' Up, technique 3 Comments

Welcome to my blog! My design today is a 5×7″ card for As You See It Challenge #068 featuring the From My Heart stamp set and the Back to Black designer series paper.

I’ve been taking a break from crafty expectations and obligations for the past couple of weeks. It’s time to jump back into all the “doing”, but the sentiment on this card represents the need to not forget the “being”. I have enjoyed playing Rock Band on the Play Station 3 with my family, playing charades, playing boardgames, going skiing, eating too much food and making spirits bright.

“I will not allow my busy life to interfere with my creative living”, has been my motto for this past year. It still applies, but I also need to add that I won’t allow my busy life to interfere with quality time with my family. I thought that was a given, but I think it’s important to remind myself that I need to take the opportunities to play games and enjoy my kids and my husband. Sometimes, I find myself denying them because I’m too busy with things that need to get done. Obligations and expectations that are put upon me mostly … by me.

Do you enjoy the passing of time? Or do you get caught up in the tasks and all the things that you want to accomplish in a day? Could it be that you let too much time pass and nothing gets done? Maybe you got it all figured out and have found balance between family, work, home, and all the things. I’d love to hear your secrets.

It’s a fun sketch with lots of possibilities. You can check out the diversity of our designers over at the As You See It Challenge to see what they’ve done with this one. I wanted my card to be simple, and it is … sort of. I ended up complicating it with twisted layers. LOL!

I started with the idea of using Whisper White craft ink over a section of the Back to Black Designer Series Paper, so that my sentiment could be seen. I found that the thin layer of ink wasn’t quite enough to fade out the black and white design, so I used Versamark ink directly to the paper, then used White Embossing powder over the area and melted it with my Heat Tool.

After giving the powder a minute to cool, I stamped the sentiment from the “From My Heart” stamp set over the white embossing with Stazon Jet Black ink. Still, the black and white pattern in the background seemed to harsh. I decided to fade it out with a bit of Whisper White craft ink. I added the ink directly from the ink pad to the paper, focusing on the edges, then I used a sponge to soften the ink, giving a softer look to the paper.

After all that, I ended up cutting off a lot of the sponged areas as I worked on my card. I’ll definitely use that technique again, though. I quite like the softer look and I suspect it will work beautifully on other patterned paper as well.

I used Whisper White bakers twine and Basic Pearls for the embellishments. Basic Gray, Soft Sky and Whisper White cardstock were used along side the Back to Black Designer Series Paper. I chose to mostly use thin white borders to show the layered edges. I even pulled those angles and thin edges to the inside of this 5×7 card.

I’m trying to make sure that I complete the inside of my cards as soon as I’m done the design as it can be very frustrating to grab a nice card to quickly write in as you run out the door (this happens more often than not, for me), only to find that you forgot to add a writing space inside the dark coloured card base. sheesh!

Because my card is 5×7″, I also needed to use a handmade envelope, which I did using my Envelope Punchboard. I decided to avoid squishing the card by making my envelope slightly fatter. To do this, I added 1/8″ of an inch to the paper size required to make a 5×7″ card, then when punching and scoring, I started with the usual score guide number first, then added a second punch and score on mark that is 1/8″ more. So, the envelope punch board guide says that I needed to punch and score at the 4 inch mark. I did that, then punched and scored again at the 4.1/8″ mark and carried on around my paper following the directions on the punchboard, but adding that second 1/8″ bigger mark. Folding those little score lines can be fussy because they are so close together.

Glad you came by for a visit today.

Be sure to show off your card using the As You See It sketch this week by linking it to the challenge site.

Hope you do!

Amy.

December 19, 2014

Groovy White

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, card, challenge, Groovy Love, Itty Bitty Accents, quick and cute, speed, Stampin' Up, Sweetheart, wedding 1 Comment

An all white card designed for the As You See It Challenge blog. I used the Groovy Love stamp set with the coordinating Sweetheart Punch from Stampin’ Up!

Gotta love the strain of a speed challenge. It’s a good exercise to stretch your creativity and push yourself. These 10 minute challenges are probably the toughest for me. Having to use all white definitely added another creative stretch. Technically, you could add vanilla or grey for this challenge, since they would be considered “shades” of white, but I opted for primarily white.

I managed to finish this card in 9 minutes and 53 seconds. Not too bad, considering the state of my craft room and that I made the mistake of cutting my nails nice and short. (Peeling off the backing of sticky strip with no fingernails and with a time limit can be very frustrating)

The card is nice, but needed a bit of a refining, so I did a second one. See if you can spot the subtle differences and tell me which one you like better.

You can see that I have fewer of the Basic Rhinestones on the second card. I also only rounded one corner with my Corner Rounder punch and lowered the placement of my ribbon. I added the small heart punch from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack. The biggest improvement for me was how I attached the strips of White Organza Ribbon. On the first card, I only put Sticky Strip on the back of the Whisper White Cardstock. This caused the ribbon to float a bit on the front of the card. I tried to anchor it after the fact by slipping a couple pieces of Sticky Strip underneath, but it just got more untidy. The second card used full strips of Sticky Strip across the front of the cardstock to anchor the entire length of the Organza ribbon, then a couple pieces on the back of the cardstock to secure the ends of the ribbon on the back. A much smoother and tidier finish on the second card.

Both cards have the sentiment from the Groovy Love stamp set stamped in Smoky Slate ink. Both cards have Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals under the heart, the first rectangle layer and the second rectangle layer. After all, an all-white card demands layers and texture!!

By the way, did you miss me last week? With the Christmas season upon us, I just couldn’t find the time to share a project with you. Each of my 3 kids had Christmas concerts that week (separate nights), and I was shopping all week to find something to wear to my husband’s staff Christmas party.

(Me + shopping for clothes = forever!!)

Life has been very busy. Take a look at the current state of my craft room. Consider it a representation of my head these days.

I suppose you can guess what I’ll be working on the next week or two. Gotta get this room functional again before the new year!

I know how busy the season can be, but why not take a 10 minute time out from it all and make a card? Load it up to the As You See It Challenge #67 and tell us how long it took. Even if your a little bit over, that’s okay. Stretch your creative brain!

December 5, 2014

Bauble and Gold

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas As You See It, blendabilities, challenge, Christmas, Christmas Bauble, Gorgeous Grunge, Holiday Invitation, sketch, Stampin' Up 3 Comments

Every Friday I share a card with you designed specifically for the As You See It Challenge blog. I quite like the card I have for you today created with the Christmas Bauble stamp that I received as a free gift from the Abbotsford Fall Conference, the Holiday Invitation stamp set I received from the Inspire Create Share Stampin’ Up Convention in Utah, and my favourite Gorgeous Grunge stamp set of which I happen to have an extra set that I won at the Abbotsford Fall Conference. How awesome it that!!

I love the simplicity that this sketch offers and I decided to go with it as a simple design, but with a LOT of colouring using my Stampin’ Up! Blendability markers and a bit of fussy cutting. I chose a Very Vanilla card base, on which I stamped two of the splatter images from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set in the Encore Gold ink. Then I used a ruler and my Gold Dazzle marker to draw a frame directly on the card base.

Then I stamped the Christmas Bauble stamp on Very Vanilla card stock twice with Momento Tuxedo Black ink – once as a full image and once just for the center circle of the image. These I coloured with the Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive Blendability markers and hand cut the image with my Paper Snips (LOVE these scissors!). I added a touch of the Gold Dazzle marker to the tiny dots on the image as well as some Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details to the red holly berries and set that aside to dry.

The center circle has been given a layer of Crystal Effects, which I gave ample time to dry overnight before applying it to the Christmas Bauble with Stampin’ Dimensionals. I attached the bauble itself to the card base with Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals as well, then added the Linen Thread bow with a Glue Dot which I first rolled into a smaller dot so it wouldn’t show under the thin Linen Thread.

The sentiment from the Holiday Invitation stamp set was stamped on a strip of Very Vanilla card stock in Cherry Cobbler ink. I hand cut the flagged edge of the paper strip and slipped the end under the center circle of the bauble and secured it in place with Multipurpose Liquid Glue on the bauble side and a Dimensional on the flagged end.

And I love how it turned out! Have you ever hand drawn anything directly on your stamped card? I don’t do it very often but am pleased with what it added to this card.

Why don’t you give the challenge a try? We love to receive inspiration from all the designs that come in. So link up your card or project that you do with this As You See It Challenge sketch and show us what you came up with!

Amy