Stampin’ Up

Rooted in Nature Sand Dollar

Have you ever looked at an image in a stamp set and thought, “That reminds me of a ______!”

Well, I keep looking at the cross cut wood image in the Rooted in Nature Stamp Set by Stampin’ Up! and am thinking exactly that! It reminds me so much of a sand dollar at the beach. I looked at a few images of sand dollars on Google and decided to try to create one using the stamp as a starting point.

My creative inspiration was from another As You See It Challenge – this one is a beach theme, which, of course, was the perfect opportunity to alter the wood image.

This card used some art skills beyond my usual application for my cards. I also used some supplies from the June Paper Pumpkin kit. If you don’t get Paper Pumpkin, I highly recommend it! If you don’t have a Demonstrator, feel free to use my name to sign up. You get wonderful stamping kits in the mail each month so you can create beautiful hand made cards or home decor with ease. It’s fun and a great escape from the stresses of the world!

Here’s my finished card:

I stamped the wood cut image on Whisper White Cardstock with Sahara Sand ink. Then I had to use some creative art skills to draw the centre image to make it look like the image in a sand dollar. I originally tried to find a stamp or a die that would fit the shape I was looking for, but with no success, I reached for a pencil.

I drew the image that looks like a five petal flower onto the centre of the wood cut stamped image. Then I used the pen end of my Gray Granite Stampin’ Write Marker to darken my pencil drawing. My Blender Pen also got involved to soften my marker lines and create a bit of shading and imperfections that you would find in nature. It took a couple of tries before I got it right, but it was a lot more successful than I thought it would be!

I used my pencil again to draw the long ovals that I wanted to cut with a craft knife. A punch would have been nice, but I didn’t have anything that would work. After carefully cutting these, I used my Gray Granite Stampin’ Write Marker again (this time, I used the brush tip) to darken the edge of the paper inside the holes to give the impression of depth. The colour bled more than I intended it to, but the effect ended up working for me. (Lucky!)

The rest of the card involves paper layering and some heat embossing with Gold Embossing powder on Vellum cardstock. I also sponged some Bermuda Bay ink over the upper portion of one of my Whisper White cardstock layers to create a sort of sky for my beach scene. This with the torn layers of Coastal Cabana, Sparkle Glimmer Paper, and a piece of patterned paper from the Woven Threads Designer Series Paper, along with some Linen Thread tied in a loopy bow, complete my beach-themed card.

Let me know what you think. Did I successfully turn a stamped image of a piece of wood into a sand dollar? Have you ever tried to alter a stamped image to make it look like something else?

Bird Ballad and Paper Pumpkin

I was so pleased to see that the bird images in the May Paper Pumpkin kit by Stampin’ Up! were a perfect match to the birds on the Bird Ballad Designer Series paper! (Available for purchase June 4th when the annual 2019-2020 catalogue sales period begins!). I figured this was too perfect to pass up! You can find out more about Paper Pumpkin by clicking HERE.

My card design today uses some elements and stamps left over from the May 2019 Paper Pumpkin kit, Hugs from Shelli.

But first, here’s the As You See It Challenge sketch that was my jumping off point for this card.

I started with a piece of Pool Party cardstock on which I already applied Embossing Paste with the cloud mask as part of one of my Facebook Live tutorial videos. If you’d like to see more about how you can use Embossing Paste, click HERE to see the Facebook video.

The strip of Bird Ballad Designer Series Paper was adhered to the card, then I die cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock using one of the circles from the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies and ran it through the Big Shot die cutting machine. On the circle, I stamped one of the bird images from the Paper Pumpkin kit with Basic Gray Classic Ink.

See how it matches the patterned paper! So cool!

Adhered to the circle with Stampin’ Dimensionals, is one of the vellum feathers from the Hugs from Shelli May Paper Pumpkin Kit along with a strip of woodgrain patterned paper from Nature’s Poem Designer Series Paper. One of the sentiments from the Paper Pumpkin kit was stamped on the woodgrain paper strip. Linen thread tied in a bow around the strip of woodgrain patterned paper adds a bit of texture.

To complete the card, the cloud covered Pool Party Paper was adhered to a piece of Basic Gray cardstock. Finally, it was all attached to the Pool Party card base with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The Hugs from Shelli May Paper Pumpkin Kit is beautiful. You can see it being unboxed and assembled in this VIDEO. Stampin’ Up! is putting out some gorgeous Paper Pumpkin kits lately. Subscribe to Paper Pumpkin so you can get these beautiful crafting kits delivered to your door each month. Click on this LINK to make it happen!!

Why not give this sketch a try for yourself. You can even share it with us by posting a photo of it online (your blog, Pinterest, public Facebook post, etc) then linking it to the As You See It Challenge Blog by following the prompts. I hope you do! We love seeing your beautiful creations!

(There’s a lot of links in this post, I hope you find your way.)




Sweetest Berry Burst

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!