November 27, 2015

Time for Tinsel

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas As You See It, card, challenge, Christmas, colour challenge, Gorgeous Grunge, Stampin' Up, star framelits, Versatile Christmas 1 Comment

And here we are, in British Columbia, Canada, with the frosty cold weather finally upon us, the crunchy snow squeaking under our feet, the “whoah-that-was-close” feeling when you slip on a patch of ice and catch yourself just in time, the thoughts of Christmas decorations and all the crafty plans to make the season bright, and the cozy pleasure of drinking rum and Eggnog by the fire.

This is a season filled with warmth of heart. Family, friends, good deeds, and good food, all contribute to internal warmth when the weather outside is frightful.

Christmas cards are part of the sharing of that warmth – warming the hearts of others. The colour challenge for today’s As You See It Challenge might help you warm someone from the inside out!

Love these crazy colours. The Real Red and Bermuda Bay combo is wild and playful, while the Mossy Meadow is the “calm it down” addition to the trio.

I decided to work with a lot of white space to make my card bright and wintery with pops of colour to keep it fun!

I used the Whisper White Thick Cardstock for the card base (LOVE that stuff!), then did a narrow mat layer of Whisper White under the decorated layer of Whisper White that is paper pierced all around the edge using my Paper Piercing Tool, Stampin’ Pierce Mat, and my Updated Essentials Paper Piercing Pack. That layer is raised on Stampin’ Dimensionals to allow the shadow beneath it to accentuate the paper piercing detail.

The decorated layer of Whisper White was stamped using the splotch images from the Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set. I used Bermuda Bay and Mossy Meadow ink. Then I added the strip of the Holiday Fancy Foil Designer Vellum, before placing my star image with the sentiment.

The sentiment is from the Versatile Christmas Stamp Set and is stamped in Jet Black Stazon Ink on Whisper White cardstock. This was then carefully die cut with one of the stars from my Star Framelits. I then used my Paper Piercing Tool again with the template to add the paper piercing detail on the star.

The star was adhered to the card front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The little stars were created with the Confetti Stars Punch from Whisper White cardstock and Red Foil paper. These were adhered with the very beloved Fine-Tip Glue Pen, perfect for adhering all your little detail items to your projects!

The Red Pom Pom trim and the Bermuda Bay Baker’s Twine were the perfect compliment to the playfulness of this card design.

Be sure to stop by this Tuesday to see what I have for blog candy!! It’s coming!

Have a great weekend! Be sure to play along this week with this fun colour combination. I hope you share what you come up with by linking it to the As You See It Challenge Blog. I can’t wait to see!!

October 9, 2015

Glade Jul

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas As You See It, challenge, Christmas, embossing, Stampin' Up, star framelits 8 Comments

I used to work at a care home for people with brain injuries and dementia, primarily elderly men and women who were at risk of wandering and getting lost or of being confused to the point that they could become aggressive. I was a student nurse at the time, so was often asked to simply visit with the residents and help maintain a calm environment. Sometimes, I would walk around the hall with a very very VERY tall, elderly Norwegian man and he would correct me on what little Norwegian I knew. I would count to ten with him “en, to, tre …” or sing with him.

My favourite thing would be to walk arm in arm with him and sing “Silent Night” in Norwegian. “Glade jul, hellige jul …”. Silent Night is one of my most loved Christmas carols. I think fondly of that time with that lovely man.

I never did see him act out in violence when I was there. Probably a good thing, since he was so very very tall.

My card for you today is inspired first by this sketch from the As You See It Challenge Blog and second by my favourite Christmas carol, “Silent Night”.

I just love the patterned paper with the notes on it in the Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper from Stampin’ Up! I wish we could by sheets and sheets of that one pattern for this time of year!

Tip Top Taupe cardstock was used for this card base with a bit of light sponging in Tip Top Taupe ink around the edges of the cardstock. I also sponged some Tip Top Taupe ink around the edges of the sheet music patterned paper from the Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper. This was adhered along side the strip of Black Glimmer paper (not just for Halloween!!) to the card base.

But my favourite elements on this card are all in the middle with that star! I stamped the tree image from the Wonderland Stamp Set in Versamark ink and heat embossed it with Black Embossing powder. All this on the Happy Haunting piece of Designer Series Paper. WHAT! Yes, folks, I used Halloween paper on a Christmas card! The vanilla stars on the black background represent a beautiful ‘silent night’. I sponged some Tuxedo Black Momento ink around the edges of the star and adhered it to the card with some Stampin’ Dimensionals so it could be raised off the page a wee bit.

My friend, Stacey, was working with me in my craft room while I was designing this one and it was her suggestion to use the Window Sheet for the banner element. It was the perfect way to add a banner as per the sketch, without taking away from the image on the star.

I stamped the notes from the Jingle All the Way stamp set with Versamark ink onto the clear acetate Window Sheet, then heat set it with Gold Embossing powder. This was die cut using my Big Shot and the Bitty Banner framelit before very carefully wrapping the Gold Metallic Thread around the end and tying it into a bow. A Mini Glue Dot hides behind this cluster of gold thread to adhere the Window Sheet banner to the star.

For the final touch, the three Gold Sequin pieces were added to the card using my Fine-Tipped Glue Pen.

Glad you could check out my blog today. You can purchase stamping supplies online by clicking the “shop now” button on this page. Or you can contact me by email to order or ask questions.

Don’t forget to also check out the creations from other designers on the As You See It Challenge blog. They have some lovely versions of this very same sketch.

Here are some beautiful Norwegian voices singing ‘Silent Night’ for you. Enjoy:

October 2, 2015

Jingle Jingle Little Star

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Christmas, Events As You See It, card, challenge, Christmas, home for christmas, jingle all the way, Stampin' Up, star framelits 0 Comments

My title makes me chuckle. Not that clever of a title, really, but I chuckle just the same.

It’s been a CRAAAAZY week. My family has hardly seen me. When they have, they find me completely distracted and disengaged from reality. I’ve been working on my preparations for the BC Crop for Kids event which takes place in Abbotsford this weekend. I am sponsoring a class and hosting my own vendor table on Saturday. I haven’t participated in this particular event, making it all new to me. I also don’t do vendor shows often – maybe once per year, so it takes a lot to get organized. The class I’ve chosen to do has a TONNE of prep, but I have been incredibly blessed with friends who gave their time to cut the gazillions of pieces of paper, ribbons, and dies to help me. Not only that, but many of them also donated supplies toward the class in honour of the BC Children’s Hospital foundation, for which the event is raising funds.

So, I want to give a shout out and a HUGE THANK YOU to all of those gals who spend hours at my house cutting and embossing!

Part of my prep involved having a make and take project at my vendor table for 40-50 ladies to enjoy. The As You See It Challenge this week seemed like a good opportunity to hit two birds with one stone. Here’s the challenge sketch:

My make and take card will be very similar to this one, but the patterned paper will vary, of course.

I used Crumb Cake cardstock for my card base, then a Very Vanilla mat under another layer of Crumb Cake cardstock. The next two layers are Cherry Cobbler and a strip of Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper.

I used some Gold Foil paper with my Star Framelits and embellished it with a triple swirl of Metallic Gold Thread. I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to pop it up off the page a bit.

In the image above, you can see how the Very Vanilla banner is curled a bit. I did this by sliding the banner between a bone folder and my thumb until the paper curved to my satisfaction. I tacked down the ends of the banner to the paper with Tombo Multipurpose Liquid Glue.

The stamped images are from the Jingle All the Way stamp set. I used Real Red ink for the sentiment and Crumb Cake ink for the musical notes.

The final step was to add the Gold sequin with my Fine Tipped Glue Pen.

I think that’s the fastest post I’ve ever written! Back to prepping and planning. I have to be ready to go by one o’clock today. EEK!