October 24, 2015

Woodland Embossing Folder

Amy Jasper Christmas, Techniques card, Christmas, embossing, Stampin' Up, technique, tutorial, woodland folder 122 Comments

The Woodland embossing folder by Stampin’ Up! is so versatile for Christmas, Halloween, fall, winter, summer – it can literally be used for anything!

My new favourite is to use it to create a forest scene. I’ve seen this done by a few other demonstrators, but I ran into a few problems along the way and thought I could share my trouble-shooting with you.

First, here’s the card I made and have since fallen in love with:

To created this card, I used a direct ink pad to embossing folder technique. This has been done before, but this time I used Soft Sky where the lower half of the sky was going to be, then used Pool Party for the upper half of the sky.

My first few attempts gave me blobs and pools of colour that didn’t jive with my expectations. This is likely because my ink pads are nice and juicy. Normally, you want a juicy ink pad for great colour distribution, but it can backfire a bit on you with solid flat sections on a stamp or when you want to use the ink pad for sponging techniques.

You could work with some of these effects for a different overall look, but I was looking for something softer and smoother.

Soft Sky ink – no brayer

Soft Sky ink – spritzed with water – no brayer

Soft Sky ink – with brayer

When I get blotches of ink on a stamp (like when I used my Definitely Dahlia background stamp), I will often roll my brayer over the stamp surface after inking it to thin and smooth the ink. I decided to try it with the ink on my folder.

Once I sorted out my sky and decided on the Pool Party/Soft Sky ink combo, I could proceed with directly stamping my Winter Wonderland trees with Mossy Meadow ink on the Woodland embossing folder. I stamped them in varying heights and was careful to re-ink my stamp each time to ensure every tree was solid.

With my images and inking completed, I was ready to press my Whisper White cardstock. If you lay the paper on the un-inked side of your embossing folder, you will avoid the risk of smudging the ink on the cardstock. I chose to lay my paper dead center on the un-inked side of the folder so that the messy bottom area of my stamped trees wouldn’t show on my cardstock, but I would have a nice tree line showing in the middle-upper area of my cardstock piece.

Fold it all together carefully, holding it so it does. not. move, run it through the Big Shot.

Vacant areas actually work on this project, because it is an art piece. You can interpret those vacant areas as wisps of clouds or even snow.

Finishing the card was simple. I didn’t want to cover up the pretty woodland image, but wanted to highlight it as much as I could. I started with a Crumb Cake mat behind the embossed cardstock and layered that on my Thick Whisper White card base with Stampin’ Dimensionals. The sentiment from the Hostess stamp set, Six Sayings, was stamped in Early Espresso ink on a Whisper White banner. Linen Thread tied in a bow to finish it with a bit of natural texture.

The final touch is adding the 3 sequins (pronounced “seek-wins”, not “sequence”, lol!). I thought of them as Christmas ornaments hanging from the trees, but they could also be thought of as sparkly snow softly falling from the sky.

You can order any of these products by clicking the ‘shop now’ button on my website or by contacting me through my email.

Now, don’t stop there. If you liked this tutorial, go and give it a try for yourself. Don’t have that embossing folder? Play around with what you have and see what you come up with!

Now get stamping!

July 10, 2015

Speedy Colour Blocking

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques 2015, As You See It, card, challenge, Colour Blocking, Greetings Thinlits, speed, Stampin' Up, technique, thinlits 0 Comments

I love speed stamping! It gets the heart pumping and pushes my creativity! Today’s challenge is all about shades of pink! Can you make a card in under 10 minutes? It’s tough, but I’m proud to say that I did it just under the wire at 9 minutes and 59 seconds! Phew!

I decided to do colour blocking with my pink cardstock. Here’s what I came up with:

I probably would have done it in less time had I not had a minor issue with my big shot and then stuck my colourful layer down crooked! I’m pleased with the overall look of the card, but thought it needed one more thing. Can you see the difference?

The Blossom Accent in Watermelon Wonder adds a lot to the design, I think.

The card base is the Thick Whisper White cardstock (love this!). To a piece of Whisper White cardstock, I added strips of coloured cardstock (shades of pink) including Melon Mambo, Watermelon Wonder, Blushing Bride, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, and Real Red (yes, red is a shade of pink … a very dark shade of pink). Then I trimmed it down to the size that I wanted it and ran it through the Big Shot with the ‘thanks’ from the Greetings Thinlits. The two bottom corners were rounded with the Project Life corner rounder punch and the Black Baker’s Twine was wrapped around this piece of cardstock for added interest and texture. That entire layer was then adhered to the card base with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals.

And the beautiful Blossom Accent was added after my 10 minute mark was done.

That’s it. Easy Peasy.

You should try this challenge. Seriously! This is such a good exercise to help you get your creative mojo going. Even if you absolutely HATE your card when you’re done, it can spur on some new creative flow and teach you to be more efficient in the future.

Give it a try and show it off on the As You See It Challenge blog so we can see what you’ve created!

Amy

July 3, 2015

Beautiful Friend

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques alphabet rotary stamp, As You See It, Awesomely artistic, card, challenge, collage, dyed ribbon, embossing, masking, Stampin' Up, technique 0 Comments

Welcome to my blog where I have the joy of sharing my love of designing with paper and ink using my beloved supplies from Stampin’ Up! Today’s design shows off the new Awesomely Artistic stamp set and begins with an As You See It colour challenge.

I love the whimsical beauty that a dragonfly image automatically adds to artwork, whether it’s a photograph, a painting, a scrapbook layout, or a card design.

This colour combination calls for Not Quite Navy, which is a colour that has retired from Stampin’ Up’s colour collections. It was a favourite of mine. However, since it isn’t available, I chose the next best thing: Night of Navy. It’s a lovely rich navy blue, that when a bit of the same colour of ink is sponged around the edges, it makes it even more rich and gorgeously deep!

I wanted to add some ribbon to my card, but didn’t have anything that worked. Since necessity is the mother of invention, I chose to dye some satin ribbon to match my project!

Tips:

Use gloves. I am pretty good at keeping my hands and my workspace clean, but dying ribbon is a messy process. Gloves will be a member of my craft studio from now on.
Use a small container. A small container allows you to be frugal with your ink refill. A small ziplock baggie works great and gives you freedom to squish your ink and ribbon around, ensuring total coverage. I chose to use an empty embellishment container and coiled my ribbon inside. It was very cool to watch the colour wick up the ribbon until it was saturated.
More ink gives a darker colour. I started with 12 drops of ink refill and a couple teaspoons of water and my ribbon came out a lovely steel blue, but it wasn’t quite as dark as I wanted. I added 20 more drops of ink to the same container and placed my coiled ribbon in it again. This gave me the desired colour.
Dry the ribbon. If your ribbon is wet, it will colour anything it touches. You can lay your ribbon on a paper towel and let it dry overnight. If you’re impatient (like me), you can dab it on a paper towel until most of the wet comes off, then hold in in your (un-gloved) hand and use your heat tool over it like a blow dryer (not too close). Holding it in your hand will prevent you from melting your ribbon (because you will feel the heat on your hand). If your ribbon isn’t dry, you will see marks of ink on your project as you add your ribbon. Also, it will not adhere well if you use glue dots or other adhesive to attach a bow.
Different ribbon give varied results. Satin ribbon takes colour beautifully. Others will take colour differently, so test it out and see how it goes. Some ribbons are treated with sizing, which make them repel water, so they require extra work to get them to absorb the colour. You can wash them ahead of time in the sink or just take the time to massage in the colour (plastic bag technique would be the best container choice in this case).
Not always true to colour. Some inks won’t give true colour on your ribbon. Sometimes it’s the ribbon, but sometimes it’s as though the ink separates. For example, I have seen Chocolate Chip ink end up a dusty rose pink colour when used on ribbon!

I ruched the ribbon using a length of Tear Tape to adhere it as I ruffled and attached, ruffled and attached. The photo above also shows the piece of Daffodil Delight cardstock, which I textured by running it between my bone folder and my thumb multiple times until the fibres in the paper began softening. I actually softened it enough that I could separate it into two layers which makes a sort of suede-like finish (can’t really see it in the photo). This process makes the paper really pliable for a nice distressed look. I stamped it with the textured image from the Awesomely Artistic stamp set for an added amount of colour and texture.

And I’m quite pleased with the use of the black Candy Dot in the Candy Dot brad! I can’t remember the last time I used one of these brads with the Candy Dots! It looks great!

The sentiment is a combination of the Greeting Thinlits “hello”, which I created using Daffodil Delight cardstock with that same texture stamp image over it; the “beautiful” is created using the Rotary Alphabet stamp; and the “friend” image from the Awesomely Artistic stamp set.

I was very pleased with my circle section of this card. I started by rubbing my Embossing Buddy over the paper and stamping the floral image from the Awesomely Artistic stamp set by first inking the stamp with Versamark ink, then inking over that with Daffodil Delight ink. This allows the ink to stay “wet” longer so I could cover it with Clear Embossing powder and heat-set it with my Heat Tool. Once set, I added Night of Navy ink over it with a sponge and circular motions. Torn pieces of sticky note paper were applied as a mask to create the vacant area on the circle.

After sponging to my heart’s content, I used my Embossing Buddy again and stamped my dragonfly with Jet Black Stazon. Then I applied Black Embossing Powder and used my Heat Tool. I applied the Night of Navy splatter with the splatter image stamp from the same stamp set.

The thin mat of Daffodil Delight cardstock was a great finish to the overall card. It looked so plain before adding that splash of light. That Daffodil Delight mat is on Stampin’ Dimensionals, as is the circle of Whisper White cardstock with the dragonfly image.

I had the pleasure of stamping with a friend while creating this card. I think that’s why the sentiment says “hello beautiful friend” – because I was thinking of her. She was my muse for the day. Thanks Gwen!

What would you do with this colour combination? Try it and share it with the As You See It Challenge blog! We love to see what you create!

Amy