watercolour

May 1, 2015

Retiring Light of My Life

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques argyle embossing, As You See It, aysi#85, card, challenge, glowing lights, Stampin' Up, technique, today and everyday, top note die, watercolour 0 Comments

There are so many favourite things that are retiring as the 2014/2015 Stampin’ Up! catalogue comes to a close at the end of May. They need to make room for NEW favourite things!! I’m purposely featuring retiring product in my next few posts so that you won’t miss out on your chance to order these items before they’re gone for good!!

My design for As you See It Challenge #85 features the Today and Everyday stamp set, the Top Note Bigz Die, and the Argyle Embossing Folder, all of which are on the retiring list. The Argyle embossing folder also happens to be 50% off! If you haven’t seen the retiring list, you should definitely have a look. A lot of items are discounted.

Here are some colours that definitely screamed “FOR THE CHILDREN!!” to me, lol! However, I resisted the urge to make a kid themed card (though these colours are absolutely perfect for that purpose – so crisp and playful).

Instead, I went for bright and happy!

I really wanted to play around with light in my water colouring for this design. I cut my Top Note shape from some Watercolour paper and stamped my image with Jet Black Stazon ink. Starting with Daffodil Delight ink and an Aqua Painter, I highlighted all the areas that I wanted to appear to be glowing with light, focusing on a spot inside the lanterns as well as colour-washing around the lanterns. After allowing that to dry, I went in again with each of the lantern colours (Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, and Daffodil Delight) working around the area where I had already applied the Daffodil Delight highlights and focusing darker, more saturated colour on the edges of each lantern. Less water and more ink allows for greater saturation of colour. I love that I can squish the ink pad when it’s closed so that the ink smudges onto the inside of the lid. Then, when it’s opened, you can use the inside of the lid as a palette for your colouring. You can also just apply a drop of re-inker in the inside of the lid.

When the colouring was complete, it was time to work on the second layer of this design. I chose Daffodil Delight cardstock for my base and a layer of the same colour over it with texture for added interest. That’s where the Argyle Embossing Folder comes in. I only put about 2/3 of the piece of cardstock into the folder, leaving that 1/3 untouched and smooth. I like this look. Sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing, so this eases off on the weight that embossing adds to a project. I did my two line scoring technique at the junction of the embossed and the smooth, just to give it a more finished look. Then, the Basic Black Baker’s Twine was wrapped around three times and tied in a bow with lovely long tails.

If you have ever visited my blog before, then you KNOW how much I use and LOVE my Stampin’ Dimensionals. This design has them too, of course! Each layer is popped up on these lovely little hexagon shaped foam stickers. Rarely a flat card you will see in my hand-made collection!

Lastly, one of my favourite things to do with the Top Note Bigz Die: A decorative inside to finish off my design. The same image on the front was stamped with coordinating Daffodil Delight ink onto a die cut piece of Whisper White cardstock and adhered for a pretty little writing space.

What do you think? What’s on your list of supplies to buy before June 2nd. Some things are already sold out! Be sure to put your order in sooner than later so you aren’t disappointed.

Make sure you give this colour challenge a go. It’s fun, cheerful, bright, happy, crisp, and playful, too. Great colours to cheer someone up with – to light up someone’s life!!

Amy

April 3, 2015

Starburst Spring Card

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, Techniques As You See It, card, challenge, From the Garden, Handpicked Framelits, kinda eclectic, markers, masking, Mother's Love, photopolymer, Stampin' Up, Starbust Framelits, technique, unusual shape, watercolour 1 Comment

It’s time for another challenge card with my Stampin’ Up papercrafting supplies. I was getting tired of the usual 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ rectangles, so I went with circular card today using the Starbust Framelits and some faux water colouring. Gotta shake it up a bit now and then, lol!

Here’s the challenge sketch that I started with from the As You See It Challenge blog:

I decided to work with my Water Colour Paper, Handpicked Framelits, the From the Garden stamp set, the Mother’s Love Stamp set and some spritzing with water!

I shared this card with my technique class just the other night. My monthly group have become some of my closest friends. They really are the main reason that I have remained a Stampin’ Up Demonstrator for so long! Don’t get me wrong, I love creating with stamps and ink; I love the coordinating colours in paper, inks, and embellishments; I adore the tools and how easy they make it to create something beautiful; but what really carries me through and holds the most meaning and significance for me as a Demonstrator, are the relationships. It’s all about the people, the smiles, the laughter, the playful banter, the excitement and joy, and, especially the silliness.

Here’s the card:

Ah, Blackberry Bliss. I wish you would photograph a bit better.

I think the most challenging element of this card was to stamp the outline image inside the cut out! We tried a few different ways, but the two that seemed to work the best were to lay the Water Colour paper with the cut out (from the Handpicked Framelits) over top of the Very Vanilla circle (cut with the Big Shot and the Circle Framelits), then either outlining the inside of the cutout with pencil, then using the pencil outline as a guide for where to lay your image; or simply stamping through the cutout itself.

In hindsight, drawing the pencil line, then using the Stamp-a-majig would have probably been the best solution to the challenge (sorry, Mom, I should have thought about that!)

The images were first inked either with the ink pads as you normally would, or with markers, then the photopolymer or rubber was spritzed with water before stamping the image on the Water Colour paper. The Mother’s Love set has a very pretty two-step stamping method so that we could do the outline image of the flowers with Blackberry Bliss and Mossy Meadow ink (using the Stampin’ Write Markers), then we could fill in the flowers with the coordinating flower stamp, using Pink Pirouette ink. One important trick with layers of images like in this card, is to allow each layer to dry before stamping the next layer, otherwise you could end up with a bit of a muddy mess as the colours run into each other and lose the definition of the images. When you are impatient, you can dry it a little faster by dabbing the really wet spots with a paper towel and drying the rest with a Heat Tool before moving onto the next layer.

The starburst image is from the Kinda Eclectic Stamp set. I used a piece of paper to mask off the upper portion of the image as I wanted only the lower portion of the stamp to show on my card (to work best with the challenge sketch). I originally used Sahara Sand ink for that image, but you can see that it looks very yellow here – I think the stamp had not been cleaned after it was last used – oops. When my stampers recreated this card, they used Hello Honey, which worked quite nicely to mimic this unknown colour, lol!

Once all the images were in place, I sponged Pink Pirouette ink all around the edges of the Water Colour paper to give it a soft finish. It still didn’t look done, so I got a hold of my Gold Glimmer pen, Blackberry Bliss marker, and my Pink Pirouette marker and added randomly placed dots around the flower clusters. Up on Dimensionals, it went over top of the Very Vanilla circle and the Linen Thread bow was added with a dab of Multipurpose Tombow Liquid Glue.

Now, who to give this card to for spring? – I think it looks like a great Mother’s Day card. What do you think?

Be sure to try out the sketch at the As You See It Challenge Blog and share it with us there. Inspiration comes from every card I see, so bring it on!

Amy

October 24, 2014

Work of Art

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge As You See It, assortment, card, challenge, collage, Gorgeous Grunge, kinda eclectic, Stampin' Up, star framelits, trust god, watercolour 3 Comments

Check out my design this week using the Trust God stamp set with a little flare. This card shows off my artistic side using layers of sponging, stamped images, and even a bit of a watercolour technique. I had fun with it. It might just end up in a frame and given as a gift.

Do you ever consider that a card you’ve designed could be a gift? You really should. With the love and attention that each card receives as you choose your colour scheme, your layout, the mood of your project and the sentiment that speaks to the one who receives it – your card is an offering of a part of you. We think of greeting cards as a means of communicating our thoughts and well-wishes to the recipient. But they are so much more than that! If we wanted only to communicate, we could write a note on a plain piece of paper and give that instead.

No, our cards are more than a written note. They are a piece of us – an extension of our hearts, of our love, of our personality. I think that’s why I can’t give away a card that I don’t like. It just doesn’t fit; it feels wrong!

(sometimes I can’t give away a card that I really love either – because it’s so much of me. It’s like it needs to go to the perfect person; one who would understand the love that I am giving away)

My design today is inspired by this week’s As You See it Challenge. Assortment challenges can be a bit more difficult at times, but they are also an opportunity to really stretch those tight creative muscles.

(I like the “more than four words” element. The blah blah blah blah made me chuckle.)

Somehow, I knew what I wanted to do with this card right away. I envisioned a sunburst image made up of a circle surrounded by triangles as rays of light. Light makes me think of God (Light of the world), so I immediately looked at my Trust God sentiments to see what would fit in the circle. The sentiment I chose fit perfectly considering that my card itself would be a bit artistic, than paper crafty.

I really wish you could see this one in person. I am really pleased with how it turned out! Photos never do cards justice. They are always better in your hand.

It began with a circle cut with my Circle framelits from a sheet of Watercolour paper. I inked up the sunburst stamp from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set in Strawberry Slush ink, then spritzed it with a fine mist of water until I was able to see a few droplets of water on the rubber. This I stamped on the watercolour paper and allowed it to dry before stamping the sentiment from the Trust God stamp set in Jet Black Stazon ink. I first tried to mat the image using the next size up of the Circle Framelits, but that was just too much black. So I took the black circle that I didn’t want and punched out a circle from it with my 2.5″ Circle Punch. I was left with a remaining ring of black, which I decided was going to be used on my card!!

The card base is Basic Black cardstock. On it is the sponged and stamped layer that was transformed from Calypso Coral cardstock, to the finished result that you see on my card. Using Stampin’ Up sponges, I added Tangerine Tango, Strawberry Slush, Melon Mambo, and Rich Razzleberry ink until the cardstock was filled with rich colour. I also sponged Tuxedo Black Momento ink all around the edges of the cardstock. This draws the eye in and, I think, gives a more finished look to the paper.

The triangles from the Geometrical stamp set were stamped in Real Red and Melon Mambo around the circle. I also stamped the dots image from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set and the sketched line image from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set using Rich Razzleberry ink. The leaves from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set were stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento ink.

Once I was happy with my image placement, I adhered the layers. The matted circle is raised up with Stampin’ Up dimensionals (whatever would I do without these precious sticky-foam risers!)

The final touch was to add the gold sequins. I prefer to use Crystal Effects for my sequins as it dries clear and is no longer sticky when dry (unlike other Stampin’ Up adhesives that stay sticky where it isn’t covered). The sequins on their own just didn’t seem like enough, so I grabbed my Gold Stampin’ Dazzle Marker (who names these things?) and with shaky hands, worried I would ruin my ENTIRE card, I added little hand-drawn circles so they could play with the big kids. I only had to add one or two extra sequins to cover up little circles that got out of hand.

And there you have it.

I hope you will give this challenge a try. Just head on over to the As You See It blog, check out the other designers’ projects, then get in your crafty space and make something! Don’t forget to link it to the challenge page so we can all be inspired by your take on this one!

I’m heading off for a stamping weekend at a the beautiful Rockridge Canyon Conference and Retreat Centre! I hope to finish the weekend with lots of projects that I can share with you over the next few weeks or through classes that I will offer in the next couple months. I’m so excited for some ultimate design time!!

Hope you get some amazing design time this weekend, too!

Amy

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