It's Time TO SPARKLE!!!

AYSI It's Time to Sparkle!  

Everyone needs some sparkle in their life, right?  I know I do!  Sometimes it's just a sparkly accessory, sometimes it's a fancy top, sometimes it's just plain 'ole glitter (on a card of course).  

This week is another great theme week from AYSI!  It's all about the SPARKLE!  Use whatever sparkle ya got! 

Can you spot the sparkle?  How about the brand new items from Stampin' Up? This WHOLE project is full of them.  The background paper, the unicorn stamp, and the snazzy new alcohol markers.  All Stampin' Up and ALL brand new and ready for you to order on January 3rd.  Demos get the perk of early ordering.  :)  The background paper actually has glitter unicorns, plus glitter paper, plus shiny sequins!  So much sparkle in real life! 

So please play along with us this week at AYSI and upload your sparkling project: http://www.asyouseeitchallenge.com/2017/12/its-time-to-sparkle-challenge-166.html 

It's Snow Time

AYSI #165

Can you believe it?! Christmas is almost here!  Winter is for sure here in Michigan, as I type this the snowflakes that are coming down are the size of half dollars!  

This is a great layout for all you that are still working on your Christmas cards, the balance is amazing!!  

I of course followed the winter theme!  Are you not loving the accessories from the holiday catalog?!?  I sure am, need to stock up before they go back in the vault.  ;) 

Have a fabulous holiday season!

It's Color Combo Time!

AYSI Color Challenge!

Check out this weeks challenge!  It's color time!  Create a card using these colors or if you don't have these exact color ones that are close to them.  You must use all 3 on your card.  

Man, this mermaid stamp set is amazing to color with!  I'm really loving the set and whipped up this card for a special little mermaid girls that will be turning 12 soon! 

For the card I stamped on watercolor paper in black then colored using both watercolor pencils and SU!s new blendies!  For the background I freestyle with watercolor pencils, aqua painter, and stamps.  

Hope you enjoy it! 

Almost Christmas time!

'Tis Almost the Season?!?

It's time for another AYSI Challenge.  This week we have a great layout that can be used for so many different occasions but I went ahead and focused on winter.  

I went ahead and colored the back of vellum with SU!'s new alcohol markers then stamped on the front.  I also colored the back of the vellum snowflakes to give them a winter effect.  

Of course, what's a winter card without some glitter paper!!!

AYSI Creepy Challenge

It's another AYSI challenge!  This weeks challenge is SCARY!  That is the theme of the week, ya know because of Halloween coming up and everything.  

I made a not-so-scary card for this week.  It's going to be sent out to a cute little two year old in my life.  :) 

Using 1/2 sheet of shimmer white paper I cut strips and then used my stampin' blends to color the edges to give it a bit more detail.  Then using some circle punches I made some eyes.  Does anyone else remember when punch art was the rage in stamping?!?! 

Hope you have a great Halloween and play along with AYSI! 

AYSI Speed Stampin' Shades of Orange!

It's Speed Stampin TIME!!!  This challenge you are required to only use shades of orange and neutrals (Black, Ivory, White). You will have a 10  min time limit to create, hence the speed stamping!  

Here is my creation!  I took a solid stamp and stamped it one by one in 5 different shades of orange.  Then I stamped the trees on top and greeting on the bottom.  I ended having to do it over due to smearing but it took me a total of 9 min for the two cards.  Ha, well, when your speed stamping make sure your ink is dry first.  ;) 

Summer like AYSI!

What do a circle, brad, stripes, dark blue, and a bird have in common?!?!  It's not a riddle it's your challenge this week!  

If you choose to accept it, which I hope you do please use these items in your design and follow your inspiration.  I wandered around my stamp room and came up with a beachy design. 

So this card may bring you back to the old school.  Remember when we used to always use velum overlays?  I watercolored the card and then layered it up added the necessary brad and here you go!  It was great to have a challenge and use some items that I haven't in a long time, I'll admit the stripes and the brad threw me for a loop! 

AYSI September

It's time for another AYSI Challenge!  

I really like the fanciness of this layout that Amanda created.  Wedding invitations come to mind!  Simple thank you cards or even photo Christmas cards.  

For my card I kept it more simple, big surprise ;) It just seems to be my stamping style these days I guess!  However, I did make my own ink pad to stamp the leafs.  I'll add some pictures of the ink pad I made later.  

AYSI 8/25/2017

AYSI Challenge #157

Really 157 challenges, how crazy is that?!?!

  Check out this great layout! Love it and it's easy to use variability! 

Here is what I came up with this week.   I'd say I was more inspired by the sketch and following it to a t.  I really departed about something else to the left of the circle but decided in the end not to.  Once again I created a somewhat simple and easy to recreate card to share with all of you!

Hope you all have a great week and enjoy the last couple weeks of summer! 

As You See It Challenge: Color Challenge

It's time for a color challenge!  How about this combo that Amanda whipped up for us?!? I would of never come up with this great combo, but I love it!  

For this weeks challenge you must use all three colors or their equivalent if you don't have the Stampin' Up! colors.  Elegant Eggplant, Real Red, Lemon Lime Twist are the three up to bat for this challenge.  

What to know something interesting?!?  Years ago, like 17 years ago when I was in college I used to be a very fancy detailed stamper, glitter on EVERYTHING.  How times change and I've found a simpler style lately.  Don't get me wrong I still love a detailed card, but something about quick and simple has been calling my name.  On this card I inked up my leaf stamp with Lemon Lime Twist and then took a sponge filled with Eggplant and lightly sponged the one side, then stamped it on my cardstock.  I almost always stamp in 3s, so using two of each image is new for me, but I think it works just fine! 

Thanks for checking out my project and please play along with week at AYSI! 

AYSI: When My Mojo Is GONE!

Have you ever lost your craft mojo?  Never?!?! Yeah, we all lose it from time to time.  This week it's time to be honest about it, what do you do to lose your MOJO? 

My answer is to One Sheet Wonder!  Do you know One Sheet Wonder?  This goes WAY back to SU! earlier days when we would take a sheet of 12x12 white paper and stamp all over it, then cut it up into useable pieces for scrapbooking and card making.  If you look on Pinterest there are a lot of layout ideas for them. By taking your mind off of creating and simply stamping it frees up your creativity, I feel anyway.  Give it a shot sometime! 

Easy peasy!  I just added the thank you and the ribbon to make it into a layout and useable card.  What will you create this week? 

As You See It Challenge: Are you ready for school?

Gulp, the school year is coming. Some of you may know this and some of you may not, my real life career is as a school counselor.  Although, I work some during the summer doing case management the school year adds a whole different level of busyness! 

Wouldn't it be nice to send a card with your kiddo to their teacher on the first day?  Maybe with a bottle of wine?  Just kidding, don't send wine to school, that would be a problem!!!  Maybe with a Starbucks gift card though.  Those first days of school are long and exhausting, caffeine is necessary for them! This weeks sketch brought me full speed ahead to the first days of school and I made an easy, 10 min or less card, that you can duplicate for your teachers.  

Check out this sketch!

Modern and Simple I say!  

Here is my classroom inspired card, fit for a teacher!  (Or an Artist too).  Easy to make several and not too fussy to give away.  I could go back and add a couple embellishments but I may just leave it like it is.  

What do you think?  Can you play along with us this week at www.asyouseeitchallenge.com

As You See It Challenge #153

Happy Canada Day to all my northern friends!  Happy Independence Day to all my American friends! 

It's time for another challenge, something about this layout really strikes it with me!  What do you think?   

Did you know that I have 6 nieces?!?!  One just turned 10 this week and she loves bright colors, all things sparkle and bright calls her name.  So this card is actually her birthday card!  

In order to follow the layout I used a framelet and then mirrored it.  This allowed me to create one piece and still have the line through the middle.  How about that glimmer paper?!?  Something about a bit of sparkle just makes this card.  

Don't forget to play along with us this week at AYSI! 

As You See It Challenge # 152! 

Welcome to another challenge!  

We don't seem to do a lot of circle layouts but this challenge has a lot of them! 

Inspired by the circle designs I decided to go out on a limb and make a spinner card.  Have you ever made one?  It takes some planning but it's not hard to do. There are several tutorials online that can give you the low down.   Hope you enjoy this twist on the layout! 

Here's to hoping that the video works!  

AYSI 6/02

It's almost BEACH TIME!  

Okay, who lives for the beach?!?! And my beach I don't mean some pond. I mean THE beach with sun, waves, and sand!  What does your beach look like?  Here are a couple of pictures of 'my' beach that google provided me.  ;) Good 'Ole Grand Haven, Michigan on the shore of Lake Michigan and only about 1/2 hour from my house!  I grew up camping at the start of every summer here and still visit almost weekly in the summer and fall.  

  

Anyway, onto this weeks challenge! 

Don't you love that simple sketch?!  I followed my beach theme and used one of the brand spanking new stamp sets from Stampin' Up!  (Whoot NEW catalog!!!). 

New stamp set, new colors, new embossing folder, new paper!!  'Tis the season!!!  

Make sure you play along with us this week!

AYSI Anniversary TIME!

AYSI Challenge Anniversary Theme

Is anyone a super lovey dovey heart type person?!?! Ahh, yeah, well I'm not at all.  It's not that I don't like romance or love my husband, I just dislike hearts!!  True story, my friends that stamp with me on a semi regular basis know this is uber true.  

Anyway, moving on....it's theme week at AYSI and it's all about the love & anniversary!

So, confession time these are products out of the SU! Occasions catalog that SU! sent me to make samples with, super awesome right?!?! Check out those hearts though. ;)  I'll admit when I opened up the box of materials they sent I gulped, it was the most romantic box of supplies I'd ever seen.  You know what though, I LOVED them!!  It made me stretch my style and really work for it.  

So here is what I did.  Embossing folder for the background, but make sure you stamp your saying FIRST, then emboss.  Next I wove strips of paper and attached with glue dots, add embellishments, and put it all together.  Look at all that romance right there!!!  Love these products?!?  Make sure you order them soon because they are on the retirement list from SU!  

Happy Stamping Everyone! 

When you just can't stop...

When you just can't stop..... watercoloring! 

I'm totally on a watercolor kind of kick.  Granted it's not really traditional watercolor but it is filling my creativity hole lately.  First though let me show you the layout for this weeks challenge! 

Classic and simple with a tad of fun!  Don't you love it??!

Let's talk through what I did. First I stamped with the succulent stamp set on watercolor paper.  The middle is full strength Always Artichoke and the ones on the side are stamped off once.  Then I Stamped the outline with Staz-on. Next take your mister and spritz water all over the card to spread your dye ink.  I dried it with my heat gun, because let's be honest I'm not waiting for water to dry these days!!! :) Next, I went back in with my water color pencils and added details and water colored the background.    Lot's of steps but really pretty basic!

As You See It Color Challenge! 

I'll admit sometimes I find color challenges daunting, like oh my word I have to think and stamp without a layout daunting.  They make me stretch my imagination skills and let my creativity run wild within the color limits.  

I would of never put these colors together on my own but I do love the combo.  Check it out!

If you don't have these colors please use what you have similar, these are color from Stampin' Up, but I'm sure there are like colors out there.  I actually didn't end up using a lot of So Saffron in my card and since it was so light it hardly shows up.  

I used a SU! stamp set inked in Staz On on watercolor paper.  Next I colored it in with Stampin' Write markers in the color challenge colors, then I spritzed the whole thing with water.  I waited for the marker ink to spread and then dried the paper with my heat gun.  

Something about the classic easy to create and elegance in this card makes me swoon.  

Please play along with us this week at As You See It Challenge!  Can't wait to see what you create! 

AYSI 04-07-17

 

As You See It Challenge

Time for another challenge!  Are you ready??!!  I will admit I'm not in love with the card that I made for this week.  I tried my hand at making again, and well sometimes a card design is just not one you love.  The moral of this story is to finish it up anyway because a complete card is better than a never made card!  

The design is a great one though!  

 I'm excited to see what you all come up with and who knows maybe I'll revisit this great layout again when fresh new stamps arrive to my home!!  :) 

AYSI Spring Time Challenge

Spring is here!  

Has spring arrived in your hometown?  It's a little sleepy here in West Michigan but today is a true spring day, warmish, and rainy.  My body longs for warmth, how about yours?  

In light of Springs arrival Amanda created this great open ended challenge.  What will you create?  Make sure you upload your project to the AYSI Challenge blog !

I decided to take advantage of the great coloring paper that Stampin' Up! has right now for their 

sale-a-oration and the brand spanking new watercolor pencils.  Let me tell you it was pretty fun getting to color that in!  I just laid down the color and then used my blender pen to watercolor it.  Simple and EASY! 

A Little Washi?!?!  

It's 'almost' spring here in Michigan, the temp was almost 70f this week!  Such a nice break to be able to stamp with my studio windows open!  

How about this layout from Amanda? 

 I received some brand new washi tape from Stampin' Up! yesterday and decided to make up this super quick card using the layout.  

As You See It Challenge : Color Challenge

It's time again for another challenge from AYSI!  How about some color this time around.  Ms. Amanda created an awesome color inspirations.  

If you don't happen to have the Stampin' Up! colors shown please feel free to use similar colors for your project.  

There is something about Flirty Flamingo and Dapper Denim that call my name.  Truth be told I'm not a purple gal but I do like the saturation of  Sweet Sugarplum, such a great pinky-purple! 

How about that TACO TRUCK!!  This is a free stamp set from SU! right now for every $50 in product you spend you can earn it for free.  

I also made my taco truck into a shaker card using window sheets.  It's pretty fun if I do say so myself!  

Don't forget to play along with www.asyouseeitchallengeblog.com this week!  

As You See It Challenge 

It's Friday and that means that it's time for a new challenge.  Check out this simple but yet practical design from Ms. Amanda.  Something about design on the bottom and words on the top just strikes me as elegant.  

I took the opportunity to use some of the new products from the Stampin' Up! Occasions catalog.  You can check it out at www.stampinup.com

Simple, classic, and great for Valentine's Day!  Enjoy! 

Don't forget to link up your project at www.asyouseeitchallengeblog.com

As You See It Challenge IS BACK!!!

Hello Everyone! 

Goodness it's been a while, a long long while.  Yes, I say that every time I take a break from blogging, but it's true.  I've been MIA from my blog for what seems like years, life was complicated, I wasn't into blogging at the time, so well, I set it aside for a while.  Now, I'm BACK and AYSI is BACK!  We had some technical AKA Hacking (okay, maybe not totally hacking, but that's what is basically was) on our actual challenge blog.  So we had to switch things around and re-group, twice! 

All that to say, here is this weeks challenge!  Please play along and check out the great design from Amanda.  By going to the challenge blog you will be able to upload your project for the world to see. www.asyouseeitchallenge.com :) 

Happy Mother's Day, say what?!?!  Yeah, it's early but I was SO excited about the SO SUCCLENT stamp set from Stampin' Up! that I had to use it.  It's fresh off the press along with the background papers.   

Who's ready for spring?  I know I am!