September 25, 2020

Stitched Plaid

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge 2020, autumn, beautiful autumn, challenge, plaid tidings, sewing, thank you, theme 2 Comments

I am LOVIN’ the Plaid Tidings Designer Series Paper lately! I’ve been using it a lot and just keep getting ideas to use it even more! Maybe it’s because the weather is getting cooler and I’m inspired by the autumn air.

Over at the As You See It Challenge Blog, we have a theme challenge for you today!

You could use stamps or die cuts that feature sewing, use die-cuts that have a stitched edge, maybe even put some fabric on your card or lay out paper in a quilting pattern. So many options!

What came immediately to my mind when I saw the theme, though, was doing some actual sewing on my card. I love the look of dies with the stitched edges, but nothing looks quite as cool as real, live, 3D stitching with thread. I don’t do it often because it’s not always convenient to pull out my sewing machine, bu-uut … it just so happened that I’d been doing a bit of sewing lately and my machine was already out!

I used a Crumb Cake card base with a strip of one of the plaid patterns from the Plaid Tidings Designer Series Paper glued on the bottom. The rounded corners were created using the Detailed Trio Punch. I cut a rectangle from a different pattern of plaid paper and stitched with white thread around the edges with my sewing machine. Then I distressed the edges of that piece, stamped the thank you sentiment from the Beautiful Autumn stamp set on the bottom right corner in Rich Razzleberry Classic Ink and adhered it to my card base.

The Beautiful Autumn stamp set is available in the Beautiful Autumn Bundle with the Autumn Punch Pack. Buying them together saves you 10%, so of course I chose to save money by getting the bundle! I used one of the leaf punches and punched three leaves from different cardstock colours: Rich Razzleberry, Bumblebee, and Cajun Craze. Each leaf was adhered to a 1″ square of Sahara Sand cardstock and was stitched through the center with my sewing machine. A bit finicky to do with such a small square of paper, but definitely do-able!

Those little squares were then glued, a bit askew, to some 1-1/4″ Whisper White cardstock squares and adhered to the card with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The final touch was to add some Artistry Blooms Sequins.

I officially LOVE this card and, since my sewing machine is all ready to go, will make a few more!

August 14, 2020

Plaid Thank You

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute 2020, colour challenge, So Sentimental 0 Comments

My card design today is actually rather fitting, considering what happened yesterday.

You may not know this, but for the past few years, I’ve been riding my bike (David now, I named my new bike David, LOL!) in the Great Cycle Challenge to raise funds in the fight against childhood cancer. The challenge is to ride your bike through the entire month with a riding goal that you set for yourself as a way to raise support for the cause. Yesterday was a very special day in the month, as we had a donor who was willing to match all of the donations received on that day (up to $1,000,000!!). As a whole, the Canadian Great Cycle Challenge riders raised $1,566,526 in that ONE day!!

It was such an emotional day for me as I watched donations come in from my friends and family and my Stampin’ Up! customers who stepped up to join me in the fight for the little lives battling cancer! I can’t even put into words how much my heart is warmed by the generosity and supportive messages. That one day allowed me to reach my personal fundraising goal and more! I can’t even count how many times I found myself wiping the tears from my cheeks as my heart swelled with gratitude.

The card I have to share with you today has the sentiment that says, “I can’t thank you enough”. This is my heart. This is my heart and so much more!

Before I show you the card design, let’s see the inspiration behind the card. It begins with a colour challenge from the As You See It Challenge Blog for which I am a designer.

Aren’t these great colours!

Here’s my card, which features the So Sentimental Bundle from Stampin’ Up!

I used patterned paper from the Plaid Tiding 6×6″ Designer Series Paper (LOOOOVE this paper!). The sentiment is stamped on Whisper White cardstock with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink. This is die-cut and layered on the Bermuda Bay die-cut piece of cardstock and Crushed Curry cardstock strip, which both had the Linen Thread wrapped around them.

I adhered the Cajun Craze cardstock and the yellow plaid patterned paper to my Thick Whisper White card base before using Stampin’ Dimensionals to attach the layers to the front of the card.

You can follow along with the creation of this card and two other sweet and simple cards by checking out the Facebook Live class at: https://www.facebook.com/inkingonthefly/videos/611332663082219/

As always, if you are in Canada, like I am, you can order any of the products you see on this blog post by going to my online store. Just click on the blue “shop” button on my page or click on the menu at the top of the page and choose the online store option.

Be sure to check out the challenge at the As You See It Challenge Blog as well! You can play along with us and share your final results. We love to see your take on the challenges.

July 17, 2020

Adulting is Hard

Amy Jasper As You See It Challenge, simple and cute 2020, nothings better than, Speed challenge, Stamparatus, stitched so sweetly 0 Comments

We all know that adulting is hard and that there are a variety of ways to cope with the stress of our adult responsibilities. Reaching for cocktails, coffee, cookies and chocolate (or Haagen-Dazs ice cream) may not be the healthiest strategies, but all these things make the stress just a little bit easier to bear. Don’t you agree?

My card design for today’s post is inspired by the As You See It Challenge blog for which I am a designer. I have the privilege of sharing my take on each challenge when it’s first posted so that those who choose to participate in the challenges have some ideas and inspiration to get them started.

Speed challenges are one of my favourites!! They’re so much fun and such a great creative exercise for me. I can easily spend hours making a card as I try to make it “perfect”, but the speed challenge don’t afford me that luxury. This forces me to plan my design idea in my head, then create the card with lightening speed so that I can complete it in ten minutes or less. I can mount my stamps on blocks and pull out my cardstock, ink, ribbon, and dies that I want to use, but for this challenge, you can’t cut or stamp anything until you start the timer!

I made this card in 8 minutes and 23 seconds! I even had to tie the bow a few times before I got it how I wanted it!

The theme for this speed challenge is “elements of three”. Do you think three cocktails is enough? LOL!

These stamps from the Nothing’s Better Than stamp set make me want to dust off my cocktail shaker and make some fancy drinks! This pink drink reminds me of the watermelon mojitos that I made a while back. So good!

The Stamparatus is what made it possible to make this card so fast. I used the hinge-technique to stamp the glass three times in a row with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink on the die cut Sahara Sand cardstock (cut with the Stitched So Sweetly dies), then did that same technique again to stamp the contents of the glass using Flirty Flamingo ink. I used my Stampin’ Write Markers to colour in the umbrellas and the limes.

I broke a few of my speed challenge rules when I made this card. I usually try to avoid die-cutting, colouring and tying bows because they can add a lot of time. I’m still kind of surprised at how quick this was to make!

You can get any of these supplies at my online store. Just click on the SHOP button on my page and it will take you where you need to go. Shop now and save in August with BONUS DAYS!

Give this challenge a try and don’t forget to share it with us over at the As You See It Challenge Blog. We love to see where you’re creativity takes you!