nothings better than

Dads Make Everything Better

What do dads and coffee have in common? Okay, I know that not all dads are like coffee, but the dads in my life definitely make everything better – just like coffee does!

As mentioned in my previous post, I’m experiencing a lot of pain in my left shoulder. This is making typing more difficult as the position seems to aggravate my injury. I am typing with both hands at the moment (YAY!), but I can feel the tendons in my shoulder complaining more and more, as each minute passes.

I will have to keep this brief.

Today’s masculine-themed card was created for the As You See It Challenge blog.

The Evening Evergreen patterned paper from the In Color Designer Series Paper was the start of my design. I paired it with some Crumb Cake and used a Basic White cardstock base to prevent the entire design from ending up overly dark.

The Pacific Point cardstock and ink also brightens the design. I did end up using a Blending Brush with a wee bit of Misty Moonlight ink on the Pacific Point cardstock just to soften the intensity of the colour. This allowed it to match the stamped and coloured imaged on the card, as the colour is not as true when stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock.

Product List

  • Nothing’s Better Than stamp set
  • Pacific Point ink
  • Early Espresso ink
  • Crumb Cake ink
  • Basic White cardstock for the coffee cup
  • Crumb Cake Blends Markers for shading on the coffee cup
  • Tuxedo Black Momento Ink for the coffee cup outline
  • Stampin’ Dimensionals and Mini Glue Dots

Go to my online store anytime to order supplies in Canada. Leave a comment for me if you have any questions regarding this project. You are always welcome to send me an email or connect with me through my Facebook page as well. I love hearing from you!

I have started physio treatment for my shoulder and am hoping to get back to normal daily function. Being able to sleep through the night without being woken up every couple hours from the pain will make a huge difference to my ability to handle the day. I’m going to take after my dad and be a good patient and do all the exercises, stretches and other things that my physiotherapist prescribes. My dad is a great source of inspiration for a lot of things.

Kind of like coffee.

More Than Cookies

Here’s another moving arm card design using the Nothing’s Better Than stamp set and the Love You More Dies from Stampin’ Up!

I made this one for my husband’s birthday. Inside the card, I wrote that I also love him more than ice cream, coffee, and wine! Though, there are times, in the moment, that I will choose any one of these things over him. LOL! But, if we’re talking long term here, that man will win over all those things, every time!

You can see the first moving arm pop-up card that I made for a class on my previous post. There’s also a tutorial video that will show you how to make the pop-up mechanism so you can create your own moving arm pop-up cards.

I wanted to keep the front of the card relatively simple because the inside is so fancy, but I still couldn’t help but add some sponging on the Crumb Cake layer. I also used a technique shared by Stampin’ Up! 2020 Artisan Team member, Stesha Bloodhart, to colour the letters using Stampin’ Up! Blends Markers. I love the look! I’ll definitely be using it more often.

To create these coloured letters, I first had to adhere a piece of Basic White cardstock to a Foam Adhesive Sheet. I used the Stampin’ Blends Markers, Bermuda Bay (light and dark), Ivory, and Bronze, to colour stripes. After colouring, I cut out the letters with the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine.

You can see on the card that I started with a Basic White card base, then layered the Bermuda Bay and the sponged and stamped Crumb Cake. Those layers were wrapped with Black Baker’s Twine before attaching them to the card base with Stampin’ Dimensionals. To finish the front of the card, the label was attached with Dimensionals and a few Matte Black Dots were added for interest.

The inside of the card, of course, is the fun part! As the card opens, the banners and cookies move out and down from behind the popped up layer.

It’s a delightful surprise!

I added some Basic White layers on the inside of the card, stamped and sponged with Crumb Cake ink. The popped up layer has enough space on it to write a brief personal note. I did a bit of masking on the Basic White piece so I could add a line of sponging under the lettering. I didn’t think about adding the sponging until I had already adhered the white piece to the Bermuda Bay and the Crumb Cake, so I used some Post It Tape from Staples to mask off the area and protect it from getting inky.

The main moving arm is the Bermuda Bay cardstock banner. To this, I added a Crumb Cake banner (sponged with Crumb Cake ink) and the cookies. The cookies were stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink on Crumb Cake cardstock and coloured with Soft Suede Stampin’ Blends Markers before being die-cut with the Love You More coordinating die in the Cut & Emboss Machine.

The small die-cut stitched white banner was cut with a die from the Tasteful Labels Dies. The sentiment from the Nothing’s Better Than stamp set was stamped with Bermuda Bay ink.

Because we are in a pandemic, I’ve had to do my classes virtually, which has limited what I can offer. When my classes were in person, I could use multiple stamp sets for one card design. Now, with virtual classes, I design projects that are paper-technique focused with lots of die-cutting, embossing, and fancy folding that can be created with generic sentiments like “happy birthday” or “thinking of you”. I find myself using image stamps less often than I’d like.

Using the coordinating stamps and dies for this card was so much fun and so satisfying!

If you’re in Canada, like I am, you can order the Nothing’s Better Than stamp set and the coordinating Love You More Dies on my Online Store. You’ll find other fantastic crafting and stamping supplies there as well.

Adulting is Hard

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!