Valley Inspirations with Andrea

Wednesday, 30 September 2026

Be Inspired - September 2026 - Neutrals Only

Be Inspired Design Team Blog Hop

USING ONLY NEUTRALS

Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the September Be Inspired Blog Hop where we are focusing on a colour challenge to showcase only Neutrals. However you have arrived here, whether from Melanie Hockin or directly here, I am so delighted that you are here.

While I love Neutrals and incorporate many in projects; to create a project with only Neutrals has been a bit of a challenge. To give myself a little leeway I decided to select from the Stampin' Up!s family of Neutrals. A number of years ago Stampin' up combined four deep colours to the Neutral Colour Family. They are Night of Navy, Misty Moonlight, Mossy Meadow and Blackberry Bliss. Beautiful colours that work so will with a range of colours.

This year is a year for Christmas Neutrals; so I have created a Christmas card featuring Noel Tidings and Welcome Noel bundles together with the Neutral Noel Speciality Designer Series Papers. The bundles and paper is part of an amazing suite that incorporates pine, houses and trees.

A Pecan Pie, Gold and pine design of the Neutral Noel SDSP forms the background on a Very Vanilla cardstock card base. A panel of Very Vanilla cardstock was embossed with the Textured Tree Ring 3D Embossing Folder. This panel was mounted on a slightly larger piece of Basic White cardstock and popped up on Dimensioinals. It forms the base for the focal design.

Tiny houses from the Welcome Noel dies were die cut from Basic Beige cardstock together with the pine wreath from the Noel Tidings dies. Some blending was added to each one, ie the long house with Crumb Cake ink; the tall house with Blackberry Bliss ink and the pine oval wreath with Pecan Pie ink. Trees from the Welcome Noel stamps were stamped in Pecan Pie ink and 2nd generation Pecan Pie. They were die cut out too. As I was arranging the pieces, I felt something else was needed so fussy cut pine/pine cones from the Winter Alpine Designer Series Papers (it’s an Online Exclusive).

White Craft ink was splattered over the card. A sentiment from Noel Tidings stamps was stamped in Pecan Pie ink onto Very Vanilla cardstock. A double Linen twine bow was tucked under the sentiment strip and some Gold Adhesive-backed Dots were scattered around.

The card inner was simply decorated with a left over strip of background SDSP, a second generation tree and a little house. Another sentiment was stamped inside too. A Basic White C6 envelope was stamped with a number of trees to bring some coordination with the card.

Thank you so much for spending some time here with me.

I am really looking forward to seeing what everyone else has created for the Neutrals Only Colour Challenge Blog Hop. Next in line is the amazing Angela Meiritz-Reid. Just click the "Next" graphic below to head over to Angela’s blog.

The full list of those participating in this month's Blog hop is:

Andrea Sargent <you are here

Jaqualine Tobiczyk - Instagram Only

Maheswari Rajaguru

Melanie Hockin

The list of Be Inspired Design Team Members hopping over on Instagram this month are:
Andrea Sargent  @andreaksargent 
Angela Meiritz-Reid  @stampingbeautynz
Annette Ball  @stampinwiththebees05 
Annette Elias  @de_kijkkast 
Emma Goddard  @coastalcrafter
Jaqueline Tobiczyk @touchofjoycs 
Maheswari Rajaguru @maheswarirajaguru 
Melanie Hockin  @melsinkyfingers

#instahop #cardmakersofinstagram #stampinupaustralia #ADT2026 #artisandesignteam2026 #stampinupdemonstrator #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupofficial #InstaHop #valleyinspirationswithandrea  #beinspired 

Monday, 28 September 2026

AWH Heart of Christmas - #4

Christmas with All Wrapped Up & Magical Christmas

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the fourth Art with Heart Team Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2026. We are sharing Christmas inspiration each Monday evening until the end of November. I do hope you will check us out as often as you can.

Various commitments ended up with me being time poor for creating a project to share this week. As such I needed to create something that would be more straight forward to create. This is what I came up with and I found this card was relatively simple. As I worked on it I thought about other variations that could be "batch" made while ending up with a number of card variations. They would be similar but with some differences.

CARD CREATING:

The background is a panel of All Wrapped Up Speciality Designer Series Paper. It's a gorgeous paper with touches of silver running through the designs. A narrower panel of Basic White card-stock was die cut with a tree die from the Twinkling Tidings Hot Foil Dies. This product comes with dies for hot foiling as well as traditional dies. It was a traditional tree die that was used to cut out the tree shaped hole.

After cutting out the tree shaped hole the Basic White panel was dry embossed with the Softly Woven 3D Embossing Folder. A piece of Window Sheet was adhered to the back of the panel to strengthen it and to enable the embellishments to stay level with the white panel. Then ithe whole panel was added to the card front with Dimensionals.

The "Merry Christmas" sentiment was created with the Magical Christmas Hot Foil dies and Opal Foil. The sentiment was added with Mini Dimensionals. This hot foil die creates multiple Christmas sentiments in one process. It is a joy to use. You could use many of the other sentiments with variations of this card. Just pair it with different DSPs. The silver star also came from the same hot foiling process.

Basic Rhinestone Jewels were used to decorate "the tree", with some coloured with a Dark Real Red Stampin' Blend.

The inside of the card used a strip of the All Wrapped Up Speciality DSP down the right side together with a smaller strip of Real Red Timeless Metallic Speciality DSP. Another foiled sentiment was adhered on the inner panel. As you can see below, a Basic White C6 envelope was stamped in Perfect Pine ink with part of a tree from the Twinkling Tidings stamps.

Thank you so much for dropping in to check out my Christmas card. I hope you have found some inspiration for Christmas creating.

There is more Christmas creativity, so do continue with this blog hop. Just click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of the lovely Theresa Gerrard. I always look forward to checking out Theresa’s creation(s). I do love seeing everyone’s' projects - there is so much inspiration.

Also, many of us participate in the Colour Creations InstaHop that goes live every Wednesday night on Instagram where we showcase one of Stampin’ Up!s colours each week. We would love you to check in on us for more creative inspiration.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself.

Andrea 💕🐾

If you find a broken link or would like to view the full list of participants go to Sharon Davern’s blog @ Rhapsody in Craft. Sharon is our amazing Art With Heart Team Heart of Christmas Coordinator. Check out her delightful creation while you are there.

If you live in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of the September-December 2026 Catalogue, then let me know and I will be delighted to send one to you. Please don't hesitate to make contact with any queries about this project or Stampin' Up!.

#heartofchristmas #heartofchristmas2026 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo #handmadecards #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #artwithheartteam #papercrafter #valleyinspirations #artisandesignteam #artisandesignteam2026 #allwrappedup #magicalchristmas #twinklingtidings

Monday, 21 September 2026

AWH Heart of Christmas - #3

Christmas with Rejoice, All Wrapped Up and Some Vellum

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea.

A group of creative friends from the Art with Heart team are back this year with our Annual Heart of Christmas blog hop for 2026. We are sharing Christmas inspiration each Monday evening until the end of November. I do hope you will check us out as often as you can.

I missed the first two 2026 Blog Hops, so thought I would share two quite different cards this week that I had started creating a couple of weeks ago. Both were created with another end in mind but the goal posts changed and so the part finished cards just sat on my desk. I fiddled a bit with them this week and here they are. I hope you find them of interest.

CARD 1:

The first card is a nativity scene from the Rejoice stamp set that was gold heat embossed on Vellum. I love Stampin' Up!s Vellum as its a good quality and copes well with heat embossing.

Firstly a hole was cut in the front of the card base and a Basic White background panel using the Tile Garden dies. These dies were also used to cut frames from both Woodgrain Wonders Designer Series Paper (DSP) and Basic White cardstock. The background panel was embossed with the Textured Tree Ring 3D Embossing Folder.

A number of oval pine wreaths were die cut (Noel Tidings set) from both Basic White cardstock and the Woodgrain Wonders DSP. The top layer was coloured with Old Olive Classic ink and used to frame the Nativity Scene. It sits underneath the raised Woodgrain frame.

The sentiment is from the Rejoice stamp set and it was white heat embossed on Crumb Cake cardstock. A double Linen twine bow was tucked beneath the sentiment. A few Gold Adhesive-backed Dots and Cherry Cobbler coloured Rhinestone Basic Jewels, finished the card design.

When the card opens it reveals a Basic Beige flap with another ink stamped Nativity scene that was coloured with Stampin' Blends Combos. Pieces of the oval Noel Tidings pine wreath have been laid at the top and bottom of the panel.

The Basic Beige panel opens to the right to reveal a panel to write a personal message. This was decorated with a gold embossed sentiment and image from the Rejoice stamp set.

CARD 2:

This second card features some of the All Wrapped Up Speciality Designer Series Paper. The background is a gorgeous tartan. Some Basic White Softly Woven 3D embossed panels were added to the card front with Dimensionals.

Lettering was prepared using the Luxe Alphabet & Numbers dies, Opal foil and Misty Moonlight cardstock to coordinate with the tartan background. A frame was also hot foiled with the Silver Foil and then die cut also using the Flourish & Frames dies. Part of the rest of the sentiment was stamped and white heat embossed on Misty Moonlight cardstock using the Home for Christmas stamp set before being fussy cut.

The sentiment and label layers needed something more so small pine boughs and bows were fussy cut from other designs of the All Wrapped Up Speciality DSP. The final touch - a few silver Adhesive Backed Sparkle Sequins.

The inside of the card was simply decorated with a thin strip of the tartan SDSP. Two hot foil lines were added at the top and bottom of the Basic White inner panel. I was practicing a different technique of placing touches of hot foil exactly in the right spot.

Thank you so much for dropping in to check out my Christmas cards. I hope you have found some ideas for Christmas creating.

There is more Christmas creativity, so do continue on with this blog hop. Just click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of the lovely Helen Reeve. I always look forward to checking out Helen’s creation(s). I do love seeing everyone’s' projects - there is so much gorgeous inspiration.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself.

Andrea 💕🐾

If you find a broken link or would like to view the full list of participants, go to Sharon Davern’s blog @ Rhapsody in Craft. Sharon is our amazing Art With Heart Team Heart of Christmas Coordinator. Check out her delightful creation while you are there.

If you live in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of the Stampin' Up 2026 September-December Catalogue, then let me know and I will be delighted to send it to you. Please don't hesitate to make contact regarding any queries about these projects or Stampin' Up!.

#heartofchristmas #heartofchristmas2026 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo #handmadecards #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #artwithheartteam #papercrafter #valleyinspirations #artisandesignteam #artisandesignteam2025 #rejoice #allwrappedup. #luxealphabetnumbers #flourishframes

Wednesday, 29 July 2026

Be Inspired - July 2026 - Creating Backgrounds

Be Inspired Design Team Blog Hop

CREATING BACKGROUNDS

Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the July Be Inspired Blog Hop where we are focusing on projects that show wonderful backgrounds. However you have arrived here, whether from Melanie Hocking or directly here, I am so delighted that you are here.

As I was thinking about the type of background I would use my minds flittered around thinking “oo, I could do that; and then - well how about that … or that …. There are many types of backgrounds to try and many old favourites. In the end I decided to share one of my favourite backgrounds, that is Dry Embossed backgrounds. I love the subtle tone on tone texture that allows the focal point to shine while providing interest to the project.

You may recognise the gorgeous Floral Spray 3D Embossing Folder that was used to emboss the Basic White background. This is a wonderful embossing folder. I love that some parts of the background are left in-embossed to contrast with the embossed sections.

To provide a simple focal point a Party Banner die was used to cut the end of the Basic White banner that was mounted on Hydrangea Hue In Color Shimmer Speciality Paper. Violets were both stamped and die cut using the Pressed Violets bundle. I love working with this bundle as it brings warm childhood memories of picking violets for my Mum. The violets were coloured in Hydrangea Hue and the leaves in Soft Sea Foam with a touch of Peaceful Pine to add a little shading & depth.

Iridescent Pearls Basic Jewels add a little shimmer to the flower centres and around the sentiment. White ribbon was cut in half lengthwise and tied into a double bow then ticked in between the violets and sentiment.

The card inner was simply stamped with it of the violet stamps in Secret Sea Classic ink. I often use this ink instead of black. If you have time, the violets could be coloured with Stampin’ Blends, but my time was running away with speed so it is simply stamped.

A Stampin’ Basic White C6 envelope was also stamped with the violets in Secret Sea ink.

Thank you so much for dropping in on your way around the July Be Inspired Blog Hop. I so appreciate you.

I am really looking forward to seeing what everyone else has created for the Creating Backgrounds Blog Hop. Next in line is the amazing Angela Meiritz-Reid. Just click on the "Next" graphic below to head over to Angela’s blog.

The full list of those participating in this Blog hop is: