AWHT Colour Creations #9 Calypso Coral

Calypso Coral with Plentiful Plants

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art With Heart Team Colour Creations Blog Hop.

This week’s Blog Hop is focussing on a slightly pale and muted orange called Calypso Coral.  It is classified under the Subtles Colour Family. Calypso Coral is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inker) and a number of Designer Series Papers including You're A Peach, Pansy Petals, Sweet Symmetry and the Subtles DSPs as well as the delightful Artistry Blooms Adhesive-Backed Sequins.

As its name suggests, Calypso Coral could be used to depict coral, as well as autumn leaves, orangey flowers (I have a rose in this colour) and for some fruit such as peaches (as illustrated in the "You're a Peach" DSP). As I started to work on a design for a Calypso Coral project I was reminded that a friend had a birthday in a day or two and she really loves the Plentiful Plants bundle - so I decided to create a card for her using this bundle. I also love this bundle and was lost in the creative process when I rememberred near completion of the card I that I had used the same bundle last week for the Cajun Craze project. The card layouts are different but Calypso Coral and Cajun Craze have a similar hue, even though the latter is a deeper rustier colour - they are similar but different. My apologies for the similarity. I hope you like this version:

The You're a Peach DSP includes a lovely Calypso Coral stripe. This was used for the card design background and was mounted onto a piece of Calypso Coral card-stock before being adhered directly to a Thick Basic White card-stock base leaving a fine white border. 

The second largest Scalloped Contours die cut a Basic White stitched panel, which was then dry embossed with the Painted Texture 3 D embossing folder. This is such a gorgeous embossing folder - I love the texture. A fine gold diamond shaped frame from the delightful Expressions Of Ink Ephemera pack was adhered to the centre of the embossed panel.

Using a number of stamps from the Perfect Plants stamp set, a pot was stamped in Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' ink and leaves were stamped in Soft Sea Foam and Pear Pizzaz Classic inks on Basic White card-stock. The stamped images were die cut with the coordinating dies from the Perfect Plants die set and a Macrame pot hanger was cut from Shimmery White card-stock with another 2 from Basic White card-stock. The die cut hanger was water-coloured with Calypso Coral ink and a Water Painter. Once dry the 3 pot hangers were adhered together with the coloured one on top. This gives depth to the hanger as macrame would. (Yes, I confess - I used to make macrame pot hangers back in the good 'ole days when it was all the rage.)

A little Gold Simply Elegant Trim was threaded through the holder ring and adhered to the back of the embossed panel. The pot, hanger and leaves were adhered with a couple of Dimensionals and Multipurpose Liquid Glue. A couple of gold leaf pieces from the Ephemera pack were added as well. Three Pale Papaya Loose Flower Flourishes were coloured with a Dark Calypso Coral Stampin' Blend and then added to the arrangement with Glue Dots. 

A sentiment from the Sweet as a Peach stamp set was stamped on Basic White card-stock with Calypso Coral ink and then fussy cut. This was popped up on Dimensionals. The card front panel was added to the DSP layer with Dimensionals. It wasn't finished until a few self-adhesive sequins from the Ephemera pack were added.

The card inner was created by adding a strip of the DSP to a piece of Basic White card-stock.  It was mounted on a slightly larger piece of Calypso Coral card-stock. A trimmed down pot hanger with a die cut Cajun Craze card-stock pot and some Soft Sea Foam stamped plants were added to the RHS. I had prepared this pot plant previously as I was initially thinking of having 2 pot hangers on the front. It wasn't wasted as it looks great inside the card together with a sentiment from the Sunny Sentiments stamp set in Calypso Coral ink.  A C6 Basic White envelope was decorated with a fussy cut pot plant from the coordinating DSP (it was already cut and sitting on my desk).

I really enjoyed creating this Calypso Coral card and including products from a mix of suites. I do love the Plentiful Plants bundle - it is so much fun to play with. 

If you are in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of Stampin' Up's 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue and or the new July - December 2021 Mini Catalogue, then let me know and I will be delighted to send them to you. Please don't hesitate to make contact with any other queries about this project or Stampin' Up!. 

There is more Calypso Coral creativity. To continue with the blog hop, click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to the delightful Christine Blain's blog. I am looking forward to checking out Christine's creation as well as everyone else's. 

Hope to see you next week when we will be featuring Cherry Cobbler; and don't forget the AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop that occurs every Monday evening until mid-December.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

Andrea 💕🐾

  

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the full list of participants on Catherine Proctor’s blog.  Check out her amazing creation while you are there.

#colourcreationsbloghop

AWH Heart of Christmas 2021 #4

Heart of Christmas with Angels of Peace

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart 2021 Heart of Christmas Blog Hop.

Last week when participating in the Art with Heart Team Colour Creations Blog Hop, which focussed on Cajun Craze, I created two backgrounds - one with water-colour and the other with an alcohol blending technique. I chose the latter for the card created for that blog hop. I loved the water-colour background so decided to incorporate it in the project for this blog hop.

The water-coloured background was created using Petal Pink & Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' ink, Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper and a flat Water Painter. I love using the wet-on-wet water-colour technique (though am still needing to perfect this technique). Water-colouring tends to reveal some of the hues that go to make up a colour. As you can see, Cajun Craze is built on pinky tones.

The water-coloured background was dry embossed using the 3D Merry Melody embossing folder. Isn't the embossed music delightful?

The larger angel from the Angel's of Peace stamp set was stamped in Versamark Ink onto Shimmery White card-stock and heat embossed with Gold Stampin' Emboss powder and a Heat Gun. A sentiment from the same stamp set and the star from the Great Tidings stamp set was similarly heat embossed. The angel was coloured with Light & Dark Petal Pink, Light Calypso Coral and Light Cajun Craze Stampin' Blends for the dress. Her hair was coloured with So Saffron Blends Combo; her wings & most of the bird with Smoky Slate Blends Combo; and her skin with the Ivory Blend. A Colour Lifter Blend was used to add highlights and soften edges. A touch of Light Melon Mambo Stampin' Blend coloured the dove's belly as a foretelling symbol of 33 years later at the first Easter.

The water-coloured background panel was mounted on a piece Petal Pink card-stock together with a thin strip of Gold Metallic Speciality paper. A piece of the oh so gorgeous White Glittered Organdy Ribbon was cut in half (lengthwise) and tied around the front panel ending in a bow. The angel and sentiment were fussy cut, while the star was die cut using the Wise Men Tidings set of dies. These pieces were all added to the card front with Mini Dimensionals.

This front panel was adhered directly to a Thick Basic White card-stock base. Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels were added as the finishing touch.

The card inner was formed on Basic White cardstock, stamping the angel and another sentiment from the Angels of Peace stamp set in Calypso Coral ink. The card inner was then mounted on Calypso Coral card-stock leaving a very fine mount. A C6 Basic White envelope was also stamped with the angel in Calypso Coral ink.

Thank you for visiting Valley Inspirations with Andrea. I really enjoyed creating this card with the soft & feminine Angels of Peace with the water-colour background from last week. I had a number of ideas of what I would do with the background but they all went out the window when I looked this morning at the Angels of Peace stamp set on my table.

 

If you are in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of Stampin' Up's 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue and or the new July - December Mini Catalogue then let me know and I will be delighted to send one to you. Also, please don't hesitate to make contact with any other queries about this project or Stampin' Up!. 

There is more Christmas creativity. To continue with the blog hop, click on the "onto the next" graphic to be taken to one of my special friends, Sharon Davern's blog. I am looking forward to checking out Sharon's creation as well as everyone else's. 

Hope to see you next week for another AWHT Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. There is so much Christmas inspiration to share and Christmas in July is a great time to start Christmas card-making.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

Andrea XXX

  

It is always a delight to see everyone's creations and the way they use the amazing Stampin' Up! products. I am sure there will be gorgeous Christmas projects on show. Don't miss checking out each blog. 

If at any time you find a broken link and the next blog doesn’t come up or you started part way through, please head to the blog of this week’s host for the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, Tina Gillespie, and she will have the list of all Art With Heart Team members who are participating.

#heartofchristmas

AWHT Colour Creations #8 Cajun Craze

Cajun Craze with Plentiful Plants

Hello. Welcome to  Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart 2021-2022 Colour Creations Blog Hop.

This week’s Blog Hop is focussing on a a rusty brown-orange called Cajun Craze.  It is a somewhat muted strong colour and is one of the Regals Colour Family. Cajun Craze is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Markers; Stampin’ Blends Combos, Watercolor Pencils and a number of Designer Series Papers including Beauty of the Earth, Bloom Where You’re Planted, In The Wild and Regals DSPs.

Cajun Craze is certainly not one of my usual "go to" colours. When I first started thinking what I would create for this blog hop, my thoughts immediately went to something for fellas; autumn leaves; a sunset; or a 3D project (box, case, etc), but then I remembered I had created a "suitcase" style box last year. Hmm ... what to do? A few days later I wrapped something in a red-brown tissue paper that was a pinky colour and then added a pink satan ribbon. I really liked the colour combination so thought I would try Cajun Craze with say, Petal Pink. That's were I started consideration of colours for my card.

I also wanted to explore how Cajun Craze would react with water-colour, so decided to try a wet-on-wet water-colour technique using Cajun Craze and Petal Pink. Recently I had fun playing with alcohol colouring on Vellum with Stampin' Blends so I thought I would try this technique using the same colours. The background used on this card is the alcohol on Vellum. I have run out of time to create a second card so thought I'd show you the water-colour background. The lower section is of colour where Cajun Craze was mainly used - isn't it a lovely colour when watered down?

To create the alcohol coloured panel, I initially scribbled Light & Dark Cajun Craze and Dark Petal Pink Stampin' Blends on to a card front sized piece of Vellum. Then Isopropyl alcohol was sprayed generously over the coloured areas using a Stampin' Mister and the liquid colour was moved around on the Vellum. The Dark Petal Pink hardly showed up at all, so after the panel had dried some Light Calypso Coral was added and more alcohol misted over. Once dry, some gold heat embossing was also added along some of the colour lines using Versamark and a Blender Pen with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder and a Heat Gun.

Once the coloured Vellum had dried it was adhered directly to a piece of Basic White card-stock. I used a sponge and Multipurpose Liquid Glue, although would have preferred to try Stampin' Up!s Adhesive Sheet (couldn't find it when I needed it).

The pots from the Plentiful Plants stamp set were stamped - one in Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' ink and one in Petal Pink Classic Stampin' ink. Leaves were stamped in either Pear Pizzaz or Soft Sea Foam Classic Stampin' inks. The Pear Pizzaz ink seem to divide into a spotty look. I quite liked the look for the leaves, but as I was using an old style ink-pad I think it may be time to get a new ink pad. The little leaves that were stamped in the lighter green needed something else so I used a Pear Pizzaz Stampin' Write Marker and added tiny strokes/dots of this darker colour to add some life.

The leaves, pots and macramé plant holder & pot stand were all die cut with the coordinating set of dies - Perfect Plants dies, the latter being cut from Cajun Craze card-stock. To add some dimension to the pot holders, some Cajun Craze Classic and White Craft inks were applied with a Sponger Dauber. The effect of the added sponging is not easily seen but in real life it does add something. The pot holders, pots and leaves were all layered in place with a mix of either Multipurpose Liquid Glue or Dimensionals. 

Gold leaves from the Expressions of Ink Ephemera Pack were also added to coordinate with the gold embossing. A sentiment from the Plentiful Plants stamp set was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Gold Emboss Powder. Some of the sequins from the Ephemera Pack were also added as a final touch. This Ephemera Pack is just gorgeous.

The card front was mounted to a slightly larger piece of Cajun Craze card-stock. A piece of ... Gold Simply Elegant Trim was tied to the ring on the hanging pot plant and adhered over on the back of the mounted card front. This card front was adhered to a Petal Pink card-stock base with Dimensionals.

A Basic White card inner was decorated with leaves stamped in Pear Pizzaz ink. A C6 Basic White Envelope was also stamped with the Pear Pizzaz leaves, stamping on the envelope flap and so coordinate the envelope with the card it will hold.

I really enjoyed playing with Cajun Craze using a mix of alcohol colouring on Vellum, water-colour, stamping and sponging card-stock die cuts. I love the colour combo of Petal Pink, Cajun Craze, with a touch of gold and it certainly gives a different feel than autumn colours. I also had fun with the Plentiful Plants bundle and will be keeping it nearby for more creative play. Check in next Monday night for the AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop as I may use it for a Christmas project.

If you are in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of Stampin' Up's 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue and or the new July - December 2021 Mini Catalogue, then let me know and I will be delighted to send them to you. Please don't hesitate to make contact with any other queries about this project or Stampin' Up!. 

There is more Cajun Craze creativity. To continue with the blog hop, click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to the delightful Christine Blain's blog. I am looking forward to checking out Christine's creation and everyone else's. If you started part way through or if you missed someone click on the link below to go to Catherine Proctor's blog where she has a list of all the participants in tonight's Colour Creation Blog Hop and their links.

Hope to see you next week when we will be featuring Calypso Coral; and don't forget the AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop occurs every Monday evening up to mid-December.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

Andrea 💕🐾

  

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the full list of participants on Catherine Proctor’s blog.  Check out her amazing creation while you are there.

#colourcreationsbloghop

AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop #3

Heart of Christmas and Penguin Place

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart 2021 Heart of Christmas Blog Hop.

When I first looked through Stampin' Up!'s July - December Mini Catalogue 2021 I smiled when I saw the cute little penguins from the Penguin Place stamp set. My mind started buzzing with ideas. One idea was to show them in an Aussie Christmas context. Christmas at the beach is a tradition for many Aussies. It is a great way to keep cool in the heat, chilling out by happily splashing around in the sea. The sun is high in a blue sky. I have attempted to show this with the scene and the penguins. I hope you like it.

The sea was created by using one of the B-sides from the Beauty of the Earth Designer Series Paper (DSP). (NB Don't miss out on buying this DSP while its on special this month.) A piece of the DSP was torn into 3 pieces, ensuring some white showed on the edge to represent foam on waves and the horizon line. 

One of the sentiments from the stamp set was stamped on the lower piece of DSP and as the stamp set was photopolymer I was able to bend the sentiment to align with the torn line above it. The sentiment was stamped in Versamark ink and heat embossed using White Emboss Powder and a Heat Gun. To give the sea some texture, it was embossed with the Hammered Metal 3D embossing folder. If I created this design again I would probably try a different embossing folder, ie the Painted Texture 3D embossing folder may be more "sea like".  

The sky was created using Balmy Blue Classic Stampin' ink and a Blending Brush on a card front of Basic White card-stock. I found a small circle of card-stock on my workspace (it was actually the centre of a sunflower cut with the Sunflower dies) but any small circular die could be used. It was placed in the sky area and held it in place as the sky was coloured. After colouring the light blue sky a little So Saffron ink was lightly added with a Sponge Dauber to the uncoloured 'sun' area. To give the sky some extra interest, a little background stamp from the same stamp set - one with dots and asterisks was added with white heat embossing.

To give the horizon line a little interest and as it's reminiscent of beachside views for me, there is a partial "peninsula" with trees in the distance. Trees were stamped in second generation Evening Evergreen ink on a spare piece of Basic White card-stock using a stamp from the Mountain Air stamp set. It was trimmed down and fussy cut.

Putting all the pieces together, the trees were adhered near the centre of the card front at the horizon line and the sea pieces of DSP were added with either Multipurpose Liquid Glue or Dimensionals. The little penguins were double stamped using a Stamparatus and Momento Black ink. The double stamping provides a nicer solid black for the penguins. The beaks were stamped with Mango Melody ink, the tie with Soft Succulent ink and the antlers with Soft Suede ink. A lIght Pool Party Blend was used to add a thin line of Pool Party around the edge of the penguin's white body. Little presents were also stamped in Mango Melody, Soft Succulent and Cherry Cobbler inks. The penguins, antlers and presents were all fussy cut. As all the pieces couldn't be cut with the coordinating punch, I decided to fussy cut everything for consistency sake.

The little penguins were tucked in under the waves and a present was added near one of the penguins. A piece of White Bakers Twine from the Bakers Twine Essentials Pack was tied around the card front, ending in a bow. Three different coloured presents were adhered near the bow. The card front was adhered directly to a Misty Moonlight card-stock base. I couldn't resist adding a touch of bling, so added a few Artistry Blooms Adhesive Backed Sequins.

A second "standing" penguin was adhered to a card inner of Basic White card-stock together with a balloon that had been stamped with Cherry Cobbler ink and the string with Momento ink. As the balloon was a "light" red (because I need to re-ink my inkpad) I strengthened the colour using Cherry Cobbler Blends Combo. The sentiment, from the same stamp set, was stamped in Momento ink using a Stamparatus as I wanted to ensure I stamped it straight (so love the Stamparatus to ensure sentiments are straight). I also had a spare "swimming" penguin so adhered him to a C6 Basic White Envelope to coordinate the envelope with the card that it will contain.

Thank you for visiting Valley Inspirations with Andrea. I had quite a bit of fun playing with the cute little penguins and creating this project with an Aussie summer slant to share with you. 

 

If you are in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of Stampin' Up's 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue and or the new July - December Mini Catalogue then let me know and I will be delighted to send one to you. Please don't hesitate to make contact with any other queries about this project or Stampin' Up!. 

There is more Christmas creativity. To continue with the blog hop, click on the "next" graphic to be taken to the lovely Rosa Leyton's blog. I am looking forward to checking out Rosa's creation and everyone else's. If you started part way through or if you missed someone go to Sharon Davern's blog as she has all the names and their links of those who are taking part in tonight's Heart of Christmas Blog Hop.

Hope to see you next week for another AWHT Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. There is so much Christmas inspiration to share and Christmas in July is the right time to start Christmas card-making.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

Andrea XXX

  

As mentioned, I always love seeing everyone's creations and the way they use the amazing Stampin' Up! products. I am sure there will be gorgeous Christmas projects on show. Don't miss checking out each blog. 

If at any time you find a broken link and the next blog doesn’t come up, please head to the blog of this week’s host for the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, Sharon Davern, and she will have the list of all Art With Heart Team members who are participating.

#heartofchristmas

Global Design Project Entry

GDP#300 Case the Designer Challenge using Celebrate Sunflowers

(Edited with result)

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and my entry into the Global Design Project - Case the Designer Challenge #300.

In preparing for a Colour Creations Blog I had water-coloured a couple of pieces of card-stock, but was unsure if I was going to be able to create a second card by blog launch. Then I saw the GDP launch of the new GDP#300 challenge and loving Steffi's layout, I changed my prior design concepts and squeezed in creating this project using the preprepared water-coloured panels and the Celebrate Sunflowers bundle.

I was surprised and really delighted that I was given a Special Mention. There were so many lovely entries that I wasn’t expecting to be mentioned. 

#GDPspecialmention   #GDP300

Here are some details of how the card came together:

I had water-coloured a piece of Fluid 100 Paper in stripes using the wide Water Painter and Bumblebee Classic re-inker, as well as on off-cut of Shimmery White card-stock in a lighter Bumblebee wash and another off-cut in a Soft Succulent wash. 

A light wash of Misty Moonlight Classic Stampin' ink was added to the front panel of Shimmery White card-stock. When dry it was die embossed with the Stitched Greenery die, that added a gorgeous tone on tone texture of stitched leaves. This was mounted on the Bumblebee striped panel, which in turn was mounted on the Thick Basic White card base.

Using the Sunflowers dies, the open sunflower die cut the sunflower shape from the light Bumblebee coloured Shimmery White piece and the detailed sunflower and flower centre dies were used on Basic White card-stock. The detailed leaves were cut from the Soft Succulent water-coloured panel. These pieces were arranged and positioned with liquid glue or Dimensionals.

The sentiment (from the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set) was stamped in Versamark on Bumblebee card-stock and heat embossed with White Emboss Powder. It was fussy cut and part of the sentiment was added to the centre of the flower together with a cute Bumblebee Trinket. Clear droplet shaped Epoxy Essential embellishments also were scattered giving a sense of raindrops over the flower and backdrop.

An off-cut from the water-coloured stripes was added to a Basic White panel, as was the word "you" (the previously unused part fo the sentiment) and a spray of Soft Succulent water-coloured leaves. A C6 Basic White envelope was partially stamped with the sunflower stamp in Bumblebee ink to coordinate with the card.  

Thank you for visiting Valley Inspirations with Andrea. I did have fun playing with water-colouring in Bumblebee to create this project to share and appreciate the inspiration of Steffi Helmschrott's delightful Global Design Project #GDP300 card. 

Stay safe and stay well.

Andrea xxx