AWH Heart of Christmas #22

Christmas with Festive Foliage

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the final Art with Heart Team Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2021. Where have the past 5 months gone???

So glad you are joining us for our last 2021 Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. I have enjoyed creating a set of 5 cards for this Christmas blog hop. I hope you like them. Here is the first one:

How are you going with building your Christmas card stash? While the number of my cards is growing, I still need to speed up my creating to have enough for this season. With this in mind, I remembered a Facebook Live of Emma Goddard's, where Emma created one of a set of 4 cards (plus another design with 3 cards). I decided to take up this concept and apply my own twist. While I created 5 cards, I changed some embellishments on some so ended up with 3 versions. Here are the 3.

I used the Festive Foliage background stamp but wanted it to be the hero. The Festive Foliage stamp was applied to 5 different coloured pieces of card-stock, ie Basic White, Soft Sea Foam, Mint Macaron, Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen. Each panel was stamped in Versamark ink then heat embossed with embossing powder and a Heat Gun. The only change to the process was with the Soft Sea Foam panel where I first stamped in Soft Sea Foam Classic Stampin' ink and added Versamark ink directly on top and then sprinkled Clear Embossing Powder. The other panels were each embossed with different powders, ie Gold, Silver, Copper and White Embossing Powders.

Each of the embossed designs were coloured in, although different products were used. The White & Gold panel was coloured with Mint Macaron, Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen Blends Combos plus the Colour Lifter. The Mint Macaron/Silver and the Evening Evergreen/White panels were both coloured with the Chalk Marker; while the Soft Sea Foam/Clear and Soft Succulent/Copper panels were coloured with Water-colour Pencils, Blender Pen and the Chalk Marker.

Each panel was cut into 5 equal pieces and then each strip was swapped around to re-form 5 combinations of the Festive Foliage design, each with one of each colour. I did round the corners of each end piece with the Detailed Trio punch as one corner had an unwanted smudge of ink and it would be a strange place to add a label or embellishment. However, I'm not sure whether I like the rounded corners.

Each of the reformed designs were adhered to a piece of Window Sheet and then added with Dimensionals to a background piece of card-stock. As I wanted to try different background colours I decided to mount the card front onto a piece of card-stock in a colour that matched the centre panel. While I could have individually added the embossed/coloured strips to the background with Dimensionals, I decided to use the Window Sheets as I could lay them over a piece of Stampin Up! Grid Paper which would help me align the pieces more easily.

The card front was then layered directly to the card base. A piece of ribbon that had been folded in half was layered across the centre of the card, ie either Soft Succulent or Evening Evergreen Open Weave Ribbon or the White Glittered Organdy Ribbon. Each card used the same sentiment from the Merriest Moments stamp set, as I preferred a long single line sentiment format. The sentiments were all heat embossed with White Emboss Powder on Evening Evergreen card-stock. Each of the cards had a few of the gorgeous 2021-2023 In Colour Jewels added (either Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen or Polished Pink on one card) to add that touch of shimmer. These jewels are delightful. (My apologies for the two blurry close-ups. I will retake them tomorrow and upload better photos.)

Strips of Basic White card-stock were stamped with the edge of the stamp using inks the same colour as the background panel. The edge was fussy cut and then added to Basic White card inners. 

All of the Basic White C6 Envelopes were stamped in Soft Succulent ink on the LHS with the edge of the Festive Foliage stamp.

Thank you so much for spending time with me on my blog. I'm so glad you did.

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 July - December Mini Catalogue then let me know and I will be delighted to send them to you. Pease don't hesitate to make contact with any other queries about these projects or Stampin' Up!. 

To continue with the blog hop, click on the "onto the next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of the lovely Tina Gillespie. I always look forward to checking out Tina's creations together with everyone else's. 

Thank you for joining us this year for the Art with Heart Team Heart of Christmas weekly Blog Hops. We have all enjoyed sharing with you each week. 

Also, don't forget the weekly Colour Creations Blog Hop by the Art with Heart Team that launches every Wednesday at 8.00pm AEST. We are continuing till mid December this year before we have a bit of a brake.

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

Andrea XXX

  

As mentioned, it is always a delight to see everyone's creations and the way each one uses the amazing Stampin' Up! products. I am sure there will be gorgeous Christmas projects on show so 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 of the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, very special Tina Gillespie, and she will have the list of all Art With Heart Team members who are participating in this blog hop. Check out her beautiful creation while you are there.

#heartofchristmas #heartofchristmas2021 #awhtheartofchristmas #Stampin'Up! #festivefoliage