AWH Heart of Christmas #4

Christmas with Sparkling Snowflakes

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

This week I am showcasing the Sparkling Snowflakes bundle for a number of Christmas cards. I was reminded recently of the Emboss Resist technique with ombre blending by Emma Goddard, a wonderful UK SU Demonstrator. I thought the Sparkling Snowflakes stamps would work beautifully with different colour combos and in the end created 3 similar but different cards. Here are my cards:

CARDS 1 & 2

Cards 1 and 2 are similar, but with different colour combos and sentiment/labels.

Both card fronts were Basic White card-stock. The 3 different sized snowflakes from the Sparkling Snowflakes stamp set were randomly stamped with Versamark ink onto each of the card fronts and then heat embossed with White Emboss powder from the Basics Emboss pack, the Embossing Accessory kit and the Heat Tool. Stampin’ Up!s delightful Blending Brushes were used to apply the inks.

Card 2 started with Balmy Blue Classic Stampin’ ink, then Coastal Cabana, Fresh Freesia and a little Highland Heather inks were applied. Both card fronts were trimmed slightly to remove the darkened edges and then mounted onto slightly larger panels of Basic White card-stock.  Card 2’s card front was added directly to a Fresh Freesia card base.

Card 1 also started with Balmy Blue Classic Stampin’ ink, then Coastal Cabana, Lost Lagoon, Pretty Peacock, Misty Moonlight and Night of Navy inks were applied.  A tissue was used to rub off excess inks from the embossed snowflakes on both card fronts. It is surprising how much ink comes off onto the tissue. The white embossing does whiten back up. Card 1’s card front was adhered directly to a Pool Party card base.

Card 1 - A label was created using the coordinating snowflake punch. A strip was cut 2” wide from Basic White card-stock. Both ends were punched with the snowflake design. A sentiment from the Sparkling Snowflakes stamp set was stamped in Night of Navy ink onto the punched label. Thin strips of Pretty Peacock Soft Shimmer Speciality Paper were added to the side edges of the label. 

Card 2 - A Vellum card-stock label was die cut using the second largest circle die from the Stylish Shapes dies. A sentiment was created with stamps from the Christmas Classic stamp set, ie “Christmas” was stamped in Highland Heather ink onto Basic White card-stock. “Happy” was white heat embossed onto Fresh Freesia cardstock. Both words were fussy cut out and added to the label with Mini Dimensionals. Basic White die cut snowflakes, cut using the Chic dies, were also added. 

Card 1 - Some White Iridescent ribbon was trimmed down on one side, as it was a bit too wide. It was fed through punched holes. The label was added with Dimensionals. Iridescent Pearls Basic Jewels were added to each snowflake centre and a few tiny ones near the sentiment.

Card 2 - The remaining thin piece of Iridescent ribbon was tied into a small bow and tucked under the sentiment with a Glue Dot to hold it in place. As with the previous card, Iridescent Pearls were added to snowflake centres, plus a couple of tiny ones.

All the card centres had a thin strip of the coloured embossed card front adhered to the side of a Basic White card-stock inner. A sentiment was also added with coordinating ink. The pictured sentiment is from the Sparkling Snowflakes stamp set and was stamped in Misty Moonlight ink.

All the coordinating C6 Basic White envelopes were stamped with snowflakes in coordinating inks.

CARD 3

The third card in similar, but doesn’t use a range of colours for the blended background. It only uses White Craft ink around the edges of the Crumb Cake card front.

The 3 different sized snowflakes were stamped in Versamark ink onto the Crumb Cake card front. The ink did darken the card-stock so it was easy to see where the stamps had gone. The panel was white heat embossed as described above. The White Craft ink was blended around the edges leaving the centre un inked.

Snowflakes were die cut using the Chic dies and the largest Stylish Shape circular die cut a label from Vellum card-stock.

A sentiment from the Christmas Classics stamp set was white heat embossed onto the Vellum circular label. The Vellum label and the die cut snowflakes were arranged. The snowflakes were adhered to the Vellum circle with Mini Dimensionals and then additional Mini Dimensionals were added to the underneath side of the label in the same position as the Dimensionals on top so they would not show from the front. Wink of Stella was added to each die cut snowflake to add  sparkle. It was also splattered around. The final touch was the addition of Iridescent Pearls Basic Jewels in the centre of snowflakes.

The card inner and coordinating envelope received similar treatment as the other cards. The envelope was stamped with Crumb Cake ink.

Thank you for calling in to check out my Sparkling Snowflakes Christmas cards. I do appreciate you spending time with me.

There is more Christmas creativity so continue on with the blog hop. Just click the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of the lovely Claire Daly, the leader of the Art with Heart Team. I am looking forward to checking out Claire’s delightful creation. I do love seeing everyones' projects - there is always so much inspiration.

I hope to see you next week as we continue the weekly Heart of Christmas 2023 Blog Hop series. Don’t forget that the Art with Heart Colour Creations Blog Hop will be going live in a couple of days, on Wednesday evening. This week we are featuring Coastal Cabana. You have had a little teaser tonight with this colour being part of the colour combinations. 

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

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 wonderful Art With Heart Team Colour Creations Coordinator.  She is a special lady. 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 new Stampin' Up 2023-2024 Annual Catalogue and or the new September-December 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 these projects or Stampin' Up!. 

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