AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop #1

Christmas with Layers of Beauty

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the first Art with Heart Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2024. We are starting this series early August and will be hopping every week until the end of November. I hope you can check us out each week as I know there will be a multitude of different projects on display and a range of ideas to help your Christmas preparations.

I love creating for Christmas and sharing creativity with you. I’m hoping that you will be inspired in your preparations for Christmas. This week I have created a Christmas card using the Layers of Beauty bundle, a general product not necessarily designed for Christmas. I do like to revisit my Annual Catalogue products to think about whether they can be used for Christmas. Sometimes one needs to “think out of the box”.  I love this bundle and thought of Christmas roses using Christmasy colours.

A couple of my favourite colours for Christmas are Cherry Cobbler and Shaded Spruce. To add a little extra life I included Granny Apple Green with Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin’ inks for the leaves. The roses were coloured with Cherry Cobbler ink alone and the daisies with Pretty in Pink ink. The large floral arrangement stamp was gold heat embossed with Versamark ink, Gold Emboss Powder (from the Metallic Emboss Powder Pack), the Embossing Accessories Kit and a Heat Tool. It was stamped onto Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper and the images were water-coloured using the fine Water Painter. A tad of Daffodil Delight ink was added to the daisy centres.  I love colouring images in different ways and the effect of water-colouring is gorgeous. This bundle includes a set of masks and gives beautiful details, however, this project was water-coloured for a different approach.

The large floral arrangement was tamped twice, coloured and then fussy cut. While there is a coordinating die, as the image was going to be cut into smaller sections, I thought it would maintain consistency to fussy cut it all. A number of smaller leaves were die cut from Gold Foil Sheets.

The thin panel to the left is Cherry Cobbler card-stock and was dry embossed using the Layered Florals 3D Embossing Folder and a little White Craft ink was blended over the larger flowers with a Blending Brush. A thin strip of Gold Foil Sheet was adhered to the right edge and the panel was popped up on Dimensionals over a panel of Basic White card-stock that had a little Granny Apple Green ink lightly blended. A Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Write Marker was used to add a little splatter.

A sentiment from Greetings of the Season stamp set was white heat embossed and fussy cut. This was added with Dimensionals and a trimmed piece of Iridescent Striped Ribbon was tucked under the sentiment. The final touch - the scattering of a few Blooming Pearls - green.

Here is a close up:

A panel of Basic White card-stock was added inside the card. To carry the card theme through inside, a different sentiment from the Greetings of the Season stamp set was gold embossed and two remaining sections of water-coloured flowers were adhered in opposite corners.

Part of the large floral stamp was gold heat embossed onto a Basic White C6 Envelope. When initially stamped I must not have pressed firmly over a large rose, so it didn’t print well. I did think I would need to re—stamp on another envelope but didn’t want to be wasteful, so decided to use the stencils to colour the stamped section. This colouring draws the eye away from the missed stamped section and unless you were specifically looking at the details the overall image looks great. 

Thank you so much for joining us for our first Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2024. I hope you are enjoying this blog hop and are being inspired for your Christmas paper crafting. It’s only August, you say! From my experience from here, time goes quicker & quicker. The four months will disappear, especially when sending Christmas greetings overseas.

There is more Christmas creativity so do continue with the blog hop. Just click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of the amazing Judy May. I am looking forward to checking out Judy’s creation(s). I do love seeing everyones' projects - there is always so much inspiration.

Also, many of us participate in the Colour Creations Blog Hop that goes live every Wednesday night where we showcase one of Stampin’ Up!s colours each week. It would be fantastic if you could also 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 wonderful Art With Heart Team Heart of Christmas 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 Stampin' Up 2023-2024 Annual Catalogue and or the coming September-December 2024 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!. 

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