AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop #7

Christmas with Decorative Trees

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the seventh Art with Heart Team Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2024. We commenced this series in August and will be continuing every week until the end of November. I hope you can check us out each week as I know there will be so many ideas and different projects to help your Christmas preparations.

I love sharing Christmas crafting with you and hope that you will find some inspiration. This week I am featuring the Decorative Trees bundle. I have one card to share but had hoped to create a second similar but different card, however, time just disappeared. Hopefully, I may be able to add a second card over the weekend. Here’s this week’s card. I hope you have your sunnies on! 

I played with the Decorative Trees bundle for a recent CASEing the Catty Blog Hop and  loved the trees in this bundle, so wanted to play further with it. This card also features most of the 2024-2026 In Colour Glimmer Speciality Paper - it has an amazing shimmer. I also added some Old Olive Glimmer from the Berry Burst, Old Olive & White Glimmer Speciality Paper. You can see the shimmer of the papers below.

I kept the card base and background Basic White as I thought the bright colours and glimmer would speak for themselves. The card base is a book fold with the top layer scored 2.6cm in from the left edge. The card base pieces were adhered together at this section. A light blending of Summer Splash was added on the background panel plus some splattering with a Summer Splash Stampin’ Write Marker.

A tree was cut from each Glimmer Speciality Paper, ie Petunia Pop, Pretty in Pink, Peach Pie, Old Olive and Summer Splash. Five of the detailed dies from the Decorative Trees bundle cut out intricate pieces from Basic White card-stock. Each intricate die cut tree had a little ink partially blended over using the same colour ink as the glimmery tree that sits under it. The trees were adhered to the card background with either Multipurpose Liquid Glue or Dimensionals.

Aren’t the trees gorgeous. My second card will have card-stock bases and detailed pieces of die cut glimmer to change things up.

The sentiment came from the Detailed Trees stamp set and was white heat embossed onto Summer Splash card-stock. 2024-2026 In Colour Shimmer Gems were scattered around the sentiment and trees. A piece of Iridescent Striped Trim was tied around the card into a bow - I thought I’d go all out with the shimmer as its a Christmas card!

Just a simple inside to the card with a stamped sentiment and tree from the same stamp set. 

Thank you so much for spending time with me on my blog. I hope this Decorative Tree card brought a smile.

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 a lovely lady, Christine Blain. I always look forward to checking out Christine’s creation(s). I do love seeing everyones' projects - there is 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. We would love you to 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 amazing 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!. 

#heartofchristmas  #heartofchristmas2024 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #artwithheartteam  #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #decorativetreeshttp://

CASEing the Catty #487 CASE Mix & Match

CASE THE MIX & MATCH PAGES 16-17

Hello, Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and #487 Challenge with CASEing the Catty.

I am so glad you have dropped in. You may have come from Judy May, as you take this week’s Blog Hop or perhaps you’ve arrived another way; either way I am delighted you are here. At the end of my blog, I have linked to Rochelle Blok so you can continue with the next member of the Blog Hop.

At CASEing the Catty we love to use the samples from the Stampin' Up! Catalogues as inspiration and each week we have a different theme to guide our CASEing. To CASE is to "Copy And Selectively Edit" or some say "Copy And Share Everything". This week we are CASE-ing a project from the Mix & Match section in the 2024 - 2025 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue, ie pages 16 & 17.

Here is the card I have CASEd. As soon as I saw the card on page 17, I thought of creating my own background and then adding trees in the mid-ground and a large tree in the foreground.

For this week’s challenge I actually created two similar, but different cards. Here are my projects:

CARD 1:

Here is the card I initially imagined. The background was water-coloured using Azure Afternoon Classic Stampin ink, Fluid 100 Paper and the wide-brushed Water Painter. After the panel was dry some Versamark ink was smooshed onto the top edge of the background panel before being sprinkled with Silver Emboss Powder and then heat set. The background was also lightly splattered with an Azure Afternoon Stampin’ Write Marker.

The row of smaller trees from the Peaceful Evergreens stamp set was inked in Granny Apple Green ink and then some Shaded Spruce ink was added to the stamp using a Blending Brush before being stamped onto Basic White card-stock. This was repeated. I already had this gorgeous larger tree on my work desk from prior crafting and it was perfect for this card. I had created it using the Frosted Forrest bundle. It was stamped in Pretty Peacock ink and then coloured with Lost Lagoon, Garden Green, Pretty Peacock and Shaded Spruce inks using the coordinating masks and Blending Brushes. White Embossing Paste was added using the third mask.

A sentiment from the Peaceful Season stamp set was white heat embossed onto Azure Afternoon card-stock. Some silver sewing thread was looped around my fingers and adhered under the sentiment with Dimensionals. The final touch, some gorgeous Drusy Embellishments - they are so sparkly.

Both the inside of the card and the envelope were minimally decorated to coordinate with the card design. An extra sentiment from the same set of stamps was added inside and a group of the small trees was also added inside.

CARD 2:

While I was creating the first card, I was thinking of other ways of using the same layout and kept thinking of using an unconventional Christmas colour Pretty in Pink. 

As with the first card, the colour was added using the wet on wet water-colour technique. A little Petunia Pop ink was applied  While the panel was drying, I prepared the trees for the card - this time using the delightful Decorative Trees bundle. I had decided to use the In Color Glimmer Paper for the trees so didn’t want to add a different form of metallic glimmer at the top of the card. To give the background the effect of heat embossing on the top edge of the card it was clear heat embossed - well I had run out of clear embossing powder so used an older container that I now know has a sparkly clear effect.

The Decorative Trees dies cut the background pieces from either Petunia Pop and Pretty in Pink Glimmer Speciality Paper. Other dies cut decorative tree designs from Basic White card-stock. The smaller detailed tree die was partially coloured with Petunia Pop ink and the larger die cut tree with Pretty in Pink ink. A couple of pieces of White Diagonal Trim from the Combo Pack was laid across the card before the trees were adhered in place - the larger tree on Dimensionals. 

A sentiment from the Peaceful Season stamp set was white heat embossed on Pretty in Pink card-stock. A little white Bakers Twine bow was tucked under the sentiment and some Iridescent Pearl Basic Jewels were scattered around. A little Petunia Pop splattering was added with a Stampin’ Write Marker. 

A different sentiment from the same set of sentiment stamps was inked in Pretty in Pink and Petunia Pop inks and the tree stamp was added in Petunia Pop ink.

Thank you so much for spending time with me. I so appreciate it. I hope you found something to inspire in some way. x

Don’t miss any of the inspiration from this wonderful Crew. The next blog in the hop is the lovely Rochelle Blok. Just click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to her blog. I am sure her project will be a special.

Join In The Challenge: We would love you to share a project you have created that has been inspired by the new 2024-2025 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue. To share, all you need to do for to the CASEing The Catty Challenge Group. If you aren't a member, its easy to request to join and then all you need to do is upload a photo of your project to the main section. You can click on the graphic below to be taken to the group on Facebook. We would love to see your creation.

Here is a list of others in this blog hop. If you have missed one or want to check out someone again, just click on their names:

Julia Quinn

Rochelle Laird-Smith

Michelle Strazds  

Judy May

Andrea Sargent - You are here

Rochelle Blok

#ctc487 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #peacefulevergreens   #peacefulseason  #decorativetrees 

 

AWH Colour Creations Blog Hop #20 Crumb Cake

Crumb Cake with Golden Greenery + 

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart Colour Creations Blog Hop. We are working though the Stampin' Up! colours in alphabetical order, focussing on one colour each week.

This week’s Blog Hop is focussing on a versatile neutral colour called Crumb Cake.  Crumb Cake is part of the Neutrals Colour Family and is a pale tan that can coordinate with many colours, including greens (eg Old Olive), blues, pinks, white and other neutrals, etc and it would be wonderful for country scenes, sea scenes, trees, ground …  and so much more.

Crumb Cake is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Marker; Stampin’ Blends Combo; Neutrals Designer Series Paper as well as Nests of Winter, Wildly Flowering, and Country Woods DSPs; Season of Elegance Speciality Designer Series Paper; Earth Tones Shimmer Gems; Baker’s Twine Essentials Pack and a number of kits. 

This project has incorporated Crumb Cake as Classic Stampin' ink, card-stock, Stampin' Write Marker, Country Woods DSP and Season of Elegance Speciality Designer Series Paper, 

I love Crumb Cake as a neutral and the way it coordinates with so many colours. It can be used in many different ways. Having said that, I must admit I struggled to create something I liked and started afresh a number of times. To help me break through I pulled out a couple of gorgeous Designer Series Papers that incorporates Crumb Cake, ie the wonderful Country Woods DSP and the Season of Elegance SDSP.

After a piece of Country Woods White & Crumb Cake wood design was embossed using the Birch Wood 3D Embossing Folder, it was mounted onto Basic White card-stock. A panel of  speciality DSP was cut to a size so it would be framed with a wide frame of the DSP. I later thought it would be better to have a Basic White panel in the centre so mounted the white card-stock onto the SDSP. Different leaves were die cut using the Golden Greenery dies, 3 pieces from Basic White card stock and the rounder leaves in Old Olive card stock. The rounder and heart-shaped leaves were partially blended with Old Olive Classic ink and the pine fronds with Crumb Cake ink.

Some Crumb Cake splattering was added using a Stampin’ Write Marker. The leaves all had a little gold heat embossing added to one side of each piece. Both the Silver Trim (from the Gold & Silver Trim Combo Pack) and the Cherry Cobbler & Gold Satin Ribbon were both cut in half lengthwise. One of each Ribbon was tied together into a bow. Some Linen Thread was tied into a double bow.

A sentiment from the Peaceful Season stamp set was gold heat embossed on the non-gold side of some Season of Elegance SDSP before being die cut with a label from the Greetings of the Season dies. The final touch was a scattering of Cherry Cobbler & Pearl Adhesive-backed Berries. They are a beautiful embellishment.

A Basic White panel was mounted onto a slightly larger piece of Crumb Cake card-stock. Some pine fronds were also gold heat embossed onto the inside panel. Similarly, a C6 Basic White envelope was also gold heat embossed with the pine fronds.

Thank you so much for calling in to check out my Crumb Cake Golden Greenery card. What do you think of this country style Christmas card?

To continue with the Crumb Cake blog hop just click the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of a special lady, Kate Morgan. I am looking forward to checking out Kate’s creation(s). I do love seeing everyone’s' projects - there is always so much inspiration.

I do hope to see you next week when we will be featuring Crushed Curry as we continue the weekly 2024-2025 Colour Creations Blog Hop series. We would love you to also check in on us each week on Monday evenings until the end of November for the 2024 Heart of Christmas Blog Hops.

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 Catherine Proctor’s blog @ What Cathy Made. Cathy is our wonderful Art With Heart Team Colour Creations Coordinator.  Check out her delightful creation while you are there.

Living in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of the Stampin' Up 2024-2025 Annual Catalogue, then let me know and I will be delighted to send it to you.  

Please don't hesitate to make contact with any other queries about this project or Stampin' Up! 

#colourcreationsbloghop  #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards  #stampinupdemonstrator  #papercrafting #artwithheartteam  #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #goldengreenery  #greetingoftheseason  #peacefulseason  

AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop #6

Christmas with Shepherd’s Care Slimline

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the sixth Art with Heart Team Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2024. We are sharing Christmas inspiration every week until the end of November. I hope you check us out each week to find many ideas and different projects on display to help your Christmas preparations.

I do love creating Christmas projects and hope that you will be inspired in your preparations for Christmas. This week I have created a Mini Slimline card using the Shepherd’s Care stamp set. This set can be found in the new September-December 2024 Mini Catalogue.

I knew I would create a blended background but I kept blending and it developed to be better than I was expecting. What do you think? I love the ethereal feel. Starting with a panel of Basic White card-stock, I blended with Night of Navy, Blueberry Bushel, Boho Blue, Balmy Blue, Fresh Freesia, Lemon Lolly and Gray Granite Classic Stampin’ inks together with some White Craft ink. Once finished, some water was splattered over the coloured panel and then a spattering of White Craft re-inker. The panel was left to thoroughly dry before being embossed with the So Swirly Embossing Folder.

I love the images in the stand alone Shepherd’s Care stamp set. The images incorporate areas of grey shading making colouring of the images quite easy - you know where to add depth of colour and where to add highlights. The shepherd, lambs and Jerusalem images were stamped in Smoky Slate ink and then coloured with Stampin’ Blends combos, ie Misty Moonlight, Balmy Blue, Gray Granite, Pecan Pie and Crumb Cake combos plus the Color Lifter.

The large star and one of the sentiments were white heat embossed on Night of Navy card-stock. As the stamp set is a stand-alone set all the images were fussy cut.

All the pieces were arranged and adhered in place with a mix of Dimensionals, Mini Dimensionals and Multi-purpose Liquid Glue. A large Drusy Self-Adhesive Embellishment was added to the centre of the star and a couple of smaller embellishments near the sentiment.

A Basic White card inner was partially stamped with the shepherd stamp and one of the longer sentiments in Smoky Slate ink. As the card is a Mini Slimline card (finished size 7.2cm x 14cm) it is different to the standard envelopes, so I will need to create a tailor-made envelope. That’s a job for another day.

Thank you so much for spending time with me on my blog. I hope my card brought a smile.

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 a lovely lady, Judy May. I always look forward to checking out Judy’s creation(s). I do love seeing everyones' projects - there is 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. We would love you to 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 Blog Hop participants then go to Sharon Davern’s blog @ Rhapsody in Craft. Sharon is our amazing Art With Heart Team Heart of Christmas Coordinator.  She is a special lady. Check out her wonderful 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 new 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 these projects or Stampin' Up!. 

#heartofchristmas  #heartofchristmas2024 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #artwithheartteam  #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #shepherdscare

CASEing the Catty #486 CASE Sept-Dec Mini Catalogue

CASE THE MINI CATALOGUE meets Frosted Forrest

Hello, Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and #486 Challenge with CASEing the Catty.

I am so glad you have dropped by. You may have come from Rochelle Laird-Smith, as you take this week’s Blog Hop or perhaps come another way; either way I am delighted you are here. At the end of this blog, I have linked to Judy May so you can continue with the Blog Hop.

At CASEing the Catty we love to use the samples from the Stampin' Up! Catalogues as inspiration and each week we have a different theme to guide our CASEing. To CASE is to "Copy And Selectively Edit" or some say "Copy And Share Everything". This week we are CASE-ing any project from the new September-December 2024 Stampin' Up! Mini Catalogue.

It was hard to choose a card to CASE from the new Catalogue. There are so many gorgeous and inspiring ideas in the new September-December 2024 Mini Catalogue. I eventually chose a card from page 42 showing the Decorative Trees bundle. I was intrigued by the Crumb Cake card in the lower left corner of the page. I must try out the tree decorations too, but that will be another day.

While I loved the Crumb Cake card base I thought I would use Basic Beige card-stock. I do adore this soft neutral. Instead of using the Decorative Trees bundle my trees are from the Frosted Forest bundle, however, I did pinch the star and garlands from the original bundle. I love the way the card front was cut diagonally top and bottom to add a bit of interest and the stamping of the sentiment across the card is a different way to add a sentiment. I stepped my card up in a couple of ways too, but more on that below.

As mentioned, I swapped the trees on Stampin’ Up!s sample card for trees from the Frosted Forest bundle. This bundle includes a set of masks to colour the trees. The masks and Blending Brushes make colouring so easy. There are 3 masks for each tree that 1) lay a lighter base colour down; 2) add depth of colour with either more of the same colour or deeper colours and 3) adding more depth or conversely add highlights. I love to play with colour so blended the first layer with Lost Lagoon and Garden Green Classic inks. The second layer was Pretty Peacock & Shaded Spruce inks, while the third layer was White Embossing Paste. The last layer works beautifully with embossing paste to add highlights or a snow effect. While the Frosted Forest bundle comes with coordinating dies I didn’t want to run the embossing paste through the Cut ‘n Emboss Machine so the trees were fussy cut.

I added some ombré blending to the background using Basic Beige ink and a Blending Brush at the bottom of the card making the colour lighter as it went up. At the top of the card base I blended White Craft ink down the card. I looked at many sentiments to stamp across the card but thought the “O Christmas Tree” was so appropriate so repeatedly stamped it in Basic Beige ink across the card front running parallel to the removed slanted sections. I love the effect.

Only the centre front tree has been decorated with Gold Foil from the Textured Metallic Speciality Papers; cut out a star as the tree topper and gold garlands. To give perspective The front tree was the bigger tree and the back trees were smaller. I couldn’t resist adding fine strips of gold foil under the slanted sections to bring a touch of gold to the background and also emphasise the slant. 

The card didn’t need any ribbon or twine - the touches of gold were enough bling … well almost. I felt the card needed something subtle, so added a few pearl sequins from the Adhesive Backed  Sequin Trio. They let the gold foil shine but just added a little extra subtle shimmer.

As you may have noticed previously, I like to include a simple coordinating card inner and envelope. An extra fussy cut tree was added near the bottom and a sentiment from Greetings of the Season stamp set was stamped in Basic Beige ink. A Basic White C6 envelope had a tree stamped in Pretty Peacock ink and a misting of Lost Lagoon ink was blended over.

Thank you so much for spending time with me. I so appreciate it. I hope you found an idea or two.  The Stampin’ Up! catalogues have so many treasures to spark ideas for your creating. x

Don’t miss any of the inspiration from this wonderful Crew. The next blog in the hop is the amazing Judy May. Just click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to her blog. I am sure her project will be gorgeous.

Join In The Challenge: We would love you to share a project you have created that has been inspired by the new 2024 September-December Stampin' Up! Mini Catalogue. To share, all you need to do is go to the CASEing The Catty Challenge Group on Facebook. If you aren't a member, it’s easy to request to join and then all you need to do is upload a photo of your project to the main section. You can click on the graphic below to be taken to the group on Facebook. We would love to see your creation.

#ctc486  #caseingthecattychallenge  #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #greetingsoftheseason   #decorativetrees  #frostedforest