AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop #9

Christmas with Christmas Friends

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the ninth Art with Heart Team 2024 Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. We are hopping 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 on display to help your Christmas preparations.

I love creating Christmas themed projects and sharing them with you. This week I created another Flip Flap Window card, but this time it is a square card, ie 5” x 5”. This card features the  cute Christmas Friends bundle together with the Reindeer Fun dies. Here is my card:

I was part of Emma Goddard’s Card & Cuppa last Friday and as Emma’s card was taking shape my brain was formulating a different card using the Christmas Friends bundle. It took form today. I have had a number of other issues arise and so was delayed in creating this card. The time disappeared as I was creating this card and so I now have limited time to write this blog. It will be quite abbreviated tonight but will add further information tomorrow so if you want details of the products, etc, please come back later. The photos of the card have been uploaded for you to check out tonight.

I started by stamping all the images from the Christmas Friends stamps in Momento ink on Basic White card-stock. The many images were coloured with Stampin’ Blends and then cut out with the coordinating dies.

I worked out card dimensions around a 5”x5” card. The background DSPs are from the A Little Bit Festive Speciality Designer Series Paper. This pack has 3 sheets of double sided DSP- each a different design. This card uses 2 designs. The circular labels were cut from Basic White card-stock by the circle die in the Christmas Friends dies. A little blending was added to subtly give a sense of ground and sky. Some tiny die cut pieces were cut from Gold Foil.

A number of the sentiments are from the Peaceful Season stamp set, except the sentiment used below that came from the Christmas Friends stamps.

Once the flap opens, this is what you see.  The following photos show each panel individually.

This is what you see when the card front opens.

And here is the back of the card for writing a personal message.

Thank you so much for dropping in on your way around the 9th Heart of Christmas Blog Hop.

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 wonderful lady and the leader of Art with Heart Team, Claire Daly. I always look forward to checking out Christine’s creation(s). I do love seeing everyones' projects - there is so much inspiration.

I hope to see you next week when we hold another Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. 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. 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 these projects or Stampin' Up!. 

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

CASEing the Catty #489 CASE a Bundle

CASE A Bundle pgs 39-50 meets Hang an Ornament

Hello, Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and #489 Challenge with CASEing the Catty.

I am so glad you have dropped by. You may have come from Peta Stephen and Marvi, as you take this week’s Blog Hop or perhaps another way; either way I am delighted you are here. At the end of my blog, I have linked to Judy May so you are easily able to 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 a project that is inspired by a bundle and project  found in between pages 39-50 of the 2024 September-December Stampin' Up! Mini Catalogue.

There are so many delightful bundles between pages 39 and 50 of Stampin’ Up!s September - December Mini Catalogue. For this week’s challenge I chose to CASE the white background card on the left on page 44. Specifically I have CASEd the colours of the card using the same bundle and also took inspiration from the visible section of the spruce Christmas Tree shown at the top of the page with ornaments hanging.

Here is my card:

As you can see, I still have a majorly white background but have changed a bauble colour for Cherry Cobbler and used Old Olive Classic ink to blend over the spruce frame from the Winterly Tree Tops dies using a Blending Brush. The spruce frame was cut twice and one was turn turned 180deg and layered on top of the other one. This give a more luscious feel to the frame. Sitting behind the spruce frame is a Basic White panel dry embossed with the Birch Wood 3D embossing folder. Rather than a Basic White card base, Pretty Peacock card-stock base was used. 

The Hang an Ornament bauble stamps were inked in Versamark ink and white heat embossed  on each Lost Lagoon, Pretty Peacock and Cherry Cobbler card-stocks. The coordinating die from the Hang An Ornament dies cut out the baubles. The bauble top and hook were die cut from Gold Foil. These pieces add a special touch and are easily adhered in place.

"Merry" was stamped / white heat embossed twice on Pretty Peacock card-stock and fussy cut  to add to the Pretty Peacock bauble. "All is merry" was white heat embossed on Lost Lagoon card-stock and die cut with the thin rectangle die from the coordinating dies. The sentiments were popped up on Dimensionals to the baubles.

Two pieces of die cut holly was also coloured with Old Olive ink. They were positioned with Glue Dots and the oh so gorgeous Cherry Cobbler (& Pearl) Adhesive-backed Berries were added to the holly and scattered over the baubles. The Cherry Cobbler & Gold Satin Ribbon was cut in half lengthwise and tied into a double bow, then adhered to the top bauble with a Glue Dot. A little Pretty Peacock splattering was added using a Stampin' Write Marker.

A couple of remaining white heat embossed baubles were adhered to a Basic White card inner and some Gold Foil bauble tops and hooks were adhered in place. A Basic White C6 envelope was stamped in Lost Lagoon ink with a couple of baubles and sentiments.

Thank you so much for spending time with me. I so appreciate it. I hope you found something of interest. x

Don’t miss any of the inspiration from this wonderful Crew. The next blog in the hop is the lovely Judy May. 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.

#ctc469 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #hanganornament   #birchwood3d  #winterlytreetop

AWH Colour Creations Blog Hop #22 Daffodil Delight

Daffodil Delight with Delicate Forest +

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart Colour Creations Blog Hop for 2024-2025. 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 beautiful bright yellow called Daffodil Delight.  Daffodil Delight is part of the Brights Colour Family and is a rich yellow. It can coordinate with many colours, including blues (I love blue and yellows together) or grey, harmoniously with greens and oranges, etc and it works beautifully as flowers, fruit - eg lemons, birds, a light source …  and anything needing a bright yellow.

Daffodil Delight is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads, ink spots & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Marker; Stampin’ Blends Combo; Watercolor Pencils; Soft Pastels; Brights Designer Series Paper as well as Snowy Scenes, Nests of Winter, Mediterranean Blooms, Full of Life and Hello Irresistible DSPs; Opal Rounds Assortment, Loose Frosted Dots & Glossy Dots and a number of other products including kits and Clearance Items. 

This project has incorporated Daffodil Delight as Classic Stampin' ink, Stampin' Write Marker, Stampin’ Blends Combo and Opal Rounds Assortment

Not long ago I saw a picture of a stag in a forest clearing with light breaking into the clearing while the surrounding forest was devoid of light and quite dark. It led me to think of Christmas  representing the sense of “a light shining in the darkness”. I could have used either the Grove dies or Delicate Forrest dies. I ended up using both and then felt I needed to build the scene further to lighten the impact.

The Delicate Forrest die was used to cut a leafy frame from both Misty Moonlight and Basic White card-stocks. The Misty Moonlight card-stock frame was coloured with both Night of Navy and Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin’ inks and Blending Brushes with the Shaded Spruce more over the leaves. The 2nd die cut frame and some ground with foliage was more lightly coloured with Shaded Spruce ink. The two frames were adhered together with a slight off-set to give a little extra dimension. Two deers from the Grove dies were cut from Basic Beige card-stock and Early Expresso ink blending gave shading to the deers. 

A Basic White background panel was blended using Daffodil Delight and Night of Navy inks plus a little White Craft ink. Some water was splattered over this panel and when dry more splattering was added with White Craft ink. The forest frame was added to the background with Dimensionals. It needed something and I had a couple of trees on my work desk that I had created previously using the Frosted Forrest stamp set and masks. They had been created with Lost Lagoon, Garden Green and Shaded Spruce, plus some White Embossing Paste. The Shaded Spruce colouring tied them into this cards colour scheme so the large tree ended up to the left of the forest opening. Something else was still needed so Daffodil Delight Stampin’ Blends coloured White Glimmer Paper before it was die cut with garland dies, a star and baubles from the Decorative Tree dies to bring Daffodil Delight light further into the design.

The initial scene was one of peace so I needed to use a sentiment incorporating peace. The Peaceful Season stamp set included a simple sentiment saying “Peace & Joy” so this sentiment was white heat embossed onto Night of Navy card-stock. Pretty Peacock & Gold Metallic Ribbon was added behind the sentiment and a number of gorgeous Opal Rounds Assortment gems were scattered around. The final touch - a splattering of Wink of Stella.

The Basic White card inner had a little Night of Navy and Daffodil Delight ink blending under the smaller masked tree. A few baubles were added to the tree and a different sentiment from the Peaceful Season stamp set was stamped in Night of Navy ink. Another tree was added to a C6 Basic White envelope to bring some coordination with the card.

Thank you so much for calling in to check out my Daffodil Delight Delicate Forest card. This card certainly morphed into a different design than initially imagined and there is no doubt it is a non-traditional Christmas card.

To continue with the Daffodil Delight 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 Early Expresso as we continue the weekly 2024-2025 Colour Creations Blog Hop series. 

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.  She is a special lady. 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 and or the 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! 

#colourcreationsbloghop  #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards  #stampinupdemonstrator  #cardmakerofinstagram  #papercrafting  #delicateforest  #grove   #decoratedtrees  #peacefulseason  #frostedforest

AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop #8

Christmas with Peaceful Evergreens/Reindeer Fun/Decorative Trees

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the eighth weekly Art with Heart Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2024. We started this series in 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 so many ideas and different projects on display to help you with your Christmas preparations.

This week I have combined products from 3 different bundles and amended a fun fold I saw over the weekend. Here’s my card:

I started creating this card by making a blended background on Pool Party card-stock using Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin’ Inks and White Craft ink. A smaller panel of Pool Party card-stock was embossed with the Painted Trees 3D embossing folder and Lost Lagoon and Pretty Peacock inks were lightly blended over the trees using Blending Brushes. A splattering of White Craft ink was added to both panels. 

The mid and smaller trees from the Peaceful Evergreen stamp set were stamped in Pretty Peacock and Lost Lagoon inks respectively and then cut out with the coordinating dies from the Peaceful Evergreen die set. An extra small tree was also stamped and cut for inside the card. A prancing reindeer from the Reindeer Fun bundle was stamped in Early Expresso & Cherry Cobbler inks and then coloured with Crumb Cake, Pecan Pie Stampin’ Blends combos with the Color Lifter and touches of Light Petal Pink Blend. There are coordinating dies for cutting him out but as I was relaxing in the evening he was fussy cut out.

The two sizes of presents were die cut using dies from the Reindeer Fun die set using both Lost Lagoon & Pretty Peacock card-stocks and Cherry Cobbler Glimmer Paper (Festive Glimmer Paper pack). A little shading was added to the presents before attaching the Cherry Cobbler die cut bows. A sentiment from the Reindeer Fun stamps was white heat embossed onto Pretty Peacock card-stock. Some oh so gorgeous Iridescent Faceted Gems added a special touch of shimmer.

To talk a little about the fun fold - So far it looks like an ordinary card. I watched Susan Campfield on U-Tube create a fun fold she called a “Flip Window card”. She had designed it around new scrapbooking products that Stampin’ Up! have recently introduced. A support product can be added to a Scrapbook page that opens to reveal extra photos underneath - it’s a flip panel. Susan also cut out a window under the centre panel that opens separately to the card itself. The photo below shows the centre section opening to reveal two scenes - one on the reverse side of the central flip panel and a second scene that can be seen through the die cut window.

The inner flip panel was covered with a Lost Lagoon tree design from the Winter Meadow Designer Series Paper. The smaller Lost Lagoon stamped tree was added to the flip panel. It doesn’t show well in the photo but is better in real life. A sentiment from the Decorative Trees stamps was white heat embossed onto Lost Lagoon card-stock and fussy cut out. A window was cut through the card front using a mid sized Countryside Corner die and then frames were cut from Lost Lagoon card-stock using the same die and a second die that was 1 size larger.

When the larger card opens, you see part of the inside flip panel framed by the window and you also see the card inner - as shown above. The ombré blended section that had been die cut out was adhered onto a Basic White card inner. Another sentiment from the Reindeer Fun stamp set was white heat embossed onto Pretty Peacock card-stock. This sentiment and a second reindeer was adhered to the ombre panel. A few more Iridescent Gems were scattered around. 

I have changed the dimensions, format (to landscape) and a number of other aspects of Susan Campfield’s card, however, as this card developed, I thought of a number of things to improve my process so you may see another card in the near future using a variation of this fold.

A Basic White C6 envelope was simply stamped with the prancing deer in Early Expresso ink on both front and back of the envelope. 

Thank you so much for dropping in to check out my Peaceful Evergreens Christmas fun fold card. I hope it has given you some ideas.

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, Kate Morgan. I always look forward to checking out Kate’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 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 re any queries about this project or Stampin' Up!. 

#heartofchristmas  #heartofchristmas2024 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #artwithheartteam  #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #reindeerfun  #peacefulevergreens  #decorativetrees

AWH Colour Creations Blog Hop #21 Crushed Curry

Crushed Curry with Country Birdhouse  

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 beautiful deep yellow colour called Crushed Curry.  Crushed Curry is part of the Regals Colour Family and is a rich slightly muted yellow. Yellows are wonderful with grey, or blue and coordinate with many other colours, including oranges, greens etc. Crushed Curry is beautiful for flowers. 

Crushed Curry is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Marker; Stampin’ Watercolor Pencils (Assortment 2); Regals Designer Series Paper as well as a number of other products. 

This project has incorporated Crushed Curry as Classic Stampin' ink, card-stock, Stampin' Write Marker and Watercolor Pencil.

When thinking about a project to create using Crushed Curry I Googled yellow birds and found a beautiful bird with strong yellow belly and purple grey feathers. I then started to ponder what card design I could use to highlight the bird. The Country Birdhouse bundle came to mind and I started to think about a 3D project. A number of days later I saw an amazing 3D Christmas birdhouse by Mikaela Titheridge, one of Stampin’ Up!s Artisans. Then she posted a link to a U-tube video showing how she created it. I so admire Mikaela and her talent and am so appreciative of her video of the box birdhouse. Thank you so so much Mikaela.

Apart from decorating the box birdhouse differently to Mikaela I wanted to see if I could create a box with a base so that it could be used either as a box to hold a gift or as a card that folds flat to fit into an ordinary C6 Basic White envelope.

I challenged my grey matter to create a base for the box to keep the box stable and, as mentioned, so that the box could be used to hold a small gift. As I wasn’t sure how i would use this project, the base also needed to open and lie flat. I got there. There are two flaps that fold across the base and a third flap that folds over from the front and tucks in with a flap.

Three birds were stamped in Smoky Slate Classic Stampin’ ink onto Basic White card-stock, one of them was initially stamped onto a Stampin’ Up! Silicon Mat and cardstock was rubbed over the stamped image so the bird would be in reverse. They were coloured with Crushed Curry, Basic Gray, Gorgeous Grape and white Watercolor Pencils. The birdhouse was covered with Country Woods Designer Series Paper - with two designs that were both sides of one sheet. The die cut trims were cut from Basic White and Crushed Curry card-stock using the coordinating Country Birdhouse dies.

Flowers and leaves were die cut from Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper using dies from the same set. Other flowers were also die cut using the Thoughtful Wishes dies. All of the die cuts were wet on wet water-coloured using Crushed Curry and Old Olive inks.

A sentiment from the Country Birdhouse stamp set was white heat embossed on Crushed Curry card-stock and then fussy cut. A Linen Twine double bow was tucked under the sentiment and a number of Iridescent Foil Gems were scattered around.

A Basic White card-stock panel was cut to size and stamped with another sentiment in Smoky Slate ink. One of the Thoughtful Wishes coloured die cuts was adhered to this panel. The Basic White C6 envelope flap was stamped with the cute little bird in Smoky Slate ink.

Thank you so much for calling in to check out my Crushed Curry Country Woods box card. I loved creating it and have decided to give it to a friend to help her celebrate her birthday.

To continue with the Crushed Curry 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 Daffodil Delight as we continue the weekly 2024-2025 Colour Creations Blog Hop series. 

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 brilliant Art With Heart Team Colour Creations Coordinator.  She is a wonderful lady. 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 or and the 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! 

#colourcreationsbloghop  #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards  #stampinupdemonstrator  #papercrafting #artwithheartteam  #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #countrybirdhouse  #countrywoods  #thoughtfulwishes