AWH Colour Creations Blog Hop #27 Gorgeous Grape

Gorgeous Grape with Hang An Ornament

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 strong deep purple called Gorgeous Grape.  Gorgeous Grape is part of the Regals Colour Family and is a rich purple that can harmoniously coordinate with blues and pinks, neutrals etc.  It would be wonderful for berries, grapes, flowers …  and anything needing a strong- purple.

Blueberry Bushel 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;  Soft Pastels; Regals Designer Series Paper as well as a number of other products. 

This project has incorporated Gorgeous Grape as Classic Stampin' ink, card-stock and a Stampin' Write Marker.

I was inspired by a Stampin’ Up! post this month. Stampin’ Up! is focussing this month on colour combinations selected by using the SU Colour Wheel. Demonstrators who attended On Stage earlier this year received a Colour Wheel that incorporates all the current SU colours. It is a wonderful tool when thinking about a colour combo for a project. Starting next month, this colour wheel will be available for general purchase. The post seen recently featured Gorgeous Grape with Azure Afternoon and Highland Heather. I started with these 3 colours, but then decided I wanted a lighter blue background - Balmy Blue and an extra colour for a bauble, ie Pretty in Pink.

The two different baubles in the Hang An Ornament stamp set were stamped in Versamark ink and gold heat embossed onto Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper. The baubles were coloured individually with Gorgeous Grape, Azure Afternoon, Pretty in Pink, Highland Heather and the fifth  bauble was water-coloured with a mix of Azure Afternoon and some Gorgeous Grape Classic inks. The fifth bauble is the bottom one - I love the depth achieved by adding Gorgeous Grape. I water-coloured some other baubles, playing further with Gorgeous Grape by adding more water to get lighter tones. I was fascinated that one of the baubles looked the same colour as the one coloured with Highland Heather.  A little ink blending was added using the same colour as the water colouring around the deeper edges.

The background was blended with Balmy Blue, with some Azure Afternoon making a deeper colour near the top, plus a little Gorgeous Grape near the top edge. Water splattering was added and when the background was dry, further splattering was added with White Craft ink. A little Gorgeous Grape splatter was added with a Stampin’ Write Marker - but it was light and not picked up by the camera. Gold Foil was die cut to create tag toppers and some holly leaves.

Two sentiments from the stamp set were white heat embossed on coordinating card-stock and then die cut with either a scalloped die or the finer rectangular die. Gold Twisted Thread will be generally available early November - it is amazing. As you can see it was tied to each bauble and the Gold Foil topper was adhered at the top. The die cut sentiments were added with Mini Dimensionals. The baubles were arranged and adhered in place at slight angles to give a sense of movement to the dangling baubles. Some Gold Foil holly was added to a couple of baubles with some Pearl Adhesive-backed Berries and a tiny Gold Twisted Thread bow.

The last couple of days have been a bit haywire so I ran out of time to finish the card inner and make a Slimline envelope from Designer Series Paper. A task for another day.

Thank you so much for dropping in on your way around the Gorgeous Grape Colour Creations Blog Hop. I so appreciate it.

To continue with the blog hop just click the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of the lovely Di Furniss. I am looking forward to checking out Di’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 Granny Apple Green 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, 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 these projects or Stampin' Up! 

#colourcreationsbloghop  #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards  #stampinupdemonstrator  #papercrafting #handanornament

AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop #13

Christmas with Sentimental Christmas

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the thirteenth Art with Heart Team Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2024. We are hopping every week until the end of November. I hope you can continue to check us out each week as there will be so many ideas and different projects on display to inspire your Christmas preparations.

Thank you for dropping in - I so appreciate it.  I love sharing Christmas creativity with you. This week I am sharing an idea I had for this week’s CASEing the Catty Challenge, but I missed signing up for their Challenge Launch Blog Hop so thought I would use that idea for tonight’s Blog Hop. My inspiration came from the top central wrapped present.

I love the off-centre ribbon and bow with the hand made tag, so decided to turn this idea into a card with the ribbon and bow off-set and the tag added at an angle. A specially designed and hand created card is indeed a present. Instead of the background being Sentimental Christmas Designer Series Paper, the background has been dry embossed card-stock and the tag features the Sentimental Christmas DSP.

As you can see, I created 3 similar cards to build my card stash as it hasn’t been growing quickly enough to satisfy my Christmas Card list. I was pleased with my first card so thought it was fairly simple to replicate another one or two.

This was my first card. I love the simplicity with the contrast between card base and ribbon. This design of the Sentimental Christmas DSP is so gorgeous. Each of the cards has a background panel of card-stock that was embossed with the Forever Plaid 3D Embossing Folder. The card base is the same colour as the background piece.

Either Shaded Spruce Satin & Sheer Ribbon or Cherry Cobbler & Gold Satin Ribbon was added to one side or the other and a second piece near the top. The ends of the pieces of ribbon was adhered to the back with some Tear ‘N Tape. Some Linen twine (either the green twine from the Natural Tones Linen Thread pack or Linen Twine) was tied around the cross over of ribbon and a ribbon bow was added with a Glue Dot and the Linen Twine was tied around the centre of the bow.

Using the tag die from the Merriest Trees dies, tags were cut from 3 of the Sentimental Christmas DSP designs. Some of the larger key images were fussy cut from the DSP. The fussy cut images were added onto the tags using Mini Dimensionals to add a little dimension and interest. One end of the linen twine was poked through the tag hole and then tied into a bow to sit over the ribbon bow.

The same sentiment from the Merriest Trees stamp set was used on each of the cards. It was white heat embossed onto either Shaded Spruce or Cherry Cobbler card-stocks to coordinate with the ribbons. The sentiment was fussy cut and added with Multipurpose Liquid Glue and Mini Dimensionals. A different sentiment was added inside the card.

Either loose White Snowflakes or a number of the Iridescent Faceted Gems were added to the tags to provide a little fun and sparkle.

The inside of the card, a thin strip of the DSP that was used for the tag was adhered to an edge and a different sentiment from the Merriest Trees stamps was stamped in either Shaded Spruce or Cherry Cobbler Classic inks. An extra fussy cut image was adhered inside as well.  Either a Shaded Spruce or Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Write Marker added some splattering both inside and out.

A Basic White C6 envelope was stamped with some holly from the Sentimental Wishes stamp set in Shaded Spruce ink. The berries were coloured with a Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Write Marker. 

Thank you so much for dropping in on your way around the 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 the lovely Sharon Davern. I always look forward to checking out Sharon’s creation(s). I wonder what she is sharing with us this week - she is a wiz with fun folds. 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 also love you to check in on us on Wednesday evening 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 then also 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(s) 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 these projects or Stampin' Up!. 

#heartofchristmas  #heartofchristmas2024 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #artwithheartteam  #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #merriesttrees  #sentimentalwishes  #sentimentalchristmas  

AWH Colour Creations Blog Hop #26 Garden Green

Garden Green 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 lovely green called Garden Green.  Garden Green is part of the Regals Colour Family and as the name suggests, is a rich green that is the colour of many plants in the garden. It coordinate with many colours and would be wonderful for leaves/plants, trees, some vegetables and anything needing a strong mid-green. It is a colour often featured at Christmas time.   

Garden Green 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; Regals Designer Series Paper as well as Reindeer Days, Snowy Scenes, Sentimental Christmas, Take a Bow, Splendid Autumn, Nests of Winter, Mediterranean Blooms, To Market, Meandering Meadows and Winter Meadow DSPs; Season of Green & Gold, Frames & Flowers Speciality Designer Series Paper; Graceful Greenery Vellum; Festive Glimmer Paper; Garden Green Two Tone cardstock, Snowy Day Two Tone Cardstock Pack, Reindeer Memories Two Tone Cardstock Pack, Reindeer Memories Scrapbooking Workshop Kit, Snowy Day Scrapbooking Workshop Kit, Snowy Scenes DSP & Sticker Sheet, Reindeer Days DSP & Sticker Sheet; Gold Dipped Mix & Match Speciality Cards & Envelopes, Joyful Images Mix & Match Speciality Ephemera Pack, Joyful Sayings Mix & Match Ephemera Pack, Tags for the Season Mix & Match Ephemera Pack, A Little Bit Festive Mix & Match Speciality DSP, Reindeer Days Memories & More Cards; plus Earth Tone Shimmer Gems, Adhesive backed Dots for Days, Transparent Adhesive-backed Dots, Blooming Pearls; as well as a number of kits and Ephemera Packs and  other products that I may have missed listing. Wow - what a list of products, which shows the usefulness of this colour.

This project has incorporated Garden Green as Classic Stampin' ink, card-stock, Stampin' Write Marker and some of the Graceful Greenery Vellum.

I had a number of ideas for Christmas projects featuring Garden Green, as mentioned, it is a great green for Christmas, which is affirmed by the number of Stampin’ Up! products currently available. In the end, I decided on a Christmas wreath using one of my favourite techniques,  blending on die cuts.

The background is a piece of Basic White card-stock that was embossed with the Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder and adhered to the Garden Green card base. Some Garden Green splattering was added with a Stampin’ Write Marker.

The smaller pine die from the Golden Greenery die set was used to cut out numerous sprigs from Basic White card-stock. They were coloured with Garden Green ink and a Blending Brush. I like to die cut a circle with 2 circular dies to provide a circular base on which to build the wreath. As this wreath would be a larger wreath, I used the Deckled Circles dies with Garden Green card-stock but have found out that the dies have just been retired from Stampin’ Up!s Online store. They will be missed. Pine from the Graceful Greenery Vellum was cut with a coordinating die. These sprigs were slotted in under every 2nd blended sprig.

I was planning to use the gorgeous Cherry Cobbler and Gold Satin ribbon, but searched high and lo for it to no avail, so have used the wonderful Iridescent Striped Trim and coloured it with a Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Blend. This trim is so luscious. (By the way, I found my missing ribbon near my photography area when I came to photograph this card.) A sentiment from the Reindeer Fun Stamp set was white heat embossed on Cherry Cobbler card-stock. Some of the beautiful Cherry Cobbler Adhesive-backed Berries were scattered around the wreath. The final touch a couple of bells fussy cut from the Season of Green & Gold Speciality Designer Series Paper.

Inside the card a Basic White panel was stamped with the pine sprig stamp (from the Golden Greenery stamps) in first, second and third generation Garden Green ink. Some berries (from the same stamp set) were stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink. A second sentiment from the Reindeer Fun stamps was also added in Garden Green ink. Don’t forget to also decorate your envelope - I stamped it with the same spray of pine and berries.

Thank you so much for calling in on your way around the Garden Green Colour Creations Blog Hop.

To continue with the blog hop just click the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of a lovely lady, Di Furniss. I am looking forward to checking out Di’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 Gorgeous Grape as we continue the weekly 2024-2025 Colour Creations Blog Hop series. Many of us are also “Hopping” on Monday nights (until the end of November) with the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. We would love you to join us then.

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 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 this project or Stampin' Up! 

#colourcreationsbloghop  #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards  #stampinupdemonstrator  #papercrafting #goldengreenery  #reindeerfun

AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop #12

Christmas with Yuletide Village

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the twelfth Art with Heart Team Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2024. We are will be blog hopping every week until the end of November. I hope you can continue to check out the Blog Hop each week as we share ideas and different projects to help your Christmas preparations.

I love creating Christmas projects and sharing them with you. This week I have created a Double Diamond M-fold card. I recently saw Sue Campfield, a top performing USA Demonstrator, create a card using this fold. As I was watching her create the card, I was busy converting dimensions to coordinate with A4 cardstock, rather than the size of card-stock in the USA. She also showed a triple diamond fun fold card and a single diamond fun fold card. I will use the other folds at some stage - just not tonight. Here is my card:

The card pulled open looks like this:

Here is a side view of the “M” fold.

The Thick Basic White card-stock base starts by cutting an A4 sheet of thick card-stock in half lengthwise, ie 10.5 x 29.6 cm. Three score lines were added across the long edge of the card at 8.9, 17.8, 23.7cm and the base was folded - mountain, valley, mountain, then the fold lines were burnished with a Bone Folder. Two pieces of Winter Meadows Designer Series Paper - the Lost Lagoon tree design, were adhered to the downward front facing panels.

Two squares of Basic White card-stock were cut to 7.9 x 7.9cm and 2 smaller pieces at 7.6 x 7.6cm. A delicate blending of Pool Party Classic ink was added to the top section of the smaller card-stock squares. Some splattering was added with a Pool Party Stampin’ Write Marker.

Using the Yuletide Village stamp set, the Church and two of the 3 houses were stamped in Momento Black ink onto Basic White card-stock, as was a couple of single pine tree. All the images were coloured with Stampin’ Blends Combos, ie Crumb Cake, Lemon Lolly, Pool Party, Lost Lagoon, Shaded Spruce, Real Red & Misty Moonlight, plus the Colour Lifter. The tiny deciduous tree was stamped in Crumb Cake ink. As this was a stand alone stamp set, the images were fussy cut using Stampin’ Up! wonderful Snips.

Some Basic White card-stock was also torn to add snow drift layers. Gold garlands were added to the central tree on the front panel. The garlands were cut using dies from the Decorative Tree dies in Gold Foil. A sentiment from the Peaceful Season stamp set was white heat embossed on to Lost Lagoon card-stock. The final touch - some gorgeous Iridescent Faceted Gems.

The panel for writing a personal message is the inner back panel. A 2-story house was stamped in Momento ink and coloured with Stampin’ Blends. A tiny rock wall was stamped in Crumb Cake ink and a tiny deciduous tree was also stamped in Crumb Cake ink. Similar to the card front, some light Pool Party ink was blended for the sky followed by some Pool Party splattering. A C6 Basic White envelope was also stamped with the same house with a few deciduous trees with similar additional colouring.

And yes, it does fit into a Basic White C6 envelope.

Thank you so much for dropping in to check out my Yuletide Village Double Diamond card. The fold is quite a simple one, once the dimensions are calculated.

There is more Christmas creativity, so do continue through the blog hop. Just click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of the lovely, Claire Daly. I always look forward to seeing Claire’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 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   #yuletidevillage  #peacefulseason  

CASEing the Catty #492 - CASE A Bundle

CASE A Bundle from pages 57-73 of the Annual Catalogue meets Reindeer Fun

Hello, Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and #492 Challenge with CASEing the Catty.

I am so glad you have dropped by. You may have come from Michelle Strazds, as you take this week’s Blog Hop or perhaps arrived directly here; either way I am delighted you are here. At the end of my blog, I have linked to Judy May so you can continue easily 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 projects found in the Bundles section on pages 57-73 of the 2024-2025 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue.

There are so many different projects displayed on the nominated pages and I kept thinking “O, I could CASE that”. The Catalogue can be a wonderful starting point when creating your project. For this week’s challenge I chose to CASE this card:

I am still in Christmas creating mode so decided I would use a small Christmas themed image to the side of the sentiment strip. This layout is a great way to feature those smaller images.  For something a little different, I thought I would use the circular pine die from the Reindeer Fun dies with another circular die to cut out a frame.

A background Soft Sea Foam piece of cardstock was first stamped with a small sentiment from the Greetings of the Season stamp set with Soft Sea Foam Classic ink. This stamping was planned to sit beneath the frame and to extend a little beyond it. A little blending with Garden Green ink was added around the card-stock edges.  The panel was embossed with the gorgeous Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder and then mounted to a slightly larger piece of Garden Green card-stock, before being added to a Soft Sea Foam card base. Some Garden Green splatters were added with a Stampin’ Write Marker and white splatters using White Craft ink and a Water Painter.

Initially the circular pine die was used on some Soft Sea Foam card-stock. The large circle die from the Christmas Friends dies was used to partially die cut around the initial die cut. The sections where the leaves extended passed the circle were fussy cut. Some Shimmery Embossing Paste was added to the die cut, however, as the card developed the die cut frame tended to blend in, so the die cutting process was repeated with Basic White card-stock and it was adhered over the first frame.

A strip of Garden Green card-stock was white heat embossed with another sentiment from the Greetings of the Season stamp set. This strip was tucked under the frame on the left side and went over the frame on the right side. Some Dimensionals were added under the sentiment strip on the right side to add a little dimension. 

Bells were die cut from Gold Foil using a die from the Reindeer Fun dies. I had previously coloured a Textural Element embellishment with Mossy Meadows Blends and added some red Pearlized Enamel Effects to show as berries. It was added to the left side of the frame with a group of 3 foil bells.

A piece of Cherry Cobbler & Gold Satin ribbon was cut in two lengthwise and tied into a double bow. It was added on top of the bells with Glue Dots. A few Cherry Cobbler & Pearl Adhesive-Backed Berries were adhered around the sentiment.

Inside the card, a Basic White panel was gold heat embossed with bells from the Reindeer Fun stamps and a sentiment from the Greetings of the Season stamps. Some light blending was added with the Blending Brush and Garden Green ink. Garden Green splatters were also added. A Basic White C6 Envelope was gold heat embossed with the bells and a little blending was added.

Thank you so much for dropping in on your way around the CASEing the Catty Blog Hop for Challenge #492.

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.

#ctc492 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #reideerfun  #greetingsoftheseason #caseingthecatty