Art With Heart “Heart of Christmas 2019” - Week 16

A Christmas Wreath using the Peaceful Boughs Bundle

Welcome to this, the final "Heart of Christmas 2019" Blog Hop. I hope you have enjoyed hopping along with us each week. I've loved being apart of the Art with Heart Team's Christmas Blog Hop.

We are in December now and Christmas is close. It has been a wonderful learning experience to establish a blog that has enabled me to share a new Christmas card with you each week. As I mentioned a number of weeks ago, I love wreaths and so this week I have made a wreath using Stampin' Up!'s Beautiful Boughs dies.

Using the single pine leaf die, I cut 5 each of Copper, Champagne, Gold and Silver foil. They were glued singly, rotating each colour and placed to form a circle. If you are going to try it, make sure you tuck the twig end under the leaf below (not sticking it on top of the previous one ... - ask me how I know its easy to make this mistake when you are running out of time 😁). 

The background (and card) was cut from Very Vanilla cardstock. The card front was dry embossed using the Pinewood Planks 3D embossing folder and then mounted on some copper foil to show a slight stripe of copper along both sides. The sentiment came from the matching Peaceful Boughs stamp set and was cut out using the matching set of dies.

The wreath was finished with a bow tied in Copper Trim and some Rhinestones, which had been coloured with a Bronze Blends marker, were scattered around.

The card centre used the other sentiment from the Peaceful Boughs stamp set and I couldn't resist cutting out the sentiment with the matching die from the Beautiful Boughs dies. Some copper pine leaves have been tucked underneath.

That's it for me for this week and for the Heart of Christmas blog hop for this year, however, there is so much more inspiration to be found this week. The lovely Judy May is hosting the Heart of Christmas 2019 blog hop this week. To check out the team’s festive creations you can visit Judy’s page, Just Judy Designs by clicking here where she has links to all the other blog hoppers.

Also, a big THANK YOU to Claire, our wonderful team leader, who established this annual blog hop and who leads us through all things Stampin' Up!

Thanks for dropping by and taking time to check out my blog. I hope you have a blessed Christmas and wonderful New Years. See you again in 2020. 💕🐾

AWHT Heart of Christmas 2019 - Week 10

Thanks for dropping by. This week my Christmas card for the Heart of Christmas 2019 Blog Hop uses one of the designs in Stampin' Up's beautiful Brightly Gleaming Speciality Designer Series Paper.

This year's Brightly Gleaming Speciality Designer Series Paper (DSP) is just delightful. The seasonal images and geometric designs (which could be used for a range of purposes) have copper foil accents on one side of the paper. Stampin' Up's colours - Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, Pretty Peacock and Very Vanilla are so gorgeous when combined with copper foil. I just love, love, love this DSP, and so couldn't resist featuring it in this week's card.

Before I further introduce my card, I need to apologise for the quality of the photos in this week's blog. I have tried to improve them, but disappointedly, my efforts have had the reverse effect. I will seek advice during the week on how I can improve.  I sincerely ask for your patience this week.

One of the DSP designs is made up of many, many gorgeous Christmas baubles and stars. I fussy cut many of the baubles and stars and then formed some of the baubles into a larger bauble that was framed by circles cut out of very vanilla and copper foil cardstock using the larger of the Layering Circles dies. The fussy cut stars were sprinkled around. The card front, that is both the very vanilla and copper foil cardstocks were embossed with a Subtle Embossing folder and the very vanilla cardstock was lightly sprayed with Frost White Shimmer Paint mixed with rubbing alcohol.  Star Designer Elements have been added inside the bauble and on either side of the greeting and a bow and string was made from Copper Trim. The greeting was stamped in the luscious Celestial Copper Metallic ink and came from the Shine Bright stamp set.

Here is a close up of the card's bauble.

I so love adding some matching design elements in the card centre. I included a fussy cut bauble and some stars, plus a thin strip of copper foil. The inside greeting came from the Light & Peace stamp set.

The wonderful Claire Daly is hosting the Heart of Christmas 2019 blog hop this week – to check out the team’s festive creations you can visit Claire’s page by clicking here. She has the links to all this week's blog hoppers where you will find a heap of inspiration.

Thanks for dropping by and taking time to check out my blog. I've loved sharing with you 💕🐾

AWHT_HOCWk9

So glad you are visiting Valley Inspirations on this, the second time I've been a part of the Art with Heart Team "Heart of Christmas 2019" blog hop. I appreciate you taking the time to check out my blog.

Heart of Christmas 2019

Tidings All Around

Christmas is such a special time of year. When I think of Christmas, one of the things that comes to mind is a beautiful Wreath hanging on the front door.  As I was designing tonight's card using Stampin' Up's Tidings All Around bundle, which focusses on a Christmas wreath, I pondered its symbolism.  After a little Googling, I believe that the wreath symbolises eternity because its circular shape has no beginning and no end. From a Christian perspective it represents an unending circle of life, and the evergreen aspect, most frequently used in making wreathes, symbolises growth and everlasting life. I'm someone who likes to understand the background of something - so I find this interesting.  Enough musing, now to the Chrissy card.

This week's card combines a number of styles and products that I warm my heart.  One of the styles I love to play with is a clean, uncluttered look.  I also enjoy using embossing folders to give interest with a tone on tone subtle effect; as well as add touches of sparkle and perhaps some ribbon. And this year, Stampin' Up's Brightly Gleaming Speciality Designer Series Paper (DSP) for Christmas is so sumptuous - a strip of one of the designs has been included. Here is my card:

The Tidings All Around stamp set and the matching All-Around Wreath dies provide a delightful wreath and a range of greetings.   The wreath (stamped in Pretty Peacock) provides a gorgeous base which can be decorated. I've added gorgeous little sprigs and twigs from the set of dies that have been cut from copper foil card stock and tied together with copper trim. Rhinestones, coloured with a bronze Blends to give them a copper tinge, were placed around the wreath in a number of groupings of 3 to add a little Christmas sparkle.  The Blends are Stampin' Up's alcohol markers.  (Its a pity that my photos don't pick up the sparkle that shimmer when light catches them. Bye the way, I hope you will see an improvement in my photos over time - I'm quite a novice in photography and am on a steep learning curve. Please be patient.)

I also used the copper trim to blend the upper piece of whisper white card stock (that was embossed with the Subtle embossing folder) and the decadent Brightly Gleaming Speciality DSP.  I so love the combination of copper and Pretty Peacock (a rich deep blue/green - the more I use this colour, the more I love it).  Carrying the copper theme across the card, the greeting was stamped in the new Delicata metallic ink, Celestial Copper - its such a gorgeous ink (yes, I love it too).

I like to add some design elements from the front of the card to the card inner and the envelope. This week a thin strip of matching DSP and a coordinating spray of leaves and twigs from the stamp set decorate the inner and this same spray also has been stamped on the envelope in Pretty Peacock ink. A snippet of the envelope can be seen in the first photo, above.  This card inner is reminiscent of my early years, (yes it was a loooong time ago) when the special and expensive cards usually had a seperate and finer paper as the inner. I've used a good quality printer paper (sometimes I use vellum, depending on the style I am wanting to communicate).

The special Claire Daly is back hosting the Heart of Christmas 2019 blog hop this week – to check out the team’s festive creations you can visit Claire’s page by clicking here. She has the links to all this week's blog hoppers where you will find lots of inspiration.

Thanks for dropping by. I've loved sharing with you. 💕🐾