AWH Colour Creations Blog Hop #23 Early Expresso

Early Expresso with Traditions of St Nick

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 showcasing on a deep brown called Early Expresso.  Early Expresso is part of the Neutrals Colour Family and as the name suggests, it is the colour of roasted coffee beans. Like most neutrals, it can coordinate with many colours, including yellows, reds, greens (think of nature), other neutrals, etc and it would be wonderful for wood, trees, animals, shoes, biscuits (hopefully not too brown), spices …  the list could go on.

Early Expresso is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Marker; Watercolor Pencils (Assortment 1); Neutrals Designer Series Paper as well as Traditions of St Nick, Sweet Days of Autumn, Snowy Scenes, Reindeer Days, Sentimental Christmas, A Little Bit Festive, Mediterranean Blooms, Wildly Flowering, Country Woods, Frames & Flowers & A Little Latte Designer Series Papers, plus a number of other products. Wow, that is quite a list and demonstrates this colour’s versatility.

This project has incorporated Early Expresso as Classic Stampin' ink, card-stock, Stampin' Write Marker plus Traditions of St Nick DSP and Country Woods DSP.

The wonderful Traditions of St Nick Designer Series Paper has carried over from the previous Stampin’ Up! year and is currently an On Line Exclusive. I love the gorgeous images of St Nickolas and have used one of the images, fussy cutting him out of the DSP. This St Nick is carrying an Early Expresso sack of presents. The Mossy Meadows DSP at the base of the card is from the same pack of papers. Two Early Expresso woodgrain DSPs came from the Country Woods DSP.

Detailed trees from the Peaceful Evergreen dies were die cut from Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper and then water-coloured using Mossy Meadow and Wild Wheat Classic Stampin’ inks. These colours coordinate with the St Nick papers. Some Balmy Blue, Mossy Meadows and Wild Wheat were applied with Blending Brushes to a piece of Basic White card-stock and then it was die cut with the large hexagon label from the Wildflower Designs dies. Prior to die cutting, the panel was splattered with water and later with White Craft ink.

The same die cuts the central hexagon and a frame. A frame was cut from one of the dark wood designs in the Country Woods DSP. The other dark wood design was added as a diagonal torn layer beneath the Mossy Meadows design. A Basic White card-stock background panel was dry embossed with the Painted Trees 3D embossing folder and lightly coloured with Soft Sea Foam over the trees and a light Balmy Blue as sky.

The hexagon label was adhered directly to the background while the frame was popped up on Dimensionals. St Nick and the trees were either adhered with Multipurpose Liquid Glue or Dimensionals. A sentiment from Peaceful Season stamp set was white heat embossed onto the same DSP as the frame. Some Garden Green linen twine from the Natural Tones Linen Thread was over-coloured with Dark Mossy Meadows Blend and then tied into a double bow that was popped under the sentiment. Some Gold Textured Adhesive-backed Dots were scattered to give a touch of shine.

The card inner is simply a piece of Basic White card-stock with some fussy cut trees from the same sheet of DSP as St Nick plus a thin strip of wooden DSP. A little Early Expresso splattering was added using a Stampin’ Write Marker. A Basic White C6 envelope also had some fussy cut trees adhered in place. I love to use partial images from the edges of DSP both inside the card and on the envelope so they aren’t wasted.

Thank you so much for calling in to check out my Early Expresso Traditions of St Nick card. This card morphed into a different card than initially imagined. It ended up with touches of Vintage and Shabby Chic.

To continue with the Early Expresso 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 Flirty Flamingo 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 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 this project or Stampin' Up! 

#colourcreationsbloghop  #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards  #stampinupdemonstrator  #papercrafting #traditionsofstnick  #peacefulevergreens  #countrywoods  #peacefulseason

AWH Colour Creations Blog Hop #22 Early Expresso

Early Expresso with Joy of Noel and One Horse Open Sleigh Fun Fold

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 featuring on a deep brown called Early Expresso. Early Expresso is one of the Neutrals Colour Family and is a warm rich brown. The colour would be a lovely neutral when used for trees, wood, earth and is great colour to dig up for fellas.

Early Expresso is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Marker; Watercolor Pencils; Neutrals Designer Series Paper as well as One Horse Open Sleigh, Traditions of St Nick and Fresh As A Daisy DSPs; All About Autumn SDSP; plus Cosy & Bright and Sentimental Rose card kits.

Early Expresso ink, Stampin’ Write Marker and One Horse Open Sleigh DSP have been used in the creation of these projects plus a range of non-Early Expresso bits and pieces.

I am trying to build my Christmas card stash and so wondered how I would go featuring Early Expresso as it is a colour I use in-frequently, usually for trees/wood and the like. In checking out the DSPs that incorporate Early Expresso I decided to use the One Horse Open Sleigh DSP and remembered a fun fold that Rachel Tessman, a lovely US Demonstrator, had demonstrated recently. Also, I saw a quilting fabric that combined an Early Expresso type colour with Pool Party and Balmy Blue within a roses design so wanted to try a floral style card too. Here it is:

CARD 1

The One Horse Open Sleigh DSP (it’s an online exclusive) has an Early Expresso woodgrain design and it was torn and used with some Dry Brushed Metallic Speciality DSP for the card background. The Very Vanilla card base was stamped with the textural stamp from the Joy of Noel stamp set in White Craft ink. While it could be seen when the ink was wet the effect disappeared when the ink dried. Partial stamping was added to the woodgrain DSP.

A Very Vanilla card front was cut using a mid-sized Deckled Rectangle die. The label was stamped with the larger floral spray in Early Expresso Classic Stampin’ ink. A little Early Expresso splattering was added to the label with a Stampin’ Write Marker. The spray was stamped again on a separate piece of Very Vanilla card-stock, but this time in Versamark ink and heat embossed with Gold Emboss Powder, the Embossing Accessory Kit and a Heat Tool. This second spray was coloured with Lost Lagoon, Pool Party, Balmy Blue and Blueberry Bushel Stampin’ Blends combos together with the Colour Lifter. Some leaves and berries were fussy cut.

Some of the leaves and berries were laid over the same shaped leaves/berries that had been stamped in Early Expresso. They were adhered in place with Mini Dimensionals and touches of Multipurpose Liquid Glue. NOEL (from the Joy of Noel stamp set) was gold heat embossed and die cut with the coordinating die from the Joy of Noel dies. Some Foam Adhesive Sheet was added behind the sentiment prior to die cutting to give the letters added dimension. I had a water-coloured flower left over from a previous project and added it to the card to give extra interest and dimension. It had been created using the Paper Florist dies and coordinated with these berries. Some Iridescent Basic Pearl Jewels were coloured with the 500 Stampin’ Blend to give them a vanilla tinge. They were scattered around. A triple Linen Twine bow was tucked under the flower with a couple of Glue Dots.

A Very Vanilla card-stock panel was partially stamped with the Christmas arrangement in Early Expresso ink. A left over strip of woodgrain DSP was adhered partially over the stamping and down one side. A Very Vanilla C6 envelope was also stamped with the same stamp in Early Expresso ink.

Earlier today, before writing this post, I checked out a Stampin’ Up! Facebook post where they used some similar products to this card but kept the colour combo to neutrals. I love their neutral toned design - it’s worth checking out if you have time. It’s interesting how similar projects are created independent of each other but with similarities. It has happened to me before. One could say, “great minds think alike” or even “There is nothing new under the sun”. 

CARDS 2, 3 & 4

As mentioned, the One Horse Open Sleigh DSP is gorgeous. Each 6”x6” sheet has a winter scene on one side and a more subtle design on the B side. While we don’t have wintry snow scenes - especially for Christmas I thought this DSP would be brilliant for my overseas friends. I wanted a way to show the beauty of the scenes and so ended up with what Rachel Tessman called an Autumn Hidden Scenery Z- fold. I converted Rachel’s measurements to suit our A4 sized card-stock.

A card-base was chosen to suit the DSP design and it was cut, scored and burnished. The Scenic DSP was trimmed into 3 panels and a 4th piece was cut to the same size from another piece of DSP that coordinated with the scene. The pattern chosen for the card pictured above was a bit dominant so I embossed some Vellum card-stock with the Snowflake Sky 3D Embossing Folder to tone the DSP down.

Another piece of the card-stock used as the card base was cut and folded in half before being trimmed with a mid-sized square from the Stylish Shapes dies. The die was positioned so it wouldn’t cut the fold off but would add the stitching all around. One size smaller square die cut 2 Basic White squares for each card. The front square was stamped with Early Expresso ink to coordinate with the scene. The card above was stamped with trees from the Grassy Grove stamp set, where as the two other cards were stamped with a twig wreath from the Cottage Wreath stamp set.

A coordinating die cut wreath from the Country Wreath dies cut Basic White card-stock. Both the card shown above and the one below were coloured with Old Olive ink and a Blending Brush. Wreaths were chosen as both cards had snow covered houses as part of the scenes and so I thought of wreaths for their front doors.

Sentiments were stamped with coordinating colours and fussy cut. They were added with Mini Dimensionals. Gold pearls from the Festive Pearls were added to each card for that bit of shimmer. A piece of Red & Gold Dotted ribbon was deconstructed and then some of the strands were tied into a bow for card pictured above. The other 2 cards had Linen Twine bows added with Glue Dots.

The second Basic White Stylish Shape square was stamped with a sentiment and image to coordinate with the overall card design. Early Expresso ink was used for the Petal Pink card pictured above. There is room for a brief personal message, but if you are long winded (like I tend to be) a message could also be written on the back of the card or a separate sheet added within the envelope. A Basic White C6 envelope was also stamped to coordinate with the card it will hold.

Here are each of the cards opened to show the gorgeous wintry Christmas snow scenes.

Thank you for dropping in to check out my Early Expresso cards. I hope you liked them and found something of interest. I do so appreciate you. 

There is more Early Expresso creativity so continue with the blog hop. Just click the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of a special lady, Rachel Palmieri. I am looking forward to checking out Rachel’s creation. I do love seeing everyones' projects - there is always so much inspiration.

I do hope to see you next week when we will be featuring Flirty Flamingo as we continue the weekly 2023-2024 Colour Creations Blog Hop series. 

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

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.

If you live in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of the new Stampin' Up 2023-2024 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 #papercrafting #artwithheartteam  #valleyinspirations   #onehorseopensleigh  #joyofnoel

AWHT Colour Creations #18 Early Expresso

Early Espresso with Abigail Rose Fancy Fold

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. 

This week’s Blog Hop is focussing on a deep brown called Early Espresso. Early Espresso is part of the Neutrals Colour Family and is a dark chocolate colour. This colour is lovely when used for trees, chocolate or coffee and so much more. It is a great colour for cards for fellas, going brilliantly with Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry and the like. It also goes with pinks, blues like Tahitian Tide and other neutrals such as Crumb Cake and is great with Gold. 

Early Espresso is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Markers; Water-colour Pencils; Neutrals Designer Series Paper as well as Storybook Gnomes, Rustic Harvest, Santa Express, Abigail Rose, He's The Man and Painted Christmas DSPs; plus Faux Suede Trim, Festive Felt; Abigail Rose File Folders, Cozy & Bright Card Kit, and Santa Express Memories & More Cards & Envelopes. 

To feature Early Espresso I decided to create a fancy fold and use the delightful Abigail Rose DSP, colouring some of the flowers with Stampin' Blends. Here is the card standing open:

I am not sure of the name of this fold as I have only seen it called a Vertical Freestanding Fun Fold (or Fancy Fold). I'm not sure if it has another name but do love the fold. It was not a difficult fold and I love the impact. I watched Emma Goddard create this fold during one of her recent (paid) classes - as always thanks for the inspiration Emma. I believe Susan Campfield, a US Demonstrator, has a uTube where she created this fold. I haven't watched the video but other of her videos are easy to follow. Here is a photo of the card looking down from the top.

Three pieces of Early Espresso card-stock were cut and scored. Two different designs of the Abigail Rose DSP were trimmed to fit appropriate panels. I used the Early Espresso/Very Vanilla/Crumb Cake tulip design for panels facing forward and the Memorandum lined design for the other panels to be covered with DSP.

My front panel of the card has an embossed Very Vanilla card-stock panel that is slightly smaller than the Early Espresso front panel. The Very Vanilla piece was embossed with one of my favourite Embossing Folders - the Timeworn Type 3D EF. As I was photographing the card, I wondered if I should have added some Petal Pink or Calypso Coral splatters - what do you think?

Two of the circular Stylish Shapes Dies were used to cut a ring from a Rose Gold sheet of the Gold & Rose Gold Metallic Speciality Paper. This was added to the card front with Mini Dimensionals. Tulips and a few leaves from the Tulip design of the DSP were coloured with Stampin' Blends, ie Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, So Saffron & Old Olive combos. Once coloured, they were fussy cut with Paper Snips.

As I was arranging the tulips I thought something else was needed (partly because I had "lost" most of the coloured leaves), so I die cut the wreath from the Natural Prints dies in Basic White card-stock. This is such a gorgeous wreath. It was coloured with Mint Macaron and Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' inks and a Blending Brush. The coloured wreath was cut into sections that could be tucked under flowers at different places. All the pieces were arranged and adhered with either Glue Dots, Dimensionals or Multipurpose Liquid Glue.

A sentiment from the Cottage Rose stamp set was white heat embossed using Versamark ink, White Emboss Powder and a Heat Tool. A piece of Gold Simply Elegant Trim was coloured with a Dark Calypso Coral Blend to tied it in with the Rose Gold metallic ring. A double bow was added with Glue Dots. Some Petal Pink Elegant Faceted Gems gave touches of shimmer.

Some Very Vanilla card-stock was stamped with a sentiment and leaves from the Cottage Rose stamp set in Early Expresso ink. This panel was adhered to the centre back panel of the card. Some extra coloured tulips were adhered over some of the stamping. A Very Vanilla C6 envelope was stamped with the smaller flower in Early Expresso ink.

Thank you very much for calling by.

There is more Early Expresso creativity. To continue with the blog hop, click the "onto the next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of the lovey Rachel Palmieri. I always look forward to checking out Rachel's creations. I do love seeing everyones' projects - there is always so much inspiration.

Hope to see you next week when we will be featuring Evening Evergreen as we continue the weekly 2022-2023 Colour Creations blog hops.  Also, don't forget that we are joining the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop on Monday evenings to share many delightful Christmas projects. 

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others. 

Andrea 💕🐾

    

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the full list of participants on Catherine Proctor’s blog @ What Cathy Made. Cathy is our wonderful Art With Heart Team Colour Creations Coordinator.  She is an amazing 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 Stampin' Up's 2022-2023 Annual Catalogue and or the July - December 2022 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 #makeacardsendacard #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #artwithheartteam  #papercrafter  #stamper  #valleyinspirations   #abigailrose #cottagerose #fancyfold 

AWHT Colour Creations #16 Early Expresso

Early Expresso with Nature's Harvest & Quiet Meadow

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart 2021-2022 Colour Creations Blog Hop.

This week’s Blog Hop is focussing on a dark brown called Early Expresso. Early Expresso is part of the Neutrals Colour Family and is a wonderful colour for trees, twigs & the like and great when creating for fellas. It is an essential colour, however, not one I usually choose to hero on a project. This week's project was inspired by silhouettes seen while walking my dog at dusk.

Early Expresso is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Markers; Watercolor Pencils; the Neutrals & Gingerbread & Peppermint, Blackberry Beauty, You're A Peach, Painted Christmas, Beauty of the Earth, In Good Taste Designer Series Papers; Gingerbread & Peppermint Memories & More Card pack; Gingerbread & Peppermint Memories & More Cards & Envelopes, Blackberry Beauty Ephemera pack and Faux Suede Trim. The card below has used Early Expresso card-stock and Classic ink, plus a range of other bits and pieces.

In accordance with its name, Early Expresso is reminiscent of strong black coffee, so I was going to use the Love You More Than bundle for tonight's project. I also was thinking of using Painted Christmas Suite as the pine cones would stamp brilliantly in Early Expresso. I still want to try out my ideas, however the Early Expresso project ended up by using Early Expresso to represent nature's silhouettes as the sun is setting. 

The blended background was created on a piece of Shimmery White card-stock using Crumb Cake, So Saffron, Balmy Blue, Misty Moonlight and Night of Navy Classic Stampin' inks with Stampin' Up!'s delightful Blending Brushes. Water droplets were flicked over the blended background and once dry some White Craft ink was also flicked over the background.

The little sketchy grassy flowers from the Garden Birdhouses stamp set were stamped over the base of the background in Early Expresso ink. A range of plants were die cut from Early Expresso card-stock using a mix of dies from both the Harvest and Meadows die sets. Each piece had White Craft ink added on the edges with a Sponge Dauber to add sense of dimension. They were adhered in place with a mix of Multipurpose Liquid Glue and Mini Dimensionals.

Strips of both Early Expresso card-stock and Copper Foil paper were added to the left edge of the card-front panel and then it was mounted onto a piece of Basic White card-stock. In turn this card front was mounted on a Sahara Sand card-stock base. A sentiment from the Nature's Harvest stamp set was stamped in Versamark onto an off-cut from the blended background and heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss powder and a Heat Gun. The sentiment was fussy cut and added to the card with thin strips of Dimensionals, A bow was tied with Gold Elegant Trim and White Crinkled Seam Binding and added with Glue Dots to the left of the sentiment. The final touch was the addition of some Genial Gems and a little butterfly die cut from Copper Foil. 

The card inner was created with a piece of Basic White card-stock and a few left over die cut Early Expresso plants; as well as an off cut of the blended background and a thin strip of Early Expresso card-stock. I ran out of time to create a custom made envelope. My plan is to use the DSP shown in the photos as a backdrop to create a specially sized envelope

.

I hope you find some inspiration through my card and or the whole Blog Hop. We all enjoy creating to share with you each week.

If you live in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of Stampin' Up's 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue and or the July - December 2021 Mini Catalogue & Sale-a-bration Leaflet (don't forget Sale-a-bration finishes soon), 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!. 

There is more Early Expresso creativity. To continue with the blog hop, click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of a very special and talented friend, Rachel Palmieri. As always, I am looking forward to checking out Rachel's creation and everyone else's. I do love seeing everyones' projects - so many ideas and such great creations

Hope to see you next week when we will be featuring Flirty Flamingo; and don't forget that the AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop is launched every Monday evening at 8pm AEST until mid-December.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

Andrea 💕🐾

  

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the full list of participants on Catherine Proctor’s blog, our amazing AWHT Colour Creations Coordinator.  Check out her amazing creation while you are there.

#colourcreationsbloghop  #colourcreationsbloghop2021