AWH Heart of Christmas #22

Christmas with Festive Foliage

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the final Art with Heart Team Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2021. Where have the past 5 months gone???

So glad you are joining us for our last 2021 Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. I have enjoyed creating a set of 5 cards for this Christmas blog hop. I hope you like them. Here is the first one:

How are you going with building your Christmas card stash? While the number of my cards is growing, I still need to speed up my creating to have enough for this season. With this in mind, I remembered a Facebook Live of Emma Goddard's, where Emma created one of a set of 4 cards (plus another design with 3 cards). I decided to take up this concept and apply my own twist. While I created 5 cards, I changed some embellishments on some so ended up with 3 versions. Here are the 3.

I used the Festive Foliage background stamp but wanted it to be the hero. The Festive Foliage stamp was applied to 5 different coloured pieces of card-stock, ie Basic White, Soft Sea Foam, Mint Macaron, Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen. Each panel was stamped in Versamark ink then heat embossed with embossing powder and a Heat Gun. The only change to the process was with the Soft Sea Foam panel where I first stamped in Soft Sea Foam Classic Stampin' ink and added Versamark ink directly on top and then sprinkled Clear Embossing Powder. The other panels were each embossed with different powders, ie Gold, Silver, Copper and White Embossing Powders.

Each of the embossed designs were coloured in, although different products were used. The White & Gold panel was coloured with Mint Macaron, Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen Blends Combos plus the Colour Lifter. The Mint Macaron/Silver and the Evening Evergreen/White panels were both coloured with the Chalk Marker; while the Soft Sea Foam/Clear and Soft Succulent/Copper panels were coloured with Water-colour Pencils, Blender Pen and the Chalk Marker.

Each panel was cut into 5 equal pieces and then each strip was swapped around to re-form 5 combinations of the Festive Foliage design, each with one of each colour. I did round the corners of each end piece with the Detailed Trio punch as one corner had an unwanted smudge of ink and it would be a strange place to add a label or embellishment. However, I'm not sure whether I like the rounded corners.

Each of the reformed designs were adhered to a piece of Window Sheet and then added with Dimensionals to a background piece of card-stock. As I wanted to try different background colours I decided to mount the card front onto a piece of card-stock in a colour that matched the centre panel. While I could have individually added the embossed/coloured strips to the background with Dimensionals, I decided to use the Window Sheets as I could lay them over a piece of Stampin Up! Grid Paper which would help me align the pieces more easily.

The card front was then layered directly to the card base. A piece of ribbon that had been folded in half was layered across the centre of the card, ie either Soft Succulent or Evening Evergreen Open Weave Ribbon or the White Glittered Organdy Ribbon. Each card used the same sentiment from the Merriest Moments stamp set, as I preferred a long single line sentiment format. The sentiments were all heat embossed with White Emboss Powder on Evening Evergreen card-stock. Each of the cards had a few of the gorgeous 2021-2023 In Colour Jewels added (either Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen or Polished Pink on one card) to add that touch of shimmer. These jewels are delightful. (My apologies for the two blurry close-ups. I will retake them tomorrow and upload better photos.)

Strips of Basic White card-stock were stamped with the edge of the stamp using inks the same colour as the background panel. The edge was fussy cut and then added to Basic White card inners. 

All of the Basic White C6 Envelopes were stamped in Soft Succulent ink on the LHS with the edge of the Festive Foliage stamp.

Thank you so much for spending time with me on my blog. I'm so glad you did.

If you are 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 Mini Catalogue then let me know and I will be delighted to send them to you. Pease don't hesitate to make contact with any other queries about these projects or Stampin' Up!. 

To continue with the blog hop, click on the "onto the next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of the lovely Tina Gillespie. I always look forward to checking out Tina's creations together with everyone else's. 

Thank you for joining us this year for the Art with Heart Team Heart of Christmas weekly Blog Hops. We have all enjoyed sharing with you each week. 

Also, don't forget the weekly Colour Creations Blog Hop by the Art with Heart Team that launches every Wednesday at 8.00pm AEST. We are continuing till mid December this year before we have a bit of a brake.

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

Andrea XXX

  

As mentioned, it is always a delight to see everyone's creations and the way each one uses the amazing Stampin' Up! products. I am sure there will be gorgeous Christmas projects on show so don't miss checking out each blog. 

If at any time you find a broken link and the next blog doesn’t come up or you started part way through, please head to the blog of this week’s host of the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, very special Tina Gillespie, and she will have the list of all Art With Heart Team members who are participating in this blog hop. Check out her beautiful creation while you are there.

#heartofchristmas #heartofchristmas2021 #awhtheartofchristmas #Stampin'Up! #festivefoliage

AWH Heart of Christmas #21

Christmas with Festive Foliage

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the 21st Art with Heart 2021 Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. 

I'm delighted you are joining us for this Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. It is our second to last Christmas blog hop for 2021. I have really enjoyed creating for Christmas - even though I am not as far advanced as hoped.  Here is the card for this pen-ultimate HOC Blog Hop:

I love the Festive Foliage stamp (from the Annual Catalogue). It is a single large stamp, that could be used as a background stamp or be the star of the show. For this card I have tried to make it the focus. The colour scheme was inspired by the one of the designs of the Tidings of Christmas Designer Series Paper, as you can see in the photo below.

I started by stamping the Festive Foliage stamp in Versamark ink on to Basic White card-stock and heat embossing using Gold Metallic Emboss Powder and a Heat Gun.

The embossed image was coloured with Stampin' Up's alcohol markers, Stampin' Blends, that is Evening Evergreen, Soft Succulent, Misty Moonlight, Cherry Cobbler and Crumb Cake Combo markers.

The embossed and coloured panel was cut into strips of random widths varying between 0.5cm and 2cm. All the strips were then adhered to a piece of window sheet in order to maintain the design but with small gaps in between. This card front was mounted on a slightly larger piece of Evening Evergreen card-stock with Dimensionals. A piece of Gold Shimmer Ribbon was wrapped around the card front; which in turn was added to a Thick Basic White card-stock base. Another piece of the ribbon was cut in half length-wise and the two halves were tied in a bow that was added to the card with Glue Dots.

A sentiment from the Heartfelt Wishes stamp set was stamped in Versamark ink and heat embossed in Gold. The fussy cut sentiment was layered over a strip of 2021-2023 In Colour Shimmer Vellum, ie Evening Evergreen vellum and then popped in place with Dimensionals. Some Evening Evergreen 2021-2023 In Colour Jewels were added as the finishing touch.

In detailing the processes above I left out the comedy of errors that occurred. So many things went wrong - it was just one of "those" days, which meant I ran out of time to decorate the card inner and envelope - ah well, a task for tomorrow.

Thank you so much for spending time on my blog. I so appreciate you.

If you are 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 Mini Catalogue then let me know and I will be delighted to send them to you. Pease don't hesitate to make contact with any other queries about these projects or Stampin' Up!. 

To continue with the blog hop, click on the "onto the next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of the lovely Caroline Manwaring. I always look forward to checking out Caroline's clean & elegant creations together with everyone else's. 

Hope to see you next week for the final AWHT Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. 

Also, don't forget the weekly Colour Creations Blog Hop by the Art with Heart Team that launches every Wednesday at 8.00pm AEST.

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

Andrea XXX

  

As mentioned, it is exciting to see everyone's creations and the way they each use the amazing Stampin' Up! products. I am sure there will be gorgeous Christmas projects on show so don't miss checking out each blog. 

If at any time you find a broken link and the next blog doesn’t come up or you started part way through, please head to the blog of this week’s host of the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, the very special Sharon Davern, and she will have the list of all Art With Heart Team members who are participating in this blog hop. Check out her beautiful creation while you are there.

#heartofchristmas #heartofchristmas2021 #awhtheartofchristmas #Stampin'Up! #festivefoliage #heartfeltwishes

AWHT Colour Creations #21 Gray Granite

Gray Granite with Festive Foliage & Merriest Moments

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the 21st Art with Heart 2021-2022 Colour Creations Blog Hop.

This week’s Blog Hop is focussing on a grey with a tinge of tan called Gray Granite. Gray Granite is part of the Neutrals Colour Family and is a great colour that can be used in many ways.  

As a neutral it can combine with so many colours. Gray Granite is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Markers; Stampin Blends; the Neutrals & Bloom Where You Are Planted, In Good Taste, Simply Elegant, Peaceful Place Designer Series Papers; the Christmas Whimsy card kit; and Shimmer Ribbon. The cards below have used Gray Granite card-stock and Classic ink, plus a range of other bits and pieces.

This week's projects were initially inspired by an international blog hop, "Around the World on Wednesday", with a specific theme of creating 10 in 30, ie creating 10 cards or other projects in 30 minutes. The 30 minutes didn't include certain preparations, such as cutting card bases & matts and die cutting. I was intrigued and wondered about creating a simple card that could be created more quickly once it was designed and various bits and pieces were prepared. The initial idea I had in mind wasn't quite right so I kept fiddling & chose a different stamp set to go with the Festive Foliage background stamp. With the fiddling around I developed a card that would be extremely difficult to create 10 in 30, however, I decided to create the same card but use different colour combinations. As I was called into work I ended up only creating two versions. I will need to finish the other colour combinations later.

The cards are similar with the only differences being the colour of inks and card-stock and coordinating ribbons. They both started by stamping the Festive Foliage stamp in Gray Granite Classic Stampin' ink onto Basic White card-stock. The sentiment from the Merriest Moments stamp set was stamped in Evening Evergreen Classic ink and die cut with one of the smaller Scalloped Contours dies. The stamped backgrounds were mounted on either Polished Pink or Cherry Cobbler card-stock and then on to Gray Granite card bases.

The poinsettias from the Merriest Moments stamp set were stamped in either Cherry Cobbler or Blushing Bride with some Sponge Dauber-ing in Polished Pink Classic inks. The various leaves were stamped, using the same stamp set, in Soft Succulent with dauber-ing in Evening Evergreen (to go with the Cherry Cobbler poinsettias) or Mint Macaron also with dauber-ing in Evening Evergreen to go with the pink poinsettias.

Ribbon, either Cherry Cobbler & Gold or White Glittered Organdy that was coloured with a Light Polished Pink Stampin' Blend, was tied in a bow. All the pieces were arranged and adhered in place with either Multipurpose Liquid Glue or Glue Dots. Brushed Metallic Adhesive-backed Dots were added to the centre of each of the poinsettias. To add that extra bit of shimmer Wink of Stella was splattered across both cards (its such a pity that the camera doesn't capture it).

The card centres were stamped with poinsettias in the coordinating colour as were the C6 Basic White envelopes.

I'm looking forward to playing with other colour schemes that will blend beautifully with Gray Granite. I do so love this neutral. 

Thank you so much for calling in. I hope you found something to spark your interest.

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, 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 Gray Granite 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 Highland Heather; 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