Social Stamping - #19 Merry & Bright

Merry & Bright with In the Pines

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the 19th and final for 2020 Social Stamping Blog Host. Thank you so much Kelly for instigating and coordinating the Social Stamping Blog Hop. For me, this blog hop has certainly helped me through this very strange year of COVID-19. Sharing paper crafting is such a delight.

This month's Social Stamping theme is Merry & Bright, which I have interpreted as a happy Christmas theme. When thinking about what I would make, I decided to create a card based on a ATC I created earlier in the year - that's right, it was only last month. What is an ATC you ask? The letters stand for Artistic Trading Cards. They are similar to Sporting Trading Cards. I am part of the Art with Heart team and for many years a number of us have been creating ATCs based around a technique or theme to share with others in the share. It has been a brilliant way to learn new techniques and challenge myself to design within  2.5" x 3.5". Here is the ATC I created for the Plaid challenge last month, where we needed to create our own plaid/tartan with watercolour. 

I have been intending to create full size cards based on my ATCs, but haven't created many, so decided to try with this design. Here is my Christmas card for you in this final 2020 Social Stamping Blog Hop:

The first task in creating this card was to create a plaid. I used Shimmery White card-stock cut a little bigger than the strip I needed so I could trim it down if the edges were a bit mucky. I painted a stripe every 3/4" in watered down Rococo Rose Classic Stampin' ink using the mid size Water Painter. Then I painted a stripe in Petal Pink Classic Stampin' ink next to the Rococo Rose stripe, leaving an un-inked white stripe. The card-stock piece was turned 90 degrees and the same painting process was carried out. 

Once dry, Rococo Rose and Petal Pink Stampin' Write markers were used to draw a thin stripe on the edge of the same colour stripe using the thicker nib. Then using the thinest tip of the Rococo Rose marker two thin stripes were drawn near the thicker Rococo Rose stripe. All the stripes were drawn and then the card-stock was again turned 90 degrees and the same stripes were drawn at 90 degrees to the first stripes. As you can see, the plaid is not perfect like a woven tartan or printed design. That's fine - ! love the relaxed water-colour bleeding of colours. 

The background is a piece of Petal Pink card-stock that was embossed with the Evergreen Forrest 3D embossing folder. Some White Craft ink was lightly dragged over the embossed trees with a Sponge Dauber to delicately highlight the trees in the background. To add some "stars" to the sky, Frost White Shimmer Paint was splattered using the Water Painter. This background was adhered directly to the Rococo Rose card-stock base.

The plaid piece was positioned with Dimensionals. Three trees were die cut with the Pine Woods dies from Shimmery White card-stock. I little of the Frost White Shimmer Paint was painted on the trees, reminiscent of snow on the tips of the branches, to add a little shimmer. I so love the In the Pines bundle, as you may have guessed if you follow by blog.

A circle of Vellum, cut with the Layered Circle dies, was adhered to one side over the plaid. The two smaller trees were partially tucked under the Vellum circle and adhered directly to the plaid. The larger tree was placed over the Vellum circle with Mini Dimensionals. A sentiment from the coordinating In the Pines stamp set was stamped in Versamark on Rococo Rose card-stock and heat embossed with White Emboss Powder. The sentiment was fussy cut and positioned with both Multipurpose Liquid Glue and Mini Dimensionals. Snowflake Adhesive-backed Embellishments were added as the finishing touch. They are so pretty.

A piece of Whisper White card-stock was stamped a couple of times with the group of little trees from the In the Pines stamp set using Petal Pink and Rococo Rose Classic Stampin' inks. The stamp was inked in Petal Pink and then bits of the stamp were daubed with Rococo Rose and then stamped. A thin strip of the plaid was also adhered to the bottom of the card inner. A C6 Whisper White envelope was similarly stamped with the little trees across the bottom front of the envelope.

I hope you are enjoying this month's Social Stamping Blog Hop which has focused on the "Merry & Bright" theme. If you started at the beginning with our amazing Social Stamping Host, Kelly Kent, then the next in line is the lovely Sandra Collet at Sanzstamps. Use this link to see her gorgeous creation or click on the 'Next' graphic below. If you would prefer to go to the full list of participants click on this link to be taken to Kelly Kent's Host Blog Post at My Papercraft Journey where you will find all the individual links that can take you to each person's blog.

I hope to see you again next year - let's hope it is a better year for us all. I'm not sure whether the Social Stamping Blog Host will continue - keep an eye on Kelly Kent's blog.

Do look after yourself and your loved ones. I hope you enjoy an amazing Christmas and New Year. Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others in these strange times. 

Andrea 😘

  

Just Add Ink Challenge Entry - #486

Feels Like Frost Tri-fold Shaker Card

Welcome back to Valley Inspirations with Andrea. Thanks for dropping in. 

This week I have created a Christmas card for an entry in the current Just Add Ink Challenge. I also created this card with a special friend and fellow paper crafter in mind.

Photo Credit: https://pin.it/46yqdqea3drdpe

This  week's Just Add Ink Challenge is to create a project that has been inspired by this gorgeous Christmas table setting. As I studied the photo I thought of classic beauty, shimmer, light, decadence, crystal clear glasses, foliage and of course, Christmas. I thought of a generally neutral colour scheme with some colour from the table runner and the foliage. Pondering what I would create, my thought process went to Stampin' Up!'s luscious Feels Like Frost designer series paper (DSP) with a shaker card. As I collected the materials I would need, I also pondered the practicalities of trying to stand a shaker card without it falling forward, so I decided on a simple tri-fold card. 

Post Update - I was so delighted to receive an Honourable Mention for my card. Some comments from the Design Team were:

Such an effective card fold, using gorgeous papers and die cuts.

A great project with many elements.

A gorgeous work of art and the soft tulle and shaker elements are so celebratory.

Here is the card front:

After preparing a Thick Whisper White cardstock base, I cut a Whisper White frame using the largest and 3rd largest Stitched Rectangle dies and also cut a piece of the Feels Like Frost DSP with the second largest rectangle die. The Frosted Frames dies were all used to cut Whisper White cardstock, with extra leaves and snowflakes also prepared (although I still needed to cut more as the card design developed). The die cut pieces, including the rectangular frame were spritzed with Frosted White Shimmer paint mixed with Isopropyl Alcohol.

Showing some sequins over the card front, after a gentle shake.

The leafy frame was cut into pieces and adhered to the underside of the rectangular frame, with an extra leaf spray and snowflake - all facing inwards. This is opposite to the die cut frame where the leaf sprays and snowflakes are on the outside. A piece of Window Sheet was adhered to the underside of the re-created rectangular foliage frame. Before adhering the piece of DSP to the card base a greeting from Itty Bitty Christmas stamp set was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed using Shimmer White Emboss powder. The greeting was re-stamped in Rococo Rose ink moving the stamp a tad to the left to give a shadow effect - the Stamparatus is brilliant for this. Foam Adhesive Strips were stuck on the edge of the DSP ensuring there were no gaps so sequins can not escape when the final card is shaken. The delightful Snowflake Sequins were sprinkled within the rectangle formed by the foam strips and then the decorative frame placed on top. Voila! It's a shaker card. (Bye the way, in a number of the above steps, ensuring accurate alignment is important. It is certainly worth the effort of double checking before adhering.) A bow of 1.6cm Whisper White Polka Dot Tulle ribbon has been tied around the card to hold the card in a neatly closed position. 

The card front without the tulle bow, showing the sequins.

With this simple tri-fold card, apart from the card front, there are four other card surfaces that can be seen when opening the card (that is, not including the blank card back). In line with the decadence of the inspirational table setting, I decided to add design elements to each surface, with the greater focus on the RHS flap that is seen first when the card is opened. One of these pages is for the hand written greeting to the recipient and the other two pages have simpler designs, so as not to compete with the focal pages. 

The view when card is first opened, with a focus on the RHS.

The card is fully opened, showing the 3 inner pages.

As you can see, the inner pages continued to use the Feels Like Frost DSP, the Frosted Frames dies and the shimmer spritzing technique, and more of Rococo Rose and Blushing Bride cardstock and ink were used to tie in with these colours in the DSP. The matching Frosted Foliage stamp set was used as well. Layers have been kept to a minimum within  the card and no dimensionals were used so that the card did not become tooooo bulky. 

Now for a look at each individual page:

Inner page seen when card first opened.

The design elements on this page include some Feels Like Frost DSP, using the silver and white side. The white leaves and snowflakes were sponged with Rococo Rose ink ensuring it was darker at the bottom and lighter at the top. The Foliage Frame was cut out of Silver foil and the sentiment panel of Rococo Rose cardstock was inlaid in the Foliage Frame. The sentiment from the Light & Peace stamp set was heat embossed using the Shimmer White Emboss powder. Three snowflake sequins were scattered around the sentiment and two die cut and shimmer spritzed snowflakes were adhered on the frame's corners.

LHS page when card is fully opened.

This page is very simple so as not to compete with the page shown directly above. A sentiment from Itty Bitty Christmas stamp set was stamped in Blushing Bride ink. Die cut white and shimmer spritzed snowflakes and snowflake sequins were scatted around, giving a subtle white on white effect.

Central page of fully opened card for handwriting a message. 

This central page was stamped in Blushing Bride ink using the snowflakes stamp from the Frosted Foliage set. The stitched rectangle, which had been cut out to form the Whisper White frame on the card front, was adhered in the centre and two die cut Rococo Rose shimmer spritzed snowflakes were added at two corners.

The RHS page when card fully opened

The final decorative page has a sentiment from the Frosted Foliage stamp set that was heat embossed using the Shimmer White Emboss powder on Rococo Rose cardstock. The die cut and shimmer spritzed leaf sprays were cut from both Whisper White and Rococo Rose cardstock. A number of star shaped sequins were scattered around. The Snowflake Sequins are simply delightful with a number of different shaped and coloured sequins.

A view of the fully open card showing the inner RHS page, the card back and the card front.

I so enjoyed creating this card, with its different pages. Having been inspired by the gorgeous Christmas table setting, the card creation took on its own life as the design aspects developed. While it's a pity that the shimmer spritzing didn't show in the photos compared to the effect in real life, I hope you were able to get a sense of decadence, sparkle and beauty. I also hope my friend will like it and feel special.

Thanks for dropping by and taking time to check out my entry in the Just Add Ink Challenge. Have a blessed Christmas and wonderful New Year. I do hope you drop back to my blog in 2020. 💕🐾

AWH Monthly Blog Hop - Dec 2019

Christmas Layers and Partial Die Cutting with a Little Shimmer

Thanks for dropping by. The Art With Heart Team are back with our last Blog Hop for 2019. I hope you are enjoying hopping along with this December 2019 Blog Hop.

Getting in the spirit of Christmas and New Year celebrations, this month our theme is ‘Add A Little Sparkle’. We have a huge range of sparkly projects to share with you featuring products such as Glimmer paper, Rhinestones, Delicata Ink, Shimmery White cardstock and much more. All of these products are available from Stampin’ Up! and any of these lovely ladies would be happy to assist you.

I love adding a little sparkle to my projects, not just at Christmas but all through the year. One of my favourite ways of adding sparkle is to spritz part of my projects with shimmer paint mixed with Isopropl alcohol. For tonight's card I have used a sparkly spritz on die cut snowflakes to add a little glimmer to the tone on tone background. I've also used a amber of other products to add a (more) little shimmer. 

Starting with Seaside Spray cardstock as the card base, I also cut four sets of snowflakes out of additional Seaside Spray cardstock using the Christmas Layer dies to develop a tone on tone effect. As I was aiming for a subtle shimmer effect I only spritzed the die cut snowflakes lightly, however, the photo doesn't pick up the subtlety of shimmer effect. (I guess, my novice photography skills don't help either.) When dry, these snowflakes were adhered to the upper 2/3rds of the of the card base. Using a piece of Whisper White cardstock and the larger die with multiple snowflakes, I partially die cut snowflakes so that white snowflakes jutted out from the card front. I needed to do this twice as the die was smaller than the width of the card front. A difficulty in cutting twice is ensuring the partial die cutting finishes in straight alignment. I then needed to use a scalpel to cut away the card front in between the snowflakes. Here's a closer look:

Some Seaside Spray 6.4mm Metallic ribbon was tied around the card front a little below the snowflake edge. This is such a gorgeous ribbon with a metallic shimmer. The Whisper White partial die cut card front was added to the card base using Stampin' Dimensionals to lift and seperate it a little from the card base. The greeting "Christmas Blessings" that came from the Light & Peace stamp set was stamped in Delicata Silvery Shimmer Metallic ink and cut out using one of the smaller Stitched Rectangle dies. Three of the smaller blue snowflakes were scattered around the greeting on the white card front. To add a little more shimmer, small rhinestones that had been coloured with Dark Seaside Spray Blends were adhered to the blue snowflakes - both on the background and those on the white card front.

The greeting inside the card came from the So Many Stars stamp set and also was stamped in Silvery Shimmer ink. A few individual blue snowflakes were scattered around the greeting to tie the centre to the card design.

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

There is more sparkle and creative inspiration in this month's Art With Heart Blog Hop.  The next demonstrator to share her sparkly project(s) with you is the delightful and talented Kathryn Ruddick. To visit her blog, click on her name or on the arrow below.  

  

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop midway through the participants, you can view all the talented paper crafters below by clicking on their names and the link will take you to their blog. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing everyones' creations.

Tina Gillespie

Rachel Woollard

Catherine Proctor

Vicki Boucher

Rebecca Jacovou

Andrea Sargent  - You are here

Kathryn Ruddick

Caroline Manwaring

I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas and New Year. I'm looking forward to sharing with you again in 2020. 💕🐾

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. 💕🐾

Art With Heart “Heart of Christmas 2019” - Week 15

Light & Peace with Colouring Techniques

Hello, welcome to Week 15 of the Art with Heart Team's Christmas Blog Hop. Only 4 weeks till Christmas - so hard to believe - how the weeks are just flying by.

So glad you have dropped in to Valley Inspirations with Andrea as you hop along and check out the gorgeous Christmas projects by my fellow blog hoppers.

This week has been hectic as I tried to catch up after my recent holiday in the West.  It also included my card class on Monday morning where we focused on creating Christmas cards and tags.  Given my busy week, the Christmas card I am sharing with you tonight is pretty simple. I've used two different and easy colouring techniques to focus on the delightful angel from Stampin' Ups Light and Peace stamp set.

I heat embossed this sweet, gentle angel using Stampin' Up's Shimmer White emboss powder on to Vellum cardstock. (Stampin' Up's Vellum copes really well with heat embossing and doesn't wrinkle with the heat.) The angel was coloured using Blends - Stampin' Up's wonderful alcohol markers. I used Ivory with touches of Bronze to lightly colour her skin, Light & Dark Crumb Cake and Light Soft Suede for her hair, Light & Dark Smoky Slate on her wings, Light & Dark Seaside Spray with touches of Light Night of Navy and Light Pretty Peacock on her flowing robes; colouring on the other side of the vellum, which softened the colours. Vellum was chosen to give the angel more of an etherial mood. The card front directly beneath the vellum was Whisper White coloured with a sponge roller using both Seaside Spray and Pacific Point ink pads. The Vellum has been cut a tad smaller than the graded coloured cardstock, which shows an edging of the colour blending. The colouring is darker at the top and the bottom blending to a light tinge in the middle. This was mounted on Night of Navy cardstock which was in turn mounted onto a card base of Balmy Blue. I find colour interplay fascinating and love experimenting. Blending Seaside Spray with Pacific Point altered the effect of the individual colours which meant that Balmy Blue cardstock provided a better colour combination as the card base.

After mounting the various pieces together, I decided something else was needed and was about to reach for my So Many Stars Bundle when I remembered a friend had borrowed it. Hmm, so what could I do? I noticed some of the Star Designer elements on my work table - but they were copper, which would not blend well with this card. Not to be deterred, I pushed one of the stars gently into a Versamark ink pad and sprinkled some Shimmer White emboss powder over and heat embossed it. To finish the card I heat embossed the sentiment onto Balmy Blue pre-coloured vellum.

The centre of the card used another of the sentiments from the stamp set, which was stamped in Night of Navy. To tie the card centre with the card front the sponge roller was used to gently colour the top and bottom of the Whisper White centre.

The photos don't show the shimmer and colouring effects well - it can be difficult for a camera to pick up some of these nuances, which certainly add to the overall effect of the card. While recognising this, I still feel something is missing or could be executed differently. I'd love to hear any thoughts you may have of how the card could be improved. I would really appreciate you taking the time to add a comment below. After reviewing all your ideas, I will remake the card and add it to this post.

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

Thanks for dropping by and taking time to check out my blog. Hope to see you next week. 💕🐾

Art With Heart "Heart of Christmas 2019" - Week 14

Christmas Time Is Here - Well not quite, but its just around the corner!

Holiday Happenings:
Home again now after 2 weeks in WA. I had a marvellous time in what seemed like 2 seperate holidays. I started my holiday with an Elijah House conference that was held at Paradox Church in Baldivis. Folk had gathered from around Australia as well as 3 coming from international places. It was a great conference and lovely to get to know the other 5 SA delegates as we shared an Air BnB. The second part of my holiday started Sunday week ago, when a fellow crafter - my up-line and a lovely lady, Kathryn Mangelsdorf, flew in and we traveled down to the beautiful Margaret River for 4 nights. We then spent 4 night's in Perth to attend Stampin' Up's one-day conference - On Stage and do some sightseeing.  On Stage was such a wonderful time, catching up with crafting friends and making new friends; getting our hands on the new Mini Catalogue early, being given some of the new products plus so many hugs, laughs and inspiration. That's enough of my holiday ...

Christmas Time is Here - a card to share:
In last week's blog hop I was inspired by many of the team's cards using the Christmas Time is Here Bundle, so I just had to give it a go this week. The bundle includes a double stamp set, one in cling red rubber that stamps a line drawing of a gorgeous spray of Christmas roses, pine leaves, rose leaves, pine cones and berries. The 2nd set has photopolymer stamps to be stamped over the line drawing to add colour and shading. Of course you can also use a range of other methods of colouring, but today, I used the distinctive stamps. Here is my Christmas card:

It was love at first sight when I saw the Christmas Time is Here bundle. The whole suite is only available for a limited time - until it's sold out! If you love it like I do, please don't wait - it could sell out at any time. I would love to help you if you would like the Christmas Rose stamp set, Roses dies, Gold Shimmer ribbon or Gold Glitter Enamel Dots. You can buy them individually, or the stamp set and dies also come as a bundle with 10% discount. Also available is gorgeous Speciality Designer Series Paper that includes touches of gold in many designs.

I really like that this Christmas design with roses is not fully traditional. Traditional colours can be used for a more Christmas feel - or non traditional colours also look great, depending on your preference. I have used traditional colours in inks (ie Golden Glitz Delicata Metallic ink for the line drawing, Merry Merlot for the rose, Poppy Parade for the berries and Mossy Meadow for the pine and rose leaves, and Soft Suede for the pine cones, but added some Sahara Sand card stock to the Whisper White and Gold Foil as a little twist. I have seen a range of colour combinations with this stamp set making both Christmas and non-Christmas cards - you can't go wrong with this beautiful suite.

The roses spray was die cut using the Roses dies and raised up on Dimentionals. Both pieces of the background card stock have been embossed, the top piece of Sahara Sand was embossed with the Tufted 3D embossing folder, while the Whisper White card stock was embossed with the Subtle 3D embossing folder after stamping the greeting in Golden Glitz ink. This embossing folder is fan...tastic and I have used it over and over again on so many projects as it adds texture without distraction.

I added some golden bling with a little gold filigree cut from Gold Foil using a die from the Roses dies; two pieces of the gorgeous Gold Shimmer ribbon have been tucked under the roses spray and 7 Gold Glitter Enamel dots were distributed around. You may have spotted the gold dot on the rose. It was added because a drop of water accidentally dripped onto the rose nearing the end of the project and left a washed out spot. Embellishments are such a blessing when you need to hide an accident or smudge!

The photopolymer stamp set for colouring the image is disINKtive. This is a special stamp design technique created by Stampin Up, which provides a multi-demential image in one stamp and by inking the stamp once with a single colour. You can see the effect on the roses. To gain this effect with other stamp sets you would need to undertake multistep stamping with a number of colours. It is really amazing.

The image below shows the centre of the card. I mounted the Whisper White card stock on a slightly larger piece of Sahara Sand card stock, stamped one of the greetings from the Christmas Rose stamp set in Golden Glitz ink and added a tiny stitched heart under the greeting that had been cut using the Stitched Be Mine dies. This little heart was on my work table, left over from another project and I thought it would add the perfect touch of gold.

That's it for me for this week's blog hop, however, there is so much more inspiration to be found. The talented and lovely Sharon Davern is hosting the Heart of Christmas 2019 blog hop this week – to check out the team’s festive creations you can visit Sharon’s page by clicking here. She has the links to all this week's blog hoppers.

Thanks for dropping by and taking time to check out my blog.  💕🐾

Art With Heart “Heart of Christmas 2019” - Week 13

Wrapped in Plaid

I just had a bit of a heart flutter - only 6 weeks to Christmas. Where has the year gone?

I'm still in Western Australia. The conference I was attending concluded Saturday. Then I met up with a friend who had just flown in from Adelaide and we travelled to Margaret River. In the last few days we have gone whale watching, caught up with Stampin Up friends in Busselton, toured a range of Margaret River sites and businesses, including Cape Lavender Tea House, Chocolate factories, wineries & breweries, galleries, places that craft beautiful soaps and so much more. It's been wonderful.

Prior to heading to WA I made a card for this blog hop. As time was limited, I CASEd a card design from one of the Artisan Team members, the talented Stesha Bloodhart. I really loved her card but have altered a number of aspects of Stesha's design to individualise it. Here is my card:

The feature of this card is beautiful Wrapped in Plaid Suite by Stampin' Up - check out pages 12 - 14 of the Holiday Catalogue, which features delightful products for Christmas. There is a panel of the gorgeous Speciality Designer Series Paper (DSP) Wrapped in Plaid, which has a number of stunning tartans using Cherry Cobbler, Shaded Spruce, Night of Navy, Whisper White and gold. One of the features of Stampin Up's products is the way the colours match across products, for example the DSP shown on this card features Cherry Cobbler, Shaded Spruce and gold, so I was able to pick up those colours in the card stock together with Gold foil paper. I mounded the DSP on Shaded Spruce card stock and added a strip of die embossed gold foil. I used the same card stock plus Cherry Cobbler to cut 3 different sized circular discs, layered and positioned to the LHS. 2 of the discs were cut using punches and the 3rd used a die from the Stitched Shapes dies.

The trees were stamped on Whisper White card stock using the Perfectly Plaid stamp set, one with Shaded Spruce and the other in the Delicata Metallic Golden Glitz ink. This metallic ink is so so gorgeous and is only available from Stampin Up during the availability period for the Holiday Catalogue. In addition to the gold ink there are delicious copper and silver ink pads. Don't miss out trying them out - they are brilliant! The greeting is also from the Perfectly Plaid stamp set and was stamped on Cherry Cobbler card stock die cut with one of the Stitched Label dies.

The card centre is fairly simple. The greeting came from the same stamp set and was stamped using the Golden Glitz ink. As you can see, stamped and punched trees were adhered to the lower LHS. Though not seen fully in the above photos, another stamped and punched tree was adhered to the envelope front so that it would complement the card.

That's it for me for this week's blog hop, however, there is so much more inspiration to be found. The talented 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 by clicking here. She has the links to all this week's blog hoppers.

Thanks for dropping by and taking time to check out my blog.  💕🐾