AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop #3

Christmas with the Road to Christmas Kit + Alternatives

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the third Art with Heart Team Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2025. We are sharing Christmas inspiration each Monday evening until the end of November. I do hope you are checking us out as often as you can.

The Road to Christmas Kit:

As you know Stampin’ Up! creates many kits to help beginners, the time challenged crafter as well as the more experienced crafter. A few days ago my Road to Christmas Kit arrived and it was hard to wait to play with the kit so I thought I would share some of the kit with you. Here are the 2 card designs. The kit provides everything you need to create 8 cards, ie 4 cards in each of the 2 designs.

I couldn’t resist adding a couple of embellishments. Three little Brushed Brass Butterflies were added to the card below. This photo also shows the gorgeous envelopes that are provided for all the cards in the kit.

Brushed Brass Butterflies also were added to the second card and some of the new Irregular Weave Trim under the sentiment with a little Old Olive Linen Thread.

Alternative Cards:

While the cards in the kit are wonderful, I also wanted to create some alternative designs using elements in the kit. I only had a chance to create 2 alternatives. There are so many more  opportunities with this kit.

The kit provides laser-cut trees and dogs for each card, however, the card designs only uses these particular elements on one of the cards; that means the kit has 4 trees and dogs surplus to needs. Realising this, I wanted to design a card to use these extra elements. A lighter card base from the kit was cut in half to create a background layer on a Pool Party card base. A label from the Branching Out dies cut Basic White card-stock to create a base for the scene.

Some push out elements from the North Pole Delivery Speciality paper, ie a shop & 2 little presents were combined with the tree and dog. A sentiment from the Traditional Labels stamp set was White heat embossed onto Secret Sea card-stock. The design was finished with an Old Olive Linen Thread double bow and some delightful Low Profile Sparkle Dots.

The second alternative card is a simple fun fold using a Pool Party card-stock base. A darker plaid card from the kit was cut into pieces to cover the card base to the right hand side. On the left side, the card base was scored and burnished to create a 3.5cm rectangular column. The plaid card base was also cut to create 3 pieces to cover 3 sides of the column. These pieces were mounted onto slightly larger pieces of Basic White card-stock. The decorative panel from the kit was cut in 2 - a smaller piece for the top of the column and a bigger piece for the background. The red Ute and the presents were slotted together and the ute was positioned on the top of the column with Dimensionals. As above, some Irregular Weave Trim has been tucked under the sentiment strip and a few Low Profile Sparkle Dots were scattered.

It may seem from the photo above that the ute is hanging off the left edge of the card, however, to flatten the card so it fits into a standard C6 Basic White envelope, the column is flattened across the back piece which means the ute stretches across the card. The photo below partially shows the flattened card being slid into the envelope.

As the card front doesn’t provide any area for a personal message some Basic White card-stock can be added to the back.

Thank you so much for calling in on your way around this 2025 Heart of Christmas Blog Hop.

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 who is the leader of the Art with Heart Team. I always look forward to checking out Claire’s creation(s). I do love seeing everyone’s' projects - there is so much Christmas inspiration.

Also, many of us participate in the Colour Creations Insta Hop on Instagram that goes live every Wednesday night where we showcase a different Stampin’ Up! colour each week. We would love you to also 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.  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 2025-2026 Annual Catalogue and or the new September-December 2025 Mini Catalogue, then let me know and I will be delighted to send them to you.  Please don't hesitate to make contact regarding any queries about these projects or Stampin' Up!. 

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