Art With Heart Colour Creations Showcase - #4 Blackberry Bliss

Blackberry Bliss with Lovely You

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the 4th Colour Creations Showcase by members of the Art With Heart Team in Australia.

This week we are heroing a gorgeous colour, Blackberry Bliss. This colour is a deep and a somewhat muted rich blackberry colour. It sits within Stampin' Up!'s Regal's colour range.  I so love the way Stampin' Up! coordinate colours and take a colour through a range of their products. In my projects I have used Blackberry Bliss in card-stock, ink pad, re-inker, Stampin Blends and as one of the colours in the Rainbow Glimmer Paper. 

First, a pattern was stamped all over a piece of A4 Whisper White card-stock using the Lovely You stamp set. These stamps are so great for creating your own designer patterned paper. There is a range of stamps in different sizes that fit well together. You could use a number of complimentary colours or one colour. I decided to use 3 colours that harmonise together and underscore the beauty of Blackberry Bliss. A couple of days ago, I was reminded of the soft melding of colours that occurs using the Baby Wipe Technique. This technique uses folded baby wipes as a base to create your own ink pad. I dripped Blackberry Bliss , Rococo Rose and Blushing Bride inks on the baby wipes and used it to ink the stamps, before stamping all over the Whisper White card-stock. Here's a section of my patterned paper:

The card base and the bottom layer of the card front were cut from Blackberry Bliss card-stock. The card front bottom layer was embossed with the new Dainty Diamonds Embossing Folder. Such a lovely effect, as seen in this close up.

A piece of the stamped patterned paper was trimmed so it would fit at an angle over the card front and then it was lightly splattered with Wink of Stella.  It was mounted on the new multicolour Rainbow Glimmer Paper, positioning it so that the Blackberry Bliss section would be seen as it blended into Magenta Madness on one side and Misty Moonlight on the other. The pop of colour and the glimmer add life to the card. The mounted patterned piece was adhered directly to the card front.

The sentiment came from the same stamp set and was stamped with Blackberry Bliss ink on Whisper White card-stock and trimmed to a 3/4" strip. A coordinating new product that bundles with the Lovely You stamp set is an amazing punch. It punches fancy ends - ie 2 different styles. A second and larger label was cut from Blackberry Bliss card-stock. The label was popped up on Dimensionals. 

Another new product is the luscious Forever Greenery Suite. (I so love this suite.) Two dies from this suite cut 2 sprays of leaves from Blackberry Bliss and Vellum card-stocks. They were splattered with a little Wink of Stella, adhered together and then to the edge of the label. To finish of the card, a piece of Metallic Edged Ribbon was coloured with a Dark Blackberry Bliss Stampin Blend. Basic Rhinestones were also coloured with the same Blend. While Stampin' Up! regularly produce embellishments in coordinating colours, there is always another option - that of colouring desired embellishments with colouring products, such as Stampin' Blends. For me, colour coordination it is important, so colouring ribbon, twine, rhinestones or pearls with my project's key colours ensure great colour matching.

I love to coordinate the card front with the inside of the card and also provide a hint on the envelope. This time I stamped the larger stylised flower inside the card and on the envelope. A thin strip of the Rainbow Glimmer Paper was adhered to the bottom of the card inner.

The hand stamped patterned paper was also used to create a matching little gift box. Stampin' Up! have a die that cuts this cute little gift box that would also make a gorgeous table favour. The dies are called Mini Curvy Keepsake Box. The die not only cuts the edges, but also scores fold lines and cuts slots and holes to enable the box to be put together. To finish this little box off, ribbon was coloured and two tags were cut using one of the tiny labels from the same die set. They were tied on the box with a little gold twine from the Forever Greenery Trim Combo pack.

The card and the Mini Curvy Keepsake box work together so well to tell a friend how much I value our friendship.

Thank you for visiting the Valley Inspirations blog. I do appreciate you spending time with me. Please contact me if you would like any further information about the projects; or if you live in Australia and would like a new Annual Catalogue posted to you; or if I can help in any other way.

I hope you are enjoying this week's Colour Creations Showcase that has focused on the colour - Blackberry Bliss. 

The lovely Catherine Proctor is hosting the Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase each week. If you haven't finished checking out all of the team's colour creations, you can visit/revisit Catherine's page at What Cathy Made, where she hosts all the links to the other Showcase participants. I'm certainly looking forward to being inspired by everyone's creations.

Look after yourself and your loved ones in these strange times.

Hope to see you again next week when members of the Art With Heart Team will share projects that hero the very pretty subtle colour, "Blushing Bride".

Have a great week.   

Andrea 😘

List of Products used to create these cards:

Stamps, Dies & Punches

• Lovely You stamp set - #152525
• Forever Flourishing dies - #152714
• Mini Curvy Keepsakes Box - #150644
• Lovely Labels Pick a Punch - #152883

Inks & Applicators

• Blackberry Bliss ink pad - #147092
• Blackberry Bliss Classic ink refill - #133648
• Petal Pink ink refil - #147169
• Rococo Rose ink refil - #150089
• White Craft Stampin ink pad - #147277
• Sponge Daubers - #133773
• Blackberry Bliss Stampin Blends Combo -  #154877

Paper

• Whisper White card-stock - #106549
• Blackberry Bliss card-stock - #133682
• Vellum Card-stock - #106584
• Rainbow Glimmer Paper- #153056
• C6 Whisper White envelopes - #106589

Embellishments

• Rhinestone Basic Jewels - #144220
• Metallic Edged Ribbon - Gold - #144146
• Gold Trim from Forever Greenery Trim Combo Pack - #152475

Adhesives

• Multipurpose Liquid Glue - #110755
• Mini Glue Dots - #103683
• Tear & Tape Adhesive - #138995
• Mini Stampin' Dimensionals - #144108
• Stampin' Dimensionals - #104430

Tools

• Dainty Diamonds Embossing Folder - #152702
• Take Your Pick Tool - #144107
• Bone Folder - #102300
• Paper Snips - #103579
• Paper Trimmer - #152392
• Stamparatus - #148187
• Block D - #118485
• Block E - #118484
• Block H - #118490
• Grid Paper - #130148
• Silicone Craft Mat - #127857
• Simple Shammy - #147042
• Heat Tool - #129056
• Stampin Cut & Emboss Machine - #149653
• Magnetic Cutting Plate - #149656

Art With Heart Monthly Creative Showcase - April 2020

Mothers Day with Positive Thoughts and Dressed to Impress

Thanks for dropping in to the Valley Inspirations Blog and particularly this post as part of the April's Art with Heart Team Creative Showcase. I hope you are surviving isolation at this difficult time and that this Creative Showcase not only is a distraction but that it gives you joy.

Welcome to the Art With Heart Stampin’ Up! Team Monthly Creative Showcase. The theme for this month’s showcase is Mother’s Day. Under the current conditions, Mother’s Day this year is going to be completely different to any other Mother’s Day celebrations. Our mothers give of themselves for us and it is important to recognise not only what they do but often their sacrifice for us. 

The Art With Heart Team are hoping to share a little Mother’s Day love and inspiration with you tonight.

My mother is no longer alive, but I remember her with so much love and appreciation. My father died when I was young and so my mother dedicated herself to bringing up her two young children by herself. She was such an inspiration and I do miss her. While I can't give her a Mother's Day card, I did think of her as I created this card. I think she would have liked it.

The design for the card has been based on an Artistic Trading Card that I created recently. You may be saying "what is an Artistic Trading Card (ATC)?". It is a card that is the same size as Sporting Trading Cards but it is focused on artistic pursuits. A number of fellow Art with Heart Team members take up a challenge each month to create ATCs based around a technique or a theme and then we share our ATCs with each other. This recent ATC Challenge was to use a stencilling technique that included outlining. This technique was demonstrated by the amazing Jackie Aitkin, a Western Australian Demonstrator, as she was finishing her time as a member of the world-wide Stampin' Up! Artisan Team on the 1st of January 2020. It was uploaded by Stampin' Up! to Instagram.

A card base and the card front were cut from Very Vanilla card-stock. Soft Sea ink was applied to the leaf-like stencil from the Basic Pattern Decorative Masks with a Sponge Brayer. The depth of applied colour varied from lighter at the top RHS to darker in the lower LHS of the card front. Once the ink dries a marker or gel pen is used to outline the inked design - I only outlined the lower edge of the darker stencilled areas of the design with a gold gel pen. Where the stencilling is lighter only a dash or dot of gold was added - this is an adaption of the technique.

Using a Stamparatus, leaves and flowers from the Positive Thoughts stamp set were inked with markers to give a variegated colour effect. Soft Sea Foam and Pear Pizzazz was used for the leaves and Petal Pink with touches of Flirty Flamingo for the flowers. The flower centre used Petal Pink and Whisper White Craft ink. During Salebration Stampin" Up! released Natures Thoughts dies that coordinated with this stamp set. These dies were used to cut the leaves, flowers, Gold Foil accents and Vellum feathers. The die cut elements were either adhered with Tombow Liquid Glue or popped up with Dimensionals. A small bow was tied in Metallic Edge Petal Pink Ribbon and tucked under one of the flowers with a Glue Dot. The sentiment, from the same stamp set, was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Gold Emboss Powder. The sentiment was fussy cut and adhered with Mini Dimensionals over the flowers. A Gold Foil butterfly was added as a final touch.

Fine Gold Foil strips were adhered to either side of the card front and then the card front was adhered to the card base with Dimensionals.

Here is a close up of the focal floral arrangement and sentiment.

I love to decorate the inside of the card in a way that links with the card front. I added 2 thin strips of gold foil on each side of the card centre and also added a flower, some leaves and a little gold butterfly.

Card 2

I love my pets and have found that dogs I meet, whether when visiting friends or when I walk my dog, quickly pick up that I am a dog tragic. I say that by way of introduction - a friend's dog "asked" me to create a Mother's Day card from him to his Mum (my friend). I will post the card so that it arrives in time for Mother's Day on Charlie's behalf. Charlie's Mum loves, loves, loves shoes so the Dressed to Impress bundle was perfect as the inspiration for this Mother's Day card. I CASEd a card displayed on page 54 in Stampin' Up!'s Mini Catalogue, but translated it as a fancy fold and also changed various components. Oh no ... I have just realised that when taking these photographs I forgot to take one or two showing the side view. I may not have a chance to take and add sideview photos by the time this blog goes live but will add extra photos tomorrow. My apologies. It has been a strange day with a number of unplanned things occurring and I just didn't think about taking side views until now.

Two pieces of Petal Pink card-stock were cut and scored for the card base. The gorgeous Best Dressed Designer Series Paper (DSP) was chosen and two different designs were mounted on the card base pieces. One of the floral designs covered sections of the background and extra flowers were fussy cut from that DSP. A more subtle design of DSP was used for the card front to show off the focal fussy cut handbags and shoes. The box used to help the card stand, was formed at the bottom by folding along the scoring on the larger piece of card-stock and then adhering the flap back onto the cardbase. The smaller piece of card-stock was also folded along the score-lines and then adhered in place. Two strips of Whisper White card-stock were die cut with a stitched die from the All Dressed Up dies. The white strips and the fussy cut shoes, handbags (from another piece of DSP) and flowers were arranged and either adhered flat or popped up on Dimensionals. The sentiment was white heat embossed using White Emboss powder and cut out with one of the stitched dies from the same die set. To finish the card, a little Wink of Stella was flicked to give a gentle sprinkle of glitter. (This was not picked up by the camera.)

Here is a close up of part of the card front.

Given the design of this fancy fold card, there is not a card inner but the panel at the back of the card will be used to write Charlie's greeting to his mother.  A piece of DSP, matching one of the Best Dressed Designer Series paper designs used on the card front was cut a little smaller than the back panel of the card and adhered in place. A smaller piece of Whisper White card-stock was adhered. The "Happy Mother's Day" sentiment was stamped in coordinating Lovely Lipstick ink. In recognition that the card is from Charlie, a dog from the Happy Tails stamp set was stamped in Smoky Slate ink and punched out using the Dog Builder punch. This dog doesn't look like Charlie - I don't have a greyhound stamp. I had hoped to colour the dog on the card in Charlie-like colours, but I ran out of time in my topsy turvy day. A couple of tiny flowers were fussy cut and adhered to further tie the card back to the card front.

I hope these cards have given you some ideas, and some smiles.

To all the Mothers, I hope you have a special Mother's Day, even in the midst of this strange time. Thank you for all you do for your families. You are amazing.

The next demonstrator to share her Mother’s Day project is the amazingly talented Kathryn Mangelsdorf at Kathryn's Crafting World. I'm so looking forward to seeing Kathryn's card.

    

I'm blessed to be apart of such a talented team. Knowing each of my colleagues in this blog hop, I am sure that they will have delightful Mother's Day projects. Don't miss checking out each of their blogs. If you have a broken link or have come to this blog hop midway, you can view all the participants below. Click on their names to be taken to their respective blogs:

Rebecca Jacovou

Vicki Boucher

Rachel Woollard

Sharon Davern

Catherine Proctor

Kate Morgan

Andrea Sargent  << You are here

Kathryn Mangelsdorf

Rachel Palmieri

Caroline Manwaring

Michele Taylor

Tina Gillespie

Take care everyone. Stay home, stay safe and stay well. If you are struggling then please reach out to trusted friends and talk about what is happening and how you feel. Social media is available to help you stay connected and there is always a phone call. You are important.

Thank you for calling in. I so appreciate you spending time with me.

Andrea 💕🐾