Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase - #29 Mossy Meadow

Mossy Meadow with Dove of Hope

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the 29th 2020 Colour Creations Showcase by members of the Art with Heart Team - our last Showcase for the year.

This week we are focussing on a deep green called Mossy Meadow. It is classified as a Neutral as given it's depth and richness it is a colour that goes with so many other colours. Mossy Meadows can be found in Stampin' Up!s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads, re-inkers); Stampin' Write Markers; Stampin' Blends; numerous Designer Series Papers, including World of Good DSP; Memories & More Cards pack and ribbons/trim and the gorgeous Joy of Sharing all inclusive card kit. Mossy Meadow is a great colour!

I have a number of cards to share with you tonight. Two using the Dove of Hope bundle and two extras direct from the Joy of Sharing card kit. This is an all inclusive kit.

CARD 1: The format for my first card was inspired by Emma Goddard, a Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator from the United Kingdom and she has been part of the Artisan for the last 3 years. As always, thanks for the inspiration Emma.

I started by painting Mossy Meadow stripes on a piece of Shimmery White card-stock using the mid-sized Water Painter. While I covered the card front with stripes, those at the top were fairly light. A little Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint was splattered over the card front. Once dry, I tied a piece of Vanilla ribbon from the Forever Greenery Trim Combo pack around the card front ending with a relaxed large bow.

Two circles were die cut using the Stitched Shapes dies, one from Whisper White card-stock and the other from Mossy Meadow card-stock. After the 2 circles were adhered together, they were popped up on Dimensionals. 

At this point I faffed around quite a bit, including die cutting and colouring trees cut using the In the Pines dies. I tried a range of colour combinations for water-colouring the trees. Nothing really worked. I then thought of using one of the doves from the Dove of Hope bundle, trying the die cut dove first. That dove was too big for placement on the circles. I stamped the mid-sized dove on Whisper White card-stock using Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' ink and then die cut it out using the coordinating Detailed Dove dies. The size was right. A little Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint was added to the wings and the dove was adhered at the body directly to the circles. Looking back I think it would have been good to add some subtle colouring on the dove - perhaps next time.

"Peace on earth" from the Wrapped in Christmas stamp set was stamped on Whisper White card-stock with Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' ink. The sentiment was trimmed down and popped in place with Dimensionals. A Mossy Meadow leaf sprig was die cut using the small sprig die from the Detailed Dove dies and it was adhered underneath the dove's beak. 

The card front was adhered directly to a Mossy Meadow card-stock base. A number of Red Rhinestone Basic Jewels were added to finish the card.

The card inner was also painted with a number of Mossy Meadow stripes and another sentiment from the Wrapped In Christmas stamp set was added using Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' ink. The smaller dove was stamped on a small piece of Whisper White card-stock and fussy cut out. A C6 Whisper White envelope was stamped with the larger dove in Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' ink.

CARD 2: As I had die cut all the pieces for a Whisper White dove, I decided to use them for my second card. In thinking about the design for this 2nd card I decided to use a non-Christmas Designer Series Paper even though I was planning to create a Christmas card. (As I started to plan and write Christmas cards I realised that I didn't have enough so this week I made the most of prepping for tonight's blog hop to create another two Chrissy cards.) This second card is a Double Z-fold card.

The World of Good Speciality Designer Series Paper included two designs using Mossy Meadow, one of which had a watercolour effect of repeated world maps. I love the soft relaxed effect of this design. I cut a stripe of DSP centring the world continents across the 12 x 12" sheet. From there I cut a Brass Foil strip a little wider than the DSP so the brass mount would show. I also cut some Mossy Meadow card-stock a little wider again to enable the Brass Foil and the DSP to be mounted onto the Mossy Meadow card-stock.

The card base is half an A4 sheet of Thick Whisper White card-stock, cut lengthwise. The card base was scored in half at the mid-point and the front section was scored so that it could be folded back in half again. The Mossy Meadow piece was scored similarly. Both were pieces of card-stock were folded and burnished at the scoreline with a Bone Folder. The Mossy Meadow piece was turned around so the Z-fold is in reverse to the card base.

The largest circle from the Stitched Shapes dies was used to cut a Mossy Meadow card-stock circle. The next size stitched circle was used to die cut a circle out of the DSP. A circle from the Layered Circles dies was used to cut a Brass Foil circle. The Foil circle was dry embossed using the Hammered Metal 3D Embossing folder.The 3 circles were adhered directly together.

The Whisper White card-stock and Vellum pieces were adhered together to form the dove. The body of the dove was popped up on Dimensionals. The small leaf spray die was used to cut a Brass Metallic spray of leaves, which was then adhered under the dove's beak.

Pieces of Whisper White card-stock were cut to fit on each of the three sections of the card base. Each was embossed with the Hammered Metal 3D Embossing folder and then were adhered directly to the card-base. Similarly, 3 pieces of Brass Foil were cut from the Brass Foil strip to fit on the 3 sections of the Mossy Meadow scored and burnished strip. The 3 pieces of Brass Foil also were embossed with the Hammered Metal 3D Embossing folder. The strip of DSP was also cut into 3 to fit each section of the Mossy Meadows strip. The embossed pieces of Brass Foil were adhered directly to the Mossy Meadows strip and then the pieces of DSP were adhered to the Brass Foil.

A Whisper White C6 envelope and a piece of Whisper white card-stock were stamped with the mid-sized dove using Mossy Meadows Classic Stampin' ink. The piece of card-stock was adhered to the back of the card in readiness to write a longer greeting.

The two Z-fold pieces were adhered together, being careful to only add Multipurpose Liquid Glue to half of the longer section of the top Z-fold. The card was folded and glue was added to the lower half section of the Mossy Meadow strip and it was adhered to the end half of the lower part of the card. The dove & layered circles piece was centred onto the top section of the Mossy Meadows strip. A number of Wonderful Gems were added as the final touch. They are gorgeous gems. 

CARDS 3 & 4: The Joy of Christmas All Inclusive Card Kit is a lovely kit from the August-December Mini Catalogue and the good news is that it is currently discounted. It's only available till the end of December or until sold out. This kit is wonderful if you send a family photo at Christmas. I used the kit as part of a class. I didn't have a suitable photo so made up a couple of cards as shown in the kit. The class ladies loved them, commenting that the cards were really elegant. 

The cards have a Mossy Meadow base. The pine cones and the poinsettias come in various sizes so there are more than enough to create whatever style card you choose - whether portrait, landscape or with or without a photo. Sorry, I ran out of time to create my own designs with the kit. 

That's it for me for this blog and for the year.

Catherine Proctor is our amazing host of the Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase. If you haven't finished visiting 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 looking forward to checking out everyone's Mossy Meadow creations. It is always inspiring to see the amazing projects created by my colleagues and their application of the colour. Cathy thank you so much for coordinating this Showcase this year. I have really enjoyed the challenge of focussing on each colour and working up a design that will show it off.

Looking forward to seeing you again in the new year when members of the team will share projects that hero Night of Navy (I love this colour), as we continue creating through the Stampin' Up! colour range. Our first Showcase for 2021 will be in the evening of Wednesday 6th January.

I hope you have an amazing Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Here's hoping that 2021 is a year were we get on top of COVID-19 and life gets back on track. Do look after yourself and your loved ones. Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others in these strange times. 

Andrea 💕🐾

#colourcreationsshowcase

Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase - #18 Gorgeous Grape

Gorgeous Grape with Dove of Hope

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the 18th Colour Creations Showcase by members of the Art with Heart Team.

This week we are using another colour starting with "G". Our focus is on Gorgeous Grape, a rich purple that sits within Stampin' Up!s Brights family of colours. Gorgeous Grape can be found in Stampin' Up!s card-stock; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads, re-inkers & Classic Stampin' Spots); Stampin' Write Markers; Watercolour Pencils; a couple of Designer Series Papers; and the Tricolour Ribbon.

This week has been a struggle in different ways and with a number of unexpected happenings occurring when I had scheduled creative time, I have only been able to create one card to share with you in this Showcase. Watercolour is a technique that I want to learn more about and so need to experiment and recently seeing Emma Goddard play with this specific technique and colours I thought I would give it a go. The watercolour panel didn't turn out as I had envisaged so I am looking forward the having another play soon. 

A piece of Fluid 100 Watercolor paper was heat embossed using Versamark ink and White Stampin' Emboss Powder using the small dove stamp from the Dove of Hope stamp set. Using both the wet on wet watercolour and emboss resist techniques, water was misted over the paper and then a Water Painter was used to drop both Gorgeous Grape and Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' inks onto the paper. The colours were moved around a little and then a paper towel was used to absorb excess liquid. I found Melon Mambo took over, dominating the colour blending, where as I was wanting Gorgeous Grape to stand out more. I had also hoped that dabbing up the excess liquids would also lighten the colours. This only had a small effect. I'm looking forward to trying the technique again and to understand more about colour interactions. It's all fun.

While the watercolour panel was drying, all of the other bits and pieces were prepared. A Thick Whisper White card-stock base and a Gorgeous Grape card-stock mount were cut to size. A Whisper White label was die cut using the Stitched So Sweetly dies. The World Map dies were used to die cut a world (half) sphere.

The watercolour panel was adhered directly on to the Gorgeous Grape mount and then both were popped up on Dimensionals on the Whisper White card base. A sentiment from the Dove of Hope stamp set was stamped to the left of the die cut label using Gorgeous Grape Classic Stampin' ink. While the ink pad was out, the small dove was also stamped in Gorgeous Grape onto a small piece of Whisper White card-stock. The dove was lightly coloured with Purple Posy and Highland Heather Stampin' Blends to add a little shading. It was die cut with the coordinating Detailed Dove dies.

A piece of the glittering Snowflake Splendor ribbon was coloured with the light Melon Mambo Stampin' Blends. Once dry (it doesn't take long) this ribbon was tied around the label to the right of the sentiment. The dove and world die cuts were layered over the ribbon with the dove being raised on Mini Dimensionals. The decorated label was popped up on Dimensionals and centred on the card front. To finish off the card front three Blue Adhesive-backed Gems, which were also coloured with the Melon Mambo Stampin' Blends, were added to the label.

A second die cut Gorgeous Grape dove was adhered directly to the card inner. (I had stamped an extra dove previously, in case I didn't like my colouring, so decided not to waste it.) Normally, the dove would be stamped directly on the card inner together with the second part of the sentiment. Also, a Gorgeous Grape dove was stamped in the left hand corner of the Whisper White C6 envelope. Its simple touch, but is enough to ensure coordination.

Thank you for spending some time with me at my blog. 

Catherine Proctor is our brilliant host of the Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase. If you haven't finished visiting 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 looking forward to checking out everyone's Gorgeous Grape creations. It is always inspiring to see the amazing projects created by my colleagues and their interpretations of the specified colour.

I hope to see you again next week when members of the team will share projects that hero Granny Apple Green. 

Do look after yourself and your loved ones. Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others in these strange times. 

Andrea 💕🐾

#colourcreationsshowcase

Art with Heart Creative Showcase - September 2020

Masculine Theme with World of Good

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the September 2020 Art with Heart Creative Showcase. 

This month we are focusing on projects suitable to give fellas. I have created a card using Stampin' Up!s gorgeous World of Good Suite. I have had an idea floating around my brain ever since I first saw this Suite, so I'm delighted to try it out for this Creative Showcase. As I created this card, I also had a special guy in mind who will be celebrating his birthday soon. He is someone who has spent much of his life helping others.

I've been wanting to create a spinner card, that is to have part of the design spin when the card is opened. In this case it is the "world". I don't know about you, but at times I am feeling that the world is spinning too fast. We are in strange times...

A friend helped me take a video to help you see the card when it opens. I was crafting with friends - one in person and our other friend online; but needed to leave before this card was finished, so you may notice that there were no gems on the card in the video.

The World of Good Suite includes beautiful World of Good Speciality Designer Series Paper (SDSP), with a number of the designs having brass highlights. The sheet I chose has brass consecutive circles on a Misty Moonlight design. I cut the SDSP so that the centre of the circles would be in the middle of the card front ... and then I die cut a circle in the centre! 

How did this card come together ...?

A card base of Misty Moonlight card-stock (normal portrait size card in Australia) was scored in half and then the front was scored in half again. The World of Good SDSP sheet was cut so that one piece would fit the top front. The second piece - the same size as the first, was cut for the inner front. A third piece was to fit the bottom half of the card. Care was taken to ensure the pieces were kept in order so the circles continued on. Two very thin strips of Brass Foil card-stock were adhered to the beginning and end of the SDSP on the card.

A circle was cut from the centre of the front of the card using a circle die from the Stitched Shapes dies.  Two of the circular dies were used to cut two metallic round frames and the small pedestal out of the Brass Metallic card-stock. Half of the pedestal and one side of a round frame were adhered around the circular hole on the top folded section, that is, half was adhered directly, the other half hung over and across the card.

To create the world, a piece of Shimmery White card-stock was water-coloured with Seaside Spray, Pretty Peacock and Highland Heather Classic ink and the mid-size Water Painter. While the water-coloured card-stock was drying, the two world dies from the World Map dies were used to cut two spheres of the world out of Brass Metallic card-stock. I was excited when I first saw this die set - it was great to see Australia represented. Once the water-coloured piece was dry, two circles were die cut. This circle die was included in the World Map dies.

Each metallic world sphere was adhered to a watercolour circle. I wanted to use a fine thread that wouldn't dominate the design as the structural thread to suspend the world in space. I couldn't find a clear sewing thread (used many years ago) but found some retired Stampin' Up! Copper Thread. 

This was centred across the back of one of the world spheres and the other sphere adhered over it so the thread was completely stuck through the centre. The metallic thread was then adhered along the fold at the back of the card front. Another piece of SDSP then was adhered to the back of the card front, to ensure the thread was firmly attached and all card surfaces were decorated. The second metallic frame was adhered at the edge of the hole.

I usually add a sentiment on the card front. I tried numerous approaches, including gold heat embossing on Misty Moonlight card-stock; water-colouring more Shimmery White card-stock and either stamping or heat embossing on it; using a label or fussy cutting the sentiment, different size sentiments, etc. Nothing seemed to work - it just detracted from the SDSP design and that sense of outer space around our world. Yet I kept looking at the front of the card - it needed something. To finish the card a number of Wonderful Gems were scattered over the outer space to represent stars and planets and add a little sparkle. These embellishments are so delightful. A pack includes gems in both red and clear, with little specks of gold floating within the gems. Delicious.

A piece of Whisper White card-stock was stamped with a sentiment from the Beautiful World stamp set and the feather pen was added to the corner - all stamped in Misty Moonlight Classic ink. The feather pen was also stamped on a Whisper White C6 Envelope to tie it in with the card.

I had fun creating this card, even though it didn't just fall into place. There was a bit of nutting out how to create the effect that I wanted to achieve. Must admit, I was excited to see my world spinning around and practiced a number of times - only to find that the thread seemed to pull/stretch and my world started to fall - it was no longer centred in its space. It took a bit of fiddling to return it to its right position. Obviously, I'm no Atlas (ie the Greek god, Atlas).

Thank you for visiting Valley Inspirations. I really appreciate you spending time on my blog.

 

I am so blessed to be apart of such a talented team. Knowing each of my colleagues in this Creative Showcase, I am sure that they have some amazing projects to share with you. Don't miss checking out each of their blogs. Rachel is our wonderful host of the Art with Heart Monthly Creative Showcase. If you haven't finished visiting all of the team's amazing masculine creations, you can visit/revisit Rachel's page at Handstamped by Rachel, where she hosts all the links to the other Showcase participants. I'm certainly looking forward to checking out everyone's creations. I always find inspiration.

I hope you join us again next month for October's Art With Heart Team Creative Showcase. I'm not sure what we will be showcasing but I know it will be fun and inspiring given my colleagues and the Stampin' Up products we love. 

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you are in Australia and would like a copy of the  Stampin' Up! 2020-2021 Annual Catalogue or the August - December Mini Catalogue; or if you have any queries that I could help with. Also, if you are interested in buying Stampin' Up! products I would delighted to serve you.

Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Stay safe and stay heathy and sane.

Andrea 😘