AWH Colour creations Blog Hop #29 Gray Granite

Gray Granite with Yuletide Village

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart Colour Creations Blog Hop. We are working though the Stampin' Up! colours in alphabetical order, focussing on one colour each week.

This week’s Blog Hop is focussing on a beautiful mid-grey colour called Gray Granite.  Gray Granite is part of the Neutrals Colour Family and is a warm grey that can coordinate with many colours, including yellows, reds, other neutrals, etc and it would be wonderful for wood, woodgrain, buildings …  and anything needing a mid-warm grey.

Gray Granite is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Marker; Stampin’ Blends Combo; Neutrals Designer Series Paper as well as Nests of Winter, Lily Pond Lane, Country Woods & Otterly Adorable DSPs, Season of Elegance Speciality DSP, Autumn to Remember Scrapbooking Kit, Layered Landscapes Kit, Bakers Twine Essentials Pack, Adhesive Backed Dappled Dots, Riverside Irregular Pearls and a number of other products. 

This project has incorporated Gray Granite as Classic Stampin' ink, card-stock, Stampin' Write Marker, Stampin’ Blends and Season of Elegance Speciality Designer Series Paper.

I do love this colour. The slight fawn-ish tinge gives Gray Granite a lovely warm tinge. As I am still in card-making mode I was thinking how i could showcase this colour in a Christmas card and saw the Yuletide Village stamps on my work table. I also had a gold embossed little church remaining from a previous project so I started by colouring the church with Stampin’ Blends, using the Gray Granite combo. To incorporate traditional christmas colours, the church door was coloured with the Real Red combo; a little Light Lemon lolly was added to the windows to give a sense of the lights on inside and the wreath on the church tower was coloured with the Old Olive combo. Some highlights and blending were added with the Color Lifter.

The Yuletide Village stamp set is a stand alone set, so the church image was fussy cut and an extra layer of ground snow was added with a torn die cut circle. In reference to the die cut part-circle, to create the focal section a piece of Thick Basic White card-stock was folded and a larger circle die from the Spotlight in Nature dies was used to cut a part circle. Some of the “B” side of the Season of Elegance Speciality DSP was also cut with the same die and this piece was adhered to the outside of the folded panel. Some White Craft ink was blended over to lighten some of the panel. A card base was created with a piece of Gray Granite card-stock. A background panel was cut from Basic White card-stock and it was embossed with the Birchwood 3D Embossing Folder.

The bare trees were die cut from some of the Graceful Greenery Vellum. Holly was Gold heat embossed on Basic White card-stock using a stamp from the Sentimental Wishes stamp set. The twiggy berries were cut from Gold Foil using a die from the Changing Leaves dies.

The sentiment came from the Peaceful Season stamp set and it was white heat embossed using the WOW Embossing Powders onto Real Red card-stock. A double bow tied with Gold Twisted Thread was tucked under the sentiment and adhered with a Glue Dot. The final touch was the addition of a number of Adhesive-backed Metallic Gems.

Sentiments, also from the Peaceful Season Stamp set, were gold heat embossed within the folded part-circle. Some “off cuts” left over from the Blends coloured holly were adhered both near the sentiments and in the inner section of the card. Never throw away off cuts till you have finished the project. 

A C6 Basic White envelope was gold heat embossed with the holly from the Sentimental Wishes stamp set.

Thank you so much for calling in on your way around this week’s Colour Creations Blog Hop. I appreciate you dropping by.

To continue with the blog hop just click the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of the lovely Di Furniss. I am looking forward to checking out Di’s creation(s). I do love seeing everyone’s' projects - there is always so much inspiration.

I do hope to see you next week when we will be featuring Highland Heather as we continue the weekly 2024-2025 Colour Creations Blog Hop series. 

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 Catherine Proctor’s blog @ What Cathy Made. Cathy is our brilliant Art With Heart Team Colour Creations Coordinator.  She is a wonderful lady. Check out her delightful creation while you are there.

Living in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of the Stampin' Up 2024-2025 Annual Catalogue or the 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! 

#colourcreationsbloghop  #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards  #stampinupdemonstrator  #papercrafting   #yuletidevillage  #peacefulseason

AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop #15

Christmas with Yuletide Village

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the fifteenth Art with Heart Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2024. This year we have been blog hopping since August and only have another 2 Blog Hops before we finish for this year. I hope you can check us out each week as there will be a many of ideas and different projects on display.

I love creating and sharing Christmas creativity with you. This week sees the culmination of 2 ideas I wanted to try out. I have wanted to use the Yuletide Village stamps for a more “Aussie feel” Christmas card, ie no snow but rather blue skies and colour. I also wanted to  follow-up on a different version of a fun fold shown by Sue Campfield, a USA Demonstrator. A few weeks ago I created a fancy fold that Sue had shown for her Crafternoon. At that time she also showed a number of variations of that fold, including a fold with 3 decorated diamond panels. She didn’t provide any dimensions so I needed to work out dimensions based on our A4 sizing. Here is my Aussie Christmas card:

A side view of the card gives a better view of the overall township created by the 3 diamond panels, but firstly, here are photos of each of the individual panels. The photo below is of the back panel.

Here is the middle panel:

And here is the front panel:

Two pieces of Soft Sea Foam card-stock was cut and scored with the 2 pieces being adhered together. Three hills and 2 valleys were created for the base. Three square panels also were cut from Soft Sea Foam card-stock, with the 2nd panel a little smaller that the back diamond and the front square diamond a little smaller again. Three Basic White card-stock panels were cut 2mm smaller than the Soft Sea Foam squares. Here is a side view to show the 3 “hills”.

Some Thoughtful Journey Designer Series Paper was used to decorate the 3 downward sections of the card base.

All of the buildings from the Yuletide Village stamp set were Gold heat embossed onto Basic White card-stock. The images were coloured with Stampin’ Blends Combos. Colours were selected to coordinate with the DSP, including Wild Wheat for the roofs. Each building was coloured differently, including Fresh Freesia, Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, Balmy Blue and Bubble Bath combos. Light Lemon Lolly was used to colour some windows and Light Pool Party to other windows to give a sense of a light shining inside or just indicating a glass window. Soft Sea Foam coloured the grass near the buildings. Each tree was coloured to coordinate with the building(s) and the specific DSP, eg Mossy Meadows and Old Olive; Pretty Peacock and Lost Lagoon; and Shaded Spruce and Soft Sea Foam. The Colour Lifter was used to add highlights throughout. As you can see there were many Blends colours used. As this is a stand alone stamp set, the coloured images were fussy cut with my Stampin’ Snips.

Each panel had some Balmy Blue Classic Stampin’ ink blended at the top for blue sky. There was some splattering added with a Pretty Peacock Stampin’ Write Marker and white splatters with White Craft ink. The small stand of trees from the Peaceful Evergreens stamps was used to stamp some trees in the background of each diamond panel. Again, each panel had the trees stamped in a different colour as the DSP and building colours were different. The trees were either stamped in Mossy Meadows, Pretty Peacock or Shaded Spruce inks.

A sentiment from the Peaceful Season stamp set was gold heat embossed onto Soft Sea Foam card-stock, before being trimmed and cut into two. A double bow was tied in Gold Twisted Thread and it was ticked under the sentiment. Some gorgeous Iridescent Foil Gems added some shimmer on each panel.

Inside the back fold of the card, a Basic White panel was added that had been Gold heat embossed using a sentiment from the Merriest Trees stamp set. A extra house was fussy cut and adhered on the panel at the bottom.  

This fancy fold card was designed to fit into a standard C6 Basic White envelope. The envelope was gold heat embossed with one of the buildings from the Yuletide Village stamps.

Thank you so much for calling in on your way around this week’s Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. I appreciate you dropping by.

There is more Christmas creativity, so do continue with the blog hop. Just click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to the blog of a gorgeous person and my up-line, Kathryn Mangelsdorf. I love it when Kathryn is able to join us and look forward to checking out her creation(s). I do love seeing everyone’s' projects - there is so much inspiration.

Also, many of us participate in the Colour Creations Blog Hop that goes live every Wednesday night where we showcase one of Stampin’ Up!s colours 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 wonderful Art With Heart Team Heart of Christmas Coordinator.  She is a special lady. 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 2023-2024 Annual Catalogue and or the September-December 2024 Mini Catalogue, then let me know and I will be delighted to send them to you.  Please don't hesitate to make contact re any queries about these projects or Stampin' Up!. 

#heartofchristmas  #heartofchristmas2024 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #artwithheartteam  #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #yuletidevillage  #peacefulevergreens  #peacefulseason  #merriesttrees  

AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop #12

Christmas with Yuletide Village

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the twelfth Art with Heart Team Heart of Christmas Blog Hop for 2024. We are will be blog hopping every week until the end of November. I hope you can continue to check out the Blog Hop each week as we share ideas and different projects to help your Christmas preparations.

I love creating Christmas projects and sharing them with you. This week I have created a Double Diamond M-fold card. I recently saw Sue Campfield, a top performing USA Demonstrator, create a card using this fold. As I was watching her create the card, I was busy converting dimensions to coordinate with A4 cardstock, rather than the size of card-stock in the USA. She also showed a triple diamond fun fold card and a single diamond fun fold card. I will use the other folds at some stage - just not tonight. Here is my card:

The card pulled open looks like this:

Here is a side view of the “M” fold.

The Thick Basic White card-stock base starts by cutting an A4 sheet of thick card-stock in half lengthwise, ie 10.5 x 29.6 cm. Three score lines were added across the long edge of the card at 8.9, 17.8, 23.7cm and the base was folded - mountain, valley, mountain, then the fold lines were burnished with a Bone Folder. Two pieces of Winter Meadows Designer Series Paper - the Lost Lagoon tree design, were adhered to the downward front facing panels.

Two squares of Basic White card-stock were cut to 7.9 x 7.9cm and 2 smaller pieces at 7.6 x 7.6cm. A delicate blending of Pool Party Classic ink was added to the top section of the smaller card-stock squares. Some splattering was added with a Pool Party Stampin’ Write Marker.

Using the Yuletide Village stamp set, the Church and two of the 3 houses were stamped in Momento Black ink onto Basic White card-stock, as was a couple of single pine tree. All the images were coloured with Stampin’ Blends Combos, ie Crumb Cake, Lemon Lolly, Pool Party, Lost Lagoon, Shaded Spruce, Real Red & Misty Moonlight, plus the Colour Lifter. The tiny deciduous tree was stamped in Crumb Cake ink. As this was a stand alone stamp set, the images were fussy cut using Stampin’ Up! wonderful Snips.

Some Basic White card-stock was also torn to add snow drift layers. Gold garlands were added to the central tree on the front panel. The garlands were cut using dies from the Decorative Tree dies in Gold Foil. A sentiment from the Peaceful Season stamp set was white heat embossed on to Lost Lagoon card-stock. The final touch - some gorgeous Iridescent Faceted Gems.

The panel for writing a personal message is the inner back panel. A 2-story house was stamped in Momento ink and coloured with Stampin’ Blends. A tiny rock wall was stamped in Crumb Cake ink and a tiny deciduous tree was also stamped in Crumb Cake ink. Similar to the card front, some light Pool Party ink was blended for the sky followed by some Pool Party splattering. A C6 Basic White envelope was also stamped with the same house with a few deciduous trees with similar additional colouring.

And yes, it does fit into a Basic White C6 envelope.

Thank you so much for dropping in to check out my Yuletide Village Double Diamond card. The fold is quite a simple one, once the dimensions are calculated.

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. I always look forward to seeing Claire’s creation(s). I do love seeing everyones' projects - there is so much inspiration.

Also, many of us participate in the Colour Creations Blog Hop that goes live every Wednesday night where we showcase one of Stampin’ Up!s colours each week. We would love you to 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.  She is a special lady. 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 2023-2024 Annual Catalogue and or the new September-December 2024 Mini Catalogue, then let me know and I will be delighted to send them to you.  Please don't hesitate to make contact re any queries about this project or Stampin' Up!. 

#heartofchristmas  #heartofchristmas2024 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #artwithheartteam  #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations   #yuletidevillage  #peacefulseason