CASEing the Catty #563 CASE The Easter Joy Suite

CASE Stampin’ Up!s Easter Joy Suite meets Scalloped Wishes

Hello, welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea & #563 Challenge with CASEing the Catty.

I am so glad you have dropped by. You may have come from Rochelle Blok as you take this week’s Blog Hop or perhaps arrived directly here; either way I am delighted you are here. At the end of my blog, I have linked to Peta Stephens so you can continue with the Blog Hop.

At CASEing the Catty we love to use the samples from the Stampin' Up! Catalogues and On Line Exclusives as inspiration and each week we have a different theme to guide our CASEing. To CASE is to "Copy And Selectively Edit" or some say "Copy And Share Everything". This week we are CASE-ing the projects showcasing the Easter Joy Suite found on pages 34-36 of the 2026 Stampin' Up! January-April Catalogue.

As you can see above, I have CASEd the 3rd card down on the 2nd half of page 36. The card has an oval of flowers with 3 daffodils featured in the centre. As soon as I saw this card I thought of the gorgeous Scalloped Wishes bundle from the latest On-line Exclusives release. I turned the card to portrait and featured 3 die cut dragon flies instead of the daffodils. Of course I also  added my own touch with a bow and gems as finishing touches.

I started with a Basic Beige card base, I added a background panel from one of my favourite Designer Series Papers - Speciality Delicate Whispers. A Basic White Scalloped Oval, that was cut using the largest Scalloped Wishes die, was lightly Bronze Heat embossed around the edges and then was popped up on Dimensionals.

Basic White leaves were cut using the 2 leaf dies from the Scalloped Wishes dies and flowers with the flowers die. Using Blending Brushes, Old Olive ink was partially blended over each of the leaves - darker at the base then lightening to white at the tip. Each of the flowers had a little Pretty in Pink ink partially blended over them.

The coloured leaves were layered around the oval near the edge. Once they were arranged nicely, Glue Dots or Multipurpose Liquid Glue was used to adhere them in place. Most of the flowers were arranged near the base of the oval and a couple of flowers were sprinkled in other spots.

A double bow was added with Glue Dots and the flowers were positioned around the centre of the bow. Pretty in Pink glittering Gems were added to the centres of the flowers and a couple extra gems near the fussy cut Bronze embossed sentiment. The dragon flies bodies were cut from Bronze Foil and the wings from the Mossy Meadows "B" side of the Speciality DSP.

The card inner was simply a Basic White panel with a strip of the same DSP as the card front. A fourth dragonfly was also added. A C6 Basic White envelope was decorated with a remaining piece of the same DSP.

Thank you so much for spending some time here with me. I so appreciate you dropping in. 

Don’t miss any of the inspiration from this creative CASEing The Catty Crew. The next blog in the hop is by the wonderful Peta Stephens and Marvi. Just click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to her blog. I wonder which project she has CASEd - I am sure her project will be something special.

Join In The Challenge: We would love you to share a project that you have created for this Challenge which has been inspired by the Easter Joy Suite. To share, all you need to do is go to the CASEing The Catty Challenge Group on Facebook. If you aren't a member, it’s easy to request to join and once anpproved all you need to do is upload a photo of your project to the main section. You can click on the graphic below to be taken to the group on Facebook. We would so love to see your creation.

 

#ctc563 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #valleyinspirations  #scallopedwishes  #easterjoy #delicatewhispers  #caseingthecatty #artisandesignteam2026 #artisandesignteam

Be Inspired - March 2026

Be Inspired Design Team Blog Hop

STAMPING TECHNIQUES TO USE FOREVER

Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the March Be Inspired Blog Hop where we are focusing on projects that showcase Stamping Techniques To Use Forever . 

However you have arrived here, whether from Stesha Bloodhart or directly here, I am so delighted that you are here.

I didn't need to think long about which stamping technique to choose - I adore Heat Embossing! 

I often add Heat Embossing to my creations. No doubt you know what I mean but in case someone is wondering - you stamp the image using a sticky ink, like Versamark; and sprinkle Wow Emboss Powder over the sticky ink and cardstock; then shake off the loose powder. The remaining powder on the cardstock is heated with a Heat Tool. It is always a delight to see the emboss powder melt and change. The impact is wonderfull

For my project I gold embossed the Flowers Fair stamp onto Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper and on the bottom of a Basic White card front.

The images were watercolored with a Fine Water Painter and Pretty in Pink, Petunia Pop, Lemon Lolly and Granny Apple Green Classic Stampin' inks (the first 2 are retiring In Colours that i am going to miss). Some of the flowers were fussy cut from the Fluid 100 panel and added to the central panel. The centre panel was cut with a Textured Notes rectangular die and mounted on a slightly larger piece of Pretty in Pink card-stock.

A gold embossed sentiment using the Springtime Scenes stamp set was also fussy cut and added with Dimensionals. Gold & White Ribbon and Pretty in Pink Gems gave the finishing touches.

The Basic White card inner was gold embossed with the top section of the Flowers Fair stamp.

Similarly, a Basic White C6 Envelope was also gold embossed with the same stamp. I do like to simply coordinate the card inner and envelope.

Thank you so much for dropping in on your way around the Be Inspired Blog Hop. I so appreciate you.

I am really looking forward to seeing what everyone else has created for the Stamping Techniques to Use Forever Blog Hop.  Next in line is the amazing Angela Meiritz-Reid. Just click on the "Next" graphic below to head over to Angela’s blog.

The full list of those participating in this Blog hop is:

Andrea Sargent <you are here

Angela Meiritz-Reid

Annette Ball

Annette Elias

Brian King

Emma Goddard

Heather Thomas

Lynn Cheesmur

Maheswari Rajaguru 

Stesha Bloodhart

#beinspired  #beinspireddesignteam  #stampinup   #stampinupofficial  #stampinupaustralia #valleyinspirations  #artisandesignteam #artisandesignteam2026  #flowersfair  #stampinupofficial #springtimescenes

CASEing the Catty #552 CASE Mini Catalogue

CASE Stampin’ Up!s Mini Catalogue meets Greenery Lane & Extraordinary Flora

Hello, welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea & #552 Challenge with CASEing the Catty.

I am so glad you have dropped by. You may have come from Judy May as you take this week’s Blog Hop or perhaps arrived directly here; either way I am delighted you are here. At the end of my blog, I have linked to Julia Quinn so you can continue with the Blog Hop or perhaps finish where you started.

At CASEing the Catty we love to use the samples from the Stampin' Up! Catalogues & On-Line Exclusives as inspiration and each week we have a different theme to guide our CASEing. To CASE is to "Copy And Selectively Edit" or some say "Copy And Share Everything". This week we are CASE-ing the projects in the newly released 2026 Stampin' Up! January-April Mini Catalogue.

There is so much to love in this new Mini Catalogue and so many projects to choose from for this week's Challenge. Eventually I chose the lower card on page 50. My eye was drawn to the floral cut out sections where the peak through background varied. They all had leaves adhered to the top panel. I started by selecting the smallest circular die to cut out rows of circles instead of little tulips.

The background panel was ombre water-colored with Flirty Flamingo Re-inker on Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper. To combat the waves in the paper after water-colouring I ran the panel through a Cut & Emboss Machine with the Lovely Stripes 3D Embossing Folder. The card base is Flirty Flamingo card-stock.

Both the Extraordinary Flora (Annual Catalogue) and the Greenery Lane (Mini Catalogue) washi tapes were adhered to Basic White card-stock and the corresponding stamp sets were used to apply Versamark ink to the outer edges of the of the flowers & leaves. They were then Gold heat embossed with Wow Gold Emboss Powder and a Heat Tool. The Accessory Toolkit is always useful. The coordinating dies are brilliant for cutting the individual sprays.

The detailed leaf die from the Greenery Lane dies was used to cut sprays from Basic White card-stock. Some Soft Sea Foam ink was gently added with Mini Blending Brushes. The leaf sprays were cut into smaller sections. The washi tape flowers/leaves were arranged together with the die cut leaves and adhered in place with either Glue Dots or Mini Dimensionals.

The White heat embossed sentiment was from the Lovely Arrangements stamps. A White & Gold Twine bow was tucked under the sentiment and a scattering of Gold Sequins were added with dots of Tombow Liquid Glue.

A couple of off-cuts from the background panel were adhered down one side of a Basic White panel that was adhered inside the card and a couple of left over leaves were adhered nearby.

A couple of left over embossed washi leaves were also adhered to a Basic White C6 Envelope.

Thank you so much for calling in on your way around CASEing the Catty Crew Blog Hop. I hope you glean some ideas as you check out everyone's projects.

Don’t miss any of the inspiration from this creative CASEing The Catty Crew. The next blog in the hop is by the wonderful Julia Quinn. Just click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to her blog. I wonder which project she has CASEd - I am sure her project will be something special.

Join In The Challenge: We would love you to share a project that you have created for this Challenge which has been inspired by the March Online Exclusives releases. To share, all you need to do is go to the CASEing The Catty Challenge Group on Facebook. If you aren't a member, it’s easy to request to join and once anpproved all you need to do is upload a photo of your project you created for this Challenge to the main section. You can click on the graphic below to be taken to the group on Facebook. We would so love to see your creation.

 

#ctc552 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations  #greenerylane #lovelyarrangement #extraordinaryflora  #caseingthecatty #artisandesignteam2026  #artisandesignteam

CASEing the Catty #544 CASE An Embossing Folder Project

CASE Stampin’ Up!s Annual Catalogue meets A Project Featuring an Embossing Folder.

Hello, welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea & #544 Challenge with CASEing the Catty.

I am so glad you have dropped by. You may have come from the lovely Julia Quinn, as you take this week’s Blog Hop or perhaps arrived directly here; either way I am delighted you are here. At the end of my blog, I have linked to Rochelle Laird-Smith so you can continue with the Blog Hop.

At CASEing the Catty we love to use the samples from the Stampin' Up! Catalogues or On-line Exclusives as inspiration and each week we have a different theme to guide our CASEing. To CASE is to "Copy And Selectively Edit" or some say "Copy And Share Everything". This week we are CASE-ing projects using Embossing Folders from either the 2025-26 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue or the 2025 September-December Mini Catalogue.

The project I am CASEing is this one from page 25 of the 2025 September-December Mini Catalogue:

I had planned to CASE a different project but then changed as I started creating. Here is my card:

I love the Most Wonderful stamp set but haven’t used it much this year so thought it deserved another go. The wreath stamp was gold heat embossed onto Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper and then the leaves were coloured in Granny Apple Green and Old Olive Classic inks. I do enjoy using 2 colours when colouring leaves. The wreath was fussy cut both inside and out.

A B-side from the Traditions of Christmas Speciality Designer Series Paper was layered over a Secret Sea card base. Pine leaves from the Christmas Greenery dies were die cut from Basic White card-stock. A Basic White panel was embossed with the Dotted Circles 3D Embossing Folder and the de-bossed side was used. Some Real Red Shiny Ribbon was tied around the white embossed panel ending in a bow. The water-coloured wreath was popped up on Dimensionals and the pine tucked underneath.

The sentiment from the Most Wonderful stamp set was gold heat embossed onto Basic White card-stock and fussy cut, then added to the centre of the wreath with Dimensionals. Some of the beautiful Delightful Decorative Dots were scattered around the wreath and sentiment.

A couple of thin strips of the background SDSP were layered onto a panel of Basic White card-stock that had been partially gold heat embossed with the stamped wreath.

A Basic White C6 Envelope was also heat embossed with part of the stamped wreath. I do like some simple coordination with the card it will hold.

Thank you so much for dropping in on your way around the CASEing the Catty Blog hop for Challenge #544 where we are CASEing a project featuring an Embossing Folder.

Don’t miss any of the inspiration from this creative CASEing The Catty Crew. The next blog in the hop is by the wonderful Rochelle Laird Smith. Just click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to her blog. I wonder which project she has CASEd - I am sure her project will be something special.

Join In The Challenge: We would love you to share a project that you have created for this Challenge which has been inspired by the a current project featuring an Embossing Folder. To share, all you need to do is go to the CASEing The Catty Challenge Group on Facebook. If you aren't a member, it’s easy to request to join and once approved all you need to do is upload a photo of your project to the main section of the group. You can click on the graphic below to be taken to the group on Facebook. We would so love to see your creation.

 

#ctc544 #stampinup #stampinupaustralia #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #papercrafter  #valleyinspirations  #mostwonderful  #traditionsofchristmas #caseingthecatty #artisandesignteam2025  #artisandesignteam

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