AWHT Colour Creations #12 Coastal Cabana

Coastal Cabana with Delicate Dahlias and Snowflake Wishes

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart 2021-2022 Colour Creations Blog Hop.

This week’s Blog Hop is focussing on a bright teal called Coastal Cabana.  It is part of the Brights Colour Family and coordinates harmoniously with Pool Party and Bermuda Bay. Coastal Cabana is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Markers; the Brights Designer Series Paper and some embellishments including the Artistry Blooms Adhesive Backed Sequins, Holiday Rhinestone Basic Jewels and Playing with Patterns Resin Dots.

Coastal Cabana is a lovely bright colour and great for watery themes, as its name suggests, and that's where my mind first went. Wanting to branch away the "usual" and also to use the gorgeous Delicate Dahlias Sale-a-bration stamp set, I started with creating a watercolour panel. Then my ideas changed and I ended up creating 2 cards. Here they are:

While I first water-coloured a panel of Fluid 100 Watercolor paper, I decided the end result was a stronger coloured background than the one envisaged for use with the Delicate Dahlias Sale-a-bration Stamp Set. So I colour blended a background using Stampin' Ups! amazing Blending Brushes with Coastal Cabana and Pool Party Classic Stampin' inks on Basic White card-stock. To give a little texture to the blended background some water was flicked over as well as some diluted White Craft ink.

Spying a detailed floral die cut on my desk that had been cut using a die from the Artistic Dies set and Basic White card-stock, I tried it layered over the blended background. It looked good - the start of layering the design. The large dahlias, smaller flowers and the leaves were stamped in Versamark Ink on Basic White card-stock and heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss Powder and a Heat Gun.

The flowers and leaves were coloured with Stampin' Blends, that is Highland Heather, Fresh Freesia, Pool Party Combos and a little Dark So Saffron with touches of the Colour Lifter to add highlights. While the Colour Lifter is great for diluting mistakes, it is brilliant at adding highlights or blending the lighter colours out so lines aren't apparent. The flowers and leaves were all fussy cut, with the second dahlia just being cut around the centre petals.

In arranging all the pieces, the blended background was mounted on a seperate basic White card front with a strip of the lighter mauve foil from the Silver Foil Speciality Pack, which had been embossed with the TimeWorn Type 3D Embossing Folder and added to the LHS of the card front. A piece of White Glittered Organdy Ribbon was added and the card front mounted to the Coastal Cabana card-stock base. 

As mentioned, the detailed die cut floral piece was layered over the background and the flowers and leaves arranged. Another piece of the Glittered Organdy Ribbon was cut into 3 lengthwise, folded into a bow and adhered in place under the flower with some Tear n' Tape. A sentiment from the Delicate Dahlias Stamp Set was white heat embossed onto a strip of Coastal Cabana card-stock and a few of the Artistry Blooms Adhesive-backed Sequins were added for that gentle touch of bling to finish off.

A Basic White card inner was stamped (and 2nd generation stamping) with leaves in Coastal Cabana ink. An off-cut strip from the blended background was added with a very thin strip of Coastal Cabana card-stock. A Stampin' Up! C6 Basic White Envelope was similarly stamped with leaves on the LHS edge.

CARD 2: Having missed the AWHT Heart of Christmas Blog Hop a couple of days ago I have created a Christmas themed card with the water-coloured background using Coastal Cabana and a little Pool Party Classic Stampin' inks on Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper. As I may have mentioned previously, I love snowflakes and even in the hot Aussie summer, I am happy to create snowflake cards for Christmas. I know some Aussies may have a different view.

Having already water-coloured the background, small snowflakes were heat embossed on top of the water-colour background. It brings a clear result. If starting out to create this snowflake card, another option may be to emboss the paper prior to water-colouring for an emboss resist technique. The embossed snowflakes came from the Snowflake Wishes Stamp Set.

A Basic White card front panel was dry embossed using an embossing folder from the Wintry 3D Embossing Folders set. The snowflakes folder is particularly gorgeous. It is hard to see the detail in the photos given the size of the frame and centre panel, but it is gorgeous. The embossed panel was adhered straight onto the Thick Basic White card-stock base.

A frame was die cut using the 3rd & 5th largest rectangular dies from the Stitched Rectangles dies (the centre section has been put aside for a label on another card). The 3rd largest die was also used to cut the water-coloured panel. Dimensionals were added behind the frame to lift it from the water-coloured panel. 

A sentiment from the Snowflake Wishes Stamp Set was stamped on Vellum with Versamark ink and the applied White Stampin' Emboss Powder was heat embossed. I so love Stampin' Up!'s Vellum as it is great quality and copes so well with heat embossing. The Vellum allows the background to still be seen. The Vellum was wrapped around to the back of the water-colour panel and the whole panel was adhered directly to the dry embossed panel. Three snowflakes were cut from Basic White card-stock using the So Many Snowflakes Dies and strategically added to the card. Coastal Cabana Holiday Rhinestone Basic Jewels were added to snowflake centres to add sparkle.

A Basic White card inner was stamped with snowflakes from the same stamp set in Pool Party & Coastal Cabana inks and a couple of thin strips were added on two edges. An extra Basic White die cut snowflake was also added. A Basic White C6 Envelope was similarly stamped with some snowflakes to coordinate.

It was fun creating these Coastal Cabana cards to share.  I love playing with various colouring techniques. Even though my preference is to work with more muted colours, I think Coastal Cabana is a great colour and can be used in various ways.

If you are in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of Stampin' Up's 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue and or the new July - December 2021 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!. 

There is more Coastal Cabana creativity. To continue with the blog hop, click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to the delightful Kate Morgan's blog. I am looking forward to checking out Kate's creation and everyone else's.

Hope to see you next week when we will be featuring Crumb Cake; and don't forget the AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop is launched every Monday evening until mid-December.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

Andrea 💕🐾

  

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the full list of participants on Catherine Proctor’s blog.  Check out her amazing creation while you are there.

#colourcreationsbloghop

AWHT Colour Creations #11 Cinnamon Cider

Cinnamon Cider with Inspiring Thoughts & Inspiring Canopy

Hello. Welcome to  Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart 2021-2022 Colour Creations Blog Hop.

This week’s Blog Hop is focussing on another rusty tan called Cinnamon Cider.  It is a somewhat muted though strong colour and is one of the 2020-2022 In Colour Family. Cinnamon Cider is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Markers; Stampin’ Blends Combos and a number of Designer Series Papers including Hand Penned, Beauty of the Earth, Blackberry Beauty, Gingerbread & Peppermint, and Sweet Stockings DSP; plus embellishments such as the Black Beauty Ephemera pack & the 2020-2022 In Colour Square Gems.

Cinnamon Cider is a versatile colour, as can be seen by the range of Designer Series Papers that include this neutral colour (some of which are listed above). I used as inspiration for my project's colour scheme, the delightful Hand Penned DSP. My card was designed for a fella for Father's Day. Those who know me know that I am a dog tragic. I have friends whose daughters are overseas, but they have a very precious and much loved fur family, so this card will be signed from their black poodle, Carabella. The fella does so much for his family and so it is a great opportunity for his fur daughter to show appreciation.

This card features the Inspiring Canopy dies and the coordinating Inspiring Thoughts stamp set for the sentiments. I love the fonts used in these sentiments. To compliment this bundle, the Mountain Air stamp set was used to add extra scenery details. There isn't a poodle in SU's current products but there is a very cute dog in the Pampered Pets stamp set, so she was used on the back panel which has been prepared for writing a personal message from Carabella. (I know, just humour me.) 

The deciduous trees were die cut out of Basic White card-stock and another curvy piece was die cut to layer beneath the trees to give some depth to the scene. Most of the card front was trimmed off, leaving a couple of centimetres at the top of the Thick Basic White card-stock base. A piece of Window Sheet was cut to the original card front dimensions.

A piece of Basic White card-stock was cut a little thinner than the card dimensions. This was coloured with Blending Brushes and Mint Macaron, Daffodil Delight, Pale Papaya and Pool Party Classic Stampin' inks. The long tree stamp from the Mountain Air stamp set was stamped in Mint Macaron ink. 

A mask for the rising sun was cut from a piece of Post It Note after the trees were in place and before the sky sunrise colours were added. Once the sky had been colour blended the mask of the sun was removed and a little Daffodil Delight ink was used to soften the edges. Some of the Daffodil Delight ink was also added over part of the trees and ground to give a sense of sun rays streaming over it. Clouds and birds (from the Mountain Air stamp set) were stamped in Smoky Slate ink. A Chalk Marker was used to colour the clouds and add highlights to the horizon line of trees.

This panel of background scenery was mounted onto a piece of Cinnamon Cider card-stock, which in turn was added to the Thick Basic White card base. Cinnamon Cider Classic Stampin' ink was applied to the die cut trees with a Blending Brush. I love the way the Blending Brush was so gentle on the intricately cut branches. 

The ground under the trees was coloured with Garden Green and Mint Macaron ink, plus a little of the Cinnamon Cider. The curvy ground layer was coloured more lightly with Mint Macaron and a little Garden Green. Pool Party was blended over the top section of the front flap. Some clouds and birds were also added with some Smoky Slate ink.

The Window panel was adhered under the top flap and the curvy ground adhered at the bottom of the window panel. The trees and ground were layered over the window panel and top and bottom pieces. A sentiment from the Inspiring Thoughts stamp set was stamped in Cinnamon Cider ink on Basic White card-stock. This was lightly coloured with Mint Macaron ink and trimmed down, cutting the sentiment in half. Thinking of You was layered with Mini Dimensionals plus 2 strands of a length of Crumb Cake twine from the Bakers Twine Essentials Pack that had been coloured with a Light Cinnamon Cider Blend. The second row of the sentiment was adhered on the background scene beneath the first part of the sentiment. Even though this is a card for a fella, I couldn't resist a little bling. I coloured Champagne Rhinestones Basic Jewels with a Dark Cinnamon Cider Blend. I did try the coordinating 2020-2022 In Colour Square Gems, but they were a little big for the effect I wanted. Pity, because I do love the coordination of embellishments.

To have a place to write a personal message, another sentiment from the Inspiring Thoughts stamp set was stamped in Cinnamon Cider ink on Basic White card-stock and the cute dog from the Pampered Pets stamp set was stamped in Momento Black ink to align with Carabella's colouring. A little Cinnamon Cider was added to the collar and some of the nose to link her to the colour scheme. This white panel was mounted to a piece of Cinnamon Cider card-stock. The envelope was also stamped with the dog. Cinnamon Cider colouring was also added (but after the photograph was taken).

I did enjoyed playing with Cinnamon Cider and colour ink blending with Stampin' Up!s delightful Blending Brushes. Loving the colours in the Hand Penned DSP, this paper was brilliant inspiration for my colour combo. Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there. I hope you have a special day on the first Sunday in September.

If you are in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of Stampin' Up's 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue and or the new July - December 2021 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!. 

There is more Cinnamon Cider creativity. To continue with the blog hop, click on the "next" graphic below to be taken to the delightful Kate Morgan's blog. I am looking forward to checking out Kate's creation and everyone else's.

Hope to see you next week when we will be featuring Coastal Cabana; and don't forget the AWH Heart of Christmas Blog Hop is launched every Monday evening until mid-December.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

Andrea 💕🐾

  

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the full list of participants on Catherine Proctor’s blog.  Check out her amazing creation while you are there.

#colourcreationsbloghop

AWH Heart of Christmas 2021 #6

Christmas with Pretty Pillowboxes

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart Team 2021 Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. Well, I'm not officially part of the blog hop this week as I had a hectic week and missed getting my link to the coordinator in time, however, I have added links at the bottom to the coordinator's blog so you can still hop along and be inspired by everyones projects. I certainly will be.

This week's projects are some little pillow-boxes for gift giving at Christmas. The Pretty Pillowbox dies can be found in the new July - December Mini Catalogue where as the papers used are in the Sale-a-bration Catalogue. The 2 sets of papers used can each be obtained free when you spend $90 on Stampin' Up! products.

I love making boxes and other 3D projects and it can be so easy with Stampin' Up die sets. The Pretty Pillowbox dies cut the shape of the box piece and also adds the score lines for folds; so it just needs to be folded and glued. The die set included 3 label die cuts, flower dies and options for embellishing the flap or adding holds through which ribbon or twine can be threaded to tie the flap down. It's a great set. (I only just realised that there are 2 dies missing from the photo below - ie the square-ish label and the die to cut the 2 holes. Oops)

The first little pillowbox was made from the Be Dazzling Speciality Paper shown on page 3 of the Sale-a-bration Catalogue. Once all the score lines were folded, the ends of the pillowbox were adhered in place. The luscious Cherry Cobbler and Gold ribbon was tied around the closed box and then tied into a bow. Some Gold Simply Elegant Trim was tied around the bow and the little square-ish tag was threaded on and the trim tied in a bow. Small and large die cut flower pieces (cut from Cherry Cobbler card-stock) were layered together and a Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewel added at the centre of each flower. The two flowers were adhered to the tag and a little Wink of Stella added to the petal tips.

The second pillowbox was cut from Cherry Cobbler card-stock. Again, all the scorelines were folded and each end adhered together. A belly-band was cut from one of the sheets of Peaceful Prints DSP (another Sale-a-bration DSP and can be found on page 8 of the brochure). The strip of DSP was wrapped around the closed box and then some White Glittered Organdy Ribbon was wrapped over the belly-band. The same little tag was used to die cut Cherry Cobbler card-stock and a snowflake (from the So Many Snowflakes dies) was die cut from Basic White card-stock. The cut snowflake was added to tie in with the white snowflakes on the DSP.

Some White Bakers twine from the (from the Bakers Twine Essentials Pack) was coloured with a Dark Cherry Cobbler Blend and tied around the bow, capturing the little tag before being tied into another bow. The whole belly band can be slipped off so the pillowbox can be opened. An Artistry Bloom Adhesive-Backed Sequin was added to the centre of the snowflake.

The third pillowbox also was made from Cherry Cobbler card-stock, but this time the larger label die from the die set was used to cut Basic White card-stock. After the box was formed some White Crinkled Seam Binding ribbon and some Metallic Mesh Ribbon were tied around the box. The label was added with Dimensionals, but the Dimensionals were only added to the top of the label, fixing it to the flap of the box.

A deer was fussy cut from another design in the same pack of DSP and it was added to the label with Mini Dimensionals. A few Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels were added. To open this pillowbox, the bow must be undone. The whole label and the box flap lifts up, but the ribbons stay in place under the label. 

The fourth pillowbox was cut from a different sheet of the same Peaceful Prints DSP pack. When the pillowbox was die cut another die was added to cut two small holes in the flap. Before forming the box the two hole die was used a second time to cut two holes in the lower front panel, ensuring the holes aligned with the ones in the flap. The long thin label die cut labels from Basic White and Crumb Cake card-stocks. "Season's Blessings" (from the Season's Blessings stamp set) was stamped in Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' ink on the white label. The Crumb Cake label was cut in half lengthwise and adhered to the back of the white label. The label was attached to the box flap with Mini Dimensionals.

Some White Crinkled Seam Binding ribbon was threaded through the holes on the lower panel and then through the flap and tied in a bow. Two tiny reindeer were fussy cut out of the same DSP pack and added to the lower panel with Mini Dimensionals. Some Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels were added near the sentiment. To open the box, the ribbon bow is to be untied.

Thank you for visiting Valley Inspirations with Andrea. I really enjoyed creating these little gift boxes with the cute Pretty Pillowbox dies and a couple of different DSP/Speciality papers from the Sale-a-bration Catalogue. Stanmin' Up! products make it so easy to create these cute little pillowboxes.

 

If you are in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of Stampin' Up's 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue and or the new July - December Mini Catalogue then let me know and I will be delighted to send them to you. Also, please don't hesitate to make contact with any other queries about this project or Stampin' Up!. 

There is more Christmas creativity. To continue with the blog hop, click on the "onto the next" graphic to be taken to one of my special friends, Tina Gillespie's blog. I always look forward to checking out Tina's creation as well as everyone else's. 

Hope to see you next week for another AWHT Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. There is so much Christmas inspiration to share and its a great time to start Christmas preparations.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

Andrea XXX

  

It is always a delight to see everyone's creations and the way they use the amazing Stampin' Up! products. I am sure there will be gorgeous Christmas projects on show. Don't miss checking out each blog. 

If at any time you find a broken link and the next blog doesn’t come up or you started part way through, please head to the blog of this week’s host for the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, Tina Gillespie, and she will have the list of all Art With Heart Team members who are participating.

#heartofchristmas

AWHT Colour Creations #10 Cherry Cobbler

Cherry Cobbler with Peaceful Place & Majestic Mountain

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart Team 2021 Colour Creations Blog Hop.

I love Wednesdays when members of the Art with Heart Team join in a blog hop featuring one of Stampin' Up!'s colours. This week we are featuring Cherry Cobbler, a deep red that would have a touch of blue in its make up. It is a great colour and one that is brilliant for Christmas - as is well demonstrated in many of this years Stampin' Up! Christmas products.

There are many ways Cherry Cobbler could be hero-ed and I had a number of ideas, but at the last moment I changed tack. The Colour Inkspiration team are holding a Challenge for paper crafters to create with Basic Black, Basic White and Cherry Cobbler. In seeing the team's projects I was impressed with the drama created by a pop of Cherry Cobbler standing out on black and white. On a different tack I really love the Peaceful Place Speciality Designer Series Paper. This SDSP showcases Basic White and Basic Black with a couple of greys, ie Smoky Slate and Basic Gray together with silver. It is just delightful. So, my cards for this week showcase's one of the designs from the SDSP and just a "pop" of Cherry Cobbler.

As you can see, the cards are a similar, but different. They are a medium sized slimline card, ie 3.5" x 6.5". (Sorry its not in cms but when I first saw this slimline card it was in inches, and given my vintage, I am still comfortable with inches.)  With this size card I was able to cut a 3" strip of the SDSP and then cut it in half. As such, I could make 8 cards from one sheet of this gorgeous paper. At first I was just using the bottom piece of SDSP for a card, but as the first card developed, I was inspired with how I could use the top section of the SDSP.

Both cards started with the same sheet of SDSP, and the 2 pieces were mounted on slightly larger pieces of Silver Foil Speciality pack. The first card front was mounted onto a Smoky Slate card-stock base, while the second card front was mounted to a slightly larger piece of Smoky Slate card-stock that was in turn mounted on to a Thick Basic White card-stock base.

Both cards used die cut trees from the Majestic Mountain dies. The first card used 2 die cut trees, that had been cut from Shimmery White card-stock. These die cut trees were water-coloured with Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' ink and a medium Water Painter - both were lightly coloured but one was lighter than the other. The second card shows 1 water-coloured die cut tree that was more strongly coloured with the Cherry Cobbler ink.

As the SDSP background of the second card initially was sky to the other piece of SDSP, I created a mountain & tree scene with mountains that were die cut in Smoky Slate card-stock. Trees from the Mountain Air stamp set were stamped in Basic Gray ink on Smoky Slate card-stock. The trees were also die cut using the coordinating Majestic Mountains dies. The mountains were adhered directly to the background and the Basic Gray trees were added with Dimensionals.

The die cut trees on both cards were backed with some Vellum card-stock to help disguise the thin strip of Dimensional adhered to the centre trunk of the trees. The focal trees on both cards were decorated with Cherry Cobbler Holiday Rhinestone Basic Jewels. Sentiments from the Heartfelt Wishes stamp set were heat embossed on Vellum using Versamark ink, Silver Stampin' Emboss powder and a Heat Gun. The sentiments were fussy cut and adhered with a mix of Dimensionals and Multipurpose Liquid Glue. The cards still needed a little something so a bow of Gray Granite twine (hmm, I thought is was Smoky Slate) from the Bakers Twine Essentials pack was added with a couple of Glue Dots. To give the twine some sparkle, a little Wink Of Stella was painted over the twine.

The card inners were cut from Basic White card-stock and stamped with trees from the coordinating Mountain Air stamp set in Cherry Cobbler ink. One set of trees was stamped in full strength and the other stamped off first. I ran out of time to make the custom envelopes - that will be tomorrows job.

Thank you for visiting Valley Inspirations with Andrea. I really enjoyed creating these cards with Cherry Cobbler and the neutral background of the Peaceful Place Speciality DSP. As always, I also love playing with a little water-colour. 

If you are in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of Stampin' Up's 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue and or the new July - December Mini Catalogue then let me know and I will be delighted to send them to you. Also, please don't hesitate to make contact with any other queries about this project or Stampin' Up!. 

There is more Cherry Cobbler creativity. To continue with the blog hop, click on the "onto the next" graphic to be taken to a delightful lady, Christine Blain's blog. I am looking forward to checking out Christine's creation as well as everyone else's. 

Hope to see you next week for another AWHT Colour Creations Blog Hop when we will be showcasing Cinnamon Cider. There is always much inspiration to share.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

Andrea XXX

  

It is always a delight to see everyone's creations and the way they use the amazing Stampin' Up! products. I am sure there will be gorgeous Cherry Cobbler projects on show. Don't miss checking out each blog. 

If at any time you find a broken link and the next blog doesn’t come up or you started part way through, please head to the blog of the host for the Colour Creations Blog Hop, Catherine Proctor, and she will have the list of all Art With Heart Team members who are participating.

#colourcreationsbloghop

AWH Heart of Christmas 2021 #5

Christmas with Bright Baubles

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart 2021 Heart of Christmas Blog Hop.

Thanks so much for dropping in.

Tonight's projects include a slim-line card and a Christmas decoration. I started with a concept for a card, but as the creative process evolved, my thought process went through "Hmm, that's not quite right" and "Hmm, that needs to be different" so the card evolved and changed along the way, ending up different from my initial ideas. I'm sure you can relate! This also led to the development of a Christmas decoration.

I started my colour blending the background, using Stampin' Up!'s Blending Brushes. They are brilliant to use and make it easier to attain a delightful ombre effect. The Classic Stampin' ink colours used were: Highland Heather, Fresh Freesia, Balmy Blue, Misty Moonlight and Night of Navy. The background was flicked with White Craft ink using the medium Water Painter. It also needed some shine and shimmer, so I also splattered the background with Wink of Stella. I squeezed it a little first so I would get some larger splatters.

The large, slightly elongated bauble from the Bright Bauble stamp set was stamped on Basic White card-stock in Versamark ink and heat embossed with Silver Emboss Powder and a Heat Gun. The bauble was then coloured with Balmy Blue, Highland Heather, Misty Moonlight Stampin' Blends Combos and of course my trusty Blends Colour Lifter. While you may have heard that the Colour Lifter is important if you slip when colouring or go over the edge and add colour where you don't want it; it is also fantastic to add highlights and to soften edges of colours. It is a must have tool.

The bauble was die cut using the coordinating Delicate Baubles dies. I then decided that I wanted a Silver Foil edge so I fussy cut the bauble, cutting away the white edge and adhered a pre-cut silver bauble outer frame cut from the silver sheet from the gorgeous Silver Foil Speciality pack.

The ombre background competed with the coloured bauble so a layer of Vellum card-stock was added to soften the background. To help to distinguish the bauble a little more, a second layer of Vellum was used to just outline the bauble. The bauble was added with Dimensionals. Some of the Silver Elegant Trim was added to indicate the bauble hanger. The Elegant Trim together with a strip of the Metallic Mesh ribbon was tied in a bow that was adhered with a couple of Glue Dots.

The decorated card front was mounted on a slightly larger piece of Silver Foil. This in turn was mounted onto a Fresh Freesia card-stock base. The words "Merry" & "Christmas" were heat embossed on Fresh Freesia card-stock and trimmed down, then added with Dimensionals. A number of Rhinestone Basic Jewels were added to give a little sparkle.

A piece of Basic White card-stock was stamped and heat embossed with the same bauble from the Bright Baubles stamp set. This was added inside the card. As I created a slim-line card using dimensions from memory I thought I should create a custom made envelope.  A piece of Designer Series Paper from one of the Hostess options in the Annual Catalogue - the Party Play DSP. It is a great deal as you get 48 sheets of 12"x12" DSP with designs coordinating with a number of the stamp sets contained in the catalogue. The second smallest die from the Scalloped Contour dies cut a Basic White card-stock label to be able to write recipient details on the front of the envelope.

Project 2:

One of the concepts I had initially, was to incorporate a die cut detailed bauble from the Delicate Baubles dies. The detailed bauble was cut from Silver Foil, but it wasn't used on the card. I kept looking at the gorgeous die cut bauble and then thought it would make a gorgeous Christmas Decoration. 

I die cut a number of the same bauble design from Basic White card-stock. (I used off cuts from my pack of scraps.) I also die cut a bauble from Balmy Blue card-stock as I had a scrap of it on my desk. Finally I die cut the detailed bauble from the light mauve Silver Foil Speciality pack, die cutting from the back, incase the die design was not exactly symmetrical. 

All the die cuts were adhered together, with Silver Foil on top and the mauve Silver Foil at the bottom, ensuring all die cuts aligned. The Light Fresh Freesia Blend was used to colour all the die cut edges and give the decoration a cohesive finished effect. A piece of Silver Elegant Trim was looped through the top of the bauble with a knot at he end to create the hanger. A strip of the Metallic Mesh ribbon was tied in a bow and adhered (with a couple of Glue Dots) to the top of the bauble.

Thank you for visiting Valley Inspirations with Andrea. I really enjoyed creating this card and the Christmas Decoration using the Bright Baubles bundle. As mentioned previously, I love colour play, so had fun with the blended colour background. I want to make more bauble decorations and thought I could create a number of blended backgrounds, perhaps including the emboss resist technique, and turn them into cards. Then attach a Bauble Decoration to the card front as part of the card design. Giving a Christmas card to a friend would include the gift of a bauble decoration as well.

 

If you are in Australia, don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like your own copy of Stampin' Up's 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue and or the new July - December Mini Catalogue then let me know and I will be delighted to send one to you. Also, please don't hesitate to make contact with any other queries about this project or Stampin' Up!. 

There is more Christmas creativity. To continue with the blog hop, click on the "onto the next" graphic to be taken to a special lady, Kate Morgan's blog. I am looking forward to checking out Kate's creation as well as everyone else's. 

Hope to see you next week for another AWHT Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. There is so much Christmas inspiration to share and Christmas in July is a great time to start Christmas card-making.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

Andrea XXX

  

It is always a delight to see everyone's creations and the way they use the amazing Stampin' Up! products. I am sure there will be gorgeous Christmas projects on show. Don't miss checking out each blog. 

If at any time you find a broken link and the next blog doesn’t come up or you started part way through, please head to the blog of this week’s host for the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, Rachel Woolard, and she will have the list of all Art With Heart Team members who are participating.

#heartofchristmas