Welcome to week twenty eight of our Art With Heart 2022-23 Colour Creations blog hop!
This is a weekly blog hop where we showcase the stunning range of Stampin’ Up! colours in alphabetical order over 12 months and this week we are featuring Melon Mambo from the brights family.
For a variety of reasons, I’m making a lot of cards this month. I need to find ways to speed up my card making, which is why I’ve reached for the Simply Fabulous stamp set this week.
The Simply Fabulous stamp set is quite simply fabulous for fast card making! I also love the fonts in the stamp set and the assortment of flowers and greenery.
I’ve added just one other colour to this card – Granny Apple Green – as it is another bright I knew it would work well with the hot pink of Melon Mambo.
These stamps are supposed to give a solid image, however both my Granny Apple Green and Melon Mambo stamp sets were a bit too juicy which is why my stamping has a slightly mottled effect.
Let’s just pretend it was intentional, not that I didn’t have time to remake my card!!
This card basically is simple stamping, apart from the Stitched Rectangle Die I’ve used to die cut the sentiment. As this is a rectangle, you don’t need a die to cut the sentiment out – you could easily make this card with just two ink pads, one stamp set and paper.
I used the rectangle die to trace the outline of where the sentiment goes with a pencil so I knew where to stamp on the card. Once again, you could simply trace around a rectangle of paper.
As I don’t have the Melon Mambo reinker, the splatters were created by picking up some of the ink from the stamp pad with a water painter and then gently tapping it across the stamped card.
The Sweet Sorbet Adhesive-Backed Seasonal Sequins work perfectly for a touch of bling!
I’m trying to remember to stamp the insides of my cards as I make them, rather than when I need to use them, so I’ve stamped a few flowers and leaves inside as well.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Kate Morgan – I can’t wait to see what Kate has made this week!
If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants below.
Welcome to week nineteen of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop!
My project this week uses a set of dies from the Annual Catalogue that you may well have overlooked – the Cracker and Treat box dies.
This set of dies includes the cracker die, five labels, two tags, and dies for small hearts and stars you can use to embellish your crackers or as confetti or shakers inside a shaker card.
These cracker dies make mini crackers _ they are so adorable! Each cracker when made up and tied at either end with ribbon measures approximately 13 cm long and 3 cm across.
You will get one cracker per 6×6″ sheet of DSP or four crackers per 12×12″ sheet of DSP. I’ve made eight crackers today, using two papers that work well together – the Festive Foils DSP and the Distressed Gold paper.
The labels for my crackers are die cut using Very Vanilla cardstock, stamped with the “Merry Christmas” stamp from the Peaceful Deer stamp set, heat embossed in gold.
Even though cracker is a smaller size than a traditional cracker, it can be used in a multitude of ways!
As is as a small Christmas cracker, filled with maybe a joke and a small chocolate or a sweet.
Adhere two cracker dies together to make a double Christmas cracker that you can fill with larger sweets and treats.
Die cut 24 crackers to make an Advent calendar, using one of the tag dies included in the Cracker & Treat dies to attach a number to each cracker.
As a name place holder for your Christmas day table. Handwrite in a gold pen each person’s name onto the sentiment label instead of stampin the “Merry Christmas” sentiment.
Use crackers as a Christmas decoration for your Christmas tree, mantlepiece or in the middle of your Christmas table.
Of course I had to check what type of chocolates fit into these smaller crackers! I’m pleased to report back that the delicious German Merci chocolates (sold at Aldi stores) fit perfectly, as do tiny candy canes or individually wrapped chocolates such as Fantales, Cadbury Favourites or Roses chocolates.
To fit a Lindt Ball or a Ferrero Rocher chocolate, you’ll need to make a wider cracker using two of the dies together.
To show you how to use these crackers as an advent calendar, I’ve used the Alphabest stamp set to stamp the number 21 on to this cracker on the left in the photo below.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Sharon Davern, who is also the host of our hop!
If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants on Sharon’s blog.
Day 7 of the #30DayChristmasCardMakingChallenge is a “Winter Sunset” card. This card certainly was a challenge for me!
I have to confess that living in Australia I have never seen a winter sunset in the Northern Hemisphere, so perhaps this scene looks more like the Northern Lights?
It was fun to get inky fingers for this challenge using the acrylic block technique with my Gorgeous Grape, Fresh Freesia and Polished Pink ink pads, stamping onto watercolour paper.
I use the largest acrylic block F, swiping it in order from top to bottom with Gorgeous Grape, Fresh Freesia and Polished Pink ink before squirting it with water using my Stampin’ Spritzer. I then gently placed a sheet of watercolour paper over the wet inky block and pressed down.
Once the background had dried, I stamped the trees from the Grassy Grove stamp set and then added my foreground elements, die cut from Basic Black Cardstock using the Grove dies.
A solitary Adhesive Backed star adds a tiny touch of bling and because my sewing machine is out at the moment, I just couldn’t resist adding some machine stitching and hand stitching to my card as well!
The “Magic is in the air” sentiment from the Peaceful deer stamp set was stamped into an offcut of my water coloured background and hand stitched to my card.
I’ll be back tonight with some Heart of Christmas card inspiration, as well as some more cards I’ve created for the 30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge.
Wherever you are in the world, stay safe, stay calm … and keep on crafting xxx
Day 6 of the #30DayChristmasCardMakingChallenge is “Something Green”.
With so many gorgeous greens in the Stampin’ Up! colour range, the hardest part of this challenge was deciding just which green to use!
Eventually I decided to use this design from the beautiful Boughs of Holly DSP because it combines several greens on the one sheet of DSP: Evening Evergreen, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Shaded Spruce and Soft Succulent. Is that cheating or clever?
This paper was also the perfect shortcut to incorporate vergation of colour into my rustic wreath Christmas card without having to do any stamping. In fact this is a no stamping card!
The long branch die from the Decorated Pine dies is just perfect for making a wreath as it cuts 3 pine fronds with each branch that is die cut.
Rustic Wreath Christmas Card
Start by using two of the Layering Circle dies to die cut a hoop from the Boughs of Holly DSP
Mount the hoop to the card with an adhesive foam strip
Die cut branches from Boughs of Holly DSP, snip into smaller pieces and adhere to the wreath
Undo a length of the Silver Threaded Twine to wrap around the hoop and to make a bow
Finish the card with laser-cut embellishment words and shapes from the Santa Express Memories & More Card Pack
I couldn’t resist adding a few Basic Rhinestone Jewels to my card for some extra sparkle.
The 30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge is a global challenge hosted by UK Artisan Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, Martin Stone and the challenge for Day 3 is “Warm & Cosy”.
This theme was the perfect opportunity to use the gorgeous mittens from the Celebrate With Tags bundle.
The Pool Party and Basic White monochrome colour scheme was inspired by the Storybook Gnomes 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper. I loved how this pattern coordinated with the pattern on the mittens.
The zig zag die from the Basic Borders dies cut the DSP strip in half and I adhered it to the top and the bottom of the card.
I couldn’t resist adding a snowflake die cut with the Celebration Tags Dies and a few Basic Rhinestone Jewels to my card for some extra sparkle.
You can catch up on my previous entries for this challenge by clicking on the links below.
