This week I wanted to show two different ways you can use Stampin’ Up! kits. Firstly, by making them up exactly as intended as a relaxing and creative way to quickly build up your stash of cards. And secondly, by using elements from the kits as components in your own card designs.
A beach birthday card for my husband
Pretty Peacock is one of those colours that instantly makes me think of the ocean, which made it the perfect colour to use for my surfing husband.
For my main project this week I used elements from the Adventure Awaits Kit to create my husband’s birthday card on a Pretty Peacock slimline card base. His birthday was last Tuesday and he loved the card!
The Adventure Awaits Kit includes some fantastic travel and coastal themed die cuts. The surfboards in the back of the ute were perfect for creating a relaxed beach scene as his car is a ute!
To build the card, I layered two circular seaside scenes from the kit to create the horizon and boardwalk. Then I added the turquoise ute loaded with surfboards, a palm tree for that instant tropical feel, and a few balloons to give the card a celebratory touch.
The bold HAPPY birthday sentiment comes from the Happy Place Stamp Set, coloured in with my Pool Party and Granny Apple Green Stampin’ Blends.
The finished card feels like a little snapshot of the perfect day for Pete: ute packed, boards ready and ocean in view!
The Lots to Love Kit
I also wanted to share three cards I made using the Lots to Love Kit because the designs are so beautiful and are even prettier in real life than they appear in the online photos.
Sometimes it’s nice to just enjoy a kit exactly as it was designed (although I did cut one of the sentiments to make it shorter), and this one is a great reminder that quick cards can still feel really special.
The colour combinations in this kit are not ones I would normally use but they are really gorgeous too, with bright florals paired with soft backgrounds that make the flowers really pop.
Take a look at some more Pretty Peacock inspiration on our Insta Hop!
Our blog hop is now an Instagram hop but the good news is that you don’t need to have an Instagram account to view all of the other projects!
Simply copy any of the Insta handles below into a new search engine window to follow the Instagram hop at any point.
Next in our Hop is Kate @craftwithkate. Be sure to check out her gorgeous project/s.
The full list of this week’s InstaHop is listed below:
Kate @craftwithkate
Helen @apaperparadise
Rachel @rachelpalmieristampin
Kirsty @crafty.littlemiss
Cathy @whatcathymade – you are here!
Thank you for joining me for Week 43 of Colour Creations. We’ll be back next Wednesday when we are showcasing Pumpkin Pie. I hope you can join us then.
This week for Colour Creations we’re celebrating Pretty in Pink and I’ve created a soft floral hello card using hand made masks to create shading for the background layer.
This gorgeous pink 2024-26 InColour is retiring at the end of April so stock up now if you love Pretty In Pink.
The Extraordinary Flora Bundle and the coordinating Extraordinary Flora Washi Tape makes it incredibly easy to create beautifully detailed floral clusters without lots of individual stamping and colouring.
All you need to do is adhere the tape to cardstock, die cut the images using the coordinating dies, and you suddenly have a whole pile of ready-to-use flowers and foliage.
To create the soft background detail, I die cut a few circles from scrap paper using the Stylish Shapes Dies and used them as masks. With a blending brush and Pretty in Pink ink, I gently blended ink through the circular openings to create those soft, dreamy pink circles behind the floral arrangement.
The only stamping on my card is the simple “Hello” sentiment from the Help Me Grow stamp set, sitting in a hand stamped border that I created using the parallel lines stamp in the Extraordinary Flora stamp set.
Take a look at some more Pretty In Pink inspiration on our Insta Hop!
Our blog hop is now an Instagram hop but the good news is that you don’t need to have an Instagram account to view all of the other projects!
Simply copy any of the Insta handles below into a new search engine window to follow the Instagram hop at any point.
Next in our Hop is Helen @apaperparadise. Be sure to check out her gorgeous project/s.
The full list of this week’s InstaHop is listed below:
Helen @apaperparadise
Kirsty @crafty.littlemiss
Kate @craftwithkate
Cathy @whatcathymade – you are here!
Thank you for joining me for Week 42 of Colour Creations. We’ll be back next Wednesday when we are showcasing Pretty Peacock. I hope you can join us then.
This week for Colour Creations we’re celebrating Poppy Parade, and I’ve created a layered garden scene using three brand new Online Exclusives that will be available to order from Tuesday 3 March:
Help Me Grow Bundle
Garden Poetry 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper
Wood Grain Wonders 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper
This all-purpose “hello” card was the perfect excuse to play with these exciting new goodies, as well as a fabulous embossing folder which is currently in the last chance section of the website.
My colour combination of Poppy Parade, Shaded Spruce, Basic White, Early Espresso and Pecan Pie was inspired by the colours in the two Designer Series Papers I used for the card.
The Garden Poetry 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper gives the plant flowers and leaves a soft watercolour effect, so it looks hand coloured without any actual colouring.
I simply used the Help Me Grow dies to die cut the leaves and flowers from the Poppy Parade and Shaded Spruce patterns in the DSP.
The three plant pots from the Help Me Grow dies are cut from the timber patterns in the Wood Grain Wonders DSP, giving them beautiful warmth and realism.
Behind the garden scene, I added a panel embossed with the Pressed Flowers Embossing Folder. It gives the softest, delicate background texture without competing with the focal point. And at $7.70 on the Last Chance list, it’s an absolute steal.
The only stamping on the card is the simple “Hello” sentiment from the Help Me Grow stamp set.
I embellished the garden scene with three Ladybirds from the Ladybug Garden Epoxy Shapes and a few Poppy Parade Dear Dots in the centre of the flowers.
Take a look at some more Poppy Parade inspiration on our Insta Hop!
Our blog hop is now an Instagram hop but the good news is that you don’t need to have an Instagram account to view all of the other projects!
Simply copy any of the Insta handles below into a new search engine window to follow the Instagram hop at any point.
Next in our Hop is Kate @craftwithkate. Be sure to check out her gorgeous project/s.
The full list of this week’s InstaHop is listed below:
Kate @craftwithkate
Helen @apaperparadise
Kirsty @crafty.littlemiss
Rachel @rachelpalmieristampin
Cathy @whatcathymade – you are here!
Thank you for joining me for Week 41 of Colour Creations. We’ll be back next Wednesday when we are showcasing Pretty In Pink. I hope you can join us then.
Week 39 of the Art With Heart Colour Creations InstaHop is all about Petunia Pop and I could not resist going bold and floral to celebrate this gorgeous colour.
This all-purpose card was the perfect excuse to play with two exciting new goodies.
I used the brand new Stampin’ Positioner, a stamping alignment tool designed to make stamping easier and more accurate. It’s free with the current joining offer.
There are so many cool things you can do with the Stampin’ Positioner. You can stamp perfectly aligned images, create repeating backgrounds, stamp Two-Step images with ease, and make multiples in minutes.
It is perfect for background stamps like this one, the Flowers Fair background stamp set, which will be available in the upcoming March Online Exclusives.
This is the first time Stampin’ Up! have released a background stamp in photopolymer, so the Stampin’ Positioner was absolutely the hero tool here for getting a crisp, perfectly placed impression. Top tip: I “seasoned” the stamp with an eraser before stamping to help the ink grip beautifully on the first impression.
To add dimension, I stamped a second image, fussy cut three flowers and popped them up with Stampin’ Dimensionals. I tucked little bows of Linen Thread underneath each flower for a soft, textured finish.
I’ve coloured the stamp with Stampin’ Blends in Petunia Pop, Pretty in Pink and Old Olive. I love this colour combination!
The sentiment is from the January Product of the Month, the Fabulous Sayings stamp set. I deliberately kept the inside blank so this card can work for lots of different occasions.
Take a look at some more Petunia Pop inspiration on our Insta Hop!
Our blog hop is now an Instagram hop but the good news is that you don’t need to have an Instagram account to view all of the other projects!
Simply copy any of the Insta handles below into a new search engine window to follow the Instagram hop at any point.
Next in our Hop is Kate @craftwithkate. Be sure to check out her gorgeous project/s.
The full list of this week’s InstaHop is listed below:
Kate @craftwithkate
Kirsty @crafty.littlemiss
Helen @apaperparadise
Rachel @handstamped_by_rachel
Andrea @andreaksargent
Cathy @whatcathymade – you are here!
Thank you for joining me for Week 39 of Colour Creations. We’ll be back next Wednesday when we are showcasing the ever versatile, Pool Party. I hope you can join us then.
For Week 38 of Colour Creations, we are playing with the beautifully soft and versatile Petal Pink, and this week’s project is a birthday card that I’ve CASED from myself!
The layout is based on a card I made three years ago using the Abigail Rose DSP paired with the Cottage Flowers Dies. It is always interesting to revisit older designs with fresh products and see how they evolve. Same bones, completely new personality. Here’s the original card from three years ago:
This year’s card was created using Very Vanilla card stock, stamped in Black Memento ink with the gorgeous Extraordinary Floral Bundle. I absolutely love how striking black ink looks on Very Vanilla. It feels classic and timeless, and it allows the detailed floral line work to really shine without the need for additional colouring.
To bring in our feature colour, I added Petal Pink Designer Series Paper from the Painterly Pears Designer Series Paper. The subtle Petal Pink pattern works perfectly as a soft backdrop and appears on the side panel of the card as well as on the handmade envelope.
The envelope is made using the same Petal Pink DSP for a coordinated look, and the address label on the front was created with the Modern Oval Punch. I added a hand drawn border and used some of the leftover floral offcuts.
The sentiments on both the front and the inside of the card are from the the Beautiful Butterflies Stamp Set which is a last chance stamp set. The rest of the leftover floral offcuts adorn the inside of the card.
Take a look at some more Petal Pink inspiration on our Insta Hop!
Our blog hop is now an Instagram hop but the good news is that you don’t need to have an Instagram account to view all of the other projects!
Simply copy any of the Insta handles below into a new search engine window to follow the Instagram hop at any point.
Next in our Hop is Kate @craftwithkate. Be sure to check out her gorgeous project/s.
The full list of this week’s InstaHop is listed below:
Kate @craftwithkate
Andrea @andreaksargent
Kirsty @crafty.littlemiss
Helen @apaperparadise
Vicki @vickiboucher
Cathy @whatcathymade – you are here!
Thank you for joining me for Week 38 of Colour Creations. We’ll be back next Wednesday when we are showcasing Petunia Pop. I hope you can join us then.
