Welcome to week twenty-six of our 2020-2021 Art With Heart Colour Creations Showcase.
Each week various members of our Art With Heart Colour Creations team will be bringing you weekly colour inspiration as we showcase our range of over 50 beautiful Stampin’ Up! colours in alphabetical order.
Week 26 – Merry Merlot
Hello crafters. This week I’m sharing a Christmas card I’ve made using an entirely neutral colour palette – I really love any combination of neutrals together on a card.
Merry Merlot is our colour for this week and I’ve only used a tiny bit of it on my card because it is a very rich colour. Hopefully I’ve used enough to show you how nicely it pairs with these other neutrals.
If there ever were two bundles just crying out to be used together it’s the Beautiful World bundle on p26 of the annual catalogue and the Peace & Joy bundle on page 18 of the August to December Mini catalogue. I love how Stampin’ Up! co-ordinate their products right through their range.
The “faux embossed” background of my Gray Granite slimline card was easy to make using the globe dies and adhesive sheets. Just remember to attach a sheet to the back of your card stock before you die cut. Next time I make this card I think I’ll add more globes and space them more closely together for even greater impact.
The joy sentiment uses all three joy die cuts from the Peace & Joy bundle. Adding adhesive sheet to the card stock for the thinest joy on the top layer makes it easy to adhere.
Apart from the middle layer of the joy sentiment the other touch of Merry Merlot on the card is the Rhinestone Basic Jewels which I have coloured using my Merry Merlot Stampin’ Write Marker.
The pine fronds were stamped in Mossy Meadow and fussy cut out using my paper snips.
I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Art With Heart team have created with Merry Merlot today. Click on the links below to see what they’ve made.
If you’d like me to post you your very own copy of the August–December 2020 Mini Catalogue, 2020-21 Stampin Up! Annual Catalogue, the 2020-21 Beginners Brochure, or to simply find out about more about Stampin’ Up! contact me.
In the meantime, wherever you are in the world, stay safe, stay calm…and keep on crafting xxx
Welcome to week twenty-five of our 2020-2021 Art With Heart Colour Creations Showcase. I can’t believe we are halfway through our 2020-2021 colour creations showcase!
Each week various members of our Art With Heart Colour Creations team will be bringing you weekly colour inspiration as we showcase our range of over 50 beautiful Stampin’ Up! colours in alphabetical order.
Week 25 – Melon Mambo
Melon Mambo is a colour I love to use for two step stamping and especially for stamping off because it is such a gorgeous pink when stamped off, without any of the orange tones of the other pinks in the Stampin’ Up! colour range.
To show you just how beautiful Melon Mambo looks when stamped off I’m using a brand new stamp set with matching dies from the upcoming January – June 2020 Mini Catalogue: the Art Gallery Bundle, which consists of the Art Gallery stamp set and co-ordinating Floral Gallery Dies.
My favourite green to use with Melon Mambo is Pear Pizzaz so here’s the colour combination I’ve used for my card today.
It looks like I’ve used two different pinks on this card but I’ve actually only used Melon Mambo at full strength and stamped off once. The largest flower is two-step stamping and then I’m stamped the smaller flower twice, once at full strength and once stamped off. There is a another stamp (that I’ve used on the inside of the card) for two step stamping on this flower image as well but I wanted to show the colour of Melon Mambo stamped off very clearly.
The two stems are stamped in Pear Pizzaz, one at full strength and the other one stamped off once.
One of the things I really love about this bundle is the font and the size of the sentiments, the number of different sentiments (there are nine in total) and the two rectangular dies designed to fit all these sentiments. I’ve used “Happy Birthday” and the longer rectangle for my card today.
Inside my card I used another sentiment and roughly inked up another stamp from this set in both Pear Pizazz and Melon Mambo, stamping it off once before stamping inside my card. The final touch is the addition of Melon Mambo at full strength for the second part of the floral stamp, using the stamp that also works for the second step of the smaller flower on the front of the card.
I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Art With Heart team have created with Melon Mambo today. Click on the links below to see what they’ve made.
Next Tuesday we’ll be showcasing one of the Neutrals: Merry Merlot. We hope you can join us all then.
If you’d like me to post you your very own copy of the forthcoming January-June 2021 Mini Catalogue, the August – December 2020 Mini Catalogue, the 2020-21 Stampin Up! Annual Catalogue, the 2020-21 Beginners Brochure, or to simply find out about more about Stampin’ Up! contact me.
In the meantime, wherever you are in the world, stay safe, stay calm…and keep on crafting xxx
Welcome to the Heart of Christmas 2020 where the Art with Heart team share their Christmas inspiration with you on the third Monday of each month.
Today I’m sharing with you an advent calendar that I made for my 4 year old niece – it is the Christmas Countdown kit. Advent calendars are a tradition in our family, in fact last year my boys turned 18 and 21 and it was the first Christmas they didn’t have an advent calendar!
This advent calendar was so easy to make using the Christmas Countdown kit. All I needed was some adhesive because the kit includes the paper for the front of the drawers, the numbers and stickers to personalise each drawer.
The big decision with a refillable advent calendar is what to put inside the drawers. My boys would receive a gold coin and a chocolate coin each day. On Christmas Eve we would go shopping and they would use half their coins to buy a gift for their brother and then we would visit a local street renowned for their Christmas lights where my boys would donate the rest of their coins to a charity.
For my niece I’ve mixed things up a bit. She is just getting into LEGO so I bought a little LEGO set for her and split the pieces between 1/3 of the drawers, filling the other drawers with baubles to hang on her Christmas tree and of course some chocolate coins!
As this will be my niece’s first ever advent calendar and I won’t be there to explain the concept to her I made a matching card and envelope to go with the calendar. I used the left over stickers and paper drawer fronts to decorate my card and envelope.
The tree for the envelope and the card is made by adhering the stickers and paper to some card stock and then punching it out with the tree punch. I’ve also punched out the star from the die cuts included in the kit and used a red bow sticker, also included in the kit.
I don’t want my niece to lose her tiny LEGO pieces so I cut out the front of the LEGO box and stuck it to a mini Paper Pumpkin box. Inside the box I put the LEGO instructions and a ziplock bag to keep everything safe.
Here’s the inside of the card – the “no peeking” sentiment comes from the Itty bitty Christmas stamp set, as does the sentiment on the front of the card.
Once I’d written inside the card and explained the concept of an advent calendar to my niece, I placed the card on top of the mini Paper Pumpkin box and tied them together with the Mossy Meadow diagonal striped ribbon.
I’m so excited to be carrying on this Christmas tradition in our family with this beautiful Christmas advent calendar.
The lovely Judy May is hosting our Heart of Christmas showcase this year. To see the other Christmas creations go back to Judy’s post.
If you’d like me to post you your very own copy of the August – December Mini catalogue (AKA the Holiday Catalogue), the 2020-21 Stampin Up! Annual Catalogue, the 2020-21 Beginners Brochure, or to simply find out about more about Stampin’ Up! contact me.
In the meantime, wherever you are in the world, stay safe, stay calm…and keep on crafting xxx
Click on the photos below to purchase the items to make this Advent Calendar and matching card.
Welcome to the Monthly Art With Heart Creative Showcase. Tonight we’re sharing some ideas for cards that only use five supplies or less – a challenge for many avid crafters.
Luckily we all agreed that paper trimmers, paper snips, acrylic blocks and adhesives were core supplies assumed to be already on hand, which meant we could chose five more supplies in addition to these basics.
Although technically you could argue that an all inclusive card kit could be counted as one supply I did feel that would be cheating for the purposes of this challenge, so after much deliberation I settled on the following five supplies:
Zoo Globe Stamp Set – this set is perfect for colouring and has both sentiments and images
Watercolour Pencils – an affordable and easy way to get a wide range of Stampin’ up! colours
Blender Pen – brings watercolours to life and not as wet or messy on the card stock as water painters
Memento Stamp Pad – versatile black stamp pad for images and sentiments
Whisper White card Stock – an essential and versatile basic for both making the card base and stamping the card layer
I had so much fun playing with the zoo globe stamp set I ended up making three cards to share with you several different techniques you can try even if you only have limited supplies.
TECHNIQUES 1 AND 2: CREATING YOUR OWN DSP AND BLENDING WATERCOLOUR PENCILS WITH BLENDER PENS
All three of my cards today begin with a piece of home made rainbow DSP. I created my rainbow DSP by simply using my watercolour pencils to scribble on my card stock in rainbow order. I could have also created a homemade patterned DSP by stamped images onto the card stock and either coloured them in or left it as black and white but this was much faster.
To blend the colours together I simply coloured over the top of my pencil marks with my blender pen – it’s amazing to watch the pencil lines smooth out with the blender pen. Once I’d finished I rubbed the nip of my blender pen onto some scrap paper until it ran clear. It doesn’t matter if your nib is stained – it’s now ready to use again with any colour.
The photo below shows my homemade DSP with the globe base stamp already stamped onto it, which leads to my next techniques….
TECHNIQUES 3 AND 4 : PAPER PIECING AND FUSSY CUTTING
Once you’ve created your own DSP you can use it in a variety of ways. For card one I’ve stamped the base of the globe onto it before fussy cutting this piece out with my paper snips.
The dome of the globe was stamped directly onto my card base but the balloons, elephant and base of the globe were all coloured in with watercolour pencils and then blended with the blender pen before being fussy cut out and adhered to the card using Stampin’ Dimensionals.
Leaving a white space in the middle of the balloons gives them a real dimension.
The “happy birthday” sentiment was stamped onto scrap piece of Whisper White card stock before being trimmed to size with the paper trimmer and adhered using Stampin’ Dimensionals.
TECHNIQUES 5 AND 6: CREATING A BORDER WITH STAMPS AND THE BLENDER PEN DIRECT TO PENCIL COLOURING TECHNIQUE
For my second card I used a rainbow strip of my homemade DSP and the grass stamp to create a double border for the base of my card.
This time, when colouring my animals I first applied the nib of my marker to the tip of the pencil, lifting the colour off the pencil with my blender pen and then colouring the images with my blender pen.
You can also use your blender pen in this way to lift ink from the lid of your ink pad or ink from an acrylic block – it means your clear blender pen can be used to colour in any coloured pencil or ink that you have.
TECHNIQUE 7: USING HOMEMADE DSP AS BACKGROUND LAYER
I hadn’t originally intended to make a third card but the colours on my remaining section of homemade DSP reminded me of the Australian outback…and I hadn’t used the adorable kangaroo and joey stamp yet!
This time I glued both of the stamped, water coloured and fussy cut images directly onto my home made DSP and added dimension behind the DSP by using Stampin’ Dimensionals to adhere it to the card base.
So what do you think of my 5 ingredient cards?
Simple cards made with few supplies can be really effective…especially if you have a few techniques and tricks up your sleeve that enable you to maximise whatever supplies you have on hand.
To see more Designer Series Paper inspiration from the AWH Team head back to Rachel‘s page as she is hosting our monthly blog hops.
To purchase any of the products I’ve used in my cards tonight simply click on the phots of the products below.
If you’d like me to post you your very own copy of the forthcoming January-June 2021 Mini Catalogue, the August – December 2020 Mini Catalogue, the 2020-21 Stampin Up! Annual Catalogue, the 2020-21 Beginners Brochure, or to simply find out about more about Stampin’ Up! contact me.
Welcome to week twenty-four of our 2020-2021 Art With Heart Colour Creations Showcase.
Each week various members of our Art With Heart Colour Creations team will be bringing you weekly colour inspiration as we showcase our range of over 50 beautiful Stampin’ Up! colours in alphabetical order.
Week 24 – Mango Melody
When I saw this beautiful card on Pinterest – created by Tammy Wilson, a USA Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and member of the Artisan Design Team – it instantly evoked a very special memory for me.
In 2018 I visited New York, Indianapolis and Hawaii with my husband and two sons – it was our first big holiday as a family and the first time all four of us went overseas together. We went to celebrate my 50th birthday and more importantly to finally meet and thank my amazing bone marrow donor Ben and his wife Christy.
This incredible trip was one of the happiest times of my life and now with COVID I’m forever grateful we were able to enjoy this special trip together.
Tammy’s card immediately reminded me of the stunning trees in Central Park, New York and Indianapolis – the soft colour of the sky and the shape of the tree branches is totally different to we have here in Australia. Here’s a few photos I took of this soft winter sky with the silhouettes of the winter trees.
My first card today is a much simpler version of Tammy’s card and it uses slightly different colours. I love these shades of orange and brown together: Mango Melody, Cinnamon Cider, Early Espresso and Whisper White.
To create my background I’ve used a really fun watercolour technique that creates a different look every time.
Spritz a sheet of Fluid 100 Watercolour paper several times with your Stampin’ Spritzer
Tap an acrylic block onto Mango Melody ink pad to cover the surface of the block with the ink
Use your widest water painter to lift Mango Melody ink off your acrylic block and paint it onto the Fluid 100 Watercolour paper
Tap another acrylic block, this time onto your Cinnamon Cider ink pad and then use your widest water painter to paint some Cinnamon Cider ink onto your Fluid 100 Watercolour paper
Spritz the paper again with your Stampin’ Spritzer (watch the inks merge together at the edges) and then dry the ink using your heat tool
Stamp the largest tree stamp in Early Espresso ink, and then stamp the “shadows” stamp in Early Espresso ink underneath the group of trees
Flick the thick end of your Early Espresso Stampin’ Write marker with your finger to create splatters all over the card
My sentiment is also from the Winter Woods stamp set – I used my Early Espresso marker to colour just the “thinking of you” section of the sentiment before stamping and then die cutting the sentiment out with stitched rectangle die to match the larger stitched rectangle die I used to cut the water coloured layer.
I couldn’t resist making one more card with this stamp set because it also is the perfect stamp set for the acrylic block stamping technique. If you’ve never tried this technique please give it a go – it is so easy and so effective.
You simply ink up an acrylic block (I used size C) by tapping it onto your stamp pad, then spritz it with your Stampin’ Spritzer and stamp the acrylic block directly to your paper. This time I used Whisper White but this technique looks great on watercolour paper too.
Once you’ve dried your ink background, stamp the tree stamp over the top in Early Espresso ink. I wanted a small sentiment to fit in the gap between the two tree branches on the far right and the “Hello” sentiment from the Well Said stamp set was the perfect fit.
Both my cards were finished off with a simple bow of linen thread.
I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Art With Heart team have created with Mango Melody today. Click on the links below to see what they’ve made.
If you’d like me to post you your very own copy of the August–December 2020 Mini Catalogue, 2020-21 Stampin Up! Annual Catalogue, the 2020-21 Beginners Brochure, or to simply find out about more about Stampin’ Up! contact me.
In the meantime, wherever you are in the world, stay safe, stay calm…and keep on crafting xxx
