Blackberry Bliss “It’s a Science” Pinwheel Tower Birthday Card

Blackberry Bliss “It’s a Science” Pinwheel Tower Birthday Card

Welcome to week thirteen of our Art With Heart 2023-24 Colour Creations blog hop!

Last week was my dad’s birthday and as I gave him some science books for his birthday it only seemed appropriate to make a science-themed card using the “It’s a Science” stamp set.

I don’t normally buy stamp sets with puns, however the puns in this stamp set are really clever and I love the line art style too. It’s also a really versatile set if you enjoy colouring techniques.

I had originally planned to make a tower flap card, like this one below by US Stampin’ Up! demo, Karen Titus, however the images from the stamp set were too large for the flaps.

So I made a pinwheel tower card instead. It’s a very easy fancy fold to make and fabulous for display. This is what it looks like from above.

And here are the images on each of the four flaps. I’ve used Stampin’ Up! blends to colour the line art images in Blackberry Bliss, Shaded Spruce, Real Red, Blueberry Bushel and Daffodil Delight.

Using the colour lifter on the areas where light would fall gives instant dimension to my beakers. Instead of colouring them to be partially filled with different coloured liquids I’ve coloured them as if they were coloured glass. Dad used to collect blue glass and it gives such a pretty effect.

The microscope is coloured using Copper Clay, with the colour lifter again adding reflection and dimension.

The black and white DSP on the reverse side of the images is from the Zoo Crew 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper. I deliberately left space on this final flap to write a birthday greeting.

This card folds flat for posting, however because it is oversized a handmade envelope was required.

I used the Delightfully Eclectic DSP to make a black and white envelope to match the card. The name label for the front of the card was die cut using the Scalloped Contours Dies, with More Dazzle stars die cut using the Give It a Whirl Dies.

The envelope flap is also adhered using a Scalloped Contours Die, attached with glue dots to make sealing and resealing possible.

I really haven’t showcased Blackberry Bliss as the main colour this week, however hopefully I’ve shown how well it can work with colours from different colour families. I guess that’s why Stampin’ Up! have moved it to the neutrals family now!

Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Di Furniss – I can’t wait to see what Di has made this week!

If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants below.

Di Furniss

Amie McIlroy   

Christina Barnes  

Tina Gillespie

Andrea Sargent

Kate Morgan

Christine Blain

Rachel Woollard

Sharon Davern

Rosa Leyden  

Ros Davidson    

Theresa Gerrard  

Caroline Manwaring

Catherine Proctor – you are here!

Next Wednesday, 2nd August, we’ll be back showcasing Blueberry Bushel.

I hope you can join us then.



Blackberry Bliss New Horizon Cards – Week 9 AWH Colour Creations

Blackberry Bliss New Horizon Cards – Week 9 AWH Colour Creations

Welcome to week nine 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 Blackberry Bliss.

There are some gorgeous products retiring this week on June 30, including the New Horizons Suite. I’m using three products from this suite today: the New Horizons 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper, Horizon Dies and the On the Horizon Stamp Set.

The New Horizons 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper is a wonderful paper for creating scene cards and Blackberry Bliss is one of the many colours in this paper.

Blackberry Bliss looks amazing with Fresh Freesia, so I’ve used these two colours together for my card bases and cardstock layers to create three cards that show how the New Horizons DSP makes it super easy to create cards for all levels of crafting ability.

My simple stamping card for beginners simply uses paper and ink – Blackberry Bliss ink stamped onto the DSP. The “Breathe” sentiment, flock of birds and reed stamps are all from the “On the Horizon” stamp set.

Card two steps it up for intermediate crafters who have a die cutting machine, however the layered sentiment could easily be cut with paper snips or a paper trimmer for crafters who don’t own a die cutting machine.

I’ve uses one of the stitched banner dies from the new Stylish Shapes Dies and curled up the ends to add even more dimension. Once again, all of the stamps are from the “On the Horizon” stamp set.

Card three is for avid crafters, using the Horizon Dies to die cut sections of the New Horizons DSP to create a layered collage mountain scene, with Blackberry Bliss card stock trees.

The sentiment is heat embossed with white emboss powder onto Blackberry Bliss card stock and layered using the Stylish Shapes banner dies. Linen thread is wrapped around the horizon and tied into a single bow.

These cards are all so easy to make because New Horizons DSP really does do all the heavy lifting for you!

Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Tina Gillespie – I can’t wait to see what Tina has made this week!

If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants below.

Tina Gillespie

Rachel Woollard

Sharon Davern  

Amie McIlroy

Rachel Palmieri 

Kate Morgan  

Andrea Sargent

Ros Davidson

Christine Blain

Diane Furniss  

Theresa Gerrard  

Rosa Leyden

Catherine Proctor – you are here!  

If you live in Australia, you can find and purchase these products in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store or by clicking on the images below.

Product List
Horizon Dies
[157778]
$57.00
Heat Tool
[129056]
$53.00

Next Wednesday we will be showcasing one of our subtle Stampin’ Up! colours, Blushing Bride.

Wherever you are in the world, stay safe, stay calm … and keep on crafting xxx

Cath xx



Stampin’ Up! Blackberry Bliss – Week 5 AWH Colour Creations Blog Hop

Stampin’ Up! Blackberry Bliss – Week 5 AWH Colour Creations Blog Hop

Welcome to week 5 of our 2020-21Colour Creations blog hop! We are showcasing Blackberry Bliss, a rich, deep colour from our regal family.

One of the most beautiful suites in the new Stampin’ Up! Annual catalogue is the Pansy Petals suite. I love this suite so much because it reminds me of my Nan and her stunning African Violets.

The Pansy Petals DSP in this suite has the following colour combination: Basic White, Blackberry Bliss, Bumblebee, Calypso Coral, Evening Evergreen, Fresh Freesia, Pale Papaya, Polished Pink, Soft Sea Foam and Soft Succulent. However, because pansies come in so many different colours so you really can use any colours with this suite.

My first card was CASEd from a card I found on Pinterest made by an incredibly talented Stampin’ Up! demonstrator called Gail Ellis. I’ve CASEd her basic layout, the use of two different embossing folders and the shading of the flower petals and the leaves, however I’ve used different colours, a different background embossing folders, a different sentiment and different embellishments.

To achieve the colour shading on the edge of the flower, the flower bud and the leaves, I used sponge daubers, taking the ink directly off my ink pads. The flowers and buds are sponged with Blackberry Bliss and the leaves with Garden Green.

The yellow centre of the pansy flower is die cut from a scrap of Crushed Curry card stock, with the stem and large leaf die cut from Garden Green card stock.

These Pansy dies really are so realistic – they emboss at the same time that they die cut the flower petals, buds and the leaves.

Thank goodness the Pastel Pearls have carried over to the new catalogue – I’ve used the Highland Heather coloured pearls for a touch of bling.

The Pansy Patch stamp set has a wonderful range of sentiments – I love how they mix both italic and Roman text together. I prefer to make most of my cards with either a happy birthday or a thank you sentiment as these are the types of cards I use the most and the Pansy Patch stamp set has both of these sentiments.

Did you notice the handmade envelope made from Pansy Petals DSP? On Stampin’ Up! Sara Douglass’s Facebook live this week she demonstrated how to make this envelope as well as two other sizes.

I slightly adapted the American measurements to fit our metric card size, assuming a card base made with half a A4 piece of cardstock. Tip – the envelope fits better if you trim just 5 mm off the height of the card base.

The back closure is super easy to make. Use the Strawberry Builder punch to punch two flowers out of Blackberry Bliss card stock and attach them to the top and bottom flap with two of the white round brads.

A length of white baker’s twine twisted under the flowers closes the envelope. You could also use any round or flower shaped die or punch if you don’t own the Strawberry Builder punch.

Card two is horizontal and uses the same colours, however it features the dots embossing folder (instead of the greenery embossing folder) for the top layer and it also has an additional flower bud placed under the “happy birthday” sentiment to balance the layout.

Both cards use the Tasteful Textiles embossing folder for the base layer – this embossing folder is my new “go to” replacement for the now retired *sob!* Subtles folder.

Horizontal or vertical? Do you have a favourite?

Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the very talented Rachel Palmieri. I can’t wait to see what she’s made this week!

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

Michele Taylor

Kate Morgan

Sharon Davern

Ros Davidson

Catherine Proctor – you are here!

Rachel Palmieri

Andrea Sargent

Diane Furniss

Tina Gillespie

Theresa Gerrard

Christine Blain

Caroline Manwaring

Rosa Leyden

Vicki Boucher

To purchase any of the products used in my cards today simply click on the images below.

Product List

Art With Heart Colour Creations Showcase: Week 4 Blackberry Bliss

Art With Heart Colour Creations Showcase: Week 4 Blackberry Bliss

Welcome to week 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 4 -Blackberry Bliss

Blackberry Bliss is part of the Regals collection of colours. It is available as A4 Card stock, a Classic Stampin’ Pad and ink refill, Stampin Blends combo pack, Stampin’ Write marker, Regals 6×6 Designer Series Paper, Rainbow Glimmer paper and Gorgeous Posies Card Kit, or you can purchase it within any of the Regals collections.

I have to admit that Blackberry Bliss used to scare me! Don’t get me wrong, I always thought it was a beautiful colour but because it’s so very dark I hardly ever used it. But after water colouring with Blackberry Bliss I’m happy to say I will definitely be using this colour more often!

Here’s my colour combination for this week. I don’t usually work with this many colours but with floral images I’ve found that a variety of colours really helps to replicate the subtle mix of colours found in nature.

And here’s the gorgeous Prized Peony bundle that I used to create my card with its matching 3D flower.

Let’s take a closer look at the peony die set. It includes:

  • dies that cut out the stamped images from the Prized Peony stamp set,
  • a stunning scalloped border die,
  • five dies that layer together to make a 3D peony flower,
  • and another six dies that layer into three different leaves.

The 3D peony flower and leaf dies don’t come with assembly instructions but as I soon discovered if you simply line up the bottom of the 3D flower dies they layer together perfectly. You slot them together in the order I’ve shown in this photo from top to bottom, adhering at the base of the flower. The stamen is the final part of the flower to be added.

I cut enough pieces out for two flowers: one in Rich Razzleberry and one in Blackberry Bliss. I did this because when I mix these two colours you can more clearly see the definition of layers in the peony flower. The leaves were cut from Mossy Meadow and Old Olive card stock. Here’s a close up of the completed peony flower with leaves.

I used this flower to top a Whisper White Mini Pizza box that I filled with chocolates before wrapping it with some of the new Gray Granite 1/4″ (6.4 mm) Shimmer Ribbon (also from the Peony Garden suite). Can you see its subtle silver shimmer?

Gray Granite looks so lovely paired with Blackberry Bliss, so I also used it on my matching card. I embossed my Gray Granite card stock with the new Dainty Diamonds embossing folder and used the long scalloped die from the Peony Dies to trim the top and the bottom of my Gray Granite card stock.

You might think that I coloured my flowers using Rich Razzleberry but it’s actually Blackberry Bliss. After stamping the peony flowers in black Stazon ink onto watercolour paper I used the new water painters and my Blackberry Bliss ink pad to watercolour the flowers.

This “Distinktive” Prized Peony Stamp Set has a special texture that gives added depth and dimension in a single step, creating photo-realistic images that are ideal for water colouring. I water coloured the stamens with Crushed Curry and the leaves with a mixture of Mossy Meadow and Old Olive.

I love water colouring stamped images because it makes me feel like an artist. It also lets me tone down colours I find too intense to work with at full strength. These new Water Painters replace the Aqua Brushes and they really make a wide variety of water colour effects so easy to achieve.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Art With Heart team have created with Blackberry Bliss today.

Just click on the links below to see what they’ve all made.

  1. Kathryn Ruddick
  2. Fiona Bell Ryan
  3. Tina Gillespie
  4. Kate Morgan
  5. Andrea Sargent
  6. Sharon Davern
  7. Vicki Boucher
  8. Michele Taylor
  9. Diane Furniss
  10. Sujatha Harding
  11. Theresa Gerrard
  12. Christine Blain
  13. Rachel Palmieri
  14. Caroline Manwaring
  15. Ros Davidson
  16. Rachel Woollard

Thanks so much for hopping along with the Art With Heart Team on our weekly Colour Creations Showcase. If you missed any of the previous colours you can see them all here.

Next Tuesday we’ll be showcasing one of the subtles: Blushing Bride. We hope you can join us all then.

To purchase any of the products featured in today’s post, simply contact your Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, any of the ladies in the AWH Colour Creations Showcase or click on the product links below.

Product List

If you’d like me to post you your very own copy of 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

Art With Heart Colour Creations Blog Hop: Week 5 Blackberry Bliss

Art With Heart Colour Creations Blog Hop: Week 5 Blackberry Bliss

Welcome to week 5 of the Art With Heart Colour Creations Blog Hop!

This week we are showcasing a returning in colour: Blackberry Bliss.

Blackberry Bliss is such a scrummy rich colour and to showcase this colour I decided to pair it with Rich Razzleberry and Crumb Cake to make a very special card for a very special person…Donna Williams from our Stampin’ Up! home office here in Australia.

So why was I making a card for Donna (aside from the fact she is such a sweetie)…and why have I taken a selfie of both of us?

Well, SOMEBODY went away on their annual crafting weekend with their downline and customer and misread a text message about who was bringing the Bigshot for the weekend.

And then SOMEBODY realised when they arrived at their destination and all the wonderful new Stampin’ Up! products were unpacked that there was not a single Bigshot in the house!

So SOMEBODY put out a call on social media to see if there were any Stampin’ Up! demos who lived nearby who could lend us a Bigshot for the weekend…

…and the lovely Donna Williams came to the rescue!

So when SOMEBODY went to Donna’s place to collect the said Bigshot, they needed to quickly make a card to go with the thank you bunch of flowers…a card that used a punch instead of a Bigshot to cut out the stamped images!

Luckily, SOMEBODY had bought the fantastic new Varied Vases stamp and punch bundle away with them on their crafting weekend!

This beautiful bundle was created to celebrate an American Stampin’ Up! demo called Mary Fish reaching $1 million in Stampin’ up! sales…how cool it that?

Varied Vases is such a great bundle for stampers of all levels…especially stampers who don’t own a Bigshot, or those stampers who do own a Bigshot, but forget to take it away on a craft weekend!!!!!

And just how perfect is that sentiment on the front of the card? Donna really is “simply is the best” for coming to our rescue!

Because Blackberry Bliss is a very dark colour I decided to pair it with lots of clean white space, a touch of Crumb Cake, and the lovely Rich Razzleberry.  The middle vase was stamped with Blackberry Bliss that was stamped off once, which makes it look a lot like Rich Razzleberry.

Kate Morgan shared a top tip for using this set…by stamping the vase outlines first in a light colour at the same time as the flowers (before you later mount the stamped and punched vases over the top) you can perfectly align the images. You can see my lightly stamped vase outlines in the photo below, as well as the little bow of linen thread that adds a final touch of texture to the card.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Art With Heart team have come up with for their Blackberry Bliss projects for this week’s blog hops!

Just click on the links below to see what they’ve all made.

Ros Davidson

Kate Morgan

Tina Gillespie

Diane Furniss

Rachel Palmeri

Rachel Woollard

Caroline Manwaring

Sharon Davern

Catherine Proctor ⇐you are here

Thanks so much for hopping along with the Art With Heart Team on our weekly Colour Creations Blog Hop. 

Next Tuesday we’ll be showcasing a brand new 2018 – 2020 In Colour: Blueberry Bushell.

We hope you can hop along with us all then!

To purchase any of the products featured in today’s post, simply contact any of the ladies in the AWH blog or click on the product links below.

Product List

If you’d like me to post you your very own copy of the 2018-2019 annual catalogue or find out about more about Stampin’ Up! contact me.

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