Welcome to week twenty-two of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop, our last one for this year!
This week’s Christmas card was created primarily for this hop, but also for a colour challenge that used colours I would not naturally chose to use for Christmas – Cajun Craze, Petal Pink and Early Espresso.
I decided that the pinecones from the Christmas Season stamp set would work well for this very unusual Christmas colour scheme.
I was originally using the Joseph’s coat technique, however, once I added the top layer of Early Espresso ink I realised I’d spaced my pinecones from Christmas Season too far apart to use the cardstock layer I’d created with this technique, so I decided to use the Seasonal Label dies to die cut out the pinecones and turn them into a Christmas ornament instead.
The ombre effect on the background layer was created using a blending brush to add Petal Pink ink, then it was embossed with one of the Wintery embossing folders.
Gold holly leaves, Simply Elegant Gold twine and Champagne Rhinestone Jewels all add a touch of sparkle and elegance – I think they work well with this colour scheme.
The double bow uses both Early Espresso Faux Suede Trim and Simply Elegant Gold twine.
The sentiment is one I use a lot and it’s from the Christmas to Remember stamp set, stamped in Cajun Craze and die cut with the matching die from Seasonal Labels.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Sharon Davern who has hosted our Heart of Christmas blog hops this year. Thank you so much Sharon!!!!
If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants on Sharon’s blog.
Welcome to week twenty-one of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop!
Oh my goodness, I love it when different products are designed to coordinate together!
Did you know that two of the stamps in the Christmas To Remember Stamp Set fit perfectly into the Stylish Shapes Dies, which in turn, fit into the centre of the circles and squares on this design in the Lights Aglow DSP?
I made four cards from this one sheet of DSP, deliberately keeping my colour scheme very monochromatic by only using Cherry Cobbler and gold.
In the photo above, Cherry Cobbler looks very pink, but in the photo below, it looks more like a rich red. Either way, this is a stunning colour.
Can you see the gorgeous shimmer of the Lights Aglow DSP? These two cards use another pattern from the Lights Aglow DSP – the small gold foiled star pattern for the background layer.
These next two cards use the foiled festive garland design from the Lights Aglow DSP as their background. I love the classic colours and elegance of this DSP!
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Sharon Davern. I can’t wait to see what Sharon has made this week.
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
Welcome to week eighteen 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 Early Espresso, the darkest of our neutrals family.
Early Espresso is such a dark colour I normally only use a little of it to make trees, wood and branches, however, for this card I decided to totally embrace this deep rich brown colour, using it with the darkest of the Brushed Metallic Cardstock to create a plethora of pine cones for my monochromatic card.
I seem to be permanently on a default button that is set to using Basic White and I always forget to use Very Vanilla, but not this week!
This card was super quick to make because the Early Espresso layer and the Brushed Metallic Cardstock layer are each cut using these two enormous dies in the Christmas Pinecones dies.
The Early Espresso faux suede trim is threaded through a Seasonal Label Dies stamped with the “Merry Christmas” sentiment from Christmas to Remember Stamp Set and embellished with a Natural Woven Ribbon bow.
Although it doesn’t say it on the Stampin’ Up! website, this ribbon is actually Very Vanilla.
With all the foil and the dark colours this was a super hard card to photograph, however, if you look closely you can see the Very Vanilla Classic Matte Dots that finish my Early Espresso card off.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Michele Taylor – I can’t wait to see what Michele has made this week!
If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants below.
Hello crafters! Welcome to Week 20 of our AWH Heart of Christmas blog hop.
This week I’m using a stunning new product, the limited release Ever Eden Cotton Paper. This soft, delicate tissue-like paper offers a unique way to add dimension and visual interest to any paper project, can be used to wrap gifts, or it can be die cut, ripped, wrinkled or folded.
And it’s also the perfect thickness to create your own Christmas crackers!
The Ever Eden Cotton Paper comes in two colours: Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen. For my Evening Evergreen Christmas Crackers I tied each end with the Soft Succulent Open Weave Ribbon and for the Soft Succulent Christmas Crackers I used the Evening Evergreen Open Weave Ribbon.
These crackers are super easy to make. You can use the cardboard roll from wrapping paper, loo rolls or make your own inner tube from Crumb Cake or Basic White card stock. Each cracker is wrapped with half a sheet of Ever Eden Cotton Paper, attached to the inner tube with Tear and Tape.
Don’t forget to fill your cracker with a snap, a sweet, a joke or a treat before tying the ends with the ribbon. If you forget, you can gently untie one end and insert these things later.
The label on the Soft Succulent “Tis the season” cracker is die cut with the Tailor Made Tag dies and has a second tag cut from this gorgeous Painted Christmas DSP. The sparkly Ever Evergreen In Colour Jewels decorate both crackers.
After I made all my crackers I realised I could have used the Garden Gems from the Eden’s Garden Collection! The label on the Evening Evergreen cracker has the “Merry Christmas” sentiment from the Christmas to Remember stamp set, die cut using one of the label dies from the Seasonal Label dies – I though the shape of this long narrow die perfectly suited the shape of the cracker.
A pinecone stamped in Crumb Cake and Early Espresso was cut in half and adhered under the long die at each end of the cracker.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Rachel Woollard. I can’t wait to see what she shares with us today!
If at any time you find a broken link please head to the blog of this week’s host of The Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop, Tina Gillespie, and she will have the list of all those participating.
If you live in Australia, you can find and purchase all these products in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store or by clicking on the images below.
Hello crafters! This week I’ve made a Christmas Bauble card using the two stamp sets from the Painted Christmas Suite Collection: Christmas Season (a stamp set with images) and Christmas to Remember (a sentiment stamp set).
To create the bauble shape I used the largest of the layering circle dies as a guide to draw a pencil circle outline to stamp within.
Then I stamped the leaves and berries in a traditional Christmas colour scheme – Shaded Spruce, Granny Apple Green and Real Red – before using the same large layering circle die to cut out my bauble.The Basic White card base has a layer of Real Red cardstock, topped with another layer of Basic White cardstock, embossed with the Merry Melody Embossing folder.The “Merry Christmas” sentiment is stamped in Versamark ink onto Basic Black cardstock before heat embossing with white embossing powder.
Some Cherry Cobbler and Shaded Spruce jewels from the Holiday Rhinestone Basic Jewels add sparkle to my Christmas bauble, as well as Wink of Stella applied to the berries.
To “hang” my bauble onto the card I’ve made a hanging loop and a bow of the Real Red Sheer Ribbon. I’ve cut the ribbon ties in half to add extra interest to my card.
The inside has been stamped to match the font of the card, with another lovely sentiment from the Christmas to Remember stamp set.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Sharon Davern. I can’t wait to see what Sharon shares with us today!
If at any time you find a broken link please head to the blog of this week’s host of The Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop, Sharon Davern, and she will have the list of all those participating.
Thanks for visiting my site. I’ll be back with another card on Wednesday.
In the meantime, wherever you are in the world, stay safe, stay calm … and keep on crafting xxx
Welcome to week 16 of our 2021-22 Colour Creations blog hop! Tonight we are showcasing Early Espresso, a rich, dark brown from the Neutrals colour collection.
Our talented Art With Heart team leader, Claire Daly, recently shared some cards she made using a 6×6 One Sheet Wonder template and the stunning Painted Christmas DSP. Her cards were so beautiful, easy to make several at once and simply perfect for showcasing DSP patterns … I just had to have a try at making my own 6×6 One sheet wonder cards too.
I’ve used this pretty pinecone pattern for my One Sheet Wonder cards – it’s my favourite design from the Painted Christmas DSP and it combines Early Espresso with Crumb Cake, Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen and Basic White.
My 6×6 One Sheet Wonder is quite different to Claire’s design – in fact, mine is so simple I’m not sure it actually qualifies as a One Sheet Wonder! You simply trim 0.5cm off one side of the 6×6 inch square, turn the paper once and cut into three 2 inch strips.
You will now have three strips of DSP that measure 5.5 x 2 inches and an extra strip that measures 0.5 x 6 inches. I discarded the long skinny strip and created 3 different card layouts using the 5.5 x 2 inch strips.
For card one I laid the strip of DSP across the top of the card and placed the sentiment in the middle of the card. The sentiments are all from the Christmas To Remember stamp set, stamped in Early Espresso and die cut out with the Seasonal Label dies.
Card two is also a horizontal card with the strip of DSP on the top, however it uses a different sentiment, placed on the right side of the card instead of the centre.
Card three has the DSP across the middle of the card, with a longer more narrow “Merry Christmas” sentiment attached in the middle of the DSP.
For all three cards I die cut the same label in Early Espresso, cut it in half and used it to layer under the sentiments.
The pinecones are stamped with stamps from the Christmas Season Stamp set, stamped in colours to coordinate with the DSP. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I also added some Be Dazzling DSP to my cards. This FREE SALE-a-bration paper is only available until the end of September, so don’t miss out!
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, my friend Kate Morgan – 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 the full list of participants below:
When I was a child my mum had a box of vintage Christmas cards that I used to love looking at and tonight I’ve combined a few different stamp and die sets to try to recreate this vintage vibe.
This style of card making is a lot of fun but also a little bit risky as I really have no idea what my final card will look like. I gradually add and remove different elements to build up the scene as I go.
I originally intended to use the Christmas Season bundle but the scale just didn’t work with the little bird from the Birds & Branches stamps. So these are the stamp and die sets I’ve used instead.
Sparkle of the Season bundle
Birds & Branches stamp set
Christmas to Remember
Birds & More dies
The shading on the card base is created with a blending brush and Bermuda Bay ink pad. Add ink to your blending brush and then start in the middle of the card and swirl outwards, gradually building up the colour.
The speckled effect is easy to create. Once you’ve finished blending your background use the inner tube of a Stampin’ Spritzer to gently tap to drop water onto the blended background.
The bird was stamped in Pale Papaya and Poppy Parade, the pine needles in Just Jade and the pinecones in Cinnamon Cider. The branch was stamped in Cinnamon Cider and also die cut from Cinnamon Cider cardstock, trimmed to fit my card.
I die cut a wreath and holly leaves in Just Jade cardstock and then cut them up randomly to add texture and dimension to the card. The holly berries are die cut in Poppy Parade cardstock.
A touch of Wink of Stella adds subtle sparkle and shimmer to the little bird.
The Christmas to Remember sentiment stamp set has a lovely mix of fonts. I used two different stamps to mix up the fonts for my Merry Christmas Sentiment.
A bow of linen thread was the final touch.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the incredible talented Tina Gillespie. I wait to see what Tina shares with us today!
If at any time you find a broken link, please head to the blog of this week’s Host of the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, Tina Gillespie, and she will have the list of all who are participating.
You can purchase any of the products I’ve used tonight here.
Thanks for visiting my site. I’ll be back with another card on Wednesday.
In the meantime, wherever you are in the world, stay safe, stay calm … and keep on crafting xxx
