Welcome to week forty eight of our Art With Heart 2022-23 Colour Creations blog hop – only two more weeks to go!
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 Soft Sea Foam, one of the core colours in the Subtles family.
The Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set and it’s matching Sunflower dies are one of my all time favourite stamps and dies and as they are both retiring soon and on special I thought I’d give them a send off by using the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set in my Soft Sea Foam card this week.
I’m not sure what the name of this technique is, but it’s super easy to do with just about any floral stamp set and your Stampin’ Blends. You simply stamp the images in Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto white cardstock and then colour in with your blends.
The space between the images is coloured using the light Soft Sea Foam Stampin’ Blend but it looks like Pool Party in these photos!
The sunflowers are coloured in Daffodil Delight and so Saffron, with Old Olive for the leaves.
I always make sure to stamp images off the sides of the cardstock – it looks a bit funny if you don’t do this.
Once it was all coloured in I attached a strip of Soft Sea Foam sheer ribbon using Tear’n’Tape and adhered a bow of the ribbon (cut in half) using a glue dot.
I stamped and heat embossed in white a sentiment onto Basic black cardstock, fussy cut it using paper snips, and adhered it with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
A few Matte Black Dots (also on special and retiring soon) were the final touch.
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 forty seven of our Art With Heart 2022-23 Colour Creations blog hop – only three more weeks to go!
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 So Saffron, which will soon be retiring from the Subtles family.
I’ve used the Petal Park bundle and the Sentimental Park bundle for my thanks card – all these products are all carrying over to the new 2023-24 Annual Catalogue, however if you want to save 10% on these bundles, you’ll need to order them before May 1st.
First, I stamped the leaf stamp from Sentimental Park in Soft Sea Foam to create a wreath shape off the right hand side of the card stock.
Next, I stamped the petals from Petal Park in Sahara Sand, coloured them in with light and dark So Saffron Stampin’ Blends and Daffodil Delight Stampin’ Blends for the centre of the flowers.
The “Thanks” sentiment was stamped in Versamark ink onto Sahara Sand cardstock, white heat embossed and die cut using a Sentimental Park die.
Once the sentiment and a double bow of linen thread was attached to the stamped wreath, I punched the flowers out with the Petal Park builder punch and adhered them to the wreath as well.
The centre of the flowers were embellished using the Loose Daisy Embellishments – the green leaves on these embellishments were too strong for the soft colours, so I gently twisted the leaves off with my finger before adhering the embellishments to the centre of the flowers.
It has been super hard to photograph this card with the weather we’ve had in Sydney this week, so I do apologise for the quality of the images in today’s blog.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Rachel Palmieri – I can’t wait to see what Rachel has made this week!
If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants below.
Have you seen Stampin’ Up!’s new online specials? You won’t find these products in any catalogue as they are exclusively online.
Today I wanted to share a project with you that used two of these online exclusives – the Classic Letters Stamp Set and one of the kits, the Celebrate Today Magnet Board.
I’ve used both of these products, plus an wide assortment of stamp sets, dies, embellishments and ink to make an alphabet sampler.
At the time of publishing this blog post, all of these Stampin’ Up! products were current, bar one – the owl from the recent SALE-a-bration Adorable Owls stamp set. It was current when I began making this sampler!
I’ve previously made a much larger alphabet sampler using the now retired Playful Alphabet Dies, however you could make it using the Alphabet à la Mode Dies instead.
A larger frame gives you a lot more creative licence with the way you lay out your sampler and the size of stamps and dies you can use, so if you’d like to make this larger alphabet sampler instead, you can read about how I made it here.
This smaller alphabet sampler was more of a challenge to make because I had to fit 26 letters onto a 12 x 12 inch piece of cardstock that could fit into the Celebrate Today Magnet Board Kit frame.
It took a bit of calculating, fiddling and adjusting, but I got there in the end!
Here’s how to make this smaller alphabet sampler.
Alphabet sampler instructions
Start with a frame that is designed to frame a 12 x 12 inch (30.5 x 30.5 cm) piece of cardstock – I used the one from the Celebrate Today Magnet Board and it measures 13 x 13 inches (33 x 33 cm).
You’ll also need a piece of 12 x1 2 inch (30.5 x 30.5 cm) cardstock as the backing layer. I think black is the best colour to make the alphabet squares really pop.
Most importantly, measure the dimensions INSIDE your frame so you can calculate the size of your alphabet squares. For the Celebrate Today Magnet Board the inside dimensions are 11.6 x 11.6 inches (29.5 x 29.5 cm).
Now take a look at your stamp collection and make a list of the stamps you could use for each letter – it’s important to do this at this stage of your project as you’ll need to fit two of your letters on the one square in order to fit your alphabet sampler into this size of frame. So think about one image that could illustrate two letters of the alphabet that sit next to each other.
There are 26 letter in the alphabet – ideally I would have liked to have 6 letters across and 6 down (36 squares in total) for visual interest and to give me more room to play, however it would not have allowed for squares that were large enough to fit in a letter, a word and an image.
The solution? I decided on 5 squares across and 5 squares down (25 squares in total) and this meant I had to place 2 letters on the one alphabet square. I chose “I and J” for Ice and Juice – this allowed me to use the one image from Whiskey Business for both letters.
Each of my Basic White squares measure 5.5 x 5.5 cm – if you are calculating this in inches you could get away with slightly larger 2 1/4 inch squares for ease of measurement and cutting.
Just make sure that the size of your squares allows for enough room to show the backing cardstock – it really makes the alphabet squares pop!
Here’s a closer look at each of the sections of the alphabet sampler.
Top half.
Bottom half.
These classic letters are the perfect size for this sampler and if you look closely you’ll also see I used the greenery flourishes from this stamp set in many of the squares as well.
I used a Stampin’ Write Marker in Basic Black to hand write the words so they were small enough to fit into the squares.
I’m a leftie and my handwriting is so messy – hopefully it adds to the handmade charm of the project!!!
I also used the Basic Black Stampin’ Write marker to add details to some of the squares, including the rain drops on the umbrella square. I didn’t have an umbrella stamp so I fussy cut umbrellas from the “Rain or Shine” DSP and then hand drew the umbrella handles.
Other tips for making this style of sampler?
Stamp the letters in different positions on each square, ensuring they work with the shape and orientation of each image and that they are nicely distributed throughout the sampler.
Once you’ve stamped each letter and the image, make sure you “ground” each image by adding some extra details and context, such as flowers, butterflies, branches, grass or clouds to create a mini scene.
Before you adhere the letter squares to the 12 x 12 cardstock, colour the images, ensuring there is a variety of colour throughout the sampler.
Write the name of each letter image and add then your own doodling to add visual interest, such as the bows on the top of these easter eggs in the nest and the rain drops on the U for umbrella.
Finally, adhere the squares to your background cardstock once it is inside the frame so you can evenly space the squares in the space.
Start with the row across the top and down the left hand side – once these letter squares are in and evenly spaced it makes it so much easier to line up the rest of the squares.
This was such a fun project to make – I wanted to use these stamps and colours before many of them retire at the end of April. You can use whatever you have in your stamp collection.
I’ll be back this Wednesday April 5, with the AWH Colour Creations team to showcase one of the retiring core colours – So Saffron. I hope you can join us then.
Stampin’ Up! have just announced a colour refresh that includes:
15 Core and In Colours retiring
15 new Stampin’ Up! colours – 10 new or returning core colours and In colours, as well as 5 new In Colours
They’ve also announced:
The retiring list from the 2022-23 Annual catalogue
The retiring list from the January – April Mini Catalogue.
Stampin’ Up! demonstrators have been able to view a PDF of the new 2023-24 Annual Catty online – there are so many fabulous new products coming for 2023-24!
Let’s take a closer look at each of these exciting changes!
2023-24 In Colours
Drum roll… are you ready to see the new 2023-24 colours? Aren’t they gorgeous! Do you already have a favourite?
New Core Colours
And here are the new core colours. Some of these colours might be familiar to you as they are returning In Colours: Berry Burst, Blueberry Bushell, Fresh Freesia, Lemon Lime Twist, Lost Lagoon and Pretty Peacock.
The other colours are brand new colours: Azure Afternoon, Bubble Bath, Lemon Lolly and Pecan Pie. Fresh Freesia is a current 2021-23 In Colour that has now been promoted to the core range of colours.
Retiring Colours
Sadly, it’s also time to say goodbye to 15 core colours and 4 of the 5 current In Colours – Fresh Freesia is returning as a core colour.
If you need to stock up on any ink, cardstock, markers or blends in these colours below you’ll need to do it sooner rather than later as they usually sell out before the end of the catalogue period.
Retiring products 2022-23 Annual catalogue & January – April 2023 Mini catalogue
You can order any of these last chance products from the Mini catalogue and the Annual Catalogue right, however the discounts listed do not apply until orders placed from the 4th April onwards.
Remember to start a new order on 4th April.
Sale starts: 4 April at 12:00 a.m. (AEST) and ends: 1 May at 11:59 p.m. (AEST)
Once these products are sold out they will be gone forever!
The new Stampin’ Up! catalog starts May 2, 2023, however, if you’d like to see it and order early during the demonstrator pre-order period, you are welcome to join my team and become a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator now!
Here’s the cover of the new Stampin’ Up! catty – let me know if you’d like me to post you your very own copy!
I’ll be back this Wednesday April 5, with the AWH Colour Creations team to showcase one of the retiring core colours – So Saffron. I hope you can join us then.
Welcome to week forty six of our Art With Heart 2022-23 Colour Creations blog hop – only four more weeks to go!
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 Smoky Slate from the Neutrals family.
Stampin’ Up! have a colour refresh happening and all the demonstrators get to find out the new colours and the retiring this Thursday morning – so exciting. Smoky Slate is part of the neutrals family – I love the versatility of all these neutrals and I don’t want any of them to retire!
I know it’s an obvious choice, however I couldn’t resist using the Elephant Parade bundle for my centre step card tonight. The cuteness factor in these elephants is simply wow!
The cardbase is Smoky Slate cardstock and the gorgeous background DSP on my centre step card is from the Happy Forest Friends Designer Series Paper.
I stamped the three elephants with Memento ink and then coloured them in using Smoky Slate and Flirty Flamingo Stampin Blends. The balloon is coloured in Flirty Flamingo Stampin Blends, the Monstera leaves in Old Olive Stampin Blends and the tree trunk is a stamp from the Sweet Songbirds stamp set, stamped in Basic Gray.
The sentiment is from the Elephant Parade Stamp set, cut using my paper snips.
Where’s the third elephant, I hear you ask? Well, why don’t you take a peek inside the card!
The grass on both the front and the inside of the card is die cut from Old Olive cardstock, using a die in the Elephant Parade dies.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Fiona Ryan – I can’t wait to see what Fiona 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 forty five 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 Shaded Spruce from the Regals family.
Do you love indoor plants? Personally, I would love to have a house filled with indoor plants, however my budget, available time and gardening skills keep my indoor plant collection to a minimum.
Luckily, with Stampin’ Up! l can create paper indoor plants that need no watering!
Would you believe, Stampin’ Up! actually have 5 different products with Monstera plants at the moment? Three online exclusive products – Rhino Ready Dies, Tropical Leaf stamp set and the Tropical Leaf punch – and two catalogue products – the Tropical Hideaway stamp and the Way to Grow Stamp set.
I’ve made two cards today that bring together the three stamp sets with Monstera plants as well as the Tropical Leaf punch.
Shaded Spruce is what I would describe as a rich emerald green colour – with these rich deep colours from the Regals family I like to use them stamped off as well as at full strength.
Card one uses the large background stamp set, Tropical Hideaway, coloured in with Shaded Spruce, Evening Evergreen and Parakeet Party Stampin’ Blends.
The card layers are die cut using the Deckled Rectangles Dies, with the “Way to Grow” sentiment from the Way to Grow Stamp set stamped in Shaded Spruce.
Card two uses Shaded Spruce at full strength and stamped off for my Tropical Leaf monstera leaves – some were punched out with the Tropical leaf punch for added dimension on the front of the card.
This is a shadow box card – so easy to make with a few simple folds, but so effective! It folds flat for postage, but it is designed to pop up and stand alone when opened.
This seven second video shows you the inside and how it stands up for display.
Spare monstera leaves frame the shadow box that reveals a garden centre scene created with stamps from the the Way to Grow stamp set and coloured with Stampin’ Blends.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Rachel Palmieri – I can’t wait to see what Rachel 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 forty four 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 Sahara Sand from the Neutrals family.
Sahara Sand is an extremely versatile neutral that I use all the time, however it is a colour I rarely choose it as the feature colour on a card.
I knew using Designer Series Paper that features Sahara Sand would be a great way to showcase this colour, so I’ve made some origami shirts in two different sizes. These are the three cards I made using the smaller origami shirt.
If you’ve never made these shirts before I urge you to give it a go. Once you have cut your rectangle of DSP to size, here is no die cutting involved – both sizes of origami shirt are made by simply folding the DSP.
I’ve used a combination of the He’s The Man DSP and the Neutrals 6″ x 6″ (15.2 x 15.2 cm) DSP.
Origami DSP Shirt Card Instructions
Start with a rectangle of DSP measuring 4×6 inches for your origami shirt. Make sure you DON’T do what I did in the images below. Your DSP pattern has to be upside down while you’re scoring and folding the shirt, not the right way up, as you flip the front of the origami shirt up at the end.
I made three different origami shirts using the Neutrals 6″ x 6″ (15.2 x 15.2 cm) DSP as the patterns looked liked mens shirts. They were then attached to Stampin’ Up! Notecards with a layer of the He’s The Man DSP.
Coordinating die-cut images from the He’s The Man DSP were used for the sentiments on each card. Brushed Metallic Adhesive-Backed Dots and Enamel Dot Essentials were perfect to use a buttons. The little bow tie is also one of the Coordinating die-cut images from the He’s The Man DSP.
I also made this larger origami shirt that is actually a card and gift holder in one. It uses a 6 x 12 ” piece of DSP and I CASED it from Stampin Savvy, Tammy Beard, following her instructions in a blog and video on her website.
The steps to make the larger origami shirt are basically the same as the smaller origami shirt, however she adds two extra folds at the bottom of the card, allowing it to stand up for display and providing enough room inside the card for a gift card and a handwritten message.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Andrea Sargent – I can’t wait to see what 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 forty three 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 Rich Razzleberry from the Regals family.
Rich Razzleberry is a gorgeous colour that I simply forget to use! When I do remember to use it I wonder why I don’t use it more often!
I love Fresh Freesia and Rich Razzleberry together so this is my colour combination for this week.
My layering mask card is a super fast and easy card that uses the Loveliest Layers Decorative Masks and blending brushes, inspired by cards shared recently by the Stampin’ Up! CEO, Sara Douglass on her Facebook live. You can watch her video and see her cards here.
The colour combination possibilities with these masks are really endless!
One way to line up the layering masks is to use a Stamparatus, placing the cardstock and the masks right into the top corner of the Stamparatus before inking up the layers – this aligns the images perfectly without having to tape them into place.
Once the mask is firmly in place, use a blending brush to lift ink off an ink pad (use a separate blending brush for each colour) and then gently blend the ink over the mask in a circular motion. You can make the level of colour intensity as light or as dark as you like.
The method Sara and I both used involved taping one side of the masks to your grid paper, using strips of Stampin’ up! Masking Tape or washi tape. This method works really well if you are making more than one card front.
The cardstock layers were die cut using the Stitched Rectangle Dies before adhering to a Crumb Cake Card base. The “Hello” sentiment is from the Biggest Wish Stamp Set stamped in Memento ink.
Inside the card I used the “friend” sentiment from the Biggest Wish Stamp Set and added some spare masked pieces I cut to fit.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Rachel Palmieri – I can’t wait to see what Rachel has made this week!
If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants below.
Last Friday my husband, Pete, celebrated his birthday and one of the books I gave him was the Lonely Planet Epic Surf Breaks of the World.
I knew Pete would love adding more surf breaks to his bucket list – as I type this blog he is surfing down the south coast – and I knew I’d love looking at the incredible illustrations by the illustrator, Ross Murray, like this one below.
To make a matching card in a similar graphic style I used the Stampin’ Up! Picturesque stamp set, combined with one of the stamps from the Oceanfront stamp set. Thanks to Laurie Alexander, a USA Stampin’ Up! demonstrator who gave me the idea to combine the two sets.
I chose a vibrant palette of blues and purples, however you can really use any colours with this graphic stamp set.
The colours are so vibrant in this card it was hard to take a good photo that didn’t look overexposed!
This stamp set is photopolymer, which makes it super easy to line up the layers of colour, however, the bottom stamp that I’ve stamped in Starry Sky can easily bend, so I used my grid paper in the Stamparatus to line up the stamp before stamping.
The Stamparatus is a must have for creating this type of landscape as you often have to go back a restamp the larger stamps to ensure saturation of colour and coverage.
Other products used include the large palm die from the Palm Dies, the happy birthday stamp from the new On The Ocean stamp set and some In Colour Starry Sky twine.
The inside of the card has a a palm stamp from the Paradise Palms Stamp Set, with a Highland Heather sun – why not!
I’ll be back this Wednesday March 1, with the AWH Colour Creations team to showcase Rich Razzleberry. I hope you can join us then.
Welcome to week forty two 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 Real Red from the Regals family.
Sometimes you feel like stamping – sometimes you don’t!
This Real Red card does not have any stamping thanks to the Amazing Thanks Dies and the Around The Bend Dies, which include multiple “stand alone” floral dies.
Stand alone floral dies do not die cut stamped images – they die cut and emboss flower and leaf pieces that you can layer or use on their own. The Around the Bend dies give you 20 floral pieces as well as four larger curved border dies.
I have to confess that I don’t use Real Red very often outside of Christmas cards, however, I do love using red and pink together, hence my colour combination today.
This style of card is so easy to make – you can use any large die or shape template. I used a pencil to trace around the outside of the largest of the layering stitched circle dies.
After die cutting an assortment of flowers and leaves I arranged them within the circle shape, making sure the die cut pieces fit together snugly and overlap the circle outline. I always take a photo at this stage to use as a reference before I remove all the die cuts and then glue them back into the circle shape.
Once I’d adhered all of the die cut shapes I used the circle die to cut the floral circle out and adhere to my card base, adding red Rhinestone jewels. There’s no need to rub out the pencil marks as the layering circle die cuts the flowers INSIDE the pencil circle outline.
Did you notice the embossed background on this card? Today, Stampin ‘Up! has released online exclusive products and this embossing folder is part of a three pack called Basic 3D embossing folders.
I’ve die stacked the “Thanks” die by cutting it out three times in Basic Black cardstock, gluing the three layers together and then adhering it to the “Thanks” die layer die cut in Basic White. You can see the incredible dimension from the side of the card.
I decided to leave the inside of the card blank, just using up some spare die cuts to decorate it. This truly is a no stamping card!
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Rachel Palmieri – I can’t wait to see what Rachel has made this week!
If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants below.
