Stampin’ Up! Warm Welcome Side Step Christmas Card

Stampin’ Up! Warm Welcome Side Step Christmas Card

Welcome to week twenty of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop!

My project this week brings together the Warmest Wishes bundle with the Peace to You stamp set and the Framed and Festive stamp set.

I’ve made a simple side step card using all of the colours found in the Celebrate Everything DSP: Basic Black, Crushed Curry, Granny Apple Green, Pacific Point, Polished Pink, Pool Party, Poppy Parade and Shaded Spruce.

Here’s the template I created for my side step card. It gives you two cards per sheet of A4 cardstock.

And here is my card. I was inspired by the cute “stack of presents” stamp from the Warm Welcome stamp set and recreated these presents on the side step part of my card.

I coloured the “stack of presents” stamp in the open doorway using Marvelous Markers and Stampin! Blends to match the colours in the Celebrate Everything DSP.

The presents on the side step part of the card were made with the Celebrate Everything DSP, die cut with:

  • a Stitched Rectangle die – front spotted present
  • the rectangle die that comes in the Warm Welcome dies – middle striped present
  • a square Stylish Shapes die – top pink present

The card folds flat to fit into a standard C6 envelope.

I’ve decorated the flap to match the card with some more of the striped Celebrate Everything DSP.

The sentiment on the front of the card and on the inside is from the “Framed & Festive” stamp set, with some images stamped from the “Warm Welcome” stamp set.

Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Christine Blain. I can’t wait to see what Christine 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.

If you live in Australia, you can find and purchase these products in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with the AWH Colour Creations blog where we will be showcasing Merry Merlot.

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

Cath xx



Stampin Up Melon Mambo Simply Fabulous Card – Week 28 AWH Colour Creations

Stampin Up Melon Mambo Simply Fabulous Card – Week 28 AWH Colour Creations

Welcome to week twenty eight 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 Melon Mambo from the brights family.

For a variety of reasons, I’m making a lot of cards this month. I need to find ways to speed up my card making, which is why I’ve reached for the Simply Fabulous stamp set this week.

The Simply Fabulous stamp set is quite simply fabulous for fast card making! I also love the fonts in the stamp set and the assortment of flowers and greenery.

I’ve added just one other colour to this card – Granny Apple Green – as it is another bright I knew it would work well with the hot pink of Melon Mambo.

These stamps are supposed to give a solid image, however both my Granny Apple Green and Melon Mambo stamp sets were a bit too juicy which is why my stamping has a slightly mottled effect.

Let’s just pretend it was intentional, not that I didn’t have time to remake my card!!

This card basically is simple stamping, apart from the Stitched Rectangle Die I’ve used to die cut the sentiment. As this is a rectangle, you don’t need a die to cut the sentiment out – you could easily make this card with just two ink pads, one stamp set and paper.

I used the rectangle die to trace the outline of where the sentiment goes with a pencil so I knew where to stamp on the card. Once again, you could simply trace around a rectangle of paper.

As I don’t have the Melon Mambo reinker, the splatters were created by picking up some of the ink from the stamp pad with a water painter and then gently tapping it across the stamped card.

The Sweet Sorbet Adhesive-Backed Seasonal Sequins work perfectly for a touch of bling!

I’m trying to remember to stamp the insides of my cards as I make them, rather than when I need to use them, so I’ve stamped a few flowers and leaves inside as well.

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.

Kate Morgan  

Rachel Palmieri

Di Furniss

Christine Blain 

Andrea Sargent  

Tina Gillespie  

Kathryn Ruddick

Theresa Gerrard   

Catherine Proctor  – you are here!  

If you live in Australia, you can find and purchase these products in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

Next Wednesday we will be showcasing one of the Brights, Melon Mambo.

I hope you can join us then.



Five ways to use the Stampin’ Up! Christmas cracker & treat dies

Five ways to use the Stampin’ Up! Christmas cracker & treat dies

Welcome to week nineteen of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop!

My project this week uses a set of dies from the Annual Catalogue that you may well have overlooked – the Cracker and Treat box dies.

This set of dies includes the cracker die, five labels, two tags, and dies for small hearts and stars you can use to embellish your crackers or as confetti or shakers inside a shaker card. 

These cracker dies make mini crackers _ they are so adorable! Each cracker when made up and tied at either end with ribbon measures approximately 13 cm long and 3 cm across.

You will get one cracker per 6×6″ sheet of DSP or four crackers per 12×12″ sheet of DSP. I’ve made eight crackers today, using two papers that work well together – the Festive Foils DSP and the Distressed Gold paper.

The labels for my crackers are die cut using Very Vanilla cardstock, stamped with the “Merry Christmas” stamp from the Peaceful Deer stamp set, heat embossed in gold.

Even though cracker is a smaller size than a traditional cracker, it can be used in a multitude of ways!

  1. As is as a small Christmas cracker, filled with maybe a joke and a small chocolate or a sweet.
  2. Adhere two cracker dies together to make a double Christmas cracker that you can fill with larger sweets and treats.
  3. Die cut 24 crackers to make an Advent calendar, using one of the tag dies included in the Cracker & Treat dies to attach a number to each cracker.
  4. As a name place holder for your Christmas day table. Handwrite in a gold pen each person’s name onto the sentiment label instead of stampin the “Merry Christmas” sentiment.
  5. Use crackers as a Christmas decoration for your Christmas tree, mantlepiece or in the middle of your Christmas table.

Of course I had to check what type of chocolates fit into these smaller crackers! I’m pleased to report back that the delicious German Merci chocolates (sold at Aldi stores) fit perfectly, as do tiny candy canes or individually wrapped chocolates such as Fantales, Cadbury Favourites or Roses chocolates.

To fit a Lindt Ball or a Ferrero Rocher chocolate, you’ll need to make a wider cracker using two of the dies together.

To show you how to use these crackers as an advent calendar, I’ve used the Alphabest stamp set to stamp the number 21 on to this cracker on the left in the photo below.

Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Sharon Davern, who is also the host of our hop!

If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants on Sharon’s blog.

If you live in Australia, you can find and purchase these products in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with the AWH Colour Creations blog where we will be showcasing Melon Mambo.

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

Cath xx



30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge 2022 – Day 7 “Winter Sunset” Christmas card

30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge 2022 – Day 7 “Winter Sunset” Christmas card

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

Cath xx



30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge 2022 – Day 6 “Something Green” Christmas wreath card

30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge 2022 – Day 6 “Something Green” Christmas wreath card

Day 6 of the #30DayChristmasCardMakingChallenge is “Something Green”.

With so many gorgeous greens in the Stampin’ Up! colour range, the hardest part of this challenge was deciding just which green to use!

Eventually I decided to use this design from the beautiful Boughs of Holly DSP because it combines several greens on the one sheet of DSP: Evening Evergreen, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Shaded Spruce and Soft Succulent. Is that cheating or clever?

This paper was also the perfect shortcut to incorporate vergation of colour into my rustic wreath Christmas card without having to do any stamping. In fact this is a no stamping card!

The long branch die from the Decorated Pine dies is just perfect for making a wreath as it cuts 3 pine fronds with each branch that is die cut.

Rustic Wreath Christmas Card

  • Start by using two of the Layering Circle dies to die cut a hoop from the Boughs of Holly DSP
  • Mount the hoop to the card with an adhesive foam strip
  • Die cut branches from Boughs of Holly DSP, snip into smaller pieces and adhere to the wreath
  • Undo a length of the Silver Threaded Twine to wrap around the hoop and to make a bow
  • Finish the card with laser-cut embellishment words and shapes from the Santa Express Memories & More Card Pack

I couldn’t resist adding a few Basic Rhinestone Jewels to my card for some extra sparkle.

If you live in Australia, you can find and purchase these products in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

I’ll be back very soon with some more cards for the 30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge and Heart of Christmas card inspiration!

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

Cath xx



30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge 2022 – Day 3 Celebrate With Tags card

30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge 2022 – Day 3 Celebrate With Tags card

The 30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge is a global challenge hosted by UK Artisan Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, Martin Stone and the challenge for Day 3 is “Warm & Cosy”.

This theme was the perfect opportunity to use the gorgeous mittens from the Celebrate With Tags bundle.

The Pool Party and Basic White monochrome colour scheme was inspired by the Storybook Gnomes 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper. I loved how this pattern coordinated with the pattern on the mittens.

The zig zag die from the Basic Borders dies cut the DSP strip in half and I adhered it to the top and the bottom of the card.

I couldn’t resist adding a snowflake die cut with the Celebration Tags Dies and a few Basic Rhinestone Jewels to my card for some extra sparkle.

You can catch up on my previous entries for this challenge by clicking on the links below.

Day 1 “Something Red” – Framed & Festive Christmas Season Holly Card

Day 2 “In the Snow” – Snowman Magic Bundle card

If you live in Australia, you can find and purchase these products in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

I’ll be back very soon with some more cards for the 30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge and Heart of Christmas card inspiration!

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

Cath xx



30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge 2022 – Day 2 Snowman Magic Bundle card

30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge 2022 – Day 2 Snowman Magic Bundle card

The 30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge is a great opportunity to get all your cards made in time for Christmas!

For the Day 1 “Something Red” challenge I submitted my Framed & Festive Christmas Season Holly Card from Monday’s Heart of Christmas post.

The challenge for Day 2 is “In the Snow”.

I’ve used the adorable The Snowman Magic Bundle for today’s card. It includes the Snowman Magic Stamp Set and the Snowman Dies.

And here’s my little snowman in his wintery scene with his friend the Balmy Blue bird sitting at the top of the tree like a Christmas star!

The background snow effect is created using a layer of the Snowflake 12″ x 12″ Specialty Vellum – this sheet is flocked, while some of the other vellum sheets in the pack are foiled.

The sentiment comes from the Penguin Place Stamp Set – it works so well with the Snowman Magic Stamp Set too.

I couldn’t resist adding a few Basic Rhinestone Jewels to my card for some extra sparkle.

If you live in Australia, you can find and purchase these products in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

I’ll be back very soon with some more cards for the 30 Day Christmas Card Making Challenge and Heart of Christmas card inspiration!

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

Cath xx



Stampin Up Mango Melody Soft Seedlings Card – Week 27 AWH Colour Creations

Stampin Up Mango Melody Soft Seedlings Card – Week 27 AWH Colour Creations

Welcome to week twenty 27 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 Mango Melody from the brights family.

Is this the easiest card I’ve ever made? Well it probably was… that is, until I stuffed up the stamping of the sentiment and had to stamp and die cut another sentiment on a scrap of Basic White cardstock, adhering it over the “mis-stamped” original sentiment!

This card is made with a stamp set I originally overlooked in the June – December catalogue – the Soft Seedlings stamp set. It is a “Distinktive” stamp set, which means it has a special texture that gives added depth and dimension in a single step, creating photo-realistic images.

I’ve paired Mango Melody with Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake and Basic White for my (almost) simple stamping card.

I stamped the Daffodil Delight maple leaves first and then stamped the Mango Melody maple leaves. A length of linen thread was tied around the Basic White layer and tied into a bow, before it was adhered to the Crumb Cake base.

The inside of the card has a couple of Mango Melody maple leaves as well.

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

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

Andrea Sargent

Kate Morgan

Tina Gillespie

Rachel Woollard

Di Furniss

Christine Blain  

Rachel Palmieri

Catherine Proctor – you are here!  

If you live in Australia, you can find and purchase these products in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

Next Wednesday we will be showcasing one of the Brights, Melon Mambo.

I hope you can join us then.



Stampin’ Up! Framed & Festive Christmas Season Holly Card

Stampin’ Up! Framed & Festive Christmas Season Holly Card

Welcome to week eighteen of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop!

From tomorrow, November 1, the Fitting Florets Collection from the upcoming January – June Mini Catalogue will be available to order and it includes two products only available for limited time: the Framed & Festive Stamp Set and the Fitting Florets DSP.

The Framed & Festive stamp set is a really versatile Christmas sentiment stamp set that works with any Christmas products. I’ve paired it with the Christmas Season stamp set and the coordinating Seasonal Labels dies for this week’s Heart of Christmas card.

The Basic White layer has been die cut an angle using the largest of the stitched rectangle dies. This adds visual interest and draws your attention to the bunch of holly berries and leaves.

My traditional red and green colour combination uses Real Red, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake and Basic White. Fine tipped glue has been added to the holly berries to make them shine.

The sentiment has been die cut and framed using the middle two square Stylish Shapes dies. I really like the mix of fonts in the Christmas sentiments in the Framed & Festive stamp set.

Another sentiment from the Framed & Festive stamp set has been used for the inside of the card – I think I will be using this sentiment a lot for my Christmas cards this year.

Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Rachel Woollard – I can’t wait to see what Rachel has created today!

If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants on Sharon‘s blog.

If you live in Australia, you can find and purchase these products in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with the AWH Colour Creations blog where we will be showcasing a Mango Melody.

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

Cath xx



Stampin’ Up! Framed Florets heart embellishments card

Stampin’ Up! Framed Florets heart embellishments card

I love using up offcuts and making my own embellishments, so when I received the brand new Fitting Florets collection I was super excited to see possibilities using the Framed Florets dies!

The “offcuts” from the large oval die (top left die in the picture above) give you a stack of tiny hearts, ideal for embellishing your cards or using in shaker cards – I’ll be sharing a shaker card with you later this week. Today’s card uses these hearts as an embellishment.

I’ve also used a limited time product from the Fitting Florets collection – the Fitting Florets DSP – which I’ve fussy cut and die cut using the Framed Florets die that is designed to die cut these flower sprays in the DSP.

Here’s a close up of the tiny hearts – aren’t they just adorable! I’ve die cut them from Blushing Bride and Polished Pink cardstock to match the flowers in the Fitting Florets DSP. The dark Evening Evergreen cardstock layer is a great colour to make these embellishments pop.

I found the best way to adhere these was to position them on the card front, take a photo for reference, them place a small amount of Multipurpose Glue where each heart goes, using the sticky end of the “Take a Pick” tool to gently place each heart on the glue.

The “for a special person on a special day” sentiment is from the Framed Florets stamp set, stamped in Evening Evergreen and die cut using the Stylish Shapes dies.

If you live in Australia, you can find and purchase these products in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store from tomorrow, November 1!

I’ll be back tonight with the AWH Heart of Christmas blog where we will be sharing some Christmas inspiration.

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

Cath xx



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