Welcome to week five of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop!
My card this week is brought to you by the stamped and die cut pieces I rejected from my Cherry Cobbler card last week, repurposed this week to make a slimline Christmas card!
I have to confess I bought the Leaves of Holly Bundle (the Leaves of Holly Stamp Set and the Holly Berry Dies) mainly because I love this sentiment die with its holly frame!
I was worried about how to use the holly leaves and berries on a card as they are quite large, so I decided to leave the background layer quite plain, using cardstock instead of DSP and extending the length of the card to a slimline card.
I used the scoring blade on my paper trimmer to score the Shaded Spruce cardstock at 5 mm intervals, creating a clean and modern embossed layer that lets the oversized holly berries and leaves take centre stage.
A length of white bakers twine was wrapped twice around the Shaded Spruce layer before the stamped “Seasons Greetings” sentiment and holly leaves and berries were adhered to the front of the card.
To make an envelope for my 20 x 10 cm slimline card I used the coordinating Boughs of Holly 12″ x 12″ (30.5 x 30.5 cm) Designer Series Paper.
It’s very simple to make a matching envelope for any sized card. All you need is a paper trimmer, tear’n’tape adhesive and some brads and bakers twine for the closing mechanism.
To work out the size of the envelope add 1 cm to the length and the height of the card so it has enough room to easily slide in and out. Then work out how much overlap is needed in the middle of the card to adhere the sides of the envelope together.
Slimline Envelope instructions for a 20×10 slimline card
Using 12×12 DSP, score at 7 cm and 18 cm and then cut at 23 cm
Rotate the DSP once and score at 2.5 cm and 24.5cm
Cut away the 4 corner pieces away
Add a strip of tear’n’tape to the length of the 5 cm side flap
Cut an angle in to both sides the top and the bottom flaps – I eyeball it, but it’s around 1cm at its widest point
Fold the sides in, adhering the 5cm flap over the top of the 7 cm flap.
Add tear’n’tape to the bottom 2.5cm flap and adhere it to form the base of the envelope
Form the closure using two brads and another length of white bakers twine.
For the front of the envelope that gorgeous sentiment die is used as an address label, decorated with holly berries.
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. Sharon Davern is the host of our Heart of Christmas blog hop this year – thank you so much Sharon!!!
Welcome to week twelve 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 Cherry Cobbler.
I love Cherry Cobbler on Christmas cards so I’ve paired it with the FREE (with $90 order) Rings of Love DSP to make a Christmas card for this week.
The gorgeous Rings of Love DSP and other Sale-a-bration products are only available until August 31, or when sold out – the Pool Party & Soft Sea Foam Cards & Envelopes have already sold out.
I’ve used the tree ring pattern from the Rings of Love DSP for my card because the tree rings on this patterned paper can be die cut and embossed using the all-in-one Tree Rings Hybrid Embossing Folder.
I love the realistic texture this Hybrid Embossing Folder gives to the tree rings and I don’t have to stamp a thing!
This is how I lined up the tree ring images on the DSP with the all-in-one Tree Rings Hybrid Embossing Folder. Using a glue dot really helps.
Place glue dot in centre of embossing folder on the side that has the Stampin’ Up! logo.
Place the die cutting side up into embossing folder, pressing the die onto glue dot to adhere.
Turn the embossing folder over so that the cutting side of the die is now facing downwards.
Open the embossing folder slightly to slide the DSP under the die, lining up the tree ring images with the die. Run the embossing folder sandwich through the Stampin’ Up! Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine to die cut and emboss your tree rings.
The Timber embossing folder on the Basic white card stock layer was the perfect match for the embossed tree rings.
I used my light and dark Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and Soft Suede Stampin’ Blends to colour in the twigs, branches and berries, all die cut using the smaller dies from the Tree Rings dies.
The sentiment is from the Christmas to Remember Stamp Set, stamped in Cherry Cobbler and die cut using the Seasonal Labels die.
The Cherry Cobbler pearls come from the Festive Pearls and a linen thread bow completes the card.
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.
Welcome to week four of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop!
One of the FREE Sale-a-bration items you can earn with a $90 spend is this gorgeous Silver & Gold 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper. You receive 24 sheets in the pack, 12 each in 2 patterns (spots and stripes) and 2 colours (silver and gold).
In week 2 of our Heart of Christmas blog hop, the lovely Rosa Leyden made some gorgeous cards using the gold patterns from this DSP and the layering circle dies.
I loved her layout so much that I decided to use the silver patterns from this DSP to create 3 quite different cards that are all inspired by Rosa’s layout. Using a layout that you like as a sketch is a fabulous way to create cards. Thank you so much for the inspiration, Rosa!
The color combination for my cards comes from some of the colours in the Storybook Gnomes DSP – Pool Party, Coastal Cabana and Pacific Point, along with the silver and white of the Silver & Gold DSP.
Card one features the adorable caravan from another Sale-a-bration item, the Tree Lot Dies. The die cut circle of Silver & Gold DSP gives the effect of snow falling behind the caravan.
The reverse side of the Storybook Gnomes DSP has some lovely patterns in greens, aquas and blues – this pattern is my favourite. I’ve used a blending brush to add a touch of Pool Party to soften the edge of this DSP.
Did you realise that the “Season’s Greetings” sentiment from the Penguin Place Stamp Set fits perfectly in the caravan window! How cute is that!
The striped pattern from the Silver & Gold DSP works well with the trees from the Trees For Sale stamp set, making the trees look taller. I die cut these trees and the sentiment using the coordinating Sale-a-bration Tree Lot Dies.
The little silver stars are also from the Tree Lot Dies. I can’t stop using this die set, I love it so much!
The “Season’s Greetings” sentiment from the Penguin Place Stamp Set also fits perfectly in this sign die from the Tree Lot Dies.
Like the first two cards, card three also uses the Silver & Gold DSP and the Pool Party sheer ribbon. I’ve also used the soft snowflake pattern from the Storybook Gnomes DSP.
I’ve used the window “offcut” from a caravan that I die cut for another card for the sentiment on this card and the stars/snowflakes (I’m not sure exactly what they are!) are die cut using the Decorated Pine Dies.
Each star/snowflake has a small Rhinestone Basic Jewel in its centre.
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 on Sharon’s blog. Sharon Davern is the host of our Heart of Christmas blog hop this year – thank you so much Sharon!!!
Welcome to week twelve 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 Calypso Coral.
Unfortunately, I had to make some sympathy cards this week so I reached for the Awash in Beauty suite. I love the soft watercolour flowers in this suite and the sentiments in the True Beauty Stamp Set include “Here for you always” and “with love” – just perfect for a sympathy card.
This large lattice die can be used for masking or as a background die to give an embossed effect as I’ve done on this card.
Just remember to attach an adhesive sheet to the card stock before die cutting – it makes it very easy to position and adhere to the card base.
Would you believe that apart from the sentiment, there is no stamping at all on this card? These gorgeous flowers and leaves are all images from the Awash in Beauty Designer Series Paper, die cut with the coordinating Organic Beauty dies.
I love how Calypso Coral looks when it’s paired with these other colours in a bunch of flowers.
The “Here For You Always” sentiment was stamped in Mossy Meadow onto a 3/4 inch strip of DSP and then cut to the desired length using the Lovely Labels Pick a Punch.
My favourite ribbon from the July-December Mini catalogue is the Gold & Vanilla 3/8″ (1 cm) Satin Edged Ribbon. I’ve cut a length of it in half to create a double bow with the metallic Simply Elegant Trim.
Because this card wasn’t going in the post – it was hand delivered with a bunch of flowers – I used my bone folder and fingers to curl up the edges of all of the flowers, adding a lot of dimension to the card.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Ros Davidson – I can’t wait to see what Ros 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 three of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop!
Tonight I’m using a beautiful stamp set that really does all the work for you when making Christmas cards – the “Peace to You” stamp set.
I love this style of stamp as all you have to do is ink up your stamp, add a sentiment and you’ve made a gorgeous card.
It’s the perfect stamp for mass production, however I would recommend using a Stamparatus to ensure that lovely inky dark sky is evenly stamped up.
I die cut the stamped image out using the 3rd largest stitched rectangle die which adds a slim white border to the stamped layer.
The card base and matching envelope is one of the new Kraft Note Cards and envelopes (page 137 of the Annual Catalogue). These are a great versatile and neutral background layer for any colour!
The “Silent Night, Holy Night” sentiment is die cut with another stitched rectangle die and layered onto a piece of Natural Finish ribbon which I frayed at the ends.
The FREE SALE-a-bration Tree Lot Dies have a die that cuts 3 tiny stars – I’ve used this die to die cut silver foil stars for the tops of the trees. Isn’t the detail in these tiny stars just gorgeous!
I’ve also added a few silver stars to the inside of the card too. The “Peace to you at Christmas” is another sentiment from the “Peace For you” stamp set and it’s a sentiment that is particularly pertinent for the world right now.
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. Sharon Davern is the host of our Heart of Christmas blog hop this year – thank you so much Sharon!!!
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.
Welcome to week eleven 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 Cajun Craze.
As soon as I saw this vintage Combi die cut in the “He’s the Man” designer series paper I knew exactly how I would use it – to tow the caravan from the free SALE-a-bration Tree Lot dies in a slimline slider card!
The colour combination for my Cajun Craze slimline slider card was also inspired by the retro colour combination in the “He’s the Man” designer series paper: Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso, Sahara Sand, Soft Succulent, with the addition of some Evening Evergreen.
The Cajun Craze element of the card is the mountains and the rocks, stamped in both Early Espresso and Cajun Craze onto Cajun Craze card stock. Using the darker mountains stamped in Early Espresso at the front and the lighter mountains at the back gives instant dimension to the card.
The “grass” is made using the tallest Mountain Air tree die, used to die cut Evening Evergreen card stock with branches trimmed from the tree and adhered sideways to become grass. The “rocks” are trimmed tops of the mountains.
Here’s a quick 25 second video that shows you how my slimline slider card works, as well as the inside of my card.
The slot for the slider mechanism is created using the long thin die from Sending Dies. I die cut it twice to make one long channel.
There’s a great arrow die cut in the “He’s the Man” designer series paper that would work well for the end of the pull mechanism, however the negative window piece from the silver die cut caravan inside my card was sturdier and looked very smart, so I used that instead.
The blended background for the card is created with Evening Evergreen and Pool Party ink, applied with blending brushes.
The sentiment is another die cut from the “He’s the Man” designer series paper and the cloud and the little birds are both stamps from the Mountain Air stamp set.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Amie McIlroy – I can’t wait to see what Amie 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 two of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop!
Tonight I have three more cards to share with you that use the FREE (with any order over $90) SALE-a-bration Rings Of Love designer series paper that I also used last week to make a Crumb Cake Caravan card.
Tonight’s cards use different patterns from the Rings Of Love DSP that feature mainly Night of Navy and Mint Macaroon. I love this combination of moody blues and aquas!
As well as the Rings Of Love designer series paper, these three cards all use a new punch bundle that I love for its versatility, affordability and ease of use: the Handmade Wishes Bundle.
The Handmade Wishes Bundle includes the Handmade Wishes Stamp Set and the Handmade Tag Punch and it’s ideal for making both tags and cards for Christmas as well as for other occasions too.
The inspiration for card one came from the bottom left card sample (image above) on page 21 of the July -December mini catalogue.
I loved the look of the Wonderful Snowflakes sitting behind the punched homemade tag shape with the words “love, peace & joy” on top.
I used the handmade tag punch to punch out a tag from Mint Macaron card stock and then used a blending brush to add Night of Navy ink around the edges.
The inside uses more stamps from the Handmade Wishes Stamp Set, stamped in Night of Navy and Mint Macaron.
Card two uses a stunning medallion pattern from the “Rings Of Love” designer series paper, made to look more “Christmasy” with the white heat embossed “Merry Christmas” sentiment that pairs together two of the sentiments from the Handmade Wishes stamp set.
I’ve used some of the smaller stamps for the inside of this card.
Card three uses the DSP with the little houses. This time I white heat embossed the punched out tag as well as the Christmas sentiment.
My cards also feature the new Adhesive-Backed Sequins & Gems! (I used the Coastal Cabana coloured gem), Pool Party Sheer Ribbon, silver Simply Elegant Trim and the Wonderful Snowflakes.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Amie McIlroy – I can’t wait to see what Amie 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. Sharon Davern is the host of our Heart of Christmas blog hop this year – thank you so much Sharon!!!
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.
Welcome to week ten 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 Blushing Bride.
Do you love letterpress as much as I do? Tonight I’m sharing how to create a “faux letterpress” card using a technique that’s super easy to do!
This card on page 56 of the Annual catalogue shows the faux letterpress technique that has inspired my Blushing Bride card.
So how does the faux letterpress technique work?
You’ll need to use a DSP that has a coordinating die that cuts out images from the DSP. I’ve used the largest die in the Cottage Flowers Dies that cuts out floral images on one of the Abigail Rose DSP patterns. How cute does it look already!
Faux Letterpress Technique
With the faux letterpress technique you effectively swap around the normal card “sandwich” of card stock base/card stock middle layer/DSP top layer to this sandwich instead: card stock base/DSP middle layer/card stock top layer.
Instead of using a die to cut images from the coordinating DSP, leave the DSP whole and use it as the middle layer of your card.
Die cut the card stock layer – this will become the top layer of your card.
Carefully line up the die cut openings in the card stock over the top of the corresponding DSP images and adhere the card stock over the DSP.
The die cut openings then reveal the flower pattern on the DSP underneath, creating a “faux letterpress” effect – simply genius!
I die cut Blushing Bride card stock with the largest Cottage Flowers die and carefully positioned it over the top left hand side of the DSP, before trimming the DSP to size.
Before I adhered the die cut cardstock to the DSP I added some extra colour by blending Blushing Bride ink around the die cut area with a blending brush.
Of course, I couldn’t find where I had put my new masking paper – where is that masking paper when you want to use it! – so a few Post It notes did the trick instead.
I then carefully lined up the die cut layer with the DSP and adhered them together. Before I adhered the card front to the Basic Black card base I tied some Basic Black Bakers Twine around the left of the flowers with a single bow.
An extra touch of Blushing Bride was added to the centre of the flowers with a Blushing Bride Stampin’ Write marker.
The “Happy Birthday” sentiment is also from the Cottage Rose Bundle, which includes the Cottage Rose Stamp Set and the Cottage Flowers Dies, stamped in Versamark ink, and white heat embossed.
I stamped a few extra flowers on the inside of the card too and coloured them in with the Blushing Bride Stampin’ Write marker.
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.
Welcome to week one of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop!
That’s right, our Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop is back for another exciting year of Christmas fun and creativity. We will continue to share weekly Christmas creations every Monday at 8pm, finishing up on November 28th.
SALE-a-bration only runs from 1 July – 31 August, so I’m sharing a card tonight that features my absolute favourite SALE-a-bration item, the adorable Tree Lot dies. These dies are free when you purchase $180 or more in a single order and you get 24 dies in the set.
There are so many scenes you can make with the Tree Lot Dies and they also coordinate with a gorgeous new stamp set from the July-December 2022 catalogue, the Trees For Sale Stamp Set.
The colour scheme for my card is quite unusual for a Christmas card, however it was inspired by the tree pattern in the Rings Of Love designer series paper – this is my second favourite SALE-a-bration item!
I loved the idea of a little caravan, parked in the middle of nowhere, celebrating Christmas by stringing up some fairy lights in the forest and adding some sparkly gold stars to one of the trees.
I’ve used the tiny star dies, the wreath die and the bow dies to die cut the sparkly stars in the tree, the wreath on the caravan door and the bows on the poles from the new Glimmer 12″ x 12″ (30.5 x 30.5 cm) Specialty Paper.
Metallics, glimmer paper and foils can be really hard to photograph inside so I took this photo outside to try to better capture all of the the shimmer and sparkle on my card!
The string of lights is stamped in Soft Suede with little gold lights created with the new Festive Pearls (they come in Cherry Cobbler, gold, silver and Soft Succulent).
The caravan base is Crumb Cake card stock with the ribbed metal section of the caravan die cut from gold foil. The curtain is Soft Suede card stock. I just love all these tiny detailed dies!
A couple of extra gold stars decorate the trees I stamped on the inside of my card.
I felt there was more than enough happening on the front of this card, so I didn’t add a sentiment to the front, but I may well change my mind and add one before I post it.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Amie McIlroy – I can’t wait to see what Amie 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. The incredible Sharon Davern will be hosting our Heart of Christmas blog hop this year – thank you so much Sharon!!!
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.
Welcome to Bronwyn’s fourth Birthday Blog hop! You should have come to me from Chantell Randall.
We’re a group of stamping friends who are celebrating Bron’s 60th Birthday in 2022 with six blog hops, over six months, with six fun themes! Tonight we are CASEing the Catty from a page in the sixties (i.e. any card from pages 60-69 in the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalogue 2022-23). I’ve decided to CASE the hedgehog card on page 61 – top right in the photo below.
I loved the way this card combined the Happy Forest Friends DSP with the gorgeous Happy Hedgehogs stamp set. The tree DSP works really well with the hedgehogs and makes them look like they are in the woods.
I’ve made my card 3D by making a fancy fold that I found on YouTube created by an overseas Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, but I’m not sure what this fancy fold is called? It was really fun to make and I altered the measurements to fit our Australian A4 cardstock.
Here’s what it looks like laying flat.
A lot of the elements on this card are images fussy cut from various DSP designs in the Happy Forest Friends DSP. The colour scheme of Calypso Coral and Soft Suede that I used to stamp and colour the hedgehogs and the large mushroom are inspired by the DSP.
My youngest niece just turned 4 last week so I made this card for her birthday, using the Alphabest stamp set and more fussy cut images to personalise the inside of the card.
The Best Label punch (part of the Alphabest bundle) was the perfect size to punch out the “Happy Birthday” sentiment on the front of the card from the Penguin Place stamp set.
Next up on Bronwyn’s Birthday Blog hop is Vicki Arrowsmith. I can’t wait to see what Vicki has created today!
I’ll be back tomorrow with the Heart of Christmas blog hop and then again on Wednesday with the AWH Colour Creations blog hop, where we will be showcasing Blushing Bride.
Until then, wherever you are in the world, stay safe, stay calm … and keep on crafting xxx
