Heart of Christmas 2026 - Week 1 - Rejoice Fancy Fold

 

Welcome to week 1 of the Heart of Christmas for 2026. Each week on Monday until the last week of November a group of the Art with Heart team will join together to bring you some Christmas inspiration from the Stampin' Up! Sept-Dec Mini, On Line exclusives or kits and offerings that are available in the On Line store. Make sure you come back each Monday to see who is participating and to see the amazing creations from the team.

Today I have for you a fancy fold that I have been wanting to try and I have as you would expect paired it with the gorgeous Rejoice stamp set in the Sept-Dec mini. I don't know what you call this card fold, I think it is a swing pop up window card but it is super simple to make and so fun so I am glad I finally made one.

For my card today I used a few fun new items and a few that you can still get on the online store as carry over items.

I have used the Everyday Arches dies to give the focal point of the card and to frame the nativity of the coloured and stamped image from the new Rejoice stamp set. The card base is Early Espresso card and I have cut that layer out of the base card and the next smaller layer out with Very Vanilla to stamp the nativity scene and to give it that slight border on the front of the card.

For the very top layer of the card I wanted to give the impression of the Nativity being in the stable so on the gorgeous new Metal Effects Specialty Paper (which is nice and sparkly gold in this piece) I used this little die from the Nature's Symphony Dies and instead of cutting I used the impressions plate and ran it through the Cut 'N' Emboss machine a few times to cover the front piece that I had already cut the arch.

When you open the card the focal point of the card swings through the center of the arch that you have cut out.

On the inside I have a layer Basic Beige card that I have folded in 4 to create the pop up swing of the card. On the far right section I have stamped the Town of Bethlehem and the stars in Early Espresso and left a space for you to write your greating on the other 2 segments I have added a little Yuletide Carols Designer series Paper and on this particular piece the Carol is "The First Noel" which I thought fitted perfectly with the nativity as the Angels told the Shepherds about the birth of Jesus!

From tis angle you can see the pop up of the card and to make sure it pops up just make sure you only adhere your focal point to the right half of the image and that first inside pop up section.

I enjoyed my first attempt at this fun fold I hope you give it a go and I should have tried it a long time ago as it is so easy to make.

Now is the time to head to our next amazing team member who is hoppin along with us today and this week you will be going to the wonderful Cathy Proctor. I can't wait to see her creation. Hit the next blog button and you will head straight there.

If at any time one of the next blog links doesn't go where you were expecting you can come back here and continue your blog hop from the list below of the Art With Heart team participating in week 1 of the Heart of Christmas:

Cathy Proctor
Kate Morgan
Judy May
Sharon Davern <You are here

Thank you so much for spending some Christmas Crafty time with me today, take care,

Heart of Christmas 2025 - Week 13

 

We have come to the last Heart of Christmas blog hop for 2025, I am so glad that you have been on the  journey with us this year.

So for the last project this year I have returned to the stamp set that I started our journey on 13 weeks ago " A Child is Born"

This is such a beautiful Stamp set and I just love how easy it is to colour as well.

So for the base of my card I have used Pecan Pie  and added a layer of Basic Beige which I have embossed with the Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder, I have then embossed 2 layers of Pecan Pie in the Birch Wood 3D embossing folder and cut the out the frames slightly different sizes using the Every Day Arches dies.

I coloured the Nativity scene with water colour pencils and blended them with the wink of stella brush. I first stamped the scene in Early Espresso on Basic White and fussy cut it out. I used a combination of colours for the hay (Daffodil delight and Crushed Curry), the Stall (Early Espresso and Pecan Pie, Mary's Hair (Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight) and Baby Jesus (Night of Navy and Balmy Blue, Joseph I used singular colours on his clothing and hair.

It is a little hard to see the shimmer of the Wink Of Stella but I think you can see it on this one!

The sentiment is heat embossed in gold on some Basic Beige card and I used the Textured Note Des to cut it out and popped it up on some dimensionals and the Gold Foil Star I used the Peace on Earth Dies.

Now is the time to head to the next amazing crafty person on our last Heart of Christmas hop for 2025 and this week you will be going to our wonderful Team leader Claire Daly, hit the next blog button and you will go straight there.

If at any time one of the blog buttons doesn't quite go where you were expecting, please come back here and continue your Week 13 Heart of Christmas journey from the list below of amazing Art With Heart team members:
Claire Daly:
Andrea Sargent:
Kate Morgan:
Catherine Proctor:
Sharon Davern: <= You are here

Thank you for spending some Christmas crafty time with me today and the last few weeks with our Heart of Christmas blog hops.

See you next year for Heart of Christmas 2026, take care,

Heart Of Christmas 2025 - Week12

 

Well it is out penultimate Heart of Christmas blog hop so just 1 more to go for 2025 but don't worry we will be here next year for more Christmas inspiration and we are around each week as a team for our Color Creations Insta Hop so make sure you join us for that on a Wednesday if you haven't already.

Today I have for you a fun fold or fancy fold call it what you like really but it was inspired by Patty Bennett a Stampin' Up demonstrator in the US. She has called it a Triangle Twist Square Card. So I followed her instructions for the fold and base of the card and decorated how I wanted.

So the idea for the card is to use a 12 x 12 piece of the 2 Tone Card stock and then you can make 3 cards from that one sheet so I did!

Really simple to start: Score at 4 and 8 inches then turn a quarter turn and cut at 4 inches and 8 inches so you will end up with 3 strips. Then the 2 end you score on the diagonal.

For each card you will need 3 square of Designer Series Paper and I chose to use the Elegant Pine Snowflake DSP. When the card is folded up it will be a 4x4 inch square so you will need to make all your gorgeous pattern paper pieces smaller than that with the size border that you like.

You will cut the front piece and 1 inside piece on the diagonal and leave one as a square, this s where you can leave a place to write on or maybe do more stamping.

Now how did I create the front of each card.

Even though each card is square I thought I would see what it would look like if there were different shaped focal points. One is from the Branching out Dies, one the Spotlight on Nature Dis and the last is Stylish Shapes Dies. I have stamped each of them with the Branching out stamps. An Ealy Espresso branch, the leaves are Mossy Meadow and using the Rock N Roll Technique I have highlighted them with Pecan Pie which I have also stamped the pine Cones. I have then stamped the dots in versamark and heat embossed in white.

Using the blending brush I have used a very light covering at the bottom of Pretty Peacock then Lost Lagoon at the top. Once I had done this I used a soft cloth to wipe the ink off the embossed dots to help the snow to shine through. To help the pine cones lift I have added some highlights with a white Water Colour Pencil.

Each focal point tile was then layered with gold foil before adhering to the front of the card. As the card opens in half REMEMBER to only adhere to on side of the focal point so your card will open.

To add a little bit more decoration I have used the Branching out dies. A little bit of Mossy Meadow and 

Old Olive for the greenery, Cherry Cobbler and Pool Party for the dotty berry branches and Gold Foil for the pine cones. A bow of Linen Thread to finish it all off.

The Sentiment is from the Traditional Labels Stamp set and i have split the sentiment in half by stamping and embossing one half then doing the other half before cutting them out using the Textured Notes Dies.

I am sorry not to bring you a video of the card opening this week but my creative consultant aka my daughter is enjoying a holiday so I don't have my assistant with me today, but I think you can work out how it opens and closes. I really like how each different shape turned out and I am not sure which one is my favourite, do you have a favourite shape?

Now is the time to head to the next amazing creative person on our Heart of Christmas journey for week 12 and this week you will be heading to the fabulous Andrea Sargent. I can't wait to see what she has for us this week. Hit the next blog button and you will go straight there.

If at any time the next blog button doesn't go where you where expecting please come back here and continue you Heart of Christmas week 12 hop from the list below of the wonderful 

Art with Heart team.
Andrea Sargent:
Kate Morgan:
Claire Daly:
Rachel Woollard:
Catherine Proctor:
Judy May:
Rosa Leyden:
Sharon Davern <= You are here

Thank you for spending some Christmas crafty time with me today, take care,

Heart of Christmas 2025 - Week 11

 

Welcome to the Heart of Christmas 2025 and week 11. We have just 3 weeks left, where did the year go?!

Today I have created for you a Double Floating Tiered Box Card. I found this card design on Iced Images in the UK who got the idea from Sam Calcott.

I had only a little time to put this all together for as my creative consultant as I call my lovely daughter was getting ready for her trip of a lifetime with some friends to South Korea so this card I am letting the fancy fold and the gorgeous Traditions of Christmas Specialty DSP.

For this card I have couldn't go past this gorgeous Traditions of Christmas Specialty DSP is is absolutely beautiful and with this design it shines. For the sentiment in the center of the card I have used Traditional Labels.

For the base of the card I have used Cherry Cobbler Card and layered Pool Party before the Traditions of Christmas. Each box on the side is slightly bigger in length to give that tiered, almost Christmas Tree effect!

On the center of the card I have cut out a layer of Basic White with the Branches out Dies and Gold Heat embossed the sentiment "Christmas" and stamped "Merry" in Cherry Cobbler. This has been adhered straight to the layer of DSP. Using the Christmas Greenery Dies I cut out the floral image from the Traditions of Christmas Specialty DSP and the Pool Party and Old Olive leaves to layer the flowers.

On the back of the card there is room to write.

And to fold the boxes one side and then other boxes in front and you will be able to get the card into a large envelope as this card is a 5x7 inch card. I would need to work out how to get it down to a 6x4 card which I didn't have time to do today.

Now is the time to head to the amazing Kate Morgan as she is the next person on our week 11 Heart of Christmas journey. Hit the next blog button and you will go straight there. I can't wait to see her wonderful creation this week.

If at anytime you have trouble with the next blog button going not quite where you think it should go, please come back here and continue your Heart of Christmas week 11 journey from the list below of those participating this week.
Kate Morgan:
Rosa Leyden:
Cathy Proctor:
Rachel Woollard:
Claire Daly:
Judy May:
Sharon Davern: <= You are here

Thank you for spending some Christmas Crafty time with me today, take care,

Heart of Christmas 2025 - Week 10

 

Welcome to the Heart of Christmas 2025 and week 10. We have the 4 weeks of November left for this year of the Heart of Christmas so make sure you stay with us right up until the end for all your Christmas inspiration.

Today I went back for some embossing folder and die magic for your. I created the same card but used 3 different embossing folders for the background.

Each card I used the same sentiment but their unique colour for that sentiment on the "Merry" when I was stamping using the the Traditional Labels Stamp set. So let's have a closer look at each card.

This card is my Old Olive Card, I have a base of Thick Basic White for all the cards then a coloured card stock layer and the Embossed layer. This embossing forlder is the Christmas Words Hyrbrid Embossing Folder. I have used it on it's own here as the background but you can also use it with the die to cut out the words.

This is my Mossy Meadow Card ad I have used the Peaceful Greenery 3D embossing folder. Both of these cards are what I would say are more the Christmas embossing folders however my 3rd card I decided to use a non Christmas embossing folder.

This is the Cherry Cobbler card and I have used the Soft Waves 3D embossing folder. I would most likely use this if I was doing a water card or a card with a boat but hey I have lived where there have been some pretty big snow drifts that never melted until spring so this is my snowy drift card!

For each card I have decorated the same over each embossing folder. I have die cut out Soft Sea Foam Leaves from the Christmas Greenery Dies and layered those with Mossy Meadow leaves, Cherry Cobbler Berry Branch and Pecan Pie pine cones from the Branching out dies. I accompanied these with the Mossy Meadow Gold Trim which I cut in half.

I love on this example of the Peaceful Greenery 3D embossing folder how the Branching Out Die sits so nicely in the border of the label indent.

Here you will see that the sentiment is stamped in the colour of the card (as it is on all 3) Cherry Cobbler in this case and then Gold Wow heat embossed!

Now is the time to head to the next wonderful Art With Heart Team member and this week it will be the amazing Sue Madex. I love her work so hit the next blog button and you will go straight there.

If at anytime the next blog button doesn't go where you are expecting, please come back here and continue your Heart of Christmas 2025- Week 10 journey from the list below of our team participating today:
Kate Morgan:
Andrea Sargent:
Claire Daly:
Rachel Woollard:
Rosa Leylend:
Sharon Davern: <= You are here
Sue Madex: 
Thank you for spending some Christmas crafty time with me today, take care,