Heart of Christmas 2026 - Week 3 - September Paper Pumpkin Christmas Card Alternatives

 

Welcome to week 3 of the heart of Christmas for 2026. A group of creative friends from the Art with Heart team are back with our Annual Heart of Christmas blog hop. Follow through the blogs each Monday night until the end of November for Christmas card inspiration.

This week for you I have had a little play with the September Paper Pumpkin Kit! As soon as I opened it I thought we could have Christmas alterntive cards with this for sure. I went over to my dear Friends Claire Daly's house for a crafting day and we had a little play with the idea! I loved her cards you might like to check them out on her facebook page. I tell you it was just what the doctor ordered after Birthday and Cake week to have a nice day of crafting with friends. That is the lovely thing about Stampin' Up! the friendships you make while being creative!

Here are the cards if you make them straight from the Paper Pumkin Kit for September.

There are a couple of different sentiments in this kit but as I have a couple of friends going through some tough medical issues right now I thought this sentiment was perfect.

Now for the Christmas variations.

I thought it was time I had a little play with the Hot Foil system and it was a lot of fun.

This first card I kept simple with Hot Foiling the deer on Pecan Pie in Gold with the Evergreen Deer Hot Foil Dies and that little Early Espresso Deer I borrowed the stamp from my friend as I don't have that set yet of the Welcome Noel Stamp Set. Hot Foil again on Cherry Cobbler with the Magical Christmas Hot Foil Dies with a little Linen Thread and your first Christmas alternative.

For this card I have added the rest of the deer that I hot foiled, added a star to one of the trees and another of the sentiments that you get when you cut out all the Magical Christmas sentiments at once.

For my 3rd Christmas card alternative of the September Paper Pumpkin kit, I stamped the large Evergreen Tree from the Evergreen Graceful Deer stamp set in Mossy Meadow and the little dots in the set I heat embossed over the tree before fussy cutting the tree out. Another sentiment and star from the Magical Christmas Hot Foil Dies was also used and I hot foiled another set of deer as well. I was having so much fun with the hot foil I couldn't help myself.

It was fun using the Hot Foil system to create these Christmas Alternatives. Have you thought of some other alternatives with the stamp sets that you have?

Now is the time to head to the amazing Kate Morgan to see what gorgeous creation she has for us today. Hit the next blog button and you will go straight there.

If you get lost at anytime please come back here and you can continue your Heart of Christmas week 3 hop from the list below of those participating this week.
Kate Morgan:
Theresa Gerrard:
Cathy Proctor:
Judy May:
Claire Daly:
Andrea Sargent:
Helen Reeve:
Sharon Davern: You are here

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

Heart of Christmas 2026 - Week 2

Welcome to week 2 of the Heart of Christmas 2026. This week I had to create a quick card as I had a very big birthday cake to create. My daughter was 25 and I had told my children that 25 is the last cake! so this one had to be big!

My card this week I have used the gorgeous Rejoice stamp set like last week and have cone monochromatic for you and a tried and true quick fun fold that never fails.

My card for you is a Z-Fold card and I have used the Everyday Arches to frame the Nativity!

I have chosen to use Night of Navy as my base colour and the DSP is still available and last chance but I love it. So try to get some while you can it is Nature Walk! I have stamped the Nativity in Night of Navy on Basic Beige along with the sentiment and some stars however I have Gold heat embossed the centre star.

On the inside of the card I have also stamped the stars and the town of Bethlehem. A quick, simple but gorgeous card! I do hope you give it a try!

Now is the time to head to Kate Morgan, she had an amazing waterfall card last week so 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 you get lost at anytime on the hop please head to Claire's blog and she will have the list of those participating in our hop this week: Claire's Blog

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

P.S. here are some photos of my daughter's cake which is supposed to be a lantern and we had a murder myster dinner party!

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,