Week 4 - Heart of Christmas

 

I am loving our Heart of Christmas Blog hops this year and I hope you are too and getting lots of inspiration for your Christmas cards already. We are at week 4 and there are lots more to come.

Last week I fell in love with the "Angels of Peace" stamp set giving you a sneak peak at the new stamp set from the July -Dec Mini catalogue which will go live on August 3rd.and I have used it again this week and I am using another fancy fold just because I think this one also lends itself to this stamp set and I couldn't help myself!

This card is a side step card with the 2 panels so that the Angels are highlighted. I love that the Angels are oriented this way to make a card like this just so easy to make.

For this card I have chosen to use the Painted Christmas DSP from the new mini which has the gorgeous colours of Pear Pizzazz, Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen as part of the colours and those are the ones I have chosen to use.

I have used the Evening Evergreen as my card base and the Soft Succulent as the first layer of matting before using the holly layer of Pear Pizzazz Painted Christmas DSP. I have stamped the Angels in Basic Gray on Basic White and coloured them with the Stampin' Blends so I have added another green with the Mint Macaron in the dresses of the angels. Pale Papaya wings, So Saffron hair Polished Pink flowers and Evening Evergreen holly. The Sentiment on I have stamped in Basic Gray and punched out using the Label Me Fancy punch then I cut down the edges, I punched out 2 in Evening Evergreen and cut one in half and trimmed it so that only the curved edged showed so I could just have them come out around the edges. and popped it up on dimensionals like I have with the larger angel.

Don't forget to add a little star stamping and sentiment to the inside of your card.

Hope you have enjoyed this weeks design and use of the side step card for the Angels of Peace. If you have any questions at all about this card or you would like to get the July-December mini in your hands please do not hesitate to contact me.

Now is the time to head to the next blog on our Christmas trip this week and the next person today is Claire Daly. Last week Claire bought us a set of gorgeous quick cards to make, I can't wait to see what she has for us this week so click on the button below and head there now!

If at any time there is a technical issue and one of the links are broken, (it does happen some times) please head over to this weeks host Tina Gillespie and she will have the list of all the participants and you will be able to continue the hop there. Tina's blog

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

Week 8 - Colour Creations Blog Hop - Cajun Craze

 

Today we are looking at the often misunderstood colour of Cajun Craze! I don't think it is a very loved colour but when I think of Cajun I think of spices to make up the Cajun rub to go on chicken which includes paprika, garlic, cayenne pepper, thyme, oregano, red pepper flakes, onion powder, salt and black pepper. So you can see where this Burnt orangey red  colour Cajun Craze get's its name. Ok Now I am hungry for some spicy chicken!

So I have 2 cards for you today. I made them at the same time because I made the card base at the same time.

I have used one of my all time favourites from the new Annual Catalogue and then I have a sneak peak at a Sale-A-Bration stamp for you starting in August.

Well how did I make the card backgrounds that the flowers both sit on.

I started with some Very Vanilla card in the size that I wanted and with the word stamp from the "Quiet Meadow" stamp set I used Gray Granite ink and first stamped on the  image that I have masked then on the other one. So it was a stamped off and a little lighter. I just used copy paper and tory it into that shape for my masking over the very vanilla card stock. Now I had 2 backgrounds to make my 2 very different cards and I only had to ink my stamp once, stamp twice and then move it down the page.  2 Birds 1 Stone! (Ok now I am back to thinking about mind craft and building things so if you are playing along at home, I was allowed to build things not just dig I built an under ground bunker house and a swing above ground, I am progressing but  still haven't been for my walk) LoL!

So for my first card I really wanted to use this gorgeous Dahlia from the Delicate Dahlias stamp set that is in the upcoming Sale-a-bration brochure. You are not going to want to miss out on this one. I stamped it full strength in Cajun Craze over my stamped off gray granite words then with the mossy meadow I stamped full strength then stamped again the leaves.

Along the edge and just under the popped up layer of the Delicate Dahlia, I have cut out with the Meadow Dies in Cajun Craze and in a sneak peak from the New July-Dec Mini going live on August 3rd the Matt Silver Foil just to give a little more dimension to the card.

The sentiment is from the Delicate Dahlia's stamp set, "You Inspire me" how perfect is that. I love that so much and I know a few people who I could send this card to already! I have stamped it in Gray Granite and cut it out with the Meadow dies and popped it on another Cajun Craze layer cut out with the Meadow Dies.

Now for the second card that we have started with the base from earlier I went a different direction I went for the Daisy Wishes Dies.

I had the sentiment already as I had made 2 but this time I thought I wanted a wispy looking flower and the daisy was perfect in the dies. So out they came I cut a couple in Cajun Craze and one in Bumblebee and of course the stem and leaves are in Mossy Meadow. All you needed to do was lay them all down on the base that we had already made.

 I am quite partial to these matte black dots and they just finish the card with that extra little bit of bling.

So there you have it my 2 Cajun Craze inspired cards. If you would like any information about how to get your hands on the product to make these cards please do not hesitate to contact me.

Now is the time to head to the next blog and you will be heading to Theresa Gerrard, I love what Theresa has for us each week so just hit the next blog button below and head over to see her lovely Cajun Craze Creation:

Now if at anytime you find a next blog button doesn't quite work and it doesn't take you to the next person please head to out weekly host's blog and there you will find the list of all the participants so you can continue with the hop. Cathy Proctor's Blog

Thank you for spending some crafty time with me today,

Take care,

Week 3 - Heart of Christmas

 

Can you believe it is week 3 already of The Heart of Christmas and we are moving so very quickly I just love it!

Well in 2 States here in Australia we are in Lockdown  so we are all having fun being in the house and just out and about only for the essentials. I have been playing an immense amount of Minecraft with my kids and I mean IMMENSE! hours upon hours upon hours. Really someone needs to send help and send it fast. I am not even kidding! But while I am digging and trying not to die! I have been thinking about what kind of card I could make when I am allowed to craft. I thought another fancy fold would be the go. Of course you say! Well there are such gorgeous DSP in the new Mini I just wanted to show it off. Plus don't forget there is 15% off select DSP sale going on right now. Ask me for more details.

Ok so my card that probably looks like I have been in Minecraft and is like I am building something out of blocks. Really I had to put an Angel on it for some help!!!!

So I have created a Tri-fold card and I am giving you a sneak peak at the new Angels of Peace and the Whimsy& Wonder Specialty DSP. I followed a template from Babs on Buttons 'n' Bows blog but adjusted the measurements so that it would fit into our envelopes here in Australia.  (Can you see what I mean about Minecraft, everything is in blocks and squares, I am dreaming about Minecraft now. 😂)

So for this card I have taken my colouring inspiration from the Whimsy & Wonder Specialty DSP, It has Mossy Meadow, Mint Macaron and Polished Pink to name a few and the ones that are in the DSP  that I have chosen to use along with Silver Foil.  I thought as the little Angel was holding holly it was the perfect DSP pattern to chose. I have backed it with Mint Macaron card and the card base is Mossy Meadow.

For the centre panel I have stamped the everything in Basic Grey  and I have also stamped the large Angel in Basic Grey and fussy cut her out so that I could attach her to the front to give dimension.  I then got out the Stampin' Blends and first I coloured in the holly actually in Evening Evergreen and the berries in Polished Pink, I then added some Polished to the flowers in the hair and a little bit of Light So Saffron for the hair. Then I thought how about some Light Pale Papaya for the wings. Wings are pretty special so need a substantial colour so I added that and a little of the Dark Pale Papaya. I nearly left it there and left the dresses white but thought the flowing folds of the dress could have just a little of the light Mint Macaron to tie in with the colour of the DSP and that would finish of the Angels perfectly. Now you could also add a Basic Rhinestone or another gem to the star but I have just put some Dark So Saffron in the centre of the star.

On the back panel of the card I have stamped some stars and this is where you can write to the person you are sending your card.

As I said this card will fold down and go into our C6 envelopes

Well there you go a little bit of a crazy card for me this week. I think I need to go for a walk, but they are all waiting for me to get back on the server and play Minecraft! EEK!

Hope you have enjoyed this card and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me about this card or the upcoming Mini and how to get your hands on these gorgeous products, plus the 15% off DSP sale going on right now!

Now please head over to the blog of Theresa Gerrard, just hit the next blog button below. I always love to see what she has for us each week. 

I have the privilege to host this week's Heart of Christmas blog hop so if for any reason there is some technical issue and the next blog button doesn't work at any time as you go around please head back to my blog and you will be able to see the list below and you can continue you hop from there.

Michele Taylor
Judy May
Tina Gillespie
Christine Blain
Kate Morgan
Rachel Woollard
Andrea Sargent
Rosa Leyden
Caroline Manwaring
Catherine Proctor
Claire Daly
Ros Davidson
Sharon Davern <=You are here
Theresa Gerrard
Vicki Boucher

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

Week 7 - Colour Creations Blog Hop - Bumblebee

 

Today we are looking at one of the 2020-22 In Colors. Bumblebee and as the name suggests it is a honey yellow colour! Now I love to eat honey, how about you? I remember when we lived in New York we had  one of our local supermarkets get in some Leatherwood Honey which is from my home state of Tasmania and I thought I was in heaven being able to have something from home.

I digress!

My card today, I must admit is not what I had planned as I had coloured in some sunflowers a couple of weeks ago and put them aside ready to make my card. I put them somewhere safe. You know what happens when you put things in a safe place. You can not find them when you want them. Well I then had my whole day go completely out the door for other reasons and I had less than 2 hours to make a card and write this post before the hop goes live so I have thrown a card together. So here goes.

I have never made a slimline card (I know late to the party) so thought why not today and throw as many leaves at it as you can. As I was reminiscing about home and Tasmania and honey, well home, growing up we had this massive tree hanging over our fence from the neighbours yard and the very colourful leaves would fall in our yard and we would have to rake up all the leaves. So I thought Love of Leaves is perfect and I do love this stamp set and the Stitched Leaves Dies.

 For all the leaves I  first tapped them on the Bumblebee Inkpad then I either used the Merry Merlot or the Mossy Meadow ink pad and I Rocked 'N' Rolled the stamp around the edge of the stamp onto the other ink pads to get the other colours with the Bumblebee. I then cut them out with the Stitched Leaves dies. I love how you can cut out the leaves and put the stitched veins in the leaves all at the same time. I have layered them on top of each other and a little double bow of linen thread on the bottom.

I love the sentiments in the particular stamp set and I have stamped this beautiful friendship stamp on Basic White in Basic Grey ink and punched out with the Everyday Label punch. and then punched out a Bumblebee label and cut it in half and just adhered it so that it just poked out. (As an aside I found the images that I had stamped and coloured in that safe place, they were with my punches, How is that a safe place???) Under the sentiment is some more linen thread and I love this little leaf it is shaped like a heart!

All of these elements are on a layer of In Good Taste DSP which is layered on Basic White and a card base of Bumblebee card stock. To finish off the card I have used the Elegant Faceted Gems.

This card is perfect for a dear friend of mine who is absolutely there for me and I can definitely count on her. Do you have a friend like that? I hope you do, they are so precious!

Phew! I made it in time. 

If you have any questions about this card please let me know, just hit the contact me button.  

Now is the time to head to Di's Blog and see how she has interpreted this weeks colour of Bumblebee, I love seeing what Di has for us each week so head on over there now by clicking on the next blog button.

If for any reason you find a link broken and the next blog button doesn't work and you have some how ended up here from a different entry point you can see the whole list of participants on our hosts blog: Catherine Proctor

Thank you for spending some crafty time with me today,

take care,

Week 2 - Heart of Christmas 2021

 

Today for week 2 of Heart of Christmas I thought I would bring you a twist on a fancy fold card. Yes I know it is a fancy fold or a fun fold but I couldn't go and not do a fancy fold after last week.

This week I am doing a twist on the Easel Card plus giving you a sneak peak at some new Product in the New July -Dec Mini Catalogue and the August-September Sale-A-Bration brochure 

I am using the Peaceful Deer and Deer Builder Punch Bundle and you get 10% off when you purchase as a bundle and who doesn't like a bargain and then the  Peaceful Prints DSP you can earn for free with a $90AUD purchase.

This was such a fun card to make and it is always fun to do a twist on a card.

So for my card today I have made a Spinner Easel Card.

So for this fun fold card I have used the DSP for my colour combination. The DSP is Peaceful Prints from the Sale-A-Bration brochure. So the pieces that I chosen have Garden Green and Basic Black and Sahara Sand.

For the base I have cut a piece of Garden Green in half and then folded in half and half again. I did this so that I knew exactly where to put my circle die from the layering circle dies to cut out the opening in the card. I put this through the Cut & Emboss machine then I layered the  Peaceful Prints and Sahara sand layers together and carefully positioned it over the hole and used a pencil to mark on it where to cut and then cut it out. I adhere it to the card and then folded it to form the easel.

Now for the spinner.

I have taken the same size circle and a larger scalloped circle and cut them out in Basic Black twice. Now this gorgeous little dear I have used Versamark and heat embossed in gold Stampin' Emboss Powder and punch him out with the Deer Builder Punch. Well I needed 2 so I thought I would get out my silicon mat and stamp him again on the mat in versamark and then place my Basic White card down over the stamped image to pick up the versamark and heat emboss in gold. Well it worked and I do have a nice gold embossed deer. It was only halfway through pouring the gold emboss powder onto the reverse deer that I realised that the wording will backwards. It all of a sudden dawned on me.  But It really doesn't look that bad.

 

Anyway then I put the gorgeous little dear after punching him out onto some linen thread and adhered him with a couple of glue dots in between the 2 black scalloped circles and adhered the circles together with some liquid glue before adhering just the bottom of the circle to the card.

This is how my spinner card works, so cute! A little video for you!

For the rest of my decorations I have stamped the lying down dear in versamark on Basic White and gold embossed it as well and then with a little crumb cake ink used the blending brush to give it a soft colour.

Now as you can see the trees in the stamp set stamp flat but I thought hold on a minute I will take a leaf out of the queen of embossing folders Caroline Manwaring (she is the next blog to go to) and get out my Evergreen Forest 3D embossing folder and after fussing cutting them out I ran them all through the Cut & Emboss machine.

As you can see there is so much texture in this embossing folder that after cutting the stamped images out individually I was able to place all of the tree in the folder at the same time and put it through in one go. The trees are stamped in Garden Green and Soft Succulent.

Of course then you need somewhere for the Easel to sit once you have opened your card so I have heat embossed in gold, "Merry Christmas" from the Peaceful Deer stamp set onto Basic Black Card Stock and popped it up onto dimensions and placed in the middle of the card base under the window of the deer.

I wanted to leave the front of the card clear of writing when it was sitting up on display so I have added a panel to the back of the card to write your greeting and Christmas message. I put another layer of the Peaceful Prints DSP and a layer of Sahara sands card stock.

I hope you have enjoyed my project today, I certainly enjoyed making it for you!

 If you have any questions about today's project or would like to get your hands on one of those new Mini Catalogues and Sale-a-bration brochures just let me know!

Please head over to the next blog on your tour around week 2 of Heart of Christmas. You will be heading to the lovely  Caroline Manwaring, I always love seeing what she has created and how she has used Stampin' Up!'s embossing folders, she is amazing!

If for any reason there is technical issue and the next blog button doesn't work please head over to the blog of this weeks host Tina Gillespie and there you will find the links to all the people participating and you will be able to continue you blog hop there: Tina's Blog

Thank you for spending some crafty time with me today,

take care,