Week 7 - Heart of Christmas

 

Week 7 of The Heart of Christmas and I hope you are enjoying the inspiration of the team at Art with Heart each week as they bring you different ideas to get your Christmas cards ready for this year. 

You may have arrived at my blog from the lovely Caroline Manwaring's blog but if not welcome and I have found another fancy fold for you this week.. After this week I will have to start making batches of cards so that we will have lots ready for Christmas but for now as we are still in August I thought you would have time to do one more fancy fun folds for that special someone.

So the fold that I found for you is called a Balcony fold! I hadn't come across this one before this week so just had to try it as you know me I am always up for trying different fold!

When I saw that it was a balcony card the first thing I thought of was a theatre and that made me think of Angels singing so I had to have the Angels of Peace singing to us from the Balcony! You know me by now and you know my brain just goes there! LOL!

I followed a tutorial by a lady called Iced Images on YouTube to get the exact dimensions of the card and how to put it together.

So the first thing I did was put the base of the card together.

The card base itself is in Evening Evergreen card and I started with a 6x6 inch piece so that led me to the gorgeous 6x6 pack of DSP in the Annual Catalogue Tiding of Christmas. I then cut layers of Cherry Cobbler card and the DSP along with the 2 balcony pieces.

Once I had put them all together which was really easy 3 pieces of card, some scoring and then some matting. Now for the Angels

AS I have thought we needed a choir of angels on the balcony I needed more than 2 this week so I stamped the large one and the 3 little angels the normal way but as you can see one of the little ones is facing the other direction.

I stamped the angel on to a silicon mat and then place the Basic White card over it to pick up the ink so that the image was reversed. I then went over the lines with my Stampin' write marker just a little more defined as they can be a little blurry doing the image this way but it is great to get the angel looking the other direction. All the Angels are coloured with the Stampin' Blends.

For the sentiments I have used a Tasteful Label dies to cut them out. I used a full one for Hark the Herald from the For Unto Us stamp set and I cut out the other sentiment from the Angels of Peace stamp set and then shortened it.

Behind each sentiment I have used a crumb cake piece of the Tidings of Christmas DSP and with the Merry Melody Embossing Folder I have embossed it. I also just highlighted the notes on the DSP with the Light Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends. Angles need to have music if they are going to sing.

I have decorated the back of the card on one side and left the other side for writing your greetings but you could just decorate or do both for greetings.

It does fold flat and would need an envelope to fit a 6x6 inch card so I would need to make one but I haven't done that as yet. I might challenge myself to make it just that bit smaller next time to see if I can get it to fit into one of our envelopes.

I hope you have enjoyed my fancy fold card today and if you have any questions or would like the measurements do not hesitated to contact me.

Now is the time to head to the next person on our hop for this weeks Heart of Christmas and this week you will head over to Ros Davidson. I love seeing what Ros creates each week as her creation are always fun and bold. Last week she made Gingerbread and Peppermint cookies so I can't wait to see what she has for us this week.

I have the privilege of hosting our blog hop this week so if for any reason one of the next blog buttons does not work just come back here and you will be able to continue on with your hop by clicking on the names below.

Kate Morgan:
Tina Gillespie: 
Claire Daly:  
Catherine Proctor:  
Michele Taylor:
Christine Blain:
Caroline Manwaring:
Sharon Davern:  <= YOU ARE HERE
Ros Davidson:
Theresa Gerrard:
Rosa Leyden:
Rachel Woollard:
Judy May:

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

Week 11 - Colour Creations Blog Hop - Cinnamon Cider

Well here we are again my friends I am not sure what to say really. I had to make sympathy cards in January for dear friends at the passing of their Uncle and Brother-in-law Lionel who was such a sweet man and whom I have known for the last few years and was such a friend to me and encouraged my singing. He was a fantastic singer. Well this week his lovely wife Joan passed. I am struggling I must admit to make yet another sympathy card. We never like to do them do we but like all things in life this too is something that we all go through, the passing of a dear loved one.
 

So for this week I looked for a bit of inspiration and I  came across a card from Gail Ellis which is a bit of a coincidence as Joan's sister married and Ellis so I thought it was appropriate to make a card inspired by Gail for Joan's sister Heather Ellis.

Gail did this technique with the leaves from the Very Versailles leaves called a shadow technique. She used Memento Black and then heat embossed white slightly off from the leaves. I have created the same but I used Early Espresso ink to give just a little softer look. I have stamped on Basic White card.

Once you have stamped the darker leaves and then heat embossed in white I then took the blending brushes and the Cinnamon Cider ink and blended over the top. When I had applied enough ink I buffed off the ink from the white embossed leaves so they pop! Then I got my Cinnamon Cider Stampin' Write marker and put a few splatters over the card. Now that gorgeous Gold Shimmer ribbon is in that location for a reason. 1 it looks good and 2 because I accidentally hit that spot with my marker when I was putting the splatters. LOL! Oh well, never mind cover with gorgeous ribbon!

The sentiment comes from the Prized Peony stamp set and works so well for this card. I have stamped it in Cinnamon Cider. Behind this front panel I have a layer of Gold Shimmer Vellum and then a layer of Cinnamon Cider which I have embossed with the Tasteful Textiles 3D embossing folder.

On the inside of the card I have used the residual ink on my blending brush to just add a bit of colour to the Basic White card and a little bit of splatter to match it to the front of the card.

I hope this gives you an idea for a sympathy card when you need one. 

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Now is the time to head to the next blog and this week you will be going to the lovely Theresa Gerrard. I love seeing what Theresa has for us each week. Last week she had beautiful Japanese inspired cherry blossoms. So just hit the next blog button below and you will be able to see her gorgeous creation this week.

If at any time the next blog button doesn't work and let's face it, we have all had technical difficulties at times, just head to the host of our weekly colour creations blog hop Catherine Proctor and there she will have for us the list of those participating this week: Cathy's Blog

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

Week 6 - Heart of Christmas

 

Well today I have hunted hi and low for another fancy fold for you and I have been working on it all day. You will have to forgive that people in lockdown think that they actually need to be fed. I mean don't they know I have fancy fold cards to make! So today the card is more the adventure than the decorations I might put more on later but I am happy with where I am at now but it is quite the grand card and needs a few more decorations on other parts I think.

I found this fold by Jo Blackman a lady in the UK and I thought I just needed to give it a try. She called it a Hexagonal layered card. There are 10 pieces of card stock and 60 pieces of DSP before I started to decorate so stick with me and here we go!

So the very fist thing I did was cut all the base of the hexagonal card. I did this in Garden Green card as I was using the Peaceful Prints DSP which is a Sale-A-Bration item that you can earn for free when you purchase $90 work of product and if you have been looking in the New July-Dec Mini Catalogue I don't think that will be hard . Add a couple of things to bundle of Peaceful Deer and  Deer builder Punch.

  So we start with the tall centre hexagon and build our way around that firstly with the 3 full size  hexagons then with the 3 that we have cut a little bit out of as a place to decorate. Now we have the card base and we can start to put all those pieces of Peaceful Prints DSP on each section.

Before attaching the centre strip I attached the loop so that I could use it for the decorations.

 

As you can see both inside and out of each section is there is the lovely DSP.

I used an off cut from my card stock to measure exactly where I wanted the loop for the decorations.

Each section of decoration I  have used the Peaceful Dear Stamp set and used the garden green in and Soft Succulent Ink for the trees and put them through the Cut & Emboss Machine with the Evergreen Forest 3D embossing folder. I used the Label Me Fancy Punch for this sentiment and just made it a little shorter to fit into the spot.

This section I stamped the Deer in Early Espresso ink and then coloured him in with Crumb Cake Light and Dark  Stampin Blends. I love the Stampin' Blends

For this section I used the Deer Builder punch once again and punched out the red deer from the Peaceful Prints Paper.

Of course all of this can fold flat if you want it too.

And if you like you can even put a tea light candle in the bottom as well.

I hope you enjoyed my card tonight I certainly enjoyed putting it together. If you have any questions about this card please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please head over to the next blog which is Vick Boucher, I love all the layers and gorgeous textures Vicki has on her projects so I am looking forward to seeing what she has for us this week.

If for any reason the next blog button doesn't work and it does sometimes happen in technology land please head over to the host of this weeks Heart of Christmas blog hop Tina Gillespie and there you will find the list of participants this week and you can continue your blog hop there! Tina's Blog!

Week 10 - Colour Creations Blog Hop - "Cherry Cobbler"

 

Week 10 and we are at one of my favourites! I know you thought it was Blackberry Bliss and you would be correct that is my favourite but I am quite fond of Cherry Cobbler as well.

I decided to do a fancy fold. I know you are saying about time Sharon that you got back on the fancy fun fold wagon. Ok I did 2 fancy folds in 1 for you today just because you have wondering where they have been hiding! I am running out of fancy fold ideas I tell you!

So no I have not made a Christmas card with Cherry Cobbler but I have used the traditional colours of Cherry Cobbler and Evening Evergreen for my card.  I think if I put the "Just want to say" on the outside in these colours you could put anything on the inside. You could put "Just want to say Merry Christmas" But I needed a birthday card so I have made a birthday card. 

I have used the gorgeous Art Gallery Stamp set and Floral Gallery Dies for this card as it is just so quick to put it together. I have stamped the flowers first in Petal Pink and then in Cherry Cobbler and the leaves are in Evening Evergreen. I have cut them out with the dies and also cut a layer of them in the Cherry Cobbler card and Evening Evergreen Card. The smaller flower I have popped up on dimensionals on the larger flower to give a bit more movement to the flower.

The Designer Series Paper I have used on the front and the inside of the card are quite the mix. The Cherry Cobbler DSP is from the Tidings of Christmas 6x6 pack and the little bit of gold you can see is from the new 12x12 Gold Shimmer Vellum, and the other piece as the backing to the focal point is from the Simply Elegant 12x12 Specialty Designer series paper and is the other side to the side you will see on the surprise on the inside of the card.

So the main fancy fold of the card is a Book Fold card and I made one for our first week of the all new in colours and I forgot to put it in the post so I thought I would make another one. and the second fold is the inside pop up surprise card using the Simply Elegant Specialty DSP.

So on the inside of the card you have the fold that pops open. On one section I have stamped and cut out with the dies another flower and adhered it and also the Happy Birthday. and on the other square you can have a place to write to the person you are giving the card.

Here is a little video of how it opens. I asked my daughter to help me video it so you could see how the card pops up.

If you have any questions about todays card please do not hesitate to contact me. Such a fun quick card to make.

Now is the time to head to the next person on the blog hop and this week you will be heading to the lovely Theresa Gerrard. I love to see what gorgeous creations Theresa comes up with each week. Last week she had the most beautiful birthday card and embossed background so I can't wait to see what she has this week. So just click on the next button below to head to her post for Cherry Cobbler.

If for any reason along your blog hop journey the next buttons stop working please head to the host of our Colour Creations Blog Hop, Cathy Proctor and she will have the list of everyone participating and you will be able to continue you blog hop from there. Cathy's Blog

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

Week 5 - Heart Of Christmas

 

Welcome to Heart of Christmas week 5. I have a simple layout for you today. I know What is wrong with you Sharon. I think I am in shock at some great news that I got today that my Migraine medicine is now going on the list to be mostly covered by the government. WOOHOO! No more car payments and house payments. Just the normal out of pocket co-payments! I am just a little bit excited! So a simple card for you today!

I have used the new Heartfelt Wishes stamp set as the focal point of the card and I have used 3 stamps from the  set to create the greeting. I have heat embossed the 3 stamps in Gold Emboss powder. To go with the Gold Shimmer Ribbon. Both of these, the stamp set and the ribbon you will be able to purchase starting tomorrow with the start of the new July-December Mini Catalogue. So Exciting!

This gorgeous DSP is just perfect for any card with all the gorgeous tones and colours and I have layered 3 different designs for this card and layered them on a base of Cherry Cobbler card. With the little bits that I have trimmed off I have added to the inside of my card to decorate, can't forget the inside of your card.

So from our family to you and your, Merry Christmas.

If you have any questions about this card or would like to get your hands on the new July-December Mini. Do not hesitate to contact me.

Just click on the contact Sharon button anytime.

Now is the time to head to the next person participating in this weeks Heart of Christmas Blog Hop. The Lovely Claire Daly always has the best cards and I love to see what she has for us. Last time she had the fantastic 6x6 inch Designer series paper one sheet wonder card making plan for us and how you can get multiple cards from 1 sheet. Think how many you can get from 1 packet of 6x6 paper for Christmas! I look forward to seeing what she has in store for us this week so click on the next button to go there now!

If for any reason the next blog button has not gone on to Claire and we are experiencing some technical issues as sometimes happens in computer land please head to the blog of Rachel Woollard as she is hosting our Heart of Christmas Blog hop this week and she will have all the list of participants so you will be able to continue your hop from there.

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