Stampin' Up! - Heart of Christmas 2019 - Week 12

It is week 12 of the Heart of Christmas, how much fun we have been having these past 3 months leading up to Christmas show casing fun cards and gift tags and other ideas for Christmas for you as a team.

Tonight I will show you the Christmas countdown advent calendar that I spoke about last week plus  the next card in my series from the Toile Christmas cards that I have been making.

My daughter was so excited about all the ideas and activities that she had put together for us to do as a family during advent, things like picnics in the park, design our own Christmas T-shirts, bake and decorate a gingerbread house, see the Christmas lights, making our own baubles, Christmas party with friends has been organised and games night just to name a few of the things in store for us.

So because she was so excited about all her ideas we had to decorate our advent calendar this week. It is very easy for beginners and my daughter didn't want to change what the suggestions were from Stampin' Up! so it was very easy to follow. The only thing I wanted to do was to have all the numbers in the centre. As you can see by the picture in the kit provided by Stampin' Up they have them in different locations on the box depending on the images that you use and stamp or if you are ok with things being a bit unregimented go for it!

Now the sides of the box is all white so I did decide that it needed some decorating and The Christmastime is here suite available in November as a limited time release was perfect.

 I first used the wood grain pattern from the Pressed Petal DSP then got out the beautiful DSP from the Christmastime is here suite. I cut the thin strips and added them to the middle of the wood grain and then adhered them to the sides of the advent calendar. 

One of the other gorgeous DSP's has beautiful roses and I have cut them out with my paper snips and adhered the bottom layer with snail and the top layer with mini dimensionals. 

For the sentiment in the middle I have used one that comes in the suite in the stamp set Christmas Rose and stamped it in Delicata Metalic Golden Glitz Ink. I have cut it out with the die that comes with the suite and the gold foil that is either side is also a die that comes with the suite. 

 You are going to want this suite so get it now before supplies run out and make some cards, decorate your advent calendar and so much more it is just beautiful!

So I used the Christmas Coundown Stamp set which is found on page 38 of your 2019 Holiday Catalogue with your Advent calendar kit. Plus if you wanted the little extra that I added you can add the Christmas Rose Stamp set and papers which is part of the Christmastime is here suite which is a limited time, while stocks last offering in November so make sure you ask me about it.

Just as an aside my roses in my garden are still looking quite good after a lot of wind and rain. I thought they might look a bit worse for wear after they had been battered around a bit.

My Toile Christmas card tonight I have put together a few elements that are really quick and easy to do.

Firstly stamp on a piece of very vanilla in memento black ink the cardinal so that you can then cut him out with the Christmas cardinal dies and colour him with the Stampin’ Blends. I am loving colouring him with the blends. 

Stamp the sentiment and the large branch with soft suede ink and cut them out using the dies from the Christmas cardinal dies. Cut a piece of very vanilla as the first layer to go on your soft suede card base and run it through your die cutting and embossing machine using the hammered metal 3D embossing folder. Now comes all the layering fun!

I cut 2 contrasting pieces of the Toile tidings DSP and placed them on the angle after adhering the embossed very vanilla piece to the soft suede card base. I really love the Hammered metal embossing folder as you can use it with the impression raised up like this to look like cobble stones or with the impression indented to look like hammered metal. Such a cool embossing folder!

So, after layering the fun papers diagonally for a little play on our visual senses I added a thin strip of crumb cake, the scalloped lace trim and the double stitched garden green ribbon before putting our gorgeous cardinal on his branch popped up on some dimensionals.

To finish off the sentiment was also popped up on some dimensionals.

Hope you have a go at this card if not with the cardinal at least give the layout a try and don’t forget to get your advent calendar kit and Christmas countdown stamp set to put together your advent calendar ready for the start of December.

Please now grab a cuppa and head over to my friend Claire and our Art with Heart Team leader who is hosting our Heart of Christmas blog hop tonight to see some more Christmas inspiration and the list of the team who played along and their wonderful creations.

Contact me for help with these 2 projects or any of your crafting needs.

Thanks for spending some time with me tonight.

Take Care

Stampin' Up! - Heart of Christmas 2019 - Week 11

Welcome to week 11 of The Heart of Christmas. It is an absolutely gorgeous day in Melbourne, Australia today and we have started to think about putting up our Christmas decorations. I know a little early for some but for others it is never too early for Christmas decorations. This year we have splurged and bought and garland for the top of our mantle to give it a bit of Christmas bling!

 What is your new Christmas decoration purchase this year? I am still to make my advent countdown calendar that you can find on page 38 of the 2019 Holiday catalogue but my daughter has already planned different family activities for each night for us to do to add to our calendar when I finish it. I was wanting chocolate! LOL! What fun things do you do leading up to Christmas? So you can see Christmas is starting to be in full swing in our house. It really is my most favourite time of the year!

Tonight I have the next card in my mini suite of cards from Toile Christmas. I have made this one quite non-traditional in the colours for the background I suppose. I was just trying something a little different.

As you can see from my photo at the top of the blog it is very sunny in Melbourne today so I have taken another photo of my card inside with less sun shining on it so you can get a bit better look.

The base card is soft suede and I have tried to use a couple of different stamps in the set this time. There is the little swirl on the bottom right corner that is stamped in sort suede, The soft suede strip over the garden green strip has been stamped with the branch in soft suede. I have also stamped the brand on a piece of soft suede card stock in soft suede ink and used the Christmas Cardinal dies to cut it out using my die cutting machine.

For the panel behind the cardinal I used the little square of writing that you can see on the bottom left of the stamp set. I have stamped this on a panel of very vanilla card stock a few times in soft suede ink. I also have a couple of panels of Toile Tidings DSP and all these panels are layered with garden green card stock.

The gorgeous double stitched garden green ribbon just sets this card off nicely I think and the cardinal is coloured using the wonderful Stampin' Blends that colour so well.

Hope you like this non-traditional colouring for a Christmas card.

Please now grab a cuppa and hop on over to the lovely Tina Gillespie who is hosting our blog hop tonight to find the list of ladies participating tonight and to get more Christmas inspiration.

If you would like any information on how to create this card or the 2019 Holiday catalogue and some goodies to make your Christmas cards please don't hesitate to contact me.

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

Stampin' Up - Art With Heart Team Blog Hop October 2019 - Embossing Folders

Welcome to another Art with Heart Blog Hop. This month we are featuring Stampin' Up's! versatile range of Embossing Folders. There are new Embossing Folders available in every Stampin' Up! catalogue and they are an inexpensive way of adding WOW! to your projects. Currently there are 24 different Embossing Folders in the range.

Tonight we plan on showing you lots of ideas on how to use these folders. I have used 5 different embossing folders tonight.

I have used Brick and Mortar 3D, Scripty 3D, Button Button from the Annual Catalogue and Hammered Metal 3D and Stylish Scroll from the 2019 Holiday Catalogue for my cards today.

I have had things going around in my mind for quite a while and I’m not exactly sure that it has come out exactly how it was in my head but hey I like to explore and just see where it takes me! In the end I came up with 2 cards.

For the first card I thought I would use a few different folders in the one card and see what it looked like. I first punched out the butterflies using the butterfly duet punch and got out the different embossing folders and put them through the embossing machine. I kind of liked how they all came out a little differently and it would depend on where you placed them on the folder. 

How about you have a go and experiment too! As you can see I have mixed and matched the little butterflies with the bigger ones so they are different impressions on each one. I have also punched out the Perennial Essence Vellum to add a little colour and contrast to the butterflies.

I also wanted to use the brick and motar 3D embossing folder and on the raised edge side I swiped soft suede ink over it and then put the whisper white card stock into the folder and put it through the embossing machine and it came out quite good I think.

I have backed the brick layer with a layer of Garden Lane DSP as I thought is would kind of mimic the butterflies landing on brick that had vines growing up.

For the sentiment I used the stamp set Butterfly wishes and cut it out using the stitched rectangle dies. I have used the reversible Old Olive/Pretty Peacock ribbon and the braided linen trim to finish off this card. I think you could use this for both a male or a female card! What do you think?

For my second card tonight as we are so close to Christmas I thought I would do a Christmas card.

This is such a simple and elegant card to make. The embossing folder that I used for this can be found in the 2019 holiday catalogue and is the Stylish Scroll Embossing folder on page 53. I have put it through the embossing machine with a piece of vellum. It came up really well. The card layers are Pretty Peacock card base, copper foil, Brightly Gleaming Specialty DSP, I have used a small amount of tombow multi liquid glue on a sponge to adhere the velum to the DSP.  The Ornaments are stamped in the gorgeous Celestial Copper Delicata Metalic Inks found on page 16 of the 2019 Holiday Catalogue and I punched out the ornaments with the Gleaming ornament punch pack! I fussy cut the leaves and the sentiment and they were all popped up on dimensionals.

 I really love how this card turned out! I don't know why it took me so long to break out this ink! You have got to get some if you haven't gotten it yet!

For best results when using Stampin' Up's! 3D Embossing Folders us the 3D Embossing Folder Plate, it adds a little more oomph to your die sandwich to make those 3D designs pop.

Now please head over to the lovely Vicki Boucher to see what fun projects she has using Embossing folders.

If you find a broken link at anytime just click on the links below:

Kate Morgan

Rachel Woollard

Rebecca Jacovou

Sharon Davern  <= You are here

Vicki Boucher

Tina Gillespie

Claire Daly

Catherine Proctor

Caroline Manwaring

Rachel Palmieri

Andrea Sargent

Sujatha Harding

If you would like any more information on these products or how to create these cards please don't hesitate to contact me, I am more than happy to  help you with your crafty fun.

Thank you for spending some time with me tonight, take care,

Stampin' Up! - Heart of Christmas 2019 - Week 10

Tonight, for week 10 of the Heart of Christmas I will be bringing to you another card from the gorgeous Toile Tidings stamp set and Christmas Cardinal dies. I brought you a card a few weeks ago but thought I would go back and do a little series using this stamp set and dies.

Today is such a beautiful day in Melbourne but as in springtime we will be back in the cold weather again by the weekend. I quite like the warm part of spring weather not the up down nature of it. So grab a cuppa and have fun hopping along with the team tonight!

Well my card this week I tried to use a lot of the elements of the Toile tidings suite that can be found starting on page 5 of the 2019 Holiday catalogue.

I have used Thick Very Vanilla as the card base and layered basic grey over the top and another layer off normal very vanilla. In the top very vanilla layer, I have used the swirl dies in the Christmas Cardinal die set to cut out a pretty border then placed a piece of the Toile Tidings DSP right up close.

I have used a strip of Basic grey right down the center of the card with a piece Garden Green Double Stitched ribbon.

In this lovely stamp set you not only get the gorgeous cardinal but the lovely branches as well and I have stamped the largest branch on very vanilla in soft suede and cut it out with the dies. I have also cut the large branch out with the in vellum to soften the look. I have cut the smaller branches out in soft suede, garden green, and vellum to go under the gorgeous male red Cardinal.

To colour the cardinal, I have used the Stampin’ Blends, light and dark real red and light and dark soft suede after stamping him in black memento ink! He is such a beautiful bird to colour and I love that we have a die to cut him out with. I have popped him up on some dimensionals.

I have stamped the sentiment in Soft suede from the stamp set and the die set cuts this out as well. It is such a great set to have and if you buy it in a bundle you save 10% so I would highly recommend you do that if you can. Buy in bundles!

Thank you for spending some time with me today now please jump on over to our host the lovely Claire Daly to see who else is hopping along tonight.

Don't forget that the amazing 15% off sale is on until 11:50 p.m. tonight AET. Just click on the picture to go directly to my online store to shop the stamp sale and get your bargains! Who doesn't love a bargain? I know I do!

If you would like any information on how to make this card or to purchase the lovely products to make this card and the rest of the cards that I will be bringing you in this series in time for you sending your cards for Christmas don't hesitate to contact me.

Take Care,

Stampin' Up! - Heart of Christmas 2019 - Week 9

Welcome to week 9 of the Heart of Christmas. I hope you are having fun hopping along with us each week. I am having fun making cards each week.

Tonight I have used #ELFIE for a really quick card as things have been a little crazy in my house this week.

For this card I have used the stampin' blends to colour in the little elves just quite minimal as sometimes less is more.  In my house I think they think more is more! I stamped them in memento black ink and then used the stitched shaped framelits to cut them out.

The gorgeous DSP  is the Let is Snow Specialty Designers Series Paper and has the lovely coastal cabana colour so that is what I have layered behind it and then put on the base card of real red card stock. The sentiment is also from #ELFIE and I have used the classic label punch to cut it out.  They are backed with scalloped real red layering square and circle layering dies. The very gorgeous Toile Tidings Glitter enamel dots just finish off this card perfectly.

I know it wasn't Mr. Morris the Merry Moose this week but I think these fun playful elves are just gorgeous!

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you would also like to play with these elves. You won't be disappointed!

No head on over to the lovely Claire Daly's Blog and see the list of ladies participating in the hop tonight and get some more great Christmas inspiration.

Thank you for spending some time with me today,
Take Care,

Stampin' Up! Heart of Christmas 2019 - Week 8

Can you believe it is 11 weeks until Christmas? I can't and that means it is 11.5 weeks until my significant birthday! Ssh! I am not allowed to get older! So we can just push the stop button now please and have a little rest until I am ready for the big 50!

So as promised last week I will be bringing you a card from my Merry Moose series for week 8 of the Heart  of Christmas. Well ok I made 2 to finish of the series and to show the versatility of this stamp set.

I made another crumb cake card to go with one I made a couple of weeks ago this time without the copper hammer metal panel.

I have also stamped the Christmas tree in soft suede for a little added softness and rearranged the the circle panels. Just to show you what you can do with the almost the same items and get a slightly different look.

Here they are side by side so you understand what I mean. Still both gorgeous products used ever so slightly differently. I am just loving the ribbon from the Come together combo it is so soft!

The stitched shaped dies and layering circle dies were used to cut out the each segment of the images and for vellum behind the images.

For my other Merry Moose card I changed it up a little and our naughty Mr Morris Moose from last week has had enough partying in the village and is on his way back home.

For this card I have taken the colours from the Wrapped in plaid designer series paper, specifically the shaded spruce and the cherry cobbler. You can see the panel behind our Merry Moose and layered with cherry cobbler on a base card of shaded spruce. I have stamped the large tree from the set in shaded spruce on the large stitched shaped square and added the gorgeous copper star element. I love these copper stars! I popped it onto a large cherry cobbler square from the layering square framelit dies. Behind our tired partied out Mr Morris the Merry Moose I have used the smaller tree and stamped again in shaded spruce 3 times without inking before stamping each time. Mr Moose has been stamped in crumb cake and outlined stamped in soft suede before the coordinating Moose punch came into play. His cherry cobbler scarf and hat were stamped and fussy cut. You may notice a few footprints just under his feet, well that is another one of the stamps in the set. Really cool! He has been popped up on some dimensionals.

Our greetings also come from the same stamp set and I have used the stitched shaped die to cut out the top one and then the layering ovals dies to cut out the cherry cobbler for the backing. Happiest of Holidays greeting was punched out with the classic label punch and then I punch another one in cherry cobbler and cut it in half just so we could see the edges.

Well whether you make a set of cards using the Merry Moose set or another stamp set you can sure use the layouts of the cards and the colours from the DSP for your inspiration but really who wouldn't want to make cards with this gorgeous stamp set. Mr Morris the Merry Moose is so much fun!

We have made 9 using this stamp set, a 6x6 one sheet wonder, 3 traditional red and green and 2 gorgeous crumb cake Christmas tree present cards. Thanks for sharing in the fun with Mr Morris the Merry Moose.

Now for some more Christmas inspiration please head over to the lovely Tina Gillespie's blog who is hosting our hop for the list of participants this week.

If you would like any information about these card or would like the 2019 Holiday catalogue please don't hesitate to contact me.

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