AWH HOC Week 16

Hi!

Sob! Welcome to the last week for 2019 of the Art With Heart team's Heart Of Christmas Blog Share. We've been going strong for the past 16 weeks, and hopefully we have provided you with endless inspiration for your Christmas card making. I will miss these weekly posts, but it is nearly time for the cards to be going in the mail!

This week's card was made from a left over card kit that I found on my desk when I was doing some tidying up. It was a Heart Of Christmas card from 2017! You can see the original card here. I no longer have the stamps and dies that I used on that card, so I decided to see how creative I could be with the bits and pieces in the kit. I was quite pleased with how it turned out!

I like the masculine feel of the card - there's nothing pretty or fussy on the card. Rob has a few single mates that we send cards, so this will be perfect. You might be able to see that I embossed the Pine Tree with the Subtle Embossing folder. I also embossed the Crumb Cake background, but that's harder to see - it really is subtle!

Another embossed tree finished off the inside. The stars were cut from the swirly star die in the Stitched Stars set, it's just one of the stars that pops out of the shape.

Judy is hosting the Blog Share for our final week, so please do head on over to her blog, where you can find the rest of this week's links.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH Blog Hop: Boxes and Gift Bags

Hi!

The Art With Heart Team are back with another inspirational Blog Hop. This month we are featuring Gift Bags and Boxes, just in time for the Christmas gift giving season. The bags and boxes featured are all made using current Stampin’ Up! products and any of our wonderful team members are happy to help you with the supplies you will need to reproduce these beautiful projects.

It took me a while to work out what I was going to do for this Hop - for the longest time I had 'Boxes and Gift Tags' in my head, not Gift Bags. Oops! Back to the drawing board!

I ended up making this cute little gift box from one of the Old Olive Scalloped Notecards. Have you noticed them in the Annual Catalogue? I hadn't, until recently. For the very low price of $14.00, you receive 20 cards and 20 envelopes, 5 each of Balmy Blue, Old Olive, Light Pink and Terracotta Tile. I like making something unexpected from our products, and this fit the bill nicely!

I love how the scalloped edge of the Note Card gives a cute little finish to the opening of the box. It really feels like cheating to use these to make a box!

I used some Night Before Christmas DSP on the top of the box. I couldn't resist adding some Wink Of Stella to the Pine Tree shape, although it's hard to photograph. I love that this paper makes the tree look decorated without any extra effort on my behalf!

Here's some instructions on how I made the box:

I cropped 1 1/2cm from the straight edge of the card. I then scored at 1cm all the way around the edges, as well as another score line 1cm from the pre-scored line in the card, on the side of the scalloped edge. Did that make sense? The extra line is basically under the l and e of Gillespie in my watermark. I then snipped the corners as shown, and folded and glued the straight edged side of the card to form a box. To close it, the side flaps fold into the box, and the scalloped edge stays outside of the box. You might be able to see that I trimmed a tiny bit off the side flaps to make them easier to fold into the box.

You can see that the box is very thin, but it would be perfect for a gift card or voucher, or maybe even cash. The box could be made to be deeper, but you would lose width and length.

That's all from me for this month's Blog Hop, now it's time to jump on over to Kate Morgan's blog to continue the hop.

If you have a broken link or have come to this blog hop midway, you can view all the participants below:

Rachel Palmieri

Sharon Davern

Rebecca Jacovou

Kathryn Ruddick

Catherine Proctor

Vicki Boucher

Andrea Sargent

Sujatha Harding

Rachel Woollard

Tina Gillespie

Kate Morgan

Kathryn Mangelsdorf

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH HOC Week 13

Hi!

I can't believe how quickly Wednesday has rolled around again! I'm very time poor this week, but I still wanted to play along with the Art With Heart team's Heart Of Christmas Blog Share. My card was quick to throw together, using all sorts of bit and pieces I found on my craft desk!

I started with the Stitched Rectangles, which were left over from this Elfie card I made recently. I cut some Night Before Christmas DSP to fit inside each rectangle, and then popped the shapes up on Dimensionals.

The 'Merry' was cropped from Red Foil, but in hindsight I probably should have forgone the foil and cut it from something darker. It doesn't stand out as much as I'd like, but it's glued down now!

I had a strip of the biscuit DSP left over from a different card, so I put it to use on the inside of the card. Done!

This week the blog share is hosted by my wonderful friend, Judy May. I'm very much looking forward to seeing her, and my other demo friends, in Sydney this weekend for Stampin' Up!'s OnStage event. Keep an eye out early next week for all the news!

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH HOC Week 12

Hi!

Welcome to another week of the Art With Heart team's Heart Of Christmas Blog Shares, as we inch ever closer to Christmas. My kids started writing their Christmas Wish Lists yesterday - I don't know if they are starting early or late! Probably late by most kid's standards. LOL!

For tonight's card I decided to use a non-Christmas set to create my background. Have you noticed Swirly Frames in the Annual Catalogue? It's got a heap of fun circles, squares, rectangles and lines in a hand drawn style. Great for framing other images, or just stamping randomly for a background, as I have done. I used Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler inks, both full strength and stamped off.

Once again I reached for my trusty Pine Tree punch for a focal point for my card. I think I lined up the stars in the Night Before Christmas DSP quite well in the punched shape! The star on the top of the tree is simply one of the Copper Star Elements from the Holiday Catalogue, coloured with my Dark Cherry Cobbler Blend.

I punched a second tree for the inside, with some Real Red Glimmer Paper for the star - the copper stars are a little too bulky for the inside of a card.

Time for you to head on over to Claire's Blog, where you can find the rest of this week's heart Of Christmas links. I think we only have four more weeks to go after this one!

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH HOC Week 10

Hi!

Welcome to another week of the Art With Heart's Heart Of Christmas Blog Share. We are up to Week 10 - double digits! I was a bit time poor this week, so I chose to CASE this card by Brian King. His card isn't a Christmas card, but it was super easy to change it to be suitable for Christmas.

I loved his card so much that I didn't actually make many changes. The sentiment, obviously, as his wasn't Christmassy. I also added some of the stars that are part of the swirly die to the front of the card. No point in wasting them!

It is *super* hard to see, as they are white on white, but I added the other three stars to the inside, around the sentiment from Merry Christmas To All.

I made this card to use as a class sample, as I thought my ladies would like it. A few of them prefer a more traditional colour scheme, so I also made a sample in red and green. On both cards, the DSP is from the See A Silhouette pack - the variation in colour is so pretty on the background, don't you think?

This card was essentially the same as the first card, just a few minor changes. The stars on the front are in slightly different positions, and the Merry sentiment was double punched to make the sentiment shorter.

Which do you prefer?

Once you've decided, pop on over to Claire's Blog where you can find the rest of this week's links.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH HOC Week 8

Hi!

Welcome to the Art With Heart team's Heart Of Christmas Blog Share. We are up to Week 8, and I am having a turn to host this week! You will find all the links to this week's gorgeous cards at the end of my post.

I decided to make my card using a non-Christmas stamp set this week. I have ummed and ahhed over the Country Home stamp set ever since it first appeared, which I think was in last year's Holiday Catalogue. I finally purchased it, and tonight's card is the first time I have inked it up.

I stamped it in Memento ink so that I could colour it with my Stampin' Blends. It took three goes to stamp it correctly, as I completely misjudged the size of the foliage stamp! Thankfully, cardstock has two sides, so I wasn't wasteful. I used Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake, Granny Apple Green, Poppy Parade, Grey Granite and Pool Party to colour the image. I wanted to use lots of red and green to help with the Christmas theme.

I selected a piece of DSP from the Night Before Christmas pack as my background. I think that the tile-type pattern in reds also helps to keep the card Christmassy, but also country. The main image was cropped with the largest Stitched Nested Labels Die, and the sentiment with the smallest Rectangle Stitched Die. I finished the front with a twine bow using a scrap of Mossy Meadow Linen Thread from the Magnolia Lane Ribbon bundle.

I used Crumb Cake ink to stamp the milk tin and foliage again on the inside. So that they didn't take up too much space, I stamped them off the side of the card. The sentiments I have used on the card came from Merry Christmas To All - a set with a fabulous mix of smaller and larger sentiments. I also added a scrap of DSP left from the front of the card.

That's it from me, so why not check out the rest of this week's cards? So you don't have to keep jumping back and forth, you can right click on each link and select 'open in a new tab'.

Sharon Davern

Kate Morgan

Caroline Manwaring

Diane Furniss

Vicki Boucher

Rachel Woollard

Catherine Proctor

Michelle Taylor

And for her Heart Of Christmas debut:

Andrea Sargent

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH HOC Week 6

Hi!

Welcome to Week 6 of the Art With Heart team Heart Of Christmas Blog Share. Can you believe it's week 6 already??? This week I received my new Pine Tree punch. I love the classic tree shape, don't you?

Once again I pulled out my Brightly Gleaming SDSP, for the card. I used my Stitched Rectangles to crop the paper for the front of the card. I chose the rectangle that was about four inches wide and cropped one in Whisper White and one in the Pretty Peacock DSP. I then sliced the DSP rectangle into two pieces. The gap is covered by the WW panel.

I used the punch to crop three trees, two from the DSP and one from Copper Foil. The WW panel looked a little plain with just the trees, so I used my new Celestial Copper Delicata Ink to stamp some of the 'sprinkles' from Elfie across the top of the panel. Another Stitched Rectangle was used to crop and sentiment from Merry Christmas To All.

I replicated the tree and sprinkles on the inside of the card. I quite like the sprinkles behind the tree!

This week my lovely friend, Judy is hosting the Heart Of Christmas blog share, so please do pop on over to her blog to check out the rest of this week's cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #475: Just Add Food

Hi!

Welcome back for the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week Kelly has asked us to add food to our cards - not real food, just the paper and ink kind! Although, you could probably get away with including a lollipop on your card. Hmm, now why didn't I think of that sooner?

I was a bit stumped by this for a while, until I remembered this cute Kindred Stamps set that I purchased about a year ago. It celebrates National Gingerbread Day - I didn't even know there was any such day!

How funny is that gingerbread man/beast? LOL! I heat embossed the image four times on Crumb Cake cardstock using white embossing powder. I also cut a strip of DSP from the Night Before Christmas pack. I think a hot chocolate is the perfect combo with gingerbread, don't you agree?

The card base was stamped with the splatters from Waterfront using Crumb Cake ink. I was hoping it looked like gingerbread crumbs under the cookies. I then used my Subtle folder to emboss the cardstock. I totally agree with the sentiment - gingerbread tastes way better chewy (which is also a hint to the identity of the gingerbread character!).

I used my fourth gingerbread man on the inside, along wth some more hot chocolate. My kids think this card is hilarious - they don't want me to use it at Christmas. I will have to compromise by sending it to someone who will really appreciate the humour!

As we have arrived at the end of my post, it's time to pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to see the rest of this week's Design Team cards. In the meantime, are you thinking about what food related stuff you have that you could use on a card? Can't wait to see it!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #244: Holiday Catalogue Cover

Hi!

Hello! It's time once again for the CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. You may have come from Monique's blog, or you may be starting here. Either way, just keep touring the blogs until you get back to where you started.

This week we are CASEing projects from the front of the Holiday Catalogue. My eye was particularly taken by the wreath card in the Toile Tidings grouping of cards, so that's what I CASEd.

I don't actually have any of the products in that suite, so I had to search my stamp collection for something that would work in place of the wreath. Bloom and Grow fit the bill! I changed the circle to an oval to better suit the flowers, so I switched the orientation of the card too. The flowers were stamped and then I added a few extra of the smaller spray stamps at each end to fill the gaps. I coloured the little circle buds yellow to look a bit like wattle. I wanted to add a little Australian feel to the card.

The Merry die cut was cut four times and stacked. The top is cut in Red Foil and the bottom three layers in Call Me Clover to match the card base. It's a cool effect that looks so much more effective in real life.

I stamped the flowers again on the inside. I'd curved the stamp a little for the front of the card to go around the oval, but I straightened it for the inside.

Don't forget to check out our Facebook group, where you can enter your card in this week's challenge. Which card catches your eye from the front cover?

That's it for me, so now you're off to see what the lovely Peta has created. I wonder what hijinks Marvi has been up to this week?

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #448: Just Add J

Hi!

It's time for a new Just Add Ink challenge. This week it's one of my alphabet challenges, with the letter J coming up for our inspiration. Hmmm, what can you do with the letter J? A stamp set, technique, colour?

I decided to go for a fancy fold and make a Joy Fold card. It's been a while since I've made one, I'm not sure why because they are so easy and have a huge impact. For some reason my mind went to Christmas (joyeux noel - another J!), so that's what I did for my card.

Once again I used the gorgeous Painted Seasons stamps and DSP for my card. I was a little worried that the green patterned paper would be too busy and dominate, but by the time I had adhered the second 'card' I realised that you can't actually see much of the DSP.

To make a Joy Fold card you take a tent fold card and chop off half of the front. Lay it on the side, decorate with DSP and then cut a smaller card and adhere it on the inside of the base with the fold facing the other way. Decorate this and you're done! I added the circle with the pinecone on the front so that the smaller card tucks under and keeps it shut.

So there you have it, a Joyous Noel Joy Fold card. What will you make? Join in the fun over at the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see what the rest of the Design team have created with J, and also link up your own J card.

Bye for now,

Tina

Incredible Like Mambo

Hi!

Hello, and welcome to this week's Art With Heart Colour Creations Blog Share. This week we are looking at a former In Colour turned Core Colour, Melon Mambo. If my memory serves me, the South Pacific market got Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry and Soft Suede as In Colours at a time when SU was shifting to align their markets more closely. It's been a favourite ever since!

Today's card is a super cute, fast and easy card. The front uses one stamp from a new stamp set called Incredible Like You. I simply repeatedly stamped the lines without reinking the stamp so that I got an ombre effect in Melon Mambo. I didn't use my Stamparatus for this, I just eyeballed it. I then trimmed the cardstock into a triangle shape that's 2 1/4 inches across the bottom and 4 inches tall. The star and trunk were just cut from scraps of Glimmer Paper and then all 3 pieces were popped up. Done!

I didn't put a sentiment on the front as I didn't want to cover my tree. Therefore I went big on the inside! I think this has been my favourite inside sentiment stamp for Christmas 2018.

The rest of this week's cards can be found over at Catherine's Blog. I wonder if everyone else is still doing Christmas cards, or if they've moved on already? Only one way to find out!

Bye for now,

Tina