This year I moved up to the Victorian High Country, and it is my first year in a very long time when I am actually seeing REAL snow, in July. Today was probably our coldest day so far, and I had the wood heater chugging away all day.

I can really start to imagine what a northern Christmas might be like! So it seems appropriate to join in the Art With Heart Stampin' Up! team, Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, in time for a snowy Christmas in July!

Because today had such wintery weather, I decided to go with very traditional  Christmas colours and images. I selected two stamp sets from our Annual Catalogue, which both share the same coordinating die set.

The Christmas Season stamp set and Christmas To Remember stamp set both contain images matching the Seasonal Labels Dies.

Because I never do things by halves. I started by stamping and die-cutting a stack of the pine-cone and foliage images on Very Vanilla card. I used Evening Evergreen, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede inks.

I dry embossed card front size pieces of Very Vanilla cardstock with the Merry Melody 3D embossing folder, then gently inked the embossed piece with Versamark ink. I lightly applied gold embossing powder and heat set it, for a shiny gold vintage finish for the backgrounds.

For the first card, I layered the musical background layer straight onto a Cherry Cobbler card-base, then played around with arranging the stamped and die-cut pinecone images.

If most of my stamping stuff wasn't still in boxes from moving house, I probably would have added something shiny, like Champagne Rhinestone Jewels. Instead I have the gold embossing on the background and a piece of the lovely Gold 1/4" Shimmer Ribbon across the card, to add a little sparkle.

My second card had extra layers.

I cut the music background slightly smaller, and layered it on an angle on Evening Evergreen card, which I then layered onto Very Vanilla, before layering that onto a Cherry Cobbler base-card.

I've used the same luxurious gold ribbon to wrap around the top layer. I also decorated the inside of both cards, and realise that I have completely forgotten to photograph the insides!

I would love you to continue on the blog hop and see what the other Art With Heart stampers have created. To do so, click on the box below and it will take you to onto the next person who happens to be the lovely Cathy Proctor . . . 

Should the blog hop have a broken link, you can always visit the webpage of the blog host where there is a full list of participants. The lovely host is Sharon Davern. Click on her name to see the list of creators.

Below is a full list of the products I have used. I hope you find it helpful and inspiring.

Kathryn Ruddick

Product List

Christmas To Remember Cling Stamp Set (English) [156300] $41.00	Christmas Season Photopolymer Stamp Set [156293] $39.00	Seasonal Labels Dies [156299] $67.00
Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock [121681] $16.25	Evening Evergreen A4 Cardstock [155575] $16.25	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock [106550] $18.00
Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad [147083] $14.00	Evening Evergreen Classic Stampin' Pad [155576] $14.00	Versamark Pad [102283] $16.75
Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [147115] $14.00	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [147116] $14.00	Metallics Embossing Powders [155555] $32.00
Gold 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Shimmer Ribbon [152156] $12.25	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $7.50	Mini Glue Dots [103683] $9.25
Merry Melody 3 D Embossing Folder [156392] $17.50	Heat Tool [129056] $53.00	Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [149653] $218.00