Welcome to another week of Stampin' Up! Colour Creations with the Art With Heart Stampin' Up! team.

This week we feature Early Espresso, a rich dark brown from our Neutrals colour family.

Early Espresso

When I looked at my stamp collection with Early Espresso in mind, the first thing I saw was what I call the "coffee and chocolate" - Nothing's Better Than stamp set. And yes, I like my coffee rich and dark.

For my first card, I cut the A4 card in half longways, so I had a 10.5cm x 29.85cm piece. I scored this in half, then cut the front panel in half vertically. The off-cut piece was turned 90 degrees and used as the horizontal panel on the front of the card. I layered up the two front layers with a patterned piece from the Sun Prints Designer Series Paper.

I used the two step stamp set to stamp bright coloured coffee cups onto Basic White card and die-cut them with the Love You More Than dies. I die-cut the word COFFEE from the same die set, in Early Espresso card. 

The text and steam from the hot cups was stamped directly onto the patterned paper in Early Espresso Ink.

For my second card, I wanted to try the Faux Step Card which I have seen several people use over the last few weeks. And I switched from coffee to chocolate - espresso flavoured chocolate, I'm thinking!

As I was preparing the photos, this card suddenly reminded me of the shelves of chocolates in a chocolate boutique like Haigh's or Koko Black. Nom nom nom!

The faux step card is a "cheat's version" of the centre step card. This card is easier to make, as you add an extra strip of card, rather than trying to cut out layers and folds from one single piece.

I deliberately didn't add anything shiny or any ribbon to these cards, to keep them more masculine. With Father's Day this weekend, I thought I might be called on for a spare card.

I can't wait to see what the other Art With Heart ladies have created using Early Espresso. If you would like to see the other creations, please click on the box below to go to my lovely friend Christine's blog.

If you find a broken link in the blog hop, which doesn't take you to the next blog, you will find the list of participants on Cathy's blog here.

Sale-a-bration finishes today, so if you haven't placed your Sale-a-bration order yet, you have just an hour or two left to claim your free SAB gifts with purchase.

I will see you tomorrow to share the September Weekly Deals!

Keep inky!!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Early Espresso A4 Card Stock [121686] $16.25	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad [147114] $14.00	Nothing's Better Than Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [152507] $38.00
Love You More Than Dies [152698] $53.00	Sun Prints 12” X 12” (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper [158790] $21.00	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [147115] $14.00
Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [147116] $14.00	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad [147090] $14.00	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad [147086] $14.00
Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad [147085] $14.00	Basic White A4 Cardstock [159228] $18.00	Mini Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [150673] $110.00

Last week in the Art With Heart - Heart of Christmas blog hop, I showed this card, using a floral image stamp set instead of a Christmas stamp set.

When I was making the first card, I also cut and coloured the other main image from the same stamp set. So this week, I have another card to show you, using the same colours and the same non-traditional stamp set, but a completely different card.

I used the same Tea Boutique 6x6 Designer Series Paper, only I flipped it over and used the plainer reverse side. I used my Stampin' Blends to colour this image. I wasn't that pleased with the way the flowers turned out, so after they were thoroughly dry, I used my Blender Pen to add Sweet Sorbet Ink straight off the ink pad, to really strengthen the colour.

The other main difference with this card, is I left out the vellum, but added layers with an extra piece of Tea Boutique DSP, large Evening Evergreen Label from the Seasonal Labels Dies, and the die-cut foliage was used as a subtle texture, rather then as a tool to add dark contrast.

On the inside of this card, I included a leftover strip of the original DSP along the bottom of the inside. This DSP had featured under the vellum layer on the first card.

If you would like to see the rest of the Art with Heart - Heart of Christmas blog hop, please click on the next box below to go to lovely Andrea Sargent's blog, and continue to follow the links.

If you find a link is broken, you can get back onto the blog hop by visiting my dear friend Sharon's page, where she has a list of all the participants and their links. Click here!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Blessings Of Home Cling Stamp Set (English) [157930] $44.00	Flowers Of Home Dies [163095] $56.00	Blessings Of Home Bundle (English) [157939] $90.00
Evening Evergreen A4 Cardstock [155575] $16.25	Evening Evergreen Classic Stampin' Pad [155576] $14.00	Sweet Sorbet Classic Stampin' Pad [159216] $14.00
Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad [147087] $14.00	Blender Pens [102845] $21.00	Tea Boutique 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [158659] $21.00
Christmas To Remember Bundle (English) [156806] $104.25	Seasonal Labels Dies [156299] $67.00	Mini Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [150673] $110.00

As the Daffodils are coming into season, and the occasional winters day puts on brilliant sunshine, who wouldn't want to use happy Crushed Curry to brighten up your day?

This week, my fellow Art With Heart Stampin' Up! demonstrators are showcasing this super sunny colour, so join us on the blog hop to see how everyone has used it.

Crushed Curry

I decided I wanted to include fluttering butterflies in my Crushed Curry creation this week, so I got our Butterfly Brilliance stamp set and the coordinating butterfly Wings Dies.

I stamped one set of butterflies onto the Crushed Curry sheet from Tea Boutique Designer Series Paper. Then I used my Crushed Curry Stampin' Write Marker to add a little extra depth to the colour.

I stamped more butterflies using Stazon Jet Black ink on white card and created some depth by cutting a rectangle from the middle and layering it onto Crushed Curry card.

The largest butterfly was attached to this with Mini Glue Dots and fluttering wings folded upwards.

I used the So Saffron Stampin' Write Marker to add a tiny bit of colour to the other butterflies on the top layer, just to differentiate them from the bottom layer.

As you can see from my first photo - I have leftover pieces to make more cards with - that makes me happy!  And what's more, straight outside my window, I can see Daffodil heads starting to form on the bulbs which have popped up. I can't wait to see what lovely colour and form they are!

Time to go check out what my stamping friends from the Art With Heart Team have also created featuring Crushed Curry.  The next blog on the hop belongs to the lovely and very talented Andrea Sargent. Click the box to go to her post. 

If you are hopping along and find a broken link, all the participants are listed on Cathy's blog here.

Scroll down to see all of the products I have used, and have a great rest of the week!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Card Stock A4 Crushed Curry [131288] $16.25	Butterfly Brilliance Cling Stamp Set [155092] $32.00	Brilliant Wings Dies [155523] $77.00
Tea Boutique 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [158659] $21.00	Stitched Rectangles Dies [151820] $61.00	Tailor Made Tags Dies [155563] $39.00
So Saffron Stampin' Write Marker [105114] $2.39	Crushed Curry Stampin' Write Marker [131901] $6.00	Basic White A4 Cardstock [159228] $18.00

This week for the Art With Heart - Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, I have selected a non-Christmas stamp set for the main image.I wanted to glance through my stash of stamp sets and check which other sets could be adapted to a Christmas theme, just by adding a Christmas greeting stamp, and selecting a Christmas colour palette.

I love how the Blessings of Home Bundle could be easily adapted for this, just by colouring it more traditional Christmas colours.

I stamped the main image on Shimmery White card stock then coloured with our Blender Pens, picking the ink up from the ink pad and lightly brushing it on until I got the depth of colour I required.

In this photo you can see the shimmer in the image from the card stock.

I die-cut this pieces and layered it with Dimensionals onto a layer of Vellum Cardstock, cut exactly the same size as the piece of Tea Boutique Designer Series Paper underneath.

This was layered onto Evening Evergreen card, which in turn was layered onto Soft Succulent. A few Pearl Basic Jewels were added for more glimmer, and a cut 3 pieces of foliage from Evening Evergreen card for more texture and to add a little more dark contrast to the card.

I stamped and coloured the other floral bouquet image in this stamp set too, so be sure to come back next week and see a second Christmas card using this same stamp set and colour scheme, but a completely different card!

In the meantime, I am off to hop around the other Art With Heart Blogs to see what the other Heart of Christmas ladies have created. I hope you will join me. Click on the box below to go to lovely Tina Gillespie's blog.

If a link on the blog hop is broken, you can find all the participants links on Sharon's blog here.

Scroll down to see all of the products I used this week, and I will see you again on Wednesday for Colour Creations, and next Monday for more Heart of Christmas, with the Blessings from Home stamp set and dies!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Blessings Of Home Cling Stamp Set (English) [157930] $44.00	Flowers Of Home Dies [163095] $56.00	Blessings Of Home Bundle (English) [157939] $90.00
Evening Evergreen A4 Cardstock [155575] $16.25	Evening Evergreen Classic Stampin' Pad [155576] $14.00	Soft Succulent A4 Cardstock [155777] $16.25
Sweet Sorbet Classic Stampin' Pad [159216] $14.00	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad [147087] $14.00	Blender Pens [102845] $21.00
Tea Boutique 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [158659] $21.00	Christmas To Remember Bundle (English) [156806] $104.25	Pearl Basic Jewels Embellishments [119247] $8.75
White Vellum A4 Card Stock [106584] $17.50	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $7.50	Mini Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [150673] $110.00

Probably my most used colour, is this week's  feature in the Art With Heart - Colour Creations Blog Hop.

Crumb Cake

Crumb Cake is such a useful colour! I use it a great deal with traditional Christmas colours, it makes an awesome neutral colour for a baby card if you want to make a non-gender specific baby card in advance, its great for masculine cards, and it's just an all-rounder when needing a neutral colour on any project.

I started this week by taking two card front size pieces of Crumb Cake cardstock and embossing them with the Seashells 3D embossing folder.

Then I gently rubbed Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride ink pads onto the raised side of one of the pieces, then spritzed it with water (thoroughly) to allow the colours to soften and bleed into each other.

Once that piece had dried, I die-cut it with the Seaside Seashells die, making sure to line the image up carefully, then ran it back through with the embossing folder again, to really make that piece nice and textured.

So I ended up with one original piece, and one slightly tinted die-cut piece.

I used a Crumb Cake base card and layered both pieces onto that, lining them up carefully and using lots of Dimensionals to make all the bits stick up, then added a simple label, with a scrap of the lovely silver mesh ribbon under it.

The oval label die-cut shape is from the Beautiful Shapes Dies pack - I love how it has that quirky sketched line inside the edge of the die-cut. I stamped the greeting in Soft Suede ink and gently sponged it with a combo of Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride inks.

Despite all the layers and details, this was an amazingly fast card to make - because of the awesome Stampin' Up! coordinating tools.  And I just love that with ONLY Crumb Cake card stock and a couple of ink pads, I have a beautiful card.

I am off to check out what the other talented Art With Heart demonstrators have created using Crumb Cake. If you would like to join me on the journey, click on the box below to go to lovely Theresa Gerrard's blog.

If you find a broken link on the blog hop, a full list of links is available on Cathy's blog - click here to go there and find your way around the whole blog hop.

Thanks for visiting and see you again next week!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [147116] $14.00	Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock [121685] $16.25	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [147115] $14.00
Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad [147100] $14.00	Stampin' Spritzer [126185] $5.75	Metallic Mesh Ribbon [153550] $14.00
Seashells 3 D Embossing Folder [154309] $15.75	Friends Are Like Seashells Photopolymer Stamp Set [154368] $45.00	Seaside Seashells Dies [156095] $60.00

Hey there Stamping friends!

Welcome to another Art With Heart - Colour Creations Blog hop!

This week we are exploring Coastal Cabana. I know many will be aghast when I say this is definitely not one of my favourite colours . . . 

Coastal Cabana

It looks such a pretty shade in the computer generated image, but I have to say, I think it is a very murky, too green colour that reminds me of a swimming pool with far too much chlorine in it LOL!

However!! I seriously LOVE the Hues of Happiness Designer Series Paper, and I was very happy to pull out a piece and make this over the top flurry of florals!

I used a Coastal Cabana card base, and cut the Designer Series Paper into three triangle pieces and layered it straight onto the base. Then I used Blending Brushes to rub some Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Old Olive and Mossy Meadow inks onto some Shimmery White card stock, which I then die-cut with the Summer Shadows Dies.

The greeting from Shaded Summer Stamp set is stamped in Mossy Meadow ink on a scrap of the brushed Shimmer Paper and die-cut with a label from Seasonal Labels Dies.

I used a sponge dauber to apply a small amount of Early Espresso ink to the centres of the flowers - well, okay, my Early Espresso ink pad is super wet . . . .I would have applied a SMALL amount . . .  ha ha ha!

For someone who is not that fond of Coastal Cabana ink, I am actually quite pleased with how pretty this card turned out!

I can't wait to see what the other Art With Heart team members have done! If you'd like to see too, please click on the box below to go to Rachel's blog.

If you find a broken link in the blog hop, Cathy has the links for all participants in her post here.
 

See you again soon with more card inspiration!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Victorian High Country)

Product List

Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana [131302] $16.25	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad [147097] $14.00	Hues Of Happiness 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper [158822] $21.00
Summer Shadows Dies [156618] $60.00	Blending Brushes [153611] $21.75	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad [147096] $14.00
Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad [147090] $14.00	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad [147111] $14.00	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad [147114] $14.00
Shaded Summer Cling Stamp Set [155783] $41.00	Sponge Daubers [133773] $8.75	Mini Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [150673] $110.00

This week in the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop with the Art With Heart demonstrator team, I have a very simple card for you with a fun background technique.

Have you used the Stamparatus yet? It is seriously the best tool!! 

Stamparatus [148187] $85.50

I selected four separate greeting stamps from the Christmas to Remember stamp set and placed them rubber side down on my Very Vanilla card stock, on the bed of the Stamparatus. I closed the plate, making the cling stamps stick to it, then re-opened it, inked up all four stamps with Crumb Cake, then closed the plate again.

I then  moved the plate down two hinge notches on the Stamparatus base, and moved the card across, first stamping to the left, then stamping to the right, to give me a repeat but off-set pattern. I stamped four times in total to do my card background, stamping in Crumb Cake ink each time.

The background was layered onto a Cherry Cobbler card base, and then to finish the card, I simply added some stamped, die-cut holly and berries, and a greeting stamp. The holly & berries are also on the inside of the card.

I really love how simple and elegant this card is. It would be an easy one to churn out a bit of a production line for your Christmas mailing.

If you would like to see what else the Art With Heart stampers have come up with this week for the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, please click on the box below to go to lovely Tina Gillespie's  blog.

If you are following the hop, and a link is broken Sharon has all the links for each participant on her blog post. Click here to find that.

I will be back on Wednesday with a Colour Creations blog post showing something not at all Christmassy! I hope to see you then!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Victorian High Country)

Product List

Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad [147083] $14.00	Evening Evergreen Classic Stampin' Pad [155576] $14.00	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [147116] $14.00
Christmas To Remember Cling Stamp Set (English) [156300] $41.00	Seasonal Labels Dies [156299] $67.00	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock [121681] $16.25
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock [106550] $18.00	Mini Glue Dots [103683] $9.25	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $7.50