Welcome to another Art With Heart Team, Colour Creations Blog Hop.

As I was collecting items from my stash to make my project this week, I knew I would be watching the Queen's funeral as I created. And it was kind of fitting that this week's colour is a beautiful pastel shade which she most definitely wore in her usual style.

This week, I am celebrating a wonderful life, well lived . . . .  and the gorgeous colour, Fresh Freesia.

Fresh Freesia

I thought about my memories of Her Majesty, and what would be a fitting style of card project that I would enjoy making, thinking of her and creating while watching the amazing funeral coverage on BBC.

I settled on the Tea Boutique Suite of products, because in my family, we always talked about popping in to have a cup of tea with "Aunty Betty".

When it came time to choose a green for the foliage, I could only select Parakeet Party - again in honor of Her Majesty and her wonderful colour choices. She wore this stunning ensemble for Harry & Meghan's wedding, and it came with her usual thoughtfulness towards the meaning and messages given by colour choices.

My first card is a very simple card - a layer of the lovely Tea Boutique Designer Series Paper for the background, overlaid on the left with the sparkly Metallic Mesh Ribbon. Then a panel cut with the Stitched Rectangle Dies, stamped with the foliage and small flowers. A separate tea cup stamped and die-cut and popped up on Dimensionals over the base of the foliage.

My second card is a simple Z-fold, with an extra panel on the front. I started with stamping and die-cutting a few teacups in different combinations of Fresh Freesia and Basic White using the Cup of Tea stamp set and Teacup dies. Then die-cut another Stitched Rectangle panel. I felt then it needed bigger foliage so I also stamped and die-cut the bigger leaves with Parakeet Party ink.

I used the same piece of Designer Series Paper for the strip on the front panel. The smaller foliage was a sweet addition to the inside panel. I also decided to use a sponge dauber to add a little shadow and depth to the tea-cups. Isn't it funny how the ink comes up much darker?

I haven't put any sentiments on either of these cards - they would both be suitable for a Happy Birthday, Sending Hugs, Thinking of You - any occasion really. But at the time I was making them, while watching the fantastical production of the incredibly emotional funeral, I didn't have the heart for Happy Birthday stamps. That can come later when I decide who I am sending them to.

Thanks for stopping by. Now it's time to go and see what the other Art With Heart team members have created with Fresh Freesia. You can go to my lovely friend Tina's blog by clicking on the box below.

If you find a broken link in the blog hop, you can come back here to click on Cathy's blog where Cathy has a list of the participants and their links.

Thanks again for visiting, see you soon with ink on your fingers.

Long Live the King!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Fresh Freesia A4 Cardstock [155614] $16.25	Fresh Freesia Classic Stampin' Pad [155611] $14.00	Tea Boutique 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [158659] $21.00
Tea Boutique Suite Collection (English) [158670] $117.50	Cup Of Tea Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [158661] $41.00	Teacup Dies [160186] $47.00
Parakeet Party Classic Stampin' Pad [159208] $14.00	Basic White A4 Thick Cardstock [159230] $15.25	Stitched Rectangles Dies [151820] $61.00
Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $7.50	Metallic Mesh Ribbon [153550] $14.00	Sponge Daubers [133773] $8.75

All aboard for this week's Heart of Christmas Blog Hop!

The Art With Heart Stampin' Up! team is back again with our weekly Christmas card inspiration.

I have chosen to use the Santa's Delivery bundle today for a cheery Christmas train. The bundle includes the Santa's Delivery stamp set and the Santa's Train Dies.

I started with a Soft Sea Foam card base. This one is is 21cm x 10.5cm to fit in a DL envelope. I used Soft Sea Foam, Pear Pizzazz and Mint Macaron ink pads to stamp trees all over the card front to form a forest of pine trees. The trees are from the Trees For Sale stamp set.

I cut two train tracks from the Santa's Train Dies in Basic Gray card. I stamped the little puffs of smoke from the steam engine with Balmy Blue Ink and die cut them. Then I stamped the Merry Christmas in Poppy Parade ink and used the foam border die from Basic Borders Die Set to create a bigger smoke puff which I daubed around the edges with Balmy Blue Ink.

The train engine and carriages were stamped with Memento ink and coloured with Stampin' Blends. I used quite a variety of colours including Shaded Spruce, Poppy Parade, Real Red, Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody Balmy Blue, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Old Olive, Smoky Slate and Basic Black.

I think a train full of Christmas cheer is a lovely idea, I'd love to see Puffing Billy all dressed up for the occasion!

Now it is time to see what the other clever stampers have come up with this week. Click on the box below to be taken to the blog of the very talented Cathy Proctor - I can't wait to see what she has created.

Should you find a broken link on the blog hop, you can find a list of participants and all the links on Tina's blog here.

Enjoy the blog hop and see you again soon!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Santa's Delivery Bundle (English) [159590] $85.50	Santa's Delivery Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [159583] $39.00	Santa's Train Dies [159589] $56.00
Soft Sea Foam A4 Cardstock [147012] $16.25	Soft Sea Foam Classic Stampin' Pad [147102] $14.00	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad [147104] $14.00
Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad [147106] $14.00	Poppy Parade Classic Stampin' Pad [147050] $14.00	Balmy Blue Classic Stampin' Pad [147105] $14.00
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $10.50	Basic Borders Dies [155558] $51.00	Trees For Sale Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [159785] $39.00
Old Olive Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154892] $15.75	Shaded Spruce Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154903] $15.75	Balmy Blue Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [148544] $15.50
Mango Melody Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154888] $15.50	Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154883] $15.75	Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154958] $15.75
Real Red Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154899] $15.75	Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154880] $15.75	Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154882] $15.75
Soft Sea Foam Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154902] $15.75	Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154904] $15.75	Basic Black Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154843] $15.75

This week the Art With Heart Stampin' Up! team are celebrating a cheery pink.

Flirty Flamingo

I had a quick glance through my stamps, trying to see which ones jumped out at me to showcase Flirty Flamingo. What jumped out was some cards in the Santa Express Memories & More cards which feature some pinks in the designs.

The Memories & More Cards have such a lovely range of greens, complimented by the cheerful pink.

The first card I made was a bit of a disaster. The background had some text on it which I covered with the Merry Christmas label. But to my eye, the position of the label is really unbalanced and leaves a lot of plain white card and uncertainty about what the image is supposed to be. Sad, but the label couldn't have gone anywhere else on the card. I think I might gently peal it off and stick a whole heap of die-cut foliage underneath in Flirty Flamingo and Mint Macaroon.

The second card was heaps better, just because the background card was SO gorgeous!

This is probably one of the simplest cards I have ever made. I trimmed the Memories and More card down to fit nicely on a card front. On a scrap of Basic White card I stamped a Christmas sentiment in Flirty Flamingo ink. The greeting was die-cut using a die from the Painted Labels dies, and then a piece of ribbon was looped underneath.

One other little finishing touch, was running around the groove in the die-cut with the Flirty Flamingo Stampin' Write marker. I like that extra touch.

Don't you love the colours and tree pattern in the background?

That's all from me. I would love you to join me on the blog-hop and see what the other Art With Heart team members have created. Click on the box below to go to Cathy Proctor's blog - she always does such gorgeous projects!

If you find a broken link on the blog-hop, you will also find a complete list of participants and links on Cathy's post.

Enjoy exploring the Flirty Flamingo creations! See you soon, with ink on your fingers.

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad [147052] $14.00	Flirty Flamingo A4 Cardstock [141421] $16.25	Santa Express Memories & More Card Pack [159595] $21.00
Brightest Glow Cling Stamp Set (English) [159542] $44.00	Painted Labels Dies [151605] $61.00	Pearl Basic Jewels [144219] $10.50
Soft Succulent 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Satin Shimmer Ribbon [158133] $13.25	Basic White A4 Cardstock [159228] $18.00	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $7.50

Welcome to this week's Heart of Christmas.

This week I really wanted to use the cute bear stamp from the Happiest of Happy stamp set, which is part of the Happy Forest Friends product suite on pages 46-47 of the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue. I had in mind that the paper contained a sheet with pine trees on it and I thought I could easily convert it to a Christmas card.

Turns out there is no pine tree image in that paper pack. The whimsical trees from the Trees For Sale stamp set suited the style, so I decided to stamp some instead.

To tie it in with the Christmas theme, I pulled out and sorted through the Santa Express Memories & More card pack to find some backgrounds and sentiments.

I found the cute bow die-cut in the Santa’s Train die set from our July to December mini catalogue. I cut three of them in Poppy Parade card to match the red in the Memories & More cards.

I really like the way the bear stamped in the Soft Suede ink - it's a beautiful watercoloury effect with a crisp outline.

These are very, very simple cards. But I think they are a bit fun and whimsical and would make great cards to send to some favourite nieces and nephews.

Please join me in visiting the rest of the blog hop. The next stop on the blog hop is the very creative Kate Morgan - I always look forward to seeing what she has created. Click on the box below to go to her blog.

If you find a broken link on the blog hop, my lovely friend Sharon is hosting the hop again this week and has all the links listed on her post. Click here to get back to the main list.

I will be back on Wednesday for Colour Creations - Flirty Flamingo. See you then!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC).

Product List

Santa's Delivery Bundle (English) [159590] $85.50	Santa Express Memories & More Card Pack [159595] $21.00	Happy Forest Friends Suite Collection (English) [158956] $120.50
Trees For Sale Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [159785] $39.00	Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock [121694] $16.25	Shaded Spruce A4 Cardstock [147006] $16.25
Poppy Parade Classic Stampin' Pad [147050] $14.00	Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin' Pad [147088] $14.00	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad [147095] $14.00

I really LOVE the 2021-2023 In Colours, and this week's Colour Creations features one of my favourites!

This week the Art With Heart creative team are celebrating Evening Evergreen - a beautiful, useful, Christmassy, pine forest green!

Evening Evergreen

I have been making a lot of Christmas cards lately with this beautiful colour, so for this week's blog hop, I wanted to steer away from Christmas and make something else. I found some gorgeous inspiration from UK demonstrator Mikaela Titheridge here.

So, let's just say, I got a little bit carried away!!

Once I started stamping and die-cutting those divine floral images from the Artistically Inked stamp set and Artistic Dies, I didn't know where to stop, and when I put the exquisite brushed gold detailed die-cut against the Evening Evergreen, I just wanted to do more!! 

I started with the easel card - blame my friend Sharon for that - I always want to do at least one fancy fold now, not just standard cards!

So the base of the easel card is Evening Evergreen.

Then I used the largest of the Seasonal Labels Dies to cut a card front. I managed to get such a large piece by doing a clever technique where you only roll half the die-cut through the die-cutting machine, then you flip the whole thing around, leaving a gap, and run the other half through, then you use your trimmer to join the die-cut lines so you get an elongated label.

Does that make sense? I have done this technique dozens of times. It's really useful for creating a bigger shape. I use it with the Rectangle Stitched Dies all the time.

How beautiful is that shimmer of gold from the Brushed Metallic cardstock? It goes so well with the Gold Shimmer Ribbon. And inspired by my friend Cathy, I actually used two different ribbons on this card front.

I really love how the Evening Evergreen Windowpane Check ribbon coordinates AND contrasts with the card front. The colour match is perfect, and the formal gridlines are really soothing to the eye, to balance out the over-abundance of  detailed floral lines.

How's that shimmer of gold in the luxe ribbon, and the detailed die-cut? And in contrast, how is that heavenly watercolour effect from the background stamp from the Artistically Inked stamp set?

On the inside of the easel, I used the same Seasonal Labels die as the front panel, without extending it. I kept a really simple greeting stamp and panel, to leave room for writing my message. And I popped up a stamped rose to hold the easel in place.

I like the two different sprigs of leaves. It's very whacky to have watercolour-ish green leaves, and very formal gold die-cut leaves adorning the same flower, but with this stamp set, it just works so well!

And I love the gold against the Evening Evergreen.

I could have stopped right there - that was enough for the Blog Hop . . . . but I loved the colours and the images so much, that I just cut up and stamped more Evening Evergreen card-bases, and kept adding the Brushed Gold and Polished Pink floral images!

This second card contains the same two ribbon pieces as the easel card, and a smaller Seasonal Labels die-cut with the greeting stamped in Polished Pink.

Again, there is such a beautiful shimmer between the Gold Shimmer Ribbon and the Brushed Gold detailed die-cut.

For the third card, I cut out the gold ribbon and added a big bunch of white bakers twine. I also added small floral images in Pale Papaya.

For the fourth card, I switched out the two ribbons altogether, for Soft Succulent Satin ribbon - so luxurious!!

I used greeting stamps from Artistically Inked, Ranunculus Romance and Quiet Meadow stamp sets.

I stamped the inside of all of the cards, with or without any sentiment stamps. The background image is stamped in Soft Succulent, and the greeting stamped in Evening Evergreen. I had actual people in mind for a couple of these cards, so I had to leave room for the handwritten messages.

That's really a lot from me - I better let you go and see what all of my other talented friends have created featuring Evening Evergreen ink, card and paper.

Join me on the blog hop by clicking on the box below to go to my dear friend Christine Blain's blog. Her cards are so elegant, and I know this is one of her favourite colours too, so I can't wait to see what she has created!

If you are journeying through the blog hop and you find a broken link, you can always come back here and follow THIS LINK to Cathy's blog - our lovely blog host. Cathy has a list of all participants and links on her post.

Thanks for joining us! See you again next week for more colour inspiration - but don't forget to check back with us in the morning to see the 2nd week of September Weekly Deals!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Evening Evergreen A4 Cardstock [155575] $16.25	Evening Evergreen Classic Stampin' Pad [155576] $14.00	Evening Evergreen 3/8'' (1 Cm) Windowpane Check Ribbon [158135] $13.25
Soft Succulent A4 Cardstock [155777] $16.25	Soft Succulent Classic Stampin' Pad [155778] $14.00	Soft Succulent 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Satin Shimmer Ribbon [158133] $13.25
Artistically Inked Cling Stamp Set [154542] $42.00	Artistic Dies [155371] $61.00	Ranunculus Romance Cling Stamp Set (English) [157968] $41.00
Quiet Meadow Cling Stamp Set [155082] $37.00	Seasonal Labels Dies [156299] $67.00	Polished Pink Classic Stampin' Pad [155712] $14.00
Pale Papaya Classic Stampin' Pad [155670] $14.00	Brushed Metallic 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Cardstock [163103] $27.00	Gold 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Shimmer Ribbon [152156] $12.25
Basic White A4 Cardstock [159228] $18.00	Baker's Twine Essentials Pack [155475] $19.25	Mini Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [150673] $110.00

Last week I dug out the Nothing Is Better Than stamp set to use the coffee & chocolate images to showcase Early Espresso in the Colour Creations Blog Hop.

It inspired me to use the same set again this week, but for Heart of Christmas.

So here, we are, welcome to Heart of Christmas with the Art With Heart Stampin' Up! creative team.

What could be more Christmassy than baking a heap of cookies - to give as gifts, or just to enjoy around the Christmas tree with your family and friends?

I went for semi-traditional colours from our In Colour families to compliment the Crumb Cake and Early Espresso cookie images. The "red" patterned paper is Sweet Sorbet from the Tea Boutique Designer Series Paper pack. This is mounted on an Evening Evergreen mat, and a Soft Succulent base card.

I'm am getting so much use of the Nothing is Better Than stamp set and Love You More dies, along with the Christmas to Remember stamp set and coordinating Seasonal Labels dies.  Sometimes you just need a couple of holly leaves to switch up an un-Christmas card. 

And of course, you can't have a Christmas Cookie card without having the box of cookies to go with it!!

And the great thing about this box lid, is I just used up the leftover pieces from making the card. The box base is a small food-safe box I had in my (un-ending) stash, and I simply made an Evening Evergreen lid for it, and added the circles which I cut from the card front.

The inside of the card has more holly leaves and an extra cookie.

Well, I'm going to see what the other talented Art With Heart ladies have created. If you would like to join me on the journey around the other blogs, click on the box below to go to lovely Michele's blog.

Should you find a broken link on the blog hop, my dear friend Sharon has a list of all the participants and links on her blog post. Click here.

Have a great week, and I will see you on Wednesday night for Colour Creations!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Nothing's Better Than Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [152507] $38.00	Love You More Than Dies [152698] $53.00	Christmas To Remember Cling Stamp Set (English) [156300] $41.00
Seasonal Labels Dies [156299] $67.00	Tea Boutique 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [158659] $21.00	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad [147084] $14.00
Soft Succulent A4 Cardstock [155777] $16.25	Soft Succulent Classic Stampin' Pad [155778] $14.00	Evening Evergreen A4 Cardstock [155575] $16.25
Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad [147114] $14.00	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [147116] $14.00	Basic White A4 Cardstock [159228] $18.00
Mini Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [150673] $110.00	Layering Circles Dies [151770] $61.00	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $7.50