Welcome to the weekly Colour Creations Blog Hop with the Art with Heart Stampin' Up! team.

This week we have a beautiful light purple shade from our Subtles family - Highland Heather.

Highland Heather

I needed a special milestone birthday card this week, so I decided to make my blog hop project with that card as an end goal, and I went online looking for some fancy fold card designs that might suit the supplies I had pulled out to use.

I found a pretty pink card by Heather Thomas - The Songbird Stamper UK, which not only had all the measurements spelled out with easy to follow instructions, but also a quick video showing how to assemble the card.

So in no time I was cutting up card and paper! I found I had to create my own sheet of Designer Series Paper, as I didn't have many in my collection which featured Highland Heather.

I started with Highland Heather ink on Basic White card, randomly stamping the paint spill stamp from Artistically Inked stamp set. When I had enough of that on the card, I then stamped the silver-plate jewellery background text stamp from the Ranunculus Romance stamp set.

Next, I inked up the Stacked Stone stamp and leaving the stamp face up, I carefully pressed portions of the card onto the inked stamp - in order to just get patches of the inked image. Then lastly, I changed to Garden Green ink and stamped the spatters from Quiet Meadow stamp set.

Once this piece was dry, I cut it into three and mounted it onto the base layers following Heather's measurements.

For the patterned paper layers on the three squares, I chose a sheet from the Tea Boutique 6"x 6" Designer Series Paper pack, with a small floral image.

In addition to the original measurements, I also used the Tailor Made Tags Dies to create a label for the front, and a smaller one for the middle square inside the card. I used the Alphabest stamp set to stamp "30" and punched the numbers with the Best Label punch.

The bunch of flowers stamped on the front label, and on the rear panel and all of the sentiment stamps come from the Amazing Year stamp set.

I put the extra panel on the back to have more space to write, considering it is a milestone birthday.

The inside square is attached to a pop-up type support so it sits out from the back of the card, but still layers behind the card front. It's a very simple attachment.

The bunch of flowers on the front was stamped with Garden Green ink so that the leaves and stems were already the correct colour to match the colours in the Tea Boutique Designer Series Paper I used in the layers on the squares. I coloured the flowers using the Highland Heather Stampin' Blends.

Now it's time for me to go and check what my talented stamping friends have also been creating with Highland Heather. The next blog belongs to the lovely Theresa Gerrard. Click on the next box below to continue on the blog hop.

If you find a broken link in the blog hop, our lovely host Cathy Proctor has all the participants and links on her blog here.

See you again soon with inky fingers!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Highland Heather A4 Cardstock [147010] $16.25	Highland Heather Classic Stampin' Pad [147103] $14.00	Highland Heather Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154887] $15.75
Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad [147089] $14.00	Tea Boutique 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [158659] $21.00	Amazing Year Cling Stamp Set (English) [159110] $39.00
Artistically Inked Cling Stamp Set [154542] $42.00	Ranunculus Romance Cling Stamp Set (English) [157968] $41.00	Quiet Meadow Cling Stamp Set [155082] $37.00
Stacked Stone Cling Background Stamp [152556] $32.00	Alphabest Bundle [158886] $57.50	Tailor Made Tags Dies [155563] $39.00

Welcome to our regular Monday evening Heart of Christmas blog hop with the Art With Heart Stampin' Up! team in Australia.This week I am featuring the lovely Boughs of Holly Suite from the Stampin' Up! July to December Mini Catalogue.

I took inspiration for my cards this week from one of the card samples on page 24 of the catalogue.

I really love the use of the beautiful Boughs of Holly Designer Series Paper in the sample, and how the poinsettia flowers were fussy cut and layered over the subtle striped Evening Evergreen print paper. So I decided to use that idea, but I also wanted to use the beautiful die-cut label from the product suite, so I changed the cards just a little to suit myself.

I chose to use Evening Evergreen for the base cards, and leave a small border showing behind the Designer Series Paper. And I used the up the incomplete flower prints from the sides of the paper to self-frame the second card.  

When you have a patterned paper with bold prints, designed for cutting out individually, this is a great way to use up those pieces around the edges of the paper, that might otherwise go to waste.

These cards could easily be stepped up with layered die-cut foliage, rhinestones or other jewels, the cute wooden Textural Elements that are part of the suite, and some ribbon or trim. In fact, I might even come back and add a stack of rhinestones to each one to give them that Christmas sparkle.

At the moment I have kept them really simple (and flat) because I know there is less chance of them being damaged in the post, or in having to pay extra postage for them. Have you posted your overseas Christmas cards yet? Better get on to that quickly!

Next in our Heart of Christmas blog hop is Rosa Leydon, I always look forward to seeing her creations. Click on the NEXT box below to go to Rosa's blog!

If there is a broken link in the blog hop, our normal Monday host is Sharon. All of the particpants and their links are listed on Sharon's post here.

Please leave a comment and I will see you again soon!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Boughs Of Holly Suite Collection (English) [159612] $139.00	Holly Berry Dies [159607] $61.00	Boughs Of Holly 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper [159600] $21.00
Evening Evergreen A4 Cardstock [155575] $16.25	Evening Evergreen Classic Stampin' Pad [155576] $14.00	Brightest Glow Cling Stamp Set (English) [159542] $44.00

Who doesn't love a warm gray for a neutral colour on your cards?

I know I do! And I am glad to be sharing in the Colour Creations Blog Hop with the Art With Heart stamping team today as we show off Gray Granite!

Gray Granite

Normally each week with the Colour Creations, I really feature the chosen colour as the main colour on the project. This week, I have gone for something a little different. I have taken all the pieces for two of the cards from the Birthday Cards Organiser Kit and I have added Gray Granite base cards, and added a Gray Granite item onto the card front.

I had to trim the card fronts that were supplied in the kit, to fit our card size better, then mounted it onto Gray Granite. Then for my first card, I die-cut the largest detailed butterfly from the Brilliant Butterflies Dies and adhered that to the card front, placing the small greeting from the kit over it.

I think the Gray Granite butterfly really softens the whole look of the card.

For the second card in the kit, I took inspiration from the supplied kit pieces and replaced the Sahara Sand rectangle layer, with a Gray Granite layer, cut with the Rectangle Stitched Dies.

To further soften this card, I switched out the 'white on black' label for Evening Evergreen text on a white label, also die-cut with the Stitched Rectangles.

Using the Stampin' Up! card kits makes card-making really straight forward and fast. But by adding different base cards and other layers, you can stretch the kit contents out and make more cards with similar pieces and colour schemes.

I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the team has created using Gray Granite. Please join me by hopping over to my lovely friend Christine Blain's blog post by clicking on the next box below.

If you find a broken link in our blog hop, our regular blog hop host, Cathy Proctor has all the participants and links on her blog post here.

See you again soon with inky fingers

Kathryn Ruddick,

(Mansfield, VIC - earthquake & tiger snake capital of 'Straya)

Product List

Gray Granite A4 Cardstock [147008] $16.25	Birthday Card Organizer Kit [161056] $44.00	Stitched Rectangles Dies [151820] $61.00
Brilliant Wings Dies [155523] $77.00	Evening Evergreen Classic Stampin' Pad [155576] $14.00	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $7.50

This week in the Heart of Christmas blog hop, I am using up a heap of leftover pieces from last week.

The Lights Aglow Designer Series Paper is definitely a favourite, and I had fun working out the best way to use up the leftover pieces from last week.

I had 4 long narrow strips of the DSP, as well as extra front panels, so I took this card design which uses the full length of an A4 card, cut to 14.9cm high, folded it into three equal panels, then folded the first two in half to form a small accordion fold.

I added extra card for what forms a kind of pop-out section, which has the greeting layers on it.

I really love all of the designs in the patterned paper, they all work so beautifully together.

I had some leftover circles from last week's projects, so I was able to do a bit of layering without having to cut any more pieces.

This is quite a simple card to make, so long as you can work out the measurements of the layers. and stick the pop-up bit in such a way that the card still folds flat for the envelope.

Time to check out the other Heart of Christmas creations from my Art With Heart friends.

Click on the box below to go to the blog of my lovely friend, Sharon Davern. Sharon is the next blog on the blog hop, and she also has a full list of participants and their links on her blog, in case you come across a broken link.

Please leave a comment, as I love you feedback, then continue on the blog hop.

See you on Wednesday for Colour Creations!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Welcome back to the Heart of Christmas Blog Hop where a group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators from the Art With Heart team, in Australia, share our Christmas card creations with you weekly.

Everyone I know is really loving the beautiful Lights Aglow Specialty Designer Series Paper in the Lights Aglow product suite. I love it too, and since my cards have been featuring a lot of Designer Series Paper recently, I decided to just use the paper, along with the Brightest Glow stamp set to make a stack of quick cards.

Two of the designs in the paper are a collection of stars forming four frames, two square and two round, and the design is easy to cut into four separate 3"x 3" pieces with a frame in the centre of each piece. So I took one Cherry Cobbler sheet and one Soft Succulent sheet and cut them in quarters, giving me the start of eight cards.

#Card cutting hack :

Each frame image becomes a 3"x 3" square piece, either with a round or square frame image in gold stars. The inner square is 4.5cm x 4.5cm. On the image on the left you can see a 4.5cm square of Very Vanilla card comes right to the edge of the gold star frame. In the image on the right I have cut the Very Vanilla at 4.2cm and this leaves a lovely border of the plain Cherry Cobbler showing inside the gold star frame.

I used Cherry Cobbler and Evening Evergreen inks to stamp several of the smaller greeting stamps from Brightest Glow stamp set and cut some of these with the Layering Circles dies, and some of them I cut with the trimmer into 4.2cm squares. I cut the long narrow one using the Seasonal Labels Dies.

The base cards and greeting panels are Very Vanilla card stock and I have created layers with the lightest gold in the Brushed Metallic card, some scraps of Evening Evergreen card and a variety of other sheets from the Lights Aglow DSP.

I have added a touch of luxury with some Gold Shimmer Ribbon, which is in our Annual Catalogue - it has such a beautiful sheen and matches perfectly with the Brushed Metallic Card.

Another favourite ribbon is the Gold & Vanilla Satin-Edged Ribbon in our July-December catalogue. I have actually misplaced mine, but for some reason this very similar one from a year or so ago was on my desk. Maybe I put the wrong one away - that wouldn't surprise me! Either ribbon would go perfectly!

These were super quick, simple cards to make, and with the designs in the Lights Aglow Designer Series Paper pack, you can easily whip up a stack of 16 Cherry Cobbler cards and 16 Soft Succulent cards. I made four of each colour this time around, and they were all unique, but very similar. I also used just a very small array of products to make these - you don't need stacks of supplies. The thumbnails of the products are at the bottom of this post, scroll down to see them!

Well, that's enough from me, I'd love you to see what the other Art With Heart creators have made. The next blog on the blog hop is the very talented and creative Andrea Sargent. Click on the next box to go to her blog!

If you find a broken link on the blog hop, please go to lovely Sharon's blog here where she has the full list of participants and their links.

Thanks for visting me! See you again soon, with inky fingers!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Lights Aglow 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper [159535] $27.00	Brightest Glow Cling Stamp Set (English) [159542] $44.00	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock [121681] $16.25
Evening Evergreen Classic Stampin' Pad [155576] $14.00	Evening Evergreen A4 Cardstock [155575] $16.25	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad [147083] $14.00
Gold & Vanilla 3/8" (1 Cm) Satin Edged Ribbon [159555] $14.00	Very Vanilla A4 Thick Cardstock [144238] $15.25	Gold 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Shimmer Ribbon [152156] $12.25
Layering Circles Dies [151770] $61.00	Seasonal Labels Dies [156299] $67.00	Paper Trimmer [152392] $44.00

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

This week we feature a strong warm purple which reminds me of Salvias, Pansies and Lavender.

While Gorgeous Grape works really well in a monotone project with lots of other purples, it also looks wonderful with bright, sunshine colours, and so that is what I have chosen this week.

Colour Creations

Gorgeous Grape

Melon Mambo

Granny Apple Green

Daffodil Delight

www.katlodesigns.com

When planning what I would make for the Colour Creations blog hop this week, I looked through my collection of stamp sets to see what I have that lends itself to the week's colour. I also like to see if there is a stamp set that I haven't used yet, which needs to see ink.

That lead to a fairly easy decision to use the Speedy Recovery Stamp set which I got in the recent 24 hour stamp sale.

Speedy Recovery is a simple, sweet stamp set with a mixture of images and nice "Get Well Soon" type sentiments in a really lovely font. The main images are really easy to fussy-cut with Stampin' Snips, so the set does not have a coordinating punch or die-set.

Today I went for the easiest background ever! I went through my files of cardstock scraps and pulled out the thin strips of leftover card, and basically glued them to a white Stitched Rectangle die-cut and then trimmed them to the desired length - which was pretty much random.

The background image was stamped directly on the layers of card using a dark green ink, then I added a tiny touch of white to the tag and flowers using the White Chalk Marker.

The main image was stamped in Gorgeous Grape ink on Basic White card, fussy-cut with Paper Snips, then mounted with a couple of Stampin' Dimensionals to pop it up off the card. The whole card front was then adhered to a Gorgeous Grape card base.

Following the very good and inspiring example of a couple of my stamping friends, I added a strip of the colour and a stamped image on the insides of the cards too.

It is now time to see what the other lovely Art With Heart stamping team members have done with Gorgeous Grape. If you click on the next box below, it will take you to Diane Furniss' blog, and so on . . . .

Should you find a broken link in the blog hop, each week all the participants and their links are listed on lovely Cathy Proctor's blog here.

See you again soon with very inky fingers!!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Gorgeous Grape A4 Cardstock [147011] $16.25	Gorgeous Grape Classic Stampin' Pad [147099] $14.00	Speedy Recovery Cling Stamp Set (English) [159024] $39.00
Melon Mambo A4 Card Stock [119980] $16.25	Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock [147014] $16.25	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock [121680] $16.25
Seasonal Labels Dies [156299] $67.00	Stitched Rectangles Dies [151820] $61.00	White Stampin' Chalk Marker [132133] $6.00

This week for the Heart of Christmas blog hop, I am revisiting the Santa's Delivery bundle.

Last time I made a slimline (DL) size card with the train engine and two carriages on the front. Ever since I got the bundle, I have been wanting to make a 3D train.

So this week was my chance. I added little open boxes to each piece that would easily hold 2-3 chocolates for a Christmas table centrepiece.

I used the Stamparatus and a silicon craft mat to reverse stamp the carriages and engine, so that I had both images facing in both directions. Then they could be mounted on either side of the very simple open boxes I made to support them.

The open boxes are 5cm long x 3cm wide and 4cm high.

I have deliberately left them unattached so they can be re-arranged, and they could even be used as little party favours or place cards.  I think I would like to make a really long train with a dozen or so carriages, but that might be for another day!

I hope you like my little project and it gives you some ideas as we get closer to the Christmas season - ideas for Christmas decorating or gift giving.

Now it's time to go see what the other Art With Heart team stampers have created this week for our blog hop.

 My friend Michele is next on the blog hop. She does some amazing projects! I can't wait to see what she has created tonight. Click on the next box below to go to her blog with me!

If you find a broken link in the blog hop, you can find a full list of participants and links at my friend Sharon's blog here.

Please do leave a comment and I will see you again soon!

Kathryn Ruddick

Mansfield (Vic)

Product List

Santa's Delivery Bundle (English) [159590] $85.50	Basic White A4 Cardstock [159228] $18.00	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $10.50
Shaded Spruce Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154903] $15.75	Soft Sea Foam Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154902] $15.75	Balmy Blue Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154830] $15.75
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	Basic Black Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154843] $15.75
Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154904] $15.75	Stampin' Seal+ [149699] $21.00	Mini Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [150673] $110.00

To celebrate World Card Making Day, today, I am participating in Kathryn's Blog Hop with my lovely friend Kathryn Mangelsdorf from South Australia. The blog hop participants are Stampin' Up! Demonstrators from all around the world each sharing a card made recently. Kathryn M. has also challenged us to post it within a week to someone special, as we all forget sometimes to send cards that we make and they just sit in a box.

Obviously, I made this card with a very specific person / family in mind, and it's on its way.

I have featured the Hues of Happiness Designer Series Paper, which is so bright and lovely. The card is sized to fit in a DL envelope, and I have cut the DSP slightly shorter to leave a small rectangle of Basic White on the right hand end, which I have then overlaid with the greeting panel and extra fussy-cut flowers which are popped up on Dimensionals.

The only Melon Mambo coloured ribbon I could find in my stash is a leftover piece from the gorgeous Everything Rosy suite which we had in our range a couple of years ago. It matched so well, and I love the texture, so I decided I was definitely using it.

The sentiment stamps on the front and inside the card are from Peaceful Moments stamp set and are stamped in Melon Mambo ink. I also added a couple of smaller flowers to the inside panel of the card.

Thanks for visiting my blog, I am off to see what the other talented stampers have created for World Card Making Day. I hope you will join me on my journey around the blog hop. And please do leave comments for each participant, we love reading your feedback.

To continue on the blog hop please click on the image below - the next button - to visit Penny Hanuszak's blog.

Should there be a broken link in the blog hop, Kathryn M will have a full list of participants and links on THIS page.

See you on Monday night for another Heart of Christmas!

Kathryn Ruddick

Mansfield VIC