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

Who doesn't love a versatile soft pink which goes with everything??

It's Kathryn here, and I am excited to share that this week's AWH Colour Creations Showcase is Petal Pink!

In our January to June Mini Catalogue we have the cutest product suite - Snail Mail. The Snail Mail Designer Series Paper is loaded with beautiful bright colours and for this week's showcase I decided to introduce Petal Pink as the base colour and bring in the colours out of the suite, using fussy cut and die-cut images from the paper and a little bit of background stamping.

One of the first things I love to do with new Designer Series Paper that has coordinating dies, is sit and cut out a heap of shapes that I can then use on cards or other projects. By the time you have cut a dozen or so, the ideas are flowing.

I thought all these cut out shapes really loaned themselves to a couple of simple fancy fold cards so after cutting out a stack of shapes, I made a very straight forward "Z" fold card - Petal Pink as the base and Basic White panels.

Then it was just a matter of adhering the die cut (and a few fussy cut) images to the card. For the front panel I also stamped the toadstool image in Petal Pink and used the white Watercolor Pencil to add a couple of highlights.

The big toadstool on the front right of the "Z" fold hides the snail that appears only when the card is open. You can see that I also stamped the toadstool image on the "Z" piece.

Next I made a basic easel card with more of the pieces I had cut out earlier.

All of the die cut shapes are cut from the coordinating Snail Dies set in the same catalogue - I often add other dies to the mix, but I didn't need to with this amazing product suite.

I ended up making two more cards from all the pieces I had cut out of the paper! I will leave them for another day - because by the time I took full photos and close up photos I had about 20 photos. I don't think my blog platform will like it if I do a blog post with 20 photos in it! LOL

Anyway, you see how well the Petal Pink goes being used as a base card - kind of a substitute neutral colour on these cards. Feel free to pop back in a couple of days to see the other two cards - they are standard cards, not fancy fold - and I whipped them up in about 10 minutes each just using the leftover pieces. Got to love that!!

I hope you enjoyed looking at my Snail Mail projects, and if you would like to see how the rest of the Art With Heart ladies have used Petal Pink, please hop over to Cathy's blog where she has all the links for their posts.

See you soon with ink on your fingers!

Kathryn Ruddick

Product List

Snail Mail Suite Collection [155986] $121.00	Petal Pink A4 Cardstock [147009] $15.25	Petal Pink Classic Stampin' Pad [147108] $13.00
Snailed It Cling Stamp Set [154472] $33.00	Snail Dies [154327] $52.00	Snail Mail Designer Series Paper [154577] $20.00
Real Red A4 Card Stock [106578] $15.25	Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay [131286] $15.25	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad [147084] $13.00

Welcome to Week 32 of the Art With Heart Colour Creations Showcase! My name is Kathryn, and this week's beautiful colour is Pacific Point!

I love using our Designer Series Papers to show off the featured colour - it's so easy then to colour coordinate with ink pads and cardstock. So I usually start this process by looking through our catalogues to see which paper the selected colour is in.

For Pacific Point, I was delighted to see Whale of a Time 6x6 Designer Series Paper appear in my search. I love this paper and have hardly used it "because it's too nice to cut" LOL

As soon as I started laying the pages out on my work table, I knew I was going to make a Pacific Point diorama card - using Pacific Point as the base card and internal layers and showing off the gorgeous papers.

Now, I don't own the stamp set or the Whale punch that form part of the Whale of a Time Suite, but I'm sure you'll agree, you can make a truly gorgeous project with just the patterned paper and a few other supplies.

I made the diorama card square with a 6"x 6" front to show off the full pieces of Designer Series Paper, and I made it 6cms deep so when it is folded flat it fits nicely inside a C5 envelope.

There is a lot of fussy cutting here with my trusty Paper Snips, but if you look carefully, you can see I also used a couple of die-cuts - the seaweed from Smooth Sailing Dies and the skeleton tree from In The Woods Dies which looks just like coral when cut out from Calypso Coral card stock.

For the back of the diorama card, I trimmed one full piece of the 6"x 6" paper down to 5 & 7/8" square, so it would fit on the back with a small border of the Pacific Point and this became my writing panel.

Don't you just love these gorgeous papers and the beautiful ocean designs?

Please leave me a comment and then I hope you will click through to Cathy's blog where she has all the links for the other Pacific Point creations by the talented Art With Heart stampers.

See you soon with ink on your fingers!

Kathryn Ruddick

Product List

Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad [147098] $13.00	Pacific Point A4 Card Stock [116202] $15.25	Whale Of A Time 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [152460] $20.00
Paper Snips [103579] $17.00	Smooth Sailing Dies [149576] $56.00	In The Woods Dies [151809] $57.00
Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock [121680] $15.25	Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock [147014] $15.25	Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock [124392] $15.25

Last Thursday I posted about some cute gift bags made with the Magnolia Lane Designer Series Paper.  See the post here

I also did a video on my Facebook page so you can see how I made one of the boxes - See the video here. 

Did you know there are 2 different packs of paper?

YES! That's right, there is the regular 12"x 12" Designer Series Paper Pack with 12 sheets, 2 each of 2 double sided designs, THEN, there is a bulk pack, 12"x 12", 20 sheets, 10 each of 2 double sided designs. This second pack was only available for demonstrators when the catalogue first came out, but now, YOU can have it too, and it's perfect if you need to make a stack of cards with the same design. 

Product List

Magnolia Lane Designer Series Paper [149484] $20.00

Magnolia Lane Bulk Designer Series Paper [152455] $30.00

These are some of the other items I used on those two gift packaging projects - AND the gorgeous ribbon is discounted in our Year End Close Out Sale. 

Product List

Magnolia Lane Small Memories & More Card Pack [152728] $17.50	Magnolia Lane Memories & More Card Pack [149554] $19.25	Magnolia Blooms Photopolymer Stamp Set [152729] $24.00
Come To Gather Ribbon Combo Pack [150456] $15.75	Petal Pink Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [147272] $15.50	Old Olive Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144597] $15.50

YES! That's right, our End of Year Close Out sale is on now - there is a limited range of discounted items, plus you can see which favourite products from our Christmas (Holiday) catalogue will not carryover and are only available while stocks last.  Check those all out here.

All items are available to order in my online shop, or message me if you need help with it!  Don't forget to grab some of that beautiful soft Crumb Cake "Come to Gather" Ribbon so you can tie off a couple of 2-5-7-11 boxes with it like I did - it's so soft and lovely to tie into gorgeous bows.

Talk soon,

Kathryn

These days we give (and receive) lots of gift cards or vouchers rather than physical presents.

In our house we like to top those gift cards up with some stocking filler type gifts too and for me, it seems really important to then go to some effort in packaging these tiny token gifts so the recipient can see that some effort has gone into it.

It's kind of the opposite of tying a bow around a new Masserati . . . and no, I'm not planning on doing that for anyone this Christmas LOL.

The packaging doesn't have to be complicated. These shiny gold striped treat bags from Stampin' Up! are perfect for adding a tag and a bow and creating a very elegant gift. There are 10 bags in a pack and they are food safe if you are into baking Christmas goodies!

The tag(s) in this case are so simple - layered squares of white cream and gold with the initial of the recipients name cut in gold foil card adhered to the top. Easy!

Why not give simple gift packaging a go next time you have a trinket or treat to give someone? 

Product List

Striped Treat Bags [144255] $9.50

Large Letters Framelits Dies [141712] $172.00

Gold Foil Sheets [132622] $7.00

Hey there papercrafters!

I promised some friends I would add a few details of my latest project here to the blog, so hopefully you can get enough information from it to give this project a try yourself.

My project inspiration came from a gorgeous album I saw on Instagram. You can see it here.

Start with Chipboard for your covers - 3 pieces, front, back and spine.

Connie's album is 9.5 x 9.5 cm. I found chipboard which was 11 x 15.4 cm so I decided my album was going to be 11 x 11 cm so I'd only have to do one cut in each piece with the steel ruler and craft knife. The off-cut of one piece then also became the spine, so there was little wasted.

I selected the piece of designer series paper which was going to form my cover  - I had a stack of 6" x 12" pieces from my team product share - and I laid the chip board pieces on it to see if it would wrap around like when you are covering school books.  It was pretty much the perfect size leaving about a 2cm fold on all four edges, with about 1/2 cm between the pieces to allow the covers to fold in. If you butt each piece of chipboard hard up against the next one the DSP will tear when you try to close the book - you need to leave a gap so it's flexible.

I applied double sided tape all over one side of each piece of chipboard then placed them sticky side down on the DSP. Then fold in the edge pieces, sticking them down as you go exactly if you were covering school books. You can see a bit of what that looks like in the photo below.

Next up was the concertina fold which forms the mechanism of the spine. The pocket pages are each attached to one of these tabs.  I made the tabs 1cm deep and 0.5cm apart.  In effect that meant scoring the Whisper White card at 4cm, 5cm, 6cm, 7cm, 7.5, 8.5, 9.5, 10, 11, 12, 12.5 . . . or at intervals 1cm, 1cm, 0.5cm, 1cm, 1cm, 0.5cm, 1cm, 1cm, 0.5cm etc until you have as many tabs as you need. I could have easily fitted one more in this spine so I had 7 pages, but I was happy having the extra 1cm on each end.

Attach this into the cover with Tombow Mono Liquid Glue or Tear'n'Tape.

I then attached 2 lengths of Poppy Parade ribbon to the inside of each cover and cut 2 squares of Poppy Parade card to cover the make sure the spine mechanism is more strongly attached to the cover. I then added a diagonal DSP pocket to each cover using that gorgeous flocked striped paper from the Santa's Workshop Designer Series Paper pack. It is such heavenly paper!

 Next step is the pages and Oh Happy Day! because I made the album covers 11cms, I could get away with cutting my A4 card stock in half lengthwise so I had two 10.5cm x 29.7cm pieces. I used Garden Green, Poppy Parade, Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry and Gray Granite.

Score at 10.5cm, and 21.1cm, then trim off the end so you just have a 2-3cm flap for joining the piece in a loop.

The fun part was coming up with the decorating and I knew I wanted to use lots of the cute images from Santa's Workshop DSP and also from the Memories and More card pack.  Rather than trying to plan each page out one at a time, I find it easier to just cut a stack of images and coordinating papers then mix and match them.

Out comes the trusty Big Shot, because guess what!! Yes, the DSP is designed so that the images also fit the set of Santa's Signpost Framelit Dies which in turn matches the stamp set - HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!!

How Awesome is that!! Depending on how you line them up on the platform, you can cut up to 6 images at once!

I used matching pieces of patterned paper from our 6"x 6" Designer Series Paper Stacks - Crushed Curry, Poppy Parade, Coastal Cabana and Garden Green and also added a couple of ovals of Whisper White cut with the Layering Ovals Dies and the Stitched Shaped Framelits.

This shows you just how simple it can be.

Next I selected Memories and More cards to be the basis of the pull out tabs would be hidden inside each of the pocket pages, matched them up with card stock to make them 10cm x 9cm and punched a tab for each one.  I also went back over each page and insert tab to see if there were any glittery die cut stickers in the Memories and More kit that I could add to the each page to embellish it without over-doing it.

With the pages all finished it was time to attach the pockets to the spine of the album. I run a thin bead of Tombow Mono Liquid glue on each side of one tab (one at a time) and slide the pocket page over the tab, centering it vertically in the album, then hold it in place for a minute or so until the glue grabs, before moving on to the next one.

I then let is sit overnight before inserting my pull out tabs into each pocket too.

And Voila!

Last night I created a Facebook Live presentation of the finished album on my Facebook Business page. If you would like to see it, click on the photo below.

All of the products in this project are currently available through my online shop, to shoppers anywhere in Australia.  Click on the thumbnail images below to go straight to the item to order your own, or contact me if you need help. 

Product List

Santa's Workshop 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper [147809] $24.25	Santa's Signpost Framelits Dies [147911] $56.00	Santa's Workshop Memories & More Card Pack [147905] $17.50
Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock [121694] $14.75	Garden Green A4 Card Stock [108605] $14.75	Card Stock A4 Crushed Curry [131288] $14.75
Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana [131302] $14.75	Poppy Parade 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Textured Weave Ribbon [147813] $13.00	Gray Granite A4 Cardstock [147008] $14.75

Thanks for reading all this way!! Remember, if you need help with this, check out the video for a closer look, and send me a message if you need more information. Talk soon!

Kathryn

This week I am enjoying creating using new products from the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue, being inspired by projects and pages straight out of the catalogue (or Casing the Catty - as we call it), and sharing that inspiration with members of our wider Art With Heart Stampin' Up! team in a "Case the Catalogue" Blog Hop.

If you have arrived here from my lovely friend Kathryn Manglesdorf's blog, welcome. If you are starting here, grab a cuppa and follow the next button on each blog to do a full circle of creativity. And please leave us comments! We love to hear what you think.

Last week I was on our casual kiosk at Chirnside Park shopping centre all day Friday, and as I was packing my stuff on Thursday night (and trying to think what I would stamp all day Friday at the kiosk), my mum brought over Sweet Storybook Stamp set and framelits bundle and says, "You do want to stamp mice all day tomorrow, don't you?"

Oooh my! Yes Please!!!

Here's the super cute picture that is on page 160 of the Annual Catalogue. It's really hard to make out what format the cards take (which type of fold) because of the very light colours against the white background, but that gave me lots of scope for using my imagination in coming up with my own projects.

I stamped and stamped and cut out mice and leaves and had a fabulous day working with these gorgeous colours and these super cute images. I decorated four gift bags and made 3 cards.

The ribbon on the bags is Granny Apple Green. A lovely splash of green to match the leaves of the vine image.

I had a great deal of trouble stamping the little red flowers because of the string handles and the extra layer of strong reinforcing card on the inside of the top of the bag - made my image miss-stamp each time, and because it was such a tiny stamp it was very easy to get an ink halo.

I discovered later that it was much easier to get an awesome image of the flowers by putting all 3 flower stamps on a block at once. There is also a framelit for each of the flowers so you will see that the cards I completed next have the flowers stamped and cut out separately instead of being stamped direct on the background like I tried to do with the bags.

Here's some close up's of each one.  The first was just a normal fold A5 card, but with 3 layers on the front being 4 Stampin' Dimensionals deep.

The next card was a tri-fold card with a window through the first two panels to show the inside of the card.

And lastly I created a diorama card with 3 layers which will fold flat to fit in our standard envelope.

All of these projects are made using Whisper White Card stock, Soft Sea Foam Card stock, Granny Apple Green Classic Ink Pad, either Lovely Lipstick or Calypso Coral Classic Inkpads for the top of the mushroom and the flowers, Crumb Cake Ink painted on with an Aquapainter for the mushroom stem, and a combination of Crumb Cake or Gray Granite Ink for the mice, with outline stamps in Momento Black.

Aren't these just too cute?

Product List

Sweet Storybook Photopolymer Bundle [148409] $77.25	Soft Sea Foam A4 Cardstock [147012] $14.75	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad [147095] $13.00
Lovely Lipstick Classic Stampin' Pad [147140] $13.00	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [147116] $13.00	Blender Pens [102845] $21.00

 If you've left me a comment (thank you!!) and are ready to continue on in the blog hop and see what everyone else has created, then please click on the next blog picture here and go see what gorgeous projects talented Kate Morgan has created!

Catherine Proctor
Kimberly Hern 

Monika O’Neill

Caroline Manwaring

Kathryn Mangelsdorf 

Kathryn Ruddick 

Kate Morgan 

Alisha Watson

Rachel Palmeri 

Andrea Roberts 

Ros Davidson

Rebecca Jacovou

Rachel Woollard

Tina Gillespie

During late November, some of my lovely Stampin' Up! team members and I were at the Stampin' Up! stand at the Melbourne Stitches and Craft Show.

We love meeting people at the Craft Shows - and the Royal Exhibition Building is something super special - except for the fact that the weather was like this week and that dear old building doesn't have Air Conditioning!! Boy was it hot!!

I've taken a break from the major craft shows for the last year or two, as it's a) a lot of work!! and b) quite expensive . . . but this year to offset our costs of having the stand there, we agreed to prepare and sell kits for various papercraft projects.

There are a few of these left over, and I'd like to share them with you, in case you didn't get to the show and would like to get your hands on some great ready to make kits, and excellent instructions.

Explosion Box Card

First we we have two Explosion Box kits. 

Kits include all pre-cut pieces, card, paper, labels and ribbon, as well as full instructions. You will need to provide adhesives and in some cases a Christmas (or other) greeting stamp set.

In-Colour Butterfly Explosion Box, and Christmas music Explosion Box. $20 each + postage. Kit size is 12" x 12"

Next : Box in a Card Kit

Kits include all pre-cut pieces, card, paper, labels and ribbon, as well as full instructions. You will need to provide adhesives and in some cases a Christmas (or other) greeting stamp set.  Kit is $10 + postage.

Third, a cheerful, floral all occasions card.

Could be used for birthday or thinking of you.

Kits include all pre-cut pieces, card, paper, labels and ribbon, as well as full instructions. You will need to provide adhesives and in some cases a Christmas (or other) greeting stamp set.  Kit is $8 + postage.

If you would like to purchase any of these kits. please comment below with your email address, or email [email protected]  Payment via DD, CC or Paypal. Kits will be posted as soon as payment is received. Multiples of each kit still available.

Hey there!

How are you going? If you are like me in Melbourne today, you are probably rugged up inside with the heating cranked up, two jackets and a beanie on, as well as thick socks and slippers, and I'm still freezing!!

Terrific weather for stamping - if you can get your frozen fingers to work!

I have had a busy month or so in the lead up to our Stamping Retreat last weekend, so I'm pleased to be finally back with another Making Merry Monday post.

This past week or so, a customer has been asking me all about the Envelope Punch Board. It's a great tool, and you don't just make envelopes with it!

Apart from making SIXTY SIX different size envelopes, did you know you could also make Christmas Bon Bons with the Envelope Punch Board?

You can make them in various different sizes, and we always have some on display at our Christmas in July events that are coming up soon. If the bon bon in this photo looks familiar to you - I made this one in December 2013 when I was in Tasmania with my sister after a tragic accident took the life of her partner. The funeral was only a few days before Christmas, and we took some time out to make some thank you cards for the well-wishers, and I was asked to show them how to make the bon bon.

Did you notice the matching card has the punched out pieces (the leftover scraps) from the envelope punch board, arranged as Christmas baubles? So clever!

That year we also used the Envelope Punch Board to create cute little snow-men gifts / placeholders.

See how the indent punch from the punch board shapes the snowman's neck as well as the hat? And the leftover pieces have become his big happy smile.

These hold one Ferrero Rocher each - a very cute treat to decorate your Christmas in July table!

I'm so pleased after all these years that Stampin' Up! still has the Envelope Punch Board in their range and carrying over into the new annual catalogue.

BUT . . . did you know . . .

We also have two other punch boards and one of those is retiring and won't be available after Wednesday when the current catalogue finishes.

That's right, the Gift Box Punch Board, which makes boxes up to 4" square will no longer be available after this Wednesday, 31st May.

You can see it, plus all the other retiring products in my online store here.

We are really coming to the end of a great annual catalogue now - just a couple more days to go and some of my favourite stamping items will no longer be available. If you have been sitting on the fence holding off from buying something that's retiring, please don't be the person to email me on Thursday and ask me if you can order one of these or one of those? Or a Gift Box Punch Board. If they are not sold out before, their item code will be switched off at midnight on Wednesday and they will be gone forever.

Check the retiring list here to make sure you don't miss any favourites.

I'll be back with a reminder on Wednesday for those who are happy to order online.

Happy Easter to You!

Hope you  have a safe and enjoyable day with your families no matter where you are and what you are doing.

In my "We Create Wednesday" class this week, we created some pretty Easter projects.

We decorated the mini egg cartons by spritzing with Mint Macaron Ink Refill, and wrapping with Sweet Sugar Plum Patterns Paper from the In Colour Paper Stack.

The little bunny stamp is from the Made With Love stamp set, the gorgeous greeting stamp is from Suite Sentiments stamp set, the little lamb is from Barnyard Babies and the "eggs" are upside down balloons with the knot cut off, from the fun stamp set, Balloon Adventures.

These were all really quick, easy projects and next time Easter falls right at the end of the school holidays, projects similar to these would be great to make with the kids when you start to hear, "Mum, I'm bored!"

Have an awesome day and stay safe!