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

Colouring with Alcohol Markers

I was absolutely delighted that the self-contained Lots Of Happy Card Kit carried over into our Annual Catalogue this year, along with it's refill kit.

It truly is one of the most gorgeous card kits I have ever seen. And even though it comes with it's own beautiful Watercolour pencils in the kit, I just love, love, love that it can also be coloured with our Stampin' Blends - the alcohol markers.

The kit contains sheets of pre-printed, die-cut images ready for colouring, either with the pencils in the kit, or with your own favourite colouring tools.

I started with the dark Old Olive Stampin' Blend, then moved onto the lighter one. Here's a look at how I colour.

Step 1. Add a touch of the darkest colour into the corners of the image.

Step 2. Blend in the lighter colour to the dark.

Step 3. Keep going until you've coloured the whole sheet - or need to stop for coffee (or wine) . . .

Step 4. Change colours and start doing the flowers and berries! (okay, so maybe don't have wine . . . LOL).

Step 5. Just keep colouring, just keep colouring, just keep colouring!

It's amazing the variety you can create with just 7 of the Stampin' Blends.

Step 6. Get SERIOUS and change the colours up!

Step 7. Stand back and admire your colouring!

Step 8. Now it's time to pop them out of the sheet and assemble a stack of beautiful cards!

 Oh! and don't you just LOVE the lined envelopes and vellum leaves that come with the kit too?

You know you need this kit (and a refill) to start colouring right now, don't you?

 Click on any of the thmbnails below to order today - or come and see me at the kiosk at Chirnside Park Shopping Centre tomorrow to see the finished cards and the Stampin' Blends in person!

Product List

Lots Of Happy Card Kit [146388] $61.00	Old Olive Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144597] $15.50	Lots Of Happy Card Kit Refill [145605] $37.00
Petal Pink Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [147272] $15.50	Calypso Coral Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144045] $15.50	Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144602] $15.50

We'll be at Chirnside from 9am until 5pm so call in and say "hi"!

Kathryn.

Card Making Ideas - Alcohol Markers

When the new range of Stampin' Up! Alcohol Markers - Stampin' Blends - came out in November last year, I couldn't wait to get my hands on them and give them a go.

I have a couple of favourite stamp sets for colouring with them, and one of those is Bella and Friends, the cute little puppy set in our Annual catalogue.

How adorable are these cute little guys?

This is a super simple card - the main item requiring more than a a couple of minutes was the colouring which is so therapeutic! 

You can easily see all the Blend combinations available online in my shop by clicking on the thumbnails below.

 Product List

Old Olive Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144597] $15.50	Bella & Friends Clear-Mount Stamp Sets [141870] $35.00	Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [145058] $15.50
Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144599] $15.50	Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144601] $15.50	Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144598] $15.50

Have you tried the Stampin' Blends yet? Why not order a couple of different colours today and have a play with colouring your favourite outline stamped images with them?

Hey again!

How's your week been?

Did you manage to get in any creative time? I hope you had a chance to drop in on our blog hop yesterday? If not, scroll down to my next post and follow the links.

Today I've got more of the Black and White Mystery Box contents to show you. And since we are on the Easter theme already - this actually was last year's challenge for April - hence the retired Designer Series Paper - Modern Medley, and the retired stamp set Blessed Easter.

The challenge was to make a gift box and matching card - and when we sent the Mystery Box out at the end of the year, the idea was, the Easter gift box should be full of goodies. Given we had some very hot days around Dec / January when the Mystery Boxes were in the post, I hope they all made it safely with no melted chocolate accidents.

Over the weekend I've got something totally different to show you - a wedding card that took me close to seven hours to make! Yep, very special family wedding this weekend, so be sure to check back in and have a look at the card I slaved over - oh the hassles of being a perfectionist!

During 2014 I was involved in a Mystery Box Swap with a group of my fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrators.

We had a list of projects to make through out the year, and many of us picked a theme to work with. I chose a colour theme - Black & White.

For each months' given projects, I made them mostly using or featuring Black & White. This worked really well because at the start of the year, the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue had a packet of

Designer Series Paper (DSP) called Modern Medley

which was a selection of Very Vanilla and Basic Black prints, and then when we got the new catalogue in July, there was a gorgeous new DSP pack called

Back to Black. 

I'm excited to show you some of the projects I made for the 2014 Mystery Box swap - keep in mind that as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I generally show you projects containing only products that are current - you can order them now - however, for the Mystery Box project, we were able to use products that were current "At any time" during 2014. So some of the products you see may no longer be available to order.

Boys Will Be Boys Stamp Set

I love the funky retro robot from Boys Will be Boys Stamp set and some of our Designer Series Paper prints are perfect just for adding that cheerful background to really step up quite a simple card.

The Robot is stamped in Momento Black Stazon Ink and coloured with the Blendabilities.

We had to make three kids cards to include in the Mystery Box, and I loved the robot so much, I decided to make another using it. This one had a little more work involved.

Yep! It's MAGIC!! Don't you love it!

I have to say that I admire with the utmost respect any cardmaker who has successfully made one of these magic window cards - as it took me lots of goes and lots of wasted cardstock to get it right! Well done to all you talented ladies who get it right!

My third card in the Black & White for kids was much simpler! A bit of happy heat embossing, and a cheerful colour combo.

Again, the DSP in this case just lends itself to a happy, funky background to make the stamped image pop. Don't be shy to test out those printed papers for the layers of your cards!

I'll be back in a day or two with more Black and White gorgeousness for you!

Happy Stamping!

Kathryn

How I coloured the HOLIDAY HOUSE stamp set

using Stampin' Up!'s new Alcohol Markers

The Blendabilites

When I published this screen card on Facebook the other day, it got more LIKES and COMMENTS than anything else I have ever posted, - pretty exciting for little ol' not very tech savvy me!

So many people asked how did I make the houses look so 3 Dimensional?

So, I decided to try a quick video to show you what I did. Unfortunately, colouring those houses is not a quick task, so even though I worked faster and less carefully than I normally would, it's still a pretty long video . . . apologies for that! I hope you think it's worth the 14+ minutes to watch, and I'd love to know what you think!

Here it is! Holiday House and Blendabilities Video by Kathryn Ruddick.

Ohhh and p.s. I don't work with a script, so there's a couple of bloopers in there! Hilarious - if you're in Australia and you are the first to reply with what the two really obvious errors are, I'll send you some pre-coloured houses, so please comment below, and please feel share.

Hope you are having a great time working on gorgeous Christmas projects too.

Kathryn

My Stamp Club ladies asked me to show them how to use the new Stampin' Up! Blendabilites. They are a new product in this year's Annual Catalogue. Have you seen them yet?

I hadn't done much playing with them, so it was great to do a bit of research and plan some projects for the Stamp Club. 

I chose the Life in the Forest stamp set, as the images are quite small and simple - which is good when you have 6-8 ladies all waiting to use the same stamp and the same markers.

We made three cards, all of them inspired by ones I had found on google images and adapted to suit the Blendabilities instead of other methods of colouring.

For this first one we kept the card really simple, stamping the background with Lovely as a Tree stamp set and then just lightly sponging the green and blue. The card which inspired this was watercoloured all over.

We stamped the fox from Life in the Forest direct onto the card and sponged around.

The second one was much the same again, no background stamping, but the same sponging, accessorised with the polaroid framelit from On Film Framelits set and a couple of other finishing touches that added texture and colour, inspired by a card from Maria Willis.

For our third practice run of colouring the fox with the Pumpkin Pie Blendabilities, we really stepped up the card - again inspired by one on Google Images which unfortunately didn't have a legible name on it and I've not been able to find again, but a really lovely card - we all adored how the black layers underneath made the other colours pop.

By this time the Stamp Club ladies had coloured the fox three times for practise and also coloured the trees and the mushroom, so it was a great introduction to the Blendabilities.

This coming Saturday is World Card Making Day and I will be having a casual stamping get together in my stamping room from 11 until 3 (finishing at 3pm sharp).  If you've not coloured with the Blendabilities before, come along and give it a go.  I am also planning on trying out a couple of techniques I've not done for a while, including Brick Wall and Faux Tiles.  Let me know if you can come along.

World Card Making Day specials - from 1st to 6th October, Stampin' Up! are offering some discounted items, including ink pads, A4 card stock, some envelopes, Fast Fuse and refill and several stamp sets. Pop back tomorrow to see the full list and the link to my online store.

Catch you soon!

Related articles

Beautiful Stampin' Up! Peacocks

ESAD New Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue Blog Hop

Stampin' Up! Heart Framelits Gift Box

Button Buddies - more old favourites!