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

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

Since the middle of April we have been seeing A LOT of projects with the new Bird Ballad bundle from Stampin' Up!

Demonstrators who went to On Stage events could order it early - and it seems like they ALL did! Clearly it's a much loved stamp set with beautiful coordinating Designer Series Paper.

One of my team members asked if we could make a little bird house at Team Night as she had seen some online. Definitely! Too cute!

Do you have in your stash of cutting dies, the Baker's Box Die which was in our catalogue a couple of years ago? That is what we used for the box - only we stretched to give us a taller bird house.

I would pop a piece of acetate inside the front of the box then fill it with chocolates or maybe a beautiful soy candle for someone special!

The Free as Bird Stamp set can be purchased individually, or as part of the Free as a Bird bundle with the Stitched Nested Labels Dies, or as part of the much bigger Bird Ballad Suite which has such gorgeous products in it.

July is Bonus Days month and by ordering this suite you could earn a coupon voucher for a credit to use on an August order. For every $90 you spend in July, receive a $9 voucher for August (multiples allowed).

OR if you are keen to make some of the projects I have been showing you - maybe you'd like to come along to Team Night as a member of my little stamping family?  The Stampin' Up! starter kit is only $169 - you select $280 of products for only $169, and you also get a $16 voucher the following month to apply to your first order.  And you can come to team night!

Send me a message to tee up a time for coffee and a chat about it!

Kathryn  
 

0418 361 931

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

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!

Today some of the Art with Heart Stampin’ Up! team girls have created some amazing Christmas projects to inspire you with the theme, It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We have tags, gift bags, teacher gift ideas, decorations and many more fun projects to create this holiday season.

I have been absolutely loving the Candy Cane Lane Product Suite and all the gorgeous projects I have seen made with it, but as usual, I haven't made nearly enough time to use it myself - so tonight's blog hop was ideal.

And you know how much I adore those little gift bags with the 5"x 3 1/2" note cards in them?  So quick and so cute!

I've used the Cookie Cutter Christmas Stamp set, the Holly Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and the Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper. I can see myself making many more variations of these!

The next person on the blog hop is : Kate Morgan. Click on the picture below to go to her blog!

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below

1. Rebecca Jacovou
2. Ros Davidson
3. Kathryn Ruddick
4. Kate Morgan
5. Rachel Palmieri
6. Claire Daly
7. Mary Kelly
8. Monika O'Neill
9. Tina Gillespie
10. Kathryn Mangelsdorf
11. Catherine Proctor
12. Judy May

Stampin' Up! Merry Mice Gift Bag of Cards

During the recent school holidays I hosted a class of 10 and 12 year olds who made a cute gift bag with three matching cards inside.

If you have been following me for a while, you will know that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the cute Designer Series Paper Bag-in-a-box gift bags that my fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator in the UK, Caroline Hallet created a great video for.  I have made heaps of them now with all different themes and styles.

For the class, I decided to use up some of last year's Designer Series Paper Christmas patterns - because I hadn't met any of the girls before, and wasn't sure how they would go, and since I had a fair bit of this paper, I could cut extras. I love the size of these bags, because you get 3 bags per 12 x 12" sheet of paper.

We stamped the images just in Black Stazon Ink and added labels in Cherry Cobbler.

Because the class was just for two hours, this is as far as we got, and the girls were instructed they could either colour the images themselves at home, or they could give them as a "Colouring In" gift to a friend.

They liked this idea!

Later on, I came back and coloured mine and sent them photos on their phone.

In keeping with the very simple style of the cards, I limited the colouring to just three colours - Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green and Marina Mist, all applied with Blender Pens.

They really are very sweet, right?

The Merry Mice stamp set is available in Stampin' Up! quality red rubber in the wood mount or clear mount.

You can find it in our online shop buy clicking on the image below.

Don't forget to check out my classes and events for everything that is happening in fourth term, in the lead up to Christmas. The link is at the top of my blog.

See you soon!

Kathryn Ruddick

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Card Making Ideas - Stampin' Up!

Hey everybody,

World Card Making Day really snuck up on us this year, particularly being on the same day as the AFL grand final. We are not huge footy fans in our house, but when a team sneaks into the top eight, who hasn't won a Grand Final since 1954, and they get through all the finals, and you live in Melbourne and your husband's step-father is a big Doggie's fan, you've kind of got to get involved!

So World Card Making Day came and went . . . And the Doggies won the Grand Final in a very exciting close game!

However, the awesome surprise promotion that Stampin' Up! put on for World Card Making Day wasn't limited to Saturday, it actually runs for 5 days and so it is still on until 11.59pm tomorrow (Wednesday).

There are only a few items on the sale, but they are ALL awesome! And I just wanted to point a couple of them out and see if I can't entice you!

First is the Designer Tin Of Cards Kit. - watch this Watch Now

This is a brilliant kit, containing all the materials for 16 completed cards - 4 each of 4 designs. I love this kit so much that I am willing to offer a free class voucher (for assembling the kit) to anyone who purchases it while the promotion is still running. We will organise a date and get together to make up the cards in the kit.

The kit is normally $47.00 but during the promotion it is just $35.25 which works out at just over $2.20 per card.

There is also a separate 33 piece photo-polymer stamp set which co-ordinates with the kit. The very versatile stamp set is just $45.00 and would be very useful for a whole heap of other cards, not just for assembling the kit.

Also in the World Card Making Day special is Fast Fuse Tape with a free refill.

If you've been stamping with me lately, you'll have seen that this is now my GO TO adhesive.

Now that I've worked out how to use it, I love it's super sticking power and I think it's fantastic that the refill is 20m instead of just 12m like the original and the Snail and Snail Refill.

The Fast Fuse is normally $13, and the refill is $11. During the special, order a Fast Fuse and get a refill free! How awesome is that??

Actually, I'm so in love with this kit and the Fast Fuse that not only will I offer a free class to anyone ordering the kit, if you order all three items (Designer Tin of Cards, Tin of Cards Stamp Set AND Fast Fuse - with free refill), I will give you free postage AND a Stampin' Up! photopolymer Angel Policy Stamp from the "Better Than Email" Stamp Set to stamp the backs of your cards with. Total cost is $93.25, postage is normally $5.95 and the Angel Policy stamp is worth $2.33.

If you message me (via Facebook - www.facebook.com/katlodesigns ) or send an email to [email protected] that you would like to take up the offer, and can phone me with your credit card details during the day tomorrow, then I will make sure these items are delivered to your door with free postage!

But, I need to hear from you and confirm your credit card details before the sale ends tomorrow - and given that we normally go to bed relatively early, don't ring me after 9pm!

Don't forget - Buy the Kit, get a voucher for a free class where we can all sit and assemble our kits, using my extra supplies.

Buy the Kit, Stamp Set and Fast Fuse with free refill and get free postage and an extra "Copyright" stamp for stamping the backs of your cards.

Email or message me in the next 23 hours!

Square Tea Light Holder or Lantern

I said I was going to show you more projects I have made recently with the Botanical Blooms Builder Framelits, but I have scheduled that post for another day, because in the meantime, THIS happened!!

I posted this photo on a demonstrator only group on Facebook and in less than 24 hours had 500 reactions!! And plenty of really lovely comments too! Including requests for the instructions.

So, since it has been so well liked, I thought I had better share it with my other stamping friends too, not just demonstrators!

Start with an A4 sheet of Crumb Cake Card stock. Cut it in half lengthways. You'll have two pieces, each measuring 10.5cm x 29.8cm.

Score at 11cm and 22cms, then cut off the end at the 22.5cm mark.

Cut a 13 x 13cm square also of Crumb Cake, score all four sides at the 1cm mark. Snip out the corners.

Line up the largest thinlet from Detailed Floral Thinlets within each square of the side wall pieces and cut it using the Big Shot. You will need to cut it twice in each piece.

Apply Stampin' Up! Tear 'n' Tape as shown in the picture and join the two side wall pieces together.

Decorate by stamping and sponging with Cajun Craze and Soft Suede Ink Pads. I used the border stamp from the co-ordinating Floral Phrases Stamp Set and the spatter stamp from Swirly Bird Stamp Set and lots of sponging with my Stampin' Up! sponge daubers.

When you have done enough "antiquing" its time to attach layers of vellum on the inside of each panel. I used the Stampin' Up! Card Stock Vellum - love this gorgeous, smooth, thick vellum. The start attaching the base by wrapping the long side wall panel around the base starting in one corner and working each side.

Insert a battery operated tea light and enjoy the gorgeous warm glow.

How much do you love that antiqued look and the beautiful cut-out design?

The Detailed Floral Thinlets are $49.00 AUS or can be purchased in a bundle with the lovely co-ordinating stamp set, Floral Phrases which is available in Stampin' Up!s quality red rubber in woodmount or clearmount, to adhere to your clear blocks.

There is in fact, a whole beautiful product suite on pages 76 & 77 of our catalogue. See it here.

One of the exciting things that happened on our wider (local) Stampin' Up! team in the past couple of months was a Platinum promotion. Now if you are not a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, that probably means zero, zip, zilch to you. But to my fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrators, it means an awful lot.

Since our "career plan" changed in October last year, this was the very first promotion to Platinum level in Australia and it was our very own Claire Daly from Lilydale who promoted. I think this promotion is a big deal, and obviously all our Stampin' Sisters / cousins / grandmas etc across Australia thought the same, because when I suggested creating a special handmade Platinum gift for Claire to commemorate her promotion, lots of people jumped on board.

I suggested each person cut out and decorate a scallop circle and include their name and that somehow I would assemble them all into some sort of frame or album. Kathryn Mangelsdorf from Adelaide suggested we stick to a colour scheme - obviously the silver for platinum, but also Mint Macaron and Blushing Bride. Before I knew it, all sorts of gorgeous scallop circles were arriving!

I got far too many to fit into a frame, so I decided to use the Lots of Labels Framelits and make an accordion book with a black base to mount them all onto.

This "banner" ended up being 2.7 metres long! So of course it then had to have a gorgeous box to keep it in. I felt a black base, with silver lining, and an acetate lid would do just the trick. so I measured up my folded banner to see what size I would need to make, and constructed a box with separate lid.

I was heading off to Auckland for 4 days in late March, so in the end it was a real rush to pull all this together, but for such a special promotion, I was glad to spend the time and make a really special gift, and the look on Claire's face when she received it, along with a ginormous arrangement of flowers and a bottle of bubbly, was definitely worth the effort!

Congratulations again Claire for setting a benchmark and achieving your goals as a Stampin' Up! team leader and business builder!

#likeaboss #likeagirl #tickingboxes #gogetthosegoals #platinumpromotion #artwithheart #stampinup