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

This week we feature Early Espresso, a rich dark brown from our Neutrals colour family.

Early Espresso

When I looked at my stamp collection with Early Espresso in mind, the first thing I saw was what I call the "coffee and chocolate" - Nothing's Better Than stamp set. And yes, I like my coffee rich and dark.

For my first card, I cut the A4 card in half longways, so I had a 10.5cm x 29.85cm piece. I scored this in half, then cut the front panel in half vertically. The off-cut piece was turned 90 degrees and used as the horizontal panel on the front of the card. I layered up the two front layers with a patterned piece from the Sun Prints Designer Series Paper.

I used the two step stamp set to stamp bright coloured coffee cups onto Basic White card and die-cut them with the Love You More Than dies. I die-cut the word COFFEE from the same die set, in Early Espresso card. 

The text and steam from the hot cups was stamped directly onto the patterned paper in Early Espresso Ink.

For my second card, I wanted to try the Faux Step Card which I have seen several people use over the last few weeks. And I switched from coffee to chocolate - espresso flavoured chocolate, I'm thinking!

As I was preparing the photos, this card suddenly reminded me of the shelves of chocolates in a chocolate boutique like Haigh's or Koko Black. Nom nom nom!

The faux step card is a "cheat's version" of the centre step card. This card is easier to make, as you add an extra strip of card, rather than trying to cut out layers and folds from one single piece.

I deliberately didn't add anything shiny or any ribbon to these cards, to keep them more masculine. With Father's Day this weekend, I thought I might be called on for a spare card.

I can't wait to see what the other Art With Heart ladies have created using Early Espresso. If you would like to see the other creations, please click on the box below to go to my lovely friend Christine's blog.

If you find a broken link in the blog hop, which doesn't take you to the next blog, you will find the list of participants on Cathy's blog here.

Sale-a-bration finishes today, so if you haven't placed your Sale-a-bration order yet, you have just an hour or two left to claim your free SAB gifts with purchase.

I will see you tomorrow to share the September Weekly Deals!

Keep inky!!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Mansfield VIC)

Product List

Early Espresso A4 Card Stock [121686] $16.25	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad [147114] $14.00	Nothing's Better Than Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [152507] $38.00
Love You More Than Dies [152698] $53.00	Sun Prints 12” X 12” (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper [158790] $21.00	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [147115] $14.00
Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [147116] $14.00	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad [147090] $14.00	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad [147086] $14.00
Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad [147085] $14.00	Basic White A4 Cardstock [159228] $18.00	Mini Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [150673] $110.00

Hi! It’s Kathryn here!

It's been a while since I joined in with the Social Stamping group, but I couldn't resist this month’s theme, as we recently got the exciting news that we are going to be grandparents for the first time early next year!

Gorgeous Kelly is our blog host and you may have arrived here from her blog where she has the full list of participants, or you may be starting here. Either way, welcome! To get back to Kelly’s blog and see the rest of the Baby creations click here.

I think that I am pretty bad at coming up with ideas for masculine cards, but I don’t seem to have troubles with that when we are talking about babies. Stampin’ Up! has such gorgeous pastel colours for traditional or modern baby colour schemes.

I don’t have many baby sets, but I recently got Moving Along, because I know I will use it next year!

This is a two-step stamping set - there are outline stamps and blocks of colour for filling the images. And lots of cute other stamps to create cards with individual images or make full scenes. I think this stamp set would make awesome diorama cards, but today I have just gone for a standard fold card but with lots of layers.

I love how the block stamps fill in the colour on the outline images so nicely. For the image colours I've used Seaside Spray, Mint Macaron and Crumb Cake, and the same for the scallop layers under each of those stitched squares.

For the larger layer underneath I have used Just Jade for the scalloped layer. Notice the gorgeous embossing on the larger white layer? That's the Dainty Diamonds 3D embossing folder which is in the Stampin' Up! annual catalogue.

I'd love you to leave me a comment and let me know what you think, and if you would like to see a list of all the products used, they are right at the bottom of this post. To continue on blog hop and see the rest of the gorgeous creations, please click on the next image below and it will take you to Julia's blog to see what she has made.

See you again soon!

Kathryn Ruddick

(Melbourne, Aus)

Product List

Just Jade Classic Stampin' Pad [153115] $13.00	Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad [147106] $13.00	Seaside Spray Classic Stampin’ Pad [150085] $13.00
Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [147116] $13.00	Moving Along Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [152496] $30.00	Just Jade A4 Cardstock [153084] $15.25
Stitched Rectangles Dies [151820] $61.00	Layering Squares Dies [141708] $58.00	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $10.00

I hear the same thing so often, and I agree! It can be a real struggle to find products and come up with cardmaking ideas for masculine cards. So I love that the Global Design Project team has inspired and motivated us with a masculine themed challenge this week for #GDP103.

My latest masculine card idea inadvertently came from my husband a couple of months back, for a card that I could give him. I tucked the idea away secretly in a safe space in my brain and let it perculate for a few weeks, so I could make it into his 2017 birthday card.

So where did the idea come from?

A couple of months ago, Tony did a weekend leathermaking course and he came home with a borrowed template to make a leatherworkers apron. I helped him make his own template - funny how I had all the right tools in the stamping room, along with a steady enough hand to cut all the curves freehand with a craft knife . . . 

He was so rapt with the finished template, it got me thinking, this year I could get away with making him an "Apron" birthday card. And so, I did!

I used a full A4 sheet of our Soft Suede Card Stock, cutting 2 each of 1cm wide strips from the long side of the A4 card for the straps before scoring the remaining card in half for the apron.

I used one of our Oval Framelits to draw a pencil line for the curves at the top of the apron, and since I was not at home at the time, I cut the curves just with my Paper Snips.

I then sponged the edges of the card, straps and pocket with Soft Suede ink and one of our sponge daubers.

I hand drew the stitching with an Early Espresso Stampin' Write marker and stamped the tools from Guy Greeting Stamp Set on Sahara Sand card with Soft Suede ink and cut them out with the Paper Snips too.

I cut an insert from Whisper White card for the inside and stamped it with the same tools and words from the Guy Greetings Stamp Set.

I softened the straps by running them over my bone folder (like you do when you are curling ribbon) to break all the fibres in the paper, then scrunched each one up tightly and smoothed it out again. This helped to ease the card into an envelope without having to actually bend the straps, or leave obvious crease marks in them.

I told Tony he was getting the best birthday card ever, and by his reaction, I think it must have come pretty close!

I'm so glad that the timing of his birthday / Father's Day worked in so well with this week's Global Design Project #GDP103 Theme - All About HIM. I wouldn't have wanted to post the photos of his card BEFORE I gave it to him LOL!

His birthday is extending out for another week anyway as one of his gifts was a Paddock to Plate Long lunch which we are going to enjoy this coming weekend. Let's hope the weather has warmed up a little by then! In the meantime it's perfect stamping weather, so I'm going to keep stamping! So many stamps! So little time!

If you'd like to come and stamp with me, I am planning a stamp afternoon in my stamping room on Saturday 16th of September - weekend after next. Look out for further details to come out in the next day or two.

Finding images to go onto cards for males can be a challenge - and then even when you find a great image, putting it with the masculine colours and textures can take us outside our comfort zone.  It's SO easy to make cards to suit women when there are so many more choices of products!

When I was asked to create a 21st Birthday Card for a friends much loved grandson, I was pleased to hear he likes "old things", old leather bags, box Brownies, vintagey, antiquey things!

Out comes the trusty Stampin' Up! stamp set Traveler along with From Land to Sea (he likes lighthouses too!) and I decided on a collage style card in a slightly larger size than our standard A6.

First I stamped each of the images and added a swathe of colour using the paint brush swipe images from Work Of Art stamp set.

Then I added a bit of extra colour using Blender Pens and Ink pads and layered each piece onto Basic Black.

I then just played around with how they best fit onto the card front, rearranging them a couple of times until I was happy with it, added the number 21 in gold glimmer paper and some scraps of various Designer Series papers behind, and stuck them all down.

Something this special also needs to have the inside decorated, but I also had to aware of leaving enough room for Grandma to write a special birthday message.

By all accounts, she was very, very happy that she asked me to create this special card and the young man loved it. How nice is that to have been a part of his 21st birthday celebrations and helping to create special memories for them both.

So, I DID promise to tell you a bit about where on earth I have been since late March, and why I haven't been on here telling you all about the end of Sale-a-bration, and the end of the Weekly Deals as we know it, and the Retiring Products and end of our 2016 catalogue.

Well, in the lead up to my husband's first full Ironman event, we decided to take a long weekend and head across the ditch to catch up with some family. Since his dad passed, we have felt it more and more important to stay in touch with the New Zealand side of his family and re-connect with his roots.

And the Kiwi's are SO hospitable!

It was very much a flying visit, but I think we caught up with about 30 relatives in under four days!

And we managed to fit in some recreation and inspiration at the same time.

We went with his gorgeous cousin and dear aunt to a garden centre for lunch - and I have to say, I was REALLY, REALLY taken with this beautiful wall art!

How stunning is that? And SO many Stampin' Up! colours in there! I can't wait to make something inspired by it!

After our lunch, we had a wander through the garden centre shop and OMG! Look what the heck I found!

Now, for some reason I seem to have collected a few of those exciting new adult colouring in books, but I've never coloured in any of them, however, this got me really excited! Ha ha! Have you done any colouring yet?

We managed to find a time slot to have a swim in the stunning new Millenium Swimming Pool, which was quite a miracle since every amazing swimmer in New Zealand was there trying to qualify for the Rio Olympics. We also got to see Tony's young cousin play a couple of awe-inspiring water polo matches in the same pool on the Saturday.

We wanted to fit in a long run (for the Ironman training) while we were away, so we headed north to the Orewa Lagoon and did a lap of the lagoon and half a dozen laps of the gorgeous beach, clocking up 23kms in the stunning conditions. If you're ever in the area, the beach is lovely and a walk around the lagoon would be a beautiful way to pass a couple of hours!

When we arrived back in Melbourne, I really wanted to make a thank you card for each of the households who hosted us or went out of their way to catch up with us over that weekend. I had a bit of a search on Pinterest and found some punch art Kiwi cards, which I thought were very cute, so I decided to create a handful of similar ones.

To start with, that's a lot of circle punches, and lots of "eyes" from the Owl Builder Punch.

There's also a little bit of guess work in cutting the beaks from Word Window Punch shapes.

I used the "A World Of Thanks" stamp for the background and the grass image from "Wetlands" stamp set.

Each card was just ever so slightly different, depending on the placement of the eyes and beaks of the kiwis. So much fun and I love how they came up!

I got some lovely response from over the ditch too, so how nice is that - to have ones creations appreciated!

I felt we were no sooner back from Auckland than I headed to Sydney for a long weekend for the Stampin' Up! On Stage event where we had our Product Premiere and new Catalogue Launch. I'll be back to share some of that excitement with you in a day or so!

Kathryn

A Blog Hop 

Today some of the Art With Heart Stampin' Up! team girls are presenting some fabulous Father's Day ideas to inspire you, so if you just arrived here from Ros Davidson's blog, welcome. If you are starting here, please use the links at the bottom of each post to follow the blog hop through full circle and enjoy and be inspired by these great masculine projects.

I don't have anyone to give a Father's Day card to, but still there are plenty of males around and plenty of people looking for ideas for masculine cards.

Being a Pisces, when I saw By The Tide Stamp Set, I knew it was going to make it's way into my collection, however, I haven't used it nearly enough, so when I sat down to make some masculine projects, it was the first set that came to mind.

After selecting the set, I did a quick Google image search to see who had been using By the Tide and what they had been doing with it. I have to thank three lovely stampers, Monica Gale from the UK and Dawn Olchefske and Brenda Keenan from the US for the inspiration behind these Night of Navy, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla cards.

Don't you love how the detail on that embossing folder ties in with the chevron ribbon?

The only other stamp set I used for these cards is Guy Greetings which I chose as I did want to include some words on the front of two of the cards. I have the photo polymer version of Guy Greetings which makes it so easy to stamp the greetings right where you want them.

Our new Holiday Catalogue is now available and starts on the 1st of September, so don't forget to ask one of us today to post you a hard copy. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by katlodesigns blog.  Please leave a comment and then if you'd like to continue the blog hop, click on the heart and you're off to see the work of my delightful stamping friend Kayleen McLean.

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. Tina Gillespie
2. Genna Gifford
3. Kate Morgan 
4. Jenny Van Dijk
5. Claire Daly
6. Judy May
7. Kathryn Mangelsdorf
8. Rachel Woollard
9. Ros Davidson
10. Kathryn Ruddick
11. Kayleen McLean

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Do you have trouble coming up with Masculine Cards?

I do - and I know my stamp club girls do too, so it was great that one of the months in our Mystery Box challenge we had to make three masculine cards!

I love the Traveler Stamp Set, and I knew some of my stamp club ladies had already purchased it and were keen for some more ideas of how to use it, so I did some googling to get some more inspiration. These are the three cards I created - heavily inspired by those I found on Pinterest.

So along with Traveler Stamp Set, I have used World Map Stamp set, and That's the Ticket, a bit of Gorgeous Grunge and the birthday stamp from Perfectly Penned.

Here's a closer up image of the two with World Map as the background.

Don't you love all the layers, and so easy with the co-ordinating punches and stamp sets.

Did you know I hold classes in Croydon North - weekdays and occasionally on weekends - I do more parties on weekends so it's a bit harder to schedule classes then. If you'd like to learn how to do these cards, please let me know and we'll schedule them into the class list.

You can email me [email protected], or leave a comment below, or post a message on my Facebook page. Either way, I'd love to hear from you.

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Black & White Card Projects

I've been Stampin' Up! a storm this past week with a favourite, versatile stamp set, the Six Sided Sampler from Stampin' Up!

This is a terrific Stamp Set and Punch Bundle for any occasion.

• Woodmount Bundle $63.50  Stamp set only $46.95
• Clearmount Bundle $54.95  Stamp set only $36.95
• Punch $27.95

I've made a couple of really simple cards, teaming the hexagons with the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and a couple of greeting sets.

Firstly some masculine cards - as it's really hard to think them up on the spot when you need a card for a male.

Then the card making ideas were just flowing, so I switched the colours and created half a dozen cards for some females who I had reason to think of this week.

I just love these cards in Pistachio Pudding, Calypso Coral and Crisp Cantaloupe. I made 10 or 11 cards with these designs and also taought them at a class and a Stampin' Party. Very effective and fun, but I can think of plenty more people to send them too, so I might have to get the production line happening!

On Friday this week I will be participating in a blog hop where 25 Stampin' Up! demonstrators are going to show you a stack of projects made with Sale-a-bration products. Sale-a-bration starts next Tuesday, and we can't wait! I hope you'll join us on Friday from 10am for a tour of blog land to see some amazing creativity!

Kathryn.

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More 2013 Cardmaking Ideas in Review

Before I truly get into posting about Christmas cards, and all the projects we've been making, I thought I might just revisit some of our favourites from 2013.  When I look back, I realise what a creative year we've had with such beautiful papers, fabulous range of stamps, and not to mention all the inspiration from attending two Stampin' Up! Conventions in one year!

It's hard to come up with ideas for masculine cards, but with the Soho Subway Designer Series Paper, it's hard to go wrong! This tri-fold (or Gate card) is perfect matched with the Open Sea stamp set.

The front is pretty much just the gorgeous printed paper and some Linen Thread. Then on the inside we have more of the DSP and a stamped panel for writing our message.

This is quite a simple card, but I think any man would be impressed if he were the recipient.  I can't wait to try a few more like this in the New Year when the red and green and gold is all packed away!

I'll be back soon with some more cards from this year. See you soon.

Hi All,

Back again with more of last year's Mystery Box contents to show you! For February we had to make 4 cards, using our chosen paper pack (I chose Mocha Morning Specialty DSP) and the cards had to be for different occasions.

My first two cards were easel cards. For the next two cards I wanted to do at least one masculine card, and I also wanted to use the gorgeous clock stamp from the set Timeless Portrait.

Here's what I came up with :

This time the black embossing powder came out - don't you love that clock?!?

These projects were to be kind of special, so I didn't want to go for just a normal open & close card, which is why I chose the two easel cards to start with, and then this one is a quite simple tri-fold card.

It wasn't particularly masculine though - the scalloped borders saw to that, LOL! So my final card of the four had to steer away from frills and be more plain in design.

I really struggled to come up with something so in the end, I "cased" a card from Dianne Dunk which I really loved, using the tie stamp from the set Best Dad Ever. I added another layer to the background and switched the papers around, but I have used the same stamp set, colours and layout that Di used.

I forgot to take a photo of it, but the inside of the card has a Very Vanilla panel with an embossed greeting in the centre of it. Oh, and another thing I did for all these cards was make the envelopes match!

I guess you're beginning to wonder what the project was for the next month? Well, I'll be back to show you that soon too!

See you then!

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