AWHT HEART OF CHRISTMAS BLOG HOP - WEEK 1

 

I am excited to share with you tonight my first Christmas card for this year!  I, and some of my Stampin' Up! friends, will be taking part in a weekly blog hop until mid-December.  We will be sharing cards/projects made with Stampin' Up! products, in the hope we inspire you to do the same.

The jumping-off point for this card was the beautiful Tidings of Christmas Designer Series Paper, that is in the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue.  I just love the colours Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen, Cherry Cobbler and Sahara Sand together.  

I have used the Sending Hugs bundle - perhaps not one you'd think of as particularly Christmassy, but I think it works beautifully with these colours.  Plus, it includes leaves and berries, so it works!  The large leafy stamped image, and die-cut overlay, is somewhat reminiscent of a wreath (albeit a little squashed 😄), don't you think?  I'm going with that, anyway!  Here's what I came up with:

This card was a lot of fun to make.  I started off by stamping the main image, that includes the leafy design and the word "hugs", in Evening Evergreen ink on a Basic White panel.  I would say I stamped it on a Basic White panel that I'd cut out using a Stitched Rectangle Die, but in truth I didn't decide to die-cut it until I'd stamped, coloured, added die-cut leaves, AND the raised up sentiments!  Somewhat surprisingly, even with all that added dimension, it went through my Stampin' Cut & Emboss machine with ease.

After stamping the main image, I coloured it with Stampin' Blends markers - Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen for the larger leaves, Sahara Sand for some smaller leaves, and Cherry Cobbler for the berries.  I used Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends to colour some of the "void" between and around the letters.  I then added an Evening Evergreen leafy die cut overlay, on top of the coloured leaves.  It doesn't line up perfectly ... so I used Stampin' Blends to colour the bits of leaves that needed to be filled in.

The next step was adding dimension to the sentiment.  I stamped the tiny "sending you" in Evening Evergreen ink, on a scrap of Sahara Sand card, and die cut it using one of the sentiment dies from the Sending Hugs bundle.  I stuck some Adhesive Foam Sheet on the back of a piece of Evening Evergreen Designer Series Paper, and cut the word "HUGS" from it, using another die in this awesome bundle.  The die-cut letters fit nicely over the top of the stamped word, giving lots of options for using these products.  I raised the smaller part of the sentiment up on Mini Stampin' Dimensionals.  Lastly, I die-cut some open leaves from a Sahara Sand piece of paper from the Tidings of Christmas DSP pack.

Here are a couple of photos of the end result, once I'd die-cut the panel with a Stitched Rectangle Die, and added a few Holiday Rhinestones as berries:

Just so the recipient knows it's a Christmas card, I decorated the inside of the card.  I stamped some leafy sprays in Soft Succulent ink, and coloured them with Soft Succulent Stampin' Blends markers.  I had stamped the sentiment, from the fabulous Inspired Thoughts stamp set, on a scrap of Basic White card, using Cherry Cobbler ink.  I punched it out using the Label Me Fancy punch, before adhering it over the leaves.

The next person on tonight's blog hop is Michele Taylor.   To hop over to her blog, you can click on the graphic below.

If at any time you find a broken link and the next blog doesn’t come up please head to the blog of this week’s host of the  Heart of Christmas Blog Hop, Sharon Davern, and she will have the list of all who are participating.

I have listed below all the products used to make my card.  If you live in Australia, and would like to shop with me for your Stampin' Up! supplies, you can get to my online store by clicking on any of the thumbnail images below.

Product List

Sending Hugs Bundle [155859] $77.25	Inspired Thoughts Cling Stamp Set [155536] $33.00	Stamparatus [148187] $85.00	Clear Block A [118487] $7.00	Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock [121695] $15.25
Basic White A4 Cardstock [159228] $17.00	Evening Evergreen A4 Cardstock [155575] $15.25	Tidings Of Christmas 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [155718] $20.00	Evening Evergreen Classic Stampin' Pad [155576] $13.00	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad [147083] $13.00
Soft Succulent Classic Stampin' Pad [155778] $13.00	Evening Evergreen Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [155517] $15.50	Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154880] $15.50	Soft Succulent Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [155521] $15.50	Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154882] $15.50
Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [149653] $209.00	Stitched Rectangles Dies [151820] $61.00	Label Me Fancy Punch [151297] $31.00	Holiday Rhinestone Basic Jewels [150457] $10.50	Stampin' Seal [152813] $14.00
Adhesive Sheets [152334] $17.50	Foam Adhesive Sheets [152815] $14.00	Multipurpose Liquid Glue [110755] $7.00	Mini Stampin' Dimensionals [144108] $6.00