Stamping Inkspirations Blog Hop - Sketch Challenge

Hello and welcome to my blog! Today I am taking part in a blog hop with some fellow enthusiasts who love sharing their creative talents using their Stampin' Up!® products. 

This month in the Stamping Inkspirations Blog Hop we are creating projects using a sketch as our starting point.

The first thing that strikes me about this sketch is all the layers. I love adding layers and textures to my cards so I am focusing on that!

I've picked the Holly Jolly Branches dies as my focal point because I could visualise the four rectangles in the sketch as a grove of trees. The four die cut trees are embellished using the Swirls of Magic embossing folder. Not only does this give some texture to the tree canopies, but it also echoes the swirls and stars on the hot foiled background.

The Starry Night hot foil background is used as large layer covering the base of the card and as a backdrop for the trees - I have used silver foil on Cloud Cover and Secret Sea card. The Scalloped Christmas Cheer dies have rapidly become my new favourites! There is a row of stitched dots within the scalloped edge that creates the most wonderful frame. I added further layers within the stitched line thereby creating greater depth on my cards.

Recently, I had a marathon session creating sentiments using the Magical Christmas hot foil dies when I was creating a batch of cards for a card swap. I now have a pile of sentiments already foiled, die cut and ready to use. The 'tis the season works well for my tree cards!

Following the sketch I've added a twist of white Baker's Twine and, as a finishing touch, some Basic rhinestones add a little more twinkle and shine. 

This sketch gave me the inspiration I needed to get creating. I'm delighted that I have added another couple of cards to my stash of Christmas cards. Please continue along the hop to see what the others have created too...enjoy the projects! We would love to hear from you and so if you have been inspired, please leave a comment.

 

Teri West  ●  Kim Fee

Kelly Taranto  ●  Angie McKenzie

Karen Henderson  ●  Leonie Stuart

Do you need any of the products  used on today's cards? If you live in the UK please take a look in my online Stampin' Up! shop. You can follow the link or click on the pictures below of the products I have used today.

Do you need any of the products used on today's cards? If you live in the UK please take a look in my online Stampin' Up! shop. You can follow the link or click on the pictures below of the products I have used today.

Stay safe and as always, happy crafting,

If you would like to order any supplies, and you live in the UK, I would love to be your demonstrator. To place an order please visit my online shop HERE. The products I have used on today's project are linked from the images shown below.

Stampin' Rewards Program 

When shopping, remember to opt in to Stampin' Rewards on orders over £20.

Click on the images of the products I have used today to purchase them in my online shop:

Holly Jolly Branches for the Simple to Stepped up New at SU! blog hop

 

Hello and welcome to my blog. Today, I am participating in the New at SU! blog hop. We are a group of Stampin' Up!® demonstrators from around the world who are full of creative papercrafting ideas to share with you to get you crafting. We are showcasing simple projects that can be stepped up for more of a wow factor! 

I have to admit that I started with my final version and pared in down to create two simpler, stepped down yet still elegant versions of my card. I used the Holly Jolly Branches bundle together with the Swirls of Magic embossing folder on each of the versions and in addition I included the Tile Garden set of dies to step up the design.

Each card has a snowy scene with a trio of trees. I chose to use a square card base because the trees look completely at home in a square setting. There are multiple layers to add depth to the scene. 

I used tone on tone stamped stars to decorate the Pool Party sky and some snow detail, using stamped off Pool Party ink, to the drifts on the ground. Tearing the layers to create the drifts added some softness to the edges. The coloured trees are stamped using a coordinating colour and the white tree is embossed using the Swirls of Magic folder. The stars and swirls really add great detail to the biggest tree.

On the simplest version of the card the layers have clean lines whilst the stepped up versions include die cut squares with fancy edges. Each version has a Golden Glow star in the sky which is coloured with Wink of Stella shimmer and a trio of Basic Rhinestones for some shine.

The two stepped up versions also have splatters of shimmer from the Wink of Stella brush to add droplets of sparkle to the background.

My final version steps things up a notch by converting the card into a fancy easel fold card. The easel is propped up using the long sentiment label included in the Holly Jolly bundle. 

I hope that you have been inspired by my projects today. I am smitten with the easel card, and I've made five more of them to add to my Christmas stash! Which version do you prefer?

Continuing along the hop to the others will provide you with even more ideas for simple to stepped up projects - you are currently with me, Furry Cat Designs by Karen Henderson - but before you hop on to the next post, please take a moment to leave a comment. We love reading your comments!

Blog Hop Index

Do you need any of the products used on today's cards? If you live in the UK please take a look in my online Stampin' Up! shop. You can follow the link or click on the pictures below of the products I have used today.

Stay safe and as always, happy crafting,

If you would like to order any supplies, and you live in the UK, I would love to be your demonstrator. To place an order please visit my online shop HERE. The products I have used on today's project are linked from the images shown below.

Stampin' Rewards Program 

When shopping, remember to opt in to Stampin' Rewards on orders over £20.

Click on the images of the products I have used today to purchase them in my online shop:

Stamping Inkspirations Blog Hop - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Hello and welcome to my blog! Today I am taking part in a blog hop with some fellow enthusiasts who love sharing their creative talents using their Stampin' Up!® products. This month we are using a Tic Tac Toe board for our inspiration for the  Stamping Inkspirations Blog Hop.

Here is the Tic Tac Toe Board - the idea is to select a line (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) and to use those elements as the main ingredients for your project.

I chose the middle row: green, shine and twine. I have used the Welcome Noel bundle to create my cards with - the samples in the catalogue are made with neutral tones that captivated me.

I created a Basic Beige background using the Swirls of Magic embossing folder for the sky and the Starry Night stamp to ground the buildings. I stamped two of the magnificent pine trees in Mossy Meadow ink and two houses using Basic Beige and Crumb Cake.

The shine for my card comes in the form of Hot Foiling - I used copper foil with the Magical Sentiments bundle. Several sentiments, along with stars and candy canes, are produced each time you hot foil with this bundle. The Happy Christmas was the perfect proportion for this card, although it was really tricky to capture the beauty of the shine in a photograph!

The decorative panel is added to a Mossy Meadow matting layer, which in turn is added to a thick white card base. To complete the elements of the Tic Tac Toe challenge I tucked a loosely tied Linen Thread bow under the corner of the Crumb Cake house. I enjoyed making this card so much.  I even made a few extra cards to start off my stash of Christmas cards and as an added bonus there are a whole heap of foiled sentiments ready to use on another design! 

 

Leonie Stuart  ●  Karen Henderson

Kelly Taranto  ●  Annette Ball

Mo Rootes

Please continue along the hop to see what the others have created too...enjoy the projects! We would love to hear from you and so if you have been inspired, please leave a comment.Do you need any of the products used on today's cards? If you live in the UK please take a look in my online Stampin' Up! shop. You can follow the link or click on the pictures below of the products I have used today.

Stay safe and as always, happy crafting,

If you would like to order any supplies, and you live in the UK, I would love to be your demonstrator. To place an order please visit my online shop HERE. The products I have used on today's project are linked from the images shown below.

Stampin' Rewards Program 

When shopping, remember to opt in to Stampin' Rewards on orders over £20.

Click on the images of the products I have used today to purchase them in my online shop: