Stampin Up Christmas Cards

Jeanne has a lovely color combo this week, just a bit of a twist on classic Christmas, with Christmas being our dessert theme all month. I used this challenge to play with some fun little pet themed stamps and dies. It doesn't show much but I used some Mint Macaron velveteen ribbon to create my mantle to hang the stockings. Thanks so much for taking a peek and I hope that we'll see you in the gallery this week!

Here's a Sale-a-bration sneak peek of some of the upcoming items, beginning Aug. 3. Earn these free gifts with qualifying purchases!

Diana Langman - Canada Diana has come up with another winner! Diana created this card to show how she achieved a tone on tone card using the Merriest

Frosted Gingerbread Class In The Mail! Let's do it again! This card kit has been so popular (and the product is still available, Yay) tha...

Happy Wednesday! How about a mid-week blog hop? Of course this is a layout challenge – you know I love those! I am playing with holidays this week. For this, I am back to Christmas! So pretty! Pretty easy too! I used the Sale-a-bration Designer Series Paper, Peaceful Prints – Simply beautiful! My favorite part... [Read More]

Hello Crafter's, I hope you are keeping safe and well. Another month gone and a new month beginning with another Sheet Load of Cards from call Me Crafty Al. And there is no stopping the lovely designs she comes up with, they are just lovely and challenge me every month. I have used Heart Warming Hugs DSP for this months cards, loving the Christmassy feel to them, and my lovely monthly card group will be making one of these cards in the online class on Thursday 19 November, if you wish to purchase the beautiful papers to make a few of your own please follow this link and it will take you to my online shop. The Wreath Builder die item number 152722 has been my most used die the last few weeks. Head over to see what the other collaborators have created using this lovely design. Find out how to download the November 2020 SheetLoad of Cards, here: https://youtu.be/IBthJXAJkho If you create cards using this month’s SheetLoad, make sure to use the following hashtags: #suysnov2020 #showusyoursheetload Get more details on how to “Show Us Your SheetLoad”, here: https://youtu.be/8r6JbbGfWmo Make sure to check out all of the SheetLoad collaborators! YouTube Team: Call Me Crafty Al / Alicia: https://www.youtube.com/callmecraftyal/videos Bourbon Creek Crafts / Beth: https://www.youtube.com/bourboncreekcrafts/videos Cool Cakes and Crafts with Amalia / Amalia: https://www.youtube.com/user/petunia10466/videos Creative Chelsey / Chelsey: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCszCS397ptot3vJdvLCirTg/videos Deb Houck’s Crafty Cottage / Deb: https://www.youtube.com/c/DebHoucksCraftyCottage-DahliaDesigns/videos Lil Crafty Nook / Nikki: https://www.youtube.com/user/musicaligirl58/videos Mel’s Card Corner / Melissa: https://www.youtube.com/melscardcorner/videos Scrapping for Less / Teresa: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV_oc92wpRz495Cp1qYK4VQ/videos Stmpgrl / Paige: https://www.youtube.com/user/stmpgrl/videos Blog Team: Airbornewife Stamping / Pam: http://airbornewifestamping.blogspot.com Danni’s Dreams / Danni: http://dannisdreamscrafts.blogspot.com/ Stamp with Sandie / Sandie: http://stampwithsandie.blogspot.com/ Instagram Team: @craftaholicmomma / Stacy: https://www.instagram.com/craftaholicmomma/ @deneen03 / Deneen: https://www.instagram.com/deneen03/ @fuzzyslippersdesigns / Moriah: https://www.instagram.com/fuzzyslippersdesigns/ @lizzies_happy_mail / Elizabeth: https://www.instagram.com/lizzies_happy_mail @scrpbkgrl / Lisa: https://www.instagram.com/scrpbkgrl/ Keep safe and well until next time

Hello and Happy Sunday! For this week's Sunday Fun Day theme over on the Sisters in Stamping blog, I asked my fellow designers to create a 6" x 6" DSP One Sheet Wonder set of cards. If you aren't familiar with this concept, a One Sheet Wonder is where you stamp a sheet of card stock and then cut it up into multiple pieces to make several cards. It is even easier when you start with a piece of DSP! For this challenge I wanted to showcase the great 6" x 6" DSP stacks that Stampin' Up! is now selling. If you don't have any, simply cut a sheet of 12" x 12" DSP into (4) pieces of 6" x...

We got a lot of lovely cards for Challenge 423. Thanks to everyone that participated this week. Here are our top 3 Grace Melanie Maria

Merry & Bright with In the Pines Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the 19th and final for 2020 Social Stamping Blog Host. Thank you so much Kelly for instigating and coordinating the Social Stamping Blog Hop. For me, this blog hop has certainly helped me through this very strange year of COVID-19. Sharing paper crafting is such a delight. This month's Social Stamping theme is Merry & Bright, which I have interpreted as a happy Christmas theme. When thinking about what I would make, I decided to create a card based on a ATC I created earlier in the year - that's right, it was only last month. What is an ATC you ask? The letters stand for Artistic Trading Cards. They are similar to Sporting Trading Cards. I am part of the Art with Heart team and for many years a number of us have been creating ATCs based around a technique or theme to share with others in the share. It has been a brilliant way to learn new techniques and challenge myself to design within 2.5" x 3.5". Here is the ATC I created for the Plaid challenge last month, where we needed to create our own plaid/tartan with watercolour. I have been intending to create full size cards based on my ATCs, but haven't created many, so decided to try with this design. Here is my Christmas card for you in this final 2020 Social Stamping Blog Hop: The first task in creating this card was to create a plaid. I used Shimmery White card-stock cut a little bigger than the strip I needed so I could trim it down if the edges were a bit mucky. I painted a stripe every 3/4" in watered down Rococo Rose Classic Stampin' ink using the mid size Water Painter. Then I painted a stripe in Petal Pink Classic Stampin' ink next to the Rococo Rose stripe, leaving an un-inked white stripe. The card-stock piece was turned 90 degrees and the same painting process was carried out. Once dry, Rococo Rose and Petal Pink Stampin' Write markers were used to draw a thin stripe on the edge of the same colour stripe using the thicker nib. Then using the thinest tip of the Rococo Rose marker two thin stripes were drawn near the thicker Rococo Rose stripe. All the stripes were drawn and then the card-stock was again turned 90 degrees and the same stripes were drawn at 90 degrees to the first stripes. As you can see, the plaid is not perfect like a woven tartan or printed design. That's fine - ! love the relaxed water-colour bleeding of colours. The background is a piece of Petal Pink card-stock that was embossed with the Evergreen Forrest 3D embossing folder. Some White Craft ink was lightly dragged over the embossed trees with a Sponge Dauber to delicately highlight the trees in the background. To add some "stars" to the sky, Frost White Shimmer Paint was splattered using the Water Painter. This background was adhered directly to the Rococo Rose card-stock base. The plaid piece was positioned with Dimensionals. Three trees were die cut with the Pine Woods dies from Shimmery White card-stock. I little of the Frost White Shimmer Paint was painted on the trees, reminiscent of snow on the tips of the branches, to add a little shimmer. I so love the In the Pines bundle, as you may have guessed if you follow by blog. A circle of Vellum, cut with the Layered Circle dies, was adhered to one side over the plaid. The two smaller trees were partially tucked under the Vellum circle and adhered directly to the plaid. The larger tree was placed over the Vellum circle with Mini Dimensionals. A sentiment from the coordinating In the Pines stamp set was stamped in Versamark on Rococo Rose card-stock and heat embossed with White Emboss Powder. The sentiment was fussy cut and positioned with both Multipurpose Liquid Glue and Mini Dimensionals. Snowflake Adhesive-backed Embellishments were added as the finishing touch. They are so pretty. A piece of Whisper White card-stock was stamped a couple of times with the group of little trees from the In the Pines stamp set using Petal Pink and Rococo Rose Classic Stampin' inks. The stamp was inked in Petal Pink and then bits of the stamp were daubed with Rococo Rose and then stamped. A thin strip of the plaid was also adhered to the bottom of the card inner. A C6 Whisper White envelope was similarly stamped with the little trees across the bottom front of the envelope. I hope you are enjoying this month's Social Stamping Blog Hop which has focused on the "Merry & Bright" theme. If you started at the beginning with our amazing Social Stamping Host, Kelly Kent, then the next in line is the lovely Sandra Collet at Sanzstamps. Use this link to see her gorgeous creation or click on the 'Next' graphic below. If you would prefer to go to the full list of participants click on this link to be taken to Kelly Kent's Host Blog Post at My Papercraft Journey where you will find all the individual links that can take you to each person's blog. I hope to see you again next year - let's hope it is a better year for us all. I'm not sure whether the Social Stamping Blog Host will continue - keep an eye on Kelly Kent's blog. Do look after yourself and your loved ones. I hope you enjoy an amazing Christmas and New Year. Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others in these strange times. Andrea 😘