Heart Sentiments
Hello, and welcome to Heart Sentiments.
Throughout the year, or your life, there are times when sending a card to mark an event or share your feelings are so appropriate. Here at Heart Sentiments I understand that it’s all about what, and how you want to, say something. And I hope that the cards, projects and ideas you find on my site will help to reflect your style, values and personality in the cards you create.
If you’re not the creative type, feel free to contact me and share your vision, so that I might create it for you.
Read More2019 Christmas Card Stamp-a-Stack
This year I planned my 2019 Christmas Card Stamp-a-Stack in October, because November felt too late last year. Participants made twelve A2 cards, two each of six designs. Most designs were CASEd from cards I found on Pinterest, that were then tweaked to make them my own. While coming up with six unique designs can be challenging, the more challenging element is creating a mix of styles that provide a good variety in the finished cards. That is to say, a mix of Christmas cards that includes traditional, whimsy, glimmer, magical, peaceful, and the family aspects of the Christmas season. Let me know how I did in the comments below, and I hope you enjoy the cards we made.
This first card uses the Woodlands embossing folder that was inked with Pool Party ink and stamped in Old Olive with the Lovely as a Tree stamp.
The next card was made using the Feels Like Frost Specialty Designer Series Paper, new in the 2019 Holiday Catalog. The silver foiling on this paper is beautiful and makes really nice glimmery, foil cards.
This copper foil accent card uses the Brightly Gleaming bundle, stamp set, punches and more Specialty Designer Series Paper to create this pretty Ornament Card. All of these items can be found in the 2019 Holiday Catalog.
This Dashing Deer card uses a stamp set and die bundle that can be found in the 2019/2020 Annual Catalog. A circle die was cut out of the embossed panel and a silver foil dashing reindeer was die cut and added as the focus of this card.
Most importantly, a “from our house to yours” card is an important one in any Christmas card mix, and this is the card I designed. It uses retired Stampin’Up! products but I think they never go out of style. The wreath was made using the Swirly Scribbles die and adding punches from the Sprig punch and retired bird punch. The front and inside sentiments are from a many years retired sets The only current products in this card are the card stock, inks, sprig punch and Merry Christmas ribbon.
This final card is not a card I would typically make or purchase, but it adds a lot to the variety and provides a whimsical option to the mix. I actually won this stamp set and punch bundle, Snowman Season bundle, at a September Stampin Bingo and decided I had to use it. So glad to have it.
So there you have my 2019 Christmas Card Stamp-a-Stack. Let me know what you think in the comments below. I truly appreciate your comments.
Read MoreMosaic Mood
I was asked to create a board of card samples using the Memorable Mosaic stamp set and coordinating Specialty Designer Series Paper for my upline’s Creative Retreat in June. Now that I’ve finally gotten around to photographing them, here is the board and some of the samples. Some were actually cased from samples I found on Pinterest and others are my designs.
First let me say that seeing the paper in the catalog does not do it justice. The paper is beautiful with glossy, embossing on one side of all the papers. All of the samples you see on this post were made using one half of the pack of paper. I admit that I was meticulous in my cutting it up, always choosing to get the most out of the specific designs.
So, that includes a scrapbook page, 10 cards, two 2″ samples of the papers, 12 note cards and a note card box. The cutie in the scrapbook page is my first grandson who turned 14 today. Where did the time go?
Finally, these are the note card samples and box, which includes my first ever shaker card. I never made one because I wasn’t sure I even liked them, but after making one, I found them really fun to make.
Tea Together
Here is a card we made at our June workshop. Not sure what to call it, maybe a type of easel card. The reason I’m posting is because I love how Stampin’Up! cut out the centers of the teapot and teacup stamps, allowing you to insert the floral images inside the space, so that they could be stamped all at once. I put the large floral inside the teapot stamp, and the rosebud stamp inside the teacup stamp. You’ll notice when you look closely at the marker coloring that it’s not perfect, and I did that purposely, so that it might appear like actual porcelain where the color modulates somewhat. Hopefully, the gold embossing shows up in the image, as I thought this was a perfect use for gold heat embossing.
The front of the card bears an embossed floral panel, flanked by floral washi tape, and the “Lovely Day” strip is washi tape on a vanilla strip of card stock popped up at the bottom of the inside of the card, so the front of the card can stand up. I hope you like it.
Read MoreSaying Goodbye to DSPs
There were so many papers in the this year’s catalogs that I simply loved. So, while Stampin’Up! is saying “goodbye” to all of these lovelies, I may have hoarded a few for personal use, so I can continue to play with them. But as we get ready to close the current catalog to make room for the new, including many new, beautiful papers, I thought I would share a few card samples with my favorites DSPs.
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Petal Promenade
Magnolia Lane Suite
This Stampin’Up! suite was a definite pre-order for me, although I couldn’t get it all, at least right away. As a retired florist, when I purchase a floral set, the stamps and dies have to be as realistic as possible. And this suite surely fits the bill.
There will be more card samples coming, and maybe even a shadow box or sampler, but for now, I just wanted to share this card I used for my new catalog swap. And I also wanted to share a happy little discovery I made while making it.
For the card base and envelope, I used the Magnolia Lane Memories & More cards and envelopes. The large stamp was inked with versamark and heat embossed with silver embossing powder. I then loosely colored in the petals with the chalk marker, and filled in a bit with the Petal Pink Stampin’ Write marker. Going back over certain spots with the chalk marker made some areas even whiter. I wanted to make sure I wiped away any marker left on the silver embossing, and grabbed the nearest thing on my desk, which happened to be a used dryer sheet. To my surprise, with a good rub of the dryer sheet across the image, the dull, flat chalk finish turned into a glossy, almost shimmery finish. While the chalk finish was certainly acceptable on a kraft type card base, I loved even more the contrast that the effect of rubbing the dryer sheet over it left. I know I will be using this technique a lot more when using the chalk marker. If I hadn’t created this card myself, I would have thought it was either made with shimmer paint or metallic gelato. Funny how you can use different products to get basically the same effect. One can learn a lot through experimenting.
Because these kraft card bases are not very think, I added white card stock panels to the inside and stamped the same image with Crumb Cake ink.
Butterfly Gala
Does this bundle of Butterfly Gala and Gingham Gala DSP speak Spring to anyone else? Oh my gosh! Of course, to complete the bundle you need to have the Butterfly Duet punch. At our last workshop we put a bunch of these elements together to create this version of Lisa Curcio’s inspired card. Pulling in some of that beautiful ribbon from this year’s Sale-a-bration completed the look for this card.
Here are a few more cards, using this suite of products, including the beautiful Botanical Butterfly Designer Series Paper, that was also a free Sale-a-bration item.
Beauty Abounds
Who doesn’t love these butterfly clusters? Well, maybe I wasn’t sold at first, given that I already have plenty of butterfly punches and dies. Then I saw a card from France Martin. This is the version we made at our last workshop using several stamps from the Beauty Abounds stamp set and coordinating Botanical Butterfly thinlits. Oh my, how cute seeing these butterflies pop up when you open this card.
More Floral Romance Suite
So I promised more projects on this suite of products, so here are two cards from a recent workshop.
The vellum sheets in the designer series paper of this suite are simply beautiful. The dies are to die-for, and the embossing folder is stunning. And framing out the first card below with the new stitched rectangle framelits really makes the card stand out.
On the Mint Macaron card below, regular vellum was cut to the same size as the card base, and embossed in the lace embossing folder, making this a stunning card with little else needed to embellish it.
Floral Romance Suite
I fell in love with this suite at first site, and that was at OnStage in November of last year in Orlando. But it’s taken me a while to blog about, as I had so much fun playing with this suite. Plus, I also bought it in stages, getting the stamp set at OnStage, then the framelits when the Occasions catalog was opened to demonstrators, and finally the beautiful specialty designer series paper and embossing folder followed. The last two products I will feature in another post. As a retired florist, this was definitely a must have for me.
It became my first swap for the year seen here.
The colors used in this card are Pool Party and Calypso Coral with Very Vanilla. I will share more photos of other cards in another post.
Read MoreSnowflake Showcase
Oh my gosh! Here I was just stamping away and designing this year’s Christmas cards, and then Snowflake Showcase happened. Oh my gosh!
I have not been so excited about a set since joining Stampin’Up! three years ago. I have not been able to put the set away. It stays on my desk for when the next brainchild hits me. I’ve seen so many creative designs that have jump-started my month long love fest with this set of stamps and dies.
So I thought I would share a few of my cards with you. And seriously, I’ve only focused on cards so far. At some point soon, I’ll be moving on to 3D projects, because, well, that’s just how I roll.
Stampin’Up! Catalogs
