2015 Spring Hero Hostesses Blog Hop!

Hello everyone and welcome to the final day of the Hero Hostess Blog Hop, featuring stamps and die cuts from the latest catalog release.  I am honored to again be participating with all my sister Hosti!  If you've been following along, you just arrived here from the blog of the AMAZINGLY talented Sue McRae, Sue's Inky Fingers.  I know, huh?!

Now, I must share that I made these little projects with one working hand, and NOT my dominant one!  I broke my left wrist almost four weeks ago, so please bear with me.  Last year's blog, I had lost vision in one eye, so I'm keeping all digits crossed for next year, LOL!!!

Supplies for this card:
Stamps - CG659 Tropical Background
Die - DC149 Congrats Stamp & Cut, MFT Fishtail Flags, Lil' Inker Designs Stitched Rectangles
Paper - DCWV Glitter Cardstack, Hero Arts Snow Layering, PTI Vellum
Inks - Hero Arts Mid-tone shadows Tide Pool, Butter, and Green Hills, Stazon Jet Black
Misc. - The Twinery bakers twine, Basic Gray button, Ranger clear embossing powder, Wink of Stella, Crafty foam tape

Supplies for this card:
Stamps - CL833 Stamp Your Own Salad
Die - Lil' Inker Designs Stitched Rectangles
Paper - Bazzill Chips Tag, Hero Arts Snow Layering
Inks - Hero Arts Mid-tone shadows Red Royal and Field Greens, Stazon Timber Brown
Misc. - May Arts Chevron ribbon, MME Enamel Dots

Supplies for this card:
Stamps - CL833 Stamp Your Own Salad
Die - DI054 Phrase Bubble
Paper - PPI Vellum, Paper Accents craft tags
Inks - Versamark, Hero Arts Mid-tone shadows Field Greens, Soft Olive Shadow
Misc. - PPI Natural Twine, MME Enamel Dots, Zing mustard embossing powder, vintage mini clothespin

Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments. For a chance to win, simply comment on ANY of the stops along the hop on ANY day, including each day’s starting post at the Hero Club Blog. The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning!

If you find a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Arts Club Blog. Also, please report broken links to: blog@heroarts.com.

Your next stop on the Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop is my sweet friend, Anita Recksiedler of Crafty Girl Designs.  You're in for a treat!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I'd love to hear your comments - how did I do with one hand? 

Watercoloring with Scraplings and A New Challenge Blog!

Good morning friends! I am SO excited to share some wonderful news about my dear friend, Virginia Lu.  She has created a new challenge blog called Virginia's View.  You can check out her blog HERE.  She also has a Pinterest page HERE and a Facebook page HERE.  I can promise you that with her humor, talent, and creativity, FUN FUN FUN is headed our way!

 

Last week I was introduced to a technique called Scraplings.  I totally embraced these adorable little gems and wanted to work my magic on a couple more.  They are only 1 1/2 inches by 4 1/4 inches.

For the supplies I used, see below.  I hope you will help support Virginia and create a project for her very first challenge!  Thanks for stopping by and as always, I would love to read your comments.

SUPPLIES

Stamps - Hero Arts Tiny Flags S5881, Dictionary Greetings CL479, Year Round Sentiments CL582

Inks - Hero Arts Black Dye Ink, Distress Inks Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Antique Linen, VersaMark Watermark

Dies - Hero Arts Phrase Bubble

Other - Lawn Fawn Sequins, Hemptique Twine, MFT Dots, Hero Arts White Embossing Powder

Hero Arts Scramble #78 Scraplings

What a fun Scramble we had today! [Creations by] Martha hosted and gave us quite a fun and challenging task to create two scraplings.

"Today’s THEME: SCRAPLINGS - With More Than One Layer
This is what I’m asking of you.
1) Create 2 newly created Scraplings, with more than one layer, & with different designs.
(Scraplings are tall & narrow cards. More about Scraplings included towards the bottom.)
2) Maximum Size for your Scraplings in Inches and Centimeters:
(In my humble opinion, they start looking like a regular-sized card, if any wider.)
Inches: 1.5 in. x 4.25 in.
Centimeters (approximate): 4 cm x 11 cm
3) Your new creations must include at least one Hero Arts stamp as your main image,
4) Photograph your two Scraplings in one photo."

WHAT? One and a half inches by four and a quarter inches - really?  OK, I can do this!  I never knew how much fun this would be!  Had I had more time, I would have kept going.  Actually it was easier than I thought, because there was less space to fill up.

I looked through my stamps to see what would look best in this space and went from there.  I pulled out scraps from my scrap pile, matched up some inks and gathered my embellishments. 

I don't know if you can see the layers, but in the card to the left, the writing is actually patterned paper.  The card base is Hero Arts foliage layering paper.  I also used Wink of Stella on the leaves to give it some glitter and dimension, but it never photographs well for me.

The card on the right is layered with a grass die that I inked up to match the stamped image. I glued that over the image and then popped a bunny die cut over that.

I want to thank Martha for my favorite Scramble EVAH!!!!  It made me wish Spring was right around the corner, but alas, more snow coming Monday!!!!  At least these gave me the warm fuzzies today!

Please feel free to leave me a comment!  Thanks for stopping by!

SUPPLIES
Stamps - Hero Arts Overexposed Leaves, Newsprint Tulips, Sunshine, Four Seasons
Paper - Hero Arts Foliage layering papers, Prima Meadow Lark pp, Neenah Solar White cardstock
Inks/Markers - Distress Markers Broken China and Peeled Paint, Hero Arts lime green mid-tone shadow ink, MFT ColorBox Razzleberry dye ink, Wink of Stella Versamark Watermark
Dies  - Poppystamps Fuzzy Bunnies and Grassland Border
Other - MME Dots, Zing cricket embossing powder
 

Runway Inspired Challenge #53

Oh, how I love the Runway Inspired Challenges!  Fashion inspiration is such a personal interpretation and the design team NEVER fails to display that! This one was quite a challenge for me and perhaps I took it too literally, but I think it worked. 

As soon as I saw the lace element in the dress, I reached for an oldie but goodie Hero Arts stamp, Lace Frame.  I stamped and black embossed it on the purple cardstock.  For the center portion of the stamped image, I used a Spellbinder die to cut it out, so I could stamp the sentiment.  Another Hero Arts stamp, Special Time, was embossed in gold. I love this font - it looks lovely with the lace. I mounted that whole piece onto black cardstock.

I knew the background had to be lattice, so I took the Hero Arts Lattice Background and stamped it in black on the same cardstock, cut it into four equals portions, and mounted it on a black card base.

For the final touch, as in the dress, I used gold and teal sequins to bring out those color elements.  

I will definitely use the die cut technique with the lace stamp again.  It really matches the frame perfectly. 

Thanks RIC for another fun challenge!

As always, I love reading your comments!

SUPPLIES

Stamps - Hero Arts Lace Frame K5329, Lattice Background 331065, Special Time CL579

Paper - Bazzill, Papertrey Ink

Ink - Versafine Onyx, Versamark Watermark

Die - Spellbinders

Other - Darice sequins

Hero Arts New Birthday Challenge!

YAY, it's time for a new challenge from Hero Arts!  The theme is all about BIRTHDAYS!  Head on over to their BLOG to check out the five categories to enter in.  I wanted to make something fun and colorful, so I went with "anything goes." It could go to just about anyone!

With all the graphic elements,  I felt the card needed a touch of something feminine, so I added the butterfly, embossed in white, filled in with Wink of Stella, and embellished with lime green pearls.  Some ribbon, twine, and sequins also speak to the girly girl in me!

I love the Zing Cricket Green embossing powder on the BIRTHDAY sentiment.  I don't think I ever used it!  The finished card reminds me of my preppy days in high school, especially this color palette.  It makes me very HAPPY!!

Hope you play along and thanks for visiting my blog!  I love to read your comments!

SUPPLIES

Stamps - Hero Arts Five Lines Background, Hip Hip Hurray, Antique Flowers and Butterflies

Paper - Hero Arts Foliage layering papers, Neenah Solar White, Core'dinations

Inks - Hero Arts Green Hills Mid-Tone Shadow Ink, Memento Danube Blue Dye Ink, Versamark Watermark

Dies - Antique Flowers and Butterflies, MFT Fishtail Flags, Papertrey Ink One Liners Happy Die

Other - Hero Arts White Embossing Powder, Zing Cricket Embossing Powder, Hero Arts Pearls, Hemptique Twine, Studio Calico sequins, Wink of Stella Marker, May Arts Chevron ribbon

Give-Away Winner Announced!

Since I haven't heard from the first person whose name I drew, I drew another name.  The winner is JOY123 (MEADOWS)!!!  Please Flickrmail me with your e-mail and I'll send the Simon Says Stamp E-card right out to you! 

Thanks for your wonderful comment and congratulations!!!



 

Hero Hostess 2014 Blog Hop Give-Away!

Sorry this post is late, but I have been trying to retrieve my lost comments as quickly as possible and I was able to get back about half.  Thanks to ALL who left me comments and to those who reposted. I am so, so grateful.

So, with that said, by random draw, the winner of my personal give-away is NANCY CARROLL!  Nancy, if you could e-mail me at primethyme@charter.net, I'll get your Simon Says Stamp e-card right off to you!  If I don't hear back by 2/1, I'll draw another name.

Thanks again for joining us at the hop!

Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop 2014 is Here and a Give-Away!

EDITING NOTE: DUE TO A BIT OF A GLITCH, MY COMMENTS ON ALL MY POSTS HAVE BEEN LOST.  IF YOU ARE CHECKING BACK HERE TO SEE IF YOU HAVE WON MY GIVE-AWAY AND DON'T SEE YOUR NAME, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST AGAIN. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE. 

Welcome to day three of the Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop, featuring fabulous stamps from the new 2014 release!

If you’ve been following along, you’ve just arrived from Arlene McClung's blog!

Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments. For a chance to win, simply comment on ANY of the stops along the hop on ANY day, including each day’s starting post at the Hero Club Blog. The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning!

I will also be having a random drawing for a $25 E-card to Simon Says Stamp, so check back here on Saturday, January 25th to see if you won!

If you find a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Arts Club Blog. Also, please report broken links to: blog@heroarts.com.

For my card, I used the new wood stamp, Petals of Beauty K5897, and Say It All CL574.

I first stamped the Petals of Beauty on white cardstock, using the Colorbox inks. I then masked off the stems of the flower and over-stamped it two more times.  Using a distress marker, I added additional stems and did some shading on the buds.

Next, I die cut the pool cardstock and placed the negative as a frame over the stamped flowers.  Using a light pencil, I drew a line along the side of the flower that was underneath the rectangle.  I removed it and fancy cut out that area of the flower.  Don't forget to erase the pencil!  Note, you can see that in the photo it looks like one whole layer. 

I die cut the bow, stamped it with the Tiny Ink Spots and used glue dots to adhere to frame.  I backed the whole piece with a white card blank.

To finish it off, I black embossed the sentiment and colored all of the flowers and stems with Wink of Stella.  You can't see it very well in the photo, but it gives a beautiful glimmer finish to the card!

Don't forget to check back at the Hero Arts blog tomorrow for another day of hopping with some very talented designers!


Supplies
Stamps - Hero Arts Petals of Beauty K5897, Say It All CL574, Tiny Ink Spots S5637
Paper - Hero Arts snow and pool layering papers
Ink & Markers - Versafine black onyx ink, Versamark watermark, Wink of Stella, Distress Markers Peeled Paint, MFT Colorbox Dye Inks Razzleberry and Gumdrop Green
Die - Lil Inker Bow die, Spellbinders Reverse Wonky Rectangles die
Other - Ranger Ultrafine black embossing powder