Hero Arts 2021 Stamp-Along Fun

Hello! Today I have several cards that I made during a craft along event that Hero Arts did on July 17. It was an all day event and many different design team members made cards that you also made at the same time. They have another one coming up and I would highly recommend it.

Are you ready? Get something to drink and maybe a snack…

This is a spotlight card taught by Daniel West. I used a stamp from Simon Says Stamp to make this. There is vellum covering the stamping on the base of the card. I colored with Copics.  The sentiment is heat embossed.

Supplies: Simon Says Stamp Sketched Flowers and I think the sentiment is from Hero Arts It’s Your Day set.

This card was done by Maria Willis. It is a gatefold card and also includes some vellum. Heat embossed flowers on vellum and cut out by hand. The background is Hero Arts Reactive ink blending with stenciling and shimmer mist over it. The sentiment is heat embossed and raised with foam.

Supplies: Simon Says Stamp Sketched Flowers, Hero Arts Reactive ink, Tim Holtz stencil, Spellbinders circle die, Hero Arts It’s Your Day birthday stamp set

A One Layer Looking Glass Card designed by Lydia Fiedler. You stamp the background with a text die. For the scene you use the Looking Glass die and then paper piece it back in to make a one layer card. I added the frame as an extra little thing which I cut out with a square die and the Looking Glass die. The sky is ink blended and the tree is colored with Copics.

Supplies: Hero Arts Canyon Lands Looking Glass die, Memory Box Stitched Square die, Impression Obsession French Text background stamp

Looking Glass Window Card. This was done by Nichol Spohr. This was fun because part of the scene is on the inside of the card.

I ink blended the front panel first using Distress Oxide ink. For the front of the card I stamped with the Sun Ray stamp and lightly stamped some text over that. Cut out a square which give you the piece for the inside of the card. Color the tree with Zig Clean Color Pens.

For the inside cut out the grass/frame and the mountains. Color with Zig Clean Color Pens.  Place those on the square with the sun rays along with the frame which the grass is part of.

Supplies: Hero Arts Canyon Lands Looking Glass die, Memory Box Stitched Square die, Impression Obsession French Text background stamp, Hero Arts Sun Ray Bold Prints, Zig Clean Color Pens.

Color Layering Sea horse birthday card. Jessica Frost-Ballas designed this card.

Ink blending on the background. School of fish and bubbles heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

Seahorses stamped and die cut.

The sentiment is heat embossed with white powder.

Supplies: Hero Arts Color Layering Seahorse, Hero Arts It’s Your Day stamp set

Color Layering Jellyfish with “waves” background. This is a Mindy Eggen card design. For the background I ink blending through a stencil and then ink blended over that fading as it went across. I am not super great at blending like this but it came out ok.

Two jellyfish are stamped right on the background and the big one is layer stamped and die cut.

The sentiment is stamped right on the background.

Supplies: Hero Arts July 2016 My Monthly Hero, Hero Arts Swirl stencil

Rainbow Watercolor Backgrounds. These are by Channin Pelletier. I am going to start by saying this was the most fun for me. Why? I have never done this before and it is just so happy! These are similar but a few different ways of doing them. To start each card you heat emboss on bristol paper using white powder.

For this first card I kind of scribbled lines across the card all the way down the card in the all the colors using water based pens. Then I used a brush and some water to spread the color out and blend the colors.

The sentiment is die cut.

For this one you color the different colors in pie shapes, douse it with water and use a blower to send the color out to the edges from the middle. The word celebrate is die cut (1 black and 2 white) and layered slightly offset. The other part of the sentiment is heat embossed and hand cut.

For this you color along vertically but only about half way down, douse with water and then blow towards the bottom of the card. The sentiment was done the same as the card above.

This believe it or not was the technique where you blow out from the middle. It was my first attempt and I had a little to much water so all the color went past the edges so you don’t have any streaks. This stamp might be a little to solid in places too for this technique to really shine. However I like how it came out. A nice background.

Whew.. I love all these rainbow cards and you should give it a try.

Supplies: Hero Arts Jelly Fish Party Bold Prints stamp, Hero Arts Everything Flower Bold Prints stamp, Hero Arts Birthday Stamp & Cut XL (love the font for the dies in this set), Reverse Confetti Thanks Square die, Simon Says Stamp Hello Dies, Local King Rubber Stamp water based markers

Now we have a Tri-fold stand up card. The teacher for this card was Debi Adams. Here is the jelly fish background stamp again. I was lucky to win this from Hero Arts.

For the stamping.. I stamped the jelly fish on a piece of paper that was cut in half to put on the side panels. Then I stamped again and colored in the jelly fish with Copics and a shimmer pen and cut the piece that goes in the middle of the frame and then hand cut a couple jelly fish to put on the side of the frame. The sentiment is heat embossed.

Supplies: Hero Arts Jelly Fish Party Bold Prints, Hero Arts July 2016 My Monthly Hero (sentiment), MFT Pie

Heartfelt Creations Create a ‘Scape Backcountry Birthday Card

Hello! Here I am with a birthday card for my son. He turned 30 in May. Does that mean I am getting old? Ha! It kind of hit me. Lately he has been doing a lot of mountain biking. So that explains the card. The bike looks kind of ghost like but his bike is gray so there it is.

The background is a combination of stamping, ink blending and coloring with Copics.

The dirt is ink blended and then stamped with an old Stampin Up stamp I found in my stash that is perfect for dirt. The grass I think is ink blended. The trees and mountains are colored with Copics. The sky is ink blended. The birds are stamped using a Hero Arts set.

The bike stamp was a lucky find. I got it the same day I made the card which was either the day before his birthday or on his birthday. I got it at either Michaels or Joanns and neither one has that great of a selection so I was very lucky to find it. It may not look like a mountain bike but at least it doesn’t have a cute basket on it with flowers.

I put the sentiment on the inside because I didn’t want it on the scene.

Supplies:

• Heartfelt Creations Create a ‘Scape Backcountry stamp set
• Hero Arts My Monthly Hero June 2017 stamp set
• American Crafts Bike stamp
• Distress Oxide ink

Hero Arts S’mores Bonfire Birthday Card

I have a birthday card today that I made with stamps from one of my very favorite stamp companies. That would be Hero Arts. I made this for a good friend of mine.

I just love this cute set. I am not often into the little cutsey stuff but these guys are so much fun.

To create the scene and specifically the background I did some ink blending and masking. I die cut some grass but I had to cover the grass when doing the sky and cover the sky when ink blending the grass. For the dirt I found an old Stampin Up woodblock stamp to add little dots all over. I was excited to have this come out nice so that stamp is right on my desk for future cards. The stars in the sky were stamped.

Then I stamped the critters, fire, trees and moon. I colored them with Copics and then die cut them.

The sentiment is stamped.

Supplies:

• Hero Arts S’mores Bonfire stamp set
• Avery Elle Loads of Wishes stamp set
• Hero Arts S’mores Bonfire matching die set
• Distress Oxide inks

Tim Holtz Merry Moose Christmas Card

And another one for the Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers blog hop. This moose is such a fun one and I finally got it out and used it.

I die cut out all the pieces using two die cut sets by Sizzix/Tim Holtz. I inked up some of the pieces around the edges and some over the whole die cut. For the mountains I added a bit over the top to tone down the off white. As you can see these are paper piecing dies.

The background I am pretty please with. It came last. I ink blended using Faded Jeans and Stormy Sky Distress Oxide inks. Then I put a bit of Picket Fence Distress Paint on my mat and added a bit of water. I used a good old sponge and lightly tapped it on the background. I also splattered a bit of the white.

The sentiment is stamped.

Supplies:

• Distress Oxide Inks
• Distress Picket Fence Ink
• Distress Splatter tool
• Tim Holtz Alpine die
• Tim Holtz Merry Moose die
• Hero Arts Christmas Folks stamp set

Tim Holtz Pine Branch Die Set Christmas Card

Here we go with a Christmas card I made awhile ago. I was kind of playing around and trying some things.

For the background I used some Distress Oxides (Frayed Burlap, Evergreen Bough, Pumice Stone, Antique Linen). I used the Gothic stencil with grit paste and went over the paste with Tarnished Brass Crayon. I also stamped using the swirl and text from the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Poinsettia set.

The pine cones and branches are colored with Distress Oxide ink and die cut using the Tim Holtz Pine Branch set.

The sentiment is stamped using a stamp from the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Poinsettia set.

Supplies:

• Sizzix Tim Holtz Pine Branch die set
• Tim Holtz Gothic Stencil
• Ranger Grit Paste
• Distress Crayon – Tarnished Brass
• Distress Oxide inks
• Stampers Anonymous The Poinsettia stamp set

Tim Holtz Wildflower Stems 2 Birthday Card

This one got by me… So here I am to get it posted. Some Tim Holtz flowers for my sister.

For the background I used some Tim Holtz woodgrain paper. It was already ink blended. Then I added to it using crayons Bundled Sage and Tea Dye to give it some highlights. I splattered some Antique Linen Distress paint on it also.

The flowers are die cut and water colored using reinkers.

The sentiment is made by die cutting a banner and ink blending Distress Oxide ink. The sentiment is from the Tim Holtz set Saying Stuff stamp set.

Supplies:

• Tim Holtz woodgrain paper
• Distress Crayons
• Distress Paint
• Distress Reinkers
• Sizzix Tim Holtz Wildflower Stems 2 die set
• Spellbinders Ribbon Banners die set
• Tim Holtz Saying Stuff stamp set
• Versafine Clair ink

Easter Cards… Lots of Easter Cards

Hello and Happy Easter! I had so much fun creating all of these Easter cards. They are similar in some ways but each is different and the ideas just kept coming. I find that the more I stay in creative mode the more ideas come. So here we go, grab a cup of coffee or tea. As you will see as you scroll down looking at the cards I kind of the like the Tim Holtz Bunny Hop die set. I also had about 20 some Distress Oxide inks on my desk that I used on the cards.

Adding 2 more cards… no more though.

I had to try the kraft bunnies.. They are die cut using the Bunny Hop die set. The background is ink smooshed with Distress Oxide inks. The plants are die cut using the Funky Nature die set & ink blended. The pot is ink blended and embossed with the woodgrain embossing folder. The eggs are die cut from ink smooshed panels.

This is for a friend that likes nice bright colors. The background is a Lawn Fawn plaid paper. The bunnies are die cut with the Bunny Hop die set and ink blended. The eggs are die cut using the Funky Foliage die set and are ink blended.

I need to give some credit on this one. I was inspired by a very cool card made by Fredrikke Andrea Peterson in the Tim Holtz Addicts group. The bunnies are die cut, using the Bunny Hop die set, from ink smooshed panels. The eggs were cut using the Funky Nature die set and some ink smooshed paper. All the background plants are die cut also using the Funky Nature die set. I ink smooshed the plant dies after die cutting. The background was inking over the TH Honeycomb stencil. Entered over at the Love Handmade Cards April Challenge in Flickr.

The background is embossed using the Intertwined 3D embossing folder and then ink blended after embossing. The bunnies are die cut from Lawn Fawn plaid paper. The eggs are die cut and ink blended.

The background is ink blended. The basket was die cut with the Potted die and embossed with the Intertwined 3D embossing folder. The bunnies cut from Lawn Fawn plaid paper. The eggs die cut and ink blended.

What can I say but I love how these wallpaper bunnies came out. The background was die cut using the Papertrey Ink Quatrefoil die and then I ink blended over it. I kept all the pieces in the background die cut. Bunnies were die cut from Tim Holtz Worn Wallpaper Scraps and inked around the edges.

The background is cut out using the Papertrey Ink Quatrefoil die and this time all the pieces were not kept. Bunnies are die cut from an ink smooshed panel. The basket is done using the Potted die and the Intertwined 3D embossing folder and then ink blended on it. The grass was die cut using the Lawn Fawn Grassy Border die and then ink blended. The eggs are die cut and ink blended.

For this I had the idea for the Coffee Loving Cardmakers hop but didn’t get it done for that. But.. it is done now. For the background I die cut some clouds and temporarily attached them and then ink blended over the background. Then I removed the cloud die cuts. The mug is die cut using the Lawn Fawn die set Outside In Stitched Mug and Lawn Fawn plaid paper. The eggs are die cut and ink blended. The grass is ink blended and die cut using the Lawn Fawn Grassy Border die. The bunnies just die cut.

Aww the cute bunny by Hero Arts. I stamped the bunny scene on watercolor paper. I used Distress ink reinkers to watercolor. The bunny turned out darker than I wanted but he is so cute. I used part of the Memory Box Egg Basket Frame die set to cut a frame for the bunny scene.

This card I made from a kit from Creative Escape in Los Gatos, CA. They have something called Facebook Fridays and you get a little kit to make a card. The flowers and bunny are felt which is fun!

Another Hero Arts Garden Bunny card. This time colored with Copics. I like this lighter brown much better. Die cut using a Spellbinders Deckled Rectangles.

Ink smooshed background. Die cut grass colored with a Copic pen. Basket, bunny, peep, eggs are from the Two Paper Divas stamp set, colored with Copics and cut out by hand.

Supplies:

• Two Paper Divas Easter Basket stamp set – Hoppy Easter sentiment & images on the last card.
• Sizzix Tim Holtz Bunny Hop die set
• Lawn Fawn Grassy Border die
• Memory Box Egg Basket Frame die set
• Sizzix Tim Holtz Funky Nature die set
• Sizzix Tim Holtz Woodgrain embossing folder
• Papertrey Ink Quatrefoil Die
• Sizzix Tim Holtz Intertwined 3D embossing folder
• Tim Holtz Worn Wallpaper Scraps
• Sizzix Tim Holtz Potted die
• Lawn Fawn Outside In Stitched Mug die set
• Hero Arts Garden Bunny
• Distress Oxide inks
• Distress Reinkers
• Tim Holtz Honeycomb Stencil
• Spellbinders Deckled Rectangles die
• Copic pens

Hero Arts February 2021 My Monthly Hero

Hello… Today I have a card with a gift card pocket on the front. This is for the Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge #20 with a theme of gift card holder. This is a mini slimline card. Kind of odd in the photos it looks like there is a spot on the background in front of the bird but there isn’t.

I checked in on the Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge with a few hours until it ended. An idea just popped in my head quickly. Not the usual.

I decided to use a tag to make the pocket (card holder) to slip a gift card behind on the front of the card. It is a bit of a tight fit but it works.

For the background I ink blended some Distress Oxide ink on Bristol paper. I laid a stencil over the top and blotted over it with a baby wipe to remove some of the ink. It left a subtle pattern which I think is just right for the card. I had something else going but it was to much!

I die cut a tag and did some ink blending on it to create a sand and sky background. I stamped several of the images from the Hero Arts February 2021 My Monthly Hero kit and colored them with Copics. I then die cut those images and glued them to the scene. This is my first time using this kit and there are so many fun images. I wasn’t going to get it but then did and boy I am happy about that.

I then glued the assembled tag to the card front. I just barely glued the widest edges down the side and a bit at the bottom so I could slip a gift card behind it.

The sentiment is stamped and it is from the kit.

Entered over at Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge #20. The theme is gift card holder.

Also entered over at Die Cut Divas for the March Challenge of make a slimline card.

Supplies:

• Hero Arts February 2021 My Monthly Hero kit
• Hero Arts Nesting Tag dies
• Hero Arts Long Leaves stencil
• Distress Oxide ink
• Copic pens

Hero Arts June 2020 My Monthly Hero Birthday Card

And off I go posting my January cards. First off a card for my brother for his birthday. You know the ones right after Christmas that kind of sneak up on you.

The theme of the June 2020 kit is Northern Lights. You can get some really great sky looks depending on how you do the inking. I used some Distress inks that I inked blended on the background. A little thing I do when ink blending the sky is have the stamp image that is on the plastic sheet in the kit and try to blend while looking at the pattern of the sky. I then heat embossed using clear embossing powder over it using the 6X6 stamp in the set.

I stamped the whale spout which is in the kit. I die cut the light house piece and the bird. The sentiment is stamped also.

Supplies:

• Hero Arts June 2020 My Monthly Hero kit
• Hero Arts It’s Your Day – sentiment
• Distress Inks

Tim Holtz Leaf Print Die Cutting

Here is a thank you card I created for my hubby to use. There is a bit of a story behind this card and you can see that below.

I created this card because my husband saw a sample I made and wanted it for a card. Since it was a sample I made this for him.

The first and second leaves are cut from panels of Distress ink smooshed paper. The third I cut out once from a off white piece of paper and then ink blended that. I cut the leaf out again from Kraft-Stock Metallic paper and inlaid the pieces into the first cut out.

The sentiment is die cut from a Distress inked smooshed panel also.

Here is the sample.

I made the sample for myself to show the different ways that the leaves could be die cut. The leaf on the left is cut from a Distress ink smooshing panel. The middle leaf is I think cut from similar and then I added a little Distress ink direct to paper and added ink around the edges. The leaf on the right is die cut once from a piece of paper that I later inked and then cut out again from Kraft-Stock Metallic paper and inlaid the pieces into the first leaf that I die cut.

Supplies:

• Tim Holtz Leaf Print die set
• Tim Holtz Kraft-Stock Metallic paper
• Distress Ink
• Distress Oxide Ink
• Karen Burniston Word Set 1 – Greetings die set