A Blog Named Hero

Muted Tones Xmas card

IMG_9198Hi all! Its Gwendolyn here today on “A Blog named Hero”, to incite you to join our challenge “Muted Tones”. It ends tomorrow 10th so you  still have 2 whole days to link your card up hereXmas card main

Muted tones just mean a toned-down version of any colour, at least that’s what I understand by it, so I used a Rose Gold ink to colour through the Hero Arts Poinsettia stencil and coloured my Holiday seal from The Stamping Village, which was a Collaboration between many stamp companies, Hero Arts included, with a lighter colour of blue.Xmas card prodI punched a hole at the top of the card and the Holiday seal so that I could pass the blue string through both and finished it with a little ribbon bow.Xmas card cuThis card is going to my daughter’s homeroom teacher and I hope she will like it. I hope you were inspired to make a card and join in the chance of winning the top prize of $50 or $25 voucher to the Hero Arts store.

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to seeing your wonderful creations in the link-up!

Have a wonderful week, doing something you love!

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A Magical Card with Muted Tones

Hi there! It’s Cha! I’m here at A Blog Named Hero to show my card for this November challenge – Muted Tones Cards. I’d always created cards with vivid and striking colors and from now on, I must say that I would like challenging myself by creating cards with softer colors. Yes! It was a challenge for me! For this card, I used one of my favorite cardmaking techniques, masking, to create a magical scene combining some Hero Arts stamp sets. Join us in this November challenge until December 10th for a chance to win a gift card!

I used a piece of 4,25 by 5,5-inch white cardstock. I used my mini MISTI stamping tool to stamp all the images. I placed this piece in the stamping tool and stamped one of the unicorns from the Dragons & Unicorns Stamp Set with Soft Sky ink. I die cut the same image of this unicorn with its coordinating die on masking paper in order to mask this unicorn. Then, I used the Color Layering Sleepy Moon stamp set. I stamped the first solid image from this set with Soft Yellow ink and stamped the same image on a piece of masking paper in order to mask also the moon on the card.

 

Before moving on coloring the images, I preferred coloring the background first as I had all the images masked. I die cut some clouds from the Color Layering Sea & Sky, Frame Cuts on masking paper. I masked some areas on the background and started coloring with Soft Pink ink and Fresh Peach inks, using an Ink Blending Brush. I moved the masked clouds around the background while I colored with the brush. Then, I removed the masking piece from the unicorn and colored around the moon with Soft Yellow ink, using the ink blending brush, too. I removed the masking piece from the moon and stamped the other layers of the moon with Dandelion ink. Later, I colored the unicorn in soft colors with Copic markers. For coloring the unicorn, I did not do anything fancy, I just added some dots to the unicorn to give a little bit of interest as well as the halo around the unicorn that we could see when we removed the masking piece that we die cut with the coordinating die.

I stamped the sentiment from the Dragons & Unicorns Stamp Set with Soft Granite Ink and some stars around the background with Soft Pink Ink.

I hope you like this card and remember that you can join us in this challenge for a chance to win a gift card. Be sure to upload your cards with soft colors before December 10th. We are waiting for your cards!

Thank you so much!

CHAXI ABNH

 

Thankful

Hello crafters!  Is everyone ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow?  I am!  Today I’m sharing a thankful card I made with the You are Loved stamp set from Hero Arts.  I’m thankful for all the wonderful people I’ve met (online and in person!) thru this awesome hobby.

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I stamped the earth image from the You are Loved set and colored it with Copic markers.  I die cut it using Nesting Circle Infinity dies from Hero arts.  I cut a rectangle from white card stock and stamped a sentiment from the same set.

I adhered a piece of black checkered pattern paper to my card base, added my white panel with foam adhesive, and attached the globe with foam adhesive.  To finish the card, I added a red heart droplet.

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I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.  Don’t forget to join in on the monthly challenge.

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October Winners!

Hey Friends! I’m here today with the winners of the October Nature challenge. Many beautiful entries! We love how you used Hero Arts to create all of your nature scenes.

Our chosen winner for this month created a stunning ink blended winter scene! Congrats Joy! You’ve won a $50 gift card to Hero Arts.

And our random winner for October got creative using Hero Arts background dies for hot foiling! Congrats Enna! You’ve won a $25 gift card to Hero Arts.

Congrats again, Please email us at ablognamedhero@gmail.com, and let us know in the email (or subject line) which month & gift card you’ve won.

Have An Amazing Day

Hello lovelies! Seeka here and today I have a bold watercolored flower to share with you. And don’t forget, there’s still plenty of time to join in this month’s Muted Tones challenge!

For my card today, which is decidedly not muted, I used the gorgeous Hero Arts and Altenew Bloom & Grow collaboration stamp set. I love big blooms like this one that give you plenty of room to watercolor. With larger petals, it’s much easier to maintain light and dark areas for shading and color contrast.

I started by running an anti-static powder tool over a piece of Fabriano Artistico cold press watercolor paper. Then I stamped the flower in a black pigment ink and poured clear Ultra Fine embossing powder over the image. I melted the embossing powder with a heat gun and then got out my palette of Brusho powder pigments (Brusho is very similar to Color Burst powders). For this card I used Gamboge, a deep yellow, and Vermillion, a beautiful red.

I added just a tiny bit, not even a full drop, of clean clear water into the Gamboge powder and then, using a round 2 brush, I painted just a bit of the concentrated color along the edge of a petal closest to the center of the flower. Using a waterbrush filled with clean clear water, I wet the rest of the petal, starting from its tip and making my way towards the pigment. When the clear water hit the pigment, the color bloomed. I used the waterbrush pen to help move the color to cover the entire petal, but making sure that I left most of the color concentrated at the innermost part of the petal.

I repeated this process for each petal and then when over each petal again, this time with Vermillion. When I added the Vermillion, I watered it down a bit more than the Gamboge, and used a smaller amount so as not to overpower the Gamboge. The result is a beautiful gradient from red to peach to deep yellow on each petal. When the flower was dry, I cut it out and set it aside.

For the leaves I used the same ink and embossing powder, but this time I used Neenah Solar White paper since I didn’t plan to color them. I cut those out as well and set them aside.

For the background I used an old wood block stamp called Envelope Pattern. I stamped this onto a piece of Neenah Solar white and then stamped a sentiment from the collaboration stamp set. I trimmed this piece to just smaller than 4″ x 5.25″ and then adhered it to an A2-sized card base.

Finally, I used Zots Bling adhesive dots to adhere the leaves (I trimmed one leaf off of each trio of leaves to that I could place them more precisely) and then I adhered the bloom with foam tape for dimension.

Thank you so very much for coming by!