A Blog Named Hero

The official Hero Arts challenge blog!

Archives for 2013

Online Card Class giveaway!

Hi there!

We have very exciting news!

The gorgeous ladies over at Online Card Classes have offered us a spot in their upcoming class to give away!

http://onlinecardclasses.com/stenciled/class-info/

Wondering what to do with stencils? There are SO many fun ways to use them!

Join us for a cardmaking class focused on using stencils creatively. Stenciled is overflowing with stencil-love inspiration!

Nothing could be easier—or more satisfying—than seeing a beautiful
design magically appear when you lift away a stencil. In Stenciled, an
all-new, all-video, mini class from Online Card Classes, you’ll learn
sixteen exciting new techniques for this inexpensive and popular tool,
including embossing paste, layering, masking, embossing, and more!
Our all-star lineup of favorite Online Card Classes instructors has
four days of fun and inspiration in store for you, covering a range of
cardmaking styles and stenciling techniques! Join instructors Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire, Laura Bassen, Shari Carrol, Julie Ebersole and Debby Hughes and discover for yourself all the creative possibilities in stencils.

This is a compact, 4-day class…

  • Friday, 1/24 – Day 1
  • Saturday, 1/25 – Day 2
  • Sunday, 1/26 – Day 3
  • Monday, 1/27 – Day 4

You’ve got till December 31st 5pm to enter via the Inlinkz linky tool below!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Favorites of 2013: Day 11

Hello crafty folks! It’s Cheiron here with one of my favorites of 2013. You know I love techniques and any type of Distress Inks…so it’s this mini card set post from Melissa Shea that was one of my favorites this year. I love her inky backgrounds and the way this mini set came together.

Here’s a look at Melissa’s post from February (you can find the original post here):

Mini Card Set

Hello Friends!

Melissa here with a fun little project. I was really itching to do some messy inking with water and make a set of Valentine’s Day cards.

Remember the sketch Leslie introduced (here) and Cris used (here)? Well, I really wanted to play with the sketch but between the girls I couldn’t come up with a unique (because they rocked it!) idea so I took an element from the sketch, the 3 hearts, and jumped from there!

Card size: 3×3
Colors in supply list below
Smoosh 3 colors of ink on your craft mat, spray liberally with water
Drag/pat your watercolor paper in/through the ink
DRY the first layer, then dab more ink to add depth
Apply white enamel accents and twine

I hope you all have a lovely Valentine’s Day!

Supplies:
(not listed in thumbnails: Timeless Twine)
Don’t you just love Melissa’s sweet cards? These would be the perfect size card for a gift! I may have to make up a few of these for all the last minute gifts I’m wrapping up this year! 
Thank you to all of you readers for stopping by this year and entering our challenges at A Blog Named Hero. You certainly have made it a fun and inspiring place to be! Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!!!

Favourites of 2013

Hi  crafters, I had a very hard time picking my favourite 2013 post/project… I would pick at least five from each DT girl! But since I am in red and green for almost two months, I went for this gorgeous black and pink card made by lovely Melissa. She made it in April for the Avery Elle collab and besides the colors, I sooo LOVE the vellum pocket.

And here is my holiday version of Melissa`s beautiful card…I didn`t change a lot, since I really like her card A LOT!
I am sending all of you a big hug and I wish you and yours a nice holiday season and all the best in 2014.

Supplies used:

Playing Favourites by Lucy

     Hello friends from Craftworld! I loved so many posts around the year. I think my fellow DT’s are so incredibly talented, so it was really difficult to choose just one. But this post by Christine gave me all kind of ideas to use in different ways my stamps, that is why I loved it, it shows me several ways to stamp with the same stamps getting such a different array of styles. Thanks Christine! 
     Thanks to everyone who has made this blog possible: Linda Trace, Mary Dawn Quiridongo and all my DT friends, and of course all of you crafty friends who have been such a great sport from the beginning. I wish you all a Very Happy Christmas and a New Year filled with love, peace and health ( and why not, a few new craft supplies?) !!!

Hi everyone! 
It’s
Christine and I’d like to show you some ideas on random stamping. The
new HA catalogue has lots of stamps that are perfect for random
stamping, but in fact you can use every type of stamp.
Here’s what I’ve got for you:

1) Cut it out!
I
never tried this before, but I love it: Stamp some different images and
cut the whole stamped area out. Adhere it with dimensional adhesive and
fall in love 😉

2) Make it simple!
Radom stamping can be used to focus on different (big) images. If you
keep your color scheme simple your card does not get too messy. But I’ve
seen some cards with beautiful randomly stamped flowers in different
colors. It may work if you keep a balance!
I embossed some images and added a border with a grey marker to make them stand out a bit more.

3) Mask it!
Mask an area and randomly stamp images in different colors. You will be
wowed when you remove the mask. But be careful: Not every stamp will
work for this! If you have the outlines of an image stamped too often
you may not identify your image anymore.

4) Add vellum!
Some stamps are perfect for random stamping, but they make the
background look messy. If this happens, add some vellum to “soften” your
background and use a simple image. What do you think?

5) Don’t stamp straight!
Especially when you randomly stamp texts you will find out that it’s
easier if you don’t stamp them straight. You don’t have to be that
careful and you don’t have a focus on one sentence. (If you choose
images and only one of them is straight this will be in the focus – if
you want it that way or not)
If you go for text choose some stamps that have the same subject. (In my case they’e all on friendship)

6) Put dark against light!
This is a good technique for one layer cards: If you stamp the whole
background with different images in a light color and add one image in a
darker color on top this will pop! Again: Don’t use too many colors,
otherwise your card will look messed up.

7) Stamp on design paper!
If you want to use random stamping on design paper it’s a good idea to
use solid images. They don’t “get lost” in the pattern of the paper.
Still: Use a paper that does not have a wild pattern!
I hope these tips give you some ideas on random stamping. I’d love to bring you some inspiration. 

Don’t forget there is still a week left in our current challenge.  With your submission you will be entered to win this from the FABULOUS Simon Says Stamp:

www.simonsaysstamp.com

Favorites of 2013 – Day 6

Hi there! Leslie, here, to post about my favorite ABNH post of 2013. In all fairness, it’s ONE of my favorites. My fellow DT gals are so stinkin’ talented I had a tough time picking just one.

I’ve chosen Christine’s dauber post from back in July, and I chose this one since I’ve wanted to try this technique myself, and I’ve never gotten around to it. So, after you read below what Christine posted back then, please keep going, because I had to play. 🙂

Okay, here are Christine’s words from July:

*************************************************************

Dauber fun!

Hi everyone, it’s Christine with lots of color!

I really enjoy creating backgrounds – So I’ll show you 2 step-by-step tutorials to get fun and colorful backgrounds for your cards with daubers. I have some distress stain daubers – but I guess the Hero Arts daubers work just as well. I’d be glad if someone tried them out with the following techniques and let me know 😉

1) The glossy-watercolor-technique
What you need:
– Glossy photo-paper
– some daubers (different colors)
– stamps
– black ink

1) smear color on the glossy paper to cover the whole background:
2) Powerfully dab the daubers on the paper to add lots of color:
3) Lift the paper and move it to make the ink move around until you like it:
4) Let it dry (be careful if you use a heat tool – the glossy paper doesn’t like it too much) and cut it to the shape that you’d like to use:
5) Stamp your image with black ink and add some color with a back marker if necesssary:

I decided to use a white card base and added a sentiment from “my words”. I embossed the circle and cut it out. “Art” is directly stamped onto the background.

I LOVE that effect!

The second technique is something I use quite often. I learned this from a super talented friend. I often got asked how I do this, so I thought I’ll show you:
What you need:
– Embossing Ink
– White embossing powder
– a background stamp
– different daubers
– white cardstock
1) Emboss your background with white embossing powder on white cardstock:

 2) Powerfully dab the daubers onto the paper. The embossing will resist the ink.

3) Go on like that until you like what you see 🙂

 That’s it! Easy, eh?

I added some colored cardstock underneath that background, a sentiment and some wood veneer – ready! This looks like fun!

I hope you had some fun and got inspired to take out your daubers and play! If you try this out with the HA-Daubers – please leave a link in the comments – I’d love to see what you come up with!

*************************************************************

Aren’t those amazing? And you get to get messy, which is always a bonus for me. 🙂 So yeah, so I had to give it a try. Please stop by my blog to see what I’ve concocted. 🙂

Thanks to all of you who have stopped by here at A Blog Named Hero to either play along with our challenges, or just for some inspiration. We appreciate you! Happy Holidays!