A Blog Named Hero

A challenge blog dedicated to our love of Hero Arts!

Archives for March 2014

March Winners

Hello, Stampers! It’s time to announce some winners!

Challenge #39: Stencil It winners are as follows:
Our Heroines are:
Isha
and
Betty
Congratulations, ladies! Please send an email to ABlogNamedHero (at) gmail (dot) come to receive your Heroine badge.
The winner, chosen at random from among all entries, of the Simon Says Stamp gift voucher is: 
Karen L K
Please email us at the above email so that we can tell you how to redeem your gift voucher.
Our Heroins for Challenge #40: Paper Piecing are: 
Lissy Nedergard
and
Niki G
Congratulations to you ladies, as well! Please send an email to ABlogNamedHero (at) gmail (dot) come to receive your Heroine badge.
The randomly selected winner for Challenge #40 is:
Mette
Please email us at the above email so that we can tell you how to redeem your gift voucher.
We’d like to thank our generous sponsor, Simon Says Stamp, for nearly two years worth of prizes! 
Be sure to check back on April 1st, we have something pretty special happening! 

Video: ABNH loves Gossamer Blue

Hi there,
it’s Christine, bringing you a new video.
As you all know we’re using Gossamer Blue along our loved Hero Arts supplies this month and let me tell you: Their stuff is YUMMY! Gossamer Blue supplies are perfect for scrapbooking AND for cardmaking.
I decided to show you how I like to cut digital files (with my Silhouette) from white cardstock and color it with Hero Arts inks. White cardstock is less expensive and you can color it just like you need it to match your project.

This is the card that I created:

And here’s the video:

And don’t forget to enter you paper piecing project to our current challenge. There’s a pretty fabulous prize to be won 🙂 

Gossamer Blue and Creating with Children

Hello everyone it’s Michelle here and this month I am featuring Gossamer Blue. The kit they sent was AMAZING. Absolutely INCREDIBLE.  I was so torn as to what I wanted to do….then it hit me. We are moving, my daughter needs decorations for her new bedroom so we sat down together and created this:

a layout/frame for her room. We used many, many pieces from the Gossamer Blue kit. It took us a few hours to do and she has a wonderful keepsake of her and her best friend for her room. Crafting with kids is really fun, I love to get my daughter involved in my stamping and creating. Not everything is how I would have had it but you have to let them have their creative say. &It really gives you perspective.

The letters that spell out their names are bulky…they are chipboard. I was worried they wouldn’t fit behind the glass with the back on. She insisted we use them. I was so pleasantly surprised that they fit.

Sometimes as crafters we tend to want to do more, more techniques, more embellishments etc. A child really  loves those too but they also love simplistic….go with it.

There are so many options when it comes to creating frames for home decor. I hope you decide to give it a try.

Say HELLO to the new Design Team!

 Hello friends!!

We are so very excited to be here today because we can FINALLY reveal the new Design Team for 2014.

There are a few familiar faces as well as some new ones, so let’s get started!

To make this extra fun, the entire team has created cards based on the theme Hello!

Let’s get started shall we??

First up we are so very happy to have the following ladies returning 🙂

Me (obviously)

Mary Dawn
Leslie Hanna
 
Michelle Lupton

Cristina Martinez
And now for the newbies!!

My name is Tanja. I live in Germany (Lower Saxony near Hamburg) with my hubby and 2 Kiddies (Paul 4 and Olivia almost 3 years old). I’m a paper crafter since I don’t  know when. I did this and that. At the moment I hold my first Rubberstamp in my Hand I had found my really Passion.
 I feel honored and I’m really proud to be a part of this awesome ABNH Design Team. 
Here is my first card as a ‘member’. Hope you enjoy it!

Tanja Kewel-Neef

Hi! My name is Maya and I’m so happy to be a part of the new ABNH team! I live in Sweden with my husband, two kids and two dogs. I tried out scrapbooking when the kids were smaller but I didn’t fall in love with papercraft until I discovered card making and stamping some years later. Hero Arts was the first brand of stamps I fell for and they are still my go-to stamps. I just love the versatility and different styles they come in. This will be so much fun!!!

Maya Isaksson

Hello! I’m Sindhura from India. I started card making an year and a half ago and I’m kind of addicted to it now! After a stressful day at work, making cards is what I look forward to every evening. All thanks to my wonderful husband who pushed me to try things that I might enjoy and that’s when my love for card making started .He’s a great critic and always the first to see to see what I create. I’m so excited to be a part of ABNH team with a bunch of very talented and friendly girls! Thanks SO much Linda and Mary Dawn for selecting me! 

Hi!  My name is Sarah and I live in Leeds in the UK with my two fab boys (Ethan, 11 and Jack, 8) and eternally patient husband, Steve.  I work full time and love playing with paper, ink and stamps in the evening.  I have been making cards for a few years and started to post them on the Hero Arts Flickr Group last year – I haven’t looked back since thanks to the lovely comments and encouragement from the wonderful community of cardmakers!  I love visiting ABNH and am so excited to be part of this fantastic design team.  What a great excuse to play with all of my Hero Arts stamps 🙂    
Sarah
 
Hello! I’m Teresa, from Ontario, Canada! I started paper crafting a
couple years ago when my mom had an accident, and having to take care of
her full-time I needed to find my own creative outlet. I bought my
first stamps and never looked back since. I love that I can do what I
love and be with her at the same time. Now, I’m an Anthropology nerd by
day and a craft hoarder by night. I’m so excited and honored to be a
part of this amazingly talented ABNH design team! I am looking forward
to this inspirational journey with you all!

Teresa


Hello! I’m Lisa, and I live with my husband in Scottsdale, Arizona. I’m
so excited to be a part of the team here at A Blog Named Hero. I love
Hero Arts stamps and am impressed with their quality and design every
single time I use them. I have always had a “thing” for paper. Even as a
child, I would choose to spend any money I had in a paper store of some
sort. Stationery, office supplied, those were my go to splurges. Not
much has changed since then, I just have more places to spend my money. I
love to make cards, random pieces of home decor, and I do Project Life.
I love to read, cook, crochet, love animals, and am also vegan. I can’t
wait to get to know the team better, and have some inky fun!
Lisa

Ok that’s the team!!

These lovely new ladies will be starting their DT duties very shortly, but for now, we hope you’ll give them a warm, Blog Named Hero-welcome!

We are very excited to have such a diverse team, with a great variety of styles.  This group of ladies has already proven themselves to be fabulous, and we can’t wait for you to see what they come up with!

Thank you again to everyone who applied for this DT call. The decision was very difficult as we received so many wonderful applications!

See you again soon!

Linda’s card:

Mary Dawn’s card:

Leslie’s card:

Christine’s card:

Michelle’s card:

Cristina’s card:

Tanja’s card:

Maya’s card:

Sindhura’s card:

Sarah’s card:

Teresa’s card:

Lisa’s card:

medium of the month: distress markers

Cheiron here today with another medium of the month. There is no coloring product I love more than my Distress markers. They come in all the great colors of the Distress line that I know and love and they are truly portable, so I can bring them almost anywhere.
An easy technique to do with markers is to color on your stamps (this works really well with floral or other solid stamps like this whale):
 
Another fun technique is monoprinting, which is great to do with your stencils. I used the tweed pattern stencil here and colored on it with my Distress markers, sprayed with the mini mister and pressed my paper onto it to get a fun background. 
Here’s how it looks on the card: 
And lastly one of the newest tools to use with your Distress Markers…the Marker Spritzer. This is a fun way to give something “extra” to your project or great to use with stencils as well. I used mine to make this coordinating background for my stamped image: 
and added a fun bold sentiment right on top that I colored in with the same colors of markers: 
Hope you enjoyed these fun ideas for using your Distress Markers. Have you tried any of these yet? What is your favorite way to use them?