Lisa Stein

Thank You

March 1, 2018

Good morning to you! Lisa here and I’m going to make a quick apology for the lack of posting around here, but rest assured, you will be thrilled with the changes we have up our sleeves!

Our challenges will now go live on the 15th of each month. From now until March 15th we will be posting every weekday with introduction cards from our new Design Team! Over the weekend our Facebook Inspiration Team will be posting, so I hope you will follow along there as well. We are very excited for our team this year, and know you will love their creations. Stay tuned for more information about our challenges and the challenge prizes. Yes, that was plural!

For today, allow me to show you a card I made with an amazing new die from Hero Arts! While the rest of the team will be saying Hello with their cards, I wanted to say Thank You. Thank you for hanging around while we took a wee break, thank you for being awesome, and thank you for joining us for an exciting 2018.

I die cut the Dragonfly a few times out of white cardstock. I then used three ink cubes to color him. I swiped Mint Julep over the entire die cut, then Tide Pool on the body bits, and finally Antigua on the head. I let that dry for just a minute and then smooshed Versamark all over the die cut, and dipped the dragonfly into Satin Pearl embossing powder, and heat set. I did a second layer of versamark and embossing powder just for a smoother finish.

There’s a bit of a close up picture for you. I love how the colors blended so beautifully together and then the embossing powder just finishes it to perfection.

To turn this into a card I cut some of the new Woodgrain cardstock with a Rounded Rectangle die and adhered that to my card base. Using some foam tape I attached my dragonflies to the card front. While their wings go over the edge of the card, I love that, and will make a custom envelope for this card so I can mail this at some point. For a finishing touch I used some Frost sequins on the bodies of the dragonflies, and some other sequins from my stash scattered on the card front.

Supplies:

Dragonfly Fancy DieHA	Layered TopiaryHA	Rounded RectanglesHA	Sea Aquas Ink CubesHA
Intense BlackHA	Frost SequinsHA	VersaMark PadEH \| SSS	Hero Arts White Satin PearlHA
Woodgrain CardstockHA	Neenah 110 lbEH \| SSS	Mini Glossy AccentsEH \| SSS	Foam TapeEH \| SSS \| AZ
Embossing GunEH \| SSS	TweezersEH \| SSS	Paper TrimmerEH \| SSS

Get Well Soon Chick

October 13, 2017

Happy Friday the 13th! Apparently, I paid zero attention to the calendar when making this card. I would have tried to come up with something spooky had I known the date, ha!

I have been needing a lot of get well cards lately, so I thought I’d make another to replenish my stash. This uses the Get Well Soon stamp set from Lawn Fawn and I seriously love this set so much. Those bandaids? That chick? The medicine bottle? They just speak to me for some reason. Maybe I secretly wanted to be in the medical field? I don’t know, but I’m glad that Lawn Fawn made this, it makes me happy.

It’s actually a simple card to make, here’s how I did it:

Draw diagonal lines with a pencil on a piece of watercolor paper. I did this to make the stamping easier, totally optional.
Stamp the bandaid image repeatedly between those lines. I used versafine ink and then clear embossing powder so that it would make the coloring easier.
Heat the images so the embossing powder melts.
Erase the pencil lines. You want to make sure to do this before coloring, so that you don’t trap any pencil marks in the coloring. Especially important if you plan to color in the background.
Color your images however you like. I used Zig clean color markers, and a watercolor brush. I used the packaging from a Lawn Fawn Cardstock sampler to pick my colors.
Cut out the panel using a die from the Lawn Fawn rectangle stackables die set. I absolutely love this die set, and hope you do too. I fear you’ll be seeing it in almost everything I make.
Stamp the chick and sentiment on a piece of vellum, and then I clear embossed that as well. I turned the vellum over and colored in the chick using Zig markers again. The sentiment comes from a Hero Arts stamp set called Everyday Sayings. It’s lovely, and sort of a must have.
Wrap the vellum around the background panel, and then adhere that to a card base made from Lawn Fawn Mermaid cardstock.

Our challenge this month is “Calling all Critters” and I do hope you’ll join us. We have a prize from Lawn Fawn!

Please help support A Blog Named Hero by shopping through our links. These are affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. We appreciate your support.

Simon Says Stamp

Ellen Hutson

Hero Arts

Thank You for Being You

September 8, 2017

Lisa here with a card that uses the best of CAS-ual Fridays and Hero Arts products. I had so much fun making this card, and absolutely love the way it turned out.

I used the Tin Roof stamp set and gold heat embossed the image on some watercolor paper. Then I strategically cut out some sections and taped them to the Butterfly Confetti Fancy die to get just the right pattern on my butterflies. I had intended to watercolor the butterflies but loved the simple elegance of the gold embossing on the paper that I ended up leaving them as they were.

I found a piece of pink cardstock and used Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide ink and an old Hero Arts flourish stamp set to create the background. The oxide inks just stamp beautifully. To mute it a bit, I sprayed it with some water and let that dry.

I gold embossed the sentiment from a Hero Arts stamp set onto some charcoal paper. I used the same paper to cut think strips to turn into butterfly antenna. Once I had the antenna trimmed I used three layers of foam behind the butterfly bodies to adhere them to the card front. You can see all of that dimension in the next picture.

To finish the card I added some clear Nuvo Drops to the card front. This is the first time I’ve used those directly onto a card vs. making them in advance and adhering them on with glue. I’m not sure which I prefer. This stressed me out a bit, ha!

I hope you liked this card, and got some ideas. I always love a card with lots of dimension, which is ironic, considering this month’s challenge is One Layer Cards. Please do join the challenge, there is a prize to be won. A gift certificate from our sponsor!

Please help support A Blog Named Hero by shopping through our links. These are affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. We appreciate your support.

Simon Says Stamp

Ellen Hutson

Hero Arts

Have a Wonderful Birthday

August 11, 2017

Lisa here today to wish you a wonderful weekend, and also to share this fun card I made using alcohol inks and WOW embossing powder and glitter.

This card sort of makes itself, honestly. Have you ever used alcohol inks? You basically keep messing around with them until you’ve made something amazing, or some pretty trash. This did not make it into the trash pile.

I used the “wonderful” die cut from the new Hero Arts Wonderful Stamp and Cut set. Using some double sided adhesive, I applied WOW Pumpkin Spice glitter on top of it. Add some sentiment rectangles, and you’ve got yourself an easy, yet impactful card. I sure hope if you’ve got some alcohol inks laying around that you’ll dust them off and give them a try. They are so much fun, and slightly addictive.

Don’t forget to join us in our embossing challenge this month. Up for grabs is a prize from WOW Embossing Powder.

Please help support A Blog Named Hero by shopping through our links. These are affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. We appreciate your support.

Simon Says Stamp

Ellen Hutson

Hero Arts

You Are The Best

July 14, 2017

Good morning! Lisa here with my solo post for this month’s challenge with Winnie & Walter. The theme is Florals, which makes so much sense when you see what Winnie & Walter have to offer. So many pretty images, it’s a bit hard to choose.

I have a bit of a love affair with laurels, so I decided to make my own using stamps from Anna’s Flora. There’s a leafy branchy image that I used to stamp in a semi-circle sort of arc, and then I used the two roses and a leaf image as well. This is a wonderful stamp set, so many uses for it. I highly recommend all of the florals from Winnie & Walter, ha.

I used Zig markers to color in my image, and I tried to do some no line watercoloring. Except, yeah, there’s a line. For some reason my ink wasn’t cooperating with me, but I just went with it, this is all part of what makes a card handmade.

For the sentiment, I used this die from Hero Arts, and a sentiment from one of the stamp sets from a My Monthly Hero kit from last year. I just thought it made a nice combination, and would work well when I need a card in a pinch. That gold foil paper is from a Tim Holtz foil paper pad. It cuts beautifully, and I used a bone folder to smooth out the marks that the die left in the paper from going through the die cutting machine. Definitely recommend this paper pad. It’s half gold and half silver, and will last a very long time.

Oh! I almost forgot one last thing. I took a Zig marker and haphazardly drew some diagonal stripes on the card base to create a subtle pattern. And that card front is die cut with a Winnie & Walter die, the Audrey cutaways.

I do hope you join us this month for our challenge. Great prize up for grabs, and I know you have some florals hanging around that could use some inking.

Please help support A Blog Named Hero by shopping through our links. These are affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. We appreciate your support.

Simon Says Stamp

Ellen Hutson

Hero Arts