A Blog Named Hero

The official Hero Arts challenge blog!

Wonder and Magic of Christmas

Hi Stamping Friends, Sandi here with a couple more cards for our “Christmas in July” challenge for this month created with the Hero Arts Wonder and Magic of Christmas.

 

 

We hope you will join in the challenge and load your cards to our link for this month for a change to win a $50. gift certificate from the awesome folks over at Hero Arts.  You can enter 5 times and the deadline for this challenge is August 10th – Enter Here.

I wanted to keep my design clean and simple so I went with a gold and white theme and Gold Embossed my images for some added interest.

The dotted design in the images provides added interest without adding bulk or work to the cards.

 

For the first one, I die cut the card front with the Stitched Rectangle die before gold embossed the sentiment in the top right of the card front adding that adorable little bobble.

I also heat embossed two of the “swish” images at the bottom to create a kind of ground for my images.

Next I embossed the tree in Sparkle embossing powder ( very hard to photograph, LOL) and the deer in Gold.

Layering them with foam tape helped to add some depth to the images.

 

For the second card, I used the small snowflake stamp to create a fun and really simple background.

Matted with a gold background it really pops and coordinates beautifully with my flying reindeer also gold embossed.

If you would like a free PDF download for both of these cards, please visit my blog here.

Thanks so much for stopping in to visit, and wishing you happy stamping

 

 

Hero Arts – Hang in There

Hello and thanks so much for stopping by. Sandi here with two more cards for this month’s “sympathy card” challenge.

Before I get into my cards, don’t forget there is still plenty of time to submit your entry to this month’s challenge. Create your version of a Sympathy card and enter it here. We can’t wait to see what you create.

Today I’m creating with the Hero arts – Hang In There stamp/die combo set.

Once I had colored my main images with copics, I decided I wanted to step it up a bit with a blended/stenciled background to really highlight the art pieces.

Hero Arts – Hang in There – Card #1

  • For the first card, I colored the image and then die cut it with the coordinating dies.
  • Next I laid the Scroll work stencil onto the background and use my life changing brushes to sponge Hero Arts Ink Just Rust and Butter bar onto the top left corner of the card front.
  • When I took the stencil off, the stencil outline was “really white”, so I brushed on more of the butter bar ink to tone it down.
  • Stamping the sentiment over on the left side helps to balance the card and attaching the die cut image to the front with foam tape adds dimension.
  • Adding a piece of twine through the plant hanger grounds the image and I pulled it up over and to the back to secure it.
  • The art piece is attached to a piece of Faded Brick 4-1/4 x 5-1/2.
  • I like white card bases therefore,  I mounted this to a A2 Dove White card base.

Hero Arts – Hang in There – Card #2
For card #2 the steps are very similar to card #1.  with a little change up in the stencil steps.

  • I started by brushing on Antigua and Aquatic Hero Arts Ink.
  • Then I laid the Starry Night stencil down and brushed on more Aquatic ink.
  • The card front is mounted to a piece of Blue Lagoon 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 and again mounted to a A2 – Dove White card base.
  • My potted plant is attached with foam tape to add a little dimension to the card.

If you would like a free PDF download for both of these cards and a short video on how I colored the images, stop over to my personal blog here.

Thanks again for stopping in, I hope you found inspiration from the cards and until next time, Happy Stamping

45 years have fluttered by

It has been so much fun this month celebrating with Hero Arts and their 45 years of bringing us amazing stamping products.

I purchased my first Hero Arts stamp over 30 years ago and I still have all the catalogues I purchased from them as well. Browsing through them brings back wonderful memories of projects I created with their stamps.

For today’s share I’m actually using a couple of NEW stamp sets I recently purchased.

I wanted to create a simple card but add interest by layering ink on the background.
I started by die cutting a stitched rectangle from watercolor paper and then used the Teal Hero Arts Liquid Watercolor to add a light wash over the left side.

Next, I used the Rain Dance Hero Stencil and the Green Apple Ink with my Life Changing Brush to add a little contrasting detail to my background. (you know me and green and blue – love it together).

The final step for the background was to use my Misty Stamp Positioner to stamp 3 of the butterfly stamps from New Day Butterflies Combo set in black in and to try and resist the urge to color them haha.

I layered this to a piece of Kiwi card stock before attaching it to my Hero Arts Adriatic card base.
I stamped another single butterfly onto a piece of Neenah Solar White 80# card stock with the Hero Arts Intense Black ink and used my copics to color it before cutting it out with the coordinating dies.

The final piece for the card was white heat embossing the sentiment onto a scrap of black. the sentiment is from a New to me set “hand drawn Everyday Messages” and I love the font in this set.

Congratulations to you Hero Arts on your 45 years, and for being such a positive leader to this stamping community of ours. Here’s to many more successful years ahead.

Visit my personal blog here for a free PDF download of today’s Celebrate card.

Clean and Simple – Rose Stem Die Combo

Hi stampers! I’m Sandi and this is my first post as part of the A Blog Named Hero Challenge Design Team Whoo Hoo, I’m so happy to be here. Before I share my card, a little about me. My Hubby Ian and I along with our two Corgis Oscar and Lucy live in Drayton Valley Alberta Canada. We did spend 13 amazing years in Portland Oregon, before returned to Canada 3 years ago to be closer to our family. I have been stamping for 30 years and LOVE making cards. My style changes daily I think depending on the medium I’m playing with. You can find me on my blog, or Instagram or Facebook. I also have a YouTube channel where I share my card making videos.

The challenge for this month is Clean & Simple, which is sometimes hard for me. I find I want to use all my products on one card haha…I was having so much fun colouring this Rose image, that I ended up doing a stepped up version of today’s card as well, so I have two cards to share with you.

Let’s start with the clean and simple card on the right. I LOVE flower stamps so today I’m creating with the Rose Stem Die Combo. I started by cutting my A2 card base from Dove White 4-1/4 x 11 and scoring and folding at 5-1/2. I cut another piece at 4 x 5-1/4 for the card front and splattered it with the Black and Pink Liquid Watercolors from Hero Arts. When that was dry, I used the Sending Smiles Hero Greetings set to add a quick sentiment.

I stamped the rose image in Hero Hues Black Die Ink onto a piece of Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock and used my Copic Markers to colour it.

Flower: RV10, RV 17 – blended heavily with the blending pen. For the leaves I used BG45 and YG03, again blending. I cut it out with the coordinating die in the set and mounted it to the card with Foam Tape.

For the second card, I coloured two more roses, this time I left the leaves black and white and cut them away from the flower.

I used the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Wafer Dies to cut a piece of Peony Pink card stock for the card front and again, spritzed it with the pink and black liquid watercolor.

I die cut the flowers and attached them with foam tape to the top and bottom of the card front, trimming off the side images, but letting the top and bottom hang over. I then attached this to a A2 top folding card base in Dove White.

I die cut the “hello” from Tonic Polished Gold Mirror Card and white heat embossed the smaller sentiment on a scrap of black attaching them both with skinny pieces of foam tape. You can download a FREE PDF for both of these cards from my blog.

Now it’s your turn – head over to the Challenge Page and load your card – we would love to see it.

Thanks for stopping in and wishing you Happy Stamping