A Blog Named Hero

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!

Hello There

Hello!  Seeka here, and today I’m sharing a jungle-themed card that fits right in with this month’s Nature challenge.  I really love the detail of this background die and pairing it with a single, simple image for a clean and vibrant card.

I started by using painter’s tape to tape down a piece of Canson XL watercolor paper onto my work surface. I used a flat brush to add clean clear water over the panel.  Then I sprinkled just a bit of Brush Sea Green Crystal Colour powder around the panel and used more water and a round brush to help spread the color, taking care not to blend too much so that some light and dark variations remained.  I used a heat gun to speed drying and then I repeated the process, to intensify the color, by adding more clean clear water and more Brusho.

When the panel was dry, I die cut it with the Leaves & Vines Fancy Die. I also cut two additional die cuts from 110# white cardstock and set them aside.  To add some texture to the watercolored piece, I splattered some Finetec Arabic Gold watercolor and a bit of diluted Veridian gouache over the die cut. Then I stacked and adhered all three die cuts together.

The toucan is from the Hello Toucan stamp set. I stamped him in black pigment ink onto a piece of watercolor paper and then used several colors of Brusho to watercolor him.  I found that black watercolor was a little bit too gray so I also used black and gray colored pencils to intensify his black features and the tip of his beak.  When I finished coloring, I fussy cut him and ran a black marker around him to darken the white edges of the paper.

I stamped the sentiment, from the Many Everyday Messages stamp set, onto a strip of cardstock and then trimmed one end at an angle.

To assemble the card, I adhered the leafy background onto an A2-sized piece of Neenah Solar White and then adhered the toucan with foam tape.  I slid the sentiment strip under his feet and added a bit of glue to hold it in place.  And finally, I adhered the card front to an A2-sized card base.

Thanks so much for visiting, and don’t forget to join this month’s challenge!

Happy Birthday with Emboss Resist Ink Blending

Hello, I hope you’re having a wonderful day!  Seeka here and today I’m sharing a card the fun Presents Background Stamp. This is the same stamp set that I used to create a card for this month’s Stretch Your Stamps challenge.

I started by using Clear Embossing & Watermark Ink and white embossing powder to heat emboss the background stamp onto watercolor paper.  Then I got out ink blending tools and blended four colors of Distress inks onto the background.  I started at the top with Picked Raspberry and then blended my way downwards through Worn Lipstick, Ripe Persimmon, and Carved Pumpkin.

While the background was drying, I stamped the sentiment from the Birthday Hugs and Kisses stamp set in black pigment ink onto heavyweight vellum.  Then I used Ultra Fine clear embossing powder to emboss the sentiment.  

To assemble the card, I added small dots of glue behind the letters in the sentiment and then adhered the sentiment strip onto the background.  Finally, I adhered the background onto a card base.

Thank you so much for visiting!

Thinking Of You | Foiling With Dies

Hi there, it’s Seeka here and today I’m sharing a tropical card featuring a foil-pressed background.  Before we get started with how I made this card, don’t forget that the July challenge is going on. This month’s theme is Christmas in July!

For my card today I got out my Gemini Foilpress machine which uses a combination of heat and pressure to transfer foil onto cardstock.  This machine is specifically made to be used with the Gemini Junior die cutting machine, but there are other foiling machines available that don’t require having a Gemini Junior.  The GoPress and Foil machine is the other option I’m aware of.

With the Foilpress plugged in and prepped at the Medium setting, I centered the Leaves & Vines Fancy Die over an A2-sized piece of navy cardstock.  Holding the die and cardstock together, I flipped them over and paced them onto the heating plate, making sure to place them aligned to the grid.  Note that the cutting side of the die was facing UP.  Then I removed the cardstock, set the timer for 15 seconds, pressed the start button, and waited for the beep.  At the beep, I placed a piece of Gemini Rose Gold Papercraft Foil over the die, dull finish facing up.  Then I used the grid as a guide to replace the cardstock in the exact same location it started in.  I placed the top plate over the cardstock and ran the sandwhich through my Gemini Junior.

When I removed the foil, the beautiful pattern of the die was pressed and foiled into the cardstock.  It’s so fun to peel away the foil and see the magic revealed!

I used a Misti to stamp a toucan from the Hello Toucan stamp set in Unicorn pigment ink onto a scrap piece of the same navy cardstock. I used this white ink simply so I could see the lines on the navy cardstock while I colored. Using  Polychromos colored pencils, I colored in the bird.  The colors I used were White, Chrome Yellow, Naples Yellow, Orange Glaze, Scarlet Red, and Black.

I replaced the toucan back into the Misti and stamped it again in embossing ink.  I poured a rose gold embossing powder over the bird, tapped off the excess, and hit it with a heat gun.  The heat embossing completely hid the white pigment ink. Then I backed the bird with foam tape.

For the sentiment, which is from the same stamp set, I used the same embossing process and cardstock.

To assemble the card, I adhered the background to an A2-sized card base, adhered the sentiment flush to the card, and then adhered the toucan partially over the sentiment.

There are so many other Hero Arts background and Paper Layering dies that I plan to foil with, I can’t wait!

Thank you so much for visiting!

Love And Thanks

Hi there, I hope you’re having a lovely day! Seeka here and today I have a thank you card featuring some items from the latest Hero Arts release. But before talk about the card, don’t forget that this month’s challenge has just started and there’s still plenty of time to submit your entry!

For my card today, I started by stamping several images from the Tropical Flowers stamp set in Intense Black ink onto Neenah Solar White cardstock. Then I used Copics to color them in. I used BG45, BG15, and BG49 for the leaves, and R30, R32, and R35 for the flower. I also stamped the sentiment onto a strip of Neenah and then cut all of the pieces out and set them aside.

For the background, I inked up the Jungle Bold Prints background stamp in Soft Pool onto an A2-sized piece of Neenah which I trimmed to 4″ x 5.25″. I also stamped in Ocean ink onto a A2-sized piece of Adriatic cardstock for a tone-on-tone look.

To assemble the card, I adhered the three palm leaves onto the white background and then adhered the sentiment strip over them. I added the flower with foam tape and then backed the whole panel with foam tape before adhering it to the Adriatic piece. Finally, I adhered the card front to an A2-sized card base and added a small dot of Diamond Stickles to the center of the flower.

Thank you so much for visiting!