A Blog Named Hero

Clean & Simple Copic Coloring

Hey folks!

It’s Cynde and I’m happy to be back with another card for the A Blog Named Hero Put A Flower On It Challenge! For today’s card, I’m sharing with you a clean & simple card using the Hero Arts Busy As A Stamp Set. This stamp set is perfect for clean & simple, plus it would lend well to mass producing!

I have a video to share a with you as well. You can go HERE to watch it. I have loads of information to share with you so do be sure to check it out!

 

Clean & Simple Copic Coloring

Since I was going to Copic coloring my little scene I stamped all of my images with Hero Arts Intense Black Ink. I love this ink because it always stamps nice and black. I did use my MISTI Stamping Tool because I personally like to double stamp my images, but also it’s easier to line up my images. Do be sure to check out the VIDEO folks. I show you how I use my MISTI to stamp out my scene.

Since this was a clean & simple card, I only needed to cut out a few masks.

Clean & Simple Copic Coloring

 

The Hero Arts Busy As A Stamp Set has coordinating dies available and I think they’re a must. I didn’t use them on my card, but if I were to make more of this card, I would definitely stamp my images, color them and die cut them. I think of few of these images colored and die cut then popped up on a panel of Hero Arts Woodgrain Cardstock would be darling!

For my coloring, I knew that I was going to have quite a bit of yellow on my card. Typically, I would choose a yellow color blend that gets progressively darker. What ends up happening is my darkest shadow color is almost orange, if not orange, then the end result ends up being more on the gold side. So instead of going darker and saturating color to get depth, I desaturated my shadow color in order to get depth. You do this by using what ever color is opposite from your main color on the color wheel. In this case, the opposite of yellow is violet. I talk about this more in the VIDEO.

 

Clean & Simple Copic Coloring

 

I still wanted to keep my card as clean & simple as possible, but I needed to ground my images and I wanted a wee bit of a background. I used Hero Arts Soft Sky Ink and did some fairly light ink blending after I masked of the right and bottom portion of the panel. Once the ink blending was done, I sketched in the ground with my Copic’s.

To finish off my card, I added some shimmer pen to the highlights of my images and adhered the panel to a top folding notecard and called it a day!

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed my card today! You still have time to participate in the challenge folks so be sure to play along!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Until next time.


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Flowers + Fringe

More Flower Challenge Photo Inspiration

Hi Friends! Hope the start of your week is going well! If your Monday is gray, you’re in the perfect spot to get a dose of bright floral cards. I hope they cheer you up, and inspire you to create your own floral cards for this month’s challenge!

I am super excited about my design for these cards, which I came up with trying to figure out the right background for these large beautiful peonies, which are new from Hero Arts. I decided to use the new fringe die to layer up, and varying the colors and the lengths of the fringe to contrast the colors of the flowers. If you don’t have this fringe die, you can totally make your own by cutting slits into thick stripes of colored card stock or you can just use large bold stripes of color or paper which would also be a great effect.

My first two cards are color opposites of each other – I either have a rainbow fringe and a black and white flower or black and white fringe and a rainbow flower, and I think both look great.

I created both the rainbow fringe and the rainbow flower by playing with rainbow colors of watercolor or distress ink on watercolor paper and then using that to die cut from – so super easy! I then added my flowers to the upper right, and a small stamped sentiment on top of my fringe, a few gems, and these cards are done!

My last card uses both a colorful fringe and a color flower but with complimentary colors to neither one overpowers the others. For this card, I wanted my alcohol ink flower with vivid sunset colors to be the focal point, so I used soft teals and aquas for my fringe. For this fringe, I blended an ombre look onto my watercolor paper with Distress Oxides, which created an ombre fringe look which I just love. I like how it looks my peony is floating upon a calm lake with the colors I chose, but with some trendy fringe. I added a gold glitter stripe to help separate the two color pallets a bit, added my small black sentiment, a few white gems and this card is also done! I decided not to trim the petals going over the edge – I’m still debating if I should do it. What do you think? I’d love your opinion!

I hope these fun cards inspired you to Put a Flower On It, and submit your beautiful flower card – whether as the focal point or the background – to the challenge! Thanks so much for stopping by today, I really appreciate it!

xoxo

Hero Arts Products Used:
Hero Arts Clear Stamps Peonies
Hero Arts Dies Peonies
Hello Stamp & Cut
Color Layering Deer Stamp Set
Fiesta Fringe Fancy Die

Spring Layering Flowers!

Happy Tuesday! Kim with you today sharing a spring inspired card with some of the fantastic Hero Arts Layering Flowers 🙂

I decided to go with a color scheme that I rarely use but always like the end result! I started by stamping my flowers and leaves from the For You Flowers and Layering Roses using Hero Arts inks in Pale Tomato, Crimson, Red Royal, Soft Vanilla, Butter Bar, Green Apple and Fresh Lawn and die cut my images with the accompanying dies.

I love using wood grain pattern paper with this color scheme so I pulled a small piece out of my stash to go behind the window. Once that was complete I place my panel on top of the pattern paper and adhered everything to the card base.

Once I lined up my flowers and was happy with the placement, I took a picture (makes it easier to place after stamping the sentiment). I stamped my sentiment also from the For You Flowers in Hero Arts Black Die Ink and I placed my flowers with a mix of foam tape and glue. I placed a few sequins and felt I needed a little something extra so I added a small strip of black and white stripe paper from my stash. These layering flowers really make it possible to create a fun and quick project! All of the supplies listed below!

Go check out the challenge! Have a great day and thanks for taking the time!

Kim

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Color Layering Stamps – More My Favorite Hero

Hey folks!

I’m here today to share more of My Favorite Hero with you! In my Last Post I talked about how the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Kits are my favorite. Today, I’m going to expand on that a little bit.

You can also watch the video on how I made today’s projects HERE.

The Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Kits truly are one of my faves. I find that in every kit, there is one or more products that I will use time and time again. In the June 2016 My Monthly Hero there was a tag die set. The tag die was only available in the kit and the kit is sold out, but todays project will still work if you don’t have it and if you do, then you’re good to go!

If you don’t have that tag die, you could could make something close to this. One of the Tag Infinity Dies would be perfect. Here’s a quick run through on how to do that: Simply die cut one out of your card stock of choice. This will be the one you stamp on. Then cut a sheet of cardstock a bit wider than the tag your using and twice a lang as the length of the tag. Fold in half. Place tag on top of folded card stock, but make sure the top cut line is above the fold. Above the hole in the tag die is perfect. Then run through your die cut machine. Stamp as usual on single die cut tag and when finished adhere that to your faded tag base.

 

As a colorist, I’m usually not drawn to basic stamping. I love ink and I have TONS of them, but in my crafty, creative heart I’m a colorist. However, if I’m being honest with myself I make an exception for the Hero Arts Color Layering Stamp Sets. They’re all unique, they cover so many different occasions and you can buy them in coordinating bundles. Some bundles have the stamps and dies, but my faves are the stamp, die and ink bundles. These are groovy, because it takes the guesswork work out of what inks you should use. Be sure to check the thumbnail links below!

For my first tag, I used the Color Layering Bouquet Stamp Set. This is probably the most simple and sweetest color layering set! After stamped my images I also stamped the yellow flowers and bow with Versamark Ink and heat embossed them in Hero Arts Clear Embossing Powder. I also stamped the sentiment in Charcoal Black Ink and heat embossed that as well.

For this tag, I used the Color Layering Bird and Branch Stamp Set. I kept this one fairly monochromatic. I was trying to stick with just the inks found in the bundle. I did some heat embossing on this one as well. I used Hero arts Clear Embossing Powder and Hero Arts Clear Sparkle Embossing Powder on the little flowers stamped around the tag.

This tag was stamped with the Hero Arts Color Layering Goldfish Stamp Set. I kept this one pretty straight up. However, I stamped the bubbles in Unicorn White Pigment Ink, them embossed them in Hero Arts Satin Pearl Embossing Powder. Once they cooled I used more Versamark Ink, filled in the centers of the bubbles and added more Satin Pearl Embossing Powder.

This one is the Color Layering Octopus Stamp Set. This was an add-on for the July 2016 Card Kit that was all about color layering. This kit also sold out, but the Octopus Stamp Set is a classic and still available.

Hero Arts doesn’t have a particular set of coordinating inks for this guy, but my faves are the inks I used today and they are from the May’s Shades of Teal Ink Cube Pack.

 

Last, but certainly not least is the Color Layering For You Flowers Stamp Set. I’ve used the sentiments from this set a bunch and I was super excited to finally use the entire set. I love, love, love the ink colors that were chosen to coordinate with the stamps. You can also purchase the ink cube pack separate for this. It’s called Kelly’s Flowers and these are some of my favorite Hero Arts Inks.

I didn’t use any of the coordinating dies, because I wanted to keep them all one layer and I didn’t do any masking. I think one of the coolest features of the Color Layering Stamps Sets is the you can make a really groovy scene and you don’t have to do any masking.

That’s it!

I hope you enjoyed my projects today! Don’t forget you have until April 10, 2018 to participate in the Challenge. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Until next time.


Fun Ways to Use Background Dies

Hello friends, happy Friday!

This month we’re focusing on using our favorite Hero Arts products, and so today I’m using one of my favorite Hero Arts products – their background dies. I took one of their newest background dies, and tried to use it as many ways as I could think of. Background dies are amazing but it can sometimes be hard to figure out how to use a background die, so let’s look at just some of the options.

First, let’s look at a 2 cards for 1 option, using the hearts infinity die set (another great product!) to cut out the background die to give some new shapes to the background. I did some watercolor on watercolor paper, then die cut using the background die, and then cut out the heart. I used the positive and negative pieces to make the following cards!

And then, to use the whole background die, you can use a more subtle color, and then use another image as a focal point.

 

And if you want to be super subtle, you can use it for a white on white background, and give some interest to a mostly white background.

And then, to break up the intense-ness of background dies, you can cut it up to get some white space in between. This one, I cut in the middle, and added some glitter paper and Nuvo Drops in the white space.

 

And then I played with some patterned paper, and it turned out really great! I would definitely recommend this die with patterned paper if you have any scraps you’d like to use.

 

I hope these inspired you on how to use background dies, and also for thinking about your favorite Hero Arts Products!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xoxo

Products Used:

Love Cut and Stamps Set

Hello Cut and Stamps Set

Blooming Flower Stamp and Die Set

Color Layering Swallowtail Stamp and Die Set

Bold Graphic Confetti Die

Color Layering Rose Stamp and Die Set