A Blog Named Hero

Happy Birthday Cristina!!

June 15, 2012

Hello there!!

here with a special post today!

It’s DT member Cristina‘s 30th Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Cristina!!!

A few of the girls thought we would make a card for her :

Steph K

Linda

Kelly

Tina

Simone

Danielle

Steph B

Melissa

For the couple of girls who couldn’t make a card today–they send their apologies and BIGGEST happy birthday wishes.

So please, be sure to comment and leave Cristina some birthday love–it IS her 30th after all!
We’ll be back at 5pm with our challenge post!

Linda x

Envelope dress up

June 13, 2012

Hello crafty friends, it`s Tina here.

I love it when the card I send has a matching envelope, but I am not always in the mood to make and customize an envelope. So I will share with you, how I decorate the inside of the regular office envelopes bought in the supermarket.

You need envelopes, cardstock, plain printing paper and stamps that match your card.

To make a template (to keep for later), follow these steps:

Trace the lines around the opening side of the envelope, draw another line inside to make the template slightly smaller than the envelope and cut on the inside line. The idea is to insert it in the envelope, so it should only be “deep” enough so the bottom edge isn`t seen.

Insert the template in the envelope, so you make sure it fits perfectly. My template sits about half an inch down into the opening. (You don`t need to cover the entire inside, but you can make it as long as you want.)

When you have made a template, you can cut several white inserts in just few minutes. I use regular printing paper and I usually cut up to 5 pages at the same time. As you can see in the photograph, I align two borders perfectly, so I only need to cut two sides and round the corners.

Here is a stack made really quickly. I usually make a lot of them when I am in the mood so I have them ready when I need a matching envelope. (this is a great thing to do when your mojo is on a vacation :-))

When I finish making a card and I still have all my stamps and inks on my craft desk, I just take one insert, stamp it, apply the glue and put it in the envelope.That’s it! Now you have a beautiful matching envelope to suit your hand-made card!

Thanks for joining me today, I am sending you a big crafty hug.

InLinkz.com

1 stamp 3 ways: Lattice Background

June 11, 2012

Hi everyone!

Stephanie here, and today I have 3 cards for you! I used the Lattice Background three different ways to create three different cards. This stamp is one of my favorite backgrounds because it’s so versatile. You can do as little or as much as you want to it and it’s beautiful every way!

For my first card, I used the stamp in it’s simplest form. I stamped it with Soft Pool Shadow Ink to create a tone-on-tone background. Very simple and subtle.

For my 2nd card, I heat embossed the Lattice and colored it in with copic markers.

Recognize the color scheme? 🙂

Here’s a tip: if you’ve heat embossed in white and you get some imperfections in your lines, just use a white gel pen to fill in the gaps!

For my 3rd card, I did some paper piecing. I stamped the Lattice onto 4 different sheets of patterned paper and heat embossed in white. I cut around the edges and put the pieces together like a puzzle.

Speaking of using your stamps in different ways… have you heard about the new Online Card Class, Stretch Your Stamps??? This new class will show you examples of how to use your stamps in innovative ways and how to get the most out of your stamps! This class looks amazing — I know I’ll be there!

You can read more about it and register HERE!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a fantastic day!

Card 1:

InLinkz.com

Card 2:

InLinkz.com

Card #3:

InLinkz.com

Shadow Stamping

June 9, 2012

Hi Blog readers, Michelle here today.

Today I am going to share how to do Shadow Stamping. I received a lot of questions about how I did my card in last month’s challenge post so I created a picture tutorial to show you exactly how it’s done. It’s so super simple, you will all be shadow stamping in no time. It is completely addictive!

I am going to show you how to use a clear stamp first for this effect and then a wood mounted stamp.

You will need:
Kraft Paper
ColorBox White Frost ink
A colored ink of your choice. Hero Arts Mid-tone & Chalk inks work GREAT for this. I am using Hero’s Splash chalk ink.
Fiskars stamp press or clear acrylic block.
Clear Stamps
Cling Background Stamp
Wood Mounted Background stamp
Stamp-a-ma-jig

Step 1. Place stamp on Fiskars stamp press, ink your stamp up well with ColorBox Frost White ink. Stamp onto Kraft Cardstock.
(You can use other white inks but I feel you get the best images with this ink.)

Step 2. Clean White ink off of stamp and then ink stamp up well with Splash Chalk ink.

Step 3. Place stamp press over your white stamped image, line up as best you can so that it covers the white image completely. Slightly slide the stamp press to the left or right, (depending on where you want your shadow) and press down to stamp the image.
You can see in the photo below that I can see just a small portion of my white stamped image.

*Note this works best when the white ink is still wet. Colorbox White Frost is Pigmented so it will stay wet longer.

Step 4: Remove stamp press and admire your finished image.

I LOVE the depth you get with this technique. Here is the finished card. I did the same technique with the words but changed the color to Cup O’ Joe. I also used the colors in this weeks Challenge. I also have to add that the hearts were my daughter’s idea. She wanted one, I wanted 3….she liked the 3 when it was done. 😉

Now I am going to show you how to do this same technique with a background stamp. This time I am not going to move the colored image over too much and it will give it an embossed look.

For this card I am going to use a Hero Arts Cling background stamp. When I use background stamps I usually lay my card down onto the stamp rather than vice versa but for this technique it’s not possible, so I have a little trick!
I take a wood mounted Hero Arts background stamp and I place my cling stamp upside down on the back (image side) of the stamp. (they are back to back at this point) This creates a make-shift woodblock for your cling stamp to hold on to!

See how the cling stamp is holding onto the back of the woodblock stamp?

Now I can use my Stamp-a-ma-jig to get perfect placement!

Step 1. Ink up background stamp really well with ColorBox Frost White pigment ink and stamp onto a Hero Arts Azure notecard.

Step 2: Clean stamp and ink well with a dye ink and stamp onto Stamp-a-ma-jig plastic. Let this dry.

Step 3: Position Stamp-a-ma-jig plastic over notecard leaving some white showing but less than we did above.

Steph 4: Using your stamp-a-ma-jig for placement, stamp your image. I used Distress Ink in Chipped Sapphire for this card.

Your finished image will look like this:

Doesn’t it look like we embossed it? I actually ran my finger over it because it looks very embossed in real life. When the ink dries finish up your card. Here is my finished card:

A few tips:
This works best with solid images.
You can make the shadow go left, right, top or bottom
Practice, practice, practice. Try mixing inks and colors.

Here are a few samples I made up for you:

I used all Hero Arts inks on these. From left to righ is Bubblegum, mid-tone; Splash Chalk Ink; Soft Lilac and Mid-tone Green hills are the Tulips. (The shadow inks look better in real life). The last and one of my favorites is Wet Cement, Mid-tone ink. I love the shadow this ink gives.

Mix and match your favorite inks. Soon you will find combinations you love!
If you try this technique I would love to see them. Please comment with a link so I can see!

Have a phenomenal day!