A Blog Named Hero

Christmas-travaganza Day 29 from Michelle

Hello, everyone – Michelle Lupton here from Handmade by Michelle – merry greetings from Melbourne, Australia!  It’s so close to Christmas – only four sleeps to go! Yay!

Can you imagine my excitement when I was asked to take part in ABNH’s Christmas-travaganza?  No? Well, imagine me jumping up and down like a five-year-old, and walking around with a permanent grin on my face for days!!!  A very big THANK YOU to Mary Dawn and Linda for letting me join in with the Christmassy fun!

I wanted to share with you a couple of cards I’ve made by heat embossing onto acetate. There are two tricks to avoid warping the acetate – one is to use your heat gun in short, sharp bursts, and make sure that your heat gun is very well warmed up before you apply it to your acetate.  Another trick I discovered (by accident) is to use leftover scraps from laminating sheets of paper or card – it means there are two thin sheets of laminate stuck together, so it is a bit more sturdy and heat resistant.

I stamped my favourite Christmas stamp, Hero Arts “Decorative Ornament” cling stamp, twice onto the acetate in Versamark ink, then embossed with Hero Arts white embossing powder.   I cut around the images and adhered them with some small dots of Glossy Accents to a piece of metallic blue paper (an offcut from my stash) onto which I’d already stamped and white embossed my sentiment (Hero Arts “Joy of Christmas”). I added some bows of silvery Christmas twine, some white faux stitching lines, and then mounted the whole lot onto a standard sized white card.

With the next card, after I heat embossed the acetate, I coloured the back, unembossed surface of the acetate with a red (R37) Copic Marker. The sentiment is from the Hero Arts Clear Design set “Very Merry Christmas” stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, the embossing folder is “Fancy Fan” from Sizzix and Stampin’ Up, and the base card is SU Cherry Cobbler. The red metallic twine is from a $2 pack from the supermarket!

Just because I couldn’t resist, here are a few more cards for you.  For these ones, I stamped either the Hero Arts Magical Background or the Music Background onto kraft cardstock with white pigment ink.  I then heat set this before stamping over them with Festive Berries and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks with some cute little holly leaves and berries stamps from DeNami. I then cut some strips to fit either horizontally or vertically on a white card, then added some combination of the following:  Real Red cardstock from Stampin’ Up; some Hero Arts gemstones; a SU Glimmer paper strip; some buttons; a red glitter snowflake (using SU’s snowflake die); a Christmassy sentiment (from either Stampin’ Up, A Muse Art Stamps, Stamp It or Hero Arts, of course!!!).  Once I’d stamped the background piece, the cards came together really easily, and were quite fun to mass produce (even thought they’re not all the same!)

GIVEAWAY!!!!! Follow the Rafflecopter directions (below) to enter the giveaway.

If you leave a comment on this post you will receive ONE entry to win a
some fantastic prizes we have up for grabs,  BUT…If you comment every
day during the extravaganza you will have a
total of 31 chances to win prizes!!!!! Check out Rafflecopter on how to
earn even MORE entries!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

You have until December 31st MIDNIGHT EDT to leave your comments. Winners will be announced on January 3rd.

 
Supplies: 

Thanks for visiting – have a fabulous day and a very merry Christmas!

Christmastravaganza Day 27: Quick & Easy Holiday Cards

Hi everyone! Stephanie here for Day 27 of the Christmastravaganza!

Can you believe it’s almost Christmas?? It’s about that time when I start going into panic mode because I still have so much to do!

If you’re anything like me, you might be making your cards a little last minute, so today I have a quick and easy card to share that can be easily mass produced and stuffed in the mail just in time for the holidays!

To create the Christmas tree, I cut this simple tree (without the trunk) onto some masking paper with my Silhouette.
I used the piece of masking paper with the negative die cut image over the card base and stamped the Curl Pattern background with Green Hills Mid-Tone Shadow Ink. The tree trunk and star at the top are both from Lawn Fawn’s Bake Me a Cake set and stamped in Wet Cement and Butter Bar Mid-Tone Shadow Inks.
The sentiment comes from the Merriest Christmas Wishes set and is stamped in Punch Chalk Ink.

These cards are so simple and easy to make in multiples. I am a pretty slow card maker and I was able to whip up 5 of these cards in about 30-45 minutes. I’ll bet they could be done even quicker than that!

And if you have a little more time and want to add a little something more, you could add some embellishments, like I did to the tree with some Hero Arts Metallic Decor pieces:

The Metallic Decor pieces are great because they give just a bit of shine, but not too much, and they are pretty flat, so they’re still easy to put in the mail.

Here is a close up look at the gems:

I hope I’ve inspired you to get to work on those holiday cards if you haven’t already!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Before you go, be sure to enter the
GIVEAWAY!!!!! Follow the Rafflecopter directions (below) to enter the giveaway.

If you leave a comment on this post you will receive ONE entry to win a some fantastic prizes we have up for grabs, BUT…If you comment every day during the extravaganza you will have a total of 31 chances to win prizes!!!!! Check out Rafflecopter on how to earn even MORE entries!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You have until December 31st MIDNIGHT EDT to leave your comments. Winners will be announced on December 31st.

Supplies:

Christmas-travaganza Day 26: Joy to the World

Hi everyone! It’s Libby Hickson and I’m here with day 26 of the Christmas-travaganza! Yay! I’m so excited to be playing along!

I’m sharing a little Christmas card that makes me all kinds of happy:

I used the Hero Arts Bicycle and masked off the flowers you’ll usually see in the basket of this stamp, and added sweet little holly leaves (cut out on my Silhouette!) and some blinged out “holly berries”! I chose the “Joy to the World” message from the Merriest Christmas Wishes set, because, well, I think bicycles do in fact bring JOY TO THE WORLD! hee hee! The lace in the background is also a Hero Arts stamp, one of my favorites – Starburst Lace. Here’s a closer look at the holly:

Now how about a Giveaway!! As you know by now, commenting everyday gives you lots and lots of chances to win! FUN FUN FUN!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You have until December 31st MIDNIGHT EST to leave your comments. Winners will be announced on January 3rd.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Christmastravaganza Day 25 – Quick cards with Cecilia

Hello
everyone, its Cecilia here from Cecilia’s Cards and welcome to Day 25 of ABNH’s Christmastravaganza. I am very excited to be part of this
special event on ABNH, amongst some great designers! Is everyone feeling the pressure of Christmas upon us? I would like to share two projects with you that are quick to mass produce. I make place cards every year for a client’s work Christmas function. As the their logo
is green and red, I thought it’s best to go with the same colour theme. I
decided to do a tall place card so that a design element can be incorporated.
As I had to make over 40, it is essential that the cards are easy to mass
produce, so some planning went into the design. The logos and names are printed
on Word using the labels format (3×11 labels). The strips with the names are cut horizontally so that the whole strip could be matted on patterned paper (1”
or 2.5cm strips). My local paper store had Basic Grey Aspen Frost in A4 size, you can use the 12×12 papers as well. It was easier for me to use the A4 paper.
The card stock was cut to 7”x2.5” or 18cm x 6.5 cm, you can
get cut four from an A4 sheet. Score at 3.5” or 9cm and fold. Stamp with a
background stamp with HA Field Greens, front and back (you can do two cards at the one time, folded).

Adhere
the strips to the bottom of the card. Emboss the medallion stamp with gold or
silver on metallic card, cut out with hole punch or die. Punch a small hole in
the middle of the card at the top and just under where the medallion is going
to sit. Thread a twine through the holes and tie a bow on top. Adhere the
medallion over the twine.  Alternatively,
you can add some tinsel to the bow. Please email me if you want a copy of
the Word labels document (A4 size paper).

I would also like to share some quick last minute cards with you. Cut some square cards (I had some square red envelopes measuring 5″ (13cm), so the cards were cut to 4.5″ or 12cm square. The corners of the cards were rounded and the sentiment stamped in Red Royal at the bottom of the card. 2″ (5cm) strips of patterned papers were trimmed just above the sentiment. A strip of washi tape was added to the centre. Trim one end as a fishtail and adhere the strip in the centre of the card, above the sentiment. Stamp a reindeer on kraft and patterned paper. Paper piece the jumper onto the kraft reindeer and adhere with foam tape, add dashed lines with a white gel pen and the card is done! I recently won $100 worth of MT Washi tape, so I am showing off some my newly acquired stash, they go very nicely with the Aspen Frost collection!
Thanks for joining me today. A big THANK YOU to Linda and Mary Dawn for inviting me today at ABNH! Happy Holidays everyone!
Cecilia

Supplies not linked

Cardstock – Neenah Solar White (318gsm),  White laser printer paper (120gsm), Metallic cardstock, Via Vellum Kraft
Die – Spellbinders Nestablities Scallop Circles
Others – Twine from The Twinery, MT Washi Tape, White Molowtow paint pen


GIVEAWAY!!!!! Follow the Rafflecopter directions (below) to enter the giveaway.
If you leave a comment on this post you will receive ONE entry to win a some fantastic prizes we have up for grabs,  BUT…If you comment every day during the extravaganza you will have a total of 31 chances to win prizes!!!!! Check out Rafflecopter on how to earn even MORE entries!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You have until December 31st MIDNIGHT EDT to leave your comments. Winners will be announced on January 3rd.

Christmas-travaganza Day 24: Stretch Your Stamps

Hello Crafters!
Have you been enjoying this fabulous Christmas-travaganza? I know I  sure have! There have been so many amazing projects but such amazing crafters 🙂 I’m so honored to be included with such talent!
 
 
For my contribution to the travaganza I wanted to do a holiday version of stretch your stamps. If you’ve ever seen any of my posts on ABNH you know I’m all about getting the most bang for your buck. I love so many Hero Arts holiday stamps but but I don’t own too too many because I don’t use them for very much time in the year. Instead I tend to concentrate on images I feel I can use over and over again in different ways.
 
Today’s post we’ll be all about
 
 
Classic Holly
 
I have three cards for you today so let’s dive right in 🙂
 
 
The first way I used the stamp is just as is. It’s a stamp that is large enough to be a focal point all by itself which I love. I used my copics to color it and then added some pretty red rhinestones.
 
 
Like I said this stamp is big enough to be a focal point but sometimes it’s nice to expand the stamp so it spans the whole length of the card. A perfectly placed sentiment hides any open space left over.
 
 
The last card I have actually pares down the stamp to use as an accent. The cupcake from the Picnic set goes from a sweet summer cupcake to a Christmas cupcake by adding a few leaves of holly. Using non-holiday stamps for holiday cards is another great way to get more for your money. 🙂
 
Thanks so much for stopping in and visiting me today! I am wishing you and yours the warmest Christmas wishes <3
 
and don’t forget to leave a comment so you can be entered into the
 

GIVEAWAY!!!!! Follow the Rafflecopter directions (below) to enter the giveaway.

If you leave a comment on this post you will receive ONE entry to win a some fantastic prizes we have up for grabs, BUT…If you comment every day during the extravaganza you will have a total of 31 chances to win prizes!!!!! Check out Rafflecopter on how to earn even MORE entries!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway You have until December 31st MIDNIGHT EDT to leave your comments. Winners will be announced on December 3rd.

a Rafflecopter giveaway