A Blog Named Hero

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

You Blow Me Away

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Hi there, it’s Seeka here with my solo post for the blog.  I’m so excited to be a part of this  talented team and to get to share some projects with you!

54522010_10156057749191156_3697575342702067712_nToday I’m using the cute I’m A Puffer For You stamp set which captured my heart at first sight.  I used to have a puffer fish back when I had an aquarium and that cutie would swim to whatever part of the tank was closest to me, following me around as I moved around the room.  He was like a  little underwater puppy!

I’m also sticking with this month’s challenge theme: Clean and Simple.  If you’re familiar with my grid over on Instagram, you know that clean and simple is my jam.

I started by stamping the puffer fish in Copic-friendly Hero Arts Intense Black ink onto Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock.  Then I colored him up with Y000, Y11, Y15, and Y17.  I started with a solid base of Y000, the lightest color, and then gradually added darker colors, blending as I went.  Then I cut him out and set him aside to work on the background.

For the background I used an A2-sized piece of Neenah Solar White onto which I stamped the sentiment in the bottom right corner.  I also stamped three bubbles from the stamp set, temporarily placing the puffer to get an idea of where to put the bubbles.  Then I backed the puffer with foam tape and adhered him permanently to the panel.

On another A2-sized piece of Neenah Solar White, I stamped an older Hero Arts woodblock stamp that has a lovely pattern of dots.  I don’t think that particular stamp is available any more, but Hero Arts does have some other backgrounds that are similar.  I trimmed a half inch-wide strip to use for the card.

To assemble the card, I trimmed off half an inch from the left side of the panel with the fish and then adhered the panel to the right side an A2-sized card base.  Then I adhered the patterned strip to the left side.  The result is an almost seamless card front without the worry of trying to stamp a straight strip along one edge of the card!

Be sure to visit the challenge post for more inspiration for this month’s challenge and to join in on the chance to win one of two gift cards!

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you have a lovely day ☀️💛

Seeka Signature

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Background Stamping – A Blog Named Hero Color Palette Challenge + Hero Arts My Monthly Hero

Hey folks!

Cynde here! I’m excited to be back with another card for the A Blog Named Hero Color Palette Challenge! For my card today, I’m using the stamp set from the Hero Arts September 2018 My Monthly Hero.

The stamp set in this kit is perfect for building up a background. You can either do a full background or a partial one like I did here today. This stamp set is loaded so you have tons of options!

You can watch the video on how I made my cards HERE. You can also click the thumbnail link below.

In my last card, I shared how to combine colors from a color palette into a single image. For today’s card, I could spread the colors out much more, which helps make things a lot easier as you color.

I also want to note that since some of the images are a small and a little tricky to color you can totally get around this by using technical pens like I do in the Video. These are a very handy tool. They are perfect for those fine details and they work great with markers and pencils!

I stamped all of my images with Hero Arts Soft Granite Ink. I talk about this in the Video folks, but if you like you can use stamps blocks, but I suggest using the MISTI Stamping Tool. I didn’t get a good impression the first time on one of them and without the MISTI, it is guaranteed I would have ruined my panel.

With the exception of the leaves I kept my coloring pretty simple. The images in this My Monthly Hero are fairly small. As far as coloring with my markers was concerned they didn’t need a whole lot of love. I also knew that I would be going back in with my colored pencils to add further detail and that helped a bunch!
Initially I had stamped a sentiment from the stamp set with Hero Arts Intense Black Ink directly on to the panel. I didn’t like the way that looked, so I decided to cover it up.
For this I cut down a scrap of the same paper I used for my panel. The new sentiment I wanted to use from the stamp set was too long so I needed to do some masking on the stamp to break it up to fit on to the square. I started with the last word, masked off the rest of the sentiment and heat embossed with Versafine Onyx Black Ink and Hero Arts Clear Embossing Powder.
It’s easier for me to start with the last word and work my way from the bottom to the top, but you can do whatever works best for you. You can also cut the stamp apart, but that usually freaks me out so I just do it this way. It’s ridiculous folks, I know. It doesn’t hurt anything, but I just can’t do it!
Another thing you could do if you didn’t want to leave that square plain in the center of you card panel is cut another scrap slightly larger than that and go direct to paper with Hero Arts Just Rust Ink. That would be super pretty and it would match the color scheme. I thought about this while I was making this card, but I skipped it because I felt I was already covering up too much of my panel.
I finished off my card with some shimmer on the Chinese Lanterns and a clear glaze pen on the purple berries and called it good!
That’s it!
You still have some time to play along in the Color Palette Challenge folks! We love to see what you have to share with us!
I hope you enjoyed my card today and as always, thanks so much for stopping by!
Until next time.


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Clean And Simple Birthday + Hero Arts Ornate Carousel

Hey folks!

It’s Cynde and I’m her today to share a clean and simple birthday card with you for the Birthday Card Challenge!

For today’s card, I’m using the Hero Arts Ornate Carousel Stamp Set. This was an add on for the My Monthly Hero July 2018 Card Kit. The kit has sold out, but you can still get the add on’s!

You can watch the video on how I made my cards HERE.

Since I knew that I would be doing at least a lil bit of Copic coloring, I stamped all of my images with Hero Arts Intense Black Ink. If you aren’t going to use alcohol markers of any kind, the Hero Arts Black Ink would work just fine. I used Copic’s to at least save myself a wee bit of time in coloring the horse and the top and bottom of the carousel.

Be sure to watch the Video folks. I talk about coloring images in white there.

All of the details on this image are pretty small. The upside is, it doesn’t take much to color. The  downside is, it’s a wee bit harder to get in there with markers. Soooo…to make it a little bit easier, I used colored pencils.

By the time I was ready to color in all of the gold, I couldn’t really find a combination in my colored pencils that I liked. It was an easy fix though. I simply used a gold glitter pen. To get the dimension I wanted over that, I used a clear glaze pen. These types of pens add just enough dimension when they’re dry.

I used the background die from the My Monthly Hero July 2018 Kit to die cut 3 layers of white cardstock to add to my card base. Again, this kit is sold out, but I think the Marquee Frame Fancy Die would work great as well as the Star Confetti and Party Confetti Fancy Dies.

I wanted to bring in some more color to the card, so I started by ink blending Hero arts Cotton Candy Ink on to white cardstock, but then felt it was too light so I went directly over the top with Hero Arts Bubble Gum Ink.

I die cut both the ink blended and colored panels down with Hero Arts Nesting Rectangle Infinity Dies. I love the perfect spacing in those dies! As I’m writing this post, these are sold out. You can be put on a list and you’ll be notified the they’re available again or the Nesting Rounded Rectangle Infinity Dies would be fab too!

That’s it!

There’s still time to participate in the Birthday Card Challenge folks! You have until August 10th to play along and we LOVE to see what you make!

I hope you enjoyed my card today and as always thanks so much for stopping by!

Until next time.

 

 


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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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