A Blog Named Hero

The official Hero Arts challenge blog!

Cristina’s favorite from 2014

Hi everyone!

It’s Cris here, sharing with you one of my favorite posts from 2014 at A Blog Named Hero!
I just love this post that Maya shared with you in August. Her embossed resist cards are just amazing, check them out:

Her cards are so gorgeous, and this is a technique that I always have had problems with, so I decided to give it a go to create a Christmas card. 
I wish my card would have turned out as pretty as hers, but I think I went too dark with the distress colors. Oh well, maybe next time 😉
Remember to stop by the blog all through December to check out the favorites from the rest of the DT girls!
Thanks for stopping by!

Too Many Favorites!

Hi everyone!
It’s Cris here. Are you enjoying this awesome Christmas event? I always love this month full of inspiration, and I can’t forget to mention the giveaways, right?

We have 2x $25 GV from Simon Says Stamp to give away to random commenters on the blogs, all comments must be left on ABNH, from November 1 – December 4. Winner will be drawn randomly on December 5 and announced soon after. 

As you already know, we are sharing our favorite thing about Christmas, and I LOVE Christmas! Everything about it! So it was hard to choose only one favorite thing 😉

I think probably my favorite thing would be decorations. The tree, the ornaments, all the colors and the lights. In the house, in the streets. I just love to put on some Christmas songs and decorate the house while eating Christmas sweets <3
That’s why my first card is a bit special, as the person that receives it can use it as an ornament for their tree:

I love that “Joy Burst stamp from Hero Arts! I decided to use non traditional colors for Christmas to make it brighter, so it stands out when hanging from the tree 😉

I paper pieced the word “Joy” and I used soft pool ink for the rest of the stamp. The size is a 4 1/4″ diameter card, so it fits in a normal envelope.

Now, for my second card, I wanted to do one of my year round favorite things. To stretch an stamp! I love to find new uses for my stamps, so the “Spring Gems” from Hero Arts was perfect as small ornaments or lights in a Christmas card:

To color the “gems” I used coloring pencils, playing around with the white pencil. I love the look you get over Kraft.
And to give them some shine, I used wink of stella over the coloring.

And to finish this post I had to go for a white Christmas card. I live in Spain, so here it rarely snows, but I just think there’s something magical about a white Christmas. 

That tree from Hero Arts is just perfect! To make it look like it was covered in snow, I stamped it first in Versamark. Before moving the stamp I placed my stamp-a-ma-jig next to it, and reink the stamp with Versafine Onyx Black ink. Then I stamped it slightly moved lower, and I embossed them with clear embossing powder. Then I inked the background with distress inks, and stamped the same tree at different heights, and with second and third generation stamping, to give it dimension.
Here is a close up:

And that’s all! Sorry for the long post, but I have too many favorites at Christmas 😉 Enjoy the rest of this spectacular month long celebration, and good luck with our giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for stopping by!

Halloween set

Hi everyone!
It’s Cris here, with a couple of cards collaborating with the amazing Lawn Fawn this month!

I decided to use their new Halloween set called “Spooktacular”, because I fell in love with it! Here, in Spain, Halloween is not a big holiday….yet, as every year more and more people are celebrating it. For me, it’s one of my favorite ocassions to make cards, although I rarely use them 🙁
Here is my first card:

I rarely use the small images from this kind of sets, but I thought these ones were too cute to not get used. So I stamped them randomly and colored them using Promarkers.
For the sentiment I die cut “Halloween” using Cole’s ABCs and added a piece of black cardstock behind it.

And now, for my second card, I decided to play along with our current challenge, as it is one of my favorite things to do:

And as always it’s sponsored by Simon Says Stamp:

I went for a birthday card using the Halloween set. I changed the witch’s hat a little bit to make it look like a party hat, and the cat is too adorable to be scary 😉
I created a window using a die from Hero Arts “Joy Snowman” set. I added some stamped acetate to have a place for the cat, and added some colored cardstock on the inside of the card to make it stand out.

I hope you play along with us, and look at your stamps differently 😉
Thanks for stopping by!

Letters and Words

Hi everyone!
Cris here, and today I bring you a couple of cards. 
When I saw the name of our current challenge, I just wanted to play along. But I have to say that I got a bit sidetracked. 
You already know how much I love using my Silhouette, and THIS cut file from Hero Arts was calling me. I had to use it!!!! 

So I die cut it out of white cardstock and colored it using my distress inks. The heart and sentiments are from a gorgeous set (The Write Stuff: Love Story) from our collaboration this month, the amazing Winnie & Walter!

And I have another card for you. I like camera stamps, so the one from The Write Stuff: Picture Perfect, from Winnie & Walter had to be inked!

The sentiment is from the set You Make Me Smile, from Hero Arts 😉
For the background I used some of the words and simbols from the same Winnie & Walter set. They are super cute!

As you can see, I didn’t really follow the challenge, but I wanted to play with the letters die cut, and with those mini words from the camera set 😉
But you can still play along and win a gift certificate for the amazing Simon Says Stamp!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thank You Cards

Hello everyone!
It’s Cris here, and today I wanted to share with you some ideas for when you want to say thanks. As you know this month we are featuring the gorgeous stamps and dies from Reverse Confetti:

And here is my first card:

If you know me and my style, you should know that I struggle with “vintage” but if I make it a little CAS, it gets a bit easier. I love the look of old paper, and using some patterned paper, the edge die from Reverse Confetti and some distress inks, it was easy to fake. I love that Poppy stamp from Hero Arts, and I stamped it by coloring directly to the stamp with Memento markers. Easy!
To finish the card, I added some twine and a piece of lace to give it the vintage look. 
The set I used from Reverse Confetti, “Class Act”, is not vintage at all, but I think it works in this card. And to show you how great that set is, I went to a totally different style with my next card:

I achieved a graphic look by stamping the alpha from the set over and over. I loooove that alphabet. To create the sentiment, I just colored the letters individually with a marker, and stamped them one by one. 
I colored some letters randomly using the colors from the background paper.
And I couldn’t leave you without a little present, cause it’s one of my favorite things to make:

This little parcel is super easy to create! Just take a piece of cardstock that measures 4 1/4″ x 11″ and score it at: 1″, 5″, 6″ and 10″.
This time to close it I used one of the dies from Reverse Confetti:

As you can see, you can create different styles with one stamp set easily 😉
Now, remember that you still have time to play along with our current challenge:

Thanks for stopping by!