A Blog Named Hero

Dragonfly friend

Hello everyone. My name is Lise Mariann and let me tell you how excited I am to be on the new design team here at A Blog Named Hero. Beyond the moon, I tell you. First I would like to introduce myself and then tell you about my project.
IMG_5805

I live in Trondheim, Norway with my husband, two children and two cats, but I originally come from the cold and far north of Norway. I have been scrapbooking since 2004, but have been gravitating more and more to cardmaking the last couple of years. Today I am mostly making cards, but love creating pages for my scrapbooks as well. When I am not crafting I work as an archaeologist and museum educator and I also like reading, embroidering, drawing and singing as well as hanging out with my family of course. You can also find me at my blog and on Instagram.

For my first project on the team I made the dragonfly card below using the “Color layering dragonfly” stamp set.

Embossing_3

I decided to only use the image edge stamps to create the water lilies and the dragonfly since I wanted to color them using my Copic markers, so I stamped it using a Versamark stamp pad and embossed it using gold embossing powder. After stamping and coloring the images I cut them from the paper using the matching frame cuts.

For the background I used patterned papers from my stash to suggest water and sky and cut them to size with a stitched rectangle die. I attatched the water lilies in layers raising the top one up using foam tape. I also glued the dragonfly using foam tape. I wanted to have the dragonfly “flying” off the page to create some extra movement in the card.

I then stamped and embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set as the images.

When all of the images and sentiment was placed I found a piece of white embroidery thread and hand stitched a flying trail from the dragonfly through the sentiment and behind the flowers.

To finish the card I glued the panel on a white card base raising it up on foam tape.

Embossing_4

And before I leave you today I am hoping you will take a look at the A Blog Named Hero Facebook group where we also have lots of lovely makes by our Facebook design team. if you haven’t been there already I urge you to find it.

Make yourself a wonderful day.

55869240_10156070856621156_3222573511910359040_n

Hero Arts Marble Bold Prints

gg bavarian bkfast 2018.jpg

Hi all! I’m Gwendolyn and I’m so happy to be on the Hero Arts challenge design team. Before I present my card, I would like to present myself. I’m originally from Singapore but I’ve lived more than half my life away from home, working in places like New Zealand, France and now Germany (I’m wearing the traditional Bavarian costume in the photo above). I started crafting 5 years ago, with a scrapbook project that took me 2 years (!) and put me off all paper crafts until a friend introduced me to cardmaking and since then I’ve been hooked! This also led me to discover watercolouring, which is now one of my favourite mediums to colour with. You can discover more on my blog, or on Instagram or Facebook. I also have a Youtube channel where I try to share my process videos…that is when my slow internet allows me…

embossing

So now to my card, which I made to inspire you to join our current challenge which is all about Embossing. When I first started cardmaking, people used to say that my signature was all the embossing I did! It’s now replaced by water-colouring I guess, but I still have a huge stock of embossing powders so it was such a pleasure to use them for my first post here and I went a little crazy with the embossing as you can see!

Marble-bold-embossing-1.jpg

I used Hero Arts Marble Bold Print background stamp which I got 2 years ago but never use… and stamped it all over with Versamark clear embossing ink. I then took my clear card base and pressed it firmly over the stamp. I proceeded to cover the clear sticky ink with the embossing powers starting with the top colour, being careful to pour it only on the parts of the stamp I wanted that colour to be, tapping away the excess before pouring on another colour. Only once the whole card was covered with the 3 colours, did I melted the powders with a heat gun.

Marble bold embossing products

 

 

 

When it dried, I covered the background with Hero Arts Fresh Peach Mid tone shadow ink, which is the same ink I coloured the “Happy” sentiment from Hero Arts Happy Stamp and Cut stamp & die set, before I heat embossed it with Hero Arts clear embossing powder. To finish, I stamped the other sentiments on black card stock with clear embossing ink, covered it with Hero Arts gold embossing powder and heat set it.

Marble-bold-embossing-cu.jpg

Isn’t the shimmer wonderful?  I hope my card has inspired you to make a card with some embossing on it, you don’t have to use as much embossing as I did, although if you want an extra challenge, I dare you to do more embossing then I did on this card! 😉 I look forward to seeing your cards in the challenge gallery here.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! Hugs,

blog signature

 

 

Emboss Resist | Hero Arts Wishing Well

Hi Friends! I’m here today with my first solo post! Before we get to the good stuff allow me to introduce myself. I’m Kristina from South East Michigan, where I’ve been my whole life. A few years ago I gave up my full time career in real estate marketing to care for my father following stroke. I now work part time from home (but my home office is in a closet in my craft room so I’ll let you imagine how much “work” gets done). When I’m not crafting I’m at my vanity being a want-to-be make up artist, or my newest hobby, backyard birding. You can find me over on livelovelaughscrap.com or under @KristinaBeagle on your favorite social network.  A big thank you to Linda for having me, I’m grateful to be amongst such great company. Now without further ado;

There’s still time left to enter the current challenge, a personal favorite of mine!

embossing

For todays card I incorporated a little emboss resist into my background. If you’re not familiar with emboss resist – It’s the process of inking over heat embossing. The embossing resists the ink, leaving you with a crisp embossed image surrounded by inky fun.

BestWishes

I started off with an a2 sized card front of smooth card stock for ink blending, and used a piece of post it tape to mark off where my ground would be. Before any inking, I stamped some floral images from the Hero Arts Wishing Well stamp set along the horizon line using a sticky embossing ink. After sprinkling on white embossing powder, I heat set everything until it was melted and smooth. I gave that a minute too cool and did some simple single color ink blending over top. When I have my blue sky the way I wanted it, I used a paper towel to wipe off the excess ink from the embossed images to reveal the crisp, white images.

BestWishes3

I moved my post it tape up so that I could now ink my grassy area. Once I was satisfied, I trimmed my card panel down to 4×5.25 and went to work on my wishing well.

I stamped the wishing well image in fade out ink to do some no line water coloring. I used zig real brush pens, but any watercolor medium would work for this.
BestWishes2

To finish I stamped my sentiment, again in sticky embossing ink, and heat set some Hero Arts Black embossing powder over top. Making sure thoroughly prep the surface with an anti-static powder tool, since I was embossing over potentially wet ink. Had I thought about it ahead of time I could’ve done an emboss resist here also, but wasn’t sure of my sentiment placement at that time.

Lastly, I added some little nuvo drop accents to a few of the flower, and there you have it!
I can’t wait to see all the gorgeous creations for this months challenge and look forward to some fun emboss resist projects too!

SignatureKristina

Supplies

Hero Arts Wishing Well Stamp Set
Hero Arts Wishing Well Stamp Set
Where to buy:
HA		 Hero Arts Wishing Well Dies
Hero Arts Wishing Well Dies
Where to buy:
HA		 Bristol Strathmore Smooth Paper
Bristol Strathmore Smooth Paper
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ		 Distress Oxide Broken China
Distress Oxide Broken China
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ
Distress Oxide Twisted Citron
Distress Oxide Twisted Citron
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ		 Versamark
Versamark
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ		 Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens
Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ		 Hero Arts White Embossing Powder
Hero Arts White Embossing Powder
Where to buy:
HA
Hero Arts Black Embossing Powder
Hero Arts Black Embossing Powder
Where to buy:
HA		 Wagner Heat Gun
Wagner Heat Gun
Where to buy:
HA		 Cutterpillar Pro
Cutterpillar Pro
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ		 Ranger Ink Blending Tool
Ranger Ink Blending Tool
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ
Scor Pal
Scor Pal
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ		 MISTI
MISTI
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ		 Teflon Bone Folder
Teflon Bone Folder
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ		 Water Flow Brush
Water Flow Brush
Where to buy:
HA
Post It Roll
Post It Roll
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ		 Spellbinders Platinum
Spellbinders Platinum
Where to buy:
SSS | AMZ | SB

 

Sending Winter Hugs

Crafty friends – I am back with my last A Blog Named Hero post in 2018! The theme for December is Winter and is totally appropriate!

Recently, Hero Arts released the Warm Animals stamp set and the set has been sitting in my craft room waiting to be colored. This challenge was the perfect opportunity to bust them out!

  • Starting with Neenah Solar White cardstock, I stamped my images in a copic friendly ink
  • Once each critter was colored, I used the coordinating dies to cut them out
  • On a piece of craft cardstock, I white heat embossed the Graphic Snowflake Bold Prints stamp
  • The heart was cut using the Nesting Heart Infinity dies on vellum
  • For the sentiment, I used a greeting from the Polar Greetings stamp set and white heat embossed it on the craft cardstock
  • The craft cardstock panel was trimmed to 5.25×4 and added to a top folding notecard with craft foam and adhesive
  • I added the vellum heart and the critters with adhesive and foam tape
  • The sentiments were added on a playful slate with foam tape
  • I added Moonshine confetti from Simon Says Stamp for shine
  • Additional details were added like black gel pen for the critter’s eyes, glossy accents on the pom-poms and shimmer pen on the scarves 

I hope you enjoyed this card and I can’t wait to see what you make for this month’s challenge!

SUPPLIES

Want to find the products I used? They are listed below for ease of reference. (Affiliated links are used at no cost to you. Thank you!) Click on the icons below each product picture to go to a favorite store.

Embossing on Gold Foil

Hey everyone, it’s Michelle here. Wow, I can’t believe it, but I’m sharing my last inspiration project for A Blog Named Hero today!!! It has been so amazing to be a part of this team, and of course I wanted to finish off with a really special card. Since the current challenge is Sparkle and Shine, I wanted to make a card with A LOT of shine. Like, seriously the max. So what is shinier than a FULL card front of gold foil!?

Of course, I wanted to add just a bit more to the gold foil so I used the Butterfly Confetti background die to emboss on the foil using an embossing pad through my die cutting machine. The embossing on the gold foil came out ???, and the embossed die just adds a ton of dimension.

Since I didn’t want to cover up too much of that gorgeous background, I kept the sentiment and embellishments small. I stamped a sentiment from the ___ set, and added some matching twine and enamel accents to finish.

I hope you will join along with our A Blog Named Hero challenge this month – there are still a few days left to make your project and enter!

And if you’d like to stay connected with me, come find me on Instagram @michelleyuen_!! 🙂

Hero Arts Black Dye Ink
Hero Arts Black Dye Ink

HA

 Butterfly Confetti Background Die
Butterfly Confetti Background Die

HA

 Hero Arts - Welcome Neighbor
Hero Arts – Welcome Neighbor

HA