A Blog Named Hero

The official Hero Arts challenge blog!

Challenge: Copy a Designer with Neat & Tangled, Part One

Good morning and Happy November to you. Fall is definitely in the air here in the Northern Hemisphere, and I’ll just assume that Spring is in the air down in the Southern Hemisphere. I just hope the season suits you, Autumn is definitely my favorite. The leaves, the crisp air, the apples, they all just call my name.

This month we are lucky enough to be collaborating with Neat & Tangled and we are just thrilled. Not only are their designs just lovely, the owner, Danielle Walls, is a sweet woman, and we are so happy to call her our friend.

The theme for our challenge this month is Copy a Designer. What do we mean by that? Well, find a card design from one of the A Blog Name Hero Design Team members that speaks to you, and use it for inspiration. Easy, right? 

Here are some projects from our Design Team to help you get started. Click on the picture to go to their blog post and see what card inspired them.

Our challenge this month runs until November 29th, so make sure to join us. Up for grabs is a gift certificate to Neat & Tangled.


Please help support A Blog Named Hero by shopping through our links. These are affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. We appreciate your support.

Simon Says Stamp
Ellen Hutson
Hero Arts

Get Well Soon Chick

Happy Friday the 13th! Apparently, I paid zero attention to the calendar when making this card. I would have tried to come up with something spooky had I known the date, ha!

I have been needing a lot of get well cards lately, so I thought I’d make another to replenish my stash. This uses the Get Well Soon stamp set from Lawn Fawn and I seriously love this set so much. Those bandaids? That chick? The medicine bottle? They just speak to me for some reason. Maybe I secretly wanted to be in the medical field? I don’t know, but I’m glad that Lawn Fawn made this, it makes me happy.

It’s actually a simple card to make, here’s how I did it:

  • Draw diagonal lines with a pencil on a piece of watercolor paper. I did this to make the stamping easier, totally optional.
  • Stamp the bandaid image repeatedly between those lines. I used versafine ink and then clear embossing powder so that it would make the coloring easier.
  • Heat the images so the embossing powder melts.
  • Erase the pencil lines. You want to make sure to do this before coloring, so that you don’t trap any pencil marks in the coloring. Especially important if you plan to color in the background.
  • Color your images however you like. I used Zig clean color markers, and a watercolor brush. I used the packaging from a Lawn Fawn Cardstock sampler to pick my colors.
  • Cut out the panel using a die from the Lawn Fawn rectangle stackables die set. I absolutely love this die set, and hope you do too. I fear you’ll be seeing it in almost everything I make.
  • Stamp the chick and sentiment on a piece of vellum, and then I clear embossed that as well. I turned the vellum over and colored in the chick using Zig markers again. The sentiment comes from a Hero Arts stamp set called Everyday Sayings. It’s lovely, and sort of a must have.
  • Wrap the vellum around the background panel, and then adhere that to a card base made from Lawn Fawn Mermaid cardstock.

Our challenge this month is “Calling all Critters” and I do hope you’ll join us. We have a prize from Lawn Fawn!

 

 

 

Please help support A Blog Named Hero by shopping through our links. These are affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. We appreciate your support.
Simon Says Stamp
Ellen Hutson
Hero Arts

 

Challenge: Calling All Critters with Lawn Fawn, Part One

Good morning! Today we are excited to announce that we are collaborating with Lawn Fawn this month, and our challenge is celebrating critters!

Lawn Fawn is known for their critter images, and for good reason. They are just absolutely darling. And sweet. And just make us smile. Let’s get right to the inspiration from our design team. Click on the picture to be taken to their blog for more information.

 

 

 

 

We do hope you’ll join us in our challenge this month. We’ve got a gift certificate to Lawn Fawn for the winner. And we know you definitely have some critters in your stash that could use some inking!

Please help support A Blog Named Hero by shopping through our links. These are affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. We appreciate your support.
Simon Says Stamp
Ellen Hutson
Hero Arts

Thank You for Being You

Lisa here with a card that uses the best of CAS-ual Fridays and Hero Arts products. I had so much fun making this card, and absolutely love the way it turned out.

I used the Tin Roof stamp set and gold heat embossed the image on some watercolor paper. Then I strategically cut out some sections and taped them to the Butterfly Confetti Fancy die to get just the right pattern on my butterflies. I had intended to watercolor the butterflies but loved the simple elegance of the gold embossing on the paper that I ended up leaving them as they were.

I found a piece of pink cardstock and used Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide ink and an old Hero Arts flourish stamp set to create the background. The oxide inks just stamp beautifully. To mute it a bit, I sprayed it with some water and let that dry.

I gold embossed the sentiment from a Hero Arts stamp set onto some charcoal paper. I used the same paper to cut think strips to turn into butterfly antenna. Once I had the antenna trimmed I used three layers of foam behind the butterfly bodies to adhere them to the card front. You can see all of that dimension in the next picture.

To finish the card I added some clear Nuvo Drops to the card front. This is the first time I’ve used those directly onto a card vs. making them in advance and adhering them on with glue. I’m not sure which I prefer. This stressed me out a bit, ha!

I hope you liked this card, and got some ideas. I always love a card with lots of dimension, which is ironic, considering this month’s challenge is One Layer Cards. Please do join the challenge, there is a prize to be won. A gift certificate from our sponsor!

Please help support A Blog Named Hero by shopping through our links. These are affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. We appreciate your support.
Simon Says Stamp
Ellen Hutson
Hero Arts

Challenge: One Layer with CAS-ual Fridays Stamps, Part One

Welcome to September! This month brings a change of season, no matter what hemisphere you live in, and for us here in North America, that means Autumn. YES, please. I can’t wait. I love the changing leaves, the break in the summer heat, and that means Thanksgiving is coming soon. Lisa loves Thanksgiving! 🙂

This month we are thrilled to be collaborating with CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. We have always loved their designs and simplicity and decided to make this month’s challenge theme “One Layer”. Which seems simple, right? Oy. At least for me, I had issues! Ha. We hope that this is a great challenge theme for you and that you join us with your creations. Now, on to some inspiration from our design team. Click on the picture to go right to more details from the design team member.

 

I love how clean and simple all of our designs are, makes me want to try my hand at the One Layer challenge a few more times. Now go off and create, and enter your project here:


Please help support A Blog Named Hero by shopping through our links. These are affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. We appreciate your support.
Simon Says Stamp
Ellen Hutson
Hero Arts