An Oldie, but Goodie…

Celebrating with Hero Arts

As Hero Arts celebrates its 45th anniversary, I’ve started digging into my EXTENSIVE (!!!) old stash of Hero Arts images. I’ve always been a Hero Arts fan.

When I needed a few quick congratulations cards, the Pop Art with Bird stamp seemed like the perfect solution.

I made three cards, using different colored cardstock for each one, and in no time, I had some quick cards. I inked the stamp with black VersaFine and covered it with clear embossing powder. Images were colored with Ranger Distress Inks (using Tsukineko Imagine Crafts’ Fantastics. The congrats stamp is also from an old Hero Arts set. A little Ranger Stickles and I was good to go.

Fun, fast and easy! Thanks for dropping by.

Hooray for Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite card making holidays. And this time I started early (well, early for me!!!).

Here are a few samples:

Dancing Hearts

I figured I’d start out simple — just stamping, embossing, and cutting out hearts. These hearts are from Hero Arts and Fiskars. The background is a Spellbinders embossing folder. And the sentiment is an old one from Hero Arts. Easy peasy! I made a bunch of these cards in various color combos.

Another easy one, but all that color and glitter pack a punch. The washi tape is from Love + Lemon (the Main Squeeze set), the heart die cut (Cheery Lynn designs) from Cosmo Cricket paper. I added some Fun Foam to the back of heart before adhering it, to give some depth. Sentiment, I believe, is also from an old Hero Arts set.

And this pretty pink card uses Lawn Fawn’s quilted background die and various hearts from my collection.

Stay tuned for more Valentine cards — and thanks for stopping by!

Valentine Throwback!

Just found a photo of this card, made last year:

Playing with Silver Hessian and Chocolate Bronze Metallic Gilding Polish from Creative Expressions to create swaths of color. The Scribble Hearts are dies from Simon Says Stamp. A little splatter, a few sequins and bam! Call it a day!

And check out this throw-back card from 2013 or maybe earlier!

Back in the day, Hero Arts was among the first to use so-called “shadow stamps,” solid stamps that made great backgrounds for images stamped on top. This was one big stamp! I’m pretty sure all the smaller stamps used are from Hero Arts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Turnaround is Fair Play

Just a quick post today to mention a great stamping concept. The “turn-around” stamps from Concord & 9th are brilliant. With four turns of the stamp you have a fast-and-easy image.

The concept is so unique (it helps if you have a stamp positioning tool). You ink, stamp, then rotate your card and do it again… four times. I have only just begun to explore these stamps … and want more!!!

That’s it for today … told ya it was quick!

Background Bonanza!

I love to have a handy stash of background papers on hand. Here’s a stash I made using Art Foamies big, bold foam stamps and some acrylic paint:

The Foamies come with their own palette, making it easy to add paint and then just stamp. Clean-up is a breeze, too.

And with these busy backgrounds, you don’t need a lot of embellishments to make a card, such as this:

You can see the shimmer of the gold paint in this close-up:

(The “hello” die cut is from Simon Says Stamp.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Altenew Floral Congrats Card

I am having so much fun with these dies from Altenew!

This card is almost all Altenew — the floral dies are from the Fantasy Floral 3D die set, the background texture is thanks to the Watercolor Stripes Cover die. The sentiment is from Altenew’s Persian Motifs stamp set. 

This card was so easy to put together, especially since I had a frenzy of die cutting of the floral dies (a great way to use up my scraps!). See here for more on this die. It’s so easy and fun to make the flowers ahead of time … and then you are ready to rock and roll when you need a card. They were layered with Therm O Web Zots.

The gems are from Studio Katia. I also added Nuvo Glitter Gloss to the top later of the front flower — but oddly enough, it changed the color and made it more orange. Hmmm…. interesting.

Thanks for stopping by!

Quick Layering Card

Layering dies are among my new obsessions. Here’s a quick card made with  the Thoughtful Expressions Layers of Floral dies from Spellbinders:

The vertical sentiment is from Stampin’ Up!’s Vertical Greetings set.

Thanks for stopping by to take a quick peek!

Heartfelt Wishes

Hokey smokes, Rocky … it’s been a while since I’ve posted here!

Here’s a quick project made with a nifty die set — Love Letter — from Spellbinders Paper Arts: 

Isn’t that the cutest die set? (It includes the envelope, “note”, and three heart dies. (See the tiniest heart? Well, I managed to use it just once … and then I lost it! It fell onto my carpet and I thought, heck, I’ll never see that bad boy again. I looked, and looked, but no luck, even though I used my handy-dandy Spellbinders magic magnetic diamond.…)

Then over the weekend, while I was searching near my desk for ANOTHER die that I dropped (oh, brother, I need to get better at handling these dies) … I used that diamond again and, viola!!! It picked up the teeny heart!!! (And I found the other die, too. )

Anyway … here is another version of the card:

(Scalloped card is A2 Scalloped Card base from Papertrey Ink; the sentiment is from Hero Arts. But, sigh, no tiny heart.)

Ta da! Here is the lost heart. See how adorably tiny it is?

Thanks for stopping by!

More Valentines, 2018 version

I love these unique dies from Altenew and couldn’t stop making flowers:

The layering die (this one is Fantasy Floral, but you bet the others are on my wish list!) comes in three pieces, plus the leaves. I just went wild cutting pieces out of various card scraps, then I matched up colors:

 

I even played around with embossing and tone-on-tone:

These two were cut from some painted background pieces. The one on the left has Nuvo Aqua sparkle; the one on the right has about three layers of clear embossing powder.

Here’s a close-up:

And a white-on-white (one with sparkles, of course):

Have a lovely Valentine’s Day!

I (heart) Valentines!

It’s so close to Valentine’s Day! One of my favorite card making holidays.

Here are a few that will be going out this year:

I’ve always loved these three hearts from Hero Arts. I embossed them on black card stock with Wow! Fluorescent Tickled Pink powder. The grey layer is embossed with athe Swirly Bird Cuttlebug folder. Sentiment from Hero Arts.

Below is a fast and easy card, also a Hero Arts image. (May be an old image?)

As you can see, the heart was stamped and heat embossed (two with white, one with black).

And one more, little wilder:

Also pretty fast and easy. I pulled an ink-splattered background from my stash, stamped this terrific Laurel Burch designed cat (from Stampendous!), added the box of candy (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Crazy Birds Accessories) and put it all together.

Next post will feature a beautiful die cut floral from Altenew.

Thanks for stopping by!