Mixing up my Card Game - Hero Arts, Altenew, Concord and 9th

*This post contains affiliate links to Altenew

Hi guys!  Today I'm sharing what I'm hoping will become a regular feature on the blog.  I've been feeling a little stress over the volume of 'stuff' I have and the fact that I just don't get around to using it all.  I love it all, but sometimes you need a reason to get things out.

My solution?  A card challenge.  I took little strips of computer paper and wrote the names of all the companies I have stamps/dies/stencils from.  Doesn't matter if they are still in business or not, but I did limit it to companies where I have at least a handful of products to choose from.  I put them all in a plastic cup, and randomly picked three.

Here's what I ended up with:

So then I headed over to peruse my stash.  I ended up picking out a really old Hero Arts background (from the days where they used to collaborate with Basic Grey to create stamps that coordinated with their collections), an older stencil from Altenew (Floral Drape Stencil), and a retired C9 set that I planned to use for the sentiment.

This card did not go exactly according to plan.  

I really love the detail and delicacy in the lines from the background, and thought that stamping them in the spaces of the stencil would provide a really unique and graphic look.  The problem was, that some of the areas of the stencil were too small for the stamp to make an impression, and in the other areas I could get close enough to the edge of the stencil.  

I was about to give up in disgust, but then I saw that there was a lot of ink sitting on the stencil, and thought, let's see what happens if I spread this out.  So, I pulled out a blending brush and used that excess ink (and only that excess ink) to fill in the stencil.

I really liked the effect, it kind of tricks your eye to extend the lines of the stamp so that it doesn't look like it really didn't stamp well.

Once that was done, I trimmed my panel down and then used my heat gun to make sure that the ink was fully set because I knew I was going to heat emboss the sentiment.

The sentiment was embossed with WOW!  Metallic Gold Rich embossing powder.  To get a really pretty, puffy, raised look.  I ended up stamping, adding powder, and heating three times (using the MISTI of course).

This was fun, just in terms of the cardmaking itself and experimenting a bit, and also in terms of giving some love to items that hadn't been used in a while.  As I mentioned, I'm definitely planning to do this more often, and hoping others might take on the challenge too.  If you do, I'd love it if you shared your work with me!

Hero Arts June My Monthly Hero Kit - Landscape Dies

I'm playing with the Hero Arts' My Monthly Hero June kit again today.  I've already used that gorgeous northern lights background stamp, but today I wanted to focus on the dies.

There are two landscape dies in the kit that layer together to create the sweetest scene.

For my first card, I used mostly inking to create my scene pieces.  The mountains were cut from a piece of gray cardstock, and I added shading to the bottom of the piece using Altenew black ink.

The second scene piece was cut from white cardstock, and I inked the top portion with a Altenew Evergreen ink, and the bottom with Altenew Forest Glades ink.

For the background piece, I used a piece of blue cardstock, and added Altenew Tide Blue and Razzleberry ink to create the shading.  I actually inked a single piece of cardstock, inking from the center out in both directions.  This piece was then cut in half, half was used for the sky, and the other half for the water.

I did use a bit of coloring for the little house to really make it pop.  I cut the front background piece a second time from white cardstock and then fussy cut the house which was colored with Copics and adhered to the top of the inked die cut piece.  The roof, windows, and door were also colored with Copics and inlaid into the base piece.  There are a couple of roof details that are part of the scene itself, and I just colored those areas with a white gel pen to make them white.

The mountain piece was adhered directly to the sky background, and the trees/house piece was popped up with foam dots.

The sentiment is from Hero Arts' Floral Rose Stem set.

This second card is very similar to the first, but this time I partially die cut the house/trees background piece so that the bottom part didn't cut, but becomes a panel with a die cut top.

The mountains and trees/house layer were adhered to a piece of Doodlebug paper.

The sentiment is from an older My Favorite Things set and was embossed on the patterned paper panel.

This one was so quick and easy and you could easily mass produce it.

I really feel like I've only scratched the surface with this kit and there are so many more cards to create!  

Hero Arts My Monthly Hero June 2020 Kit

I often look longingly at the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kits, but until last month hadn't actually purchased one.  I couldn't help myself though.  I LOVE the background that came with it, and there is such a great set of dies in the kit.

For my first card with the kit, I wanted to of course try out the background.  I stamped and clear embossed it on one of the pieces of black watercolor paper that came with the kit.

I've never used black watercolor paper before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect, or how opaque the watercolors would be with it, so I started by adding a light layer of white over the areas where I was going to add color.

Then I used a couple shades of blue and a mint green to paint the background.  I added several layers of color until I was happy with the result.  Once I was done, I used my heat gun to reactivate the embossing powder.  This helps the bits that get covered up by paint stand out more, and in this case added a bit of texture to the background too as it didn't necessarily reactivate to a clear gloss.

I then cut the lighthouse die from black cardstock, but I wanted it to stand out more, so I cut it again with a piece of Weathervane cardstock from Papertrey.  I added some black ink to it using a blending bursh, shading the right hand side/bottom to make them darker.  This was layered over top the black die cut.  I inlaid the black pieces into the details of the island itself, but left the windows clear.

The sentiment is from the stamp set that comes in the kit, and it was embossed in silver.

I have some more plans for this background, and I definitely need to get all the dies out to create some landscapes too, but this was a fun first card with the kit.

Hope that your week is going well and you're staying cool!  It's been above 95 for DAYS here!

Wishing You Peace with Hero Arts

In a matter of months I'll be sending out Christmas cards, so I figure I better get on the ball and get creating.

Today I'm sharing a set of cards created using Hero Arts' Color Layering Peace set.  I really love the fun Typography and simple layering of the sentiments.  

I also pulled out my Snowflake Pattern Bold Print background from Hero Arts.  

I started by stamping the background tone on tone on both a dark green and red piece of cardstock.  Those pieces were trimmed down to A2 size and adhered to my card bases.

Then, with the assistance of my MISTI, I stamped the sentiments using two shades of Altenew ink.  For the red, Crimson and Velvet, and for the green, Just Green and Evergreen ink.  (For the tone on tone stamping on the backgrounds I used the darker shades of these colors.)

The swirly flourishes were stamped in the darker shade as well.

I added a cardstock mat to each of the sentiment panels and adhered those to the card bases.  Super easy.

To mix things up a bit, I stamped another pair of sentiment panels, but this time I used the darker ink for the base, and then stamped the accents in Versamark and embossed with gold.

I had originally stamped and embossed the background in gold too, but it was a little too busy, so I opted to use a plain card base instead.

These cards really did come together very quickly and are perfect for mass production.

Four more cards for my Christmas card pile....slow, but steady progress!

*Affiliate Links Below

Color Layering Peace, Hero Arts Clear Stamps

Snowflake Pattern Bold Print, Hero Arts Cling Stamps (Retiring)

WOW Embossing Powder, Regular - Gold Rich

VersaMark Ink Pad

Crimson, Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad

Velvet, Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad

Just Green, Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad

Evergreen, Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad

Have a Beautiful Day

I absolutely fell in love with the stamp set from the My Monthly Hero June kit - and really so did everyone else as it sold out in literally hours.

Thanks to a very kind and sweet crafty friend, I was able to get my hot little hands on the stamps/dies.

The multi-step ocean stamps are so easy to use and what a gorgeous effect!  They are very user friendly and do not require great precision at all!

I stamped them using three shades from Altenew's Sea Shores ink collection - Mountain Mist, Volcano Lake, and Lagoon.

The clouds are also multi-step.  I stamped the solid layer using Fairy Dust ink (this is a very light ink, so I stamped twice deepen the color), and then for the highlights, used Volcano Lake in second generation.

To finish things off, I chose a sentiment from Hero's You're So Lovely set which was embossed using their new Sand embossing powder.  I'm totally in love with this powder!  It is so pretty!  I have another embossing powder that has some really pretty glittery bits in it, but it embosses more flat/less dimensional.  I love how this has the sparkle, but still the puffiness/dimension.

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit!  Just one sleep til the weekend!

*Affiliate Links to Altenew in text and to Ellen Hutson below

Hero Arts Embossing Powder, Sand

Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad, Mountain Mist

Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad, Volcano Lake

Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad, Lagoon

VersaMark Ink Pad

Scotch Foam Mounting Tape

Hero Florals Rose Stem

Hi everyone!  Today I'm working with some new goodies from Hero Arts.  I've been eyeing this Tribal Shapes stencil for a while.  While it's definitely got a tribal feel to it, it's very versatile.

For this card I very lightly misted it with some Brushed Pewter Distress Spray Stain.  Once that was dry, I added of big of splatter using Dylusions Slate Gray spray.

The flower is from the Hero Florals Rose Stem set.  It was stamped with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink and colored it with Copics.  I left the stem and leaves mostly black and white, but added a bit of gray coloring to make it pop.

The flower was fussy cut and popped up with foam tape as was the strip of black cardstock at the bottom of the panel.

The sentiment is also from the Rose Stem set.

I wasn't sure about using red for a sympathy card, but I think it works.

Thanks so much for coming by!

*Affiliate Links Below

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

Hero Arts Clear Stamps, Hero Florals Rose Stem

Ranger Distress Spray Stain, Brushed Pewter (Retiring)

COPIC Sketch Marker R22, Light Prawn

COPIC Sketch Marker R37, Carmine

COPIC Sketch Marker R39, Garnet

COPIC Sketch Marker C1, Cool Gray No. 1

COPIC Sketch Marker C3, Cool Gray No. 3

Scotch Foam Mounting Tape

Valkommen - Hero Arts Street Map Background

It's very possible that I check the sale section at Simon Says Stamp with alarming frequency.  That's because they have some crazy amazing steals over there. For example, I picked up this background from Hero Arts for only 99 cents the other day!

HA makes my favorite background stamps, so picking this up at that price was a no brainer.

Because I wanted the streets to be nice and black with white dotted lines, I started with a black base, stamped with Versamark, and heat embossed in white.

I also stamped the background on some green patterned paper and white cardstock.

The green paper pieces were cut out and then pieced onto my black base and the images (trees, houses, etc) on the white cardstock were colored with Copics and then pieced on top of the green. 

I had considered just stamping twice (embossed on black) and then on white and coloring everything, but that seemed like a lot of green coloring, so I opted for the green patterned paper, but it was a little too flat, so I added some very soft shading in a couple corners on each of the rectangles. 

I wanted a 'Welcome to the Neighborhood' sentiment for this, but I looked through all of my sets and shockingly could not find one (this must be rectified), so I went with this sentiment from my Dala Horse set.

This is such a fun background with lots of possibilities!  Best 99 cents I ever spent!  (This background is no longer available at Simon (no surprise there), but you can pick it up at Ellen or Hero Arts.)

Simply Amazing

I have a strong affinity for background stamps.  I feel like they don't often get the credit they deserve.  A good background stamp can be a background, but it can also be the star of your card.

When it comes to background stamps, Hero Arts makes some of the very best. Today's card features their Snowflake Pattern Bold Print background.  Doesn't really look at all like a snowflake does it?  When I saw this pattern it reminded me of a kaleidoscope.

I stamped the background with white pigment ink on kraft, and the proceeded to selectively color the pattern with colored pencils.  The great thing is that you could color this 10 times 10 ways and get very very different looks.

I didn't really have a plan, I was just having some fun coloring.  Once I was done, I trimmed it down following some of the natural lines in the pattern and used it somewhat like patterned paper.

The sentiment is from an oldie but a goodie from WPlus9, Quite Like You.

That's all for me today.  I'll be back tomorrow with my February book recap.

*Affiliate Links Below

Hero Arts Cling Stamps, Snowflake Pattern Bold Print

Hero Arts Pigment Ink Pad, Unicorn White

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black