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Lisa Stein

paper crafter, crochet addict, book reader, golden retriever lover, vegan

Just for You

We are collaborating this month with CAS-ual Fridays Stamps, and have an “easy” challenge theme of One Layer. I say “easy” because it’s not. I’m not even sure that this quaiifies properly because of the Nuvo drops. Ha! It’s a bit hard to keep things to one layer, but here’s my take on it.

  • Stamp the smaller stamp from the Tin Roof stamp set and white embossed it along the top and bottom of my card front.
  • Stamp the sentiment in the middle section of the card and white embossed it.
  • Blended two colors of Distress Oxide inks over the card front, Wild Honey and Abandoned Coral, having them meet in the middle.
  • Mist water over the entire card front, to allow the inks to blend and oxidize a bit.
  • Take a dry cloth and carefully remove any pooled ink from the embossed areas.
  • Apply some Nuvo drops for fun and dimension.

That’s it, very clean and simple. I love that it looks a bit like a sunset.

Don’t forget to join us for this month’s challenge at A Blog Named Hero. As always, we have a prize to giveaway.

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Simon Says Stamp
Ellen Hutson
Hero Arts

Stretchy Pants

Good morning! It’s the first day of our new challenge at A Blog Named Hero and we are thrilled to be collaborating with Wow this month.

I sure hope you have your stretchy pants on! Isn’t that sentiment fantastic? It’s from a new set from Hero Arts, called Off Beat Holiday Messages. I absolutely love the set, and this particular sentiment made me giggle. I paired it with some utensils from Thanksgiving Table, also a new set from Hero Arts.

This card was very easy to make. I took the three utensils from the Thanksgiving set and arranged them on an acrylic block. Using versamark, I stamped that image repeatedly in a pattern over navy cardstock. I used Wow embossing powder in white to finish the background.

More white embossing of that sentiment on some pink cardstock, which I then trimmed into a banner shape. A little foam tape, and we have a cute little card.

I plan to use this to invite a friend to Thanksgiving Dinner. For once, I’m a bit early with preparations. 🙂

I sure do hope you join us for this month’s challenge. I know you’ve got supplies in your stash that would help you meet the guidelines!

Thinking of You – Winnie & Walter

It’s a new month, which means we have a new challenge at A Blog Named Hero. This month we are working with Winnie & Walter and our challenge theme is Florals.

For my card, I embossed some flower and leaf images from an older Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kit. The great thing about a card like this is that any floral image would work. And if you’ve not seen the florals from Winnie & Walter, you just must go look. They are absolutely beautiful. I chose to use a Winnie & Walter die set on this card, because I absolutely fell in love with it. Those scalloped edges? With tiny dots at each scallop? Yes, please.

I used Hero Arts platinum embossing powder for my images, and Peerless watercolors to color the florals. A pale blue Daniel Smith watercolor for the background. I also added a splattering of black soot distress ink along the background, and then some controlled circle making with the platinum watercolor from the Finetec Metallic watercolor paint set.

To finish the card I layered it using some Hero Arts Sunshine layering papers, they just happened to be on my desk, and the right color. Yay.

Make sure to join us this month for the challenge, I know you have some floral stamps that you’d like to get inky. Click here for all of information about joining.

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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

Shoot for the Stars

Happy Monday to you! Today starts our new challenge at A Blog Named Hero, and this month we are collaborating with Chibitronics. They’re this neat company that makes adhesive LED lights that you can use in your paper crafting. So much fun to play with lights on cards.

Our challenge this month is interactive cards, and we’d love it if you played along. Click on this graphic to submit your entry at A Blog Named Hero.

Now, on to my card!

I even made a moving picture for you, so you could see the lights in action!

Before I tell you how I made this card, may I first recommend that you start simpler than I did? Ha. I wasn’t thinking about how this was going to actually work, I had just envisioned the final card. I knew I wanted to make a galaxy background, my first, and that I wanted to use this Hero Arts star die. So I sort of started backwards. Here’s what I did:

  • I used the silver metallic watercolor paint from the Kuretake Gansai Tambi palette and put down a base coat on a piece of watercolor cardstock.
  • After that was dry I used some Distress oxide inks to add some color to the galaxy. Dried that with my heat tool and then added some black watercolor from that same Kuretake palette. Once that was dry I added drops of white, silver and black watercolor, and kept drying and reapplying until the hot mess somewhat resembled a galaxy, from afar.
  • Let that dry completely and cut out the stars using the Hero Arts die. I also cut the die from scrap printer paper, and a piece of silver glitter cardstock.
  • Stamped my sentiment using some Alpha stamps from Hero Arts.
  • Took one of the scrap die cuts and traced it onto some scrap paper, so I could draw in the circuit, and the lights. This is a very important step, so that you have some semblance of a plan for the circuitry in your head. This will help you see what will and won’t work, circuit wise.

  • That’s my circuit, on the silver glitter die cut. I did this for two reasons. One is that I didn’t want to apply this to my card front itself, in case I messed up. 🙂 And also because I thought the glitter paper would be reflective and help the lights shine brighter.

  • This is a picture of the back of my galaxy die cut. I did a triple layer of foam to account for the height of the battery.
  • Applied the galaxy card front to the silver background. Adhered that piece to the actual card front, which was created by sponging Distress oxide Wilted Violet and Fossilized Amber on to a piece of watercolor paper.
  • Adhered the sentiment strip with some thin foam squares.
  • Layered up six stars to create a dimensional “push here” button in the lower right corner of the die cut.

  • Used a portion of an arrow stamp to point out the star where the recipient should push to turn on the lights. Notice the light pink glow around the dashed lines? That’s because I used Glossy Accents on the arrow and dashed lines, and I don’t think Distress Oxide likes Glossy Accents. No big deal, just something to keep in mind.

  • You can see the dimension from the three layers of foam adhesive in these pictures, and also the silver glitter paper.

I know this is a lot of pictures, and information, but please don’t be overwhelmed. This really was a fun card to make, and I’m looking forward to finding the perfect person to send it to, maybe for a new job, or a recent graduate.

I hope you’ll join our challenge this month. I look forward to seeing what you make.

 

 

 

 

 

Special Day

I’ve got a pretty card over at A Blog Named Hero today. Inspired by my Grandmother’s wallpaper. The one that didn’t give me nightmares. Ahem.

Welcome Dogs

Happy Monday to you! I hope your week has started off well. It’s a new month. Let’s make it a good one!

We are collaborating with Honey Bee Stamps this month, and featuring watercolor techniques. They go perfectly together, so, phew. Honey Bee Stamps has a new release this month, you should definitely check it out, and maybe hide your wallet? That’s totally up to you.

This is a card showcasing the Playful Pups stamp set, which is adorable, and I couldn’t choose one, so I used almost every single pup included in the set. In my mind I was picturing the dog park. Where every dog is welcomed with open paws. That was one of my favorite things to do with our Golden Retriever. Take him to the park. He was the park greeter. He would make sure every single dog was welcomed at the gate, then go back to find someone with a thumb for petting him. Seriously. We’d look up and he’d be at one of the benches with his head on a human’s lap, nudging them to pet him. I’m fairly certain that’s typical Golden Retriever behavior. 🙂

Here are the steps to make this card:

  • Stamp the dogs in grey ink and heat emboss with clear embossing powder.
  • Fill in the background with smaller stamps from the same set, also with grey ink and heat embossing.
  • Color the images with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.
  • Color in the background if you like. I did a pale blue, but a pale grey would have worked as well, or even a pale green. Since I was thinking dog park, I went with blue, for the sky.
  • Die cut Welcome three times out of white cardstock. Adhere them on top of each other. Color the welcome with a Zig Clean Color marker. Add some Spectrum Noir overlay pen to the die cut, and also use that sparkle pen on the tennis balls, bones, and dog collars in the background.
  • Add the die cut to the background. I used a sheet of adhesive called Artist-Tac, where you put the die cut down on it, peel it up, and it’s covered in adhesive. Great for intricate die cuts. I also used the negative of the die cut so that I could make sure it was placed properly. The word is in pieces, as you can see below.
  • Cover that with glossy accents. I used two layers.
  • Add some Nuvo drops if you like, or sequins. Whichever you prefer.

This is a close up of the double layer of glossy accents I added to the Welcome die cut. The set comes with “welcome”, “special” and “delivery”, so it’s a very useful set, and I love the font.

If you click on the badge above, it will take you right to our post at A Blog Named Hero where you can enter to win a prize from Honey Bee Stamps. We’d love for you to join us.