Wreath of Leaves

Hello Everyone,

I received this stamp in the mail a few days ago and finally got around to making this card. (It arrived just at the right time.) This card is an inspiration from Jennifer McGuire’s card that was featured on the Hero Arts Blog on October 13th. Lately, I have been using my Prisma color pencils and I have found that using them is one of my favorite ways to color in different images.

I wanted to make a one layer card with only a few embellishments. I stamped the image in a light color ink and colored the leaves with two different shades of green. When I was satisfied with how my image looked, I blended the color with a blending stump and then painted each leaf with glossy accents. Then I masked off the edges and distress the front of the card with Tattered Rose and Spun Sugar distress ink. It took me a long time to decide on the bow and I finally choose a burgundy colored ribbon (the ribbon looks brown in the picture, but it is actually burgendy in real life) and accented the wreath with a few pink gems.

The supplies that I used are:

White Cardstock
Neenah Classic Solar White
5 ½ x 8 ½
Card measures 4 ¼ x 5 ½

Hero Arts Stamps: Wreath of Leaves CG215
Sentiment is from Merry Christmas Trees CL459

Prisma Color Pencils
Olive Green
Grass Green

Distress Inks by Ranger
Tattered Rose
Spun Sugar

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless.

Share the Spirit of the Season

Hello Everyone,

This is a short post today. I managed to make a card yesterday in record time. Usually it takes me most of the day to get one card made and to get it to come out the way that I want it to. This card took me about 2 hours and I am happy with how it turned out. The sentiment stamp is one that I have had for a long time; I think that I bought it in 2005. I also thought that this sentiment went well with the poinsettias.

The stamps used are Hero Arts: Share the Spirit E3694 and Poinsettia Bloom B5085. I stamped the sentiment with Fired Brick distress ink and matted it with white cardstock and distressed the edge of the paper. The flower is colored with colored pencil and the edges of the paper is distressed with spun sugar distress ink and matted on red paper. The light green background paper is embossed with the new 5 x 7 cuttlebug “Polka Dots” embossing folder.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless.

Two Cards

Hello Everyone,

I have a few cards to post here and upload to the Hero Arts Flickr group. It seems that I have run out of ideas for Christmas cards and I am trying to get my mojo back so that I can get started on them. I guess that I need a jump start at the moment. I have come up with a few ideas, but just can’t seem to get my ideas into a card the way that I want the card to look when I am finished. Anyway, here are the two cards that I was able to finally finish over this past weekend.

Reindeer Card

This card is my version of Jennifer McGuire's card from her Holiday Thinking Inking "Such A Deer Card" that is being featured for 7 more weeks over at Two Pea's. To see the basic directions to make this card, please go here. The stamps that I used are Hero Arts: The sentiment from the Jolly Christmas set CL232, Starry Sky S5448, and Friend Definition CG125. The digital reindeer comes from Hero Arts. This reindeer image was a free download for this card. I thought that it would be cute to add a small jingle bell around the deer's neck.

Penguin Card

I saw a picture that had penguins standing on a brick wall (I can’t remember where I saw the picture.) and that picture resulted in this card. The wall that I duplicated was a piece of 1”x 4 ¼” white card stock that I scored down the middle of the paper and scored every 1” vertically. Then I distressed the paper with tea dye distressing ink and attached it to the background with pop dots. I thought that scoring the paper would make it look like a brick wall. I stamped the background with the Starry Sky stamp S5448 in silver embossing powder and distressed the paper with broken china distress ink. The penguins come from the Jolly Christmas set CL232 and I stamped them with black pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I wanted to stamp a sentiment, but didn’t think there was enough room for one.

Note: The Jolly Christmas Stamp set CL232 was a set that I purchased in 2009 and might be discontinued?????

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the comments. Have a great day and God bless

Christmas Cards

Hello Everyone

I haven’t posted anything in a few days. It seems like time has just gotten away from me and other things have kept me from doing what I love, making cards; especially Christmas cards. These two cards are entered into the Hero Arts monthly challenge. My first card is stamped with the Poinsettia and Birds (S5068) Hero Arts stamp (I think that S5068 is a discontinued stamp.). I stamped the image onto white cardstock with a very light color ink. Once the ink was dried, I colored the images with colored pencils and then I outlined it with a .005 black felt tip marker. I added glossy accents to the leaves, flowers, and the birds.

For my next card, I chose the wreath with bells stamp (CG131) and the Holiday Cheer Messages (LL217) (I think that LL217 is also discontinued.) . I stamped the image with versa mark clear ink and embossed with green embossing powder. Then I took barn door, faded jeans, tumbled glass, broken china, pine needles, and peeled paint distress inks to color in the bells, ribbon, and leaves. To get the silvery blue color for the bells, I blended faded jeans with some broken china. For the leaves I blended pine needles and peeled paint. Barn door ink was used on the ribbon. I used the technique for Jennifer McGuire’s ornament card from the Holiday Thinking Inking class (week 1 project 3) that she did for her project. It was fun making this card and I am pleased with how it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by and the comments are always appreciated. Have a great day and take care and God bless.

Flourish Pine Christmas

Hello Everyone,

Hero Arts is hosting a challenge for World Card Making Day and I didn’t think that I would get the chance to join in this challenge. This was a busy weekend for me and there were circumstances that prevented me from my favorite thing; making cards. But, I was determined to sit down this evening and make at least one card and that I did. The design of this card was inspired by Jennifer McGuire. Actually, the design is from her card tha is found here. I decided to turn my card into a Christmas card and I am also entering it into the October2010A challenge. The stamps that I used are Flourish Pine S5247, Flourish Border H5289 and the sentiment is from Holiday Cheer Messages LL217. (Note: I think that LL217 is discontinued.)

Thanks for dropping by and I always appreciate the comments. Hope that everyone had a great World Card Making Day. God bless.

Three More Things

Hello Everyone!!

These three projects are my last items that I have submitted to the Flickr Group for the Hero Arts September challenge. The directions for the bag with the turkey came from here. It is called “Totally Totebag” and it was easy and fun to make. This little gift bag is just the right size for a gift card. The stamps that I used for this are Hero Arts Large Plaid Pattern S5447 and So Thankful CL466.

The next item is a flower bag. I thought that this would be a cute way to put some type of scrapbooking or card embellishment in to give away to someone. So, I decided to use paper flowers. The stamps that I used for this is So Thankful CL466. I got a gift in something similar to this and I just used my bag as a pattern. I cut a piece of Kraft paper 4” x 10.5” and scored it at 1”, 5”, and 6.5”. I cut a piece of pattern paper 2” x 4” for the top and cut an oval on the front of the bag. This can be decorated anyway you like.

The last item that I made was a quick card. I took a piece of double sided pattern cardstock and cut it 6.5” x 6.5” and punched out a 1 ¼” circle and then stamped a scallop edge around the circle. Then I randomly stamped on the front of the card and drew stitching lines around the sides of the cards. I punched a fancy scallop edge border and attached it to the bottom. (I Can not remember the name of the punch). The stamps that I used are Hero Arts: Circular designs CL124, Hello Circles CL291, and the sentiment came from Just A Note 4x6 CL404.

Thanks for dropping by and I do appreciate the comments. Take care and God Bless.

A Card and A Gift Bag

Hello Everyone!!

Today, I have two things that I am entering into the Hero Arts Challenge. I have wanted to make a mosaic type card for a long time and I finally got around to doing so. There is a tutorial here. I did not follow the directions in the tutorial exactly but, I basically used the tutorial as a guide. I stamped the image on heavy white cardstock in black StazOn ink and then painted the flowers with twinkling H2O’s. Then I sponged the background in fall colors with twinkling H2O’s. This was a easy card to make but, the tricky part was keeping the tiles in order after I cut them. I first cut all the strips and kept them in order by numbering the rows as I cut. Each row was cut into four parts and for example, row 1 was numbered from left to right with the first tile being 1a, second tile 1b, third tile 1c and the 4th tile 1d. Row 2 – 9 was done in the same way. When it came time to glue the pieces down I knew where they belonged. The most time consuming part was cutting the tiles and gluing each tile down separately. I used only one stamp on this project and it is a Hero Arts Stamp: Three Sunflowers S5420. I had lots of fun making this card and the time went by very quickly.

Another name for a mosaic card is a Brick Wall card.

My Second item that I made is a bag made from one sheet of Kraft cardstock. This was an inspiration from Lucy Abram. See the directions to her bag here. I downloaded the bag template from Hero Arts and then I copied it out on Kraft Cardstock and cut it out and scored it. Then I stamped my image on it and colored the stamped images with markers. I tried to use Copic markers, but the colors are too muted on Kraft cardstock so I decided that regular markers worked better on this type of paper. This was another fun project and I was totally absorbed in this project. The stamps that I used are Hero Arts Scallop borders CL288 and So Thankful CL466.


Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your comments. Have a wonderful day and God Bless.