Tag Archives: cardmaking

May Birthday Celebration_Layered Color Card

59423344_10156153467346156_8808400177980243968_nHi, everyone, I hope you are all having a great week! For the A Blog Named Hero Monthly Challenge this month we are “Celebrating” with Hero Arts, so today I’m sharing another  Birthday card featuring some of the first stamps that I picked up over 5 years ago at the Hero Arts Factory Store. This card for me shows that you can create something completely new even from your older stashed items.

Celebrate 45

I am loving the current trend of black and white left uncolored with a bright pop of spring colors. This palette in the center of the card is made up of, Hero’s Mid Tone Dye Inks Butter Bar, Bubblegum, Fresh Peach, Pale Tomato, and Soft Vanilla. I used a long paint strip stamp from my stash and over-layed the pretty pinks and yellows, then white heat embossed on top and added white gel pen details. I slipped this strip under the partially cut circles that I stamped in black ink with the top part of the tree stamp.
I added some small illustrations copied from the stamp set with a black micron pen to fill in the blanks creating some more small flowers, leaves, and some dots and curls.

Celebrate-451

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_0165You could layer together all your favorite colors to change this design up. I also think that because this card is mostly black and white as long as you use a stamp positioning tool so you simply have to flip your paper to stamp the other end, this card comes together fast. You could also simply watercolor with a single color for the center. Make sure to fill the bottom with all your favorite stamps. Finally, I used white gel pen and some Nuvo drops in coordinating colors for small embellishments and rounded the corners for a final finishing detail.

Be sure to check out our 45 years of Hero Arts celebration and join the A Blog Named Hero May challenge! Click here for all the details.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Supplies are listed below and if clicked are no additional cost to you, the small amount helps to support the blog and tutorials.

Back soon, Lee Ann

Supplies:


 

Congratulations Card : 3 Pencil Colors, Easy Coloring

Well, it is that time of the month again and the A Blog Named Hero Designers, want everyone to celebrate with Hero Arts on their 45th Anniversary. We decided to change from a patterned theme to Celebrate and I had already created this Easy to color, floral patterned background and I think it worked perfectly for a congratulations card.

ABNH_Congrats2_May

This design is quick and easy to color and uses just three prismacolor pencils. I used the Blossoms for coloring set and some of Hero’s colored cardstock from the sample pack. I created a grouping in my Misti and stamped one end of the cardstock and then flipped it to stamp the other end, them white heat embossed it. This design could be done on any of the delicious colors with just a simple switch of two of the pencils for contrasting colors. White is the essential pencil here and you could also simply use that and the card would still be lovely. You could go a step further and add some white gel pen here too.

After the simple coloring was finished I cut the edge with a stamp market scalloped border die and stamped the congratulations with Hero Arts Orchid Ink, that matched the Lavender Prismacolor pencil. The Three pencil colors I used were White, Lavender and Blue Violet, they blend and go on so smoothly on this cardstock and create a beautiful palette combined with the paper.

Give this simple and quick design a try with any floral stamps you own to create a fun background in your favorite colors.

55576118_10156057758166156_6376369917213540352_n


 

Clean & Simple Birthday!

55835926_10156068452236156_7772468991196397568_nThis card is for the A Blog Named Hero Clean and Simple Challenge. A huge slice of birthday cake for Hero Arts 45th Anniversary!  Hero Arts started making stamps in 1974 and is still going strong today.

Did you know that all of Hero Arts stamps are made at their factory in California and that the company has put many green practices in place?  All of that, and great stamps!ABNH_CASBDAY

 

For my post today I wanted to wish them a Happy Birthday/Anniversary with this modification of the layering cake stamp set inspired by some of those amazing rainbow cakes we all see on Instagram. I used the Color Layering Birthday set and the Snarky Mix and Match Messages for the Sentiment.  I really like the bold simple font and it has some funny second lines that go with it. To start the design I stamped it out on scrap paper to see if I would be able to realistically layer all the rainbow colors.

Then I took an 8.5×11 piece of Dove white and  Pebble Hero Arts Cardstock and cut off 4 inches so that when I folded it in half it would be 3.5 inches wide by 8.5 tall, your scrap can be a card layer for another card.

Birthday-cards

I inked up the cake portion of the stamp two colors at a time with my mini-ink cubes from MMH kits, so red on the bottom portion and orange on the top, then the next two colors and the next, stamping two by two all the way to the top. You can use any inks you have in ROYBGIV ( red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) order. I wanted 8 layers so have two purples.

I then used Versamark to add the white embossing powder to the frosting area and heat set it till it was smooth for the lower layers I used my Versamark pen to draw in the rest of the frosting lines between the colors and on the side of the cake. Then fussy cut it out after stamping the candle on top.

Pink-envelope-card

I wanted a clean look with the cake really emphasizing the tall card so used the Happy Birthday and gold embossed that and the sparkles behind the candle directly on the card base. I gold heat embossed the candle too but afterward made it three dimensional with some liquid pearls in gold and orange. I added the cake with some foam behind it and added a soft Copic shadow underneath it.

I love that you can make all your favorite flavors of cake and frosting and don’t have to stop at just two layers with this set. If you have any questions just ask. Supplies listed below as usual.  Enjoy!

55576118_10156057758166156_6376369917213540352_n


Clean & Simple Faux Watercolor Card

55835926_10156068452236156_7772468991196397568_nHello there, this is my first post for a card for the A Blog Named Hero Design Team.

This months challenge is Clean & Simple Cards and I always gravitate to a lot of whitespace so that part was easy, but also I wanted to add a simple technique to the mix as well. The resulting card design can be made very quickly and can be adapted for many occasions, simply by changing up the color of the water-coloring and the sentiment.

ABNH_CAS_thinking floral

For this Clean & Simple Card design, I started with a dove white card base from Hero Arts new cardstock collection and also die cut another A2 sized piece with the Bold Graphics Confetti Die as well as a frame from my stash. I have a beautiful collection of the Hero Arts florals woodblocks which they also sell as clear stamps now with coordinating dies. The dies can also be used with the woodblock stamps which is terrific!

Wood block stamps

For the Mums, I used a piece of distress watercolor paper and laid the stamps down on the paper and used a stampa-ma-jig and marked the edge of the woodblock with some pencil lines so I could reposition it later to do the embossing over the top of the watercolor. You can do this with or without the stampa-ma-jig, but it does help with precision for more exacting projects where you want to register your woodblocks.

Registration

I then took some Tombo watercolor markers and colored directly on top of the stamp using some reds and pinks for the flowers and greens and brown for the stems. I did not stress over trying to color it accurately, but just brushed color on with the darker colors going where the shadows would be typically in the center of the flower and top of the stem, Make sure you use the side of the marker to do this on larger areas and the tip on smaller ones, with red rubber stamps the ink will stay on top- on clear stamps try to keep from getting too much ink around the raised areas of the stamp.

Coloring on the stampI wanted my Mums, to look very watery and loose in comparison to the super clean background and gold embossing, so after stamping I misted it again with water, you could also use shimmery water here as well for extra sparkle.

You can vary how loose or tight you want the watercolor to look by:

  • Spraying or not spraying the paper before stamping,
  • Spraying/misting the colored stamp with more or less water, and
  • Spraying/misting your stamped image after.

Play around with the technique to achieve different looks, and it is enjoyable. The example below is before I sprayed it after stamping and I like this too, but I wanted more color to be able to bleed out from beneath the embossing powder.

stamped with dry paper

I made lots of examples and then repositioned the Mum woodblock stamp on top of the paper with my marks and jig and stamped with Versa-Mark ink and embossed with Hero Arts gold embossing powder on top along with the small sentiment from the everyday sayings set. After embossing, I die cut my favorite mums to go on top of the confetti background after repositioning the stamp.

To assemble I glued the white background down, and then the die cut flowers with liquid adhesive and added strips of dimensional foam to the frame and sentiments for a little bit of dimension.  This technique was a fun and quick solution to make multiple Clean & Simple cards, and you can change up the paper colors, markers and embossing powder for even more options.

Enjoy!   Lee Ann

Supplies:


 

AECP Final Challenge Card & Wrap-Up Gallery

Hello, all I am so excited to show you the final challenge card and wrap up to the Altenew Educators Program Level 1.  I started in November/December and how it works is you apply, and if you get accepted then you take 10 classes and make 10 cards that use techniques from the classes.

It is really meant to enhance your skills and possibly become a crafting expert/educator- which is my future dream. Thus all of my tutorials on my YouTube channel. When you join you will have access to exciting and exclusive educator benefits – product discounts, sponsorships and more, the goal is to work towards spreading the art of paper-crafting throughout the community and across the globe.

So with that said…here is my final challenge card

AECP Final Challenge Card-Love/Wedding Card with three techniques. Magnolia Builder set with Distress Oxide Lifting
AECP Final Challenge Card-Love/Wedding Card with three techniques. Magnolia Builder set with Distress Oxide Lifting

To start I masked, stamped and then white heat embossed the Magnolia Builder outline stamp on Neenah Solar White #110 and then ink blended the entire piece with Hickory Smoke and Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide Inks. If you try this technique make sure that you keep layering LOTS of ink as it the ink lifting becomes more dramatic the more ink that is on the paper. I then took a water brush and painted over the flowers and leaves of that beautiful Magnolia and blotted it with a towel to lift off the ink. Then I heat set it to get the white oxidized look. I just love it.

I die cut the Love sentiment from the Altenew Scripty Words Dies 3 times and stacked them together for some great dimension and cut a pretty white scalloped frame and foam mounted it on top to tie it all together. Inside it says to the Bride and groom with love.

I finished with some shiny crystal gems from Studio Katia and added wink of stella to make the magnolia sparkle.

fullsizeoutput_1412

I took a grey envelope and added shaded lilac distress oxide to it as well and then heat embossed the magnolia there as well. The photo does not really portray the lilac color as well as it should it is actually much softer and looks a lot more like the envelope. I have had so much fun revisiting techniques and learning new ones at this level and am looking forward to starting the next right away.

As always supplies used are linked below and if you would like to see all of the cards from the series you can visit my gallery page here. You can also see them all on Instagram here, to be updated follow me there or on my YouTube Channel, though not all cards get videos, just not enough time in a day.  🙂

Happy Spring to you all!

Lee Ann

 

Altenew Celebration Stencil Techniques

Hello, I am here to day to show you two sympathy cards that I made for the Altenew Educators Program for the Stencil Class.  I wanted to use the watercolor stripes stencil and the Watercolor Wonders set and keep it to a tone on tone palette, with a very painterly look, even the sentiment is from the painted greeting set, which is a very good starter set as it covers many occasions.

The Watercolor wonders set has very easy guidelines on the back of the package but it also allows for a lot of freedom to use it differently as well, by offsetting the layering or rotating the smaller pieces as well. Since the flowers are in a watercolor brush style layering them and offsetting them adds unique details.

 Altenew_Celebrations Stencil Techniques 1

To start the cards I used Distress oxide inks in Wilted Violet and Peacock Feathers with the stencil and then sprayed it with water to create a wet looking background, I then used a heat tool to get the oxidation to appear, voila backgrounds done!  I made a few other backgrounds where I also flipped the stencil over and offset it and smooshed the watery ink down on the paper as well as demonstrated in the Altenew Celebrations Stencils class, and they turned out great I will use those for other cards.

I then stamped the large and small flowers in the range of purples and Teals from the Seashore and shades of purple ink pads, I do have the large inkpads but put the small sets below, as they are less expensive and you need all four colors to copy this design.

fullsizeoutput_13bd

 

I do not have the dies for this set so I used my Brother Scan & Cut to cut them out and then layered them on the cards so that they would cradle that sentiment.

The Sentiment I cut apart before stamping it on the background and stamped it on a piece of scratch paper to get the spacing to a place where I was happy with it. I added Wink of Stella to some of the flowers and leaves, painting it on in strokes so it was also painterly. Adding some gems and mirror sequins for final embelishment.  The colors were very hard to capture today but the purple card is closer to violet than lavendar and the green card is a very beautiful set of teals all the way to the Emerald sentiment.

More pictures below and Supplies as always. Affiliate links are used to support my blog at no additional cost to you and only for products that I love and use. Hope you are inspired to combine stencils and layered flowers in this painterly way.

fullsizeoutput_13c0

fullsizeoutput_13ba

 

View all my AECP cards here on my Altenew Inspiration Gallery Page >


Where Creativity Meets C9 Challenge Cards

fullsizeoutput_1361So I LOVE everything that Concord and 9th come out with and started collecting stamps from them almost as soon as I started seeing them. Every 9th of the month the blog hold a challenge and this month it is to use your first set.  I think that this Hello Lovely set was my first and I have to say I just love the floral arrangement as well as the sentiments.

I had been hoarding a piece of Tonic Studios Rose Gold metallic cardstock and I wanted both of these cards to be very soft and peachy.

fullsizeoutput_1363

For the first card, I stamped the floral image with Stone Ink from Simon Says Stamp and then spotlight colored it with Prima Marketing’s watercolor pencils.I used Altenew Rose Gold embossing powder on top in small areas and using the spatter stamp in the set to add another layer of rose/peach. The cardstock is Bazzil Blush and it really is the perfect soft pink, I added a few sequins from Lucy’s and A Black sentiment that I like because this could be a card for multiple occasions, I can just stamp the inside when ready.

fullsizeoutput_1362

For the second card, I stamped on acetate with Versamark and embossed with the same Altenew Rose Gold embossing powder and then using my Misti also stamped the image in Antique linen distress ink so that when I used the watercolor pencils on the bottom layer you would not see it.  This is a square card because I wanted to crop the florals to show how versatile this stamp is.

I do love how soft and pretty the embossing is paired with that beautiful rose gold paper.

Click on the badge below for the challenge info if you want to join next time!

Challenge-17

Supplies are listed below and affiliate links may be used at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of me and all of our wonderful businesses. These are all companies whose products I purchase, use and that I only recommend because I really like them. Thank you so much!

SSS June Card Kit_1 Design 7 cards



IMG_9071 2Hello and Happy Summer, I have been away for the last two months and I am so sorry! I went to Simon Says Stamp Create and had an amazing time but came home to a boatload of work and a month of Birthdays and a card sale!  I made some really fun masculine Birthday cards that I will post soon, and just did not have time for the May SSS kit at all.  But I spent all last weekend working on this group that used that beautiful bouquet stamp to create an opposite end layout that can either create a frame for patterned paper or your sentiment or hide a layer of vellum used over the patterned paper to soften it a bit. I used embossing to capture the watercolor and did some white pencil shading and a few other techniques to make a bunch of very different cards from a single stamped design. Check out all the cards you can make and get some inspiration in the video or over on YT!

You could use the same design on any color cardstock and simply add a sentiment for a SUPER simple quick card.  Supplies are listed below because the kit is sold out but all you really need is the stamp set and supplies from your stash.  I promise to be back soon. Summer is here and there will be more time to make some pretty things.

See you soon, Lee Ann


 

 

Matching Altenew Inks and Markers. Video and Free PDF

So you all know that I am an ink collector and I have collected all of the Altenew mini inks and just had to have the markers to go along with them. I imagined that they would be super helpful in adding depth to the stamping I did with Altenew inks or adding highlights or depth. I will feature some projects soon and a couple of techniques but I wanted to start with a short video of which colors actually matched which marker.

I also am providing a free pdf of the chart with the stamped and marker colors side by side.  Hope this helps!  Video and PDF below.  Lee Ann

PDF: Altenew Markers and Matching Ink colors