Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to your next stop on the Hero Arts Hostess Hop, featuring fabulous stamps from the new 2013 release!

If you’ve been following along, you should have just arrived from the blog of the ultra talented Lisa Carroll. In case you come across a broken link, you’ll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Club Blog. Also please report broken links to Tami at blog@heroarts.com.

Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments. For a chance to win, simply comment on ANY of the stops along the hop on ANY day, including each day’s starting post at the Hero Club Blog. The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning - best of luck! I have comment moderator switched on, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear immediately.

The Hero Arts 2013 catalogue is packed with the most wonderful stamps! I can tell you after browsing through the catalogue many times, my shopping list is very, very long! Thanks to the ever generous Hero Arts, I’ve had a chance to play with some of the new stamps, before my shopping order arrives. When the stamps arrived from Hero Arts I was like a kid on Christmas morning and have had so much fun playing with my new “toys”!



The New Baby set is one of the most adorable baby sets I’ve ever seen! The images are so cute and I love the stitching details on the stamps. Not only is the set brilliant for making baby cards but I know I’ll be using some of the images on cards for kids and also for cute cards for adults. Anyway above is the first card I made using this set and the gorgeous new Looped Circle Pattern stamp – oh I love all the possibilities for this stamp!

Hero Arts Stamps – New Baby & Looped Circle Pattern
Other Supplies - Card (white & blue), broken china distress ink, VersaMark, white embossing powder, baker's twine, tag punch, gems, glitter, paintbrush and water.



On this card I again used the Looped Circle Pattern but in a different way to my first card, by using an embossed strip and cutting out pieces from the pattern. Along with this stamp, I used the Fantastic Birthday set which contains beautiful sentiments and lots of yummy, calorie free images – I can’t resist sweet things and I certainly couldn’t resist this sweet set!

Hero Arts Stamps - Fantastic Birthday, It’s Your Day and Looped Circle Pattern
Other Supplies – Card (cream woodgrain, white & brown), white embossing powder, VersaMark, patterned paper, shabby shutters and tumbled glass distress ink, markers, pearls, label die, glossy accents and diamond stickles.



I’ve always loved patchwork and my first attempt at patchwork involved cutting out lots of hexagons from card and fabric and piecing the hexagons together, using the card as backing for the fabric. So when I saw the Hexagon Background, I knew I had to have that stamp! I just love it and can again imagine using it in so many different ways – love when a stamp does that for you! My good friend Linda included the fab It’s Your Day set in a wonderful bundle of goodies she sent me at Christmas – thanks again, Linda:) Talk about being spoiled for choice for birthday greeting with this set! Anyway to make this card I did a lot of embossing, a lot of paper piecing and a lot of stitching too. I had great fun making my mini paper quilt!

Hero Arts Stamps - Hexagon Background and It’s Your Day
Other Supplies - patterned paper, VersaMark, white embossing powder, pink card, thread, sewing machine and gems.

Thanks to Hero Arts for another fab release of new stamps, to Deborah and Tami for all the work they put into organising the Hop and of course, the Hero Hostesses for all the inspiration they provide me with on a daily basis. Also thanks a million to you for visiting and best of luck in the draw – I know Hero Arts prizes are always fantastic!

Now it’s time for you to leave Ireland and take a big, big hop across the Atlantic to Canada and your next stop on the Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop where you’ll meet the super talented Tracey Kuzniak. Brrr snow is forecast here, I wonder if Tracey has any in her neck of the woods! Enjoy the rest of the Hop and I’m off to join you hopping with my hot chocolate in hand!

Edited for questions I've been asked in the comment section or by email

1. Quite a few people have asked me what tool I use for cutting. I just use a curved nail scissors that I bought in Boots Chemists when I first started card making a few years ago. I've never tried any other type of scissors as these work well for me.

2. A few people asked me if I really did emboss, cut and stitch all those hexagons. The answer is yes! I embossed a mix of patterned papers and also a backing piece of card stock, cut out the patterned paper hexagons and adhered them to the backing card. Then I just used a tiny zig zag stitch setting on my machine and stitched away. It did take a while to do but I really enjoying cutting and sewing when making cards:)

Thanks so much to you for all for your lovely comments, I really appreciate each and every one of them:):)