Beauty Spot Bee

Over at the Hero Arts group on Flickr, Martha is hosting a fun 90 minute scramble over a 24 hour period. Her theme is to make a project in grey, black, white and use a small pop of one colour.

With this theme I decided to use a cute little bee image from Hero Arts, have yellow as my pop of colour and use hexagons wherever I could. To start with I clear embossed the hexagon background on a panel of grey pearlescent card. Then I die cut a hexagon from white card and die cut a black hexagon frame. After stamping the sentiment, I adhered the frame onto the white hexagon with foam pads and also use foam pads to attach the piece to the background.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Hexagon Background, Be Happy & Everyday Sayings

Then it was time to make the little bee. I black embossed the bee twice and coloured the images. After cutting out the bee and the bee's head from the second image, I used foam pads to layer the head for some extra dimension. In my haste to meet the scramble deadline, a stray speck of embossing powder ended up on the bee's face, so she's ended up with a beauty spot;) To finish I added some diamond stickles to the wings. I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes Challenge.

I'm happy to say we're having an Indian summer here this week and it's great to get out on walks and enjoy the pretty autumn colours that are starting to appear on the trees. Hope you're enjoying beautiful weather too wherever you are.

Halloween Treasure Hunt

I remember when I was a kid it seemed to take forever for darkness to fall on Halloween. Here at that time kids called from house to house asking people to "help the Halloween party". The phrase "trick or treat" hadn't made its way across the Atlantic at that stage - yikes I feel old! We'd usually get fruit and nuts for treats and my goodness if we received sweets or coins we'd be absolutely delighted with ourselves!

When our kids were younger we used to have some of their friends over a few hours before it was due to get dark and would have a party with spooky food and, of course, play lots of Halloween games. A favourite with the kids was running around the house finding clues on creepy treasure hunts.

When I ordered Hero Arts 3-D House Die and co-ordinating stamp set, I had in mind ideas for Christmas. When they arrived I couldn't help but think what a fun set it also is for making Halloween decorations and even concealing clues for a treasure hunt.

Die(Hero Arts) - 3-D House Fancy Die
Stamp set (Hero Arts) - 3-D House Essentials

After die cutting the houses I stamped them and then stamped doors, windows and pumpkins in Halloween colours. After cutting these out I adhered them to the houses. The die cuts and scores a house in one pass so it makes it really easy to quickly put together a set of houses.

Die(Hero Arts) - 3-D House Fancy Die
Stamp set (Hero Arts) - 3-D House Essentials

In a treasure hunt it's nice to get a little treat along with a clue (just to keep energy levels up;), so I used the little houses containing the clues as decorations on these cupcakes.

Die - 3-D House Fancy Die (Hero Arts) & Lace Hearts Cupcake Wrapper (Die'sire)
Stamp set (Hero Arts) - 3-D House Essentials

I'm submitting this project into A Blog Named Hero's Die Cutting Challenge and Simon Says Stamp's No Designer Paper Challenge.

You Make Me So Happy

I wanted to join in a few challenges - the Makeover Challenge over at Hero Arts, the Happy Challenge over at A Blog Named Hero and the Die Crazy Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp.

This is the card I picked for a makeover

I wanted to stick with the same colours, sentiment stamp & die set, distress ink and sprinkling of sequins. The distress ink background was one I had originally made for the butterfly card but didn't like at the time, so left it in my bundle of scraps until today. It was made by applying distress inks (peacock feathers and tumbled glass) to an acrylic block, spritzing with water and stamping on white card.

Stamp & Die (Hero Arts) - Happy Stamp & Cut set

Another rummage through my scrap pile produced a piece of spiced marmalade card which had been left over from another project. I die cut the "happy" and applied some some diamond stickles to the piece.

Once this was dry I inlaid it into the background panel, stamped the other part of the sentiment and added a sprinkling of sequins to finish.

Polar Thanks

I couldn't wait to get my hands on Hero Arts' adorable Polar Set from the Lia Griffith collection. How could I resist a set that includes lots of cute polar creatures along with accessories and other fun images?

To start with I made the background for the penguin by dragging a Hero Arts ombré (mint to emerald green) ink pad across a panel of white card. Once this was dry I added it to my card base and die cut and stamped the sentiments.

Stamps & Die (Hero Arts) - Polar set by Lia & Thanks Stamp & Cut

After stamping and cutting out the penguin and ice floe, I coloured the images with Promarkers. Then to add some sparkle to the floe, I added a coat of diamond stickles to the upper part and covered the whole piece with a layer of glossy accents.

I'm submitting this card into the Happy Challenge over at A Blog Named Hero as this cute little penguin stamp makes me smile and Simon Says Stamp's Use a Stamp Challenge.

Bird Crazy Challenge with Linda

Recently my friend Linda and I ordered some Hero Arts goodies and as it turned out we both bought a lot of the same items. Linda came up with the great idea of challenging each other to use the same product on our next cards. To start with we both used the Color Layering Dimensional Bird from this set. I haven't seen what Linda has made yet but can't wait to see her creations on her blog.

I love the way this set works with stamping the bird outline initially and then stamping the patterns using separate stamps. It would be fun to use the outline for paper pieced birds too or even for straightforward colouring. Well let me tell you I went a bit bird crazy trying out different colour combinations and here are just some of the birds I stamped on a soggy Saturday afternoon.

Stamp (Hero Arts) - Color Layering Dimensional Bird

I saved these birds for times when I need to make cards in a hurry but made three cards using other birds I had stamped. As I wanted to makeover this card

for the current Hero Arts challenge I went with neutrals and added white to the stamped image using a white watercolour pencil.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Color Layering Dimensional Bird, Everyday Sayings & Let the Angels

Next up I stamped the bird using Hero Arts mint to emerald ombré ink. The branch was stamped with Hero Arts cup o' joe shadow ink.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Color Layering Dimensional Bird, Everyday Sayings & Let the Angels

As I had used neutral and monochromatic birds on the first two cards, I thought for my last card I'd go with a blast of colour and used a mix of quiet morning and summer splash inks.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Color Layering Dimensional Bird & Everyday Messages

The little nest was made from scraps I had left over from making the first two cards.

I'm submitting these cards into Simon Says Stamp's Use a Stamp Challenge.

Another Makeover

I wanted to do another makeover on a card and picked this CAS card I made a little while ago.

Stamp set (Hero Arts) - Missing You

This time I wanted to stick with the same basic design but decided to add a blast of colour and include some hand stitching. After cutting a card front from kraft card, I stamped the sentiment and funny bird. Once the stamping was completed, I hand stitched a frame using embroidery thread. As I wanted some dimension on the card, I stamped the bird again on white card, coloured with Promarkers and added it to the card with foam pads.

Next it was time to add some sparkle and sheen to the bird with stickles on the crest, glossy accents on the eyes and wink of stella on the body.

I'm submitting this card into Hero Arts Makeover Challenge.

Scramble Shaker Card

Over in the Hero Arts Flickr Group last night LaVon hosted a fun Scramble in which we had to make a card based on one of these three sketches.

It turned out to be a real scramble for me as I started the Scramble a bit late because I was yapping on the phone. Then after scrapping the first card I started, I decided to make a shaker card. I don't know what or if I was thinking as I'm slow at making shaker cards even at the best of times not to mind when there is a time limit!

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Playful Animals & Birthday Messages

Anyway I started by embossing the mini card base I made and then set to work on the shaker element. I used scraps of blue and green card for the sky and grass. My Mam gave me a bag with a lovely mix of sequins a while ago and I used some of these as they are pearlescent white with hints of pink. After stamping the pig twice, cutting and colouring, I popped one of the heads on foam pads for dimension. The sentiment was embossed badly and in a last minute hurry as you can no doubt see from the stray flecks of powder!

I'm submitting this card into a2z Scrapbooking's September Challenge.

Two Card Makeovers and a Little Recycling

Hero Arts' fun Makeover Challenge gives us a chance to makeover old projects. I definitely have plenty that could do with changes but picked two butterfly cards for makeovers today.

The first card I picked is this one.

I wanted to make a butterfly in the same colours using the same inlay technique but changed the background and used less enamel hexagons. For the background I light applied distress inks (broken china, tumbled glass & shabby shutters) onto white card. Then I inked the background stamp with shabby shutters distress ink, spritzed with water and stamped on the panel. After stamping the sentiment I added one little enamel hexagon to finish.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Tropical Background & Fantastic Birthday
Dies - Butterfly (Hero Arts) & Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

Next in line for a makeover was this card.

With this one I wanted to reverse the colours and add even more sparkle to the butterfly. I inked up the background stamp by dragging Hero Arts' mint julep to emerald green ombré ink pad across and down it. Then I stamped the image on a panel of white card and applied peacock feathers distress ink. Once the panel was dry, I embossed the sentiment.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Tropical Background & Celebrate Everyday
Dies - Butterfly (Hero Arts) & Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

Next it was time to do a bit of recycling to make the sparkly butterfly. I die cut the butterfly from a piece of white glitter card I had saved from a Christmas card. The butterfly was backed with glittered tulle taken from a mini bag I had received a pressie in. After adding a few gems to the butterfly's body, it was adhered to the card with foam pads and I added some sequins to finish.

Have you seen Hero Arts' new website? It looks wonderful, has a fantastic ideas area filled with inspiration and of course there are so many tempting goodies in the shop. I couldn't resist ordering lots of new stamps and dies the other day and thanks to Hero Arts' super speedy service they are already winging their way to me - can't wait!