Trick or Treat

I love Halloween but here in Ireland we don't send Halloween cards to each other so I suppose that's why I have only two Halloween stamp sets - as for my Christmas supplies, now that's a completely different story! My friend Linda recently sent some fun die cuts that I used along with Hero Arts Ghostly Greetings set on today's card.

I started by stamping the sentiment on a square of card and added the pretty die cut wreath Linda had sent me. To decorate the wreath I used glitter bat die cuts, again from Linda, and some orange sequins I picked up when shopping with Linda during the summer.

Dies (Hero Arts) - Halloween Trimmings Stamp & Cut & My Monthly Hero September Kit
Stamp (Hero Arts) - Ghostly Greetings (sentiment)

Even though I have a huge jar of googly eyes, I discovered the little ones either had brown or pink eyes, so the bats ended up being brown eyed.

I'm submitting the card into Hero Arts Holiday Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.

Our clocks went back at the weekend so in an hour or so it will be dark and the trick or treaters should start arriving. I'm looking forward to seeing what all the kids are dressed as and moving a lot of the mountain of tempting treats out of the house! Hope you have a wonderful Halloween!

Mistletoe Merry Kisses

Hope you enjoyed the extra hour in bed this morning, if you're in a part of the world where the clocks went back during the night. Instead of spending the extra time in bed, I used it to make a card.

I wanted to use the mistletoe image and fun sentiment from Hero Arts Happy Holly Days set on my card.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Happy Holly Days
Embossing Folder (Darice) - Snowflake Scroll

I started by embossing a panel of kraft card and attached it to the card base with foam pads. Then I cut out and coloured two sprigs of mistletoe and added them to the card. To finish I added a gingham bow and added a coating of star dust stickles to the berries.

I'm submitting the card into Hero Arts Holiday Card Making Challenge and Simon Says Stamps Anything Goes Challenge.

I just want to say a great big thanks for all the lovely comments left on my last post, I really appreciate every one of them:) Now it's time to announce the winner of the free crochet pattern - it's Debra Rumpza! Debra can you please send me your email address so I can arrange to have the pattern you picked sent to you. My email address is stampingandstitching@gmail.com.

Hero Arts Hostesses Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to your next stop on Day 1 of the Hero Arts Hostess Hop, featuring fabulous products from Hero Arts 2016 Winter release. I am delighted to be hopping along with this group of fabulous ladies and all of you today!

You should have arrived here from the blog of the super creative Suzz, if you haven't, you can hop over to the Hero Arts Blog and start from the beginning. If you find a broken link as you hop, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Arts Blog. Also here are links to all the stops for today's hop:

Virginia Lu
Emily Leiphart
Sue McRae
Sarah Kapteyn Moerman
Nancy Krueger
Tiffany Ervin
Arlene Pagent McClung
Joy Taylor
Suzz Czosek
Heather Doran - you are here!
Hero Arts

PRIZES

Don’t forget to leave comments as you hop. Hero Arts will be awarding 4 prizes from randomly drawn comments. Two winners will receive a $25 shopping spree in Hero Arts' online shop and two winners will receive a bonus prize. For a chance to win, simply comment on ANY of the stops along the hop today and tomorrow, including at the hop ending posts on the Hero Arts Blog. The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning. Please comment by 11:59pm PT Sunday 30th October for a chance to win. By the way I have comment moderator switched on, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear immediately. Best of luck!

NEW RELEASE

It really is one of the most wonderful times of the year when Hero Arts' Winter Catalogue is released! I always spend hours poring over the catalogue and adding favourites to my shopping list - it always ends up being a very long list:) The sumptuous cover on this year's catalogue gives just a tiny glimpse of the wonderful crafting goodness packed inside.

CARDS

My blog post is going to be long enough as it is so I'm not going to add my usual detailed description of how I've made my cards. If you have any questions though please feel free to ask in the comments section or send me an email at stampingandstitching@gmail.com and I'll get back to you.

I just love the cute little mittens from Kelly’s S’Mitten set and for this card teamed them with a wreath from the September kit. I went to town with sparkle on this card with the shimmery white background and glittery sentiment, bow and sprigs of berries.

Hero Arts Supplies -
Christmas Trimmings Stamp & Cut
Kelly’s S’Mitten Stamp & Cut
My Monthly Hero September 2016

I love the beautiful bird from the Vintage Christmas Post set so decided to have that as a focal point on my next card. Can you tell I love wreaths?! As I wanted the bird to really pop on the card I used kraft card for my wreath. The wreath was made by using one of the wreaths from the September kit as a base and I intertwined branches which had also been cut out with a die from that kit.

Hero Art Supplies -
Vintage Christmas Post
My Monthly Hero September 2016
Christmas Trimmings Stamp & Cut (sentiment)

Next up I used my absolute favourite die from the release - the Paper Layering Santa Face with Frame die.

Hero Arts Supplies -
Paper Layering Santa Face with Frame
Color Layering Dimensional Bird (sentiment)

I think this Santa has such a lovely expression on his face and it's such an amazing and unique die in the way that Santa's beard and moustache can be given a fun 3D look by simply curling the cuts. This Santa is going to be on so many of my Christmas cards this year and he will also be perfect for gift tags.

My final card is one that includes a present on the card front. The cute little crocheted Christmas stocking is perfect for hanging on a Christmas tree and holding a gift card and other little pressies inside.

Hero Arts Supplies -
Hand Drawn Snowflakes
Happy Holly Days
Vintage Christmas Post (sentiment)
Christmas Trimmings Stamp & Cut (bow)

My stocking was stuffed with a book token, spending money for craft supplies and a little bit of chocolate - sounds remarkably like what I'd like for Christmas;)

WIN A CROCHET PATTERN

The adorable Christmas stocking on my last card was designed and crocheted by a very talented lady, Ruth Teskey, who has a fabulous array of crochet patterns in her shop Avondale Patterns. Ruth's patterns are available in both European and US crochet terms. For a bit of fun I'm going to give one person a pattern from her shop. To be in with a chance to win just mention in your comment your favourite pattern from Ruth's shop and you never know you might just win it:) I'll announce the winner of the pattern on Sunday 30th October.

THANKS

Before you go I want to thank you for visiting, thank Hero Arts for another fabulous release and the products they sent me, thank my good friend Linda for a lot of the goodies I played with, thank the Hero Hostesses for their friendship and inspiration and last, but certainly not least, also thank Virginia for the tremendous work she put into organising the hop. Now it's time to hop to your final stop for today - the Hero Arts Blog. Best of luck in the prize draw and have fun hopping again tomorrow!

Non Traditional Christmas

Over at The Love! - Handmade cards, ATC’s & other Crafts group on Flickr there's a fun challenge for October. It's to make a holiday project in non traditional colours. I have to admit I usually make my Christmas cards in traditional colours, but with this challenge decided to go a bit wild (for me:)) with colours and used a lot of black which is another colour I wouldn't usually use on Christmas cards.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Ornaments Stamp & Cut and Vintage Post (sentiment)
Die (My Favorite Things) - Pierced Rectangle Frames

I die cut the frame, adhered it with foam pads to a panel of black glitter card and again used foam pads to adhere this to my card base. Then I coloured and added Wink of Stella to baubles images my friend Linda sent me (thanks again, Linda!) and added bows made from baker's twine. I really enjoyed trying out different colours on my Christmas card so will definitely make a few more Christmas cards this year using non traditional colours.

Love Mittens

My Christmas card making ground to a halt in August but thanks to my friend Linda sending me some goodies from Hero Arts new Christmas release I'm getting back into working on my cards again.

Hero Arts' cute Holiday Mittens set reminded me of the long crochet chains my Mam used to make to string through my jackets and attach to my mittens to prevent them being lost. So of course I had to make a card using the pretty mittens from the set.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Holiday Mittens, Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Prints and Holiday Messages and Tags

I started by applying distress inks (broken china and salty ocean) to white card, spritzed with water and stamped the snowflakes in faded denim distress ink. Then I had fun colouring the cute little mittens and added diamond stickles to the centres of the snowflakes for a little sparkle.

Instead of crocheting a chain, I plaited thread and used it to connect the mittens. By using tiny pieces of a glue dot I was able to form and keep a heart shape in the plaited piece. Only 85 days till Christmas - I'll have to get cracking on making more cards!

I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamps Anything Goes Challenge.