Snowflakes and Sequins

As soon as I saw Hero Arts Paper Layering Snowflakes die set I knew I had to get it. I love the way the dies can be either used to do partial cuts on card so the layers can be popped up for some extra dimension or, by adding the frame dies, they can be used to cut out snowflakes. Today I used the die for partial cuts but at a later stage I'll be cutting the snowflakes out completely to make decorations for our Christmas tree and also for more cards, gift tags and gift wrap. Lol that's of course presuming I'll have a lot of crafting time between now and Christmas!

Anyway on to the card. I used the dies on a panel of white card and added it to the card base. Then I used glossy accents to adhere sequins to the centres of the snowflakes. I always love a little, or a lot, of sparkle on Christmas cards so added strips of gold glitter card to the sides of the panel.

Dies (Hero Arts) - Paper Layering Snowflakes & Fancy Cut Christmas

Since I was on a sparkly roll I also die cut the sentiment from glitter card, layered it twice, for strength and dimension, and added it to the card with foam pads.

These dark, wintery evenings give me a good excuse to start lighting candles again. So I decided to decorate a couple of chunky jars to hold nightlights. Soon these will go on our mantelpiece along with greenery and some Christmas decorations.

Die (Hero Arts) - Paper Layering Snowflakes

Again for the jars I used the dies to do partial cuts on a panel of card, popped up the snowflakes and added strips of gold glitter card and sequins.

I'm submitting the card into Hero Arts Holiday Card Making Challenge.

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.

Inked Embossing Folder Challenge

It's time to set another Christmas card challenge for my friend Linda. This time the challenge is to ink an embossing folder.

This week I needed to make a quick card so inked up the snowflake embossing folder (thanks again, Linda!) with dusty concord and milled lavender distress inks. After spritzing some water on the ink I embossed a panel of white card. Once the ink had dried I added it to the card base with foam pads and added some gems. The sentiment was stamped in dusty concord distress ink.

Embossing folder - Snowflake Set (Hero Arts)
Stamp - Very Merry Christmas (Hero Arts)

There are little splodges of ink on the snowflake which I kind of like as it give the snowflake a bit of a distressed look. On my first attempt at making the panel I definitely went way overboard spritzing water on the ink on the embossing folder which meant the ink ran everywhere, including on the snowflake, when I passed the folder through the Big Shot. Anyway I ended up with a panel I can use on another card.

You should pop over to Linda's blog where you'll find a fun Christmas card challenge again this week.

Christmas Shaker

As it’s Monday it’s time again to set my friend Linda a Christmas card challenge. This week’s theme is to make a shaker card. I really love making shaker cards but don’t love taking photos of them! It’s hard to avoid catching lots of reflections from the acetate in photos but here goes anyway:)

I started by making a background with alcohol inks and blending solution. A mix of sequins went in between the background and front of the shaker element.

Die - Pierced Rectangle Frames (My Favorite Things) & Bristol Snowflake (Memory Box)
Gems - Snowflake Gems (Hero Arts)

I added a pretty die cut snowflake and a snowflake gem both of which Linda had sent me.

I was going to leave the card front without a sentiment but in the end added a sparkly die cut sentiment.

Die - Pierced Rectangle Frames (My Favorite Things), Fancy Cut Christmas (Hero Arts) & Bristol Snowflake (Memory Box)
Gems - Snowflake Gems (Hero Arts)

I’m afraid I didn’t get to make a card last week for Linda’s challenge or a matching tag to go with today's card but hopefully in the next few days I’ll play catch up on my card and tags. Here you can find the fun challenge Linda has set for this week.

Blog Title Christmas Challenge

It's Monday again so time to set my friend Linda a Christmas card challenge. This week's challenge is use your blog title as inspiration for your card. So Linda with Scrappin', Stampin' and Singin' you have lots of scope for some musical fun! I had to keep stamping and stitching in mind when making my card.

I started by die cutting a panel from kraft card using a die from Simon Says Stamp's Bundle of Stitched Shapes. After stitching the panel I added it to a white card base.

Stamp - Furry Christmas (Simon Says Stamp)
Dies - Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp) & Pierced Rectangle Frames (My Favorite Things)

Then I stamped the cute image and sentiment from Simon Says Stamp's Furry Christmas, coloured with Promarkers and added diamond stickles.

It's hard to see from the photos but the hat, scarf and taller dog's head have been cut again and adhered to the panel with foam pads for some extra dimension. After die cutting and adding the glittery frame I stamped and cut out another tail so it would curl out over the frame.

Here's the matching gift tag to go with my card.

Stamp - Furry Christmas (Simon Says Stamp)
Die - Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

I'm submitting these into Simon Says Stamp's 50th Flickr Challenge.

Linda has another fun challenge lined up for me this week. You can find it here on her blog.

It's Purple Really

This week my friend Linda challenged me to make a card using the emboss resist technique. It's been a bit of a hectic week so I only got around to making my card today.

I just love this technique - nothing like doing a bit of embossing and then getting inky!

Unfortunately my camera seems to be having a problem distinguishing purple from blue today so even though my card is very purple having used shaded lilac and dusty concord distress inks, my card and tag look more blue in the photos.

I started by clear embossing snowflakes from a number of Hero Arts sets (will add names tomorrow) on white card. After applying the distress inks I sprinkled water on the panel using Tim Holtz's Splatter Brush which Linda recently gave me - thanks again, Linda:) Once the panel was panel was dry I adhered it to a card base, added the embossed sentiment and finished it off with some gems.

I repeated the process on a tag I had die cut.

Another two items ready to go into my stash for Christmas.

Critter Christmas

Oh where did that weekend go?! Just before I head to work I want to set another Christmas card challenge for my friend Linda. This week I’m going with Critter\s Christmas so the card should have any type of animal\s on it.

For my card and tag I inked up a funny reindeer image from Art Impressions. As soon as I spotted the reindeer with the wobbly bottom I had to get it – I know some of my family and friends will get a laugh out of that fella when they see him on their Christmas cards.

Stamp – Jingle Set (Art Impressions)
Embossing Folder – Snowflake Scroll (Darice)

After stamping, colouring and cutting out the reindeer I adhered him to a card panel that had been embossed and stamped with the sentiment. Then I cut out and coloured an extra bottom which shakes as it’s been adhered to the larger image with an action wobble.

I had to add a little sparkle so out came diamond stickles to go on the bells.

Next up I made a matching tag. Even reindeer are taking selfies now:)

Stamp – Jingle Set (Art Impressions)
Dies - Film & Polaroid – (Greeting Farm) and Romantic Rectangles 2 (Spellbinders)

Linda has already set her challenge here - it's a good one and one of my favourite techniques!

Linda's One Layer Challenge

Earlier in the week my friend Linda set a challenge to make a one layer Christmas card. I rarely make one layer cards but it was fun, and I have to admit a little challenging, to give it a go. Midweek I was in the process of making a card and as there was a lot of colouring left to do on it I brought it into work on Friday to finish it at lunchtime. Then what did I do - left it in work by mistake! So this morning I started again from scratch using the same images but made a less "busy" card which I think I prefer to the one that's still sitting in my drawer in work.

I started by heat embossing the sentiment in gold and then stamped a mix of images on part of the card. After that I used Promarkers to colour the flowers and pine cones. I wish I was brave enough to try a bit of splattering but after dropping an inky block and messing up what was my first attempt at this morning's card, I left the card as it was.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Color Layering Dimensional Bird, Very Merry Christmas and Build a Wreath by Lia

To finish I just added diamond stickles to the flower centres - hopefully it's okay to do that on one layer cards!

Next up was the matching tag which I think I'll redo as I wrinkled it a bit when trying to flatten it after it got a little warped from heat embossing. Lol it has been a day for stampy mishaps so I think I'll try my hand at something else today!

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Color Layering Dimensional Bird, Very Merry Christmas and Build a Wreath by Lia

Not a Christmas Image

It's time again to challenge my friend Linda to make a Christmas card and this time I'm going with the theme of making a card on which the main image is not a Christmas related one.

This week I've made a card for a friend who is mad into golf. I think she'd play golf on Christmas Day except for the fact that her club is closed! For my main image I used a fun golf martini stamp from a set Linda gave me recently - thanks again Linda! The image was coloured with Promarkers and I added a sprig of holly for a festive feel.

Stamps: Fore Retirement - Impression Obsession, Woodland Wreaths (sentiment) - WPlus9 & Christmas Characters (holly) - Inkadinkado
Die: Elegant Ovals (Spellbinders)

The top part of the glass and the flag are popped up on foam pads for extra dimension and I added a layer of Glossy Accents to the glass.

For a matching tag I treated the die cut golf ball as if it were a Christmas pudding by topping it with a sprig of holly.

Dies: Golf Ball and Tee - Taylored Expressions & Nesting Gift Tags (Docrafts Xcut)
Stamp: Christmas Characters (holly) - Inkadinkado

Linda has already set me a challenge for this week. You can see it here. Oh I think her challenge is the most difficult type of card for me to make - hope I can come up with something that's even semi okay!!

Lavender Sachets

Now that lavender is in full bloom here, except in my garden where it seems to be a bit behind this year, my sister gave me two big bunches from her garden which I am currently drying out on trays covered with tissue paper.

I still have some dried lavender in a jar which came from both of our gardens last year so I decided to make lavender sachets using some pretty felt die cuts my friend Linda gave me recently. You can see gorgeous sachets that Linda made here and pick up some great tips from her too.

These Simon Says Stamp dies have gone straight to the top of my shopping list - thanks for enabling me, yet again, Linda;) The first sachet was made for my sister so she could enjoy the glorious scent of lavender from her garden year round.

Dies - Plush Blooming Heart & Plush Charmed Heart (Simon Says Stamp)

I popped the heart in a little cellophane bag and die cut and folded over the larger oval die to use as a topper.

Dies - Plush Blooming Heart & Plush Charmed Heart (Simon Says Stamp) and Elegant Ovals Nestabilities (Spellbinders
Stamp - Sew Artsy (Hero Arts)

The other sachet is for my Mam. Next up I think I'll make one for myself and get an order in with Simon Says Stamp:)

Dies - Plush Blooming Heart & Plush Charmed Heart (Simon Says Stamp)