Poinsettia Tag Card

I had a bit of time today to make another Christmas card and, thanks to my friend Linda W, used a lovely poinsettia image from Hero Arts' new Peace Poinsettias set.

Hero Arts Stamps - Peace Poinsettias, Lattice Background, Stamp and Cuts Ornament & Merry Merry Decorate It set

I started by embossing a white piece of card with the holly ribbons folder from Cuttlebug. Then I die cut a tag, stamped the lattice background in gold ink from the Merry Merry Decorate It set and added ribbon. After cutting out the poinsettia flower and leaves, I added beads to the flower centre and a layer of crackle accents.

The sentiment was embossed in gold. I'm submitting this card into the Mad About Metallics and Tag It categories in Hero Arts' Holiday Challenge and Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes Challenge.

Love You in Triplicate

I made this card for the Tissue Paper Magic Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, the current Hero Arts challenge and the Simon Says Emboss It Challenge. As I tried to make a masculine card I wanted to keep it fairly plain and simple. It only took about 10 minutes to make, which is definitely a record for me, lol!


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Type and Small Variety Alphabet

On this card I used the tissue paper as sheets of carbon paper in the typewriter and also as a background (adhered to a piece of black card to give strength). I learned to type on a manual typewriter and now think it’s funny how we used to correct our mistakes and make duplicate documents. I had to explain to my son this morning what carbon paper was and why we used it in typewriters – I felt really ancient, lol! The typewriter is embossed in red and I just added a couple of beads to it and my favourite embellies – Hero Arts heart pearls. The baker’s twine, which unfortunately I can’t get here, was part of a lovely package of goodies that my friend Trinh sent me – thanks again Trinh:)

We’ve been spoiled rotten here with a glorious week of sunshine and temperatures around 21C\70F. Hope it’s sunny wherever you are and that you all have a wonderful weekend:)

Christmas Shaker Gift Bag

Yesterday, after making my first Christmas card for this year, I was feeling a bit Christmassy and decided to make a Christmas gift bag for the current Hero Arts challenge and the All Wrapped Up Challenge at Moxie Fab World. I absolutely love this shaker card that Sally made recently so I decided to make gift bag with a shaker on it.


Stamps (Hero Arts) Holiday Dolls & Three Trees

I recycled a bag like this one for my base. To cover up the name of the shop on the front of the bag I stitched the embossed snowflakes panel to pink card. For the sky inside the shaker I embossed various snowflakes in white and applied broken china distress ink. The doll is coloured with Promarkers and I added diamond stickles to the bobble on her hat. I stamped the sentiment on the acetate cover and added some punched snowflakes and beads to the shaker. To finish I just added a clear button which I had covered with glitter and tulle for the handles.



If anyone has any tips on taking photos of acetate, I’d love to hear them – I was nearly driven demented trying to get a photo without reflections!

PaperPlay Challenge – Pink It Up.

The challenge on PaperPlay this week is “Pink It Up”. So it’s time for you all to have fun and go crazy with pink!

Bunny Zoe’s Crafts is kindly sponsoring this week’s challenge and I know the lucky winner will have a great time shopping here.

I love using pink, white and black together and decided to “pink up” my card with the background, gems, flower and beads.

Vellum Starburst, originally uploaded by heather maria.

Stamps used (Hero Arts):- Starburst Lace, Scallop Borders, Lace Background & Messages.

I clear embossed the pink background with the Lace Background stamp and white embossed the Starburst Lace and scallops on vellum. To add another layer to the Starburst, I embossed the flower centre of the Starburst Lace again on vellum, snipped towards the centre and curled the petals a bit. Sue (Stampersuzz) sent me lots of gorgeous goodies recently, including a beautiful ribbon of velvet flowers so I snipped off one of the flowers and added a pearl to the centre. Thanks again Sue! To finish I added pink gems and a sprinkling of beads with a pinkish tinge.



I’m submitting the card into Jenny’s Challenge # 18 which is to use buttons, brads or bling on a card and am also submitting it into Hero Arts’ Keeping in Touch and Back to School Challenge.

I’m looking forward to seeing lots of gorgeous pink creations this week!

Large Flower with a Sprinkle of Stardust

This morning I wanted to make a card for a friend who loves flowers and lots of sparkle. So I decided to use my favourite stamp (Large Flower by Hero Arts) for the flower.

Large Flower with a Sprinkle of Stardust, originally uploaded by heather maria.

I embossed it in white on vellum and used an embossing pen and stardust embossing powder to add some sparkle to parts of the petals. The flower is layered three times and I added some beads to the centre. For the background I clear embossed Ancient Motif (Hero Arts) on blue card. Then I mounted squares of this on to white card and did some piercing around the edges with my sewing machine. The card is a lot more sparkly in real life, but as usual I can't seem to catch all the sparkle in the photos!


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower, Ancient Motif and Messages

Summer Fields

This is another entry into the June Challenge at Hero Arts. During the summer time as kids we used to spend hours and hours playing in the fields near home. The fields always seemed to be full of poppies, butterflies and ladybirds so that’s what I wanted to include in my summer card.

Summer Fields, originally uploaded by heather maria.

For the background I sponged distress inks (broken china, antique linen, shabby shutters and mustard seed) on white card. The wheat is stamped with antique linen and I embossed the seed heads with enchanted gold. I coloured the poppies with markers, added beads to the centres and used yarn (white yarn coloured with a green marker) for the stems. I applied glossy accents to the ladybirds.

Stamps (Hero Arts) Silhouette Grass, Scattered Leaves, Antique Engravings, Poppy Background, Birthday Messages

Can't leave that large flower down!

I have really fallen for the Large Flower stamp by Hero Arts and I know it will be one of those stamps I will use over and over again - no dust will gather on this one!

Here's a card I made recently using this stamp. Before machine stitching the flower I made a "sandwich" of a piece of fabric, wadding, snippets and threads of organza, a piece of organza. For the leaves, I stamped a leaf from the Scattered Leaves set (Hero Arts) on cotton fabric, layered it on another piece of fabric, zigzag stitched around the edges and cut out.



Here are some more cards I've made using this stamp.

Organza again





Vellum





A couple more!

Some Fun With Fabrics

I used to do a bit of quilting but once I started making cards that kind of took over. But I still love to go through my fabric stash and use bits and pieces of fabric on some of my cards. These are a few cards I made recently using fabric.

For this one I stamped a piece of hand dyed fabric with the Large Flower from Hero Arts, layered with wadding and a stiff piece of fabric and machine stitched. The flower centre and background are pieces of upholstery samples.






Stamps (Hero Arts) Large Flower, Woodgrain Circle, Birthday Messages.

I had to try a tutorial I came across on making organza flowers. Various size circles are cut out of organza and the edges are curled by holding them over a flame. The organza circles are then layered to form a flower.



Stamps (Hero Arts) Branch Background, Scallop Borders, Birthday Messages, Scattered Leaves.

Since I don't get to make many quilts anymore, I thought it would be fun to make a mini quilt for this card using up little scraps of fabric. I was over the moon the other day to see that the card had been picked as one of the winners of the Moxie Fab World Fun with Fabrics challenge.



Stamps (Hero Arts) Sew Original, Birthday Messages.

Hello and Welcome!

Well I never thought I'd be saying this, but hello and welcome to my new blog!

I thought I'd start with a couple of cards I made for the June challenge (Summer Fun & 4th July) at Hero Arts

As soon as I saw the Flourish Grids stamp set by Hero Arts, I knew I'd have to get it and this is my first card using this set.



I applied broken china and faded jeans distress inks to the upper part of a panel of white card and spritzed with water. Then I sponged the base of the panel with shabby shutters distress ink. For the flowers I used two pink chalk inks to get a few different shades. The flowers have diamond stickles centres. Originally the background was white card which I sponged with worn lipstick distress ink and stamped randomly with the flourish background using water.

Stamps
(Hero Arts) Flourish Grids, Scattered Leaves, Flourish Background, Birthday Messages, Dolls .


For the second card I used a stamp which is my absolute favourite - Large Flower by Hero Arts. I just saw that the Crafty Angels challenge this week is using your favourite stamp so I'm entering this card.



The flower is embossed in white, covered with distress inks (shabby shutters and broken china) and has four layers. The scallops and sentiment were also embossed in white and covered with worn lipstick distress ink. For the card itself I lightly applied shabby shutters and broken china distress inks to white card and splattered water on it. I just added some machine stitching and beads to finish.



Stamps (Hero Arts) Large Flower, Scallop Borders, Birthday Messages.