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:):)

Rainbow of Thanks

I recently received a wonderful parcel of new goodies from Hero Arts, which included the fab Looped Circle Pattern background stamp. This is another Hero Arts stamp that I just can't seem to put down, as soon as I've cleaned it, there it is all inked up again!


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Looped Circle Pattern & Celebrate Everyday

Today I decided not to use it as a background stamp but as the focal point on my card. I rummaged through my scrap stash for some rainbow coloured card and embossed these pieces. Then I embossed a panel of black card and randomly paper pieced the coloured card onto it. I trimmed the panel and added pearls. To get the sentiment I wanted, I just inked up the Thanks part of Thanksgiving from a sentiment in the Celebrate Everyday set. I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp Black/White + Splash of Colour Challenge and the New Year, New You Challenge over at A Blog Called Hero.

I'm so excited about next week as.....

....the annual Hero Hostess Blog Hop is taking place all next week! I know all of us Hostesses have had a brilliant time playing with the fabulous new stamps from Hero Arts' 2013 catalogue. So from Monday to Friday there will be 5-6 blogs to visit each day. The Hop will start off each day at the Hero Arts Blog. I can't wait to go hopping to see what everyone has come up with! Hero Arts will have fantastic prizes for some lucky, randomly picked hoppers who leave comments on the blogs. I hope you'll come hopping along with us and you never know you could be one of the lucky winners!

Hope you have a fun and inky weekend!

ATC Calendar

For the past couple of days I've been working on making a calendar of ATCs and finally completed it today. I had lots of fun working on these small pieces and have now developed multicoloured fingers in the process!

This is the full set of ATCs


Here are the ATCs for January, February, March, April,....


... May, June, July, August,...


.... September, October, November and December.


The ATCs look better in real life than they do in these pictures, but I'm afraid these were the best photos I could take! I'm submitting this project into the New Year, New You Challenge at A Blog Named Hero and the New Something Challenge at Simon Says Stamp as I've used some new stamps and inks on the ATCs. Hope you are all having a wonderful and inky weekend!

Wild Flowers Happy Birthday

I'll be in work for one day tomorrow and then back on the rest of my holidays again, so I thought I'd squeeze in a bit of play time today!


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Wild Flowers & Birthday Messages

One of my favourite Hero Arts stamps which I use over and over again is the Wild Flowers image - I just love it! For this card I embossed the flowers twice on grey, shimmery card and added some gems. I had my sewing machine nearby from yesterday's card and decided to try a type of ribbon treatment that I hadn't done before. It was quite quick and easy to do so I'll have to try it again. To finish I just added the bow and embossed the sentiment. Yet again my friend Linda sent me something that I used on this card - the yummy ribbon, thanks again, Linda:)



I'm submitting this card into the Ellen Hutson LLC Hero Arts Wood Take 'n Makeand the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

You're Sew Nice

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas:) We certainly had a very enjoyable one and are still making the most of our break from work/school. It feels a bit strange not to be making Christmas cards and a pity to be putting away those Christmas stamps for another year. So today I made a card which is a bit of a break away from my norm as I used a lot of patterned paper, bold colours and a (very!) wild colour combination for me!

My friend Linda sent me all the gorgeous, gorgeous papers on this card and I wanted to use them on a sewing related card - thanks again, Linda!



Stamp (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy

To start with I embossed the sewing machine, added the gem and thread and placed the machine on a frayed piece of fabric. The sentiment was also embossed and I stitched on the patterned papers for the background.



I'm submitting this card into the Ellen Hutson LLC Hero Arts Clear Take 'n Make. The picture of the challenge project must include the stamp/s used. As you can see the Sew Artsy set is much loved and much used by me! I'm also submitting the card into the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with your family and friends and wish that all your dreams come true in the year ahead!



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Gingerbread Fun, Celebrate Everyday & Write Your Message

Cinnamon Scented Pine Cones

This year I wanted to have some cinnamon scented pine cones for Christmas. So on a sunny, crisp afternoon early in November we set off for a walk in a local forest. We all enjoyed the walk, the chatting and coming across a bounty of pine cones in the woods.

After coming home the pine cones were washed and they dried out and opened up in front of the fire we've had lighting every evening since late October - loved the fresh pine smell in the sitting room during this part of the process. After that it was just a matter of adding some cinnamon oil to the pine cones and putting them in plastic bags for the scent to be fully absorbed.



Stamp (Hero Arts) - Merry Christmas Tree

I've a few baskets of the cones in the house now and we gathered so many pines cones, family and friend will be receiving them shortly. So I wanted to come up with a way of packaging them and this is it -



I recently received this wonderful stamp and die set from Hero Arts and couldn't wait to get started on making something with it. So today I pulled out card scraps, embossing powders, some bling and ribbon and played away to my hearts content.

Hopefully my family and friends will like their little scented packages. Here's a photo from when we were on the way home from the woods, you can see one of my helpers striding back to the car - well there was a promise of hot chocolate and a treat at home!



I'm submitting this project into Ellen Hutson LLC Hero Arts Cling Take 'n Make, the current Play Date Cafe Challenge, Simon Says Stamp "What's Your Favourite" Challenge (I've a few favourites on this one - tool is Cuttlebug, stamp is this new one and product would be bling) and also Paper Crafts December Gallery Challenge. Hope you're all having a fun weekend!