Karen L K

October 21, 2019
by Karen L K 3 Comments

Hero Arts Merry Christmas Cover Plate Die

Howdy! Today I have some sparkly and shiny fun for Christmas. I created two cards with the Hero Arts Merry Christmas Cover Plate Die.

The first one here is all glittery. Glitter cards are hard to photograph and the light was kind of diminishing on me so the photo isn’t the best. Anyway… The first thing I did was stick a double sided adhesive sheet to a piece of Neenah paper. I placed my die on the paper so that the adhesive would end up on the top of the design. That way I could get that glitter to stick to it. I used microfine glitter and dumped that all over the design over a coffee filter. Then I burnished it using a bone folder handle. Thanks to Jennifer McGuire for that tip! Then I just glued that scene on to a piece of white glitter paper. It is pretty and very sparkly in real life.

This one was very straight forward and quick. I cut the scene out using the die and some shiny red paper I had in my stash. For this one I left some of the pieces in with the die cut. So the ornaments, 2 trees, and the star on the tree all have their center pieces remaining instead of pushing them out. I then glued the scene on a kraft card base. Pretty simple. There is so much to the cover plate you don’t need to do much.

The a2z Scrapbooking store has great sales going on! I took a peek at the store and there are still some stamps, ink, liquid watercolor (this stuff is fun to work with), embossing powders and a few other things. Get them before they are gone.

There is still time to enter our last challenge! It’s always good to get a few cards done well before the holiday rush.

October 5, 2019
by Karen L K 3 Comments

Hero Arts Haunted Digital Kit With Oxide Ink Blending

In keeping with our challenge theme I created a holiday card. Halloween is a fun holiday for me. I like decorating around the house and the front yard. My card is a combination of using digital images, ink blending and stamping.

The first thing I did when creating my card was take the haunted house from the Hero Arts Haunted Digital kit and had my Cameo cut it out. I had to change the png image by using trace and then I resized it. It did take a while to cut because it has all this tiny holes in the house for a distressed look.

Then I did some ink blending with 1 Hero Arts Reactive Ink and 3 Oxide Distress Inks on the background. I sprayed the background a bit with a mini mister.

I used the pumpkin from the digital kit also. I resized it and duplicated it to make 3 pumpkins. I colored the stems with a brown Copic pen and the faces with yellow. I hand cut them out. One of the pumpkins is raised with one of those really thick glue dots.

The sentiment I cut out with Hero Arts set Halloween Trimmings stamp and cut. I put some Versamark on the words and then sprinkled on some black embossing powder and heat embossed it. There are several different embossing powders in the a2z Scrapbooking Etsy store including a detail black and a sparkle black.

The witch is a cute little stamp from my stash.

The a2z Scrapbooking store has great sales going on! Run don’t walk and check it out!

Supplies:

Hero Arts Haunted Digital Kit
Hero Arts Detail Black Embossing Powder
Hero Arts Reactive Ink – Lemon Drop
Oxide Distress Inks
Hero Arts Halloween Trimmings Stamp & Cut set
A Muse Tiny Witch stamp

September 21, 2019
by Karen L K

Hero Arts Glittery Monarch Butterfly Die

Hello to you all! I am here today with a butterfly full of glitter. So pretty in real life and very hard to capture it well in a photograph.

For my card I really wanted to use some of the Nuvo Glimmer Paste. You can get the pretty Sapphire Blue Glimmer Paste in the a2z Etsy shop. The Nuvo Glimmer Paste is the “background” of the butterfly.

I created the blue “background” part of the butterfly by cutting a butterfly out using the Hero Arts Monarch Butterfly die also available in the a2z Etsy shop. I took out the pretty butterfly and used that open space as a stencil.

I centered it nice over my paper and used temporary adhesive to keep all the edges down nice. I filled it in with the Nuvo Glimmer Paste. Then I removed the stencil.

On the butterfly die cut I put an adhesive sheet on the front of the paper before die cutting. After cutting out the butterfly I removed the release paper and now there is adhesive on the front of the butterfly. I used some Elizabeth Craft Designs microfine glitter all over it. After putting the glitter on you should rub it in good to make it shine and stick well. There is mostly purple and a bit of pink glitter. I am not the biggest glitter fan but using it in this way I really like it. If you need some tips on glitter handling El at Elizabeth Craft Designs has some great video’s that really help with keeping the glitter under control.

Then I glued the butterfly outline over the Glitter Paste background I created. I cut around the butterfly with a rectangle die. I put that on a pretty purple patterned paper and added a die cut sentiment.

One more look at it….

I will add a photo on my blog KCs Kards taken with natural light.

Are you on social media? We are! Please join us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook? so you don’t miss any fun promotions or new challenge announcements!

Please join us in this month’s “Anything Goes” challenge for your chance at a free digital stamp set AND, if you used Hero Arts or Sugartree Stamps, a $20 gift card to our etsy store. Our current monthly challenge can always be found in the menu bar, and runs from the 1st to last day of the month.

The a2z scrapbooking store carries a wide variety of Hero Arts products as well as a nice selection of digital stamps! Get discounted new releases, sales, grab bags & more. Proceeds from our store benefit Celiac & Behcets disease foundations. Use my discount code karen15 to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more.

- Hero Arts Monarch Butterfly Fancy Die
- Nuvo Sapphire Blue Glimmer Paste
- My Favorite Things Pierced Rectangles Die Set
- Elizabeth Craft Designs Happy Birthday Die
- Elizabeth Craft Designs Silk Microfine Glitter – Speckled Indigo & Peony Pink

September 5, 2019
by Karen L K 2 Comments

Die Cutting with a Hero Arts Christmas Die

Howdy! I am dropping in today for Christmas in September. Is that a thing? I just got the Hero Arts Cut-Out Christmas die and I really wanted to use it. So here we go.

This Merry Christmas die is a fun one. As you can see you get a positive negative look. There are 3 different dies like this in the a2z Scrapbooking Etsy shop. There is Merry Christmas, Tis The Season and Happy Holidays.

I had this shiny red paper in my stash and thought it would work well for this card. I positioned the die so that I had a portion of red below the sentiment.

For the background I stamped some snowflakes and heat embossed them using Hero Arts Sparkle embossing powder. It gives a nice little shine with some glittery sparkle. I need to give this a try with some colored pigment ink instead of the Versamark. I glued the red sentiment piece to the background.

The house and trees are from a Hero Arts stamp set called Home For The Holidays. I heat embossed the house and the bare tree in brown and the full tree with green powder. I colored the house and the full tree with Copics. I used the matching die set to cut them out.

Are you on social media? We are! Please join us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook? so you don’t miss any fun promotions or new challenge announcements!

Hero Arts Cut-Out Christmas Fancy Die
Hero Arts Sparkle Embossing Powder
Hero Arts Home for the Holidays stamp set
Hero Arts Home for the Holidays die set
Hero Arts Snowflakes by Lia stamp set
Copic Pens
Versamark Ink

Hero Arts Color Layering Monarch Clear Stamp

August 21, 2019
by Karen L K 2 Comments

Hero Arts Color Layering Monarch Inlaid Die Cut

Howdy! I am here today with some shimmery butterflies. Oh wait that was last month. How about a birthday card for you!

When I thought about making this card the inlay technique and using some of the Hero Arts Glimmer Metallic Ink came to mind. So here we are.

For the butterflies I put some drops of the purple and the blue Hero Arts Glimmer Metallic Ink on a kraft sheet along with a tiny bit of gold. I spritzed the inks with water. I brushed the ink on paper and let it dry. Then I stamped the Hero Arts Color Layering Monarch on the metallic inks using just the detailed layer. I cut those out with the Hero Arts Color Layering Monarch matching die. Two butterflies were cut out of the white background paper so that I could inlay the purple and blue butterflies in those spaces. I just love the shimmery look of the metallic ink. The purple and blue come together in the pack.

For the flowers I mixed a little gold Glimmer Metallic ink with some Hero Arts Dandelion and Orange Liquid Watercolors. I painted that on paper and when it dried I stamped the flowers from the Color Layering Monarch stamp set. Then they were die cut.

The sentiment was die cut.

Are you on social media? We are! Please join us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook? so you don’t miss any fun promotions or new challenge announcements!

Please join us in this month’s “Birthday” challenge for your chance at a free digital stamp set AND, if you used Hero Arts or Sugartree Stamps, a $20 gift card to our etsy store. Our current monthly challenge can always be found in the menu bar, and runs from the 1st to last day of the month.

Hero Arts Color Layering Monarch Clear Stamps
Hero Arts Color Layering Monarch Frame Cuts Die
Hero Arts Purple & Blue Glimmer Metallic Inks
Hero Arts Gold & Pewter Glimmer Metallic Inks
Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors
Elizabeth Craft Designs Happy Birthday Die

August 5, 2019
by Karen L K 1 Comment

A Special Birthday with Hero Arts

Hello! For our challenge this month we have a nice theme going on and that would be birthday. I enjoyed working with the digital images recently and I really wanted to use one of the sentiments from the Hero Arts Special Day digital kit. Here is how I used it.

I started with the background. I put down three colors of Hero Arts reactive ink and let that dry. Then I dropped some Hero Arts Gold Glimmer Metallic Ink on my craft mat. I watered that down and painted it over my panel. Here is another look where you can see the shimmer more. In real life it looks very nice and shimmery. That Glimmer Metallic Ink is pretty cool stuff. The a2z Scrapbooking Etsy shop has 2 different sets in the shop. One has Copper and Bronze in it and the other has Purple and Blue in it.

I let the panel dry. I took one of the balloons from the Hero Arts Birthday Bash digital kit and sized it, tilted the balloons and copy and pasted to make the background pattern. I printed the balloons on that painted/inked sheet of paper.

For the sentiment I inked up some paper with one of the reactive inks I used on the background. After the ink dried I printed the sized sentiment on that. The I cut around the sentiment using a die.

I put a couple mats/panels under the main panel. I also have fun foam under the painted/inked panel and the sentiment to add a little dimension.

Are you on social media? We are! Please join us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook? so you don’t miss any fun promotions or new challenge announcements!

Hero Arts Special Birthday digital kit
Hero Arts Digital Birthday Bash
Hero Arts Glimmer Metallic Ink
Bo Bunny Die Set – Nested Fancy Frame Dies

July 21, 2019
by Karen L K 1 Comment

Hero Arts Monarch Butterfly Die with Alcohol Inks

Howdy crafty folks! How is your summer going? Mine was super busy but now it is nice and quiet. I am ok with that!

I had some fun with alcohol inks on the silver sparkle paper recently and for today’s card I used the silver foil cardstock. These are both made to work with alcohol ink.

For the first step I took the silver foil finish cardstock and dropped 2 different pearl alcohol ink colors on it. I also used a thing that blows air to move the ink around along with adding some drops of alcohol blending solution. I was really happy with the way the paper looked. I cut out the butterfly using the Hero Arts Monarch Butterfly die which is available in the a2z Scrapbooking Etsy store. You could take out all the little pieces and have more of an outline butterfly but I was so happy with all the color I left them all in. I also die cut the sentiment from that same piece of paper.

For the background I used an embossing folder. I decided to use the debossed side of the paper for the background. I added some drops of the pearl alcohol ink onto the background panel. I attached this to the base of the card which is a dark purple and hard to see in the photo.

I then glued the butterfly and sentiment to the card.

Are you on social media? We are! Please join us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook? so you don’t miss any fun promotions or new challenge announcements!

Please join us in this month’s “Sparkle & Shine” challenge for your chance at a free digital stamp set AND, if you used Hero Arts or Sugartree Stamps, a $20 gift card to our etsy store. Our current monthly challenge can always be found in the menu bar, and runs from the 1st to last day of the month

Hero Arts Monarch Butterfly Fancy Die
Cuttlebug Swirl Embossing Folder
Alcohol Pearl Ink
Alcohol Ink Cardstock – Foil Finish
Honey Bee Stamps – Large Thanks Dies

July 5, 2019
by Karen L K 4 Comments

Hero Arts Reef Border Die Cutting

Howdy! Here I am with a sparkle and shine project. It’s a new month and time is flying. With a new month comes a new challenge and for July it is Sparkle and Shine.

For the background of my card it’s about shimmer. I put some alcohol ink on Silver Sparkle Yupo paper. Let me just say it is a great look.

I then used just the center part of the Hero Arts Reef Border die to cut the fun window out of the Neenah white paper.

For the turtle and seahorse I stamped those and die cut them. They are from two different Hero Arts sets. After die cutting them I added Stickles to the turtle and down the seahorse (a little hard to see in the photo). I used Hero Arts cube inks for the turtle and seahorse. The seahorse ink is Hero Arts new reactive ink.

For the sentiment I die cut that out of the same shimmer panel used for the background.

Are you on social media? We are! Please join us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook? so you don’t miss any fun promotions or new challenge announcements!

Hero Arts Reef Border with Frame Fancy Die
Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kit July 2016 – turtle
Hero Arts Color Layering Seahorse
Karen Bruniston Word Set 1 – Greetings die set
Tim Holtz Silver Sparkle Alcohol Ink Cardstock
Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink
Hero Arts ink cubes

Hero Arts Color Layering Monarch Butterfly

June 21, 2019
by Karen L K 2 Comments

Hero Arts Color Layering Stamping

Howdy, here I am again with a project for you that is home decor rather than a card. Sometimes you think what the heck am I going to make then you get rolling and dive in. I have really enjoyed the projects I have made for this months challenge. I made another thing for my craft room. It is not really craft related but sits in my craft room next to my computer. I am going to use the stand I made to hold my birthday lists. I like them right in front of me so I can quickly see the birthdays coming up.

So here we go.

To start off my project I got this wood stand at Michaels craft store. I used Distress paint in a few different colors of brown to paint the wood.

For the butterflies I used the Hero Arts Color Layering Monarch Butterfly stamp set and the Flutterbies Printable digital set. Both of these are available in the a2z Scrapbooking Etsy shop. First I used my Misti to stamp the 3 layers of the larger monarch butterfly. For the 2 smaller butterflies I used the Flutterbies Printable kit to print the pdf with 6 butterflies on it. I just told the printer I was printing on a 4X6 piece of paper which in reality I used an 8 1/2 X 11 piece of Neenah paper. This makes all of the butterflies print smaller. I colored the 2 purple ones with Copic pens. I hand cut all of the butterflies but the Monarch Butterfly matching die is available in the a2z Etsy store. I glued these down over the branches. There are little strips of foam under part of the wings of the orange butterfly and under the purple butterfly on the right to give them some dimension.

Here comes the tricky part…. I decided I wanted to die cut the branches out of Tim Holtz plain tissue paper. You need to make it more stable to run it through a die cut machine. I put some 2 sided adhesive on the tissue and die cut 2 of the branches. The trickiest part is after you take off the backing paper you have a very delicate branch that you have to keep from sticking to itself and get it on to that wood without ripping it. The first one, all good. The second one I had to fight with it.

The clasp that holds the paper at the top is colored with Alcohol Ink.

Here is a look without the list.

Are you on social media? We are! Please join us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook so you don’t miss any fun promotions or new challenge announcements!

Please join us in this month’s “Anything but a Card” challenge for your chance at a free digital stamp set AND, if you used Hero Arts or Sugartree Stamps, a $20 gift card to our Etsy store. Our current monthly challenge can always be found in the menu bar, and runs from the 1st to last day of the month.

Hero Arts Color Layering Monarch Butterfly
Hero Arts Flutterbies Printable
Hero Arts Spring Branch Die
Copic Markers
Distress Paint
Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap – Plain
Hero Arts Ink – Butter Bar, INTENS-ified Black, Tangerine

June 5, 2019
by Karen L K 1 Comment

Hero Arts Color Layering Monarch Butterfly Home Decor

Hello! I am here today with a home decor project I made for my craft room. Our monthly challenge is all about Anything But a Card so here we have it. I tell you I am happy to get nudged to make a fun project that is not a card. I used two Hero Arts sets for this which are Color Layering Monarch Butterfly and Flowers for Coloring. Both are available for purchase in the a2z Scrapbooking Etsy store. Use my discount code Karen15 to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more.

I bought this little box at Michaels with a coupon. I got it to put my dies in after using them so they don’t get lost in the piles.

The first thing was get out the book pages and cut them to fit on each side of the box. I could not get my Mod Podge open so I used 3 in 1 glue which worked better than I thought.

Second stamp the color layering butterfly. This layering butterfly is pretty darn easy to line up. I did use my Misti but it was easier than some of them can be. Tip: I stamp the bottom (largest amount of color) first and then end with the detailed stamp. On the lighter one I used 2 Avery Elle inks and Versafine Onyx Black ink. On the darker one I used 2 Oxide inks and the Versafine. I stamped these on some off white paper and hand cut them out. You can get the matching die in the Etsy shop also. Since you can’t really hand cut the antennae I just stamped the antennae on the book page where I was going to put the butterflies.

And now about the flowers and leaves. I used the Flowers for Coloring for that. I have enjoyed using this set and I think is one to check out. After stamping the flowers on the box I made a mask for each flower. I covered each one with the mask and then stamped the leaves. I colored all of them with colored pencils.

Then I glued the butterflies to the box. It is probably hard to see but I arched the top wings just a bit to give a tiny bit of dimension.

Then I inked around the edges with Oxide Distress ink and lightly here and there on the rest of the book page. I am very happy how it came out.

Here is a few more photos of each side.

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