Hi, friends, it’s Chark here today to show you some digital stamps I turned into cards. I took the City Adventures digital stamps and printed the city silhouette onto dull (not glossy) coated paper twice. After that, I used Distress Oxides to color the backgrounds. I used a lots of water to mix and swirl the colors. When I was happy with them, I let them dry.
I did wipe down the silhouette with a paper towel to get the Oxide inks off the black images, but it worked fine. You’ll notice I moved the cityscape to one side for the Valentine so I could put in the sentiment and hearts.
For one of the cards, I added a birthday sentiment to one card and to the other one, I added a digital sentiment and digital hearts from The Firmament digi kit. In this close-up you can see the Silver Stickles I used for the stars.
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!
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Please join us in this month’s “New to Me” challenge for your chance at a free digital stamp AND, if you used Hero Arts, a $20 gift card to our a2z Scrapbooking Supplies 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! Get discounted new releases, sales, grab bags & more. Proceeds from our store benefit Celiac & Behcets disease foundations. Use my discount code Chark15 to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. If you’re looking for a Hero Arts product you don’t see in store, use the Request Custom Order button from with-in the shop.
Erica back on the blog today with a card to get into the Christmas spirit. I’m always stressing a little bit about my Christmas cards so I am trying to get ahead a little bit. Being European, we don’t do Thanksgiving so November is all about getting prepared and planning for Christmas. Not that I need an excuse to get crafty.
You might have noticed that I have used a lot of texture paste or embellishment mousse on my recent projects in the last month or so and I couldn’t help myself, I got it out again. Eh, what can I say? Once the texture paste beast has got you in its grips, it is hard to get away.
I also used one of the striped stamps from Hero Arts Happy Mail which I stamped along the side of the card panel. To keep with the colour scheme I used a Hero Arts dark green ink which came in one of the monthly kits, I think it was Hero Arts Thanksgiving Letter Layering ink cube set but don’t hold me to that.
To add some texture to the card, I got a stencil and some BoBunny Glitter paste (you could try Nuvo Golden Crystal Glimmer paste for a similar effect) and got to work. Instead of adding it all over the card, I kept it to one single line of leaves. Or well, I tried. I strayed a little and didn’t want to risk ruining the whole card by wiping it off so there are a few little rebellious bits there. Anyway, I thought it ended up looking a bit like a pine needles which is exactly what I wanted. Yay!
I found this really, really old HA Christmas tree stamp set (it’s so old it’s been retired but you could use Hero Arts Classic Christmas Tree and the coordinating frame cut ) and I stamped it up on Copic friendly paper and then got my markers out to colour it in. I used loads of different ones to give it a realistic look. I have a coordinating die for this but forgot where I put it so I used my scissors to fussy cut it out. I added the tree to the card using foam tape, it is my go-to adhesive. Then I stamped a ‘Merry Christmas’ sentiment on white card stock with VersaMark ink and I heat embossed it with Ranger Ink Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder before adhering it to the card too.
This card ended up very green and it’s not my favourite colour to be honest but it works very well with gold accents I think.
One Christmas card done, about 50 to go…
Happy crafting from
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Please join us in this month’s “Winter” challenge for your chance at a free digital stamp AND, if you used Hero Arts, a $20 gift card to our Hero Arts 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! Get discounted new releases, sales, grab bags & more. Proceeds from our store benefit Celiac & Behcets disease foundations. Use my discount code Erica15 to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. If you’re looking for a Hero Arts product you don’t see in store, use the Request Custom Order button from with-in the shop.
Hello! Yes, it’s the one-trick-pony Erica back on the blog, with… *drumroll*… another card using texture paste and Hero Arts stencils! Ta-Da!
After this post, I promise I will do something different. Absolutely. Most definitely. Almost positively sure. Maybe… just one or two more? It is just so much fun!!
For this card I thought I combine ink blending and texture paste to add lots of dimension and interest to a rather simple design. I started out by getting some water colour card stock out and I taped it down to a sheet of clear acetate. This is to use both as a mop-up of any ink blending messes and also as a sort of palette for my mixing of the texture paste and ink.
I used the Hero Arts Large Flower Stencil (which is sold out in the shop but if you want to order it, use the ‘request custom order’) but the Hero Arts Spiral Stencil would look fab too. Starting out, I dotted Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink in the middle and for the petals I used Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide ink. I didn’t make it very vivid as the idea was to have a light colour underneath and then mix the texture paste with some ink for highlights on some of the petals.
To mix the colour and the paste, I simply dabbed my ink pad on the acetate and then mixed a bit of Ranger Ink White Texture Paste with my spatula. I didn’t mix it overly well as I wanted both the white and the pink to show. Using the spatula I spread the paste on selected petals, going from the middle and outwards. For the middle, I did the same thing with the yellow ink and the paste but this I mixed up very well before I dabbed it on rather than spreading, to get LOTS of texture.
Lifting the stencil is alway the most fun part, as although you have a general idea of how it is going to look, it’s still a revelation!
As the flower was looking rather spectacular I didn’t want to cover up too much of it so sentiment wise I went really simple. A single word stamp and die set from The Ton Stamps that says ‘hugs’, which I cut out from yellow card stock and stamped the sentiment in Picked Raspberry Oxide Ink. I also added a few of the circles and some sequins that matched the pink ink almost perfectly.
When I was looking for the perfect card base for this card I almost went with white, but then I spotted some Lawn Fawn card stock in Guava and thought it would be perfect to add just a tiny bit of accent to the card. I chopped off a thin sliver of the card panel and added it to the card base using double sided foam sheet (cut to perfect size) for a bit of dimension and to add some subtle detailing.
And that my friends, concludes this months third texture paste/embellishment mousse cards! I’ve tried to show different techniques to lure you into the wonderfully messy world of texture paste and I’d love to see what you come up with. Pop a picture in the comment section if you want, sharing is caring after all.
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Please join us in this months “Watercolor” challenge for your chance at a free digital stamp AND, if you used Hero Arts, a $20 gift card to our Hero Arts 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! Get discounted new releases, sales, grab bags & more. Proceeds from our store benefit Celiac & Behcets disease foundations. Use my discount code Erica15 to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. If you’re looking for a Hero Arts product you don’t see in store, use the Request Custom Order button from with-in the shop.
Hello, hello! How is everyone doing? I hope those affected by storms, hurricanes and floods are safe and sound as well as on your way of getting your lives back on track, houses and yards cleaned up and craft rooms re-organised.
I have now been in a new house for about 3 weeks and slowly but surely getting it to feel like a home rather than just a building with our stuff in it. My craft room is another story… I can’t seem to get the flow right or getting furniture to fit ‘just right’ and it’s very frustrating. I feel a good flowing craft room is good for the mojo, if the room doesn’t inspire me I’m out of luck.. Luckily for me I made the cards I’m going to show you today before we moved, in anticipation of not getting into the swing of things very quickly perhaps. Also, sadly the Hero Arts CM131 Purr stamp set is sold out in the A2Z Scrapbooking Store but you can use the ‘Request Custom Order’ button to contact the store owner who will happily order it for you. The coordinating Hero Arts DI366 Frame Cuts to the stamp set is still available in the shop though.
Right, well, it’s probably time to get down to the crafty side of things, isn’t it? For these two cards, I’ve coloured the kitty cats with both Copic and Zig Clean Color markers, one card is clean and simple and the other one has a bit of everything going on!
For card no1 I started out by die cutting a piece of Strathmore Bristol Vellum watercolour card stock, using a Mama Elephant creative cut called Femme Frames. It gives a lovely scalloped border and adds a subtle bit of interest. I also cut out a few masks as I was planning on piling a few cushions on top of each other for one of the kitties to stretch out on. Using MFT hybrid ink in Black Licorice, I stamped up my images with a bit of help from my Mini MISTI and the masks I had cut out. Above the cat I also stamped up the heart image and the sentiment ‘lazy days are the best’. It just fit perfectly with my lazy cat! I coloured the panel with my Zig Clean Color markers and kept the colours quite intense, there is hardly any water added to the colouring at all.
Once it was dry, I adhered the panel to a white card base using a piece of foam sheet I had cut to size as well as added a few clear sparkly sequins with glossy accents. With that, the first card was done!
Onward to card no2! I coloured the cats with my Copic markers and used the coordinating frame cuts to cut them out. Setting these two aside, I got that Mama Elephant Femme Frame creative cut out again but this time I used pink card stock. My colour scheme for this card was going to be pink and grey, and the card base was cut out, scored and folded. I nearly added the pink card stock to it right away but thought it needed a little something to jazz it up. Grabbing an embossing folder with fish bones all over it, I ran the panel through my Big Shot with it and was happier with it. I still thought it needed a little something else though so with a mini ink blending tool I dabbed Distress Oxide ink in Picked Raspberry to highlight the fishbones.
In the same grey colour card stock as the card base, I cut out a fish tail banner using MFT Die-Namics Stitched Fishtail Flag. On this I again used the Distress Oxide inks and a homemade heart stencil to create a patterned paper. I also found a little stitched label in white card stock in my big pile of unused bits and bobs, it was the perfect size to stamp the sentiment ‘I’d spend all nine lives with you’ and I added one of the kitties to it using some foam tape. The other kitty was added directly to the heart stencilled banner, also with foam tape and this kitty responds with ‘I meow you’ which is cut out using the little speech bubble that comes with the coordinating frame cuts.
Well, with that I will leave you to enjoy your day and I hope I have inspired you to get crafty soon!
Happy crafting!
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 months “CASE a Designer” challenge for your chance at a $25 gift card to the a2z 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! Get discounted new releases, sales, grab bags & more. Proceeds from our store benefit Celiac & Behcets disease foundations. Use my discount code ERICA15to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. If you’re looking for a Hero Arts product you don’t see in store, use the Request Custom Order button from within the shop.
Erica on the blog today with a couple of summery cards. The summer here is awful, too much rain and not enough sunshine. Not that it matters in the craft room though and I sure made up for it with these cards!
I started out by getting the Hero Arts Layering Hydrangea stamp (it’s sold out in the shop but can be obtained easily) and lots of different ink colours. One thing I always do when I have a new layering stamp is try out lots and lots, and I really mean loooooots, of colour combinations to see which ones I like the best. I ended up with quite a few flowers and leaves I must admit. Perhaps a few more than I actually needed but oh well, one must take one for the team sometimes.
When I finally stopped stamping I got the Hero Arts Coordinating Frame Cut out and cut out all the flowers and leaves. I decided to add little enamel accents in the middle of all the flowers in complimenting colours and set these aside to dry.
Then it was time to start looking at backgrounds and I thought it would be nice to do some ink blending on them with the Long Leaves Stencil (also sadly, out of stock but can be ordered). I got two Distress Oxide inks out in green shades, Cracked Pistachio and Peeled Paint, and got to work! Using soft movements and not a lot of ink, I blended away until I was happy with the results.
Next I spread out all the flowers and picked three in the same colour family, one with blue-green colours and one with pink-red colours. These I glued together on the back to make sure they didn’t move and then carefully I added leaves in places where I thought it would look the most natural. My inner florist and flower lover took a lot of pleasure in this process. I LOVE flowers!
To finish these cards off was quite easy as most of the time consuming bits had already been done at this point. I might have done the bunches a bit too big as it was a bit tricky to get the whole shebang onto the card without the leaves sticking out too much, despite using 5 1/4” x 5 1/4” card bases. Oops, eh?
In order to show that this layout is quite versatile, I decided to put different sentiments on them both. I stamped up ‘Happy Birthday’ on a small white banner in blue Distress Oxide ink. This stamp is from a Hero Arts stamp set called Hero Arts Balloon Animal Birthday .
On the pink card I simply cut out the word ‘thanks’ in gold glitter card stock, using a Lawn Fawn die. This I adhered to the card using glossy accents. I tried to leave the cards quite simple and let the flowers speak for themselves as they make quite a lot of impact on their own.
Here are the cards now and that is it from me for today. I hope I have inspired you to get your layering stamps out, try different colour combinations and make your own version of these.
That’s it from me for today. Happy crafting from
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 months “Bright & Beautiful” challenge for your chance at a $25 gift card to the a2z 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! Get discounted new releases, sales, grab bags & more. Proceeds from our store benefit Celiac & Behcets disease foundations. Use my discount code Erica15 to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. If you’re looking for a Hero Arts product you don’t see in store, use the Request Custom Order button from within the shop.
Hi, crafty friends, Chark here today to share some fun stenciling. I picked up some black paper that is meant for chalk markers and used the Hero Arts Diamond Stencil with Distress Oxide Inks. I used Cracked Pistachio, Faded Jeans and Fossilized Amber with an ink blender through the stencil, just like any inks. The result was a chalky looking, crisp image that shows up well on black. I didn’t use any water with the inks this time around. I cut out the panel with the Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle dies and then used the corner rounder on two corners.
The focal image is the Hero Arts Mum Stem and it’s crazy on sale right now…just $4.50! I used Color Bursts at first but I felt it need some shine and shimmer so I added in some Gansai Tambi Pearl watercolors. They are gorgeous with their shimmer. I want to try them on the black paper next, instead of the white carstock.
For the background for the black panel, I wanted a big contrast, but white cardstock by itself wasn’t working for me. I added a layer of the new Hero Arts Woodgrain Vellum paper and that was just what it needed, some subtle texture (you can see it in the top right of the card).
After I added some gold thread and some beads from my stash (hanging down on the left), it seemed to be missing something, so I added the Congratulations sticker and the gold line stickers on top of a piece of paper swiped with Mermaid Ombre Ink. That seemed to be the trick.
I had fun playing with the Hero Arts Ombre Ink and the Distress Oxide Inks. Hope you’ll have time this month to join in our Hero Arts Anything Goes Challenge!
Happy Monday!
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 months “Anything Goes” challenge for your chance at a $25 gift card to our Hero Arts 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! Get discounted new releases, sales, grab bags & more. Proceeds from our store benefit Celiac & Behcets disease foundations. Use my discount code Chark15 to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. If you’re looking for a Hero Arts product you don’t see in store, use the Request Custom Order button from within the shop.
Hi friends – this month we are focusing on shaped cards; sorry, mine isn’t shaped, #fail, but it’s a tri-fold card! 😀 I still think it’s cool. LOL
Don’t forget, if you see something you like, you can purchase items at the a2z Etsy store for 15% off, code: MicheleG15! And if something is out of stock, please request a custom order!
Also, take some time this montn and join our challenge, we love seeing your creations! Link them up HERE!
I made the ‘cover’ of the tri-fold card with Distress Oxide inks, then stamped the Artistic Dahlia in Hero Arts intense black ink. Since it’s watercolor paper and a bit textured, I outlined the image with a sharpie once I finished coloring the image.
I actually used Press & Seal to color the image; LOVE doing this – adds to the artistic flair I think. Literally, cut a small piece of press and seal, crinkle it up, dip it in ink and ‘sponge’ all over the flowers and leaves.
I die cut the word ‘prayers’ from the center, then also cut it a 2nd time with black foam. I added gold foil to the bottom of the word, mounted it into the negative space onto some black and white striped paper; love how it looks all closed up. Oh yes, I splattered on some gold paint too.
I added a piece of pink paper to the inside, finished out the sentiment and added some hearts.
Thanks for stopping by; can wait to see what YOU create this month!
The a2z scrapbooking store carries a wide variety of Hero Arts products! Get discounted new releases, sales, grab bags & more. Proceeds from our store benefit Celiac & Behcets disease foundations. Use my discount code MicheleG15to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. If you’re looking for a Hero Arts product you don’t see in store, use the Request Custom Order button from within the shop.
Join us in welcoming our Guest Designer for May, Linda Trace! You may know Linda from a lot of places, including co-founding A Blog Named Hero. Linda’s love of Hero Arts and her amazing talent maker her an ideal designer here at a2z Scrapbooking. Thanks, Linda, for sharing this cool card and teaching us to use Distress Oxides in a different way!
Hi everyone!
It’s Linda, I’m super SUPER excited to be here today as guest designer for this month!
I created a card that is simple, but really shows off the amazing products I used. Distress Oxides. Have you tried them yet?! I only needed to see one video of them in use and I was smitten. I’ve had them for a few weeks now and I’ve barely stopped playing with them–seriously amazing!!
I wanted to really show how they stand ‘up’ off dark cardstock.
Here is my card:
To start, I created a top folding horizontal notecard using kraft cardstock, then I cut a panel of black cardstock to 5.5″ wide by 3 3/4″ tall.
I took Broken China, Vintage Photo and Wilted Violet, and one by one, swiped them onto the black cardstock, pressing firmly, then lifting up off the cardstock, before I reached the bottom.
a2z Scrapbooking Supplies 