Get Cracking On Christmas - November 2019

Hello! Today I'm popping in to share a Christmas card, as part of the Get Cracking On Christmas series. My friend Jenn Shurkus encourages us to create Christmas cards throughout the year, so when December comes along you have a nice stash available to send!

Today I'm sharing a card I've taught at a couple stores this fall.

It features the Hero Arts Poinsettia Ornament and Frame Fancy Die. I absolutely LOVE this die, it's so pretty. It has two parts to it - the inner part and the ornament frame. You can use each part separately, or combine them together to create a standalone ornament. That's how I used it today, cutting it directly out of the front panel of my card.

I began by painting the ornament with Glimmer Metallic Inks - Red & Green as well as Gold. I love the metallic shine they add to the card!

Next I stamped the Noel Print Bold Prints on the card front in black ink. Vellum cardstock was added to the front inside of the card, then the painted ornament was glued back in place.

The message from From the Vault Home Scene was stamped on the inside of the card, and shows through the vellum.

Now it's time to head on over and see what my crafty friends are up to! Check out the Get Cracking posts from Jenn, Chari, Caryn and Cheiron!

Thanks for stopping by!

November My Monthly Hero Release!

Hi friends!

I'm just popping in to make sure you know about the FABULOUS new release from Hero Arts for November, and to let you know I'll be going over the entire release in detail on the Hero Arts Facebook page tomorrow, November 5th at 3pm eastern. I hope you'll tune in!

There is a wonderful blog hop going on today over at Hero Arts - be sure to check out these incredible artists and bloggers, it's sure to be full of inspiration!

The Hero Arts Blog
Amy Kolling
Caly Person
Channin Pelletier
Daniel West
Debi Adams
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Julee Tilman
Laurie Willison
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis
Mariana Grigsby
Nichol Spohr
Seeka
Yana Smakula

Thanks for stopping by,

Hero Arts + Altenew - Celebrating our Industry!

Today I'm hopping along with Hero Arts as we introduce the latest collaboration stamp set. This time Hero has teamed up with Altenew for - you guessed it - a beautiful floral stamp set! Altenew sure knows how to do amazing florals, don't they? It's called Bloom & Grow, and it's definitely swoon-worthy!

For my card, I decided to emboss the giant flower on some Vellum cardstock using Brass Embossing Powder. I wanted to show that you can create a lovely card without having to be a coloring pro!

I trimmed out the flower with some scissors, then mounted it on Adriatic cardstock I had stamped in Clear Embossing & Watermark Ink using the Hearts & Flowers Bold Prints cling stamp. The entire card is large to compliment the large bloom - 5 1/2 inches square. I used some gold cardstock from my stash for the base layer.

The stamp set is full of lovely mixed-font messages - I embossed "have an amazing day" again in Brass Embossing Powder, this time on Dove White cardstock, and mounted across my flower, also providing a spot to hide some adhesive. I finished the card with Clear Enamel Dots - which, by the way, are now back in stock on the Hero site!

Now it's time to hop! You should have arrived here from my friend Laurie's blog - if not, hop back to Hero Arts to start at the beginning! Next up is Lilith - I can't wait to see what she made! Be sure to visit all of the blogs along the hop, there are some great goodies up for grabs - $25 gift cards from both Hero Arts and Altenew as well as one of these gorgeous stamp sets. Leave your comments by Sunday, October 27th and look for the winners next week on the Hero Arts blog.

Hero Arts
Altenew
Ashlea Cornell
Caly Person
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jaycee Gaspar
Jen Schow
Kathy Racoosin
Laurie Willison
Libby Hickson (you are here!)
Lilith Eeckels
Maryám Pérez
Michelle Short
Nathalie DeSousa
Nichol Spohr
Norine Borys
Svitlana Shayevich
Virginia Lu
Yana Smakula

Thanks for stopping by,

Affiliate links are used on this blog, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting me, and clicking on my links to shop!

HA + Altenew Bloom & Grow Shop at: Hero	Hearts & Flowers Bold Prints Shop at: Hero	Brass Embossing Powder Shop at: Hero	Clear Embossing & Watermark Ink Shop at: Hero
Classic Vellum Layering Paper Shop at: Hero	Hero Hues Premium Cardstock Adriatic Shop at: Hero	Hero Hues Premium Cardstock Dove White Shop at: Hero	Clear Hero Hues Enamel Dots Shop at: Hero
Precision Glue Shop at: Hero

Get Cracking on Christmas - Gift Card Holder

Hi friends! Today I'm joining my wonderful friend Jenn Shurkus, posting for "Get Cracking on Christmas"! I haven't been too great about posting this year - I really haven't done much "cracking" other than making holiday cards for my day job - but Jenn's *idea* to make Christmas cards throughout the year so you're ready when the holidays hit is a good one. Maybe next year??

But today, I'm sharing a fun idea for a gift card holder! We always need those during the holidays, don't we? I got this idea from my amazing friend Debi Adams, who made this sort of card for the July Hero Arts release.

I decorated the front of my gift card holder with one of my favorite things from the Hero Arts Oh What Fun winter release - the Paper Layering Poinsettia dies. I die cut the pieces in watercolor paper, then painted them with my Reactive Reinkers (Fruit Punch, Lemon Drop and Green Apple). I mixed in a bit of White Glimmer Metallic Ink to give the petals a pretty, shimmery, pearlescent look. Then of course, the flower center needed some Icicle Glitter!

Now here's the fun part - I turned this into a quick & easy gift card holder by using a business envelope! Simply score and fold the sides into the middle, and cut the flap so only the side flaps are attached down. You could decorate the inside of the holder as well, but I kept it simple, creating a card that's sized to fit right down into the envelope. I could attach a gift card directly to it with a glue dot.

The front of the holder was also decorated with my favorite stencil this holiday season - the Poinsettia Stencil. I used my blending brush with some Fruit Punch Reactive Ink through the stencil.

Now let's see what my crafty friends are sharing today! Head out over and visit Jenn, Cheiron and Caryn have created today!

Happy Crafting!

Affiliate links are used on this blog, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting me, and clicking on my links to shop!

Paper Layering Poinsettia Dies Shop at: Hero	Poinsettia Stencil Shop at: Hero	Color Layering Nordic Tree Shop at: Hero	Fruit Punch Reactive Ink Reinker Shop at: Hero
Lemon Drop Reactive Ink Reinker Shop at: Hero	Green Apple Reactive Ink Reinker Shop at: Hero	Fruit Punch Reactive Ink Shop at: Hero	Intens-ified Black Ink Shop at: Hero
Icicle Pure White Glitter Shop at: Hero	Rose Gold & White Glimmer Metallic Inks Shop at: Hero	Precision Glue Shop at: Hero	Nesting Circle Infinity Dies Shop at: Hero

September My Monthly Hero Release + Giveaway!

Hello! Today I'm hopping along with Hero Arts to launch the latest My Monthly Hero kit and fabulous add-ons! I really love the theme this month. The main kit adds to one of my very favorite product lines - the Peek-a-Boo dies! But this time it is paired with a clear stamp set rather than a cling stamp, which is super fun. And, the die from the kit will work well with the previously released cling stamps, so awesome!!

But for my card today, instead of the main kit, I worked with a wonderful new cling background stamp called Bug Collection Bold Prints.

I'm not gonna lie, I don't love bugs. But I really love this stamp! There's something about bug collections, they are so pretty with all the colorful bugs and butterflies! This stamp is great all colored in and used at the focal point, as I did, but it's also great as a tone on tone background, too! You can kind of see that in this photo, of my card in progress.

I started by stamping the background on Mustard cardstock with Clear Embossing and Watermark Ink, and embossing in Clear Embossing Powder. Then I went a little nutty with the fussy cutting and paper piecing!!

Here's a look at the Copics I used for coloring my bugs and butterflies.

For the message, I dug out another of my all-time favorite bug stamp sets, the Color Layering Monarch Butterfly. I love the font of the "hello" in that set.

I didn't want to cut off any of the gorgeous stamp, so I made a large 6x6 card. I just used a piece of 12x12 paper for the card base, cut down to 12x6 and scored. I lined it with a smaller 5x5 piece of white cardstock.

Be sure to check out all of the stamps and dies from this release, there are so many fun things! You can view the entire collection HERE.

And now it's time to hop! Be sure to visit everyone on the hop - one winner will be drawn from all of the comments left across the hop to win a free kit. Get those comments in by Sunday September 8th at 11:59pm pacific time.

The Hero Arts Blog
Amy Kolling
Caly Person
Debi Adams
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Julee Tilman
Laurie Willison
Libby Hickson (you are here!)
Lydia Fiedler
Mariana Grigsby
Michelle Short
Nichol Spohr

And if you want to see the kit and other products up close, with lots of card samples and some giveaways too, be sure to tune into the Facebook Live on the Hero Arts Facebook page. We're doing it at a different time this month - it will be tomorrow, Wednesday September 4th, at 3pm eastern. I hope you can join me! But if you can't, it will be available on replay as well!

As we launch this kit, our hearts are heavy with the news out of the Bahamas, and our thoughts are with the East Coast of the United States as we all hope and pray the hurricane stays out to sea. For each September kit sold, $1 will be donated by Hero Arts to help those impacted by the devastation and displacement caused by Hurricane Dorian. <-- and="" arts="" hero="" i="" is="" love="" many="" of="" one="" p="" reasons="" the="" this="">
Thanks for stopping by,

Hero Arts Oh What Fun Catalog Blog Hop + Giveaway!

I'm hopping with Hero Arts as they release their 2019 Oh What Fun winter collection. You should have arrived here from the amazing Laura Bassen. If you didn't, head on back to the Hero Arts blog to start at the beginning - there are fabulous prizes today that you don't want to miss out on!

Today I'm sharing one of the cards I made for the printed catalog. I love all of the fun "peek-a-boo" projects, and love that they continued this line with the new release!

First, how adorable is this Birch Forest Background Cling?! I stamped it in Summer Sky ink on Dove White cardstock, and then traced around the trees with a fine tipped marker.

I cut out my trees using the new Circular Peek-a-boo Doors Fancy Die (I love the rectangles from the original Peek-a-boo Doors Fancy Die, but this is so great to have options!).

Inside my doors, I stamped the sweetest little animals!! They are from the new Winter Forest Animals stamp set, and I am in love. I colored them with my Copics.

I stamped messages from the same stamp set, as well as some tiny holiday messages from the 3x4 Hero Greetings Christmas Messages, which also pairs well with these peek-a-boo doors.

If you love the peek-a-boo line, be sure to check out Winter Village Peek-a-boo Cling and Halloween Scene Background Cling - so many fun new options for creating peek-a-boo cards!

Ok, now let's get hopping! Next up is my wonderful, talented and amazing friend Lydia Fiedler! Be sure to visit everyone on the hop - Hero Arts is giving away two $50 gift cards, drawn randomly from comments left across the hop. Here's the amazing list of artists joining us today:

Hero Arts
Caly Person
Debby Hughes
Debi Adams
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Jenn Shurkus
Jennifer McGuire
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Julee Tilman
Laura Bassen
Libby Hickson (you are here!)
Lydia Fiedler
Mariana Grigsby
Nichol Spohr
Wanda Guess
Yana Smakula

Thanks for stopping by today!