Hero Arts Anniversary Blog Hop - Day 1 - Release + GIVEAWAY!

Hello and welcome! Today I am hopping with Hero Arts, celebrating their 45th Anniversary with the release of the 2019 Summer Catalog. 45 years is such an incredible accomplishment!!

For today's card, I played with one of my favorite things from the new release - the yummy Reactive Inks! They are fabulous - they blend like a dream, and are extra fun when spritzed with water. I combined them with the Paper Layering Seahorses die.

For my background, I blended together Pool Party and Blue Hawaii inks. I then added drops of water, both by misting and then by addding larger droplets with my fingers. There is a subtle design in the background, which is the Bubbles Bold Prints stamped with the new Clear Embossing & Watermark Ink.

The seahorse die cut was covered direct-to-paper with the Clear Embossing & Watermark Ink, and then sprinkled with Sparkling Sea embossing powder and heat set. This embossing powder is really unique and fun - it contains large clear embossing pieces, a hint of blue, and some sparkle. It's great for embossing large things like this entire seahorse, but it's quite chunky and wouldn't work for detailed images or messages. I die cut the seahorse a second time, and covered that one direct-to-paper with the Blue Hawaii ink, and layered it behind the embossed seahorse. The message from Mix & Match Compliments was stamped in Blue Hawaii, and I adhered a few Ombre Blue Sequins with Precision Glue to finish the card.

Today's hop contains prizes from a bunch of wonderful sponsors! Check the Hero Arts blog for all of the details!

Winners will be drawn from people who leave comments along the blog hop over the three days - comment all three days for more chances to win! Comment by Sunday, June 2 at 11:59pm PST, and they will announce the winners on the Hero Arts blog the following week. Here's the list of hoppers:

Hero Arts
Caly Person
Debi Adams
Ellen Hutson LLC
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Julee Tilman
Kathy Racoosin
Libby Hickson (you are here!)
Mariana Grigsby
May Sukyong Park
Michelle Short
Yana Smakula

My love for Hero Arts began almost 10 years ago, when a random tweet made me end up with the dream job of working with them. Seriously - I tweeted something like "I wish someone would hire me for a crafty dream job" and it happened to be seen by a Hero Arts employee at the time, my sweet soon-to-be friend, Lisa Spangler. It's pretty crazy - sometimes if you just put things out into the universe, things will happen! I love Hero Arts stamps, but for me the best part is the wonderful people I've gotten to work with over the years.

(Sorry to my wonderful coworkers who aren't pictured here - you are all amazing!!)

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!

Blue Hawaii Reactive Ink Shop at: Hero	Pool Party Reactive Ink Shop at: Hero	Clear Embossing and Watermark Ink Shop at: Hero	Paper Layering Seahorses Shop at: Hero
Bubbles Bold Prints Shop at: Hero	Sparkling Sea Embossing Powder Shop at: Hero	Mix and Match Compliments Shop at: Hero	Ombre Blue Sequins Shop at: Hero
Precision Glue Shop at: Hero

Happy Birthday Justice Ginsburg Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hello and welcome! Today I'm hopping with some friends to celebrate the birthday of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She's 86 years young today. I recently learned more about her when I saw the documentary "RBG", and I am so thankful for all the work she's done for women's rights and  gender equality. Long before she was a Justice, she was taking cases to the Supreme Court. And she went to Harvard Law School when very few women did. She's been a trailblazer her entire life.

One of my favorite RBG quotes is: “I ask no favor for my sex; all I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”

For some crazy reason I thought she needed to be purple.

I used the fabulous new Wonderful Women set from Kelly Purkey. A layering stamp set with Justice Ginsburg? Yes please! I stamped her with Hero Arts Orchid Ink and Intense Black Ink. The little crown is stamped in Dandelion Ink, then covered with Snowfall Glitter. I stamped the message in Unicorn White Ink - I'm wishing I had white embossed it, the ink isn't showing up very well in the photo.

The card is rather silly but the sentiment is real - Happy Birthday QUEEN!

Love the stamp set I used? We are lucky to be able to offer prizes to four winners -- two Wonderful Women sets by Kelly Purkey as well as two Dare to Dream sets from Hero Arts. Thanks to these wonderful sponsors. We will pick the winners of the sets from comments placed on all the blogs through March 19th 11:59pm ET and announce the winners on Joan Bardee's blog on March 21st.

And now let's hop!! Please join my fabulous friends and see what they've created today!

Amy Tsuruta
Coni Longley
Jan Tinklenberg
Joan Bardee
Katie Brooks
Libby Hickson (you are here!)
Lisa Bzibziak
Michele Ferguson

Thanks for stopping by,

March My Monthly Hero Release + Giveaway!

It's My Monthly Hero launch day over at Hero Arts, and this month's release is one of my all-time favorites!! I love all things ocean (well, except actually being IN the ocean... what can I say, I saw Jaws at too young of an age...!). And I love aquariums. I dream of having a salt water aquarium of my own. Maybe someday! But for now, I'll just have to stamp aquariums with this awesome kit!

The stamps in the kit are solid, silhouette stamps. Instead of stamping them as black silhouettes or in bright colors, I decided to use them as a guide for some coloring! I begin by using the awesome Sea Salt Reactive Ink in the kit, and stamped onto Adriatic cardstock.

Then I got to work with my Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils. I love coloring with pencils over white ink on darker cardstock. Here's a closer look:

I finished the card by die cutting a matching oval out of a white panel, then attaching it all to a white card base, adding a thin strip of gold glitter cardstock from my stash.

Here's a look at the full kit:

And be sure to check out the add-ons this month as well, they are fantastic!!

Now it's time to hop! Next up is my sweet friend Mariana Grigsby! I'm so happy to see her joining us today, using Hero Arts products. Yay! Make sure and visit all of the blogs in the hop and comment for a chance to win a kit! Here's the full hop list:

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

And if you'd like to see the kit up close and personal, join me TONIGHT (March 4th) at 9pm eastern on the Hero Arts Facebook page, where I'll be doing a live release spotlight. If you're not able to tune in right at 9pm, it will be available on replay as well!

Take care,

Get Cracking on Christmas - February 2019

Today I'm joining my blogging friends to begin my efforts to have a stash of Christmas cards by December. Each month, we'll share a holiday cards or projects as we Get Cracking on Christmas!

My card today is in a bit of a different color palette for Christmas, pink! I dug out an old Hero Arts set that's not even available anymore - Peace Poinsettias - and gold embossed the flowers on lovely new Hero Arts Sand cardstock. The coloring was done with my Polychromos pencils. A bit of gold shimmer spray, sequins, and a message embossed in gold finished the card.

Be sure to stop by and see if my fabulous friends shared today as well: Jenn, Cheiron, Chari & Caryn.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Hero Arts 2019 Catalog Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hello! I am hopping along with Hero Arts today, to introduce all of the wonderful goodies that were introduced in the new 2019 Hero Arts Catalog - and now available in the Hero Arts store!

Today's post is all about butterflies! I wanted to share some of the fabulous new butterflies in this release, specifically the Nesting Butterflies Infinity Dies. This is a set of six butterfly dies in various sizes, plus some antennae dies, too. There are so many things you can do with this die set!

For this first card, I used the tiniest butterfly in the set, and cut it out repeatedly using the GORGEOUS new cardstock in both Papaya and Pumpkin. (Can I just pause for a moment and tell you just how INCREDIBLY EXCITED I AM about this new cardstock??? It's my favorite new thing in this release by far! If you've used the Hero Layering Paper in the past, you know what a huge change this is!) Attaching all of the butterflies to this card with foam tape was a labor of love. It's all on a panel of Dove White, which was in turn mounted on more Pumpkin then Pitch Black. The message is from a fabulous new little 3x4 message set - Hero Greetings Sending Smiles.

This next card again uses the Nesting Butterflies Infinity Dies.

This time I used a little larger butterfly from the die set, and layered the butterflies together. The gorgeous blue cardstock is called Paradise, and I layered a vellum butterfly on top using just a small line of the fabulous new Precision Glue along only the center. The line of glue was hidden with gems. And that spectacular background? That's a new background stamp called Ocean Waves Bold Prints. I embossed it with Sparkle embossing powder on Sand cardstock for a subtle background.

The message on the card above was from the gorgeous new Color Layering Monarch Butterfly set, which I believe you've seen on other cards in this hop. There's also the New Day Butterflies stamp set in this release, as well as a Monarch Butterfly Fancy Die.

And now, let's get hopping! I was the last stop on today's hop, but be sure to go back and visit all of the blogs! We're giving away FOUR (!!) $50 gift certificates to the Hero Arts store - you don't want to miss your chance to win! Comments close on Sunday February 17th at midnight PST, so get to hopping!

The Hero Arts Blog
Caly Person
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Michelle Short
Nichol Spohr
Yana Smakula
Amy Kolling
Debi Adams
Jennifer McGuire
Julee Tilman
Kathy Racoosin
Kelly Latevola
Laurie Willison
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis
Libby Hickson (you are here!)

Thanks for stopping by,

Guest Designing with a2z Scrapbooking!

Today I'm honored to be guest designing for a2z Scrapbooking!

I was inspired by this gorgeous February Challenge mood board to create a Valentine's card. I loved the pinks and greys of the board.

I had fun using the adorable Stealing My Heart stamp set and matching dies. I combined it with the gorgeous Bursting with Love Bold Prints background. A little Silver Sparkle embossing powder is always a good thing.

To see more about this card, be sure to head on over to the a2z Scrapbooking blog!

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!

Stealing My Heart Shop at: Hero	Stealing My Heart Frame Cuts Shop at: Hero	Bursting with Love Bold Prints Shop at: Hero	Classic Vellum Layering Paper Shop at: Hero
SIlver Sparkle Embossing Powder Shop at: Hero