December My Monthly Hero Release!

Hi friends! It's the first Monday in December, and that means it is Hero Arts monthly release day! Yay! My favorite day each month.

For my post today, I created with one of the gorgeous new add-on products - Universal Woman. This stamp set speaks to me - it is everything that I want my daughter to believe about herself. So, I created a set of ornaments for her to hang in her bedroom.

I've had a stash of wood "slices" in my craft room for years, and every now and then I dip into them for a project. This month, with the natural, Earthy feel of the release, my wood chips called to me once more.

I love to color on the wood with my colored pencils. Warning - it does wear them down quickly, so if you ever try this, have a pencil sharpener close by! I stamped the images from the set onto the wood with Intens-ified Black ink, and began coloring.

For the sentiments, I colored the backgrounds first with pencil, before stamping the wood. When coloring on the wood, sometimes the grains in the wood leave impressions that aren't exactly what you were expecting. I've learned to just embrace those differences and uniqueness - just like this stamp set encourages you to believe being unique is wonderful. I finished my little ornaments with Stardust Stickles and some Hero Arts sequins. I'm attaching magnets to the backs of these, so my daughter can hang them on her metal memo board on her wall.

Here's a look at this full stamp set - so gorgeous!

Now be sure to hop along this month - Hero Arts is giving away a $50 shopping spree, drawn from one lucky hopper. You don't want to miss your chance for that!! I am the last person on the hop - but head back to the Hero Arts blog to start at the very beginning.

Hero Arts
Amy Kolling
Caly Person
Channin Pelletier
Daniel West
Debi Adams
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Laurie Willison
Lisa Spangler
Lydia Fiedler
Michelle Short
Nichol Spohr
Libby Hickson (you are here!)

I'll copy all of the products from the release into the thumbnails below - it is an absolutely GORGEOUS release, I love every single thing!

Happy Stamping!

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!

Universal Woman Shop at: Hero	Ombre Purple Sequins Shop at: Hero	Ombre Sunshine Sequins Shop at: Hero	Ombre Blue Sequins Shop at: Hero
Intens-ified Black Ink Shop at: Hero	Precision Glue Shop at: Hero	My Monthly Hero December 2019 Shop at: Hero	CG803 Wonders of the World Bold Prints Shop at: Hero
CM407 Beautiful World Shop at: Hero	CM408 Staggering Branches Shop at: Hero	CM415 Nature's Beauty Shop at: Hero	CM422 Carry The World Shop at: Hero
DI720 World Window Fancy Die (B) Shop at: Hero	DI721 Earth Nature Fancy Die with Frame (E) Shop at: Hero	DI723 Carry The World Frame Cuts (C) Shop at: Hero	E6370 Celebrate Earth Bears Shop at: Hero
K6367 Natural Wonders of the World Shop at: Hero	K6368 Architectural Wonders of the World Shop at: Hero	K6369 Celebrate Earth Whales Shop at: Hero	Get Them All Add-Ons Shop at: Hero

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