Watercolored Cardinal

Hey everyone - I'm back with a Merry Monday card - now up to 61 Christmas cards; I'm so excited!! The challenge by Katie this week is to use watercolor on your card. I had stamped a cute cardinal like the inspiration photo on non-watercolor paper. It wasn't turning out like I wanted so I decided to try watercoloring on a linen ATC by Ranger. Here's my card:

I started out stamping the cute lacey border from a clear set (Bubbly Card Borders) by Pink and Main; thanks to my amazing friend Lin for enabling me with this post. I used Distress Inks and then added water to blend the border. Then I stamped the cardinal (from Pink and Main's HollyDays clear set) in black and painted him with a combination of shimmery watercolors and Distress Markers. I softened the stamped edges using a Hickory Smoke Distress marker. I sponged Tumbled Glass Distress ink onto the background and then added random brush strokes of the watercolors. I love the texture of the linen! The Hope (older clear stamp from Hero Arts) is stamped in Pine Needles Distress ink onto a piece of the watercolored background from the scrapped bird panel. I clear embossed it and die cut it with a Sizzix stitched circle. The snowflakes are from Lawn Fawn and I used Enamel Accents for the bird's eye and eyelashes. The paper strip is from the Paper Studio.

Thanks for stopping and be sure to check out all the inspiration at Merry Monday!!

Merry Monday - Sentiment in the Spotlight

Merry Monday, everyone, and the Merry Monday Christmas Challenge blog is back to weekly challenges after a summer of doing two week one. This week, Kathy wants us to let the sentiment be the focal point of the card. See the details and all the great design team cards here!

I was excited to get an order with some Simon Says Stamp Stamptember products, including the exclusive Enchanted Snowflakes set - love this! I knew the ornament with the lovely Merry Christmas flowing through it would be perfect for this challenge. Here's my card:

I stamped the A2 card base (medium shade from Hero Arts Sea Mix set) with SSS Falling Snow tone-on-tone so hard to see. I die cut the ornament and smeared Candy Cane Stickles on it and colored the hanger with bronze Distress Stain. The pine branch is from Impression Obsession, cut from green card stock and embellished with stickles and a Ground Espresso Distress marker. I was hoping the SSS circles would include one that matched this ornament - no such luck! I had to try for the right size on my Silhouette - was a bit off but used it anyway, just trimmed off the excess.

So that's my card for today - thanks for stopping and have a Merry Monday!

Same stamp set - a challenge

Hey everyone - back with a challenge I threw down to my friend, Heather. We both recently ordered a bunch of new Hero Arts supplies from their 2015 Christmas release - love, love, love!! This was all part of their new website makeover so if you haven't checked it out, please do so - it looks great! Many thanks to Hero Arts who is always so good to us former Hostesses!

Anyway, Heather and I both bought the new Color Layering Dimensional Bird (CL906), among many other things. We decided to use this one for our same stamp challenge. Here's my card:

I started by gold embossing the bird with ultra-thick gold embossing powder. I had done another bird using Ranger Princess Gold but it didn't stand out enough. The thing about doing the layers on the bird, though, is that the embossed outlines prevent some of the stamping along the edges. Not to worry, I just filled in with Distress Markers to match the Distress Inks used. Each time I did a layer, I clear embossed it. I did the birdie feet last and apparently some of the bird's lower body wasn't fully clear embossed - I got a bit of gold down there too, but decided it was ok. Couldn't do anything about it but start over which I wasn't about to do!!

I had intended this to be a one layer but after I finished my entire bird with all that embossing, I stamped the branch totally off for the bird to be sitting on it - ugh, hate when that happens! So I ended up fussy cutting the bird. The rest of the card is a one layer. I stamped the card base with Paint on Canvas Bold Print (CG672) using Scattered Straw Distress Ink for a tone-on-tone look. After stamping the branch, I decided I wanted a fall card so I added some leaves & a sentiment from the new clear set Autumn (CL882). I felt the card needed some shading so I went round the leaves with some Distress Markers and then colored some of the lines - just a random few. Oops, I see some ink blobs - guess my fingers had some Aged Mahogany on them. Added a few Hero Arts gems and a couple Doodlebug sprinkle shapes - done!

I had taken a photo of the card but wasn't really sure I like the gold embossing, given the direction the rest of the card. Then I remembered a sheet of gold leaves I bought from the dollar bin at Target! Tried a few before deciding on the two I stuck down. There, that tied in well with the gold embossed bird - whew!! I'm sure I'll have plenty more chances to use this beautiful bird set! I'm also quite sure that dear Heather has come up with something much better than this - can't wait to see it!!

Decided to enter this in Hero Arts current Makeover challenge too, as it's a remake of this birdie card.

Now for one last picture of Misty - in an earlier post, I mentioned putting all the crafty supplies away into the guest room because my brother's cat Misty is visiting. Well, I didn't close the door very well when I was grabbing some items to bring to the kitchen. She hastened to jump onto a card table I had used to pile all sorts of stuff - her little body is wedged next to a tote on which, moments earlier, she was chewing!! I distracted her by snapping my fingers so that's why she's looking up in the photo. Isn't she precious??!

Misty goes home later today after being here for almost two weeks. I will miss her; she has been quite the sweet guest. I won't miss having to watch where the crafty stuff lands - I'm used to keeping it out all over the place with no little animals coming to play with it! You should also have seen her bat a Starbucks cup stopper and a plastic bottle top (aka new Misty toys) all over the living room!!

Thanks for stopping by and if you happen to create something with the Color Layering Dimensional Bird set, I hope you'll share a link - would love to see it!!

Hello duo and a laundry "helper"

Happy Sunday everyone - it's Labor Day weekend and we could hope for a better weather day! It's been raining (or should I say storming) off and on all morning. I went to get gas and lightening struck so close to the station that their power went out for a sec and their system went down. Needless to say I didn't fill up at that moment!!

A couple weeks ago my friend Jayne and I meet Betty for lunch. See Betty's post about it here. Dear Betty brought us some goodies in a yummy bag with a card - thanks again, Betty!! Oh, oh - reminds me, I owe her a thank you card! I made her a card and an ATC so I thought I'd share them today:

I used an old favorite cling stamp by Hero Arts called the Friend Definition, for the little rectangle on the card at left and as the background on the kraft ATC. Both got a "hello" die using a newer Hero Arts Stamp & Cut set DC151 Hello - just love these sets!! The "friend" stamp is from the Hero Arts w/Studio Calico clear set 331234 Oh, Snap - the sentiment is Hello, Friend but I cut off the Hello, - LOL. The card got some branches from Hero Arts Spring Branch fancy die and the ATC got a butterfly from the Color Layering Butterflies die set.

I'm doing the usual Sunday chores including grocery shopping and the dreaded laundry. Today though, I have a little laundry "helper" - my brother's cat Misty. Misty wasn't too interested in yesterday's crafting but she was quite delighted to jump into the laundry basket! At least she waited until I took the dried laundry out of it!! I once had a cat who's favorite spot was on top of the freshly dried laundry - ugh, the cat hair! So here's sweet Misty in the basket:

I also once had a cat who like to help me make the bed with freshly washed sheets. She would dive under the top sheet when I shook it out over the bed! Made a lovely bump as I tried to spread it out!! Thankfully Misty was off to her favorite spot in the window during the bed-making operation.

Well, I'd better head off to make that overdue thank you card for Betty!! Then I hope to have time to play with some new Hero Arts Christmas stuff that came in the mail on Friday. Thanks for stopping and enjoy the Labor Day weekend!!

It's Scramble time again! Quickcard117 with LaVon

On the Hero Arts Flickr group today, LaVon posted a fun Scramble challenge to use one of three Hero Arts Sketches from 2012. I love sketches and these are three I remember fondly. I decided to use sketch # 3 and I'll tell you why in a bit. Here's my card:

I used a fun new Hero Arts clear set that just arrived in my mail yesterday - CL882 Autumn. When I first saw this set I thought it might be fun to color all the little panels on the leaves. Well, not for a Scramble - not  enough time! I'll try it sometime soon, though. The kraft card is stamped with one of Hero Arts' 6x6 bold prints cling stamps called CG671 Forest Floor - just love this stamp. I inked and stamped twice, first with Fossilized Amber and then with Antique Linen with splashes of Gathered Twigs. I used the same Distress inks for the leafy panel. The little label is from a set of three by Memory Box called Pastry Labels. The embellies are from Doodlebug.

I went with sketch 3 as it seemed the quickest. I put away all my crafty supplies due to my brother's cat coming over for a visit. Misty enjoys her "vacation" from her home on the other side of the Twin Cities! One of her favorite spots is the windowsill in my lower level family room. If the blinds are closed she will meow until I open them!! Here she is, soaking up the sun:

Well, I'd better clean up the Scramble mess before Misty gets into it! Thanks for stopping and have a great Labor Day weekend!!

New Hero Arts website, plus 2015 Christmas products!!

Hero Arts launches its new website today and we're excited for this great new look, plus 2015 Christmas products! Be sure to check it out for amazing inspiration, a fabulous blog, and all sorts of fun new stuff. I'm fortunate to already have some of the new release, with more on the way - I just love Christmas anything and can always find way too much to add to my stash. Here's my card for today:

I used a new clear set called Holiday Greetings (CL890). Just love this set - 7 fabulous sentiments and all sorts of little bits to make a background or, as I did here, a masked off sentiment. Well, it started as masked but I used the wrong tape and ink bled through - I hate when that happens! So I did my sentiment on a separate panel which I edged in Elmer's silver marker (got it at Target - love!) and popped up with foam tape. Wish my photo had truer colors - the bottom half is actually closer to real life. The mat for the white panel is a piece of Bazzill Gemstones cardstock - more of a silver - looks blue in the photo, oh well....

You can also see a couple more cards I made with 2015 Hero Arts Christmas products here. Many thanks to Hero Arts for their wonderful products and daily inspiration on their blog!! Congrats on a great new look to the website!

This also fits Karren's challenge over on Merry Monday where we are to use holly on a card. Stop and check out all the inspiration over there too. Thanks for stopping!!