Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop – Day 3

Happy Wednesday everyone!  I’m super excited to be participating in my first Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop!!  It was just a year ago when Hero Arts invited me to become a hostess and I enjoyed the experience so much!  Now I’m thrilled to be in the talented company of my sister hostesses for this Hop.  I can’t wait to show you the cards I created with yummy new 2012 Hero Arts stamps!

I’m the 3rd stop on today’s Hop; if you’re following the order, you should have arrived from the wonderful Arlene’s blog A Bit of This and That.  To start at the beginning of today’s hop, go to the Hero Club Blog.  If you missed Day 1 go here or Day 2 go here. 

Important notes:

•Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments. For a chance to win, simply comment on ANY of the stops along the hop on ANY day, including each day’s starting post at the Hero Club Blog. The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning!

•If you find a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Club Blog. Also, please report broken links to links to Tami.

And now, on to the cards!  I went a bit crazy since I was on vacation in Arizona last week with lots of crafting time.  I'll share 3 of the oodles of cards I made.  First up, an anniversary card for my sister Tami and her hubby Dave who celebrated 26 years of marriage last week.  I love heart images and CG426 Four Hearts fit the bill perfectly.  I added one of my favorite flowers from CH249 Jeweled Pastel Flowers with a rich brown bow behind it.  The sentiment is from an older set CL342 Everyday Sayings.

Next, a thank you card I made for Tami’s and Dave’s hospitality last week.  I used the fun striped cards and one of the sentiments from the great card kit CK203 Striped Cards with Messages, along with the delightful balloons from CL576 Wish Big .  I paper-pieced some of the balloons, including one stamped on paper that I’d previously stamped with the new cling background CG422 Zig Zag.  Note – I blobbed ink on the side of my striped card so I cut it down and matted it on a red card base.  That was just one of the typical crafting catastrophes that occur when I get going!

Here's a thank you card I made for a friend.  I just love the new key images CG419 Fancy Keys and AC008 Untitled Keys!  The sentiment is from a great new sentiment set CL578 Good Friends.  Back to edit and add the Newspaper Background S5601 - how could I forget it??  It's my new envelope pattern :) and you can see it lightly behind the background keys and on the sentiment circle - loooove it!!

One last card before I go.  This one's by a guest artist, my sister Kari!  She couldn't resist playing along when I was working on my cards.  This is her second card EVER and I thought she did a great job.  She really liked the idea of a card for Operation Write Home so made this card using CL582 Year Round Sentiments.  The sentiment is from an older clear set.

Sorry for the long post and thanks so much for stopping!  Remember to leave a comment for a chance to win a prize from Hero Arts.  And thanks to Hero Arts for sponsoring this Blog Hop - I'm honored to have been a part of it!!

Next stop -  Created by Sally, the blog of my amazingly talented hostess sister, Sally Sherfield.  Enjoy!

A Happy Heart

Hi all - it's been awhile AGAIN since my last post.  Just got home from Arizona where I was vacationing for the holidays.  Great weather and lots of fun with family.  Naturally there was plenty of time to relax and make cards!  I was busy playing with new 2012 Hero Arts stamps for the Hero Hostess Blog Hop which started today and runs all this week.  My day is coming up on Wednesday so look for me then - I'm so excited!!

For today, here's a simple card I made for my mom who's such a great support to me in all I do.  I stamped the new Newspaper Background in a light gold onto my kraft card base, then stamped the sentiment - a great message from the new clear set Good Friends in the corner with Memento Rich Cocoa ink.  I stamped one of the hearts from the new Art of the Card cling set Untitled Heart (this week's stamp of the week 25% off!) on pink Basic Grey paper using Fired Brick Distress Ink.  Cut it out and popped it up with foam tape and added a twine bow.  Inked the card edges and added a few gems under the sentiment - Done! 

Thanks for stopping and be sure to check out the Blog Hop all week!

Hero Arts 2012 Catalog Release Parties and City of Lakes Christmas Show 12/10/11

What a busy day - I had yesterday!  Must've been the extra excitement of the 2012 Hero Arts Catalog release parties and my chorus Christmas show - I was up at 4 a.m.!  Since I was awake and had my stuff all ready to go, I went ahead a made a card for our Hero Arts Flickr group holiday exchange.  Won't share that yet since I'm just putting it in the mail tomorrow.

Was at Archiver's in Roseville MN when they opened at 10:00 a.m.  Bought some great new Hero Arts goodies and then headed over to Anchor Paper in St Paul where they also had a release party.  Their make 'n take wasn't supposed to start until 11 but they had it ready early.  Good thing as I had to travel to Bloomington for my chorus Christmas Show.  We had to be on stage ready to go at 1:00 for a stage check and I had my stage make-up to put on after the release parties.  Didn't want to scare anyone at those!!

So here are a couple photos from the release parties - you can see more in my Flickr photostream if desired.

I'm at Archiver's holding up some of their display boards - the clerk thought

it would be good in the photo - I didn't make any of these!!

This is one of the display's at Anchor Paper in St Paul MN, not too far away from the Roseville Archiver's.

Here's a photo of my dear friend, Connie Miller, and me in our Christmas show garb and make-up.  False eyelashes, bright red lipstick and all.  We each got to wear whatever holiday garb we wanted - I chose a beaded and sequined duster coat that my retired quartet, Chord Company, ordered but decided against for the group.  The duster looked great on the three tall members but our lead is petite and she looked frumpy in it.  So I just kept my coat and the rest went back to the store - it has come in handy for several occasions such as this!

Don't we look alike?  We have been mistaken for sisters often; she is like a sister to me and has been adopted into my family.  See her gorgeous crown pin?  She is a Sweet Adelines International quartet champion with Four Star Collection!

Finally, after the show - you'd think I'd be tired?? - I went to the Archiver's in Woodbury where I knew some friends were doing Scrap Mania.  By the time I got cleaned up of all the stage make-up and drove across town and picked up my craft supplies, it was already 7pm.  I still had 4 good hours to invest in Christmas cards!  I'll share this one, made with one of my new 2012 Hero Arts stamps - a great friendship background.  Since I needed a card for Connie to give at our Christmas party tomorrow night, I decided to use that stamp along with the wreath stamp.  Here's my card:

Long post - whew!  Hope you're having a great Sunday!  Thanks for stopping!

Crafty weekend and a special birthday coming up 12/9 - Virginia Lu!!

It's been awhile again - I guess I'm not a devoted blogger.  Oh well, I do what I can....

I've been busy this weekend working on Christmas and other cards.  It was great to be in the crafting mood!  Today I'm sharing two cards I made this weekend - first a birthday card for a special friend and then a Christmas card.

My friend Virginia is celebrating a special birthday.  She's having a virtual party and we've been busily uploading cards to our Flickr group.  Virginia was a Hero Hostess when I first joined the Hero Arts group.  She was very kind and encouraging, plus she makes fabulous, inspiring cards!  Hope you have a great birthday, Virginia!

This card uses Out of Print Papers from Basic Grey, #s cut on the Silhouette (Snap ITC font) and stamped with Hero Arts Flower Dot Pattern (loooove this one).  I matted the #s on Hero Arts Big Ticket - another fun stamp I've used a lot.

This next card developed from various parts and ideas roaming around my head.   I started with the blue background piece I'd been playing around with.  A la Jennifer McGuire from her 2011 Holiday Card Boot Camp, I covered cardstock with Broken China Distress Ink (inkpad direct to paper).  Then I put Picket Fence Distress stain on Hero Art’s Artistic Circle design block and stamped the blue piece.  I had a bit too much stain and the design spread out - didn't like it and set it aside for a week.  Then I had the thought to overstamp with the holiday text.  Hmmm, I liked it.  Mounted on a predesigned card base from Michaels (comes in a pack of 24 with 2 designs - this snowflake and a green with dots).  Was playing around with my Silhouette and decided the caroler silhouette image would be great here.  Cut it out using a piece of Basic Grey Out of Print paper.  The finishing touch is a grungeboard shape from Tim Holtz.  I’ve been faithfully following his 12 Tags of Christmas – not that I get any tags made from his inspiration – but I thought his Christmas Star would add a lot to my card.  Painted it with gold paint and spritzed it w/Perfect Pearl mist.

Thanks for stopping!

Some Christmas Tags and Cards that Care

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted here.  Suffice it to say life has been hectic.
 
Today I had some crafting time and whipped up some tags for the Hero Arts November contest.  Here's what I created:

I bought 6 tag sets at Archiver's this fall, all produced by Hero Arts.  Three of them contain tags, stamps and ink; the other three have just designer paper tags in three designs per set.  I don't see any of them in the Hero Arts or Archiver's online stores which is too bad - these sets are fab!  I thought tag making would be a fun activity if I can get my little nieces over to visit! 

I also love the new Hero Arts/Sizzix sets with stamps and framelits to cut out the stamped images.  The one I used here is called Holiday Cheer and I just love those reindeer.  I gave mine some googly eyes and lots of bling - isn't he cute?!

Just went on a Blog Hop yesterday for Cards that Care, a great cause to get cards to seniors in nursing homes.  It's put on this year by Vera Yates and Jennifer McGuire - two talented and lovely people. 

To get started on cards to send to Cards that Care this year, I used the tags I just created.  What a quick and easy way to get some great cards!  I used Bazzill card bases from a boxed set I picked up this summer - 10 fabulous colors of cards with matching envelopes.  Added some Basic Grey Nordic Holiday papers and my tags - done!  Here are the cards:

Hope you have a chance to check out Cards that Care and send some cards too; the deadline is 11/30/11.  Thanks for stopping and happy crafting!

A JUMBO Birthday Card

Hi all - I went to Scrap Mania at Archiver's on Saturday night.  6 hours of fun, including eating, coffee drinking, shopping and crafting.  I went with a group of 6 so there's always a lot of visiting too.  And helping each other - Sayo, who has been mentioned in previous posts, needed help with a scrapbook for her son so I made 2 pages.  Also made some cards, including this one for my sister's upcoming birthday:

Hero Arts August scene contest may have ended but I'm still "into" it - lol!  This elephant digi cut was the first Hero Arts one I bought with my Silhouette subscription.  My sister loooooves elephants so I thought she would enjoy this card.  The white card is 5 1/2 square.  All stamps are from Hero Arts.  I stamped the Clouds design block, kissed with the Magical Background Cling (Sky Blue Brilliance ink with Stormy Sky Distress Ink for the kiss).  I stamped a spare strip of green Out of Print Basic Grey paper with the Magical Bg inked with Peeled Paint.  Cut the elephant on the Silhouette using Indie Bloom Basic Grey pink and gave him a black outline for definition and a googly eye for fun.  Added some hearts in lieu of the paper water droplets coming out of the trunk.

Mind you, when I left Archivers, the sentiment was just a white circle and there was no birdie on the ellie's back.  By Sunday morning arrived, I was busily changing things.  Don't we all do this??  I scrapped the white sentiment for the orange patterned one then decided to turn it into a flower.  Stamped and cut out the leafy stem from the Watercolor Petals (CL431) clear set. 

Hmmm - something still was missing so I decided to add the birdie (from CL276 So Sweet, a valentine set).  I stamped her on a scrap piece of light purple HA layering paper stamped with the Hello Luscious grid (not very visible in photo).  The birdie had a lot of heart plummage which I cut off since I already had some hearts on there.  Decided to stamp the musical notes (from CL354 Let the Angels Sing Christmas clear set) after the thing was all together - the birdie is me singing!  Vicky over at Lily Pad Cards does this all the time, so why can't I??  Well, you can see why - my inky fingers put a couple little spots on the ellie's back - boo, hoo.  Oh well, those are his battle scars... Other than the extra ink, I'm happy with how this turned out. 

Thanks for stopping!

September Card Chain Challenge - Friendship in Pool (the color!)

It's time for another Card Chain Challenge over at Lily Pad Cards!  While there were some lovely colors and a fun sketch this time, I was already working on friendship cards so I used that theme.  Here's my card:

I still have some gorgeous Pool materials from Hero Arts - designer papers, envelopes and folded cards - they make beautiful cards quickly!  I stamped the Friend Definition (cling from Hero Arts) on the lightest shade in the pool folded card package (there are 3).  The sentiment panel is stamped on Pool designer papers - besides the french writing, there's a magical background and a bicycle pattern in the package.  Very fun to use!  Sentiment is from an older clear set from HA called Fancy Frendship.  The butterfly from the HA/Basic Grey Lauderdale cling set is stamped on patterned paper from Basic Grey's new Indie Bloom paper.  Just love the patterns in that line!

Thanks for stopping - I hope you're having a wonderful Labor Day weekend!