Hero Arts

Featuring Hero Arts products

Sweetest Fluffles

Hello everyone!

Who remembers the wonderful Fluffles the Cat by Stampendous? Such a cute fun kitty! I still have all the wood-mounted Fluffles stamps I bought probably a decade ago and today I had fun reminiscing about the happy hours I used to spend at a couple of ‘local’ craft stores back in the day. I love how the internet has connected us all and we have so much more online choice nowadays. But I really miss those days in the craft stores.

Anyway, when I saw that the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge had a theme of ‘anything goes’ with Stampendous products, I immediately thought of my Fluffles stamps and decided to use one of them with the sketch from the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

I was originally going to fussy cut Fluffles and put him on an action wobbler but in the end I decided on an ‘out of the box’ die cut instead.

I went through my backgrounds box and pulled out the remnants of a Hero Arts background that I created with Satin Pearl embossing powder and distress oxide inks last year and adhered it to my base card before adhering the Fluffles image. To finish off the card, I added a sentiment from My Favorite Things.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Sparkly Peacock

Happy Friyay everyone!

The theme for the current Blog Named Hero challenge is ‘sparkle and shine’. A fabulous excuse to get out the glitter paste, stickles and mirror card….. not that I need any excuse really!

I started by blending some distress ink though a Creative Expressions (That Special Touch) stencil. I then spread a generous layer of Nuvo glimmer paste over the inked background.

I used my go-to inks from Altenew for the Hero Arts Layering Peacock and cut some mirror card using a sentiment die from the March My Monthly Hero Kit. Love that font! Finally I added a few dots of stickles to the peacock’s tail – you can never have too much glitter can you?!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Enjoy your day

Hi everyone!

Today I have my next DT post for Crafts-U-Love using the ‘Always Flowers’ stamp set by Pink Fresh Studio. As usual, links to all the products are at the end of my post.

I noticed that my past couple of DT cards have been rather pink, so I was determined to use a different palette this time!

Step 1 – ink blending

Over the past few years, my style has definitely changed and I always tend to make my own backgrounds. My piles of pretty patterned paper are quite unloved, but I just can’t bear to part with them. I’m sure I’ll end up using them at some point (maybe!).

Anyway, when I started on today’s card, I hadn’t decided the size, so I used a larger piece of cardstock and blended three distress oxide inks. This ink is fabulous for blending!

 

Step 2 – stamping

Once I was happy with my blending, I randomly stamped images from the stamp set.

Step 3 – ink lifting

One of my favourite techniques with distress ink (regular and oxide) is ink lifting. I usually do this with larger images, but it’s easy to do with smaller images too.  I simply ‘painted’ water onto each image and then blotted it off to remove the ink. As usual, when working with smaller images, it’s best to use a small brush for all that detail work, and also ensure that the brush isn’t too wet. I also made sure to wipe off my brush at regular intervals – otherwise I’d start applying some of the colour I’d just removed!!

Quick, easy and effective! Once I finished, I almost stopped and started to assemble the card as I love the effect so much!

Step 4 – colouring

But in the end I decided to watercolour the images using my distress inks, diluted with a bit of water.

After colouring the images, I felt that the gaps between the images was a little too large so I stamped a couple of images from the Pinkfresh Studio ‘Happy’ set.

I then cut down the panel to fit on a square card base. I stamped a Hero Arts sentiment onto a strip of card which I adhered to the base. (The remainder of the background card will go into my ‘bases box’ as I know I can use it on another card!) I then stamped, coloured and fussy cut a couple of flowers and adhered them and a few gems to finish off the card.

I’m also entering this card into the current Pinkfresh Studio challenge as I was inspired by their summer theme and loved their colour palette (although I was determined to stay away from pink!)

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Supply List

Here are the links to the products I used on my card. Products marked with an asterisk (*) were kindly sent to me to use.

Pinkfresh Studio – Always Flowers stamp set*

Hero Arts – Happy Birthday Messages stamp set

Pinkfresh Studio – Word series stamp set – Happy*

Distress Oxide ink

Distress ink

Brilliance ink

Papermania adhesive stones*

Thinking of autumn colours

Hi there everyone

It’s time for another guest post for CAS Colours & Sketches challenge.

This week, the team has come up with a beautiful autumnal colour palette for us.

As I mentioned before, the team uses Stampin Up! colour names as a reference which always made me a little reticent to play in the colour challenges as I don’t have any Stampin Up! inks. Luckily, this month it’s proving quite easy to match up the colours quite well using distress oxide inks.

I created a blended background using Wild Honey, Fired Brick and Candied Apple. I then cut an oval from some white cardstock and adhered the frame to the blended background. I added a Memory Box die cut (the fabulous Arboscello Tree) and a stamp from an older Hero Arts set to complete my card.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Sunflower thoughts

Hi there everyone!

I’ve been getting to know my new Altenew Watercolour paints and thought it would be fun to practice and enter a watercolour challenge at the same time. The theme of this month’s CAS Watercolour challenge is ‘sunflower’ – perfect opportunity for me to ink up my wonderful Penny Black sunflower wreath stamp and practice on that.

I really love the consistency of the Altenew paints. The colours are quite vibrant (especially the lighter ones) – which is different for me as I generally favour more muted colours, but it’s fun using something different, right?! I admit, I had to walk away and come back to this a few times!

Once I had finished colouring, I splattered some gold paint on top of the image and mounted it to my base card before adhering a frame with foam tape. I added a Hero Arts sentiment to finish off the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Bask in your Awesomeness

Hi everyone!

I decided to play along with the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge today and paired my new Hero Arts seal stamps with a great Paper Smooches sentiment that I purchased at the same time.

Isn’t that seal cute? He reminds me so much of one I saw in Alaska who was having a glorious time showing off for us in the sun-drenched waters as our boat went past him!

Anyway, I followed a technique by Tim Holtz/Jennifer McGuire to create the background using distress oxide inks on glossy paper – I can’t use alcohol inks so I love that they showed us how to create a similar effect with distress oxides!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG