Hero Hostess Blog Hop 2015

Welcome to the last stop on today's Hero Arts Hostess Hop, featuring stamps from the new 2015 release.  If you have been following along you should have arrived from Lins gorgeous blog  "Sending Hugs".

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 days 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 will find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Arts Club Blog.

Please report any broken links to blog@heroarts.com.

I was really excited to be asked to join in this annual blog hop for Hero Hostesses once again and couldn't wait to get started with the fabulous new 2015 stamps and die.  I have made four cards all on a similar theme just so you could see how versatile this fabulous new Hello "Stamp and Cut" (DC151) set really is!!

This first card is made using the die cut Hello layered up on green and then two layers of white card to make it really stand out.  I then stamped leaves from the new Stamp your own Plant (CL834) set in various shades of green added the hello cut out , then layered the white card on some more green card for added depth.

 This second card is a small 4 3/4 by 3 1/2 size, a little card to put with a gift perhaps!  I used some Raspberry Jam, Pale Tomato and Butter Bar HA inks to create the center panel and then die cut the word hello (DC151) saving all the small pieces from the letter centers. I then die cut a second white word, after adhering the panel to my card base I carefully stuck the small centers of the letters in place.  Lastly I added a few sequins.

I couldn't wait to use the coloured word left from the last card and quickly made this small note card, I decided to sew the word to the front for a change.

Lastly I made another quick card using the new Tropical Background (CG659) cling stamp, I stamped a panel with Butter Bar ink attached it to my card base and added a row of stitching down one side.  Next I stamped my sentiment from the Hello Stamp and Cut set (DC151) in black and added a few sequins.

I hope you have all enjoyed today's Hero Hostess Hop,  don't forget to stop by again tomorrow when eight more Hostesses will be joining this weeks Hop and showing you their fabulous creations with new stamps from the new Hero Arts Spring Catalogue.

Hero Hostess Blog Hop 2014!!!

Hi Ladies welcome to day three of this fabulous 2014 Hero Arts catalogue release blog hop. I always enjoy this time of year when I get a chance to play with some new stamps and also hop along with all my Hero Hostess friends.

Hero Arts will be  giving away three big prize packs containing an assortment of brand new products from the 2014 catalogue.  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 Arts Club Blog . Also, please report broken links to: blog@heroarts.com.

Your next stop on the Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop is at my talented hosti friend Heather's blog!

Sorry for the long post but I got really carried away with my new stamps and could stop once I had started lol!!  My new favourite set is the gorgeous AC032 Cherish Yesterday cling set. I had great fun getting inky with my Distress Markers to make this simple CAS card.  I stamped the image twice cut out one and put on pop dots for dimension.

With another stamped image I created this book mark, I have laminated it  for strength.

Now for that cheeky Bird stamp D5890, I love the image  and again I have stamped it twice and after masking the first image to make the background. I have also pop dotted the second image to lift the bird from the page.

Now for one of the lovely new floral stamps in the catalogue this year, this is  K5897 Petals of Beauty and I have just inked it with Distress inks and spritzed with water to get this effect.  The edges are stamped with S5885 Five Lined Background  and Old Paper Distress Ink.

I have also decided to do a little giveaway myself to celebrate my Birthday on Saturday, I have this new clear set to give to one randomly selected comment left on my blog,  just become a follower, if you haven't already done so and I will get my DH to draw a name on Saturday 25th (my Birthday)  Good Luck!!!

  Have fun hopping!!!!

Hero Arts Blog Hop!!!

I am so thrilled to be part of the annual Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop again this year, Hero Arts have a special place in my heart as, finding the HA flickr group was the start of my passion for stamping!!  I hope you are having fun visiting my fellow Hosti's blogs and seeing  the amazing creations, all featuring stamps from the new 2013 release.

Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments.  For a chance to win simply comment on any day including each days starting post at the Hero Arts Club Blog.  The more comments you leave the better your chance of winning!
If you find a broken link, you will find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Arts Club Blog. Also please report the link to Tami.

 Its now Day three of this amazing hop and you should have arrived here from Lin's fabulous Blog.
I have had lots of fun creating cards for this hop so my post is quite long !!

My first card features the  clear set  "New Baby"  and also "Pinstripes "Background".  I have stamped and embossed in white the Pinstripes horizontally and vertically to create a check background which I have then coloured in with copics.

Next I made a set of Thank You cards using the new "Jumping Flowers" stamp the "Say it all " sentiment set and Shadow inks in, Orange Soda, Raspberry Jam, Tide Pool and Grape Juice.

Sorry for the poor photographs but the weather has be dark and overcast lately.

For my last two cards I have used perhaps, my favourite new stamp "Looped Flower Pattern" cling.

For the background I inked the stamp with Bundled Sage and Faded Jeans distress ink spritzed with water and stamped, I then distressed with the same inks and a Distressing sponge. The "Jumping Flowers " are stamped in Tide Pool Ink and highlighted with my Distress Markers. The sentiment is the C5594 woodblock sentiment stamp.

And for my final card I stamped and embossed in white the "Looped Flower Pattern" onto pale blue cardstock. The sentiment is from an old HA set CL148 "Happiness Messages" and the butterfly is from the "Antique Engravings" set.

I hope you have enjoyed visiting my blog,  now you need to hop along and visit Marcy's gorgeous blog.
Have fun and thanks for all your comments!!!

Hero Arts Blog Hop!!

Hello friends... I'm so excited and honoured to be part of  this  Blog Hop with the brand new 2012 Hero Arts Stamps and it's such fun joining up with past Hostesses for the week long Hop. 

 It's now Wednesday so we are half way through and I have got to say I have been blown away with all the amazing creations the Hostesses have come up with.......

 
You should have arrived here from my hostess sister  Linda's fabulous Blog ...... If you  find a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Club Blog.  Also please report any broken links to Tami.


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!



As you probably already know Hero Arts are my favourite stamps and I am afraid I got rather carried away so this post is quite long!!!!

 My first card is using the Newspaper Background (S5601) to create a mock parcel with thank you label. The card base is also stamped with Envelope Background (S5507) and the thank you label is part of Greetings Set (CG414) which I have stamped and embossed onto some paper distressed with blue and green inks .  I made the sealing wax dot with fimo and a stamp from the Carte Postale set (CL535) The butterfly has been stamped three times and then pop dotted up for more dimension.

My next project is a small pocket notebook with the second stamp from the Greetings Set (CG414).  I made the notebook using scrap paper, then created the hard covers using stiff card covered with paper stamped with Newspaper Background (S5601).  The pages and covers are stitched together using Hero Arts Twine. I then stamped the Greetings stamp onto some card distressed with blue and green distress inks making sure to mask out the "Greetings" word so that I could add the "Just a Note" message from Everyday Sayings (CL342). Finally I added some buttons and a gem.

 Now for a masculine card, which I find hard to make but this new Vintage Car (G5544) stamp is perfect for the job, I have used the new London Background (CG424) applying different distress inks to the stamp and then spritzing with water before stamping onto paper.  I then added more distress ink with my daubers. The sentiment is from the All Occasions (CL272) set.


 Next up two cards using the Etched Flower (CG480) I really love this new stamp, they look like poppies to me so have coloured the flowers red using my distress inks as watercolours. I also added some Glossy Accents to the centres of the flowers.  The background is a really old Hero Arts stamp that I was lucky enough to find on ebay.  The sentiment is from Say It All (CL584).

This is my last card for today's Hop, another simple card using Etched Flower (CG480), I first stamped and embossed in white Old Letter (CG197) and then distressed the card with Worn Lipstick distress ink.  Next I stamped the flower using Fired Brick distress ink and then water coloured the image using the same ink. The sentiment is from Say It All (CL584).

Sorry for the long post but I have had so much fun with these new stamps!!

I am the last person in today's Hop so don't forget to drop by the Hero Arts Blog tomorrow for the next instalment!!

Thank you so much for visiting today I hope you have had fun!!

Hero Arts Thank you cards.

I can't believe its our last few days as Hero Arts Hostesses the last three months have flown by and this is our last feature on the Hero Arts Blog.  For this all the Hostess's decided to make Thank You cards. This is mine using Shari's fabulous layered background technique.  I was so pleased with how my card turned out I decided to make three in different colourways.

I have really enjoyed my term as a Hostess and loved working with my fellow Hosti's and friends Linda, Heather, Sharon and Anita.  Thank you ladies for making the last three months so much fun!! Also thank you Hero Arts for making a dream come true, I have always wanted to be a Hostess and the last months have made me more confident in my card making and I feel fired up for my next challenge ( What ever it might be)!!

I also want to thank all my followers for all your encouraging comments, I really appreciate it

Our last week as Hostesses!!

This is our last week as Hero Hostesses and the time has just flown by!

For our final week we have decided to run a last challenge called "Inspired By" The Hero Arts Flickr group is a constant source of inspiration, everyone in the group is so talented and I love to browse through the gallery. But as Hosti's we have decided to make a card inspired by a current Hostess, in order of the Hostess announcements.

This means I have been inspired by my friend and Hostess in Purple Linda, here is the card she made for another challenge set by Anita, it was for her colour challenge using blue and brown. I love the silhouette grass stamp and the way she has stamped it on the lined paper and set the card at an angle.   I also love the distressed rustic look of this card.

This is my card, I have used the same silhouette  grass stamp as Linda but added the poppies as they always seem to grow in corn fields.  First I stamped the poppies and then made masks over the flowers so that I could over stamp in distress ink with the wheat.  I then coloured the poppies with copics. I have stamped the green background layer with Graph Background and the red card with the Magical Background.

Sharon has made a card inspired by me and I think its perfect, I love pink and this card is so pretty, thank you Sharon.

Anyone who would like to take part in the challenge can create a card\project inspired by any member of the Hero Arts Flickr group - there are 3,627 members to choose from! Full details of the challenge are here I hope you find time to have a go!!

Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps CG211 Magical Background,S5435 Graph Background. S5316 Silhouette Grass, H5350 Long Stem Poppy. Distress ink Scattered straw and Tea Dye  Copic Markers.

Hostess Gift Box and Tag!

It's  Hostess week on the Hero Arts Blog, and we decided we would all use this months theme of birthdays for our cards and projects.  Yesterday Linda and Sharon featured birthday cards and today its my turn.  If you looked through my blog you would notice that I love to make gift boxes and gift cards as well as general cards. (you can see one of my gift cards in the post below!) I always like to make an effort when wrapping my presents for friends and family,  You can really make your gift stand out by making your box unique, go on have a go and make your gift even more special!!

Boxes are really easy to make there are so many great tutorials if you search through the Internet, for this box I have used this tutorial for a "Five in one" template box from splitcoast stampers.

If you visit the Hero Arts blog you will find all the instructions and supplies for making this project.

Please check out the Hero Blog all this week to see what all the Hostesses have created!!

Hero Hostesses Colour Challenge 1

Emails have been flying between the Hero Arts Hostesses ever since we were appointed, we have been thinking of ideas to inspire you all and so  have decided it would be fun to run a few colour challenges over the next few weeks.  I am pleased to be the one starting this off and here is my colour inspiration photograph.  I wanted to have warm summery colours to cheer up all of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere, we have been experiencing a really cold winter this year and at the moment can only dream of summer!!!  The first photograph was taken in my garden last summer and I can remember it being a beautiful hot summers day with a clear blue sky, the second photo is taken in my favourite wool shop, the colours of this particular wool really caught my eye aren't they yummy!

This is the card I have made using one of my favourite new stamp sets "Blossom Art" I have layered up the two paper pieced flowers with pop dots and added the pearls.  The background is just stamped with Scattered Straw Distress ink.

Here is a little close up of the flower.

 Please download your cards to the Hero Arts Flickr group here and use the "hostess challenge1" tag . The challenge will run till 11pm PST  on 27th Feb or 7 am 28th Feb GMT.  Hope you find time to enter.

Hostesses cooking up a storm!!!

"When the Hero hosties are selected everyone looks forward to what they'll cook up!! Heather, Anita
Sharon, Linda and I have taken this literally and are cooking something up for you this week - one of our favorite recipes!" We are each posting a card or project inspired by one of our favourite recipes  and we are hoping that you will play along to.  Pease post your projects here and add the flickr tag "cookingupchallenge"


 This is one of my families favourite cakes its called a Lemon Drizzle Cake and it never lasts long in our house!!  I thought it would be fun to make a gift of "Tea and Cake" so I have also created these little gift holders that actually hold one tea bag.  The holder is based on a tutorial here, I have just adapted the front of it to add a ribbon tie.


This is the inside of the holder, don't you just love this yummy paper its from Echo Park !  The tea cup image is from the Hero Arts sparkle clear set CL188 and I have paper pieced this with a scrap of chintzy paper from my scrap box.
This is the recipe that I use its really simple to make:-
Cake
175gm unsalted butter softened
175 gm caster sugar
finely grated zest of three lemons
3 med. eggs
175gm self raising flour
Pinch salt
little milk
Icing
200gm icing sugar
75ml lemon juice

Method
Grease and line a litre loaf tin.
Beat together the sugar and butter till white and fluffy.
Add lemon zest and beat in eggs one at a time with a little of the flour.
Sift in the remaining flour and salt, add a little milk if the mixture is too stiff.
Pour into tin and bake in pre heated oven 170C or gas mark 3 for 45 to 50 minutes.
Mix together the lemon juice and icing sugar.
When the cake is cooked remove from the oven and while still hot and in the tin prod with a fine skewer to make a few holes, but don't go to the base of the tin!
spoon over icing so that it seeps into the holes.
Cool completely then serve.

Hope you find time to try it out, it really is yummy!!
SallyX

Wow, Wow, Wow I am a Hero Arts Hostess!!!!

Imagine my shock and excitement when Tami's email arrived in my inbox a few weeks ago asking me if I would like to be a Hero Arts Hostess.  I am absolutely thrilled to be part of the Hero Arts team for three months along side Heather, Linda, Anita and Sharon. Its been so hard  keeping  our secret and at last I can talk about it  :0)

I have loved Hero Art products ever since I bought my first clear message set a couple of years ago, (you should see my collection now!!!!lol).  The company is so kind and generous and always listens to its fans, check out their blog here to see all the amazing prizes that they give out each month and check here to view all the fabulous cards in the HA Flickr group.  I love being part of this group, everyone is so friendly and all the work so inspiring.

The theme of our first card on the blog was "Friendship" very apt as I consider all the members my friend!!  I was nervous about creating my card and after lots of samples ending up in my scrap basket I eventually made four designs that I was happy with.  My family voted for  their favourite and this is the winner!!

You can get all the details on how to make it and the supplies needed here.

I am so proud to be donning my "Pink Apron" and want to thank Hero Arts for this amazing opportunity, I am still pinching myself "is it really true!!!!!"