Hero Arts Hostess Hop

Hello and welcome to the Hero Arts Hostess Hop, featuring fabulous stamps from the new 2015 release!

Hero Arts Stamps - Playful Animals, Lines Background, Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut and Write Your Message

If you’ve been following along, you’ve just arrived from Virginia's blog! I know Virginia will have shared fantastic creations with you - I can't wait to see them! If you find a broken link or didn't know about the hop, 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.

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! I have comment moderator switched on so don't worry if your comment doesn't appear immediately. Good luck:)

I’m so happy to be hopping along with my Hosti sisters to show you what we’ve made with products that Hero Arts generously sent us from the 2015 Spring Catalogue. I was delighted to receive the gorgeous stamp and die set with stitched detail - Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut. I just love stitching so the set was barely in the house before it was inked up! I decided to make a birthday card using the flowers and leaves from the set and a gorgeous new sentiment stamp Happy Birthday to You. Isn't the handwriting on the stamp just beautiful? It's by Kelly Rasmussen and you can find other wonderful new stamps with her handwriting here.

Hero Arts Stamps - Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut and Happy Birthday to You

As well as the stitching I love the cute button centres on the flowers.

After making the card I thought it might be nice to make a matching gift tag using the stem included in the set and making the flower in a slightly different way.

Hero Arts Stamps - Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut and Birthday Messages

I have to admit I’m often guilty of overlooking smaller images in sets (maybe my eyesight is getting worse!) but I wanted to ink up the cute ladybird image in the Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut set too. I decided to make wrapping paper using just plain parcel paper, the ladybird stamp and a hole punch. For the tag I again used the Happy Birthday to You stamp and omitted the lower part of the sentiment to leave space for the ladybird to nestle under the “birthday”.

Hero Arts Stamps - Butterfly and Flower Stamp & Cut and Happy Birthday to You

The cute cat image on my first card is from a fun set called Playful Animals which includes the cat, a mouse, hedgehog, fox, dog and pig. In addition, playful accessories for the animal are available - a fish bone, ball of yarn, cheese and dog bone, so cute! I know I’ll be pairing the yarn with the cat very soon but I couldn’t resist borrowing the yarn from the cat to make tags for items I’ve knit. I will cut the washing instructions from the yarn I’ve used and put it on the back of the tags.

Hero Arts Stamps - Yarn, Sew Artsy and Dolls

I love the cute images in the Playful Animals set and feel they will appeal to both children and adults alike. Also I think it would be a great set for children to stamp with as the animals are so easy to stamp and cut out. I opened my post with the cat from the set and now I'll finish with the sweet pig from the same set.

Hero Arts Stamps - Playful Animals, Thanks Stamp & Cut, Pinstripe Background, Be Happy and Clouds Background

Before you head off to your next stop along the hop I want to thank you for visiting, thank Hero Arts for yet another fabulous release and for their generosity, thank Deborah and Tami for all the work they do behind the scenes in organising the hop, thank my Hosti sisters for all the fun and inspiration they provide and last, but most definitely not least, thank my dear friend Linda for items she sent me for the hop.

Your next stop on the Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop is Sue's blog. Sue is such a lovely and talented lady, I know she'll definitely have lots of inky goodness for us to enjoy! Now I'm off to have fun hopping too:)

Fabric Flowers for Friends

I love making fabric flowers and over the weekend spent time making them for some friends. Instead of just putting the flowers in an envelope, I make a holder for them and also a little card with a tiny fabric flower to match.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Be Happy, Clouds Background, Antique Engravings & Sew Artsy

A tutorial for the fabric flowers can be found here. I applied tumbled glass distress ink to the Clouds Background, lightly spritzed with water and stamped on white card.



The butterflies were stamped on scraps of white card which had barn door distress ink applied. I used some patterned paper for the grass\leaves and a little piece of baker’s twine for the flower stem.


Just to show the size of the tiny flower on the card.

I'm submitting these projects into the Fabric\Felt Challenge at Lily Pad Cards, Creative Card Crew's Hand Made Flowers Challenge, Paper Creations Ink's Show Us Your Flowers Challenge and also the current Hero Arts Challenge.

Christmas Shaker Gift Bag

Yesterday, after making my first Christmas card for this year, I was feeling a bit Christmassy and decided to make a Christmas gift bag for the current Hero Arts challenge and the All Wrapped Up Challenge at Moxie Fab World. I absolutely love this shaker card that Sally made recently so I decided to make gift bag with a shaker on it.


Stamps (Hero Arts) Holiday Dolls & Three Trees

I recycled a bag like this one for my base. To cover up the name of the shop on the front of the bag I stitched the embossed snowflakes panel to pink card. For the sky inside the shaker I embossed various snowflakes in white and applied broken china distress ink. The doll is coloured with Promarkers and I added diamond stickles to the bobble on her hat. I stamped the sentiment on the acetate cover and added some punched snowflakes and beads to the shaker. To finish I just added a clear button which I had covered with glitter and tulle for the handles.



If anyone has any tips on taking photos of acetate, I’d love to hear them – I was nearly driven demented trying to get a photo without reflections!

WELCOME LILLY! - Blog Hop

Welcome to our blog hop for Paula and Lilly!

Little Lilly aka “Bug” was very excited about meeting her mum, dad and big sis. So she decided to arrive a little bit early and was born on Friday 4th June weighing 7 lbs and 13 1/2 oz. I’d like to send big congratulations and best wishes again to mum Paula, dad Doug and big sis Em! There’s nothing like having a new baby in the house, exhausting at times I know, but just wonderful too!



Back in April, Deborah and Hannah hatched and organised a plan for us to send cards to Paula once “Bug” had arrived. Paula’s friend Helen was also involved in the planning and we all sent cards to her to pass on to Paula. Deborah also put a lot of work into organising today's hop. Oh Paula, the things that have been going on behind your back!


Stamps (Hero Arts):- Adorable Baby Girl & Precious Baby Boy

As Paula is a moderator at the Die Cut Divas group on Flickr, I decided to go a little bit Cuttlebug crazy on both cards and of course being me I just had to put a bit of gingham fabric on the first card!


Stamps (Hero Arts):- You’re the Best, Clouds & Birthday Messages (used back of balloon stamp)

Well Paula as you already have your little cutie Em, I probably don’t have any tips to pass on to you that you don’t know already. But here’s something we used to do when our kids were babies. At the weekend my hubby and I would have a morning each. So whoever was “on duty” would get up when our baby woke (usually very early!) and let the other do what they wanted until 11am/12 noon. It could be sleep (often!), breakfast in bed, go for a walk, read a book, meet a friend etc. Having those few hours was just brilliant for recharging the batteries.

Killarney, Co Kerry, Ireland

Just to finish here are some words of wisdom I’ve come across:-

No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behaviour, and I'm not talking about the kids. Bill Cosby

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out. Erma Bombeck

Be nice to your children, for they will choose your retirement home. Phyllis Diller

Hopefully you will have arrived here from Hannah’s blog in the US and now it's time to hop from Ireland over to Indonesia and Fika’s blog. If you think you have missed any stops on your travels or if there have been broken links in any of the blogs you can go back to Deborah’s blog where you will find the full list of links.

Again, welcome Lilly and congrats to Paula, Doug and Em! Thanks everyone for visiting and hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

July Card Chain Challenge

I always love taking part in Deborah's Card Chain Challenge (CCC) and today I was delighted to receive this absolute stunner from Marian in the Philippines.



The background looks amazing with the way she inked the hills, sky and sun. It also has a wonderful all over shimmer (perfect pearls maybe?) which I couldn't catch in a photo. The gorgeous embossed tree and butterflies are full of sparkle too.

It's also beautiful on the inside!



Thanks again Marian. I love it!

This is the card I sent to Donna (irishmist2009). As Donna has received the card, I thought I'd post it.



Stamps (Hero Arts):- Leaves Background, Flourish Background, Engraved Flower & Messages.

I used a piece of green fabric for the background (the grain of the fabric is less obvious in real life), clear embossed the Leaves Background on it and added a little machine stitching. The red card base is clear embossed with the Flourish Background. The flower has two layers and is coloured with a red marker and yellow watercolour pencil. I love the little heart pearls from Hero Arts so I had to add one to the card!

If you haven't already tried it, I'd highly recommend taking part in Deborah's monthly challenge. On the last Friday of the month Deborah gives the details of the next CCC on her blog. So you might like to check out her blog on the 30th of July for the August CCC!

The Honeymoon Continues....

I had so much fun making the raccoons’ honeymoon card the other day that I just couldn’t resist making another one!

Today the happy couple are enjoying a bowl of pasta in another well known city. I decided to borrow an idea from Walt Disney’s “The Lady and the Tramp” where Lady and Tramp start eating opposite ends of a single strand of spaghetti until they meet in the middle. The “spaghetti” started off as white yarn and I coloured it with antique linen distress ink. The ink must have been a little damp when I threaded the yarn so by accident the raccoons ended up with sauce stains around their mouths! I liked it so just left it.

The Honeymoon Continues...., originally uploaded by heather maria.

Stamps (Hero Arts):- Woodland Creatures, Woodgrain Circle, What’s Cooking, Ancient Motif, Heart Owls.

I used the Ancient Motif stamp for the floor (antique linen distress ink) and the tiles surrounding the scene (clear embossed). Last year Vanessa sent me a gorgeous range of papers as a blog candy prize and I used a piece of one of the papers for the wall in the restaurant. I used the woodgrain circle stamp for the skirting board and window frame. For the sky I applied broken china and faded jeans distress inks to white card and spritzed with water. The racoons and bowl are coloured with watercolour pencils and I added Glossy Accents to the bowl. A scrap of fabric was used for the tablecloth.

The card is for the July challenge at Hero Arts.

I'm so glad it's Friday. Hope you all have a great weekend!

A Honeymoon in Paris

The challenge this month at Hero Arts is Food and Travel. Yesterday on the Hero Arts blog, Lisa had the cutest cupcake card with a French connection. So I just had to have some fun with the templates that were provided.

The Honeymoon, originally uploaded by heather maria.

Stamps used (Hero Arts):- Clouds, Woodland Creatures, Lace Background, Heart Owls.

A while ago I made a card with a romantic raccoon couple (last card on this post). So the story goes that the guy raccoon proposed in the hot air balloon and they are now on their honeymoon - I really need to get out more often! Robin got me hooked on her brilliant saga last year about a mouse couple. So I have to thank her for the inspiration! Part 1 of her saga starts here.

The raccoons are coloured with colouring pencils and I used a scrap of frayed upholstery fabric for the hill. I used Mon’s templates for the moustache and berets and also made the raccoon's little t-shirts from the border surrounding the templates. I gave the girl a little silk skirt and yarn necktie. The Lace Background is clear embossed.

I'm also submitting this card to Jenny's Challenge #13 (Free for All).

Summer Fields

This is another entry into the June Challenge at Hero Arts. During the summer time as kids we used to spend hours and hours playing in the fields near home. The fields always seemed to be full of poppies, butterflies and ladybirds so that’s what I wanted to include in my summer card.

Summer Fields, originally uploaded by heather maria.

For the background I sponged distress inks (broken china, antique linen, shabby shutters and mustard seed) on white card. The wheat is stamped with antique linen and I embossed the seed heads with enchanted gold. I coloured the poppies with markers, added beads to the centres and used yarn (white yarn coloured with a green marker) for the stems. I applied glossy accents to the ladybirds.

Stamps (Hero Arts) Silhouette Grass, Scattered Leaves, Antique Engravings, Poppy Background, Birthday Messages

Happy Birthday Adam and Woodland Creatures

My son Adam wanted me to put his birthday card up on the blog so when I was doing that I thought I'd add another couple of cards I made using the super cute Woodland Creatures set from Hero Arts.

On Adam's card the balloons and letters are stamped using chalk inks and I coloured the other images with watercolour pencils. I just added a few touches of stickles to the candle flames and chocolate drops.

Happy Birthday Adam!, originally uploaded by heather maria.

Stamps (Hero Arts) Woodland Creatures,Birthday Messages, What's Cooking, Adorable Baby Girl.

This is another birthday card I made using the Woodland Creatures set. The images are coloured with watercolour pencils. For a little bit of sparkle, I added diamond stickles to the white spots on the mushrooms, glossy accents to the balloon and some gems. The little mushrooms on the base of the card are on little easels.



Stamps (Hero Arts) Woodland Creatures, Cloud Background, Adorable Baby Girl, Birthday Messages.

On this one I decided to make a hot air balloon for the romantic raccoon couple. I wove yarn over cardboard and made a basket out of it. To make the balloon I placed a layer of wadding between two pieces of fabric and stitched the outline and seams.



Stamps (Hero Arts) Woodland Creatures, Cloud Background, Adorable Baby Girl.