Happy Birthday Bear

I had a birthday card to make and pulled out the cute new Lil Hoot set from Hero Arts for it - love all the adorable critters in this set!



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Lil Hoot, Friendly Flags & Be Happy

I started by inking a panel of white card with faded jeans and tumbled glass distress inks and splashed some water on it. My good friend Linda sent me the gorgeous die cut tree trunks (thanks again, Linda!) and I applied some antique linen distress ink to them before adhering them to the card with foam pads. Scraps of green card were used for the background and grass. I embossed the flags and placed them on a piece of baker's twine which had been strung through the trees. It's hard to tell from the photo, but for some dimension, the big bear's head has been layered once and the little bear's head twice.



I'm submitting this card into A Blog Named Hero's New Year, New Stash Challenge, Simon Says Stamp's Emboss It Challenge and Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking January Gallery Challenge.

Hope you're having a great weekend! We're enjoying a lovely sunny but cool day:)

Triangular Thanks

I thought I'd play along again with the Trendy Triangle Challenge over at Moxie Fab World. This time, as well as using triangles on my card, I decided to make a triangular card.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Friendly Flags, Lattice Background and Antique Brocade

For the orange and darker green triangles, I applied Hero Arts tide pool and orange soda shadow inks to white card and stamped and/or embossed images. I used pool layer paper for the lighter green triangles. After cutting out the triangles, I adhered them to white card and did some machine stitching before adding the back of the card. As I've used inks from the Stamp Your Story catalogue, I'm also submitting this card into the current Hero Arts Challenge. I was inspired by the colours and mix of patterns on this gorgeous card by Kelly Rasmussen.

Hope you're having a great weekend:) Our National Heritage Week starts today so we're hoping to fit in as many fun events as possible over the next seven days and are trying not to think too much about the imminent return to school!

Lily Pad Cards’ First Birthday Blog Hop

Hi and welcome to the Lily Pad Cards’ First Birthday Blog Hop!



You should have arrived here from Karin’s blog. I’m so delighted to be celebrating the 1st Birthday of Lily Pad Cards and to be part of this Blog Hop – congratulations and thanks Deborah and Vicky!

There are three prize packages with a total retail value of over $300 to be won! These prizes will be awarded by random draw. To be eligible, you need to “like” Lily Pad Cards on Facebook. To increase your chances of winning, you can leave a comment on each of the blogs participating in this hop (including the Lily Pad). Your name is entered in the draw each time you comment on a blog (but only one comment per blog, please). To be in with a chance to win one of these wonderful prizes, comments should be left by 12:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, April 8. Good luck!


The Dream Team!

Well for my cards today, I wanted to use colours inspired by lily pads and a certain fabulous frog – yes Frederick duPonde you know that’s you, and honestly, George Clooney isn’t a patch on you! In honour of the equally fabulous Vicky and Deborah, I also made sure I included the colours of the Greek and U.S. flags.

So below is my first card.



Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps (Friends Definition, Wild Flowers and Birthday Messages), faded jeans distress ink, VersaMark, white embossing powder, card (cream & navy), upholstery fabric, baker’s twine and gems.

Of course I had to make a card especially for Frederick....



...and here it is



Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps (Froggy, Be Happy, Write Your Message,Friendly Flags and Heart Owls), card (white, blue, green & red), inks (black, green & blue), Happy Birthday embossing folder, blue ProMarker, Glossy Accents, white pen, baker’s twine and gems.

Since it’s a day of celebration, I have some brownies and baklava at the ready and am now ready to enjoy lots of hopping! The next stop on the hop is Lidiya’s blog. If you hit a bad link, you can always go back to Lily Pad. to view the master list of blog links. Please report any bad links to aris@inlinkz.com. Thanks for visiting and have fun hopping:)

A Gift Card Hidden in the Snow

The current Hero Arts challenge includes a pocket card category, so I thought I’d make a little card for a gift token I’m giving at Christmas.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Snowy House, Magical Background, Friendly Flags and Very Merry Christmas.

For the front of the card I applied tumbled glass distress ink to white card and using the same ink, stamped it with the magical background. The ground was embossed with snowflakes and some stickles added for a bit of sparkle. I coloured the house with a ProMarker and watercolour pencil, layer it and added stickles for yet more sparkle – lol went a bit sparkle mad on this card! I loved the way Kelly Rasmussen used one of the flags from the Friendly Flag set for Christmas trees on this gorgeous pocket card. So I decided to use a flag with a scallop pattern for my tree here. I layered the tree to add some dimension and added some pink gems and a star to finish. The sentiment is embossed in white.


The inside of the card was made in the same way as the outside, except instead of sticking down the snowdrifts I just attached them to the card on three sides using machine stitching.


My little fella is hoping for it to be as snowy here as on the card on Christmas Eve\Day to make it easier for Santa to get here. Although we've had flurries of snow and a cold snap over the last little while, it's supposed to get warmer during the week. Do you think you will have snow in your neck of the woods for Santa next week??

Happy Birthday Mark!

This is a card I made for my son Mark who celebrates his birthday today. Happy Birthday, Mark! Since Mark’s birthday is on the 4th of July, I decided to go with a red\white\blue colour combination and some stars and stripes.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Canvas Stripes, Friendly Flags and Clouds Background

To start with I applied barn door distress ink to the stripes stamp and spritzed lightly with water before stamping. The clouds background was stamped in the same way using tumbled glass distress ink. For the blue flags, I applied broken china and faded jeans distress inks to white card and embossed the flags in white. I used a scrap of the stamped canvas stripes for the birthday flag.

Happy 4th of July to all you who celebrate it too:)