Hero Hostess Takeover!

It’s Hero Hostess week on the Hero Arts blog this week and we’ve had such a fun time making birthday cards and projects for the blog!

Linda and Sharon were first up on Monday with wonderful cards for a friend and a guy. On Tuesday Sally shared a stunning gift box which she had created and is sure to make a present extra special. Wednesday saw Anita with her very first video tutorial and she created a gorgeous card with wonderful instructions on how to make twisted ribbon flowers. So Friday is finally here and I’m sharing some gift wrapping ideas.


Stamps (Hero Arts) Antique Engravings, Blossom Art, Large Flower & Birthday Messages

I often make my own wrapping paper and embellishments for gifts. I love choosing the stamps and colours to make these and had great fun going through my Hero Arts stamps to wrap these particular gifts. Full instructions on how I wrapped the gifts are here on the Hero Arts website so I’ll just give the short version now. I stamped a butterfly randomly over pieces of some blue craft paper using VersaMark.



To decorate the parcels I white embossed the butterflies and flowers on vellum and added a selection of gems – thanks again Joy for some of these! The bottom layer of the sentiment was also white embossed on vellum with the top layer white embossed on a scrap of the blue paper.



The blue paper I used was from a roll which is 70m long and cost the same as a single sheet of wrapping paper. So I’ll be able to wrap lots of presents from this roll and will be able to customise them to suit the recipient’s tastes. The other day I wrapped a present for a friend using different paper and stamped embellishments. She told me that she has saved the embellishments so that she can make her first cards using them – hopefully she’ll get hooked on card making too!



I'm submitting this project into The Shabby Tea Room "Party Time" Challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday Challenge.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Butterflies and Flowers

I'm just posting photos of some cards I sent to friends which I didn't get around to putting on the blog before. I hadn't really thought about it until now but obviously I must love butterflies and flowers!

The Silhouette Grass is clear embossed on fabric and the butterflies are coloured with ProMarkers.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Silhouette Grass & Messages.


A distress ink background with white embossed vellum flower. I just added some glitter to a button and diamond stickles to the petals for some sparkle.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower & Tree, Bird and Messages.


The large flower again!
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower & Tree, Birds and Messages.


Vellum butterflies and the Fabulous Flourish is embossed in white on fabric.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Fabulous Flourish & Antique Engravings


As you can see I love the Antique Engravings set!
Stamps (Hero Arts)- Antique Engravings & Tree, Birds and Messages.


The Wild Flowers are white embossed on fabric and the butterfly coloured with Promarkers.
Stamps (Hero Arts) - Antique Engravings, Wild Flowers & Tree, Birds and Messages.


I love using Crackle Accents!

Frosty Flowers and Butterflies Wreath

Stamps (Hero Arts) – Large Flower, Antique Engravings.

The idea for this wreath popped into my mind because of all the snowy\frosty weather we’ve had recently and Barb’s challenge to make a Christmas project using non traditional flowers. For Barb’s 90 minute challenge I used my all time favourite stamp, Large Flower by Hero Arts. Here is the card I made for that 90 minute scramble. I’ve used it again on this project as well as my second favourite stamp set from Hero Arts this year - Antique Engravings. It’s one of those stamp sets I reach for again and again.



To start with I cut a ring shape out of a cereal box and covered it with strips of white lining fabric. The flowers and butterflies were white embossed on vellum and I added some diamond stickles to them. I added blue glitter to red foil snowflakes and then added blue gems to the butterflies.



I'm submitting the wreath into these challenges -

Hero Arts Challenge - part of this month's challenge is to add shine to a project.

Moxie Fab World - Glitter is Glam Challenge.

Allsorts - Anything Goes

Top Tip Challenges - Christmas Inspired Challenge

Scrappy Frogs Challenge - Holiday Decor

This year is the first time I’ve ever seen our local canal freeze over and there is supposed to be more cold weather and snow on the way. It looks like we might have a white Christmas after all!

Deborah's card drive and Yarrow Elfshimmer unmasked

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve blogged but between getting a couple of winter bugs and preparing for a craft fair which is on later this week I’ve been neglecting my blog a bit recently.

About a year ago Deborah (who always comes up with the best ideas!) organised a secret card drive for Ruth, a lovely lady from the Hero Arts Flickr group, who was ill. The plan was for a group of us to send cards to Ruth and her children to try to brighten their days.


Stamp (Hero Arts) - Silhouette Grass

Everyone who took part in the drive used an alias so Ruth wouldn’t know who we were. My one was Yarrow Elfshimmer. Deborah has told us that we can finally reveal our identities and share the cards we sent to Ruth and her children. In my haste to send Christmas cards to Ruth’s children I forgot to take photos of those but these are the cards I sent to Ruth.



It's brilliant to hear that Ruth is doing great now and that she was thrilled with all the cards she received. A great big thanks to Deborah for putting so much into organising this surprise for Ruth! Ruth, best wishes to you from Yarrow Elfshimmer and I'm delighted to hear you are doing so well!

Barb's 90 Minute Scramble

There was great fun again over at the Hero Arts Flick group yesterday when Barb hosted her 90 minute card making scramble. Scramble is the perfect word for these challenges as it's a bit manic trying to get a card made, photographed and uploaded to the pool in 90 minutes. But it's so funny at the same time running around like a headless chicken and it's brilliant to see what everyone comes up with in such a short time period. Barb's challenge was to add a flower or flowers not normally associated with Christmas onto a Christmas card or project.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Holly Flourish, Large Flower & Holiday Dolls.

As soon as I saw the word flower, I knew I had to use my all time favourite stamp, the Large Flower. I white embossed the flower on vellum twice and using an embossing pen added some stardust embossing to parts of the flower. To the centre of the flower, I added a red foil snowflake and a button which I had covered in glossy accents and silver glitter. I had great fun with this as when I had the card upright to take a photo, the glossy accents and glitter started to slide down the button as it wasn't quite dry! Today I'm going to add glitter around the edges of the button - it would have been too messy to do that last night.

The sentiment is also white embossed on vellum and I white embossed around the edges of the tag too. The red card was clear embossed with the Holly Flourish and I just added some silver gems to finish.



A big thanks to Barb for hosting such a fun challenge and also to Hero Arts for the wonderful group which I love being in. There are always great things going on there and it's packed full of amazing inspiration from everyone in the group!

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A few of my favourite things gift bag

Part of the Hero Arts' challenge this month (Everything Autumn) is to make a gift bag. Sometimes I recycle bags from shops and use them for gift bags and here is the one I used today.


I decided to add a few of my favourite things to the bag - the Large Flower, Scallop Borders and fabric. To start with I cut a piece of upholstery fabric from a sample book for the background. Then I white embossed the flowers on vellum and embossed parts of the petals using sparkling stardust embossing powder.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower & Scallop Borders

I layered the flowers and added assorted beads and pearls to the centres. For the scallop edging on the top of the bag I white embossed one of the scallops from the Scallop Borders set and applied worn lipstick distress ink. I used some left over pieces of tulle for the handles.



It's such a cloudy day here today so I'm afraid the photos aren't great and don't capture the sparkle on the flowers.

PaperPlay Challenge - Anything Goes

It’s time for another new challenge on PaperPlay. This week the challenge has been set by Julie and is titled "Anything Goes". So basically the choice is totally yours this week. You can make a card\project for any occasion, using any design, colours etc.

Waltzing Mouse Stamps is kindly sponsored the prize this week. Claire has so many wonderful products in her store and is offering the lucky winner a full set of stamps.

Sparkling Thank You, originally uploaded by heather maria.

Stamps used:- Hero Arts Large Flower & Dolls

It’s been a while (all of 30 days but who’s counting!) since I last used the Large Flower stamp. The flower, which has two layers, is embossed in white on vellum. Using an embossing pen, I embossed parts of the petals with stardust embossing powder. I machine stitched some meandering lines on the card and added beads and gems to finish.



I’m submitting the card to the Card Style Classy and Elegant Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

I hope you will join us for our “Anything Goes” week on PaperPlay!

Large Flower with a Sprinkle of Stardust

This morning I wanted to make a card for a friend who loves flowers and lots of sparkle. So I decided to use my favourite stamp (Large Flower by Hero Arts) for the flower.

Large Flower with a Sprinkle of Stardust, originally uploaded by heather maria.

I embossed it in white on vellum and used an embossing pen and stardust embossing powder to add some sparkle to parts of the petals. The flower is layered three times and I added some beads to the centre. For the background I clear embossed Ancient Motif (Hero Arts) on blue card. Then I mounted squares of this on to white card and did some piercing around the edges with my sewing machine. The card is a lot more sparkly in real life, but as usual I can't seem to catch all the sparkle in the photos!


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Large Flower, Ancient Motif and Messages

Can't leave that large flower down!

I have really fallen for the Large Flower stamp by Hero Arts and I know it will be one of those stamps I will use over and over again - no dust will gather on this one!

Here's a card I made recently using this stamp. Before machine stitching the flower I made a "sandwich" of a piece of fabric, wadding, snippets and threads of organza, a piece of organza. For the leaves, I stamped a leaf from the Scattered Leaves set (Hero Arts) on cotton fabric, layered it on another piece of fabric, zigzag stitched around the edges and cut out.



Here are some more cards I've made using this stamp.

Organza again





Vellum





A couple more!

Some Fun With Fabrics

I used to do a bit of quilting but once I started making cards that kind of took over. But I still love to go through my fabric stash and use bits and pieces of fabric on some of my cards. These are a few cards I made recently using fabric.

For this one I stamped a piece of hand dyed fabric with the Large Flower from Hero Arts, layered with wadding and a stiff piece of fabric and machine stitched. The flower centre and background are pieces of upholstery samples.






Stamps (Hero Arts) Large Flower, Woodgrain Circle, Birthday Messages.

I had to try a tutorial I came across on making organza flowers. Various size circles are cut out of organza and the edges are curled by holding them over a flame. The organza circles are then layered to form a flower.



Stamps (Hero Arts) Branch Background, Scallop Borders, Birthday Messages, Scattered Leaves.

Since I don't get to make many quilts anymore, I thought it would be fun to make a mini quilt for this card using up little scraps of fabric. I was over the moon the other day to see that the card had been picked as one of the winners of the Moxie Fab World Fun with Fabrics challenge.



Stamps (Hero Arts) Sew Original, Birthday Messages.

Hello and Welcome!

Well I never thought I'd be saying this, but hello and welcome to my new blog!

I thought I'd start with a couple of cards I made for the June challenge (Summer Fun & 4th July) at Hero Arts

As soon as I saw the Flourish Grids stamp set by Hero Arts, I knew I'd have to get it and this is my first card using this set.



I applied broken china and faded jeans distress inks to the upper part of a panel of white card and spritzed with water. Then I sponged the base of the panel with shabby shutters distress ink. For the flowers I used two pink chalk inks to get a few different shades. The flowers have diamond stickles centres. Originally the background was white card which I sponged with worn lipstick distress ink and stamped randomly with the flourish background using water.

Stamps
(Hero Arts) Flourish Grids, Scattered Leaves, Flourish Background, Birthday Messages, Dolls .


For the second card I used a stamp which is my absolute favourite - Large Flower by Hero Arts. I just saw that the Crafty Angels challenge this week is using your favourite stamp so I'm entering this card.



The flower is embossed in white, covered with distress inks (shabby shutters and broken china) and has four layers. The scallops and sentiment were also embossed in white and covered with worn lipstick distress ink. For the card itself I lightly applied shabby shutters and broken china distress inks to white card and splattered water on it. I just added some machine stitching and beads to finish.



Stamps (Hero Arts) Large Flower, Scallop Borders, Birthday Messages.