Aussie Scrap Source

weekend inspiration: hero arts

 

 

 

 

Jane has used the Hero Arts Wish You Were Here stamp set with BasicGrey Mint Julep collection of papers and stickers to create these two cards. On one card Jane stamped the chair and lamp on the pretty vintage themed papers, cut the images out and layered them on a label sticker. She gave the comfy chair some padding shape by adding shadows with a grey watercolour pencil. The other card Jane cut an oval from the white card and placed a ornate frame sticker around it then added it to the card front using foam mounting tape. The sentiments are perfect to surprise a friends day and to let them know how much you miss them!!

 

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weekend inspiration: hero arts

 

Hero Arts has a fabulous range of garden and flower stamps that will allow you to create an ethereal background scene for your paper projects and photos. For this layout Louise has repeated stamped flower images using the Wildflower Garden stamp, to create a garden like look for her layout background.

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Chris has heat embossed the Hero Arts Magical Background cling stamp in clear embossing powder onto black cardstock for a subtle background and then stamped the flags from Studio Calico/Hero Arts Stamp set 'Hooray' onto pattern paper and mounted them in the foreground.  Simple, but stunning!

 

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Chris has longed to play with the Three Butterflies cling set from Hero Arts and so was completely delighted with the results of colouring in the large butterfly image with coloured pencils.  They make such a stunning accent on these cards which also feature 'Old Letter' cling stamp and 'To a special friend' wood sentiment stamp.

 

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Why not create a one of a kind gift bag with your favourite stamp set! Chris has used the Clear 'Sew me flower jewel' set with the small butterfly image from the 'Three Butterflies' cling set.  Stamp directly onto pattern paper and then cut out the images and use 3D adhesive to piece all the bits back together.  Finish off with a little Stickles by Ranger.

 

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The lovely Virginia Lu has shared with us her gorgeous card created using the Hero Arts Right at Home Clear Design set of stamps and Basic Grey Piccadilly range.  Here is a quick tutorial from Virginia on how to create this card: "Make card from card stock.  Stamp the house and clouds in assorted paper, cut out the images.  Tear a piece of green pattern paper and cut with the fringe scissor, curl up the “grass” with a toothpick.  Assemble the houses and clouds, adhere with pop dots.  Stamp sentiment in punch chalk ink , add pearl.”

Thank you so much for sharing your lovely homely card with us Virginia!

 

Lin Brandyberry shows us how to create a wonderful home decor item with any of the many flower stamps by Hero Arts.  Your vase of flowers is divine Lin, thank you for sharing it with us! Here is a video by Shari Carroll from Hero Arts showing you step by step how to create a beautiful vase of flowers!

 

To extend the use of your stamps why not take some inspiration from Heather Doran with this superb card and wrapping paper set!  Don't just stop at decorating a card, while you've got your stamps out create some one of a kind wrapping paper!!!  Heather has used Hero Arts Antique Engravings, Maple Leaf and It's a Day for a Cupcake stamps!  Thank you for your wonderful creations Heather!

 

Heather also shares with us these fabulous and totally cute Christmas cards using Christmas Reindeer, Very Merry Christmas and Magical Background stamps.  How super are those snowballs too!!!  Thanks Heather!

 

We just love this set of cards created by Barb Engler using the Sizzix/Hero Arts Bold Pop set and Clear design Good Friends set.  They are are such gorgeous cards, thanks Barb!

 

For this card Barb has used the Bold Pop set again, but in a different way, punching out the negative on the card base and then also pop dotting the butterflies over the top of the negative.  Stunning use of the set Barb!

 

Check out this fantastic multi-layered card by Cindy Tong!  Cindy has used the Wish you were here and Christmas Reindeer clear stamp sets to create this master piece!  And if you're wondering how Cindy created that fabulous little window, she used the Small Madison die from Poppystamps.  Thank you Cindy for this gorgeous creation!

 

 

Next we have this very creative Upcycled Autumn Goodie Jar by Anne Gaal.  Here's a little bit from Anne about creating this fabulous project "I stamped music from Hero Arts CG279 Musical Clef cling set onto the background using Tea Dye Distress Ink. Next I stamped a long botanical grass or willow image from Hero Arts CL428 Earth Flowers using Wild Honey Distress Ink. Then I stamped a spiky fern leaf from Hero Arts CL457 Real Leaves using Rusty Hinge Distress Ink. The “You are someone special” sentiment is from Hero Arts CL578 Good Friends and is stamped using Faded Jeans Distress Ink. The butterflies are from Hero Arts CL383 Antique Engravings and are stamped on Glossy Paper using Ranger Archival Ink in jet black."  For even more information about this project please see Anne's blog.  Thank you for sharing your inspiring project with us Anne!

 

 

What a stunning card this is created by Sharon Dunn!  Sharon has created this vase card using the small magical flower stamp and Heart Greetings sentiment.  Thank you for this fabulous inspiration Sharon!

weekend inspiration: hero arts

 

Louise thought she would take a slightly different approach with the use of the Hero Arts ‘Three Artistic Butterflies’ stamp set on this layout. She first applied some white gesso onto her layout background and before it was dried she stamped butterfly images in to the wet gesso, then allowed it to dry. To highlight the stamped impressions Louise has added dribbles of ink an allowed them to run over the stamped impression to add shades of grey to the wing patterns.

 

 

Jilly has created these cards featuring the Hero Arts Clings "Greetings" stamp set (HAS-CG414 Clings - Greetings). After stamping with Clear Embossing Inks and embossing with the Hero Arts super fine embossing powder, she has sprayed each image with Glimmermist and mounted the images onto vintage book pages and Glitz Design patterned papers.

 

This stunning layout by Sheri Reguly for Hero Arts makes beautiful use of the large rose image (Etched Flowers) on the kraft portion of her layout.  The effect is almost a watermark, stunning and subtle at the same time.

 

It wouldn’t be a Hero Arts post without a bit of sunshine from Jennifer McGuire, who uses the new Hero Arts cling sunray stamp on this gorgeous card.

weekend inspiration: hero arts

 

 

 

 

Hero Arts stamps were used in a couple of different ways on this whimsical layout by Danielle Quarmby. First, she stamped the 'Indie Bloom Star Blooms' design on two different patterned papers, one time using black ink and the other using a teal. Both pieces were then coloured with water-soluble crayons before being layered over the background of the layout. Gesso, impasto and spray inks were used to create an artistic background, blending over and around the stamped pieces of patterned paper.

A second stamp design, 'Indie Bloom Butterflies & Wild Flowers', was then added to the page once the gesso and ink were dry. In addition to the other elements layered around the page, they created a nature-filled theme with the grassy strands and small butterflies. Danielle, who doesn't usually think of herself as a stamper, was surprised at how much she enjoyed using the Hero Arts stamps to add a unique feel to her project.

 

Can you put up with Louise blithering on again on how wonderful Hero Arts Stamps are for your layouts???? LOL. Take it from us here at Aussie Scrap Source, she loves them!! Louise has posted before about their versatility, and with this layout it is proved once again. Louise has taken a Christmas themed stamp set, and used it to showcase a photo of her gorgeous young friend Jessica frolicking in a field of flowering Canola.

 

 

 

 

Jennifer McGuire is a master of stamping and cardmaking and we’re always thrilled to be able to share her projects on the Aussie blog.  She has created all of the above different looks with the same Indie Bloom ‘Butterflies and Wild Flowers’ stamp, showing just how versatile a single image can be.

 

To create the stunning flower that features on her card design, Dawn McVey used 3 different flowers from Hero Arts/Basic Grey's Luscious Bold Flowers stamp set and stamped each layer on white card before cutting each flower out and inking the edges with distress ink. Each layer was adhered with foam adhesive for lots of dimension.

 

Nichol Magouirk created this adorable card using Hero Arts' In the Garden stamp, stamping with a glue pad and then adding flocking powder to show off the design.

 

Here Shari Carroll has used some of the Basic Grey Hero Arts stamps in combination with Basic Grey patterned papers to create a cheerful friendship card!

2011 cha summer: hero arts

Lots of new Christmas, Halloween and other wonderfully versatile images, Hero Arts comes up with the goods again.  Check them all out here.

 

 

weekend inspiration: hero arts

 

Iris loved the beautiful patterns of the Hero Arts collage stamps. In this layout, she used the stamps to create her background page... a white misted cardstock with multi-coloured stamped images. To create this soft images with stamps, Iris inked her stamps with different colours of distress inks then lightly misted it with water. She stamped it on to the white cardstock and the misted ink resulted in a watercolour effect.

 

Louise Nelson so loves to get her stamp briefs, she so loves the versatility of stamps; case in point is this seemingly ordinary this grungy block like stamp. At first glance it has nothing going for it but when to use it to matt your photos it really makes your layout and photo [even the small ones that Louise favours], POP!

For this particular layout Louise has used the block stamp with a lovely purple Tim Holtz distress ink; creating an eye catching, colourful and fun layout that immediately draws your eye to the photo.

 

For this layout has used the block stamp to not only matt her photo but also to tie together her black toned elements, as you would using a patterned paper. Despite the stamping, and overlays being in black they avoid over powering the photo by the perfect touches of colour in the flower, bling and teal overlay elements.

 

This beautiful stamping layout was created by Anna Karin. For her son Anton. The background was done on watercolour paper with Hero Arts stamps, Distress Ink, water and Perfect Pearls. First, the grass and text stamps were white embossed. Then, Distress Inks (Bundled Sage, Old Paper and Crushed Olive) was applied to an acrylic block, misted generously with water and with a bit of water mixed with Perfect Pearls. The block was stamped on the layout and then inked and misted again to cover the whole area.

The edges of the layout were masked and the Envelope Pattern stamp was stamped with Bundled Sage ink for texture. The flowers were inked with Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters and misted with water before stamping. The butterfly was inked with Crushed Olive and Wild Honey and the Leaf Cluster with Crushed Olive and Shabby Shutters. Journaling was written on a tag placed behind the layout.

 

Anne-Sofie Hansen is a scrapbooker and card maker from Denmark. She says that Hero arts is just great for her kind of style - whimsical, playful, fun. She made this card entitled "I enjoy being with you" for a card making competition which she joined in 2011 and it came in 2nd place.

cha winter 2011: hero arts

 

 

     

   

 

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

countdown to christmas day 25: hero arts

 

 

Hero Arts stamps always give a beautiful crisp image when used. Sue loves to heat emboss the images to create a lovely glossy look. Sue has quite a collection of branch stamps and this holly flourish was the perfect addition! It is lovely to hang things off such as the cute baubles cut from patterned papers and embellished. You could also hang stars or snowflakes for a different look.

weekend inspiration: hero arts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Siiigh!!! That was Louise's response when asked to create with the new range of Hero Arts Stamps. (and it was our response to the above project she created with one of them!)  Louise just loves the creative versatility of stamps and cant get enough of them. The new debut range is particularly fabulous with an amazing variety and range of images to work with that will suit all types of papercrafters and scrapbookers.

For this layout, card and gift tag Louise has used the Blooming Butterflies wood mounted stamp. She just loved that the intricate design lent itself to being used to created more images [flowers] other than the initial butterfly.

 

 

One of the most versatile stamps you can have in your arsenal has got to be circles.  Patterned circles can be used as accents all year round, from scalloped borders to bouncing balls and all kinds of gap fillers.  And then Christmas time comes around and your circles can become baubles.  Here Suz has used mixed circular designs along with a Hero Arts wood mounted set of Hearts to make a soft and beautiful garland down her page.  She has incorporated several different stamping methods as well, from white Stazon onto transparency to web embossing and some directly onto the background cardstock.

 

 

 

A Hero Arts post wouldn’t be a Hero Arts post without some samples of the talent that is Jennifer McGuire.  Here she has used two different holly themes to create too different but beautiful looks to inspire your christmas card creating this year!

 

 

This absolutely glorious layout was created by Kim Kachmarski, who hales from Northen Alberta Canada. Kim operates a small online store from her home. This allows her to stay home with her 3 year old twin boys. Kim has been scrapbooking for about 10 years and began teaching last year (mostly around inks, stamps and making backgrounds). She tells me that she loves scrapbooking as a way to relieve stress, and having twin boys she get quite a bit of "Art Therapy" in.

Kim tells me that she created this layout using 2 wonderful Hero Arts Stamps and Tim Holtz Distress Inks. Thank you so very much for allowing us to share your creativity Kim.

 

 

 

 

 

A big thank you to Trish Rheinberger for allowing us to showcase her creative talents using the Hero Arts Stamps. Trish has created 3 beautiful cards with the same Hero Arts Stamp, [Clings repositional rubber stamp - Poppy Background] and for each has used a different technique to create 3 beautiful individualised cards.

trends: philippa barr

We asked Philippa if she would share a cardmaker’s insight into the stamping and colouring in craze that’s apparently around at the moment.  She has created and found a number of gorgeous samples for us – thanks so much for being a guest blogger Philippa!

A huge trend in the stamping and cardmaking world at the moment is colouring in. Everywhere you look stampers are colouring in images of little girls and using them on their cards.

 

Hero Arts have some fabulous images to add to your collection. You can colour them with your favourite colouring medium – there are a lot of different options. Here I have used markers and then highlighted certain areas for a bit of shine with H2Os. Hero Arts also produce a Watercolour Paint Wheel, which is fantastic for colouring and adds a lovely chalky finish to your projects.

The stamp was perfect to create a layout using some old photos of the first time my daughter had her hair up in little piggies.  Additional products used: Basic Grey alphabet stickers, Pink Paislee & The Girls’ Paperie papers, Webster’s Trim and Twiddleybitz Fine Fern Leaves Assortment

Other wonderful samples that I have found on blogs are from Tanya Tahir. How stunning is this Kraft and pink combination?

Another one from Tanya using Kraft yet again, but this time teamed with a vibrant red pattern.

I also discovered these sweet cards by Teresa Abajo. There is that ever popular October Afternoon Thrift Shop Complete paper again!

Finally Julie Dudley has made this gorgeous card and is obviously using up her stash of older Basic Grey papers – no less fabulous because they’re not from this season!

weekend inspiration: hero arts

 

 

 

 

 

The newest releases of Hero Arts Stamps 'Are to die for!!!' Well that is what Louise thinks! And she found she was hard pressed to choose, just one, for this particular product showcase.  Finally she settled for the beautiful wood mounted Large Line Flower stamp!

 

 

 

Whilst Lou has used a typically traditional technique with stamping and heat embossing the stamped image, she has taken one it step further, and used the stamp and the heat embossing technique to further embellish her layout and card; with the title, butterfly and heart shape embellishments, and around the border of her layout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suz has used the Clear Designs – Three Floral – gorgeous clear stamps designed to be gift tags.  She stamped them with Stazon and then spritzed with different colour Glimmer Mists for a fast and fabulous finish.  Cutting them out and attaching co-ordinating ribbon was the final step – doesn’t get faster or easier than that!

 

 

 

But the application of these versatile stamps doesn’t stop at gift tags.  Suz also combined them with the cute Sparkle Clear – Messages – again stamping the borders with Stazon  and this time colouring in with markers.  Suz then matted on plain coloured cardstock and stamped the messages with a co-ordinating coloured ink.  Simple but effective little notecards in minutes!

 

Jennifer McGuire never ceases to take our breath away with her stamping and her colour wizardry, and this amazing piece full of hero arts stamping, embossing and resist techniques is no exception.  we love the rainbow she has created – every little tag a perfect project in itself, but brought together to make something far more wonderful than the sum of it’s parts.  Thanks Jennifer for sharing your talent with us.

 

 

 

This beautiful Birthday card was designed and created by Kathy Racoosin who creates and designs for SRM Stickers, [SRM sentiment sticker also used on this card]. Kathy has use the wonderful new Hero Arts stamp Starburst Lace. Isnt it just glorious!!! Thank you Kathy for allowing us to share your card.

 

 

This Glorious Mothers Day card was created by Shemaine Smith who resides in Los Angeles Ca.  For this particular card has used 2 wonderful Hero Arts wood mounted stamps; Birdcage and Silhouette Ivy. Oh and I can also see that Shemaine has used some lovely Zva bling!! Thank you Shemaine for sharing this wonderful card with us!

trends of 2010: mixed media

This week the Lovely Louise Nelson demistifies a little of the marvellous mixed media trend for us…

One of the many mixed media trends influencing scrapbooking styles are those used by art journalers. Often they will use a variety of pens, pencils paints and gel mediums to create their backgrounds, alter photos and/or collaged/stamped images. With this in mind Louise has printed her photo-shopped photo straight onto the cardstock. Using the Hero Arts Water Colour Paints she has highlighted the black areas of the image to make them stand out and create vibrant and interesting contrasts.

Using the Luxe alpha stamps, another 'go-to' technique for art journalers, Louise has created her title in a 'white space' of her image, and then hand journalled the subtitle in a smaller white space area of her background image.
To embellish her layout Louise hand cut out hearts from cardstock adhered them to the layout and then artistically blended them into her layout by outlining them with black water colour paint and gel pen.

Perhaps the simplest definition for Mixed Media is the use of multiple mediums; for example, paints and gels, various types of papers, found objects, ephemera, pencils, crayons, charcoals, materials, fibers, etc etc. I think you’re getting the idea! Whereas scrapbooking traditionally has been recognised as primarily a papercraft with some use of alternative mediums for embellishment, mixed media depends on the use of so much more.

Increasingly, scrapbookers are introducing other mediums used by artists into their creative process; to not only satisfy their own creative desires but also to add that extra 'something' to their layouts. More recently, scrapbookers are also using more 'artistic' and 'freestyle' methods when incorporating these mediums into their layouts.

For this particular layout Louise has adopted very much a free style method. She has used several layers of glimmer mist and masks/stamps to create a subtle then bold artistic effect for her background. To enhance her design she has used water colour paint, machine stitching, and gel pen to highlight the masked images, create her title, and further embellish the layout. To add visual interest she has also cut out the center of one of the hand painted butterflies.

Louise has no doubt that there is a very strong influence of other artforms and mixed media when search through the online galleries and forums. Until recently, what has been referred to as 'arty' scrappers or the 'arty' style of scrapbooking remained a small and often fringe genre of scrapbooking. Increasingly scrapbookers have started to incorporate what is considered to be arty/mixed mediums and styles into their scrapbooking with the most wonderful artistic and freestyle look.

To demonstrate this, Louise is sharing one of her favourite international scrapbooker/crafters Caroline Rondel [thank you Caroline] from the north east of France. From the examples provided here of a gorgeous mini album and layouts you can see how Caroline utilizes a variety of mediums and techniques, to create her album and layouts. They are a wonderful combination of both art and memory documentation

For this particular layout Caroline has continued to use a variety of techniques and mediums; Paints, and collage, to create a layout of her 'dream home'.

Caroline has created just the most gorgeous layout of her newborn daughter using gel and paint mediums in a wonderful freestyle and artistic manner. She has embellished her layout with machine stitching and loose threads, and material whichs adds a wonderful textural effect.

For this particular layout Caroline has used multiple mediums to create a colourful collaged patchwork background effect; using paint, different types of papers, a variety of stamps and ink, stickers and images. She has used different modes of application with the paint; dry scraping, and circular implements for stamping the paint. Overlying this are the collaged and mosaiced pieces and strips of paper, then on the final layer various shaped stamps.

weekend inspiration: hero arts

 

 

Sometimes we’re inspired by a photo, or the story, and sometimes, unashamedly just by the product.  The seed was sown for this page when Suz paired a BasicGrey BlingIt bird with the gorgeous Websters Whismy Threads birdcage, and wanted to do something with it.  So she combined them with Vintage Collage Art Flowers, Clear Design Birds and Branch Stamps and one of her favourite Story People quotes.  The cardstock is Glimmer Misted over the top of a Heidi Swapp Mask.

 

 

Nic used a combination of Hero Arts Sparkle Clear stamps on this layout of her daughter Madeleine. She used the 'Designer Fruit' stamps, colouring with water colour paints after stamping with Stazon ink, as embellishments and stamped the journalling with the 'Cute Letters' mini alphabet stamps. Nic loves the teeny letters and the super-cute font, and is sure she'll be using these a lot in the future!

 

 

We're very happy to share this cute little tag with you by Hero Arts designer Jennifer Mcguire using the Designer Fruit stamps. Jennifer has stamped then coloured the images and layered them on this tag which could then be used as an embellishment on a card, a scrapbook page or even on a gift! Thank you Jennifer.

 

 

Here the talented Jennifer Mcguire has created a simple but pretty cards using the Clings Hearts Trio and the larger Clings Hearts and Flowers, both of which are currently available for preorder.

 

 

Finally Jennifer has used new release Clings Colour Me Flowers and Essential Messages for fast and fabulous cards.  We thank her for allowing us to share her talent on the blog.

countdown to christmas: hero arts

Mel really loved being able to play with the beautiful 'Large Christmas Circle' Hero Arts stamps to create her cards. To begin she chose two stamps from the set, stamping them with red ink onto white cardstock and then cut each one out around the scalloped edge. The stamped embellishment was then foam mounted onto her prepared cards, some doubling as snowmen tummies and others popped inside tiny speech bubbles just for fun.

Mel used some Cosmo 'Jolly by Golly' elements for the card backgrounds and added a splash of bling (Hero Arts metallic dots). In Mel's own words "I now have a new favourite set of Christmas stamps - they're just so super cute and I really love the font used for the wording"

design team picks: chris

 

 

With so many fabulous products released at CHA it's quite a hard choice to pick a favourite, however, over the past 6 months or so Chris has discovered quite an addiction to stamping and in particular Hero Arts stamps. From the cute little character stamps to the decorative border stamps and lovely traditional wooden stamps Chris is hooked well and truly! Join us now for a look at Chris's creations using the stamps shown above by Hero Arts.

Chris also couldn't resist showing us some fabulous cards from her stamping buddies Lucy and Jenn.

 

Chris created these fanatastic stamped candles using the Clear Whimsical Elements teaching kit and the Sparkle Clear Arigato set of Hero Arts stamps. Simply stamp onto a single piece of white tissue paper, then cut around your stamped image (you don't need to cut around every fine detail, cut close to the edges) then place the stamped tissue image onto the side of the candle and then heat with a heat gun. You will see the tissue paper melt into the candle after just a few seconds.

And it will appear as though you have stamped directly onto the candle.

Chris used both Colorbox Chalk inks and Memories black ink to stamp onto the tissue paper. Cheap white candles work better for this as the wax melts quicker. Chris learnt this technique from a Hero Arts blog video tutorial.

 

Chris used masking techniques with the frog and mushroom stamps from the Whimsical Elements teaching kit to create these fabulous cards. For the background on the 1st card she used the Woodgrain background stamp which covers nearly the entire surface of a Hero Arts pink notecard, Chris just trimmed off a couple of cm's of card that the stamp did not cover. Chris coloured in the stamped images with coloured pencils and used a shading effect to create depth.

 

Using the Whimsical Elements teaching stamp set again Chris has created these very simple and fun cards. One of the cards Chris has just stamped with simple black ink and the other she has stamped with brown ink and coloured with pencils using the shading technique again. Pop dotting your stamped images also really makes the card stand out!

Chris can't stop creating with these fabulous stamps and she has now created these fabulous cards using the cute critters from the Whimiscal Elements teaching kit. Chris stamped the critters directly onto Scenic Route pattern paper and then cut them out and mounted them onto her cards.

 

Chris loves these Creative Tree stamps and wanted to use them on an 'outdoors' layout. She had these great photos from a recent Houseboat trip and creating a grid of squares she put together this fabulous layout. Chris heat embossed each tree image using Hero Arts white embossing powder. She inked around the edge of each square and then adhered to her layout.

Chris also used the scallop border stamps on this layout, she stamped the border onto pattern paper and then cut it out and used it next to the pattern paper strips as a wonderful scalloped edge to her layout.

 

Chris has found she just can't leave the Creative Tree stamps alone and has created another layout using these lovely stamps, this time stamping onto bright cardstock and backing this on kraft cardstock.

 

Chris really utilised her many Hero Arts stamp sets in this layout to create this fabulous layout inspired by Kiara Lee. Chris stamped the Stitched flower stamp onto the pink cardstock and masked off the flower part of the stamp so that it did not stamp, but instead Chris placed Hero Arts spring art flowers in place of the stamped flower image. Chris also stamped butterflies from the Clear Design Share Laughter set using Violet ink to create a pattern paper effect on the purple cardstock.

The flourish border stamps create yet another interesting effect at the border of this layout and Chris finished it off by stamping a couple of sentiments.

 

Here Chris has used the same technique with the Stitched flower stamp but this time on a card. She has also used the Clear Scallop border stamps, some gems and other smaller Hero Arts stamps.

 

These gorgeous cards were created by Lucy Abrams and were part of the inspiration for my layouts above. I just love the way Lucy white embossed the Creative Tree stamps onto the Hero Arts Kraft note cards - such a stunning effect. Lucy has also used some Hero Arts gems and various other buttons and pearls to embellish the tree images.

 

 

And here again Lucy has created another faboulous set of cards using the Creative Tree stamp set. We love the way Lucy has co-ordinated the button colour with the colour stamped behind the tree image. All buttons and stamps that Lucy has used are from Hero Arts, infact Lucy says Hero Arts is her favourite and mostly used stamping company.
Many thanks Lucy for sharing your stunning card creations with us!

 

       

We've shown you Jenn Biederman's beautiful work before and here she is again with these absolutely adorable cards created using the new Hero Arts 'Sending happy thoughts' stamp set. Jenn is the master at creating little scenes with the stamps on her cards as you can see by these 3 cards. I'm sure you are inspired as much by Jenn's cards as we are, so thank you very much Jenn for sharing your inspiring cards with us.

weekend inspiration: hero arts

There is such a huge variety of Hero Arts stamps available that it was a hard choice for Mel to settle on a stamp for this challenge. In the end she decided on the Journal Shapes pack, which is a set of 4 journaling stamps all great for adding little snippets of information to your layout, or for using simply as they are with no journaling.

To create this page Mel machine stitched up a series of squares (ruling the lines first with pencil) and positioned a title, embellishment, journaling blocks (stamped with black ink) and a few photographs in the squares. Sub titles were included over the stamps with Carolee's Creation Tiny Whoopsy alpha (red).

Jaimie used the Hero Arts sketch line stamp to create a layered embellishment for her page. By stamping the image onto coordinating paper, cutting out and then layering onto her background paper Jaimie has created a cute and simple embellishment. She added the Hero Arts "double happiness" stamp to represent her wish for her son, a bingo card slipped under the layered stamp images, a quote as a title and date and her page is complete.

 

 

 

 

 

Stamping is a great way to use up some scrap that you may have, Carole used Scenic Route "Grafton" pattern papers, to creat this adorable Jungle card.
The stamps Carole used are the Hero Art Clear Design Playful Animals, and they really are so very cute. Carole created the scene first for the little animals and then stamped white cardstock and pattern papers with black ink, and then 3D them and foam taped them to the layout and card. The Palm tree was created individually with the leaf stamp.

Carole also added a little hand drawn pieces and stitching, and also added a little glitter and dimensional magic, to highlight parts on the layout and card.

Nic Howard shows how one set of Hero Arts stamps and a few basic supplies can start you on a card making frenzy... these are just three of the 8 cards Nic made in this session! Nic used her current favourite papers from Crate Paper - Prudence and matched it with the bright colours of Sassafras and Rose Moka. Adding a few Prudence glitter die cuts and some stamping with the Hero Arts Trees, Birds and Messages set, and Nic was flying!

With Valentines day looming Chris has designed this gorgeous set of romantic cards just perfect to give to that someone special in your life. The Hero Arts 'heart to heart' clear stamps making creating Valentines cards easy. "With great little titles and cute heart shapes you'll be whipping up fabulous cards in no time" says Chris. Chris used the Scenic Route Sonoma range to set the mood.

We have some international guests sharing their love of Hero Arts stamps with us today. All the way from North East Iowa, United States is Jenn Biederman. Jenn has cleverly used the Creative Tree stamp on both her layout and card. She used the tree stamp to create the row of flowers on the card by simply masking off half of the tree and turning the stamp onto it's side. Very clever Jenn - we love that idea!!!!

Jenn has also used the gorgeous Basic Grey Blush papers for her creations. Thanks so much for sharing Jenn!

 

 

 

Kelly Goree graces us again, this time with some fabulous creations mixing Hero Arts with BasicGrey. At first glance Kelly's detailing appears hand drawn, but look again, those lines, dots and scallops are a Hero Arts stamp set! So easy to do - thanks for sharing, Kelly!

 

 

We'd like to thank the lovely Rachel Greig for sharing with us this beautiful card box and matching card set that she created using a selection of Hero Arts stamps. Rachel has used a mix of alpha and image stamps, stamping in several shades of colour to create a gorgeous finish. Although her theme was love, the finished card box could also be completed using a mix of Hero Arts stamps under a general title - for example, a birthday greetings box with a variety of image stamps inside or perhaps a Christmas greetings box.

Many thanks to Laura Fulcher for showing us that stamps aren't just for cards and layout. Look at this adorable gift box Laura has created with her Hero Arts stamps. Here's what Laura says about creating the box. "I ran white paper through an Accucut machine to make the box. I stamped the flourishes and birds then colored them with markers. I edged the box with pink ink and added a green silk ribbon to finish".

Sharing with us all the way from beautiful Pearl City, Hawaii is Donna Mikasa. We love Donna's use of both the Hero Arts Decorative Birds stamps as well as the technique of 'inchies' that we featured a couple of weeks ago. These simple, yet eye-catching cards are a delight! Many thanks Donna for sharing with our readers.

Showing us how to use the same stamp in 3 different ways is Sarah Moerman from London, Ontario, Canada. Here's what Sarah said about her lovely card creations: "For this set of cards I used the Fantastic Flourishes Clear Set and specifically used the largest flourish in the set. In the first card I used it for the background, on the second as water spray, and on the third card I used it to 'kiss' a solid heart stamp and then stamped the heart."
Thanks for these great tips Sarah!

  

Here is the flourish stamp in use again by Sarah and this time on this lovely layout of her son. Sarah has stamped the flourish onto cardstock and used it as you would pattern paper on a layout.  Thank you very much Sarah for 4 great ideas with the one stamp!

And finally we just wanted to share this beautiful card made by Julie Dudley, using Hero Art Stamps and a touch of BasicGrey Offbeat.  Thanks Julie!

cha summer 2008: hero arts

what stamp-happy scrapper could resist some of these new releases?  click to see them bigger

quick 'n easy: cards

another selection of cards from the lovely melissa goodsell ... she has some great new ideas for fast but lovely handmade cards.

 

Mel has used her all time favourite journaling stamp (Quotes background) combined with some Basic Lowercase letters to put together a card with a personalised message for a friend. To add a finishing touch the Tim Holtz texture hammer was used on the Heidi Swapp chipboard heart to achieve a dimpled appearance and then lightly sanded to give a nice mix of white and red.

 

 

An easy way to use up those left over embellishments is to cut out a small series of 3cm squares, ink the edges and combine a mix of accents with some hand stamped messages. Mel has the 'small greetings' boxed set again to create this fun and funky birthday card.

 

The Sassafras Lass die cut trims are perfect for stamping that special message on and adhering as a main feature of your card. Mel has used pop dots behind the die cut trim to add dimension to the card and added a selection of small French knots around the outer edge. The stamp used here is 'Fabulous Birthday'.

 

     

The 'Playful Animals' set contains a sweet bear, elephant, monkey and lion stamp, fantastic for scrap booking projects or birthday cards. For this get well card Mel has stamped the monkey directly onto a plain piece of paper, hand cut out the design and swung the monkey from a Basic Grey diet cut tree (Mellow die shapes). The get well stamp is from the 'small greetings' boxed set.