Cream & Gold Birthday

I made a fancy birthday card using cream card stock and gold embossing for a touch of elegance. The Hero Arts flower was stamped 3 times with Versamark, embossed with gold ep, fussy cut, and popped up on foam tape for some dimension. {click the photo to see a larger view} The Hero Arts leaves were done the same way. I added just a hint of green color to the leaves, and soft pink color to the bloom to give them a little definition. I added a gold embossed Cheery Lynn flourish and an embossed, punched border with some May Arts satin ribbon. I used golden nail head stickers for the flower center and placed a few more randomly on the card. The sentiment stamp has no name on it, so I don't know the mfr. I took quite a few photos of this card, but none truly captured the true cream color. This was the best one of them all.

I'm entering this card into the Hero Arts Birthday challenge "Floral Cards" category, as well as the Mod Squad "Go for the Gold" challenge.

Wishing you sunny skies and a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!

Carol

Hero Arts March Challenge - Hello Spring!

I made this card for the Hero Arts March2013A challenge to use the colors of soft purple, soft yellow, soft green, soft sky, and charcoal and use any theme. Obviously I went with a spring theme that includes flowers, a butterfly and being happy! I used a black background to make these pale colors pop! I cut 4 butterflies with the MB Vivienne butterfly die, and interchanged the negative pieces to make a colorful butterfly. Yes, it took a little time to do that, but I really enjoy it. The sentiment was done with a SSS Oh Happy Day exclusive die using the soft purple color. The HA flowers were stamped with versafine and clear embossed, fussy cut, and popped up on foam tape. The leaves were hand cut and run through a paper crimper, while the flower centers were punched from charcoal card stock, pressed into a mouse pad and coated with glossy accents.

Here's a close-up of the flower detail that shows the pattern a bit better.

I'm also entering this in Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground #62 since I used all those left-over snippets for the leaves and flowers.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're all having a great week!

Carol

Hero Arts February Challenges

Hero Arts has a monthly set of challenges that I recently started playing along with, and here are my cards for their February challenge 2013A. The challenge for this card is "love and lace." I went with a pink & brown theme, using Ranger spun sugar ink along with brown and white embossing powders. I chose 3 different shades of pink card stock for the layered, punched border to add the lace look. The word "love" was done with my Quickutz.

Another challenge is this sketch, and here is the card I created by using it for inspiration.

The background was made by embossing a HA/Studio Calico lattice background stamp with white embossing powder, and coloring it in with a Ranger distress Antique Linen marker. To get that darker look here and there, I just colored over some places a 2nd and 3rd time. The horizontal panel is a piece of decorative tape I picked up at a dollar store years ago. I added some very tiny black rhinestones from Pizzazz Aplenty to the centers of 3 stars on that panel. The vanilla ribbon was stamped with a tiny heart from the Lawn Fawn My Silly Valentine stamp set.

And last but not least, I made another Christmas card by using the "fancy fold" challenge.

This HA tree stamp was embossed with silver ep and adorned with turquoise pearls. I used some heavy silver glitter paper that came in a pack of Halloween dsp from Teresa Collins, and added a star to the top of the tree along with a clear rhinestone to the center. Here's a close-up....

The Hero Arts monthly challenges run for the first half of the month, and again for the remainder of the month, and winners are selected twice for each round of challenges. I've won all of the beautiful Hero Arts stamps you see on these cards by playing along, so grab your HA and play along! You have nothing to lose! All of the details are right here.

Thanks so much for checking in, and I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

If I failed to answer any of your questions with the information below, please feel free to email me and I'll get back to you with your answers :)

Carol

card 1

stamps -HA patterned hearts, SU! doily

paper - unknown pink dsp from LSS, vanilla

inks - versamark, ranger spun sugar

accessories - brown and white eps, SU! ribbon (R) twine, MS doily punch, HA pink heart gemstones, Quickutz die cut letters

card 2

stamps - HA/Studio Calico lattice backgrounder, SU! teeny tiny wishes, SU! hearts a flutter, Lawn Fawn my silly valentine

paper - black, vanilla

inks - versamark, versafine onyx black

accessories - white ep, ranger antique linen distress marker, self-adhesive decorative tape, black rhinestones, SU! hearts a flutter dies & heart punch, SU! fancy fan ef, vanilla & black ribbons, cream pearls

card 3

stamps - HA tree image H5629, HA Believe sentiment

papers - K&Co Floral Dreams, Teresa Collins Haunted Hallows (silver glitter), turquoise cs, white

inks - versamark, turquoise, turquoise marker

accessories - SB labels 25 die, MB star of wonder die, Crafty Cutts diamonds die, SB ribbon tag die, turquoise pearls, clear rhinestone, silver metallic ribbon

Challenge Cards

I made this card to meet several challenges.

Hero Arts January challenge to "try something new."

Perfect Sentiments PSC60 - birthday card with metal embellishment

{Pin}spirational Challenge #39 (photo inspiration)

The "something new" is this Hero Arts stamp called "Winter Trees" that I got just before Christmas and haven't had a chance to play with until now. Also, the Lawn Fawn trimmings are new, and I love the earthy, rustic look of that heavy twine that adds a real masculine look to this card. I used the colors from the {PIN}spirational photo for this card. I embossed the image using Ranger weathered wood distress ep and mounted it on ovals. The gold panel was embossed with a HA chevon ef and hand-cut to create 2 different panels. The gray panel was done with a MS arch lattice punch, and the metal embellishments are the 3 silver beads. The sentiment was computer generated and hand-cut.

And here is my card for the OWH Stars and Stamps Sketch Challenge #154.

I used some papers and twill from PTI in Ocean Tides colors - something I've had for ages and never used until now. It's a very pretty greenish-grey color that really had to grow on me, but I'm happy with the results now that it's finished. The sentiment is from MFP, the little white flowers were done with a Fiskars punch, and the white background was from a BG basics white paper pad. I finished with black mini brads and used SU! square and scalloped square punches to create all the squares, along with spellbinders circle dies.

That's it for me today - I wish you all a fabulous day and thanks for stopping by!

Carol

A Triple Challenge Card

Here's my card for the OWH Stars & Stamps challenge #145.

I'm using a new technique for using dies that I haven't tried before, so I'm also entering this into the ODBD November challenge for OWH, which is to make use of a rarely used tool or technique. This card also qualifies for the Hero Arts dry embossing challenge for November.
I used a Cheery Lynn mini flourish die and cut it twice with green and white card stock, and then carefully placed the green diecut into the white negative and I like the end result! I've seen this done before, but it's the first time I've tried it and I'll be doing it more often with my other dies. The background was embossed with a Hero Arts chevron ef, and the sentiment is also by Hero Arts. I added some black pearls and black grosgrain ribbon along with the black mats and this triple challenge card was done!

That's all I have for today, but thanks for stopping by and I hope your weekend has been a great one!

Carol

All the Time

I made a couple cards for the Hero Arts October challenge found here. There are several challenges to play, but I chose a sketch for my cards. I stamped the background panel with cool grey ink, adding red "clock hands" in those spaces between the letters. The clock image was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink, and clear embossed. The hearts border is by SNSS and I inserted black hearts for a little contrast. Dsp is by BoBunny Crush and the stamp set used was Hero Arts "All the Time" set for OWH. I love clocks, and love that all the sentiments in this set are perfect for making OWH cards!

Here's the 2nd one I made, using the smaller clock image in the set, and pairing it with a scrap of dsp from my stash. I used the MS arch lattice punch for the fancy edges, and added some blue mini brads to the clock and sentiment panel. The background was embossed with the CB clockworks ef.

There you have it for today's cards. I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Carol