Patterned Papered Dreams

A project with tags

Hi there! That's what the Hero Arts challenge for this week is all about: tags, tags, tags. I love them, because it's a great way to try out new techniques and products without making a big mess. I make lots of bookmark tags for my husband, who is a real bookworm! And of course a handmade tag makes any gift so much more special. Oh, and you've probably seen the amazing things that Tim Holtz can create with tags! Check out his stunning 12 Tags of Xmas series here and here. So it's a fun base to work with.
 Thing is, when it comes to challenges, I block. See? I LOVE tags and usually have a lot of fun and many of them turn out lovely. But in the moment I'm asked specifically to work with them... nothing. I go blank. So for the last two days I've been sitting at my crafting desk, determined not to move until I created a card with tags. Then I realized I wasn't having fun. So I decided to forget about the challenge and start playing around with some fun techniques recently learned. And a bit later I had my card ;)
I water stamped a HA designblock on my tags previously inked with distress inks.

It's not perfect, and it's not the most amazing tag-inspired creation ever. But I had fun with it, and that's the most important thing. Don't take it so seriously and just have fun!
I wish you a lovely weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: White cardstock; Stamps: Hero Arts S5032, CL182 Trees, Birds and Messages, CL151 Share Laughter; Ink: Distress Ink in Dusty Concord, Broken China and Dried Marygold, Ranger Archival in black; Other: satin ribbon, water.

Oops! I almost forgot to show you some of the bookmarks created for my DH. Here they are and this is what I meant when I said tags are great for trying new techniques, new stamps or just play around...

Supplies:
White and cream cardstock, several colors of distress ink, Sand Dunes chalk queue; Stamps: Hero Arts CL261 Woodland Critters, S5208, K5107, Tim Holtz Nature's Moments; Other: blender pen, satin, gros grain and raffia ribbons.

Not so distressed

Morning everyone! Don't you love "good mail" days? Yesterday was one of those for me!!! Definitily a Christmas in july feeling...

Believe me, when you live so far away from anything scrapbooking related, it's a real party to get a nice delivery like this one. I got Hero Arts (my 1st design blocks!), Tim Holtz and Basic Grey stamps, five more distress ink colors, a couple of Colorbox chalk queues, two Bacis Grey paper pads (June Bug and Lemonade collections, just gorgeous!), a Perfect Pearls kit, Tim Holtz mini masks, some embossing powders and a big glue pad. So I'm very, very happy!

Not distressed at all... unlike today's card, for the Simon Says Challenge. This week it's all about distressing, which is perfect with all the new goodies I have now around here. For the card I played with distress inks, water and perfect pearls which give a lovely subtle shine to the background. Not sure if it shows in the pic though... but I promise in real life it looks beautiful :)

The butterfly is from a Basic Grey set called Flutter. The dots background is courtesy of one of my new Hero Arts designblocks and the patterned paper stripe is also from Basic Grey's Lemonade collection. Those papers are super pretty! I'm really tempted to use them to decoupage some furniture piece.

Oh, and by the way, wouldn't you love to be at CHA in Orlando? I keep seeing all the new lines and they're awesome! So far I'm in love with some of the new Prima flowers - in my mind I can see pretty necklaces sporting those fabric flowers-, with the fun Cosmo Cricket Xmas line and of course with almost everything Hero Arts and Tim Holtz are introducing there.


 So, who would want to be at Disneyworld when you can be at CHA? Lol!
Anyhow, thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!


Supplies: White cardstock; Stamps: Basic Grey Flutter set; Hero Arts S5101 and CL266 Mix and Match Elements; Ink: Distress Inks in Broken China, Old Paper and Frayed Burlap; PP: Basic Grey Lemonade; Other: Ranger Perfect Pearls (Interference kit), vintage string, pop dots, bling accents.

I {HEART} HERO ARTS BLOG HOP

I'm back! This is my card for the Hero Arts Blog Hop organised by Ashley M. I used one of the critters stamps because I love how cute are ALL this animal sets, not just this one. I chose this because it happened to have two animals perfect for holding the banner ;)
And here are the answers to the Blog Hop questions:

1. Tell us your Hero Arts story. How did you get started using Hero Arts products?

Well, I've discovered HA very recently. I've been following Kristina Werner's blog for a while and she uses a lot of HA stamps in her cards, and I liked each and every of the designs she showed. And I'm also a big fan of Jennifer McGuire, who happens to be one of the HA Design Team members. So when I began buiding my stamps stash (also recently) I began ordering HA sets. Now I can't stop! Good quality, versatility and cuteness are some of their unbeatable qualities.

2. Hero Arts is full of great people. Tell us why you are thankful for Hero Arts!

That's easy: the education and the great customer community they've raised! I'm really thankful for their blog, so full of good ideas, techniques and challenges. I feel that they do care for the customers after they've purchased their products, not just until they do, like many other brands do. And the challenges are giving me the chance to learn a lot, try a ton of new techniques...

So that's it!
Thanks for stopping by, bloghoppers!!!

Supplies: White cardstock; Stamps: HA CL155 Playful Animals, CL153 Happy Day Animals, CL291 Hello Circles, CL137 Small Variety Alphabets; Ink: Distress Inks in Broken China and Shabby Shutters, Colorbox Primary Elements, Ranger Archival Coffee; PP: DCVW Citrus Stack; Other: Toothpicks, blender pen.

Monochromatic

Good morning! The Hero Arts challenges are probably the ones I'm most shy to take part in, because the level is really high! Actually, I missed last week's one because of that. I kept seeing so many gorgeous things that I became more and more shy... So this week I decided that wouldn't be happening again. This time the challenge is all about monochromatic: creating something in different shades of the same color, with neutrals allowed too, including kraft.

And this is what I created. I don't know how to define the colors in english: turquoise? pool? teal? Not sure :)
I used the Hero Arts butterflies template which includes the same shape in three sizes (used the biggest and the medium). I wanted to post a link to it, but now I don't seem to be able to find it in their site. Sorry! I'll keep searching.
The biggest shape was cut from white cardstock and distressed with Distress Ink in Broken China, while the smaller one was trimmed from patterned paper and also ink-distressed.
The tag where I placed the sentiment is from one of Tim Holtz's grungeboard sheets (the alpha and elements one, I think). That material is so cool! It's a very special chipboard that you can distress, paint, ink... and it won't break or loose it's shape. Awesome, try it!
And that's pretty much about this card. It took a while to adhere the beads for the antennae too :)
So thanks for stopping by and have a nice weekend! I'll be back later with my card for the HA blog hop.

Supplies: Kraft and turquoise cardstock; Stamps: CL266 Mix&Match Elements; Ink: Distress Ink in Broken China; PP: K&Company; Other: Tim Holtz Grungeboard plate tag, beads, metal accents, Basic Grey brads, DMC metallic embroidery twine.

Traveler's Inspiration #3: Enjoy the simple things

 Good morning! It's raining heavily outside and while I hear the raindrops heavily falling in my patio I dream of summer. Tina's image for this weeks Traveler's Inspiration Challenge also made me dream of summer not only for me, but for my son.



That chubby legs about to jump into the water, the bright colors, the excitement... I want all that for him. Sadly, once the winter is over here in Uruguay (southern hemisphere), we'll be heading back to Spain to face... yet another winter!! So in total we will have lived one whole winter year. So not fair for my little boy! But that's life and I tell you that when we finally get to live summer in 2010 I want it to be the most amazing one for him.

 Ok, so back to the challenge. Childhood summers were bright and simple: yet, probably one of the memories we all treasure most are those days. So I made something bright and simple that yet, makes me smile the same way that when I recall those summers.
Thanks for stopping by and please, those of you up in the northern hemisphere, make the most of this summer!

Supplies: Bright orange and yellow cardstock; Stamps: HA CL151 Share Laughter; Basic Grey (ice cream cone), Sassafrass Lass (elephant); Ink: Colorbox Primary Elements and Jelly Beans; PP: DCVW; Other: metallic accents, brown Stabilo fine point pen, dimensional foam tape.

Where's the frog?

Good evening! After a really non crafty weekend that involved a whole cup of wine over my crafting desk -don't ask...- my fingers were itching to create something. I wanted to try the masking technique, so I created the mask for the cute little Hero Arts frog from the "Sending Happy Thoughts" set. I also wanted to use the mushrooms stamp from the same set, so I stamped it a couple of times on white cardstock, cut them and after moving them around for a bit, I wondered if hiding the frog behind the mushrooms would work. And I think it did! The background was made with distress ink in Worn Lipstick and the same mushrooms stamp. Gosh, I never thought I would ever use the word mushrooms so many times in a post :P

This week there are a lot of fun challenges to play: there's the Hero Arts one (monochromatic), Caardvarks (bridal or baby shower card), and Traveling Mama's from last friday, with a beautiful image for inspiration. Actually there are many other challenges out there, but these are the ones I've chosen for this week :D
I wish you a happy week and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: White cardstock; Stamps: Hero Arts CL305 AND CL291, Inkadinkadoo (sentiment); Inks: Distress Inks in Worn Lipstick and Shabby Shutters, Ranger Archival in Coffee; Colorbox Primary Elements (image coloring); PP: DCWV Citrus pad; Other: Twill, button, dimensional foam tape, glue dots, blender pen.

Color Inspiration #56

Good morning! Kristina Werner posted a new Color Inspiration challenge yesterday. I've struggled a bit with the colors, they're beautiful but also a lot!

 
So I tried to keep it clean and simple despite my desire to add more and more stuff because... yesterday was a good mail day and I got my order from Two Peas full of paper goodness, some embellies and even my Ranger crafts mat, which is awesome! Maybe later I can take a pic and post it.
For the sun I used a Sassafrass Lass sticker and adhered it to thick chipboard, then trimmed and added the custom painted brad. And the chicken... well, I love this stamp, it makes me laugh. Is it ok if a stamp makes you laugh? Am I going nuts? Ok, so the chicken was colored with some fluid chalk inks and a blender pen. And that's pretty much about this card. Super simple.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: White cardstock: Stamps: Crate Paper, Hero Arts; PP: Sassafrass Lass; Ink: Colorbox Primary Elements; Other: Sass Lass sticker, brad, blender pen. 

Happy everything!

Good morning! Time for a new Simon Says Challenge and the perfect excuse to keep playing and experimenting with my new and much adored distress inks. It took them a month to arrive, but the wait (and the awful customs troubles I had) was so worth it! They're probably the most versatile supply I own by now, along with my beloved patterned papers. Ok, and a few stamp sets too. A mum could never choose between her children, could she? Me, I only have a child, so I get to choose between my supplies, haha. Right, excuse my babblings, it's really cold here and that's affecting my brain. Freezing it, actually.

This week's challenge is about summer fruits. Perfect to make me long for sunny days *insert some crying here if you wish*: you can create something with summer fruits or use summer fruits colors. I decided to do both ;)

For the card base I cut a circle with my compass cutter and then scored the limit between the peel and the juicy fruit. I've been thinking about getting the Coluzzle for this kind of things. Do you guys recommend it? Raves? Rants? Tips? Thank you!

Next I used a mask to add the color with distress inks. And finally  I wasn't sure about the seeds: hand-drawing it? dark patterned paper? I browsed in my stamps stash and came across a Hero Arts cute and solid little butterfly. It involved some paper piecing, which you know I love. And finally,
 added the sentiment and the pink metal
accents.

Hope you like it! And thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: White cardstock; Stamps: Hero Arts Share Laughter and Happy Day Animals; Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Worn Lipstick and Shabby Shutters, Ranger Archival in Coffee; Other: Compass cutter, pink metallic accents from a local store.

Another kind of stamp...

... was given to my blog by lovely and talented Ine from Argentina. Her blog is a must, really clean and inspired.

So, according to the rules, now I have to tell you five things I like to do:

- Staring in amaze at my son everytime he does something new. And when he doesn't too ;)
- Welcoming my husband every night with a cold glass of sparkling white wine and toast to the three of us. It's becoming a family tradition since we arrived to Uruguay!
- Crafting! Papercrafts are my main addiction, but anything crafty is really appealing to me. Anything!
- I also love to gather with friends to catch up. And I really mean this, because my best friends are in Spain, thousands of miles away, so our gatherings are a real luxury when they happen.
- And lastly, I like to discover. New places, new blogs, new techniques, new people, new recipes... I just love the fluttering feeling of finding something I like.

And of course, I have to pass this cute stamp on to ten blogs and tell the bloggers about it. And the stamp goes to... -I'm trying to fake Penelope's Cruz voice now, like when she gave the Oscar to Almodovar-:

- Traveling Mama
- How About Orange
- Creativity Prompt
- Society of Stamps and Scrapaholics
- It's the stuff I love
- My Favourite Things
- Kristina Werner Design
- Jennifer McGuire Ink
- Stitches and others
- Hello I'm Heather

Thanks a lot, Ine!
Will be back later with a new card, because... my 1st four distress inks arrived!!!!
Thanks for stopping by :D
-
-

Hero Arts Big Week!

It's here! Today begins the Hero Arts Big Week, seven days to celebrate the new design of their website. There will be challenges, surprises, giveaways and... double prizes! Go, check it here! And if you want to see some of the gorgeous cards and more that you can create with their products, have a look at the Flickr Hero Arts Pool Group.

Have a nice week everyone!