I wanted to enter the Hero Arts Stay Crafty Challenge – this month it is to Include A Heart. Given the time of year, a heart card would usually be associated with Valentine’s Day – but I don’t really make those cards unless specifically asked. But I am critically short of birthday cards!!
I taped five of the Hero Arts Infinity Heart dies together with purple tape, and ran them through my Big Shot machine with an embossing pad. Do this with your machine set up for embossing folders rather than a die cutting sandwich. This makes a cool impression rather than cutting and I ended up with the pretty ridged hearts in the background. I trimmed the panel down and splattered a little Perfect Gold Perfect Pearl pigment powder (OMG try saying that fast!).
I cut the Memory Box leafy heart die twice from Neenah cardstock and once from watercolour cardstock. PRO TIP: This is quite an intricate die and I found the Big Shot Chrome Precision plate to be very helpful in getting a quick, clean cut multiple times. I do have a separate review post about the chrome precision plate here.
Before removing the cut from the watercolour cardstock, I laid it down on my craft mat and sprinkled Lime Green Color Burst powder and sprayed with water.
I left that to sit for a bit – it’s quite cool seeing the colour move, and also hard to stop interfering with it! But you end up with a really cool coloured die cut, with many shades of colour, with almost zero effort. I glued the leafy hearts all together and placed it in the centre of the embossed hearts.
I placed the panel onto a piece of Hero Arts Arctic Blue cardstock and adhered it to the front of my Neenah card base. I added gems and a Happy Birthday from the MFT Big Birthday Sentiments set, white heat embossed on a black cardstock strip to finish.
This completes my card today. Thank you for stopping by! Below are links to the products I have used – some are affiliate links (not all) which simply means I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you when shopping. Thank you for your support – it means I can keep creating and sharing with you.
For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series.
Navy and cream. A pretty different combo for me! They are colours I don’t seem to have in any inks or embossing powder either! So this turned out to be a real challenge.
I tried inking up panels with some distress ink Chipped Sapphire refill ink and Ultra Marine color burst powder (literally the only inky options I could rustle up), but while it looked pretty cool with gold heat embossing, the challenge was to include cream. I didn’t feel cream would ‘go’ with the panels I created. (Look out for these inky panels sometime in a future card or two!).
The background stamps here are both from MFT – Baccarat Background and City Background. I’ll provide a link to them below.
I went back to what I know best, which is die cutting. I cut out a BUNCH of floral foliage from MFT and Altenew with a cream coloured cardstock I was lucky to find a random sheet in my stash! I put the wreath together using the oval frame die in the Altenew Create a Wreath set – you could use a circle frame, or simply pencil in your preferred outline.
I stretched a vellum strip across behind the wreath with a gold heat embossed sentiment from Gina K Designs and glued two further oval frames to the back of that.
PRO TIP: Use tape runner or double sided tape on any vellum pieces – the merest hint of liquid glue sends it all wrinkly! Not a good look!
I used a piece of Hero Arts Nautical cardstock for the card front, but wanted it to have a little interest – I clear heat embossed the Pinkfresh Studio floral diamonds stamp.
To finish, I added some pretty Studio Katia pearls – a very pretty cream colour! – onto the wreath
This completes my card today. Thank you for stopping by! Below are links to the products I have used – some are affiliate links (not all) which simply means I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you when shopping. Thank you for your support – it means I can keep creating and sharing with you.
You can join in the Color Hues Color Challenge too! Click here to visit their blog to find out all the details.
For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series.
20 to be exact! My daughter Stella is leaving her teenage years behind….
She has always been a fan of pandas, so a bit of artistic fun was had altering Bill the Bear from Honey Bee Stamps. I will show you below how I altered the stamp and coloured him up.
Before we start, I will point out that the background pieces I have used are from a previous alcohol ink lifting session – here is a link to Jennifer McGuire‘s blog (and video with lots of examples) showing this fun and incredibly easy technique.
I used the Lifted Ink panel on the bottom for the Panda card, and the top panel is on a bonus card featured at the end of this blog post.
I clear heat embossed the Simon Says Stamp Leaves & Berries stamp on my alcohol inked panel, spritzed with isopropyl alcohol (available from pharmacies). I then laid a piece of white cardstock on top and ran them through my die cutting machine (no dies were involved in this) – the ink transferred from the Yupo paper (top) to the cardstock (bottom).
This left me with two gorgeous inky backgrounds to turn into cards.
Of course, you can ink up any background panel you like, with any colours. Or even use patterned paper if preferred. The beauty of a black and white bear, is he matches any colour choice!
I stamped Bill the Bear on his own and marked out with pencil where I wanted to add the black markings to turn him into a cute panda bear.
Using my Copic markers, I used gentle flicks to add colour both from the bottom and from the top of the midsection. I started with C9, then added flicks of C7 and C5 to meet in the middle. This gives a bit of texture to his fur.
I then went back and started with 100 (Copic Black) and did a second layer of flicks, then C9, C7 and C5 again to add extra depth. The same was done on his legs and arms. I coloured his ears and eye patches with black and C9 markers.
Later in the project, I felt the line on the midsection of his tum was a little harsh, so I added further flicks of C9, C7 and C5 going downwards to soften it up a little.
I played with placement for my panda, and decided a frame with a nice large sentiment would work for this card.
I chose the frame (die cut and stacked three times) from Mama Elephant Snail Mail, and the gorgeous Oh So Many Birthday Wishes stamp from Picket Fence Studios.
Look at that smooth gold!
I heat embossed the sentiment not once, not twice, but THREE times (use your stamp platform or Misti for this). It is a complete sentiment stamp at a brilliant size to be a focal point on any project.
Embossing three layers of powder helps the sentiment stand out a little more from the colourful background. I love taking any opportunity to emboss multiple layers for impact and get that raised, but smooth look.
At this stage, I felt the panda needed a couple of accessories to make him look like he was actually enjoying the festivities. Bill the Bear stamp set does include a number of fun accessory stamps and they are aimed at the outdoorsy type with images such as log fires, honey collecting, fishing and even toasting sausages and marshmallows. There are even a couple of cute vest options and a bow tie to dress him up! As cute as those are, they didn’t fit the theme of my card today, so I did have to look through my stash for appropriate sized party type accessories.
The balloon string is tucked into the slit of his paw.
I added a balloon and a gift from the Ellen Hutson Bear Ware stamp set, and coloured them in bright red. I used R59, R29, R27 and R24. The bear die cuts little slits on the bottom of the paws, so it was easy to attach some crochet thread under his paw for him to hold his party balloon.
The gift is slotted in under his other paw. They are a perfect size to match Bill the Bear.
Final details are added, Nuvo Midas Touch gold glitter pen to the balloon and gift, glaze pens on the eyes and nose – I love the extra shine and sparkle this adds.
Double sided tape comes in a variety of widths from 0.25″ up to 6″ wide!
I use Art Glitter Glue for just about every thing when I craft, but I do like to use wide double sided tape when attaching my card fronts to foam and card bases. Sometimes inky panels have a bit of a kink in them, making them difficult to smooth out with just glue.
I put my tape as close to the edge and corners as I can, and this ensures an even adhesion with no bubbles along the edges of the panel.
Bonus Card
With the other inky panel, I decided to create this quick and easy card. I simply trimmed the panel down and adhered it to a card base with foam in between.
I cut the Mama Elephant ‘happy’ nine times – stacked three each and arranged them on the front with a tiny birthday sentiment heat embossed in white and added a few gems for sparkle.
This completes my festive party cards today. Thank you for stopping by! Below are links to the products I have used – some are affiliate links (not all) which simply means I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you when shopping. Thank you for your support – it means I can keep creating and sharing with you.
Nuvo Confetti: Rose Gold Hexagons, Ice White Circles
I white heat embossed the background stamp – this is just a small stamp, which doesn’t actually cover the entire card front, but perfect for a party backdrop. For information and instructions on how to Heat Emboss, click here.
I then masked off the bottom fifth of the card front using Post-It notes, and inked above them using Distress Inks and a Tim Holtz mini inking tool with foam, covering the heat embossing we’ve done in the previous step with ink. I used the Vintage Photo at the bottom, Wild Honey in the middle and Fossilized Amber towards the top, going dark to light. Buff the embossed image with a rag or cloth to remove excess ink from the confetti, this makes the embossing look nice and crisp.
The wine glass die set makes it very easy to create a quick shaker with the matching pouches. My Favorite Things have a great variety of pouch shapes to suit various dies they have in their collection.
You can see the confetti sitting in the pouch
I cut the wine glass twice, and heat embossed one of them a couple of times using Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. I glued them together, and glued the shaped pouch in the middle.
I placed a little pile of confetti carefully on the card in the area I wanted to place my glass, and carefully glued the glass down with liquid adhesive – the confetti can now be shaken about in the pouch.
For shaker cards and windows, you can use tiny punched shapes, glitter, beads, buttons, sequins or microbeads in the shaker pouch – whatever you happen to have on hand.
A close up of the little fox and the birthday sentiment.
I stamped with Gina K ink, coloured and cut the cute critters from the Stacey Yacula Sending Sweet Celebrations stamp set – the fox carrying a gift, the cake and the banner, which I cut down to fit the top corner of the card. I popped them on the front of the card and used foam tape for dimension.
I was flicking through my sentiments, and stumbled across the Taylored Expressions Big Grump – he has some brilliantly snarky sentiments, and this one fits perfectly with the theme of the card.
I stamped the sentiment along the bottom uninked area with Versafine Black Onyx ink. This is a pigment ink, and I like to use clear embossing powder to set it. Once the embossing powder is heated and melted, it gives a glossy black printed finish to the sentiment. I have had much better success using this ink and clear embossing powder technique than with black embossing powder directly – I always manage to get dots of black embossing powder everywhere which is disappointing at this stage of the card making process!
Now for the shiny finishing parts!
Nuvo Crystal Glaze
Shimmer Spray – available in Gold, Silver, Sparkle and Shimmer
Radiant Amplify – a liquid that fluffs and puffs when heated with a heat gun
I added sparkle to the card using Tsukineko shimmer spray, and shine to the cake and banner with Nuvo Crystal Glaze.
The party hat has a little fuzzy pom pom on top created with Tsukineko Radiant Neon Amplify – you put the liquid where you want it, and use your heat gun to make it fluff right up – such a FUN little detail, and perfect for pom poms, clouds, fluffy hats and scarves, bunny tails, beer foam, I could go on……
I like to use a piece of white kids craft foam between my card base and card front, for flat, smooth and even dimension. It’s far cheaper and more effective than screeds of foam tape! I buy mine from Lincraft online, and I have sometimes found it at Emporium type shops too.
That completes the card! Thank you for reading this far – I’d love to know if you give this a go too.
If you have any questions regarding the putting together of this card, please feel free to message me – I’m only too happy to help!
