Monday, November 24, 2014

Fall Inspired by Hero Arts (Projects 31, 32, 33 and 34)

Only 16 more projects before I can lift the shopping moratorium.

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I love going to the Hero Arts’ website for inspiration.  Well today's post is several cards I made that were inspired by Hero Arts cards.
 
Card 1

 
Let’s start with the inspiration piece Hero Arts Halloween Greetings which provided the inspiration for the layout and how I did the background.
For this piece, I started by stamping the acorn and leaves on a snippet of X-Press paper with Memento Rich Cocoa.  Then I colored them with Copics and fussy cut them out with my Fiskars fingertip craft knife. The image is by Inkadinkado. 
 
I don’t know about you, but white edges drive me batty when I fussy cut things out.  So I’ve got a tip for dealing with that.  After I cut the piece out, I place it on a piece of scrap paper and run a marker in the same/ similar color as the ink I stamped with along the piece.  Basically I trace the piece on the scrap paper.  That way the edges get colored.  Just be careful, I can’t tell you the number of times I slipped and add a line to the image.  Here are some before and after pictures.
Before
After
 

 

 


For the base, I took a piece of patterned paper and stamped with the background sentiment stamp by the Stampin Place with Versafine in Vintage Sepia and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I added the lace to the back of the piece and attached that to the kraft cardstock.
 
I used a Spellbinders die to cut out the piece for the sentiment.  The sentiment is by Impression Obsession and stamped with Versamagic in pumpkin spice. 
 
Copics:
Acorns -  E21, E23, E25, E27

Leaves - R05 & R08, Y15& Y17, YR04& YR18 
 

 
 

Card 2
 

With this one, I was inspired by the technique used on this really cool card.  Hero Arts Inchie Art

For this card, I took a three by three piece of cream cardstock and stamped it with the Inkadinkado flourish stamp with Versamark and heat embossed with clear powder.  Then I inked the piece with Distress Inks in Spiced Maramalde, Fired Brick and Wild Honey.  And wiped the ink off the embossed portions.  Then I cut the square into inchies (one inch square).  I took five of the inchies and added stamped images and the sentiment.  I added the squares to a kraft base.  Then I added the orange ribbon from August’s ribbon club assortment from Really Reasonable Ribbons.  I made the bow using my bow-it-all and added it with a glue dot.
 
The stamps used are:

butterflies – Stampendous

Acorn  - Fiskar

Big leaf – Fiskars

Small Leaf  – Stampendous

Fall –  Stampendous
 
Card 3
This card is my version of an absolutely beautiful card made by Jennifer McGuire. Jennifer McGuire Get WellYou will notice that my piece is strikingly similar.  I used different stamps and different techniques but I just loved Jennifer’s piece, and as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Because it is so similar to Jennifer’s piece, I wasn’t going to post it but, I really like how the butterfly came out.  So I decided to share it.


To create this card, I started with two pieces of watercolor paper.  For the card base, I brayered on Distress Ink in fired brick.  Because the paper has some texture and I used the brayer to apply the ink, it created a cool effect.  I think I misted the brayer with a little water to get better coverage.  For the smaller piece, I used Spiced Marmalade and did the same thing.  I stamped both pieces with Inkadinkado flourish stamps with Memento Rich Cocoa ink.  After stamping, I used my corner rounder on the smaller piece. 
 

I inked a scrap of watercolor paper with DI in Fired Brick for the sentiment, stamped it with DI in Vintage Photo and dovetailed the ends.  I inked the edges with Vintage Photo as well.  When I attached it to the smaller piece, I put a foam square in the center and then used adhesive on the ends to glue them down. 
 


For the butterfly, I stamped the butterfly with Versafine in Onyx Black and embossed with clear embossing powder.  Then I painted the butterfly with twinkle H2Os. 
Once assembled, I added liquid pearls in Cantaloupe and Rogue.  To get them to flatten, I applied a couple of dots at a time and then thwapped (yes, I just made up that word) the card against my craft desk.  Basically, I tapped, with some force, the back of the card against my desk until I liked the look of the dots.  I figured out that given the heat in Florida, the liquid pearls start to set up fairly quickly.  So I had to apply the dots in batches or the thwapping wouldn’t work. 
 
 
Card 4
For this card, I finally gave die cut inlay a try.  I was inspired by this card: :Hero Arts Thank You Flower Branch.


I started by cutting the tag shape with my silhouette from watercolor paper and from plain cardstock.  I actually made a few of these because I donated several to Operation Write Home.   So for the first one, I cut the branch from the watercolor paper tag first and then the leaves.  But that meant when I cut the leaf that’s dangling off the branch, I didn’t get the full leaf.  So I had to re-cut it from a snippet of watercolor paper.  For the rest of the tags I made, I used the branch die to figure out the placement of the leaf, but cut the leaves first.  Hopefully that makes sense.   Then I ran the branch and leaves through my Big Kick again to emboss them.
 
I inked the background with Distress Ink in Mustard Seed.  Then I stamped the background sentiment by the Stampin Place with Tea Dye Distress Ink (I think).  I colored the branch with Tea Dye and Vintage Photo Distress Ink.   The leaves were colored with Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemon, Fired Brick and Barn Door.
I then attached the watercolor paper tag to the plain cardstock.   Then I placed the branch and leaves back into the tag.   To finish it off, I added some ribbon from my stash, pattern paper to the card base and the tag on top.

I'm going to enter these over at Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 152
 
Thanks for stopping by and please come again.
 
 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

6 comments:

  1. Wow Sarah, these cards are fabulous! But I have to say that my favorite is the first one. That is just so pretty and I have to say I do just about the same thing you to do cover my white edges when I fussy cut!! I hold my image though and use my black marker to "edge" the white edge with black coming from behind. That way if I "slip" with the marker it puts the mark on the back of my image and not the front. Glad to see that you entered these over at the Playground Sarah!! Hugs, Brenda

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  2. My goodness girl;...you have been very creative. Perhaps you could send some of that creative mojo over to me...
    Seems I somehow have managed to lose mine lately...too busy sorting and packing in the craft room still. 50 boxes packed and carried upstairs by DH...and I am only half way done in that room! Uggggh...

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  3. Hi Sarah! Great to see you playing along with us again :) Love every card you showed and that's a great tip for edging round fussy cut stamped images!

    Hugs

    Di xx

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  4. WOW - busy girl! Fab results xxx

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  5. Great cards, Sarah. Thanks for sharing the tip for coloring the edges after you fussy cut an image. I'll be trying that one.

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  6. Hi Sarah, I'm behind in visiting, but I'm sure glad I got by this afternoon to enjoy all these gorgeous card. Loved each one of them, and got some good technique ideas from each one. Absolutely love your H20 butterfly (H20-s are one of my challenges!) It's a beauty. Your inlay tag was done beautifully too, and that was a great design to use on your 1st effort (much better than using the Palm die as I did! Lots of frustration on that die). You've been so busy, and done so much. Enjoy that Fla. warmth. SC has sun, but a bit on the cool side (no white stuff though). Hope your Thanksgiving was special and that you were with those you love best. TFS & Hugs

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