Good morning! I am so excited to be hopping along with the Hero Arts Creative team and other special guests for their Winter 2016 Release! There are SO many gorgeous and adorable stamps and products in this release! You should have arrived from Jenn Shurkus’ blog but if not, you can head to the Hero Arts blog to start at the beginning! I created two cards using some of my favorite Christmas stamps from this year and last year’s Winter releases! My first card uses the new Color Layering Cardinal with one of my favorite holiday background stamps from Hero Arts.
Isn’t that cardinal gorgeous!? It’s really easy to line up the stamps and you get that great layered look just by using different inks! I stamped the cardinal, branch, and pine sprigs and then die-cut them with the coordinating dies. Then I inked the background stamp with versamark and pressed a piece of kraft cardstock over the stamp. I heat-embossed it with white embossing powder and then trimmed it down to an A2 card base. I stamped the sentiment on vellum and heat-embossed it with white embossing powder. Next I trimmed it down to a fishtail banner and layered it over red cardstock. I adhered them to my kraft base and then tucked my cardinal and branch around the sentiment. I finished the card by adding a little spectrum noir clear sparkle to the vellum.
I decided to make a shaker for my second card using one of the tag dies from last winter’s release. I die-cut it from white cardstock and then added a layer of acetate and foam mounting tape behind the cardstock. I filled it with a mixture of silver and sparkling clear sequins and beads and then sealed it with a white cardstock backing.
Next I stamped the same snowflake background stamp onto white cardstock and heat-embossed it with silver embossing powder. Then I blended Cracked Pistachio, Evergreen Bough, and Peacock Feathers distress ink over the background. I adhered the distress inked background to a white card base and then adhered the shaker over it. I am really becoming fond of nontraditional colors for Christmas cards and I love the sparkle and shimmer from the embossing powder and shaker!
To celebrate the release Hero Arts is giving away three $25 gift certificates to comments selected from all of the blogs in the hop so make sure you leave a comment at each hop stop for the most chances to win! Please comment by Sunday, August 28 at 11:59pm PT and we’ll announce the winner the following week. Your next stop on the hop is the wonderful Joan Bardee! Here’s the full hop list in case you get lost!
The Hero Arts Blog
Jennifer McGuire
Kathy Racoosin
Wanda Guess
Lydia Fiedler
Alice Wertz
Amy Tan
Cheiron Brandon
Debbie Olson
Laura Bassen
Debby Hughes
Heather Ruwe
Ilina Crouse
Isha Gupta
Jenn Shurkus
Jessica Frost-Ballas —> YOU ARE HERE!
Joan Bardee
Karin Akesdotter
Yana Smakula
Kelly Rasmussen
Amy Tsuruta
Clare Prezzia
Mariana Grigsby
May Sukyong Park
Libby Hickson
Thanks so much for visiting and have a wonderful day!
Love that background stamp — must have it!!!
I love the snowflake shaker!! Beautiful!!!
I am a huge Cardinal fan so that card really spoke to me but the shaker card is beautiful an magical. Well done on both of them.
Love all the glitz! Your cards are fabulous Jess!
I really love the blended background with the silver embossing woooow
I love the snowflake card with it’s not so traditional colors – Simply stunning!
Very pretty cards. I hate to start thinking winter but I will start thinking about how the new techniques I’ve learned this year can be put to use on Xmas cards.
A beautiful shaker card. Love the colors!
Beautiful cards! love them both…great color as well as design.
Two fabulous cards Jessica, love your colour choices and the fab shaker!
Love all those snowy backgrounds
I adore that Cardinal stamp and all the detail of the image. The snowflake background is the perfect finishing touch. Beautiful card projects. Thanks!
Gorgeous snowflake backdrops
Love your shaker card, the colors are gorgeous!
Love the shaker card
Beautiful cards. Love the silver snow flakes and the color combo. Thanks for sharing.
Nice cards!
So lovely. I love your take on the shaker card. The colors and sparkle are perfect.
i love that cardinal but the snowflake shaker is awesome!
Beautiful cards. I love the balance of the cardinal card, just a beautiful layout.
These are nothing short of amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Love the cards. The snowflake die is beautiful!
These are both incredible! That shaker though!! Your blended background really makes it pop and those non traditional colors look gorgeous!
loving all of the embossing!