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!
Jess, they are both stunning! I love the pop of the red cardinal and the Kraft. You know I love you be me a shaker, and the colors are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing and inspiring.
BEAUTIFUL!!!! Love these sets and your cards!
I can’t decide which card I love more! The Cardinal is gorgeous and I love the color on the second card. Beautiful!
Kraft paper is one of my favorites. Love how you used the cardinal on the snowflakes!
love the shaker card. You do beautiful work.
I love your wintery shaker card, you’ve got me singing, “Let it snow!”
Beautiful cards and I
love the shaker one!
Great job with the
embossing.
Carla from Utah
Loving that background stamp…..”need” it. The shaker card is great! Even like the cardinal card and I’m not usually fond of birds.
I love the silver embossed snowflake background. It’s beautiful!
Beautiful cards! Love the background on the shaker card!
Love the snowflake background on both of these cards!
Your cards are pretty. I know your snowflake card was made from last year’s release, but I love it. I’m a sucker for shakers and this was beautiful!
Your cards are amazing! I really like how you did the background on them – Simply gorgeous!
Gorgeous cards Jessica! I just love this cardinal.
I love the wonderful designs of your cards. Hard to believe it’s time for snow already. ;0/
Your cards make me wish for winter! Lovely.
beautiful snowflake backgrounds – pretty cards. . . .
Beautiful cards.
Gorgeous cards!!
Beautiful cards!!
Again, BOTH cards are beautiful!
Great cards and the background stamp is so pretty. Thanks for sharing.
Linda D.
Fabulous cards! Love them!
What beautiful cards! I can see why that background stamp is a favorite–it looks stunning behind your designs. Thanks for sharing!
Love your projects with the tone on tone backgrounds!