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!
Gina Nathan says
Much as I love your cardinal the snowflake card is my favourite. It’s so beautiful.
Anna Tracy says
Your backgrounds are just beautiful!!!
Nandini Karmarkar says
Wow! Amazing use of the background stamp! Love both cards, especially the shaker!
Arianna Barbara says
Wow!!!! Beautiful cards! I love so much the snowflake shaker!!! <3
Diane Phillips says
Beautiful shaker card, just beautiful!
Laura Buehler says
Your backgrounds are stunning.
Marcia Harrington says
Beautiful!! Love the backgrounds and your shaker card is awesome!!
Tracey Landt says
Beautiful choice of colours. Thank you for sharing your ideas!
joy meadows says
LOVE your cards – you never disappoint! Just gorgeous work, Jessica.
Woendi Levitt says
Great cards. Love your shaker card. I always smile when I see and make these cards.
Laura Greig says
Love those snowflakes!
Marcie Lovett says
They are just beautiful, Jessica!
{vicki} in ga says
nice card
Helen Gullett says
Jess, they cards are GORGEOUS and ELEGANT! Love the snowflake backgrounds and shaker 🙂
THANK YOU for the inspirations!
Eileen R says
Beautiful cards!
Agnieszka says
Beautiful cards, love the backgrounds. Thanks for sharing.
Jan Elmore says
Love the background color with the silver emboss! Pretty, pretty!
Kajcyika.crafts says
Really lovely cards! I love it. 🙂
Elyssa N. says
Your cards are gorgeous! I love both of them!
Evelyn B says
Love both of your cards. The white on kraft is really pretty with that cardinal popped up on top!! The blue and silver shaker is very shiny and want to make you celebrate. What fun cards!!
CathyL says
Great background stamp!
Susan Wareham says
Great cards from a fantastic new release
Andrea says
Just lovely .
Lori B says
Brilliant cards! Love them all!
SusanME says
Love what you’ve done! I must say that I’m not a fan of shaker cards, but I really like what you did! Thanks so much for sharing!