Hi you guys! Today Hero Arts is having a blog hop to celebrate the 2011 Joy To You holiday catalog going up in the online store. I’m so excited to be playing along!
I had a hard time deciding what stamps to use — there are so many great ones to chose from! Finally, I settled the cling Merriest Christmas Wishes set and the Pool Designer Papers! (You know how I love pool! Oh yah!)
And here’s what I came up with!
I love playing around with solid stamps like this because there’s so many things you can do with them. You could go ahead and stamp it in a nice blue color and you’d have a sweet, tweet scene in no time. Or you could try the kissing technique. But I didn’t want to do either of those! Nope, not me. Instead, I stamped it with VersaMark ink and embossed it in clear, then colored it with inks.
Here’s a closer look so that you can see the embossing better — you gotta tilt it to get it to really show up.
And, here’s a little step-by-step on how I did it! First, I stamped the bird on new Pool Designer paper — just love this pattern because it goes with everything. (Each pack of paper includes 12 8.5 x 11″ sheets, 4 each of 3 designs.)
Then I grabbed my sponge daubers and distress inks and colored in the bird, then wiped it off with a dry paper towel. Love using sponge daubers for coloring things like this because their small size lets you put the ink right where you want it. (Full supplies at the end of the post.)
Then I kept going and colored the rest of the scene. The embossed parts made a resist and the ink easily wiped away. To finish off the card, I just trimmed it and added it to a Pool Notecard stamped with the Tree Trunks — in Soft Pool, of course! A little teal gems, some ribbon, and the message and I was done! (Just love all the messages in this set — especially this one.)
(Supplies: Hero Arts Merriest Christmas Wishes set , Pool Designer Papers, Tree Trunks, sponge daubers, Pool Notecard, clear embossing powder, and VersaMark ink. EK Success border punch. Distress inks in barn door, broken china, vintage photo, and walnut stain all by Ranger. Grosgrain ribbon from my stash. The photo overlays are from Katrina at Pugly Pixel.)
Now, remember how I mentioned a giveaway? Yep, Hero Arts is giving away a great prize (including new Pool notecards + envelopes!)! The lucky winner will be chosen on August 5th from all the comments received on each stop in the hop, so be sure to comment + visit them all!
You can comment about anything you like, but I’d love to hear about something that gets you in the holiday mood. It was 104 when I was stamping this, whew! So I listened to music and pretended like those snowflakes weren’t melting. :)
Here’s the full hop in case you’re just joining in:
Your next stop on the hop is the super talented Tami Hartley’s blog — she made FOUR amazing cards! Go check ’em out!
Joyful hopping,
I never know what to do with this kind of stamp and am amazed at what cute, clever ways you come up with to use them.
I knew I wanted this stamp the moment I saw it! but now I NEED this stamp after seeing your card!!! what a wonderful beautiful design, thanks for sharing your technique :D
Awesome card Lisa- love how you clear embossed the image and then colored it in- so amazingly beautiful!
I am in love with the color blue of these cards. The red and brown really mesh well with them. Thank you so much for sharing and inspiring.
Love your card! Thanks for sharing the technique on embossing and coloring – gotta try that! I have to say that listening to Christmas carols puts me in the holiday spirit faster than anything!
Love the way this card turned out. I really like that you embossed the background. So nice!
Wonderful card! That red bird really POPS against the background!
Love your card and how you colored the bird. Great tip!
What a stunning card. It’s so HAPPY!
Beautiful colours! I love those papers too. And what is it about Hero Arts making such great bird stamps! They’re the best.
Hi sweet Lisa! I love this new stamp! What a beautiful combo with the teal, browns and bright red! Perfect holiday card! I think the thing that gets me in a holiday mood the most, would have to be new Hero Arts, holiday stamps! A little Christmas music doesn’t hurt either! :)
Fantastic card! Need to add those items to my wish list. Thank you, r
What an awesome way to use this stamp!!
Love the bird and the card in general!
Merriest Wishes – my favorite. Already bought it and can’t wait to try this technique!
I love your card!! Your color combo is one of my favorites especially for christmas. Thanks for sharing too.
I love this color combination for a holiday card!! The tree background, the blue gems and the little red bird are all perfect touches!
I love this technique. Thanks for showing this! And for the chance to win!
What really gets me in the holiday mood is the cooling down of weather, the smells of pumpkin, apples, and anything warm and delicious! I live in Las Vegas so it’s always hot here so when Halloween starts to roll around I get so excited!!! BTW your card is beautiful :)
That is so very cute! I am going to dig out the embossing powder and the daubers! YEA!