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,
wonderful! You guys make it look so easy – wish I had a tiny bit of your creativity!
Sandra ltb
Such a gorgeous card Lisa!!!
The Hero Arts stamp is really cool, and I like the technique that you used – along with the step-by-step instructions.
Lisa your card is so beautiful and adorable. I so love that you shared how you did this card. I always fill my images in once embossed with my Tombo markers but this looks way easier and faster. Thanks so much for a new technique.
What gets me in the Christmas spirit is SNOW! Long before the holiday starts and long after we have beautiful white fluffy snow and when the lights are up and twinkling it is still Christmas in my heart. To be honest and somewhat embarrassed, we didn’t take our things down until it was almost Valentines Day. I am sure that there were folks who drove past our house thinking we were nuts, but our attitude is that most folks wear out the Christmas Season before it even gets here, so we figured that we would do the same but just on the other side of Dec. 25th. Lol. Yup, something about the white stuff, and twinkling lites that makes it all seem so magical. Thanks for the chance to win. Hugs
wow, I love it! Love the colors, the red really pops! And this looks like so much fun, awesome technique, thanks!
I LOVE this card! Embossing makes EVERYTHING better! To get myself in the holiday spirit, I make a little coffee, set some mulling spices on the stove and pop in a little Lou Rawls Christmas CDs – yep, I’m kinda groovy like that!
Cheers~
Q!
my Mom collects cardinals and this stamp’s SO STINKIN’ CUTE. thanx for the inspiration and blog hop opp!
Your card is beautiful! Our family celebrates Christmas in July and that always puts me in the Spirit!
Love this card! Thanks for sharing! :)
SNOW get me in the mood for Christmas–not the 110 degrees we had today on the TX/OK border. I had picked this new stamp out as one I liked, but now that I see what you have done with it I LOVE it.
What a funnn holiday card! Love this stamp!!
LOVE this card!!! It is so crisp, bright and beautiful!! Thank you ladies for the great blog hop and inspiration!!
Love the card!
love your card, cool colour.
What a stunning card, just LOVE LOVE the colours!! Beautiful !!!
I love the embossing, and that little touch of red! Thanks for the inspiration!
Love to hear Christmas music and watch Christmas movie to get me in the mood.
Oh my, positively swooned over this one, LIsa! Gorgeous combination of pool and red :o)
Beautiful card.
Marcie
The thing that gets me in the mood for Christmas (promise you won’t laugh) is the first time I hear the Partridge family Christmas on the CD player at 5 am on Black Friday. lol I refuse to listen to Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving. But when the first note of that CD plays, the thrill and excitement of Christmas hits me full force.