Diecutting | a2z Scrapbooking Supplies

September 18, 2017
by erica1ab 5 Comments

Hero Arts Purr(-fect) cat lovers cards

Hello, hello! How is everyone doing? I hope those affected by storms, hurricanes and floods are safe and sound as well as on your way of getting your lives back on track, houses and yards cleaned up and craft rooms re-organised.

I have now been in a new house for about 3 weeks and slowly but surely getting it to feel like a home rather than just a building with our stuff in it. My craft room is another story… I can’t seem to get the flow right or getting furniture to fit ‘just right’ and it’s very frustrating. I feel a good flowing craft room is good for the mojo, if the room doesn’t inspire me I’m out of luck.. Luckily for me I made the cards I’m going to show you today before we moved, in anticipation of not getting into the swing of things very quickly perhaps. Also, sadly the Hero Arts CM131 Purr stamp set is sold out in the A2Z Scrapbooking Store but you can use the ‘Request Custom Order’ button to contact the store owner who will happily order it for you. The coordinating Hero Arts DI366 Frame Cuts to the stamp set is still available in the shop though.

Right, well, it’s probably time to get down to the crafty side of things, isn’t it? For these two cards, I’ve coloured the kitty cats with both Copic and Zig Clean Color markers, one card is clean and simple and the other one has a bit of everything going on!

For card no1 I started out by die cutting a piece of Strathmore Bristol Vellum watercolour card stock, using a Mama Elephant creative cut called Femme Frames. It gives a lovely scalloped border and adds a subtle bit of interest. I also cut out a few masks as I was planning on piling a few cushions on top of each other for one of the kitties to stretch out on. Using MFT hybrid ink in Black Licorice, I stamped up my images with a bit of help from my Mini MISTI and the masks I had cut out. Above the cat I also stamped up the heart image and the sentiment ‘lazy days are the best’. It just fit perfectly with my lazy cat! I coloured the panel with my Zig Clean Color markers and kept the colours quite intense, there is hardly any water added to the colouring at all.

Once it was dry, I adhered the panel to a white card base using a piece of foam sheet I had cut to size as well as added a few clear sparkly sequins with glossy accents. With that, the first card was done!

Onward to card no2! I coloured the cats with my Copic markers and used the coordinating frame cuts to cut them out. Setting these two aside, I got that Mama Elephant Femme Frame creative cut out again but this time I used pink card stock. My colour scheme for this card was going to be pink and grey, and the card base was cut out, scored and folded. I nearly added the pink card stock to it right away but thought it needed a little something to jazz it up. Grabbing an embossing folder with fish bones all over it, I ran the panel through my Big Shot with it and was happier with it. I still thought it needed a little something else though so with a mini ink blending tool I dabbed Distress Oxide ink in Picked Raspberry to highlight the fishbones.

In the same grey colour card stock as the card base, I cut out a fish tail banner using MFT Die-Namics Stitched Fishtail Flag. On this I again used the Distress Oxide inks and a homemade heart stencil to create a patterned paper. I also found a little stitched label in white card stock in my big pile of unused bits and bobs, it was the perfect size to stamp the sentiment ‘I’d spend all nine lives with you’ and I added one of the kitties to it using some foam tape. The other kitty was added directly to the heart stencilled banner, also with foam tape and this kitty responds with ‘I meow you’ which is cut out using the little speech bubble that comes with the coordinating frame cuts.

Well, with that I will leave you to enjoy your day and I hope I have inspired you to get crafty soon!

Happy crafting!

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Please join us in this months “CASE a Designer” challenge for your chance at a $25 gift card to the a2z store. Our current monthly challenge can always be found in the menu bar, and runs from the 1st to last day of the month.

The a2z scrapbooking store carries a wide variety of Hero Arts products! Get discounted new releases, sales, grab bags & more. Proceeds from our store benefit Celiac & Behcets disease foundations. Use my discount code ERICA15 to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. If you’re looking for a Hero Arts product you don’t see in store, use the Request Custom Order button from within the shop.

Hero Arts CM131 Purr
Hero Arts DI366 Purr Frame Cuts
Copic Markers
Zig Clean Color markers
Mama Elephant Femme Frames
MFT Die-Namics Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax
Hero Arts Night Black ink
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide in Picked Raspberry
Glossy accents
MFT Hybrid ink Black Licorice

September 5, 2017
by erica1ab 6 Comments

Hero Arts Woof friendship cards

Hello, hello! Erica on the blog today, from our new house AND new country! Oh yes, we don’t do things by half around here. “Let’s move”, “Sure thing, hunny-buns, which country shall we go to this time??” is more like our MO. Right now, I’m sitting on the sofa in a half-unpacked house in POLAND, having only moved here from Denmark 8 days ago and got the keys to the house 6 days ago. The craft room is almost all sorted because ya know, #priorities. The bedroom and kitchen are nearly as they should be too. The rest of the house? Eh, that’s gonna be a work in progress for a while I think. Tidy, schmidy will be my motto for at least a few weeks!

Well, now that I’ve got that off my chest, shall we get down to some crafty business? I have two cards for you today, both made with the Hero Arts Woof stamp set and coordinating Woof Frame Cuts. These cards are quite different and I like being able to see different techniques being used with the same stamp set. If it seems really versatile, I’m more likely to buy it as it feels like more bang for the buck.

I did my usual thing here when I got this stamp set, I stamped up loads of adorable little doggies and coloured them in. I think one of the reasons I do this is to get a good feel for the stamps and to try out different looks without “committing” to making a card right away. I did a few with Zig Clean Colour markers and some with Copic markers but for the cards today, I only ended up using the ones done with Copics.

When I had a whole pack of puppies coloured in, it was time to start on the backgrounds. For these I used another couple of different techniques, both with lovely results if I may say so myself.

For my first one I got some of those delicious Distress Oxide inks out and using a homemade cloud stencil I blended some Broken China blue around the stencil to create a sky. I did the same thing to make a grassy ground for the pups to play on using Cracked Pistachio green Distress Oxide inks. The dies I used to create the stencils are both from My Favorite Things.

When it came to decide on a sentiment, I used one from the stamp set that says ‘You + Me Friends Forever’ and I picked a couple of the doggies that I had coloured in to look like my Cheeky Chicas (my two little rescue dogs, they are sisters and adopted from Spain hence the chica nickname and if you are curious to see them for yourself, here is a link to my Instagram where I post regular photos of their mischief) The sentiment I stamped in black ink on white card stock and then I used a Mama Elephant stitched cloud die to cut it out along with a plain white cloud and a bright yellow sun.

In the Hero Arts Woof stamp set there are lots of cute little accents to make your card or project perfectly doggie-licious and I have used several of them for these cards. For the first one I only stamped up a couple of hearts and used the coordinating Frame Cut to cut them out. Now I had all the bits I wanted for my first card and it was time to assemble! This took very little time as I had a picture in my mind of how I wanted it to look. Using foam tape to create dimension and layers I glued away until I was happy with the results. A few clear sequins snuck on it too.

For my second card I went in a more monochomatic style, even the doggies I used are grey/black-ish. The only colour splash are the little hearts and the ink blending on the word sentiment.

Whilst my first card turned out pretty much as I had planned, this one did the exact opposite! At first I thought I’d stamp this up as background paper and colour it in using bright colours but I ended up liking it so much without any colour (*gasp of shock* I know, I know… surprise twist or what?!) and that is how the little pink hearts got added because I felt a little bit of pink wouldn’t hurt. They were not part of my original plan at all. I stamped these using Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide ink.

As my little doggies were already coloured in, this card came together rather quickly once I decided to skip the colouring step. A stitched rectangle frame (good old Lawn Fawn to the rescue again) in black linen textured card stock, as well as the word die ‘Love’ which got an ombré pink effect with the help of the same Distress Oxide ink as the hearts are stamped, a white banner to stamp the sentiment on and some foam tape later, BAM! Done.

That’s it from me today, I hope you have enjoyed this post and that my cards have inspired you to get your colouring on. Don’t forget that there is a marvellous colouring challenge going on for the month of September, called The Daily Marker 30 Days or check out the hashtag #thedailymarker30day. The idea is to have some me-time every day and colour a little bit, even if it’s just 5-10 mins. There is no pressure or commitment, it’s just plain fun and we can all use a bit more of that these days, can’t we?

Anyway, with that, I’m off to organise, move some stuff around and attempt to learn some basic Polish… Or maybe I should just stick to crafting?

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Hero Arts Woof CM132
Hero Arts Woof Frame Cuts DI365
Distress Oxide Inks in Worn Lipstick, Cracked Pistachio and Broken China
My Favorite Things hybrid ink in Black Licorice
My Favorite Things Die-namics Stitched Sentiment Strips
Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die
Lawn Fawn ‘love’ word die
Mama Elephant Stitched Sky Creative Cuts
Clear sequins

May 30, 2017
by macimbalo 4 Comments

Hero Arts Love Stamp & cut with Hero Arts Deco Pattern Stencil

There is still just a little time to enter this months a2zscrapbooking challenge for May:

Sentiment Focus

sentiment focus.jpg

Here I’ve used the Love Stamp and Die set DC175 for my sentiment and the Hero Arts Deco Pattern Stencil SA105 with some embossing paste. I die cut the 6 love dies, 3 from watercolored paper that I used Distress Oxide Inks on, and 3 black ones for shadows. I’ve also used Hero Arts white embossing powder and a strip of pattern paper from my stash. I added some shimmer to the die cuts with Spectrum Noir glitter pen.

I hope you will have time to join the challenge – just remember to use one main Hero Arts product! You could win a $25 gift card to the a2z store!

And remember to use code Angie15 to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more!

Here’s my list of supplies:

Love Stamp and Cut set DC175

Hero Arts Deco Stencil SA105

Hero Arts White Embossing Powder

Embossing Paste

Spectrum Noir Shimmer pen

Distress Oxide Inks

Patterned paper from my stash

Here are a few more views:

sentiment-focus

e0c10-angie

October 3, 2016
by Helen Gullett 6 Comments

Hero Arts: Mixed Media Thank You Card

Good morning, Helen’s here today would love to share with you a mixed media card using Hero Arts stencil, stamps and die cuts.

I created the background with one of the Petals Stencil Pair and Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate. I added some gold acrylic paint on the plate, spread it with rubber brayer, added the stencil and added the cardstock on top of it. I rubbed it gently all over so that the paint would transfer evenly. And then lifted it up and set aside to dry. Acrylic paints dries quickly. Once the panel dried well, I die cut it with one of the Fancy Frame dies (Craftin Desert Divas).

I stamped some of the leaves from the Color Layering Grateful for You Leaves Clear Stamp with some fall color inks (CTMH), and then die-cut them with the matching Layering Grateful Leaves Frame Cut Dies. Then I die-cut the word thanks 4 times from Thanks Stamp & Cut and I stacked them together and glued them with glue pen.

Once I have everything ready, I put them together on the card 🙂 First the gelli printed background, then I arranged the leaves and glued them on the card, added the stacked die-cut sentiment, and I finished the card with some gold sequins.

I hope you are inspired to create a project and play along with our October challenge- Layer It. You can add you project here and by linking up, you have a chance to win a $25 gift card to a2z Scrapbooking store.

If you need any Hero Arts stamps, frame dies, stencils, cardstock, cards, and other supplies, visit a2z Scrapbooking store and get 15% OFF when you put an order of $25 and more (exclude shipping) by using this code: Helen15.

Thanks a bunch for visiting today. Have a fabulous day!

September 16, 2016
by Helen Gullett 6 Comments

Ornaments Card and Mini Tags

Good morning crafty friends… Helen is here today. I’d like to share with you an ornament card and some mini tags that I created using Ornaments Stamp and Cut set.

This stamp and cut set is not only for cardmaking, but also for other paper-crafting projects. You can stretch your stamps and die sets for different projects. The sky’s the limit!

To make the mini tags, first, I cut out the cardstock in 1.5″ wide and 5″ long and then folded it in half. Then I added the dies slightly off the folded edge.

Then I ran it through the die cutting machine. I did these steps for green and red cardstock.

This is how they look after cutting. You will have the folded edge uncut.

After all the cardstock was cut, I started stamping the matching the stamp on each shape with VersaMark ink pad. Then I added some Gold Embossing Powder and heat set them with a craft heater.

You also can reverse the steps if you feel more comfortable with stamping the images first then cutting them out.

I used my WRMK hole puncher to add the hole for strings. I used some of the ornaments on the card with natural twine for the string on the card. Then I embellished them with some gems. I cut out a couple labels out of the matching cardstock and heat embossed the sentiment that comes from the the same stamp set.

Some of them I use as mini tags. They are super cute 🙂 I hope this projects can give you some inspirations to play along with our monthy challenge: Make It A Tag. By linking up your projects, you have a chance to win $25 Gift Certificate to the a2z Scrapbooking Store.

And, whenever you shop for Hero Arts products and crafting supplies at a2z Scrapbooking store, you can use this code Helen15 , to get 15% off your purchase of $25 or more (exclude shipping).

THANK YOU for visiting today and have a fabulous day!