rabbit

Good morning!!! Today we have a special blog hop celebrating the new Hero Arts 2018 Catalog! All of the gorgeous stamps, dies, and other goodies that you probably saw sneaks of at Creativation are now available in the Hero Arts shop! I have a couple of pencil projects to share with you today using some of the absolutely fabulous new goodies in this catalog, so let’s get started! (Be sure to stay tuned till the end for information on the generous giveaway!)

~All of the products that I mention in the card descriptions are linked at the bottom of the post!~

For my first project, I created a pretty, springy little scene with the darling Color Layering Rabbit (I prefer to call him bun-bun, but to each his own.) I love that the Color Layering sets have both the layered stamping as well as the outline options, so you can stamp OR color! I chose to stamp the outline of this little guy onto some white card stock, then color him with my Prismacolor pencils. I die cut him out with the coordinating Frame Cuts, and also die cut one of the b-e-a-yootiful new Trellis dies from some Woodgrain paper. This super detailed die is just gorgeous and cuts beautifully!

For my bun-bun’s backdrop, I decided to stamp the pretty new Color Layering Nasturtium in shades of pink and aqua in the corners of my A2 card base, as though they were draped gracefully over the top of the trellis. I added some blue “sky” by lightly blending around the edges and towards the bottom of the A2 panel. After I had adhered the bun-bun, trellis, and a strip of Pool Layering Paper (for some “grass”), I stamped the greeting from Make a Fountain using Intense Black ink.

For my next project, I couldn’t resist using one of the absolutely stunning floral stamps that was included in this release. (That magnolia?! Holy moly. Must. Color. Soon.) For today, I thought I’d play with the Flowering Nasturtium Wood Block stamp.

Honestly, using wood block stamps is relatively uncharted territory for me. I have always preferred clear stamps because of their precision and being able to see better whether I’m getting a clear impression. Well, turns out I just wasn’t using the right wood block stamps. 😉 I wanted to challenge myself a little, so I thought I’d do a color with which I have little experience: yellow. For some reason, I immediately gravitate toward pinks and purples, but nasturtiums in nature are in the red and yellow family, so I chose a peachy-sunset yellow for my palette today, and I’m kinda loving it!!

To start, I stamped the Flowering Nasturtium using Soft Yellow ink twice onto some of the new Radiant White card stock. I chose Soft Yellow because I wanted to do some no-line coloring, and the Soft Yellow lines fade nicely into the background of a colored image. I colored my images with my Prismacolor pencils and blended them with my blender pencil, then die cut them out using the coordinating Frame Cuts dies.

For my card base, I chose a very subtle background, clear embossing the beautiful new Floral Mandala Bold Print background onto a white top fold card base. Just enough texture to add some interest to the background for my flowers. I arranged the flowers in a swag in the bottom left corner, trimming and turning them until they achieved the shape I wanted, and adhered them with both dimensional foam adhesive and regular liquid adhesive. I also added a pretty sentiment from the new Layered Topiary set onto a strip of card stock, then mounted it with foam adhesive. The final touch was adding some sequins to fill in some bare spots and add some more texture.

We will be giving away three $50 shopping sprees, drawn from comments left across all blogs in the hop. Please be sure to leave your comments by Thursday, February 22nd at 11:59pm PT. The more blogs you comment on, the better your chances of being chosen to win a gift certificate!!! Your next stop is the absolutely fabulous Janette Kausen.  Happy Hopping!