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!
Great cards, Jessica! The cardinal is the perfect bird for winter. And such different effects with the snowflakes! I do love shaker cards too. Thanks so much for sharing with us and for participating in this great hop and giveaway.
Beautiful cards. Love your embossed backgrounds. The shaker card is my favorite.
I love your cards Jessica, there are so gorgeous ! This cardinal stamp set is so beautiful ! I especially love your shaker card, the mix of those greens and the silver embossing is so….Tremendously beautiful ! Thanks for sharing and for the chance to win.
I love the cardinal, we have so many of those in the winter. The cards are great.
Oooolalah!! I love snowflakes on Christmas cards, and these are just gorgeous! Especially like the silver embossed – blue ink resist card… with a shaker embellishment no less!! Outstanding. TFS.
Sweet cards. TFS
Both cards are great, but what a fabulous shaker card! Love it!
Absolutely beautiful cards! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Love the variations you made using that incredible snowflake background stamp. All your cards are lovely.
Beautiful background stamping!
Love the way you used the background stamp with the two different color choices! It’s a winner for sure! Your cards are beautiful!
Such great backgrounds and colors. Love using the ornament in a different way to make a shaker card.
Love that background stamp.
The cardinal is at the top of my list.
Layered stamps are wonderful.
thanks for sharing some wonderful cards.
Your cards are always so classy and clean, love these!
Love the snowflake background on your cards!
Beautiful cards. I especially like the cardinal; it is very realistic with the multiple color levels. Thank you for showing what is possible.
Your cards are gorgeous! I love the cardinal, but the shaker snowflake is stunning!
Thanks for the inspiration.
Beautiful cards! Thanks for sharing!
Such pretty cards! I’m in love with that layering cardinal
Thanks for sharing these fantastic designs with us. They are so pretty and give me a peaceful feeling while also helping me see the new products in the Hero Arts Release.
Fabulous cards. I love that you got two completely different looks using the same bg stamp.
The silver embossing against the blue green distressed ink is just stunning.
Love how you did the backgrounds.
These snowflakes are stunning!
Lovely cards! Thanks for sharing.