a2z Scrapbooking Birthday Blog Hop Bash

Hello everyone & welcome to a2z Scrapbooking Birthday Blog Hop Bash!  You should be arriving from Elana's Blog.  If this is your first stop you'll want to begin at a2z Scrapbooking Blog so you don't miss out on any of the fun & beautiful creations we are sharing today. 

I chose to use a soft color palette for a feminine card. The background is made by white embossing Hero Arts Tiny Star Background on watercolor paper. Using a paintbrush, I added water where I wanted color & then dabbed on Hero Arts Tide Pool & Pale Tomato inks using the brush. Couldn't resist a few splatters, too!  My inspiration came from THIS gorgeous card. The sentiment from Hero Arts Happy Birthday Scroll was white embossed on vellum, matted with vellum & hand stitched.  Finished off with some fun enamel stars.
Your next stop is Jennifer.  Leave a comment on every blog to be in the random drawing to win a $25 gift certificate to the a2z Store. Good luck & thanks so much for stopping by! 
I'm entering the Layers & Dimension challenge at Virginia's View.

Birthday Butterflies

Today is my last post on the a2z Blog as I'm stepping down from the DT at the end of April.  I want to thank everyone at a2z for giving me this great opportunity.  Today's card started with making a stenciled background using the wonderful Numbers Background stencil--a GREAT deal in the Sales/Retired section.  I inked the stencil with 4 Hero Arts colors, spritzed with water & laid it on a watercolor panel.  The look wasn't what I wanted, so I laid the stencil back in place & used daubers with the same ink colors.  That worked well, but the colors didn't flow from one to the other.  A light coating of Gesso totally changed the look & saved my panel from the trash can! I dry embossed it & sponged on a couple shades of brown adding to the artistic look & bringing out the embossed design.

Each HA butterfly was stamped & embossed twice--once on kraft cardstock & once on watercolor paper. After watercoloring with the same inks, I added a very light covering of Gesso & sponged with brown ink. Clear Wink of Stella & Hero Arts gems give them shimmer & shine while hemp cord is wrapped around the bodies with the ends used for antennae.  The HA sentiment was heat embossed on the kraft card front & then the background panel was trimmed to fit.  I attached the colored butterflies to the kraft ones only in the middle & bent the wings slightly up before attaching them.

Hope I've inspired you to join the current challenge to use a stencil on your project.  Links to my supplies are in the a2z Blog Post.  Feel free to use my code, GRETA15, to get 15% off a minimum $25 purchase.  I'm entering the Things with Wings challenge at Uniko, Layers & Dimension at Virginia's View, In the Garden at Die Cut Divas, & Pixies Snippets Playground.  Thanks so much for all your support & taking time to visit my blog.

Watercolor plus Sparkle

(This is my second post of the day.  Please scroll down or click HERE for my PBSC post.)

Time for me to post on the a2z Blog.  This month's challenge is Color It In!  I chose a very forgiving & simple technique which is watercoloring an embossed image with Distress Inks. The butterflies were white embossed on white cardstock. Next I used a waterbrush to "paint" the image with clear water. To add color I touched the brush to my ink pad (evergreen bough & picked raspberry) & then to the butterfly. You can add more color as desired. To give a tile effect, I then added clear water around the image & colored with Distress Ink pumice stone using the same technique. The sparkle is provided with Glimmer Dust silver spray glitter.

I arranged the images to determine where I wanted the sentiment & then stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Good news!  The Happy Birthday Scroll set is ON SALE in the a2z store!  To add some texture the card front was dry embossed with a Cuttlebug folder before the butterfly tiles were attached using foam tape for the pink one.

Links to the products I've used are included in the post at a2z.  Hope I've inspired you to join our challenge this month.  Remember, the prize is a $25 gift certificate at the a2z scrapbooking store & you can use GRETA15 for 15% off a minimum $25 purchase. Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.

Vicki's Inspiration Card

Edited to add: Looks like I was on the same path as Vicki, so I'll enter over at Muse.

A Springy Hello

It's my day to post on the a2z Scrapbooking Blog.  I know many of you are in the midst of a pretty severe winter, so how about thinking Spring?!  My card uses two of the wonderful stamp sets in the a2z store’s SALES/RETIRED section--great bargains.

I started by inking the little flower using another sale item–Pale Yellow ink dauber–& randomly stamped it around the card front.  The frame was white embossed twice with one frame completely trimmed out & just the inside of the other one. After stamping “Hello” in Cup O’ Joe on the partial frame, it was attached with foam tape & mounted to the center of the card.  One additional flower was trimmed out & popped up.  The frame & added flower were coated with Stickles & pale yellow pearls decorate the flowers.  Now it’s your turn–use at least ONE HERO ARTS STAMP, HERO ARTS DIGITAL IMAGE OR HERO ARTS DIE CUT (Hero Arts Silhouette shapes are allowed too) along with any type of embossing & enter the February challenge.  Remember, you can use GRETA15 to get 15% off a minimum $25 purchase in the a2z store. There's a complete list of supplies on the a2z blog.  I'm entering the sparkle challenge at Loves Rubberstamps.  Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.

Warm Winter Wishes

This is my second post today.  Please scroll down for my Penny Black Saturday Challenge post.

I'm up on the a2z Scrapbooking Blog today with a card for our February embossing challenge. The winner gets a $25 gift certificate to the a2z Scrapbooking store!  My card also shows how a Christmas stamp set can be used for a non-holiday card & it's available in the SALE SECTION for 50% OFF!  The effect from heat embossing hooked me on stamping years ago & dry embossing is actually why I bought my Big Shot.  I used both techniques today.

This is the card front after embossing it with the stencil.  I actually used the debossed side which is a bit less texture.  You can see my first card made with embossing a stencil HERE.

The branch is stamped 3 times & heat embossed in white.  I sponged on some Wet Cement ink to make the white pop a little more.  After stamping the sentiment I added white paint to the edges & used it for some splotches.

To make my card more cheerful, I covered the branches with Stickles.

The panel could have been mounted with foam tape, but I decided just to glue it flat since there was texture from the dry embossing.  No extra postage needed for this card that I'll be sending to a friend dealing with wintry weather.  Remember, you can use GRETA15 to get 15% off a minimum $25 purchase in the a2z store.

Hero Arts Bird & Branch Christmas
Hero Arts Zig Zag Pattern Stencil

Thanks so much for taking time to visit my blog.

You & Me

My day to post on the a2z Scrapbooking Blog.  Valentines are so much fun to make & you'll need to get them in the mail before you know it!  For this card I decided to go with more of a vintage style by inking & distressing edges.  I started by pulling a panel of watercolor paper through Hero Arts Wet Cement ink spritzed with water on an acrylic block.  I dried it with my heat gun & then repeated the process with some Hero Arts Soft Pool ink.

The beautiful Hero Arts Love From The Garden heart was stamped 4 times in Hero Arts Pale Tomato overlapping the points in the middle of the panel.  I sponged more ink around the edges & distressed them with my scissors.  I added a bit of Stickles for some sparkle. The sentiment was stamped in Wet Cement, die cut into a circle, sponged with the inks & again distressed with scissors.  The panel was attached to a card sponged with Wet Cement & Soft Pool. The sentiment was matted with another die cut circle inked in Wet Cement before mounting it to the center with foam tape. Both stamps are new to me. Why not grab some of your new stamps or try a new technique & join our January challenge? You can use my discount code, GRETA15, to get 15% off a minimum $25 purchase in the a2z store.  There's a supply list with links in my a2z Blog Post.
The sentiment is from a great set, Happy Birthday Scroll, on sale in the store for only $8.  "Big Hugs" is another sentiment in the set & would work great to make a card for a friend.  Thanks so much for taking time to visit my blog.

Edited to add: Entering the Hearts challenge at SSS Wednesday & Time Out Challenges & Uniko Studio Love & Friendship challenge.

Ladybug Birthday Card

Time for me to post on the a2z Scrapbooking Blog with a card to inspire you to join our January challenge--NEW.  Links to my supplies are included in the post. I've used a stamp, stencil & technique for the first time.  I knew stencils could be used to emboss & finally got around to trying it.  My Big Shot sandwich was Tab 1, embossing pad, cutting plate, stencil, cardstock, embossing pad, cutting plate. Worked great my first try! 

Aren't these funky squares fun?! The little ladybug is stamped in Neon Red & Wink Of Stella is brushed on the wings.  I used a craft knife to cut out an area for my sentiment which is heat embossed. The panel is mounted with foam tape & little black enamel dots finish it off.  Pretty flat card for mailing which is always a plus.  This is a good time to use a technique you've been wanting to try & enter our challenge for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate.

The STORE has lots of sale items right now including the Neon Red ink pad & lots of stamp sets. You can use my discount code, GRETA15, to get 15% off your $25 minimum purchase. 

This will be my 3rd entry for Darnell's NBUS challenge.  Be sure to check it out--still lots of time to enter.  I know you'll enjoy her blog if you don't already.
Edited to Add: Also entering SSS Wednesday--Something New.
Edited to Add: Also entering the new challenge at Virginia's View since there's a lot of white space on this card.
Edited to Add: entering Anything Goes at Loves Rubberstamps.

THANKS

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday season. Today I have a card to introduce our January challenge at a2z Scrapbooking.  The theme this month is "New" & I chose to use stamps that hadn't been inked. Thank you cards are always good to have on hand.  I love this color combo & plan to use it more often.  The background stamp was inked with Wet Cement & then with Tide Pool since I wanted the tag a different color than the background.  The tag was easy to cut out & I glued it flat onto the background.  The Neon Red is a lovely color, not super bright, & it inked the solid stamp without a problem. Both the background stamp & the red ink are ON SALE in the a2z Etsy Store.  You can use my discount code, GRETA15, to get 15% off a minimum $25 purchase. I'm entering Darnell's NBUS challenge.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
Supplies:
HA Edgy Background
HA Untitled Love
HA Wet Cement, Tide Pool & Neon Red inks
Wink of Stella, Clear
Kool Tak Clear Foam
Heavy Weight Cardstock
Narrow white ribbon

Hello

It's my day again to post on the a2z Scrapbooking Blog. There you can find the details & supplies for this watercolor flowers card. Hope you'll join in our challenge for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate at The Store.  I'll send this as a surprise to a blogging friend.

You can use my discount code, GRETA15, to get 15% off a minimum $25 purchase at The Store. Thanks so much for visiting my blog.

Watercolor Ombre Background

I'm up today on the a2z Scrapbooking Challenge Blog. This month we want to see projects using watercoloring. I began by stamping & heat embossing the Hero Arts background in gold on watercolor paper.  Then I used a dark red watercolor paint with a wet brush using more paint at the top & more water moving down to create an ombre look.  I added a piece of vellum down the center with a stamped Hero Arts sentiment at the bottom using Versafine Onyx Black.  The Hero Arts tree was heat embossed in gold on another piece of watercolor paper brushed with the same paint.  I trimmed it very close, colored the dots with the paint nearly full strength & added Stickles to the stars.  
When everything dried I mounted it with foam tape & added gold dots at the top. Hope I've inspired you to join our challenge. You can use my discount code, GRETA15, to get 15% off a minimum $25 purchase in The Store.
I'm entering the challenges at SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday & Inkspirational.

a2z Christmas Card

Time for my second DT post at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies. The details on how I made this CAS card are on the a2z blog and I'd love for you to check it out. Lots of us are in high gear making Christmas cards, so thought I'd show you how any flower can be used for Christmas.

I fell in love with the Hero Arts Bold Pop Designs Stamp & Diecut when it first came out.  I think the smallest flower makes a great Poinsettia when stamped in Hero Arts Neon Red. Both of these products are on sale at the a2z store, so grab them quick! The sentiment from Hero Arts Message Wreath stencil is sponged in the same ink. I added WOS to the flowers, so that's why they look slightly different than the sentiment. You can use my discount code, GRETA15, to get 15% off a minimum $25 purchase at the a2z store.  Still lots of time to enter the November Anything Goes Challenge--would love to see you there!

By the way, there will be a special discount code November 27-December 1 & a contest on Friday.

Thank you so much for taking time to check my card.

Thanksgiving

I'm very excited that my first post as a member of the a2z Scrapbooking Blog DT is on the blog today! Those of us in the U.S. will soon be celebrating Thanksgiving & I used a non-holiday stamp with holiday colors for my card. Here's a sneak peak & I hope you'll check it out on the a2z Blog.

Our challenge this month is Anything Goes, so grab your Hero Arts products & play along.  If you need anything from The Store, you can use my code, GRETA15, to get 15% off a $25 minimum purchase. Wishing you a lovely day.

New Blog Badges

Not much time to make cards this week since I'm getting ready for my sister & her hubby to visit. This one was shared on Flickr & thought I'd add it here as it ties in with 2 new blog badges: Published in Stampers' Sampler & I Design for a2z Scrapbooking!  I submitted the card for last year's issue so was happily shocked to come home from work one day & find a copy of the magazine waiting for me.  The ink is Encore Metallic Champagne--not gold & not silver--one of my favorites.  
All the stamps are Hero Arts which is how it ties in to the newest badge--my second DT!  The Etsy shop, a2z Scrapbooking, is a premier Hero Arts retailer.  They carry lots of HA products & welcome special orders. You'll find a project by me on the blog twice a month starting Nov. 7th. Check out the store & use the code GRETA15 to get 15% off a $25 minimum purchase.  So glad you took time to visit my blog.