Hero Arts

Technique Tuesday | Keep Calm and Turn 29 Again

March 13, 2013 by Nancy Nally 23 Comments

Today’s Technique Tuesday feature highlights one of my favorite stamp sets from the CHA Winter 2013 release! I love the “Keep Calm and…” meme, and Technique Tuesday has done some really fun stamps with it recently. Designer Annette Allen got to work with the birthday set that they released at CHA Winter 2013, called Turn 29.

Two sentiment options and whole ton of elements make this a set you can use over and over.

Technique Tuesday Birthday

Annette used another recent trend – neon – to brighten up her card and make it festive. Stamping some of the designs multiple times (like the presents and the banners) in multiple colors gives the appearance of the card having more elements than it actually does.

Washi tape makes a quick border that helps tie together some of the neon colors in the stamped elements.

Supplies | Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Turn 29). Cardstock: Neenah (white). Ink: Hero Arts (Neon Pink, Neon Blue, Neon Green, Neon Yellow and Neon Orange). Adhesive: Scotch (ATG), American Crafts (foam). Washi Tape: Recollections.

Designer: Annette Allen

Annette started card making in 1997, when a neighbor invited her to a Stampin’ Up! party while she was living in Germany. She has since started a blog and taken part in many design teams. Annette has been published in Paper Crafts Magazine, Designed To Color, Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Magazine and Papercraft Inspirations. To learn more about Annette, visit her blog, My Clever Creations.

Filed Under: Card Annex, Play Tagged With: American Crafts, Annette Allen, Hero Arts, Neenah, Recollections by Michaels, Scotch, Technique Tuesday, Technique Tuesday feature

Technique Tuesday | Thinking of You

March 11, 2013 by Yana Smakula Leave a Comment

Welcome back to Technique Tuesday week on Card Annex! Thanks for joining us as we feature the latest product releases from Technique Tuesday at CHA Winter 2013!

Designer Yana Smakula brings us a card that is a great reminder to remember to make use of those sentiments that are often “add on” elements in a stamp set. We often forget they are there, but they can be the primary reason to reach for a stamp set if you remember that they are there! This sentiment is from the new “Wildflowers” stamp set:

The sentiment is slightly small for the die cut that Yana wanted to use it on, so she added pearls on either side of it to both fill the space and highlight the text.

Supplies | Cardstock: Dovecraft (Premium White). Patterned Paper: Graphic45 (Secret Garden). Die Cutting Machine: Spellbinders (Grand Calibur). Dies: Spellbinders (Gold Corners One, 5×7 Detailed Scallops, A2 Bracket Borders One). Stamp: Technique Tuesday (Wildflowers). Ink: Tsukineko. Gems and pearls: Hero Arts. Sewing machine: Dragonfly. Adhesive: Dovecraft Foam Dots. Ribbon: Dovecraft. Sugar Pick: Jillibean Soup (Red/Brown)

Designer: Yana Smakula

Yana Smakula is a newlywed from Ukraine (which is in southeastern Europe) with no kids but two black cats. She loves to travel across the world and meet new people, discover new cultures and just explore. So far together with her new husband she’s been to a few places in Europe (Poland, Check Republic and UK), Africa (Egypt, Tunisia and Israel), Asia (China and Sri Lanka) and USA. Their next dream destination is Madagascar, because they hear the nature there is simply breathtaking! Yana fell in love with the U.S. while living here (in Las Vegas, NV) as a high school foreign exchange student when she was a teen. She enjoys scrapbooking, mostly about her travels. Her other passion is cardmaking – she enjoys trying new products and techniques, experimenting and creating in different styles. She’s also very much into stamping (although she didn’t realize it until she took a close look at her cards and noticed almost all of them use stamps!). To learn more about Yana, visit her website.

Filed Under: Card Annex, Play Tagged With: Dovecraft, Dragonfly, Graphic45, Hero Arts, Jillibean Soup, Spellbinders, Technique Tuesday, Technique Tuesday feature, Tsukineko, Yana Smakula

4U

February 11, 2013 by Nancy Nally Leave a Comment

Have you ever considered using a layout as inspiration for a card? Designer Yana Smakula’s card was inspired by this layout by Kelly Goree!

This quick and easy card features a wonderful die set from Spellbinders and Becky Fleck called Say What?.

By adhering the speech bubbles using different heights – 1mm and 2mm foam dots – of dimensional adhesive, as well as leaving some flat, it created more depth and interest on the card.

Supplies | Cardstock: Dovecraft (Premium White). Patterned Paper: Echo Park (So Happy Together 6×6 pad). Die Cutting Machine: Spellbinders (Grand Calibur). Dies: Spellbinders (Say What?). Pearls: Hero Arts (Light Green). Alphabets: American Crafts Thickers (Rockabye White, Amy Tangerine Foam Journal White). Adhesive: Dovecraft. Corner Rounder: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.

Designer: Yana Smakula

Filed Under: Card Annex, Play Tagged With: American Crafts, Amy Tangerine, Dovecraft, Echo Park, Hero Arts, Spellbinders, We R Memory Keepers, Yana Smakula

CHA Winter 2013: Hero Arts

January 13, 2013 by Annette Allen 9 Comments

Hero Arts booth is always filled with fun new stamps sets – and we can’t forget all those fun new dies too, that coordinate with the stamps. Hero Arts offers Wood Mounted, Poly Clear and Cling Stamps. One of the new favorites is the Hero Arts Ink pads. The collection of colors keep growing and they now come in mini’s, as well.

The Hero Arts booth at CHA Winter 2013 was filled with fun samples and many customers. As a card maker, I was very pleased with the selection of stamp sets and dies. I have my eye on a few must haves.

Here’s some standout Frame Cuts sets:

There’s also some great Coordinating Dies with Stamp Sets:

New Hero Arts Mini ink pads come in a pack of four, and are color coordinated:

Another new must have is the stamp set that make old mason jars!

For those who love the wood mounted stamps, there are fun background stamps and great sentiments.

Here are just a few of the Hero Arts Shadow Ink Hero Hues colors, showing off the beautiful pads.

Filed Under: CHA, News Tagged With: Annette Allen, CHA Winter 2013, Hero Arts

CHA | Hero Arts Workshop

January 12, 2013 by Yana Smakula 6 Comments

I was one of the lucky cardmakers who made it to the Hero Arts “It’s a Card Fest” workshop on the Friday education day at CHA Winter 2013 in Anaheim, CA.

During the two hour workshop we all got to play with some of the new stamps that are coming out this winter, and try some fun techniques with them. By the end, each of us had four beautiful clean and simple cards to take home.

Here are the stamps we used:

I was able to take some pictures as we worked. (I also made a video, but its going to take some time to process it and upload, so you’ll have to wait for that!)

Here’s a look at what we did!

The new background wood stamp is just perfect for making cards! I can see it being used on so many projects! For the first card we stamped this pattern in white ink on white paper – it gives such a cool effect.
There’s also a few new flower wood stamps, which are also great for creating backgrounds or stamping and cutting out and using as an embellishment (shown in another card we did during the workshop). These flowers were stamped on top of the white stamped pattern and turned out just great!

Here’s the look at finished card #1:

For the second card, we used clear stamps as well as the large background stamp:
For the third card, we used a printed card and turned it inside out so the printed portion ended up being on the inside and white paper on the outside. So fun!

As we worked on the last card I managed to take some photos of the process to show you the basics of how the card came together.

Everything for the card was pre-cut and ready to be stamped on: