Tis the Season with Hero Arts Blog Hop

Aloha and welcome to my blog!

I'm Niki G. with A Blog Named Hero and can't wait to share
my love of Hero Arts and their latest Holiday collection with you!

Going in blog hop order you came by way of the awesomely sweet,
Lisa Stein!

I've got some cards today filled with sparkle!
I'm a huge fan of multi-colored lights to trim the tree,
 but my husband prefers white lights.
Do you have a preference? I would love to know!

In today's first card I got to trim my own tree using
Hero Arts Sparkle Borders and Hero Arts Shadow inks.
Take a look...

I simply made my own triangular mask out of typing paper and used a sponge dauber
to define the Christmas tree edge, then stamp out my string of lights (leaving the mask in place.)
  I used a sponge dauber and some Hero Arts Shadow inks to color in the bulbs
 and stickles in coordinating color for more bling!
The "pot" is from Hero Arts Merry Cactus to You
 inked in Hero Arts Sand to Chocolate Brown ombre ink.
I lined the edge of my card base with some red glitter tape,
stamped the sentiment on the card front panel and adhered with foam tape.

Here's a closeup...

and just for fun I made a "white light" tree for the hubby
with Hero Arts Silver Shadow ink.

I have one last card to share for the upcoming New Year!
Can you believe we're that close to 2016?!

For my background I used the Hero Arts Sparkle Borders
heat embossed in Hero Arts Silver Embossing powder.
The sentiment (shine brightly) is from the same set
 (to get the "in" I just masked "sh" and "e")
The numbers is from Kelly's Outline Letters.
I'm thinkin' I'll be making a few of these in different colors!

Ok that's it for me!  MAHALO for stopping by!

Next up is the super fabulous
Amy Tsuruta
have fun hopping!!

 If you happen to find a link that doesn't work, you can hop back to the Hero Arts Blog for a list of direct links to all the blogs in today's hop or check below...

Hero Arts
 Linda Trace
 Libby Hickson
Lisa Stein
that's me-----> Niki Garcia 
Amy Tsuruta
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Mateja Povse 
Suzanne Dahlberg
Michelle Lupton 
Bhavana Kesarkar 
Mariana Grigsby
Chitra Menon
Gayatri Murali
Isabel Rivera Ruiz 
Clare Prezzia

and you've finally made it til the end!

GIVEAWAY 

We stashed away THREE of the November 2015 My Monthly Hero kits to giveaway to readers of this hop. The winners will be randomly chosen from all of the blog hop comments, across all blogs, received by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, November 22nd. Check the Hero Arts blog for the announcement of the winner on Tuesday, November 24th.

InLinkz.com

Two A-MAIZE-ING Companies

Aloha friends!

I'm over at A Blog Named Hero  today and would love

to have you hop on over!!

This month we are collaborating with thee awesome and amazing

I'm using this fun set

and have a really quick and cool way to make a wood pattern

on a die cut using the Hero Arts Sand to Chocolate Brown ombre ink pad!

Don't forget there's still time to enter my GIVEAWAY.

For details see HERE.

Mahalo for stopping by!

Sending Love and Season's Giving Blog Hop WINNER!!

I'm completely blown away by everyone's comments

and can't thank you all enough for taking the time to stop by

for this year's

Season's Giving Blog Hop.

Each comment meant so much to me and I hope you all continue

to drop on by!

The random winner is...

Juliana TJanuary 4, 2015 at 1:58 PM

Happy New Year! I love shaker cards and this one's a honey!

Juliana T. was e-mailed!

I love to have random giveaways especially to my favorite store

Butterfly Reflections Ink

so stop by often since you never know when a gift certificate will be up for grabs!!

On to today's card...

Lawn Fawn You've Got Mail, Lawn Fawn for Studio Calico Future is Bright,

Simon Says Stamp inks

I decided to go CAS with a bokeh look to enter the next

The Card Concept Challenge

I was playing off that hint of blue with the shades of pink and green.

Tip: To create the bokeh effect use a mix of light and dark 

shades of ink (even second generation stamping could work)
 to create that blurred/out of focus effect!

That's it for me today, but I'll definitely be back with more!

My goal this year is to make some project videos which I'm currently

doing some research on. 

If y'all have suggestions on what you'd like to see leave a comment below!

I'm not the most tech savvy, so the hubby is getting me trained...haha

Mahalo for stopping by!

Toodles!!

Sharing the Holiday Spirit!

I hope everyone had a blessed and wonderful

CHRISTMAS!

Again thank you to everyone that takes the time to stop by

and leave comments on my blog,

it truly means so much!

The winners of my Holiday GIVEAWAY is....

Julie Tucker-Wolek

and 

Amy Tsuruta!

 (an e-mail should have been sent regarding the

Butterfly Reflections Ink gift certificates)

You guys totally rock for always leaving such sweet comments!!

My card for today to continue celebrating the holiday season...

Paper Smooches Free Spirits and dies, Lawn Fawn Sally's ABCs

I'm not really into alcoholic beverages

(they put me to sleep!),

but I do enjoy a cold glass of 

Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider...LOL!

This set was fun to play with and

I tried to create some background shadows with the solid stamps 

and then die cut and colored the foreground ones.

I'll be entering this into the

 Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge!

I'll be back again on New Year's Eve with the

Season's Giving Blog Hop!

I hope you'll join me and leave comments for more prizes.

I LOVE a good GIVEAWAY!!

Mahalo for stopping by!!!

 

 

#11 Christmas Lights and GIVEAWAY!

My favorite thing to do around 

Christmas is to drive around the neighborhood

with the family to look at Christmas lights and decorations.

There's something magical about it!

My parents did that with my brother and I when we were younger,

and now I'm passing on the tradition to my kiddos.

An ode to Christmas lights...

Stamps of Life Lights4Christmas, Lawn Fawn Let It Snow, Simon Says Stamp inks,

Wink of Stella, embossing folder, Lil Inkers rectangle stitched die

Fun right?!

I made a bunch of these since they were quick and easy.

The stamp set had a solid bulb to quickly fill in color!

Quick tip:

Embossing card fronts make for a quick yet fun backdrop

and doing a smaller card panel provides a smaller canvas to work with.

(read: fast and easy!)

We're almost to my big 

GIVEAWAY!

Keep your comments coming for your chance to be

a winner!!

If you haven't checkout out my other 10 holiday inspiration

projects be sure to check them out.

(please be sure to leave your email address so I can get a hold of you!)

Each winner will receive a $15 gift certificate to

Butterfly Reflections Ink 

MAHALO for stopping by!!!

#10 Gift Card Holders

Oh Monday,

why do you come so quickly!?

We are 3 days away from my 

GIVEAWAY!

Click HERE for details

Do you know what's the best last minute gift?

GIFT CARDS!

What's the best way to give a gift card?

In a handmade gift card holder of course!

I actually give these away as gifts too.

I loved the simplicity and functionality of this

Silhouette GC holder cut

I used heavy card stock for it to really hold its shape

and a strong adhesive...

Please excuse the poor photos, but I quickly took them

before giving them away!

I love that you can put anything on the front and even emboss the flap

for a fun, but subtle background.

(Left: Uses Dandelion Designs and Lawn Fawn Hats Off to You

Middle: Uses Sizzlit Poinsettia die with washi tape and sequins

Right: Uses Lawn Fawn Love You a Latte)

And purple ones for my coworker...

using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Snowflakes die and a rhinestone embellishment.

The polar bear is from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Snow

I'm going to quickly add these to 

the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Winter!

Much MAHALO for following me daily for a dose of 

Holiday inspiration!!

#9 Mixing those sentiment stamps!

Happy Sunday!

Today I'm mixing up sentiments.

I use to be nervous about cutting my clear stamps apart,

but once I realized it was so much easier than masking 

(or cleaning the parts I didn't need)

I've done quite a bit of dissecting!

Today's card uses Lawn Fawn's 

Joy to the Woods with Milk and Cookies.

The fonts are similar with perfect variation in sizing.

Check it out...

Lawn Fawn Milk and Cookies, Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods, Lil Inkers Stitched Rectangles,

Tombow Markers, Sierra Crafts Pacific Merry Little Christmas pattern paper

 

Tombow markers have been so fun to color with!

Tip: Color images with similar colors from your pattern paper

to bring everything together!

I kinda feel like I did a CAS look from the latest

Retro Sketches Challenge

Mahalo for stopping by!

Don't forget about the GIVEAWAY!

Day #7 and 8 More Holiday Card Inspiration

5 Days til Christmas and...

my Christmas GIVEAWAY!

Mahalo for your comments and joining me daily, 

winners will be announced the day after Christmas

for gift certificates (yes that's plural)

 to 

Butterfly Refections Ink!!

My apologies about missing yesterday, 

so today I'm catching up!

I wanted to enter the latest 

Curtain Call: Candy Cane

 

Lawn Fawn Peace, Joy Love paper, Lawn Fawn Critters in the Arctic, Tombow Markers

 I was trying to go for a non-stamped card 

to use up some left over pattern paper, but couldn't help 

adding that sweet little bunny...in candy cane colors of course!

The inside has a place to add a gift card holder.

For my second card (day #8)

I decided to continue using that fun 

Lawn Fawn Critters in the Artic set

to create a cute little scene...

I embossed my card base, added some stitched hillside borders die cuts,

lightly distressed the edge to bring out the stitching with

broken china and colored images with Tombow markers.

The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's Let it Snow.

Some Avery Elle sequins were added for fun!

As you can tell I can't get enough of my Lawn Fawn stamp sets!!!

I'll be back tomorrow for more inspiration.

Mahalo for stopping by!

#6 Purple Holiday

Today marks one week til

CHRISTMAS!!!

...and my half way mark til the

Butterfly Reflections Ink gift certificate

GIVEAWAY!

(read: please keep your comments coming)

I have a coworker who loves purple, so a purple

Christmas card is what we have today...

 Lawn Fawn Winter Penguin, Embossing folder, silver embossing powder,

 Wink of Stella, Tombow markers, Sierra Pacific Crafts pattern paper Merry Little Christmas

And there ya have it.  I'm not a big fan of purple,

but I think my coworker will enjoy it.

Tip:  By just partial embossing a shape 

it leaves room to easily stamp out a sentiment!

I'm gonna try my luck over at 

The Timeout Challenge

to create something Christmas-y.

Mahalo for stopping by!!! 

Day #5 Using non-Christmas stamps

In keeping with my island-ish theme

I decided I wanted to make some

Aloha/Hawaiian print ornaments.

Super quick and easy with circle die cuts and some 

 Lawn Fawn floral stamps...

Lawn Fawn Petite Florals, Lawn Fawn Circle stackables die, 

Lawn Fawn Winter Gifts, Lawn Trimmings, Lawn Fawn pattern paper, 

gold embossing, white embossing

With a little bit of heat embossing, the tone on tone pattern papers

made the perfect backdrop for some fun stamping.

Quick post today, but don't forget to keep your comments coming

and to check out the other holiday cards 

HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

I'll be doing another giveaway (announcement on Christmas) 

with a gift certificate to 

Butterfly Reflections Ink  

my favorite online store!

  

 And the challenge junky in me is linking up to 

Christmas Card Challenge  

Creative Card Crew 

and

Lawnscaping Challenge  

 

Mahalo for stopping by!!!

Day #5 Naughty or Nice?

I've been playing around a lot lately with my Christmas

themed stamp collection, but wanted to continue

with the non-traditional idea.

I finally got into getting a set of Tombow markers
and really like the results!
Ta da...

Lawn Fawn Good Fortune, Lawn Fawn Tag You're It die, 
Recollections pattern paper, Lawn Trimmings

   Do those fortune cookies look yummy or what?!
I thought the handwritten sentiment on the fortunes

was a nice touch with the stitched tag.
(read: I didn't have a naughty or nice stamp)
And just like yesterday's post I decided to do a second card
because I liked the theme a lot!

I'm hoping the guys at the office will get a kick out of this one.

I'll be entering this into the next
Lawnscaping Challenge: Merry Christmas

That's it for today!
Keep your comments coming for a chance to win a prize by Christmas.
The more comments on each of the posts,
 the more chances to get your name in the random drawing!!

Day #4 Happy HONUdays

I've got a punny card for you today...

hopefully it'll give you a good chuckle to start your week off right.

 Don't forget I'm having a big giveaway by Christmas so be sure to comment 

on each of my Holiday Inspiration card posts found

HERE, HERE and HERE

The Hawaiian name for a sea turtle is Honu (ho-noo).

I recently purchased some sweet dies in the shape of a honu 

and couldn't believe Spellbinders had such a thing!

Again going for the less traditional Christmas card,

I turned the die cuts into a wreath and added some sequins for fun.

Spellbinders Turtles One, Avery Elle Berry Blend Sequins, Memory Box Tiny Bow die,

Lawn Fawn Cole's ABCs die, Lawn Fawn Winter Gifts, gold embossing powder

I'll be entering this in Simon Says Stamp 

Wednesday Challenge: Bling It On

 

Because I was so in love with the punny sentiment I decided to make

a second card...

 

This time using a Memory Box die Turtle Borders with pattern paper from

Sierra Pacific Crafts A Merry Christmas and white embossing powder.

I was thinking these were more gender neutral cards for the holidays.

Mahalo for stopping by 

and I hope you'll be back for tomorrow's card!

HINT: you'll be in for a real (zero calorie) treat.

Day #3 Warm Winter Wishes and a WINNER!

Woo hoo!

It's day #3 for more holiday inspired cards.

If you make it through and comment on

my 12 days of holiday inspired cards there just might be a giveaway on Christmas!

More details to come, but I promise it'll be worth it!!

 

For Day #1 click HERE

You can find day #2 HERE

I wanted to do more local/island-y themed cards,

what do ya think?

Lawn Fawn Float My Boat, Lawn Fawn Critters from the Past (palm tree), Lawn Fawn Winter Gifts (solid presents),

Lawn Fawn Stitched Scallop Border (ocean waves), Lawn Fawn Blue Skies (star), Lawn Fawn Into the Woods pattern paper,

Lawn Fawn Milo's ABCs, Distress Glitter in Pumice Stone

I was trying to get out of the traditional Christmas colors

and create a more warm feeling for the holidays.

Kinda tropical right?

Bright and cheerful...just the way I like it...lol

I found another challenge to enter

(because I'm a challenge junky)

at Crafty Cardmakers and More

That's it for me today!

Don't forget to comment along the way for more chances to win!

Hope to see you tomorrow for more 

holiday card inspiration.

Mahalo for stopping by!!

P.S.-The random winner of the Holiday Coffee Lover's Blog Hop is 

Shelly!

Congrats Shelly!  An e-mail was sent with how to redeem your gift certificate.

Day #2 of Holiday Card Inspiration

I'm back for more holiday inspired cards!

I've been thrilled to see the turnout with the 

Holiday Coffee Lover's Blog Hop 

and can't thank you enough for leaving such sweet comments. 

 If you haven't had a chance

 stop by HERE

and by December 20th I'm randomly giving 

away a $20 gift certificate to one lucky commenter.

On to today's card...

Lawn Fawn Happy Trails, Lawn Fawn Sally's ABCs, Lawn Fawn FaLaLa paper,

Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling die

 I thought I'd pay tribute to all those traveling 

and blessed enough to spend the holidays with loved ones.

Everything is paper pieced and those presents are actually from 

birthday tags and winter gifts.

The challenge theme over 
at Simon Says Stamps is Transportation 
so I'll be linking this up there!

If you're traveling this season,

I wish you all safe travels!

I'll be back with more holiday inspired cards tomorrow.

Mahalo for stopping by!!