Fintastic Card with a2z Scrapbooking

Aloha and happy Saturday friends!  I played with the latest Hero Arts Manatee Stamp and Cut and had so much fun!!  Stop on by a2z Scrapbooking to see how I used this "dress up" set.

Here's a little sneaky peek...

See ya over at a2zscrapbooking!

Birthday Butterflies for A2Z Scrapbooking

Aloha and happy Sunday friends!  I'm over at the a2z Scrapbooking blog sharing some birthday butterflies using this fun stamp set...

I hope you'll stop on by to check it out!  Don't forget there's still time to enter our monthly challenge for a chance to win $25 to the store!!

A Fishy Birthday with Hero Arts

Happy Wednesday everyone!  It's my turn over at a2z Scrapbooking to share a fun and interactive card using this versatile stamp set...

 and detailed matching die...

I would love it if you stopped on by and shared some love!  There's still some time to join our monthly challenge for your chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the store!

Ice Cream Bowl with Hero Arts

Have you seen the latest Hero Arts Winter Catalog?  It got me excited for cooler weather and reminded me of one of my favorite sets from last Christmas Merry Cactus to You.  Then I got the idea to use one of the pots and turn it into an ice cream bowl.  The pot turned bowl was perfect for 3 scoops!

To get that "creamy" effect I used Hero Arts Unicorn ink on colored cardstock, then stamped the detail with a matching ink color. My son recently discovered Neopolitan ice cream on his birthday which was the inspiration for the flavor choice on today's card!

Each scoop was cut with the matching die and then adhered to my card panel that used a circle stitched die for a fun background.  To complete the mound of ice cream I topped it with a cherry and some glossy accents for dimension.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  

Mondays call for DONUTS!

(source)

Hello!  For my card I've been dying to use that sweet donut from Hero Arts Kelly's Portland clear set.  I wanted to make a huge box of donuts the simplest way possible.  Grabbed some fabulous Hero Arts Shadow inks in Soft Sand, Bubble Gum and Pool and inked away!

For a fun "donut box" look I framed the edge using a Doodlebug Design polka dot vellum.  Did you know the Tombo permanent adhesive runner works great and you can't see the adhesive?!  To finish the card I cut out a banner and white heat embossed the sentiment from Hero Arts Cheers Messages by Lia.

I wish you all a very happy Monday and MAHALO for stopping by!!

Use those Dies for A2Z Scrapbooking!

Happy Saturday friends!  I'm over at the a2z Scrapbooking blog  sharing a fun way to use those coordinating dies without the stamps.  There's also a little tip on keeping your die cuts exactly where you want them when trying to glue them down!

Here's a little sneaky peek of what I'm talkin' about!  I would love it if you hopped on over to take a look!!

For all my supplies you can find it at the a2z Scrapbooking store and use code NICKI15 for an extra 15% off your purchase of $25 or more.  The best part is a portion of the proceeds goes to support the Behcets and Celiac Disease communities.

MAHALO for stopping by!!

Pinata Fun!

(SOURCE)

Aloha friends!  Today I'm playing with this fun wood mounted stamp from Hero Arts called Pinata.  Are you a fan of wood mounted stamps?  I think I will always have a special place in my heart for them.  This one especially because it is just too fun!

I thought of watercoloring it, or copic coloring the image, but then I thought using my embossing powders would be fun.  I first inked up the image with Versamark ink and then stamped on black cardstock.  I used a variety of Zing! embossing powders in rouge, apricot, butter, leaf and wave. Each color I spooned on with a palette knife to get just a small amount of powder in small sections of the image.

I really liked how striking it looked against the black.  I wanted to enhance the colors so I took some matching cardstock and die cut the edges using Lawn Fawn Stitched Scalloped Border.  I thought it was a little plain once I glued the layers, so I decided to stamp an older background stamp from Hero Arts called Life of Party Words inked in Wet Cement.  Added a bit of twine and some enamel dots and adhered slightly skewed to my card front.

That's it for me today!  Have a fabulous Monday and MAHALO for stopping by!!

Wild for Bargains with a2z Scrapbooking

Love a good a bargain?

I do!

Head on over to

a2z Scrapbooking Blog

to see me use this awesome stamp from Hero Arts

that's on sale for only $4.50!

There's over 130 items on sale, so now's the time to add to your collection

or pick up that last minute gift...wink, wink!

The best part is that a portion of the proceeds goes to helping organizations create awareness for 

the auto immune communities such as Behcets and Celiac disease.

Use code NICKI15 for an extra 15% off!

Mahalo for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

Happy shopping!!

TGIF with A Birthday Cactus

TGIF Friends!

With Lawn Fawn's newest release out, I decided to start looking

at some of the stamps I hadn't played with since the last release.

I'm a HUGE Lawn Fawn fan (if you already didn't know) so to have untouched

Lawn Fawn stamps is sacrilege...LOL!

On to today's card...

I love all the little images from Party Animal and paired them up with
Stuck on You.  The cactus and pot are solid stamps and Lawn Fawn inks are
PERFECT for solid stamps.  I layered the cactus with Celery Stick and Fresh Cut Grass
using the rock n roll technique for a bit of shading.  You can see it better with the
pot using Peacock with Deep Sea on the edges...so pretty!
The little images were colored with copics, die cut and adhered with foam tape on
the die cut stitched oval also from Lawn Fawn.
All the pattern paper is from Lawn Fawn's Sweater Weather collection.
Lastly the sentiment was heat embossed using Hero Arts White Embossing Powder.

Here's a closeup...

Cute right?!
I wanted to join the fun over at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes!

Mahalo for stopping by!!

Bear Hugs On Your Birthday!

I saw the fun challenge going on over at 

Lawnscaping Challenge

and hopped to it to create this sparkly card...

I took that sweet bear and party hat from Lawn Fawn's Party Animal stamped on

watercolor paper and used my Gansai Tambi Watercolors to color him in.

I used my craft knife to cut the arms to be able to hold the die cut

Scripty Hugs.  The rest of the sentiment was inked up with
Lawn Fawn Fish Tank ink, using Riley's ABCs.

The yellow panel was die cut using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles die.

Can you guess how I did the glittery polka dot background?

I used the circle dies from Owen's ABCs die and die cut DCWV Glitzy Glitter Matstack paper,

then randomly glued and snipped off the edges.

That's it for me!

I hope you'll stop by again for my A Blog Named Hero post later today.

I guarantee more color, glitter and sequins!

MAHALO for stopping by!!

Playing with a NEW tool!

I got this new tool for Mother's Day and could not wait to play!

I've seen a lot of crafters use this tool to create pockets for photos and memorabilia,

but I've also seen it used to make shaker cards!

I LOVE shaker cards, but not fond of the bulk and expense in using a lot of foam tape.

The sewing machine and I don't get along, so stitchwork doesn't work for me.

This tool though...

LOVE!

I took left over plastic packaging

(from the hundreds of stamp packages that seem to accumulate, haha)

I used the We R Memory Keepers nested heart die as a template to run the tool

along the inside of the die to seal the shape.

(don't forget to leave an opening to place sequins and goodies before completely sealing)
In the shaker I used Lawn Fawn's Happy Birthday Border die
and snipped the words apart.  I added some Doodlebug Designs
sequins in Bubblegum and die cut some stars from
Lawn Fawn's Stitched Journaling Card.

I took the larger heart and die cut the shape.

*TIP: I took tweezers and ran it along the edging between the plastic layers
making sure everything was sealed.
I did have a couple of spots that did not seal well, so I just ran the tool again over those spots.

I actually wanted to just pop this on a card, but the hubby said it looked unfinished.

I wanted to enter this in the next
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
so I went with this week's theme colors.

I created a heart window with the smaller heart die
after stamping the background
(with Simons Says Stamp Falling Snow)
 in Hero Arts Shadow Inks in Bubble Gum.
Those sweet images along the bottom is
Simon Says Stamp Baby Party Animals that were copic colored
and fussy cut.  I added some dots to create grounding for the images.

Ok that's it for me!
Hope you're having a great weekend.

Mahalo for stopping by!!

Dude Birthday

Did everyone survive their Monday?  After a 3 day weekend off I was getting spoiled with all my crafting time.  I made a few cards and practiced a little more with my copics.  I looooove watching Kristina Werner color.  I've been trying to study how to shade and blend and learn a little something everytime I watch her videos.

Anywho her last video was a masculine card which inspired me to make this Dude card...

Hero Arts OWH Dude, Lawn Fawn Year Three, Copics, 

Doodlebug Design Take Note Pattern Paper, 

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

I did a little masking to create a hamburger cake of sorts to make a one layer card.  I added a few candles on top to complete the cake look.  Yup...it took everything in my power not to add something dimensional, but I used the gray copic to create shadowing and a little more depth.  I'm gonna enter this into the Hero Arts: One Layer Challenge and A Blog Named Hero: Color It In.

Off to practice more coloring.  I really wish there was a copic coloring class here in Hawaii.  Until then I'll continue to watch more videos, and if anyone has suggestions on coloring videos send them my way please!

Mahalo for stopping by!!!