Crafty Friends - Hero Arts Edition + Discount Code

It's Crafty Friends day!

Some crafty friends and I get together once a month to show you products from companies we love, and give you a discount code to that company. We are not getting products for doing this and are not sponsored in any way. These companies are just being generous to you for hanging out with us for a while.

This is not about new releases, so it lets me go back to beloved stamps and dies and stencils and show them some more love.

Back in the olden days of my stamping, I used to really enjoy finding a new way to enjoy an old stamp, and I still do. I still hang onto my forever favorites and love them as much as the day I bought them. I remember when a friend used to sell her stamps as soon as she'd used them once. GASP! But howwwww? When I practically NAME some of my favorite critter stamps, I can't imagine doing that. I don't get attached to many objects, but I'm very attached to some of my images. To me it's like having hundreds of little pieces of art.

I was talking about my creative process with my friends May and Lisa when they came over for lunch the other day. (This is the soup I made and we all loved it.) All three of us have the same process. We have to take new products and live with them on our desks for a few days before we can create. I have to stare at new stamps a bit every day, and it's like the design ideas flow out from them into my brain. I can't put them away until I've used them and those staring sessions are critical to my creativity. Then they are in my head when I'm away from my desk and I can generate ideas with them.

I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, the company we are loving on today is Hero Arts.

I went back to some of the products from their winter catalog release and spent some quality time!

First up, I took this stained glass stencil and flipped it sideways to make an ink blended background for their gorgeous, scripty hello die, which I cut from this clear glitter paper. The inks are Lemon Drop, Taffy and Creamsicle and I used my Life Changing Blender Brushes.

Any opportunity I get to stamp with a squirrel, you can bet your bippy I'm going to take it!

I squealed when I saw this little guy in the catalog preview. He brings to mind the squirrel in Christmas Vacation, which makes me so happy, but he's also a little like Clark - all dressed up for the holidays and making everything festive for his family. The little Charlie Brown Christmas tree is the icing on the cake! I used these glittery silver dots to embellish the card. The background is made by cutting a mask with my circle infinity dies and sticking that down on the card front. Then I positioned a die cut I cut with this snowflake cover die over that, and used my Life Changing Blender Brushes to apply Tide Pool Ink. So cute. He and the tree are colored with Copics.

Now speaking of that color scheme - y'all know I love it - and you know I love Scandinavian design, so their sweet color layering tree called out to my red and aqua! I masked the tree with masking paper and the matching die, put down this masking tape across the bottom, and then put down this stencil and added Gina K's glitter gel with a credit card. This photo does not do the sparkle justice. The conspiracy that exists to extract sparkle from our photos, I swear.

Finally, as a person who is deeply into techniques that create amazing backgrounds that I then use for quick cards, I am in love with cover plates.

This one is especially fun since it contains a sentiment. So if you want quick Christmas cards, fire up your Gel Press, crank out 10-20 colorful prints, and then top them with this lovely Christmas die and pure white or black card stock. Gorgeous, but also easy. Fun fact - if you click through to this die, you'll see this card on their site :).

Want 20% off your own Hero Arts goodies? You're in the right place! Click the graphic below and use Craftyfriends20 at checkout to get a heck of a deal! :) That's how we say thank you for stopping by.

Stained Glass Window Stencil [ HA ] Hello Message Fancy Die [ HA ] DC267 Christmas Squirrels Stamp & Cut... [ HA ] DI662 Snowflake Pattern Cover Plate... [ HA ] CM374 Color Layering Nordic Tree -... [ HA ] SA116 Scrollwork Stencil 6x6 - Hero Arts [ HA ] DI657 Merry Christmas Cover Plate (F)... [ HA ] AF420 Taffy Reactive Ink - Hero Arts [ HA ] Circle Infinity Dies (H) [ HA ] Enamel Dots - Stardust –... [ WFF ] Glitz Glitter Gel- White - Gina K... [ GNK ] AF422 Creamsicle Reactive Ink - Hero... [ HA ] AF423 Lemon Drop Reactive Ink - Hero... [ HA ] AF223 Tide Pool Shadow Ink - Hero Arts [ HA ] Life Changing Blender Brushes. 4 Pack... [ PFS ] Neutrals Glitter Paper Pack - Concord... [ C&9 ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Sakura CLASSIC WHITE Fine Line 05... [ SSS ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets... [ CHC ] CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear... [ CHC ] XL Stamp Storage Pockets [ ELH ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] All - Hero Arts [ HA ]

Here are my other crafty friends hopping today!

Jenny Hall

Tanya Boser

Ilina Crouse

Maria Willis

Becky Roberts

Sandi MacIver

Sue Plote

Sara Sherlock

You are here > Lydia Fiedler < You are here

Jill Hilliard

Jen Timko

Amy Kolling

Loveyameanitbye.