The Sad Story of the Video that Never Was

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I come to you today with a sad tale. I have a video for the first half of this card, but not the second. Streamyard freaked out on me and went black halfway through my coloring of these gorgeous pumpkins for Stamptember. 😭😭😭

So maybe I'll color them again. We will see. 

But anyway - here they are with the tree embossing folder that I have the video for.

Isn't that a fun combo with black? So dramatic.

This stamp set has oodles of other beautiful pumpkin images, and I'm sure it will sell out fast, so grab it if you want it!

Happy to report a serious drop in temperature today - I guess it really is fall!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

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Spooky Magic + Giveaway

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I sat down to make some FUN spooky stuff over the long weekend - wait for a very fun video that's coming - and I realized I have Halloween color combos that I almost never vary from, so I knew RIGHT where to go for inspiration for today's card - and that was Kristina Werner's combos. I picked this out right away with reactive Key Lime Fizz, Licorice and Purple Galaxy. I picked reactive because I wanted it to interact with the heavy body gloss gel I used - and you can see that best on the purple, where it almost turned pink. 

I used this awesome stencil with the clear paste - I love these spooky words - and the contrast of the shiny letters and the matte ink is SO pretty. 

The woodcut, etched style of the stamps in this month's kit is so cute and old fashioned - and you know I love these critters. Really cute. 

So here's a closeup so you can see the shine.

It's heard to see it flat, but here you go. 

And we are pushed back one day for the kit because of the holiday - BUT WE HAVE A HALLOWEEN KIT. LOOOKKKK at the raccoon!!!!

The layering house stencil is super fun and spooky. 

Here are the add-ons, including the fun stencil I used.

Want to enter this month's giveaway? 

Start by leaving me a comment, and then do the same on today's cardmakers' posts!

You can start here where the full list is on the 

Hero Arts blog!

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VIDEO: Adding Texture & Lighting effects to dies + Giveaway

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It's video day! And today's video has a little bonus preview in it with this fun embossing folder. It didn't work with my crow, but it's cool as heck! 

And be sure and expand the video description box - there are two $50 gift cards on the line! Enjoy!

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Hanging with My Crowmies

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So you know I've been working on luring some crow friends this year - and I've been successful - they come every day - a mated pair - and I love them so much. 

So imagine my surprise when the Halloween lineup this year included this dark lovely!

One thing I've noticed about my crows is EVERYTHING is shiny - their feathers, their beaks, their feet - they are so shiny and pretty everywhere. So I have a video coming for you on Monday on how I made this bird shimmer and shine, because a photo doesn't do it justice at all.

You can see the feather texture a bit better here. But the sparkle you'll have to wait for the video for. I used this sentiment stamp, which cracks me up!

Are you ready for spooky season? I've been ready since November 1, 2023!!!

I've got my black cat, 2 crows, three owls - I'M READY!!!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

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WHOOO is Ready for Halloween?

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Me - it's me. I'm ready. I've been ready for a month! So today I'm bringing you some sweet spookiness with my favorite colored pencils on pastel paper. I love this combo because it makes the pencils just glow.

I started with this grey toned paper - it has a rougher surface that grabs the soft pencil well - it's sort of like cold press watercolor paper. 

I stamped the little cauldron first and then masked it to stamp the adorable witch. I added the two kitties stamped in black and just added tiny white marks on their eyes. 

I started with white pencil as I almost always do to color the cauldron and witch - that's what makes even black pencil glow on dark paper. I chose a magenta pencil that matched my cardstock - it's easier if you just start that way, rather than trying to match paper to an already colored image. 

What are you doing for spooky season? I wish my yard was big enough for one of those giant skeletons! I'd totally do that! My neighbors always go all out. 

Have a great rest of your week!

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Black Stencil Foregrounds + Giveaway

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Hey friends - I hope you had a good weekend! We actually got a little rain, which was a nice surprise - I'm hoping it knocks this Saharan dust out of the air - it's killing me. 

It seems fitting that my first card has an African vibe, but is completely dust-free!

I used this multi-scene stencil that is so gorgeous! It has a combo of little vignetted scenes and patterns that can be rotated for overlapping designs. 

But when I saw it, and the way that the silhouettes were the masking portion of the stencil, and the background was the stencil portion, I KNEW it had to be black and gold. I took this gold paint and a mini ink blender and carefully patted on a thin layer after taping off the scene I wanted. My tip here is less is more. If you get too much paint on the blending tool, it will get goopy and paint will go underneath the stencil. So keep the paint sparse and try to pounce straight up and down.

When I was done, I cut out the images and mounted them on gold foil cardstock and put them on a black card base. The sentiment is from this set. The cardstock is Pitch Black.

This month's Studio kit has such a fun, tropical vibe - look at that sticker paper! And the stencil in the kit has fun edges -  see how they are the positive and negative of the opposite side? I love it. And I LOVE the little beetle die - wait until you see the samples with that on the giveaway hop!

I took the dies from the kit and cut them out of cold press watercolor paper. I sprayed the pieces with water and then dropped in Teal, Pink, and Dandelion watercolor. I finished them with paint pen dots.

I used the Press 'n Seal trick after arranging them on my card to pick them all up. I added glue to the little fronds with my Precision Glue Press and then was able to transfer the whole scene to the card. I trimmed off anything that went past the edge, and used the sentiment from the kit.

Here are alllllll the extras, including the beautiful stencil I used above:

Of course there's a blog hop and a giveaway - so be sure and leave me a comment and visit the other stops to be entered to win a $50 gift card!

START THE THE BLOG HOP HERE

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

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Sneak Peek: Taste of the Tropics!!

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Is it just me or does it feel like three years have gone by since my last kit peek? Time is weird this summer! I've been measuring time in trials - as a few cases I've followed have recently come to trial in quick succession, and so I think that's part of the temporal issue. 

But at long last I have a Hero Studio kit peek! And I think you might *think you can guess what this month's release looks like from my peek, but when you see my cards Monday I think your mind will be blown. 

Today - I'm using the dies that come with the main kit, and as they are big, bold, tropicals, I had to watercolor them. For the foliage I only used Dandelion and Teal, and just mixed them until I saw what I liked. I used Pink and Dandelion for the hibiscus, again blending them. Then I added white acrylic paint pen dots and the sentiment! I thought about doing an ink blended sky behind the plants, but there's SO much color, it popped best on white.

Want to see some more peeks? Head over to this post to see them all, and I'll see you Monday! 

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VIDEO: Part 1 of 2 - Beachy Backgrounds for Birds!

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If you've been to the beach, you've been charmed by how delicate and cute the little sandpipers running by the surf are, I'm sure. 

I have a fun video that's a bit of a tease for you today - the first part is how I put together the cute little sandpiper die, and the second will be the completely unexpected way I created the print for the surf, so stay tuned for that - it was way too long to put it all into one video. . In front of the surf is a patterned paper that looks like sand - its is such an easy and fun card - send one to your beach loving friends!!

Here's the video:

Loveyameanitbye.

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VIDEO: The Rocks I Can't Get out of my Head

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When I lived in Maine for a summer after graduating from college, I saw a ton of phenomenal art. There was a Wyeth museum that I absolutely loved, in this tiny, drafty, creaky building that people whispered in. 

And I love Wyeth. But there was a working artist there at the time that absolutely amazed me. He created these hyper realistic paintings of the beautiful stones that grace Maine's frigid beaches. You can see a collection of them here. 

I tried with no success to recreate them in watercolor, mostly because honestly - the simple shapes are one of the hardest parts to make appear natural. 

And then I saw this stencil. 

It was like DESTINY! 30 years later comes the tool I need. 

Because the process of creating this is so devastatingly simple, I'm not going to tell you how I did it - it will unfold in the video. But trust me - you'll be shocked at the simplicity. The greeting is this one - I wanted to keep it simple without the background getting too covered up. 

Here's the video:

Loveyameanitbye.

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VIDEO Scene Stamping with Stencils + Big Sale

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I don't want to jinx anything, but it's been a crazy mild summer here - it's weird. We've had relatively low temps, lots of rain - just bizarre. Fun to garden in, but bizarre. 

Before I get to today's video - I wanted to tell you about a few kitchen finds. As you know - I don't have anything in my kitchen anymore that's made in China - which is a real challenge, but can be done. One of the biggest challenges is cast iron - as Lodge and many others are now made in China. But a few years ago my mom found this amazing company that makes these SMOOTH cast iron pans in the US that also are about half the weight of a regular cast iron and bought us all one - I love it. It's perfect for frying eggs - I have the teeniest one that's great for two fried eggs. If you struggle with how heavy your vintage cast iron is, you will love these and love not having to season them. Anyway, I got an email from them and they are having a 30% off sale, so I thought I'd share. The sale is on factory seconds and is only good while supplies last - some are already sold out. You don't need a coupon or anything.

Today's video is about a fun new way to use layering stencils like this one. I made this fun, Japanese style scene a year or so ago and just never shared the video until now.

Here's the video - enjoy!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

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Watercolor Leaves & A Crafty Trend Question

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I had a crafty session last weekend that was very relaxing - it's been far too long since I just did simple watercolor, and it was nice. A few podcast episodes (I recommend Ransom!) and I had these beautiful leaves finished. 

I have the Rosemary & Co teeny tiny brushes, but I'm not happy with the way they (don't) hold water, so if anyone has a suggestion for a better detailed brush, I'm all ears!

I actually stamped the full image of this gorgeous stamp, painted it all and then cut it in half so I can have a second card later. It's sized so perfectly even half of the full image.

I just kept it simple. 

I also played around with a few embossing folders - I love this big peacock one! I just ink blended a panel, embossed it, and then brayered on gold paint. The sentiment is this die.

Since I had the brayer out, I added white paint to a black panel embossed with this gorgeous fall/winter folder. The sentiments are from this set, and I just punched out some pink glitter paper accents.

Do you still use punches? I don't see many punch focused projects these days and was wondering if it was just me.

Hope you have a great 4th! 

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

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Away to the Ocean + $50 Giveaway

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I am DYING over the new map transfer sheets today with the kit release! Y'all have no idea how badly I wanted to hoard them, but that's how much I love y'all - I'm not only using one - I'm using my favorite section with the little Nessie on it!! I paired it up with this gorgeous little mermaid - singing her song to smash some boats against the rocks - muahahahah!

The kit itself has a stunning Heroscape style beach in it which you saw in my sneak! LOOK AT THE TENTACLES. omg. The kit stamps have a sort of classic, retro feel. I cannot WAIT to watercolor those rocks.

For my peek card, I did on stamp ink blending for the water and clouds in the MISTI. I hand ink blended the beach around the water - I didn't even mask off the water. I also ink blended the sky. For the sand I used my flat stencil brush with a darker ink and just pounced it. My fave part of this scene is the footprints stamps - they are so perfect and easy to use!

I also had fun with the little layering fishy stencil - the little jellies and octopi crack me up. I deliberately omitted the center bottom portion of the stencil to leave room for my sentiment, which is from this set. I stamped the little starfish and added a few sequins. 

Here are what all the extras look like this month!

Whoe Studio Kit [ HA ] Mermaids [ HA ] Layering Fish Stencil [ HA ] Tropical Fish [ HA ] Da Vinci Artist Bristle Brush -... [ BLIC ] Hero Blog Hop & Giveaway! [ HA ]

Want a chance to win a $50 gift card - leave me & the others a comment!

Hero Arts

Hero Arts Creative Team:

Channin Pelletier

Charlene Madrid

Heather Ruwe

Ilina Crouse

Jeannie Lieu

Jennifer Kotas

Kailash Naidoo

Karen Brown

💙💙💙 Lydia Fiedler 💙💙💙

Michelle Short

Natasha Polite

Natasha Vacca

Rachel Kleinman

Rosie Lopez

Seeka

Special Guests:

Jenn Shurkus

Nichol Spohr

Emily Midgett

Kelly Taylor

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

Bandana Patterned Backgrounds

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This weekend, I realized it's estivation season for my squirrels - it's HOT. I was wondering why I hadn't seen Monkey in a bit and then I just happened to go outside right at dawn and there she was! 

And y'all - the weeding tool is MAGICCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC. I am so mad I've been using my scissor style snips on the oak shoots - this thing lays waste to all weeds. Apparently Japan is hoarding all the good gardening tools. I'm going to open an international investigation into what else they've been hiding from me!

What I'm not hiding from YOU today is a new bandana stencil that is freaking adorable. I save my cute squirrels for my most special backgrounds, so you're getting Tailette and her bold birthday greeting today. I used Cornflower and Indigo ink here. Do you see how I modified her? I close cut her out and trimmed off the little log, and glued her little paws on the sentiment. I just gave her two pink cheeks. 

I also tried it in Christmas colors, lime green and red which I think is adorable. 

The sentiment is from the same set and dies.

I had to try it in pink and black too and it's so fun - this is always a fun combo for a two layer stencil. This time I used the acorn Tailette and again just gave her two pink cheeks. Same sentiment set.

There's an inspiration hop for this today! The links aren't working for me today so you can see the full list here: 

The Rabbit Hole Designs

Bandana Stencil [ THR ] Tailette Logs [ THR ] Tailette log dies [ THR ] Tailette Acorn [ THR ] Tailette acorn dies [ THR ] Sentiment stamps [ THR ] Sentiment Dies [ THR ] Indigo [ HA ] Cornflower [ HA ] Key Lime [ GNK ] Red Hot [ GNK ] Hot Pink [ GNK ]

I'll be back at noon with another post today, just FYI!

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE