Happy Birthday To Us! + Giveaway

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It's here!!! Hero kit day and I could not be more excited about it! I love a good birthday theme / all year kit and this one is so cute. 

I had a TON of fun with the add-ons too - especially this bubble background stamp which you'll see in a video soon - but look closely at the little builder greetings in this set - I have some fun ideas for that. 

Check out the kit though... That balloon stamp is so fun to color!! 

Now you can see where I got the shaker mix & cake for this card:

The addons are beautiful:

Here's the bubble stamp! I'll be using the dies above with this - FUN combo.

Want to see more inspiration & be entered to win the giveaway? Head over HERE for a list of everyone in the hop!

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Complementary Colors - A Different Way

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I have talked about complementary colors a lot over the years - mostly because I think it's the one thing you can use to really make your coloring in any medium really pop. 

But you don't have to do direct complementaries - you can sort of come at them from an angle and it's still very effective. I made a card today to show you want I mean and how it works. 

I'm using a little mermaid image for this with two distinct parts - the mermaid and the shell. To keep it simple, I used four colors (except for the skin tones). The four colors are Cerise, Prawn, Nile Blue and Veronese Green. You can see that the green is used to shade the blue. So instead of choosing orange as a complementary to the blue, I chose a warm red. So the complementary relationship isn't a direct complementary - it's more subtle. The green that I used for shading is also almost a direct complementary to this same red though, so using it to shade the non-direct complementary increases the contrast overall. Same with the hot pink - that is nearly a direct complementary to the green as well - but when you look at this image overall, the overwhelming feeling you get is that it's a blue image, right? That's because the shading color is adjacent to blue on the color wheel.

So all that to say you don't have to always go straight across the color wheel to get a pop of contrast - you can wiggle around a bit! I used the matching dies to cut her out and put her on my fave 300 gsm kraft cardstock. 

I'm part of a blog hop today with this sweet little mermaid. To see more inspiration - check out the list below!

Start here

Lauren

Rick

Tracy

Jenn

Jessica

Deana

I'll be back today at noon - don't forget! Loveyameanitbye.

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Strawberry Cake Nostalgia - Hero Arts Sneak Kit Peek!

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There was a HUGE debate a few months ago online about yellow cake vs. other cakes, and I was surprised at how strong people's feelings were about this topic! It got quite heated. 

I'm not generally a cake person - pumpkin pie is my jam - but the whole debate jolted loose a memory for me of a cake my childhood friend's mom made once - it was Duncan Hines I think - some mix - but it was literally the first pink cake I ever saw in my life and I was enchanted. It was strawberry, I think. 

She made it with chocolate frosting, because no matter the cake, he loved chocolate frosting. The cake was a delight and my inspiration today with the new Hero Arts kit - a birthday theme. 

I decided to go a little vintage with the main image and do no-line watercolor over a shaker - the sequins are included in the kit. HINT - the liquid watercolor I used is a little Easter egg for what's in the kit, but of course I'm sworn to secrecy. So come back on Monday.

Head over to the Hero Blog today for more peeks and enjoy your weekend - even if you like yellow cake! 

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Tropical Vibes From Our Rainy Season...

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It will NOT stop raining!! I just want to weed my flowerbeds and it's too nasty out. This morning I got up and my poor little wet squirrels were all waiting for me like in a cafeteria line poor critters. One of them is Monkey's baby - she is Clarence's tiniest baby - and he is even tinier so he's just learning to forage and it's hard with all these storms. He's figured out pretty quickly that I mean food though so he'll be okay until the sun comes up. 

So I thought I'd just roll with it and do a tropical theme today. 

I did my Blackout Embossing technique with a dark grey ink pad over these embossed leaves - it looks very dark and jungly, so I made my little birds brighter with OLO markers. I felt like if I didn't leave the branch white it would get lost on that darker background and I like the way that turned out! The sentiment is from this set.

I used the same set from the sentiment to make a brighter, cleaner bird card with this embossing folder that I know is impossible to really see and I'm sorry! 😂

For the last card, I decided to make it in a Peter Max style - I used to have these awesome Peter Max coloring books as a kid I've referenced a few times, and that is what the style of this image reminded me of and the stencil just brought it home. The stencil is a layering one - so on the second one I just made the same ink darker.

A little white gel pen did the trick!

After I die cut it, I colored the white edges black for a little extra pop.

What are your weekend plans? I have to do indoorsy stuff I guess! There's always a closet to purge, right?

I've said this on Facebook, but not here - you HAVE to watch Will Trent. 

Loveyameanitbye.

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VIDEO: Extra Long Wildflower Season (Watercolor)

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You'll never catch me complaining about a long spring, and this year, we've had a long spring! Cool weather, lots of rain - decidedly un-Texasy weather, which has resulted in an absolutely spectacular wildflower year. A welcome change for sure. 

One little known fact about bluebonnets is that not only are they perennial, but they are also bi-annual bloomers - we often see them back at Thanksgiving, which is a real treat. 

Anyway they are a rarity in the stamp world, so I was super excited to see this stamp, which I used to create our most ubiquitous wildflowers - bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes.

The background paper is white brick, and the sentiment is from this set.

Here's the sped up video.

Loveyameanitbye.

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VIDEO: Collage Style Backgrounds over Masking

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Did you survive tax day? As usual I'm just madder than a wet hen, so I thought I'd bring you a fun chicken video today.

This technique is all about making your foreground really pop by neutralizing the background. The focal image here is this hilarious boa wearing chicken. I masked it, and then got to work on the background with ink, stamps, rub-ons and ephemera - it tones down the white card panel and makes the foreground colors more vibrant in contrast. The sentiment is from this label set.

Here's the video! The order that everything is done in will make sense when you watch. 

Loveyameanitbye.

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Mixed Media in COLOR

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Ready for a BIG pop of color for very little work? I've got you covered today with a simple DIY trick - it's super easy and fun. 

Card 1 brings all the drama on black cardstock. This was an experiment, because I really wasn't sure the technique would keep the color vibrant on black. I sure am glad I tried!

I used this stencil and this sentiment. 

Same stencil, same colors, same stamp set but on white - wowza. It's so bright and happy!

I have the step by step all laid out for you here, so head over and check it out. 

Here are my supplies: 

Colorizing Hero Paste [ HA ] Hero Paste [ HA ] Pink Ink [ HA ] Yellow Ink [ HA ] Blue ink [ HA ] palette knife [ HA ] Stencil [ HA ] Folk Animals [ HA ]

Loveyameanitbye.

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Modified Blackout Embossing

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I played around with my blackout embossing technique and got a different look that I REALLY like!

Basically, you don't completely black the background out by varying pressure and stopping before it's totally covered. It ends up looking sort of distressed and is really cool in black!

I used this 3D embossing folder and this little stitching themed set. 

If you've watched my live, you've seen me use the negative space of a die cut to create a shadow, and that's what I did with this monstera die. 

The lower portion of the card is also blackout embossing - in orange - with a non-3D sort of art deco embossing folder.

I just can't stop using that technique! It's the gift that keeps on giving!

Have a great week! Loveyameanitbye.

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Failed Experiments make Beautiful Cards

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Never give up on your experiments - I'll prove why today. 

I was doing a live and doing a technique I love - nature printing. If you are on Patreon, you can access the replay here. 

I did it two ways - with colored acrylic ink on watercolor paper, and the second way was with this stunning light gold ink on this black velvety cardstock. Normally, I don't recommend things that I consider to be very expensive if something similar works, but never in my life have I used cardstock this luxurious, so I'm sharing it. It's the blackest of black, it's water friendly and it literally feels like velvet - it's an incredible surface. So, since it's so special, I decided I would do a nature print with the gold ink on black. I didn't thin it out like I did the other inks, and so it didn't capture the level of detail I wanted - but even as abstract shapes on that silky paper - it was STUNNING. So I cut it into cardfronts and saved it for a rainy day, which arrived in the form of this beautiful koi image. 

I stamped it in white ink, and colored just one of the fish with my favorite colored pencils. I did sort of a yin yang thing, leaving the other one white. The gold ink moves in and out of both images, which is kind of fun. The die for the koi lets you cut them out separately, but I like the way the image looks with both of them. Such a zen feel and so elegant. 

If you like zen but more whimsical - then these yoga sheep are for you! I couldn't decide which sheep was my favorite, so I used them all - outlining each one with an OLO marker. 

How cute are their little legs??

PS I accidentally sneak peeked last month with this stencil - OOPS. It's available now and it's one of the most fun, mod layering stencils. Go look at the colorful samples on the website to see how the layers work together - I had fun doing it in several greys.

Hope you had a great long weekend - it was nice to have Friday off! Because I had a little extra time, I'll be back tomorrow!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

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Impressionist Iris - A Coloring Hack!

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Y'all. My white irises are STILL blooming! And my rosebush is going insane - it also changed color - but nothing surprises me anymore.

However, oddly - this is the first year in 21 years that my amaryllis haven't bloomed - unless they are just going to have very strange timing this year. 

Anyway, with all the floral inspiration, I thought I'd try something different for this stunning iris die - and I ended up loving it! So I will keep the deets a secret, but I'll give you a bookmark for the video that will be posted next Wednesday with a step by step!

The die is just lovely and just a few pieces to put together - I think you will love it. The sentiment is from this set. I'll be back in a live this week with the - you guessed it - BLUEBONNET. 💙

I thought it was dramatic enough I'd just put it on black and let it shine. 

I hope you're having a good week. Work has been crazy, Splotchy has some hives, and it's been stormy and cold here, so I'm ready for a weekend with no obligations and some sleep!

My mom found a Leo Lionni book I had never seen!! I can't wait to read it!

Speaking of reading - does anyone know how to make the sleep timer on Audible work? I set it for 30 minutes, but it just keeps playing and then I wake up in the morning and it's still playing 34 chapters later. 🙈 I'm on iOS. 

Hope you have a good weekend!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

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VIDEO: No-Line Stenciling

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Hi friends! We've emerged from a stormy St. Patrick's Day weekend! I hope you had fun. I doodled around on the internet all weekend since I couldn't weed my flowerbeds, and I found some fun things. I found a video for a super high tech, pretty coffee machine I'm intrigued by. My espresso machine is from the late 1900s - it's been a workhorse, but it's HUGE. We pulled out this hideous built in microwave that came with the house recently and that's when I noticed how much bigger older appliances are than newer ones. We actually have the same issue with our ovens - we have double ovens, and when they died and we had them replaced just prior to 2020 - it left about a 4" tall gap at the top of the opening which I have yet to creatively deal with. But I also - through a DEEP FB rabbit hole, found a website that has historical aerial images. It's a little too pricey a subscription for me, but if you're looking for something specific, it would be incredibly helpful. I do use Google Earth Pro, but it's got wonky images sometimes. All the other sources of aerials were designed by something other than humans and are so hard to use. This site is pretty slick, so I'm tucking that away for the future. 

I also saw this hilarious turtle video and this adorable red panda fact.

Anyhoo, I have a new video for you today with a no-line layering stencil for teacher cards. Just a note, this does have a matching stamp set and dies that I used to no-line watercolor this same image in this video. 

What I did in this video though is flip the intention of the highlight portion of the stencil, which is a fun way to get a different look from layering stencils. 

It's the time of year to start thinking about teacher appreciation, so don't wait too long! Here's the card! After completing the process in the video, I used some grid tape to stencil a blue background for grounding. The sentiment is from the matching stamp set. The ink colors are listed in the video description.

So enough chit chat - here's the video!

Loveyameanitbye.

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Bookish Cards

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Trigger warning - I have used an old book in this blog post 😂. I know that that, and painting wood furniture upsets a lot of people so I'm giving you fair warning!

I love all things book, despite my controversial use of mass market used books in my art! So I love pairing that sort of ephemera with book-themed products, and that's what I have for you today!.

I had the MOST fun coloring the book that this cute little literary gnome is reading - I chose dark colors to make it look older, like he's sitting in the stacks of my college library. 

And you might not recognize it, because my video with the technique was so dramatic and bold, but I actually used my Blackout Embossing technique on this card, just with a dictionary page and a Sea Glass ink pad to give that fun sort of upholstery look in the background. 

If you are an avid reader, and want to see some AMAZING things, check out this hashtag on Instagram - it's one of my favorites.

I used some retired fall paper for this cute little owl and if you look at the gold strip - the embossing folder looks like an open book! I just cut one row of the pattern. I used my go to word die for a simple finish. 

I asked this on Facebook the other day and got some great responses, so I'll ask here - what are you reading? I'm looking for a new series that's as good as Louise Penny's Gamache series is. Got any suggestions?

Hope you are doing well.

Loveyameanitbye.

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VIDEO: Easy Origami Owl With Homemade Origami Paper + Giveaway

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Happy Monday and happy Hero Arts Kit Day! 

We had a glorious weather week this week, and so lots of garden things are springing back to life. I'm anxiously waiting to see if my very first poppy experiment worked - the seeds are from my neighbors GLORIOUS poppy crop, and the way you "plant" them seems crazy - just flinging them on the ground in November, so I will be thrilled if it works. The neighbor I got them from is a Master Gardener, so I know I need to just trust the process, but even as a pretty patient person, it's hard with new-to-me plants! Meanwhile, the four little spiderworts I planted last year have gone absolutely insane over winter, spreading out like six feet in both directions. I'm not sure if I'm happy about that because they tend to look a little ratty at the end of our hottest stretch. We will see. 

I also made bulgogi, ssamjang and sushi rice Friday which was a delight as always - it's the homemade ssamjang that puts it over the top! You can find all three recipes on Patreon. My little curated cookbook over there has 25 of my MOST fave recipes already!

This month's kit is INSANELY beautiful. It reminds me of the beautiful Asian themed stamps that dominated the industry in the 90s and all the incredible things people made with them. It makes me happy. 

The stamp set in the kit is both layering and modular - so it brings a lot of possibilities. I'm telling y'all right now - if you don't all vote for this as the kit that comes back onto the website, I'm going to stop speaking to you! It clearly needs to win. 

I started this by stamping the water and the mountains in Blueprint Sketch and then spraying it - being very careful not to get water in the space where the crane is. I dried that, and then re-stamped the first layer of the mountains and the water in Indigo. I stamped the second layer, the crane, and the ducks in Nautical, and added white highlights - these new gel pens are pretty awesome - they come in white and in colors.

On the left, I used the stunning transfers in the kit - man I love these. The sentiment and die are from the kit - and the fonts are beautiful and delicate.

Believe it or not - this sneaky peeky card below also uses a die from the kit - look at all you get!

How could this not win the voting? JUST SAYING.

So for a TOTALLY different look, I used the other stamp set and this gorgeous circular screen die over gold foil paper. I colored the flowers with just a bit of grey OLO Marker and then added earth safe gold glitter in the centers.

Next - I took the Origami background stamp at its word and I made myself some origami paper with it! I stamped it on my fancy copy paper, which is the perfect weight and it's great for stamping because it's so smooth. I only stamped it on one side, and I ink blended the other side, but it turns out that was unnecessary, because you never see the back side of the paper in my little owl pattern I used. 

I've tried to master origami for decades, but I'm just not good enough at it to do the really complicated patterns, so I was THRILLED to find this book shortly after we moved into this house, because even I can do these patterns. You'll see how simple it is in the video - and it's easy to customize - I just made slight tweaks to get the two different owls. And the pattern allows them to stand up. So cute. 

Here's the video:

Here are all the addons. 

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Here's the rest of the inspiration hop!

Hero Arts

Hero Arts Creative Team:

Natasha Vacca

Dana Joy

Michelle Short

Jennifer Kotas

Rosie Lopez

Heather Ruwe

Mindy Eggen

Natasha Polite

Channin Pelletier

Rachel Kleinman

Jeannie Lieu

Seeka

Karen Brown

Charlene Madrid

Pocono Pam

Kailash Naidoo

💙💙💙 Lydia Fiedler 💙💙💙

Special Guests:

Nichol Spohr

Emily Midgett

Kelly Taylor