Garden Thoughts + New Technique Class

*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*

We got a HUGE surprise, very localized heavy rainstorm last night. Like so localized it was basically our block - we got 2.5" of rain - and the largest nearby streets got none - it was crazy. So my plants are going to be VERY happy this week, which is good because my GIANT shrimp plant - it's about 3' wide and 3' tall - is about to bust out all over with little shrimps! My smaller shrimp plants planted in the ground have already been blooming for about a month. 

Everything I've planted this year is pretty well established and will make it through the summer - except a few of my creeping Jenny's - I'm worried about a few of those. And after I saw my postman just stomp through my flowerbed last week I had to build cages around my young plants - who does that?

I weeded HARD this weekend - cutting down all the oak shoots in my front beds, digging out nut grass and removing only three dandelions. I am happy to say that I appear to be winning the dewberry battle for the first time in 20 years! It takes DAILY chopping of any little shoots you see to get some of the roots to give up. It's just the worst. I will say it has gotten me into the habit of always wearing gloves to garden after shredding my hands on the vines. But I'm here to say you can win!

Speaking of summer - are you ready? I have some summery cards for you today with a watery theme, and a new technique class for getting an underwater look with your own water themed stamps.

First up - the new kit card! This kit is wild because it basically has all the Hero specialties - a fancy frame die coverplate, a layering Heroscape style ocean and sky and a layering stencil that I sneak peeked from the Premium kit. 

I ALWAYS gravitate to black for these window dies - it's just so dramatic and it lets me do REALLY bright colors on whatever is in the frame. And I went REALLY bright today - using Neon Yellow, Neon Orange and Neon Pink. 

Here's what the kit looks like. 

So now you know how I did the shell background! I used the same neon inks, and I snipped out that palm tree! If you look at the die this way - look at the other plants you can clip out - lots of ways to use it other than a frame.

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The MOST fun I had was creating this underwater illusion with these gorgeous fishy dies - they are an add-on so they will stick around. I have a new step by step class for this card here.

Here are the add-ons this month, including that beautiful background stamp and the Fishy stamp set with the sentiment on the class card.

Here's everything I used today - thank you for shopping with my links!

June Kit [ HA ] Koi Dies [ HA ] Water Background Stamp [ HA ] Hello Fishes [ HA ] Summer 2023 Mixed Media Stamp-Along |... [ HA ] My Monthly Hero | Hero Arts [ HA ] Hero Arts Blog [ HA ] Fabriano Artistico Enhanced... [ BLIC ] Summer Sky Bold Ink - Hero Arts [ HA ] AF428 Splash Reactive Ink | Hero Arts [ HA ] AF682 Paradise Core Ink | Hero Arts [ HA ] Tools and Supplies - Misti Stamping... [ PRC ] Canson XL Bristol - Pad, 9" x 12",... [ BLIC ] Graphit — Marker Universe [ MRK ] GW101 Precision Glue | Hero Arts [ HA ] AF220 Yellow Neon Ink Pad - Hero Arts [ HA ] AF218 Pink Neon Ink Pad - Hero Arts [ HA ] AF259 Red Neon Ink Pad - Hero Arts [ HA ] June Add-Ons [ HA ]

They are doing a giveaway this month so be sure and leave me a comment to be entered!

You can see more inspiration with this month's kit on the Hero blog HERE.

Loveyameanitbye.

Sand in Your Toes! (Giveaway & New Class Announcement)

*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*

Ready for the beach? It's that time - even though I'm having a hard time believing we are halfway through this year - where has it gone?

That being said, I'm happy, always, for the hot days of summer. I never get tired of it. 

So today I have a sneaky peeky for Monday's kit!

I used the neon inks with this awesome shell stencil which is part of the premium kit! The palm three is part of a frame die and I just snipped it out to use it on this bright neon background.

I have a new class coming on Monday too with a fun underwater effect technique! I hope you join me!

See you Monday! Until then, there's more inspiration peeks here!

Also, while you're there, why don't you join me for the Mixed Media Stamp-along?

Loveyameanitbye.

VIDEO: Highlighting Collage Style Backgrounds + Patreon Update!

I have such a fun two part video for you today! The first section is where I create the colored/stamped portion of the background for both paper piecing and for this background, and the second portion is for creating the ghostly sea images on top of that with this stunning 3D embossing folder, a new-to-me foam tool and some white paint.

I was CRACKING UP putting that little sign in the octopus' tentacle haha. 

The die cuts are all colored with OLO markers - the octopus and jellyfish have three layers so you can do whatever colors you want.

I think this would make a phenomenal art journal page. Hmm. that gives me an idea.

Sea Themed Dies [ SPL ] 3D Embossing Folder - Sea Theme [ SPL ] Mixed Textures [ HA ] INK - Concord & 9th [ C&9 ] Triangle Background Dies - Concord & 9th [ C&9 ] Amsterdam - Titanium White, 120 ml... [ BLIC ]

I also have a Patreon update for you! I have added a membership level for my curated and tested recipes. I spend a ton of time selecting, adapting and creating recipes, and I thought I'd create a way for you to be able to collect PDFs of recipes with my notes and substitutions, photos of the food as well as my modifications to make them dairy free if you need that. So that is a new tier on Patreon. The normal crafty Patreon level remains as is - and if you sign up for the recipe level, you'll still get the crafty level benefits. When I've published enough, I'll assemble the individual recipe PDF's into a cookbook with an index that you can print or download. I've already uploaded my insanely delicious vegan lasagna recipe and will be adding more in the next week. I have them all categorized and the format is all the same.

I appreciate any support! 

The video for today's card is below.

Happy Birthday Erica! Owl Video Part II + Giveaway

Hi friends! I'm back with part two of the owl card video - the trees and this amazing moon! And this video celebrates my friend Erica's birthday!!

If you want to click through to the video over on YouTube, there's a giveaway in the description too!

VIDEO: The Owl Did It & New Journal Class!

It's here! Part one of my video of the beautiful white owl! But first - a story!

I referred to this in another post, but one time, on the way to New Mexico (an 11 hour drive from here), a turkey buzzard came through my winshield, covering me, and one of the cats in glass. 

We were in a rental vehicle and also in the middle of nowhere, and this set off a completely nuclear chain of disasters. It took hours for them to get to us with a replacement, and when they showed up - they didn't have it - they just had a tow truck. Well we had two cats, two people and an SUV full of luggage so what were they thinking?? So they went back and got us a vehicle - more hours of just sitting. It's hard enough to travel with the cats - this was brutal. 

6 hours later, they bring us a vehicle. We transfer everything and us and the cats and head out for the remaining NINE HOURS of our drive. When I got up to about 60 miles per hour, a piece of weather stripping on the windshield that was loose starts thumping really loudly in the wind, which it did for the next nine hours. 

By the time we approached the outskirts of Santa Fe, it was 3 AM and I was beyond exhausted and stressed and the cats were beyond beyond. It's VERY dark outside Santa Fe - they are really good about not adding light pollution, but it makes driving in the middle of the night scary. 

Around one little curve just outside of town, a ginormous barn owl appears out of nowhere headed right for the windshield! He got so close I saw his eyes, his claws, his pretty little pin feathers on his chest. We both screamed hahah. He glided over the roof, just barely, and I managed not to roll the SUV. 

It was too much, the birds on that trip! But we made it, and now I know what it's like to be buzzarded! Zero stars!

Also, I rage returned the stupid Ford to the airport the next day and got the third SUV of the trip, but not before recording the thumping sound as I was driving. Somewhere on an old phone that video waits!

So speaking of videos - today I have a new video - part one of this amazing owl card - part two for the background is coming soon. And I have a new $5 journal class on an adorable travel bujo.

Here are the supplies:

Lovely Layers: Owl - Honey Cuts –... [ HNB ] Lovely Layers: Trees - Honey Cuts –... [ HNB ] Adventure Awaits Paper Pad 6x8.5 - 24... [ HNB ] Summer Cabins - Honey Cuts – Honey... [ HNB ] Olo Chisel-Tip Half Marker - Y2.3... [ BLIC ] Olo Chisel-Tip Half Marker - BK Blue... [ BLIC ] Bee Creative Easy Squeeze Precision... [ HNB ] Honey Bee Detail Blender Brushes -... [ HNB ] Premium Dye ink Pad : Metropolis –... [ PNK ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology Label Stickers... [ RNG ]

One Stamp Set, Four Ways - Let's Talk About Birds! (Giveaway)

I love a good quirky bird. Who can resist the urge to PUT A BIRD ON IT? Not I.

So today I'll show you four super cute ways to use this adorable quirky bird set.

First, I created a black and yellow background with this fun city map texture in yellow. I used the zigzaggy sentiment from this set and added some adorable planner-style elements from this journaling set. I did die cut the bird, but it's essentially a one layer clean and simple card!

Mixed Textures [ HA ] Textured Compliments [ HA ] Essential Journaling [ HA ] Be You [ HA ]

These little birds just seem so positive! So I thought I'd drop some encouraging messages into my stenciled background THROUGH the dots stencil that I ink blended through. I created my own simple greeting with these alpha dies. This is the script stamp with the affirmation messages.

Be You [ HA ] Sprinkled Dots [ HA ] Alpha Dies [ HA ] Positive Script [ HA ]

The alpha dies - if you leave them tabbed together before running them through your die cutter make an ADORABLE background for two of the birds from the set. The little heart is from the alpha dies.

Be You [ HA ] Alpha Dies [ HA ]

I saw a post last night that was so very sweet, and also so very sad. It's from my favorite allergist on TikTok - a sweet, kind man that does a TON of education on important allergy issues - for example, recently, debunking the "hypoallergenic dog" myth, and talking about the importance of food allergy awareness.

He approaches everything with humor and love and curiousity, so I could tell that this post came from a place of a kind of pain that never goes away - and that's the pain of being bullied as a child. No matter how successful you are, you're always still that hurt little kid inside when you remember those days and you can really feel it in this really sweet post, despite the joyfulness and spirit of overcoming. He also has a followup video on this as well.

Anyway, that's the spirit of this last card today. Just be you. Try hard to shut out anything that makes that difficult. 💜 I used this grungy background stamp, this fun little wheel die, a polaroid frame die (there are little textured washi tape dies in there!) and the adorable bird.

Be You [ HA ] Rough Dots [ HA ] Fancy Circle [ HA ] Frame Dies [ HA ]