Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge #19 and Simon Says Stamp’s Wednesday Challenge

The following cards were inspired by Hero Arts’ Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge #19 to include a heart and Simon Says Stamp’s Wednesday Challenge to layer it up. My main focal point of the cards was Hero Arts Renaissance Heart Die. It’s a beautiful die and I used it to create die cuts and to make an impression on the card front. The cards are shown below along with the supply lists in the photo captions. Hope you are able to get some crafty time in this weekend!

Using pink watercolors, I combined various colors of pink watercolors on watercolor cardstock and let it dry before die cutting the heart from it using Hero Arts’ Renaissance Heart die. The white card base was sprayed with gold spritz/spray and left to dry. The be mine sentiment was die cut from cardstock using Penny Black’s Be Mine die and then heat embossed with gold tinsel embossing powder. The card was assembled by attaching the heart die-cut to the card base, a strip of tracing paper was stapled to the card base, and the be mine die-cut was glued to the tracing paper.

Hero Arts’ Renaissance Heart die was used to emboss the gray cardstock. The love die-cut was cut from some watercolor washed cardstock using Papertrey’s Wet Paint love die. The You Always sentiment from Papertrey’s Wet Paint stamp set was stamped on a thin strip of pink cardstock. The heart impression gives the look of an added layer without adding additional cardstock.

The gold heart die-cut was cut from gold shimmer cardstock using Hero Arts’ Renaissance Heart die. The banner was die cut from ivory cardstock using Simon Says Stamp’s Tilted Banners die and stamped with Happily ever after from Papertrey’s Love Lives Here stamp set. The sentiment was attached to the heart die-cut and then attached to a layer of ivory and gold shimmer cardstock and then attached to an ivory cardstock card base. The edges of the upper square card front were distressed for some texture.

Simon Says Stamp’s Monday Challenge, Simon Says Stamp’s Wednesday Challenge combined with Stay Crafty with Hero Arts Challenge

For the these two cards, I started with Simon Says Stamp’s Wednesday Challenge – Christmas Critters and one of my favorite stamp sets is Hero Arts’ Color Layering Cardinal. I then looked at Stay Crafty with Hero Arts Challenge and went on the hunt for an inspiring card for my cardmaking. I chose Shari Carroll’s card, shown below, from this post. Lastly, I picked an icy inspired background for use Simon Says Stamp’s Monday Challenge – Ice Cold.

I was inspired by the white textured background with the bright pop of color from the cardinal. I used embossing folders to create a similar textured background for my cards. For my first card, I used stickles to make icy branches for the cardinal to rest on and be surrounded by. For the second card, I used white shimmer cardstock for a ice cold backdrop for the cardinal, a bit more subtle style when compared to the first. I was really happy with how the cards turned out! Hope you get some time to craft during the holiday season! Supplies for each card are listed in the captions.

My card for Simon Says Stamp’s Icy Cold Monday Challenge, Simon Says Stamp’s Christmas Critters Wednesday Challenge, and Stay Crafty with Hero Arts Challenge. The card uses Hero Arts Color Layering Cardinal stamp and die sets to create the beautiful cardinal and Papertrey’s Vintage Ornaments II stamp set for the sentiment. The pine twigs were die cut using Memory Box’s Pine Twig die. The twigs were coated with stardust stickles. The white background was created using the Stampin Up’s Softly Falling embossing folder.

I used Curious Metallics’ Ice Gold shimmer cardstock and embossed it using Carta Bella’s Christmas Delivery embossing folder for the card front. It makes a beautiful ice background scene. The cardinal was created using Hero Arts’ Color Layering Cardinal stamps and dies. The sentiment was stamped using Papertrey’s Vintage Ornaments II stamp set and Ranger’s gold tinsel embossing powder on a velum strip. The twig wreath was created using Hero Arts Branch Wreath Fancy die that was decorated with red pearls.