Hero Arts - Artistic Circles

The only thing better than getting new stamps in the mail is finding some old treasures in your stash - and that is what I did this weekend. I looked through my shoebox of wood-mounted stamps and found Artistic Circles from Hero Arts. I am pretty sure that this was the first background stamp I ever bought - and I bought it to make Christmas cards even though it isn't expressly a Christmas stamp.

I gently removed the stamp from it's wood mount and temporarily adhered in my Misti to play with it. The first card I made, I stamped in Versamark onto vellum and heat embossed in white. I then coloured the back side of the vellum with Copics in pink, red, yellow and orange to add some soft colours from the front. 

I created an open frame card using a SSS rectangle die, and sandwiched the vellum piece (with another one behind it) between the pieces. I finished the card with a silver glitter W&W die cut and a red strip of cardstock white embossed with a SSS greeting. It is hard to see in the picture - but I love the semi transparency of the vellum to see through to the inside of the card.

For the second card, I stamped the image in SSS Intense Black ink and then coloured the image selectively using a few shades of Copic pink. I then used the rectangles die from the SSS Frames set to inlay the panel with a black border into the card front. I love this die and technique because it creates the look of layers with a flat card front. I die cut the W&W thanks (one of my faves) several times from textures black cardstock and glued them together to create a dimensional greeting across the middle of the card. I finished off with some Wink of Stella on the pink parts and the greeting for a little bit of shimmer. I went back and forth over whether I should also add a few sparkling clear PPP sequins - but eventually decided that the image should take centre stage and left them off,

I will enter the following challenges:

• Hero Arts Holiday Cardmaking Challenge (second entry)
• Happy Little Stampers Christmas Card Challenge - the theme is embossing
• ATSAM - the Challenge is Make Your Mark
• Inkspirational - the challenge is black, white, and one other colour

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill