Hydrangeas and Bees

I'm joining in again with A Blog Named Hero's Challenge—Stretch Your Stamps. I decided to stretch my Daisy and Bugs Stamp and Cut set by using one of the little bees as a background for my purple Large Hydrangea Hero Arts stamp. 

I don't think I've used this bee before, I was always kind of focused on the daisy and the ladybug stamps in the set. They have matching dies, but since I used him as background paper, I didn't need to die cut him.

I looove Hydrangeas in real life and have two shrubs that pretty much just take care of themselves and give huge blooms each year. I colored this one purple, but mine are more pink, though they can get a little purple. It depends on the lime in your soil, but since I'm a lazy gardener who does more dreaming than pruning, I haven't really done anything to the soil.

I used Prismacolor pencils on the flower, with Stickles in the flower centers and on the bee wings, but it's hard to see at this angle. I also added Moonstone bling from Honeybee Stamps, which is totally appropriate for this post, doncha think? They have some great Nuvo products on sale btw. The inking on the panel and the card are Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade and Salty Ocean.

Hope you'll stretch your stamps and join me in this challenge, you have until September 10th.

Happy Friday!

Chark

Stretching My Stamps

The challenge over at A Blog Named Hero is to Stretch Your Stamps. I gave it a lot of thought and decided that meant using stamps I rarely use in a set in a way that's not the focal point.

So, for this card, I decided to use the Wonderful Stamp and Cut to make a background for my Hero Arts Daisy and Bugs Stamp and Cut flower.

I used Distress Inks in Salty Ocean and Squeezed Lemonade on watercolor paper and then stamped the daisy with Staz-On black. I used the word "you're" from the Daisy set and wonderful from the Wonderful set on the kraft background. The stars are also from the Wonderful set. I added some washi and a strip of gold paper and then, yep, Diamond Stickles to the flower center. I've never used the wonderful as a background stamp and never used the included stars, so I feel like I stretched these stamps. Thanks for the fun challenge!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

Pink Peony Card

Today I'm sharing a card using the Hero Arts Peony Clear Stamps that I'll be entering over at A Blog Named Hero for their August challenge here.

The stamp set has a large beautiful peony and some smaller buds and leaves. I also used the coordinating dies. Then I mounted it on black paper and trimmed that out by hand. For the shiny part, I used a holographic silver foil on a pre-printed and designed sheet made for foiling. I added some enamel dots, along with a hello die cut in black to finish off the card. Here's a close up of the shiny goodness. There are words in the foil like "beautiful" and "dream a little dream."

I mounted it on a light pink panel of Lawn Fawn watercolor paper and added a strip and black and white paper to the side. 

I love this floral stamp and plan to use it a lot in the future...peonies are so lovely, even if they are the world's favorite hangout for ants! I swear, I always found a million of those guys on my mom's white peony shrubs. Fun fact: I didn't know they were really called peonies until adulthood because my mom pronounced it like her mom (originally from Hungary) and said, "piney."

You can join me for the Sparkle and Shine Challenge at A Blog Named Hero—I can't believe I didn't glitter anything for this challenge!

Happy Thursday!
Chark