Special Moments

Here are a couple of cards made with stamps from Hero Arts new Clings collection, deeply-etched rubber images mounted on foam that clings to your acrylic block. I think I've said it before. As an "old-timer" who started stamping with a wood block in her hand, I consider the foam-mounted rubber stamps to be the best of both worlds. You get the stamped image that only a rubber stamp can provide as well as the advantages of using acrylic blocks. And, I'll have to admit I pretty much stalked Hero Arts website, waiting for its new Clings to become available for mail order.

This top card was made with the Special Moments set. I love this flower. For this card, I stamped the image with VersaMark on watercolor paper and embossed it with black embossing powder. It was colored with a watercolor brush using ink from my Orange, Holiday Red, Garden Green, and Olive ink pads. I stamped two words from the sentiment on the card front and the rest of the verse, "... to cherish the special moments" on the inside. The patterned paper is from DCWV's new Indian Summer Fall Matstack. I think I've said this before, too. Orange is a "new" color for me after having been reserved for Halloween for a long, long time. These days, I'm lovin' it. Oh, and the watercolor paper I mention is from an inexpensive pad I picked up at Wal-Mart.

Materials & Tools: Colonial White and Black cardstock; Watercolor paper from Wal-Mart; DCWV Indian Summer Fall Matstack; Black and VersaMark ink pads; Hero Arts Clings Special Moments set; Black mini brads and spiral clip; Ribbon from Wal-Mart.

I used the same flower for my second card along with this background stamp, again a Hero Arts Clings stamp. Because its size wasn't noted in the product description, I didn't know what I'd be getting, and as it turned out, the stamp is 3-3/8 by 3-3/8 inches square. Much to my delight, the pattern was relatively easy to line up to acceptably cover a larger area. The paper behind the flower was computer-generated. Happy with the way it turned out, I just might try it with other definitions as well. About my flower, I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and used odorless mineral spirits to blend the colors. While it wasn't necessarily a fun image to cut out, I love the results, which made it worth the effort.

Materials & Tools: Colonial White and Chocolate cardstock; Black, Chocolate, and Brown Bag ink pads; Hero Arts Clings Antique Brocade stamp and Special Moments stamp set; Ribbon from Wal-Mart; Prismacolor colored pencils; Gamsol odorless mineral spirits; Blending stumps; Stampin' Up Spiral punch; Sponge dauber.

I hope you have a wonderful day planned. I'm going wear the hat of domestic engineer today, cleaning, doing laundry, etc. I hope to sneak outside once in a while, too. After the crappiest of summers, we're enjoying beautiful weather that I hope holds out for a few weeks. Enough jabber. Thanks for stopping by! Later...