Hero Arts Inspiration Week - Day 1

Welcome to my Hero Arts inspiration week!
Similar to the week I did a while back with Ali Edwards / Technique Tuesday stamps, this week will share some cards and layouts created by me using some of my favourite Hero Arts stamps and products.
Hopefully they will inspire you to get out those stamps and inks and get creative.
Today I have a couple of cards to share that were created with two of my favourite stamp sets - Layered Flowers and Big Hugs.

For the first card I used the two stamp sets with papers from the new Basic Grey Konnichiwa 6x6 paper pad. I love the great colours on these papers and knew they would look great paired with the flower stamp:

Thinking of You

Supplies
Hero Arts 'Big Hugs' Stamp Set
Hero Arts 'Layered Flowers' Stamp Set
Hero Arts Cup O' Joe Shadow Ink
Hero Arts Earth Dots
Basic Grey Konnichiwa 6x6 Paper Pad
Tsukineko Versamark Embossing Ink
Other : WorldWin Cardstock, American Crafts Embossing Powder

To create the flower on this card, I stamped the layered flowers with Versamark ink onto one of the orange patterned papers in the 6x6 pad. I embossed the two flowers with brown embossing powder and two leaves from the stamp set on green patterned paper from the pad.
I then cut out one full flower and the inside from the other flower so I could layer them to create a dimensional flower. I cut out the leaves and glued them underneath the finished flower. I completed the flower with a Hero Arts earth dot.
The sentiment was stamped on white Neenah cardstock with the new Hero Arts mid-tone shadow ink in Cup O' Joe.
And I have a little confession to make... I have never liked the solid sentiment stamps with the words etched in the middle. I just never like how the ink looks on the solid area. Until now. The Hero Arts shadow ink is the most amazing ink ever for solid areas on stamps. It looks a little blotchy at first but once it dries it looks so so good! So now I need all of the solid sentiment stamps I can find because I love how great they look on cards. :-)

For the second card I used the same two stamp sets and Hero Arts Pool layering papers. I added in a bit of brown for a little contrast but for the most part I kept the card monochromatic:

Thanks

Supplies
Hero Arts 'Big Hugs' Stamp Set
Hero Arts 'Layered Flowers' Stamp Set
Hero Arts Cup O' Joe Shadow Ink
Hero Arts Pool Layering Papers
Hero Arts Pool Notecards
Hero Arts Pool Buttons
Other: WorldWin Cardstock, Brown Thread 

I wanted to create a background using the flower image repeatedly with the same colour as the notecard so I used Soft Pool shadow ink to stamp the flowers all over the paper. I created a few masks on masking paper to cover the flowers that I had already stamped and just went around the card until it was completely covered. I then stamped 3 flowers on a piece of Pool layering paper with the new Splash chalk ink and cut them out (one full, one slightly smaller and one middle flower). I adhered them to the card with dimensional adhesive over the original flower that I stamped in the shadow ink. 
I matted the flower piece to a brown background slightly larger to create a think border and also added brown thread to the pool button and stamped the sentiment in 'Cup O' Joe' shadow ink. 
I love how great the brown and pool go together.

So that's day one of Hero Arts inspiration. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope today's cards inspire you to create some flower themed cards of your own! Tomorrow I will be sharing a layout I created that uses more awesome stamps and products from Hero Arts.


Oh and we can't forget a giveaway. Leave a comment on this post (and every post this week) and I will randomly pick a winner at the end of the week for a Hero Arts stamp set of the winners choice!!! :-)


See you tomorrow!
Steph :-)