Hello all and thank you so much for joining us for the Hero Arts 2016 Catalog Blog Hop!
Hero Arts always comes up with the most fun and adorable color layering stamp sets (if you are not familiar with Color Layering, please take a look here). The new Color Layering Gold Fish from the 2016 Catalog is no exception and is a super fun set to play with. It lets you easily create beautiful dimensional-looking fish and with a little bit of heat embossing you can make your “fishies” sparkle and shine like a real wet gold fish!
The card that I am sharing today was also shared at the Hero Arts Make and Take in their booth at CHAW’16 show. The one we made there was slightly different with the window die cut using a heart-shaped die (using one from the Floral Stamp & Cut set by Lia) and slightly different colors of ink (all are listed below), here’s a quick look at that project:
I don’t have the same colors and the same heart die that I used to create my original card (I am in Ukraine at the moment and my supplies are somewhat limited), but I really wanted to do a video for that project so I used similar products.
I used 3 colors of ink to stamp my Gold Fish – Butter Bar, Dark Quartz and Pale Tomato for the original card and Soft Vanilla and Butter Bar to Orange Soda Ombre for the card I’m sharing on my video. I also did a few additional test impression using various yellow, orange and red inks just to see what color combos I like best (I’m sharing a closer loot at the in my video). While I only tried stamping fish using yellows and oranges it can also be stamped using other colors; think about tropical fish (here’s a fun link on Pinterest to explore) and all the fun and vibrant color combos – pinks and blues, greens and purples. There are lots of options.
I liked the idea of having my fish swim in water so I created a little aquarium for them using ink blending. The idea is to die cut a window in a panel and blend the blue and green inks onto another piece of paper to go behind that panel to look like water. I also used various seaweed images to fill in the background and make my water look more realistic. I used the same colors of ink for stamping seaweed and for blending the background. Some stamped images were stamped using lighter colors and some using darker making it look like they are located further away.
A card like this can also be turned into a shaker by simply adding a layer of clear acetate and some sequins and beads.
To make the fish appear like a real gold fish and also to make it appear wet and shiny I used Hero Arts Sparkle Embossing Powder. I usually like to use it for snow (on Holiday cards) or sugar (on fruits cards), but it works great for this as well. I only added one layer of this powder to my fish, but you can add more if you like. Here’s a close up of my heat embossed fish, I just love that sparkle!
VIDEO
I’m also sharing a video tutorial today showing how to create this card! You can watch it at the top of this post or on my Youtube channel. If you like it, I would appreciate you giving it a thumbs up and sharing. Thank you!
BLOG HOP
Want more inspiration using products from the Hero Arts 2016 Catalog? Join the blog hop! Start at the beginning on Hero Arts blog or follow the hop order below:
- Hero Arts
- Lia Griffith
- Kelly Purkey
- Jennifer McGuire
- Yana Smakula – this is me!
- Lucy Abrams – your next stop!
- Kristina Werner
- Kathy Racoosin
- Mariana Grigsby
- Debby Hughes
- Nichol Magouirk
- Joan Bardee
- Lydia Fiedler
- Sandy Allnock
- Julie Ebersole
- Amy Tsuruta
- Kelly Rasmussen
- Suzanne Dahlberg
- Wanda Guess
- Clare Prezzia
- Tami Hartley
- Libby Hickson
GIVEAWAY
Hero Arts is giving away four $25 shopping sprees, drawn from comments left across all blogs in the hop. Comment by 11:59pm PT on Sunday, February 14, and Hero Arts will announce the winners on the Hero Arts blog the following week. Hop along and comment for more chances to win!
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This is beautiful! I love that the fish are glittery!
Love your card! Great embossing!
Your card is wonderful, just wonderful and I love the encouraging sentiment!
I love your sparkling fish they are adorable, what a great card! I think my nephew would love this card!Thanks for sharing.
Fabulous card, colours, tips and stamp set!
Love the sparkles!
Such a pretty sparkle! I love the extra little touches of shimmer and glitter cardstock!
What an adorable idea. I just finished a “fish” card, but I will definitely have to try this
Love the card! Will be looking into the Ombre ink pads…thanks for the tips!
I love how you made the aquarium windows. Also love the Hero Arts inks. Thanks for sharing!!
Love the shine on the fishes 🙂
Gorgeous card, Yana. Both of them. Thanks so much for the video!
So beautiful. Very nicely done!
This is a beautiful card. I love the color combinations you used. I need to get some ombré ink pads
Amazing!
They look so real!! Love the embossing powder!!
I like this layering technique. I’ve never thought to use embossing powder….
Fabulous card! I just love how you made those fish look so real. Thanks for the inspiration and chance to win. 😀
Such pretty little fishes as my nephew would say!
Love the glittery fish. Very well thought out.
So very cool! Love it.
I was fascinated watching what you did. Stunning card. Thank you.
I love this card and loved watching your video – thank you!!
Your video was great. Like the idea of the Sparkle embossing powder.
Very nice card!
Those fishies are just too fun.
This is gorgeous!
Love the layering gold fish!
Your card is lovely! Those sparkly goldfish are amazing, and I love the little backdrop you made for them!
Fabulous card Yana! Love the gold fish! So realistic to it!
Love the sparkle!!
What a really cute and well designed card! Love it!
Susan
I love the idea of cutting a circle “aquarium” first. It looks great with the fish mounted in front.
Love, love, love this adorable card & the sparkle on the fishies is wonderful.
This is just amazing! I love everything about this card!!!
I love what you did with the fish in the “aquarium”. This set is beautiful!
Love those goldfish!
LOVE this card! Just bought the fish stamp and didn’t realize there were dies, so will have to make another order soon.
I don’t normally like fish but this card is awesome!
What a great goldfish! And I love your card…
Awesome goldfish!
This is so lovely! I’ve learned HA had this gorgeous embossing powder!
Love that fish stamp, looks great
Beautiful project!!!! Love it!
I love this card. I’ll probably make it a shaker card as you’ve suggested. But I also like the embossed sheen on the goldfish. Very pretty.
Great card, lovely video, thanks for sharing!
The sparkly goldfish are amazing, so beautiful!
I love the aquarium effect. Those little goldfish are absolutely adorable!
What a beautiful card. I’m with you…love the layering. And I love this stamp set!
Lovely card, Yana. The multigeneration stamps are so much fun, and the final glitter detail is grand. Another great release by HA. Cheers!