friday...AWDML April 15th Reveal-Hero Arts

Today is the 15th which means it's reveal day for the second featured manufacturer at AWDML! As you know, the first manufacturer is Basic Grey and you can see my projects here. The second manufacturer is Hero Arts and this was my first time using their products and I must say that I loved it!


My hubby took this picture of me at the local park on a hill and I love that you can see the background in the picture! For this layout, I used two different colors of Hero Arts blooms-Sunshine and Sea. Now, I wanted to make this layout in more earth tones and these blooms, specially the yellow ones, were a bit bright for my page. My solution?


I inked them with Tim Holtz walnut satin ink! Now they all look like they belong in this layout! I used smaller Prima and Recollections roses as flower centers and added Pazzles cut leaves which I sprayed with glimmer mist. As you can see, I ran out of e's so I used the & sign as my e for my title. I really like how it looks!


I recolored my white doily from the dollar store using walnut ink-love this stuff! I sprayed several layers and used my blow drying to dry between the coats of ink. I wanted the doily to look very dark so that it would stand out against the light colored Best Creations paper.


Finally, I added another smaller flower cluster on the top right corner of the layout. I finished it off with a butterfly and a Zva bling. I also used a few Hero Arts's rhinestones to accent the butterlfy's body. It gives them a finished and elegant look.


My second layout is a more masculine layout as I used the pictures that I took of my youngest baby cousin back when he was only 1 month old in October. I used my own sketch (sketch_26) for this layout. I rotated the sketch and broke up the picture to include 4 pictures instead of 1. I used only one sheet from the Basic Grey's Origin line of paper and cut it into 2x2 squares. Since they are double sided, I turned every other one upside down and machine stitched them to make a quilt for the background. This is a great way to use those double sided papers since they match already!


I made a cluster of flowers, some from my stash and some are Hero Arts, and added little buttons to the centers to make them a bit more masculine. Yes, you CAN use flowers in a boy layout! By adding buttons and using masculine colors you can cluster them and use them in boy layouts. I used a Pink Paislee journaling card and hand wrote my journaling about me meeting the baby for the first time.


Now, I wanted the title to scream boy-literally! I cut out the letters from a piece of cardboard and distressed them with white paint and Tim Holtz ink. I used 7 buttons to make the letter o. I painted some black button's from Bo Bunny's All Stuck up buttons because the black ones were too harsh for a baby's layout. I used Creative Imaginations' paint-love this stuff that I received as a RAK from my good friend Wendy (thanks Wendy!).

Here is the before and after:

I hand stitched them to the letter o and added some ribbon to the center to finish it off. I used my Cuttlebug to cut out two critters for the other two letters- I love these little animals!

ps. In case you are curious, I used 20 buttons in this layout! :)

Well, my last project is a quick card:

I used my cuttlebug to emboss the background white cardstock-I feel that this step gives any card great elegance! I doodled stitches on the Basic Grey paper and added two layers of Martha Stewart punched cardstock. I layered 2 Hero Arts flowers and made a fiber center to soften the card. The sentiment is by My Pink Stamper and can be used for more than one occasion: Birthdays,Wedding, Graduations, etc.

Thanks you for stopping by today! I appreciate each and everyone of your sweet comments!