An exciting announcement (someone pinch me) and a card

Hi Stampers! 

It's time to let the cat out of the bag. First of all, this came as a total surprise and I was jumping for joy. It's a dream come true. And I feel honored and flattered. Why? I will tell you in a second. 
But there is a little story behind.

My first stamp I ever purchased after moving to the US was Hero Arts, and I still have it. I instantly fell in love with their designs. I have always looked up the the Hero Arts Creative team, they were example and in a way "idols". I always "wished" to be on the team, but the thought of it was immediately dismissed as something not achievable (I would think, come on, when Stampin' Up! doesn't "want" me on their Artisan Design team, why would Hero want me on theirs lol, no hurt feelings SU!)....Well, little to my surprise on August 1st I received an email from Hero Arts, which actually was an invitation to join the amazing Hero Arts Creative team. Of course, I said YES (not that crazy to not say YES). 

So, I am honored to join the Creative Team and I hope to inspire you with my creations.

Head over to the Hero Arts blog to read the intro ;) where I tell you little bit about me (if you don't know me ;) )

Now that I let the cat out of the back, lets move onto the card I have for you today.  I used the CL865 Color Layering Let Love Grow stamp set in conjunction with the DC151 Hello Stamp & Cut. I used 4 ¼” x 5 ½” piece of snow layering paper to stamp the images form the Let Love Grow stamp set. The ink pad colors I used are: Soft Pool, Tide Pool, Antiqua, Butter Bar, Soft Apricot, Soft Pink, Cotton Candy, Bubblegum, Rose Madder (Bold ink), Fresh Lawn, Lime Green and Unicorn pigment ink. I started building my background by first stamping the largest images, then moving to the smallest. After that I stamped the layering pieces.

After I was satisfied with my background I trimmed it down to 3 ¾” x 5” and set it aside. I cut the Hello sentiment 3 times using PS688 Black Folded Cards. I took one of them and applied Versamark ink directly from the ink pad then embossed it with PW111 Ultra Fine Embossing Powder couple times. Once it cooled down I adhered all 3 die cuts together in order to get more dimensional look.

I cut a thin strip of the same note card I used to die cut the Hello, and stamped the sentiment “ you brighten my day” using Versamark ink, then embossed it with PW110 White Embossing Powder and trimmed to size. Now, that I have all my elements together I assembled my panel and adhered it to a PS688 Black Folded card. To finish it off I added few CH215 Neutral Mixed Accents.