Happy Hopping Thursday My Friends ! ! !

Welcome fans of Hero Arts! Having the honor of starting off Day 4 of this 5 day "Hop of Celebration" is so exciting to me. I have been looking forward to this since I first read the invitation in my email box. I saw Hero Arts and Tami and just knew it had to be good!

So far we have seen some amazing works of art. I have faith that this trend will continue!

Hero Arts is such a customer supportive company that they attract and nurture talented people. Over the last couple of years I have had the opportunity to watch and enjoy the process of learning and perfecting your crafting skills. I personally thank Hero Arts for letting me be a tiny part of that.


The blog hop starts here today with this card that I made using the most beautiful Bird Collage stamp #K5503. Hero Arts has so many wonderful collage style stamps in their catalog, but this one I am sure will be come a classic. The beautiful flowers and strong bird image are only enhanced by the vintage writing and graphic designed gracing the background. I have always been a fan of the etching style of illustration and this bird is no exception. I am glad it is now in my collection of stamps and I can assure you it will taste ink many times over it's lifetime.

I simply stamped the image 3 times and fussy cut out the bird, large flower and both leaf stems. On the "intact" image, I colored everything I was going to layer with grey and brown to enhance the shadow effect. I added a little extra shading on the branch and birds tail also. Then with just the lightest pencil coloring to the cut out pieces, I glued the parts back in place. The only item I used pop dots on was the large flower and that is just one very small piece in the very center. I am very pleased with the final look and I can only hope you are also.

Please remember to leave a comment or two in your travels as it means so much to those you visit and there are prizes to be won! Also if you happen along a broken link, please go back to the Hero Arts blog for the master list of sites to be visited. Then take a moment to contact Tami through her email tami@heroarts.com so we can get that fixed post haste!

This blog hop is in honor of our friend Mike who is battling cancer. The world is simply brighter with Mike in it and ours words can not express our appreciation to Mike as a business partner and friend. The Hero Hostesses will be sending Mike and his family some of the cards shown during this weeks blog hop.

Now it is time to hop on to Donna's wonderful blog and be dazzled and amazed....

Now be off with you and ENJOY your day!!! the Oz