Hello and welcome back to our week of Win-a-Day winners here on the blog.  Today I am thrilled to introduce my pick, Kiara Lee!  I chose Kiara because I am so inspired by her use of pattern and color, and all of the special little details that she includes on her cards.  She is a talented artist and I’m so happy to have her on the blog today.

Let’s get to know Kiara a little better with a question and answer session.

Q1: What is your favorite stamping technique? (Simple stamping, embossing, collage, etc.)

Kiara: I love embossing, both the dry emboss and the heat emboss. Heat emboss gives the stamped image a crisp look and dry emboss created great textures.

Q2: What is your “go-to” color combination?

Kiara: I love to use brown/kraft and pair them with different colors.

Q3: What are your favorite Hero Arts embellishments? (Gems, pearls, buttons, etc.)

Kiara: I would have to say gems and pearls, I love the way they jazz up a card.

Q4: What inspires you?

Kiara: The inspiration is everywhere! I love to browse through home décor catalogs or fashion magazines to help me choose new color combos.

Q5: What is your favorite dessert?

Kiara: I love the Tuxedo Mousse Chocolate Cheese Cake from the Cheesecake Factory! Yummy!

Today I’m going to show you several projects Kiara created for her day on the blog, and then I’ll show some cards I created using the same stamps.

First up is this beautiful layout done in Kiara’s signature combination of kraft plus color and lots of pretty patterns. What a lovely way to document this moment.

(Layout by Kiara Lee)

Featured Supplies:

• DesignBlock Scattered Flowers
• Clear Design Hello Circles
• Clear Design Scallop Borders
• Clear Design Big Circles
• Heart Winged Butterfly
• Heart Flourish
• Light Green Accent Pearls, Hearts Accent Pearls
• Sparkle Gems Blossoms
• Other: patterned paper (Bo Bunny, Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie),  button (Stampin’Up),  flower buttons (Making Memories), American Crafts Thickers Puffy Letter Stickers

Kiara’s Tip: When deciding on a color scheme for a layout, I often like to start by choosing a patterned paper and then solid colored cardstocks to match. I also love to use the black and white photos, so I’m not limited to the colors on the photos.

Now take a look at this wonderful matching card Kiara created using the scraps from the layout above.  The butterfly looks great stamped right on top of the patterned paper…

(Card by Kiara Lee)

Featured Supplies:

• Sparkle Clear Mini Messages
• DesignBlock Line & Flower Pattern
• Heart Winged Butterfly
• Clear Design Big Circles
• Clear Design Hello Circles
• Hearts Accent Pearls
• Other: patterned paper (Bo Bunny), kraft cardstock, button (Stampin’ Up)

Kiara’s Tip: Use the DesignBlock with white ink on the kraft cardstock to create the subtle and elegant background.

Kiara’s next card is full of gorgeous layers and textures that work together perfectly. And the details are outstanding as always.

(Card by Kiara Lee)

Featured Supplies:

• Houndstooth
• Clear Design Shadow Elements
• DesignBlock Outline Flowers
• Hearts Accent Pearls, Small & Medium Accent Pearls
• Art Flowers Spring
• Other: pink flower (Prima), patterned paper (Bo Bunny), brown cardstock

Kiara’s Tip:  Try using gems and pearls on the flower center, ribbon, and button for the final touch.

I love the look of Kiara’s next card.  She really does wonders with that  kraft, brown, and pink combination.

(Card by Kiara Lee)

Featured Supplies:

• Thank You Card
• Heart Flourish
• Hearts Accent Pearls
• Medium Pearls
• Spring Felt Buttons
• Other: pink and brown cardstock, patterned paper (Bo Bunny), pom-pom trim

Kiara’s Tip: I love the look of white ink on the dark color cardstocks, it creates a lovely background.

Kiara’s final card contains a wonderful mixture of elements.  She marries the patterns and images so well and manages to make it look effortless.

(Card by Kiara Lee)

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design Hugs and Hearts
• Clear Design Trees, Birds & Messages
• Small & Medium Accent Pearls, Hearts Accent Pearls
• Assorted Clear Circles
• Other: patterned paper (Making Memories Paperie Rouge & Mocha), twine

Kiara’s Tip: I love to use the 6×6 paper pad when I use the patterned papers to create a card. In the pad, the patterned papers are all nicely coordinated with each other; it saves me a lot of time trying to pick the right papers. The Making Memories and Basic Grey paper pads are my favorites.

Most of you know I like “simple stamping” but Kiara inspired me to spread my wings and try using pattern and color…I love it. Thank you Kiara, for making me take a deep breath and try something new and challenging to me.

Speaking of challenges…for my first card I chose a bold striped paper.  I pulled the color for the stamped butterfly and sentiment directly from the paper and stamped a coordinating envelope to tie it all together.

(Card by Nancy Taylor)

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design Hugs and Hearts
• Heart Winged Butterfly
• Raindrop Background
• Citron Gemstones
• Chocolate Notecard, Lagoon Envelope
• Other: striped patterned paper

Nancy’s Tip:  Cutting out the tiny antenna on a butterfly is challenging at best…so I like to stamp the image directly on the patterned paper then stamp the image again in the same color of ink and cut out the body and wings. After glueing on top of the butterfly, the antenna show from the image underneath.

On this next card I took a cue from the colors Kiara enjoys using…

Does stamping on multiple layers frustrate you because of the unstamped area along the edge? I love the look of stamping on multiple layers so here is how I solved the problem. After glueing the pieces together I use a really small paintbrush and dip the brush into the ink pad I used and hand paint the rest of the image. I left some of the areas unfinished on this sample so you can see the difference.

(Card by Nancy Taylor)

Featured Supplies:

• Heart Flourish
• Clear Design Hugs and Hearts
• Light Kraft Long Notecards
• Neutral Art Flowers
• Assorted Clear Circles
• Hearts Accent Pearls
• Other: patterned paper

If you work in an office sometimes you want to give a card that can sit on a desk, without disclosing the personal message inside…this last card is perfect for that.  It is a single layer with a cardboard easel glued on the back.

The top of the cutout heart holds the “hugs” card closed, so the message is hidden.  Here is how it looks when the “hugs” flap is open…

(Card by Nancy Taylor)

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design Hugs and Hearts
• Houndstooth
• Neutral Art Flowers
• Citron Gemstones
• Other: pattterned paper, easel back

Now it’s giveaway time and you guessed it — we are giving away another exclusive Hero Arts Apron!

All you need to do to enter the drawing is leave a comment on this post by 11:59pm PST tonight (February 26).  Then check back tomorrow morning when I announce the winner.  Good luck!

Kiara, I had so much fun stamping the cards inspired by you.  Thank you for pushing me to try something new — I will definately try it again!  You are such a sweet, wonderful person to stamp with.  Keep on stamping in your special style, and enjoy your day!

A note from Kiara:

 “Winning a day on the Hero Arts blog has been an awesome experience! Thank you, Nancy and Hero Arts for giving me this incredible opportunity. Working with Nancy was so much fun; I really admire her fabulous style! I’m truly honored and lucky to be chosen among so many talented artists. Thank you Hero Arts for this amazing blog!!”  You can view more of Kiara’s work on her blog or in the Hero Arts Flickr Group.

Thanks for joining us today,

PS.  The winners of last week’s Friendship Challenge have been announced — click HERE to see them! There are some truly amazing entries.

Filed under: winaday

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 5:01 am and is filed under You're Talented Thursdays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.