Celebrating Black Crafters - Sheila Harper

Hi friends! Today we are sharing another installment of our monthly series, Celebrating Black Crafters, where we share artwork from Black artists who we'd love for you to get to know. Today our fabulous guest artist is Sheila Harper!

Hello, I’m Sheila Harper, and I love making cards. My husband and I have two sons, one grandson and one granddaughter. Of course, I make cards for them all. I also make cards for friends, extended family, church members, various church ministries, and senior citizens living in nursing homes in our local area.  Mailing or giving away cards brings me so much joy. I began making cards in 2008, two years after moving to Georgia from California. My style is clean and simple. I find it very hard to make any other type of card. Prior to the pandemic, I crafted in person with three groups regularly. Since the pandemic, I craft virtually with my friends, some of whom I met online since the pandemic. The card making community has added so much to my life and for that I am eternally grateful. I want to thank Hero Arts, Dana and Pam for the honor of being the featured artist this month for the Unity Collection. I am on Instagram as @sheharper, and on Facebook as Sheila Harper. My blog is lalacrafts.blogspot.com.

For my first card I used the Hands of Hope Fancy Die. This card represents our country’s flag and the fact that we need to be unified as people living together on this land. The red and blue hearts also stand for our political parties which need to come together to work for all the people and not just to advance one party over another. To create the background, I scribbled three skin colored alcohol markers onto a piece of vellum. I dropped 91% isopropyl alcohol onto the marker colors using a paint brush and moved the alcohol around using the same paint brush. When I was satisfied with the look, I dried the vellum using my heat gun. I cut the vellum and adhered it to my card front. I die cut three hearts from white card stock, using alcohol markers to color one heart red and one blue. I overlapped the hearts as I adhered them to the vellum panel, glued the panel on a card base, and stamped the sentiment which is from the United As One stamp set.

My second card uses the World Goddess wood block stamp. This card acknowledges the beauty and strength in all women regardless of skin color, ethnicity or culture. I cut strips of various shades of card stock representing skin colors and glued them to a card panel. Using black ink, I then stamped the Goddess, personifying the women of the world. I stamped the sentiment from the Power to the People stamp set. Finally, I added gold stars to provide a pop. 

Lastly, my card with the Power to the People stamp set is indicative of the social unrest going on in this country and around the world today. It also evokes memories of past decades of protests in the fight for justice and equality. The messages that can be added to the signs are powerful and impactful. After randomly stamping the image holding the sign, I used alcohol markers to color the images in various skin tones. After coloring, I cut down the panel, attached it to a slightly larger black panel and then glued it to the card base. I then stamped the meaningful messages onto the signs. The final step was to add enamel dots.

Absolutely beautiful work, Sheila! Thank you so much for sharing your inspiration and talent with us!

Please be sure to visit Sheila on social media and give her a follow! She's @sheharper on Instagram and you can also follow her blog. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

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DI817 Hands of Hope Fancy Die (C) -... [ HA ] CM476 United as One - Hero Arts [ HA ] K6457 World Goddess - Hero Arts [ HA ] CM482 Power to the People - Hero Arts [ HA ]