It's a Summertime Picnic with the Hero Hostesses

This is your first stop on Day 3 of our Hero Hostess Summer Picnic Blog Hop. If you'd like to start at the very beginning click HERE to go to the Hero Arts blog.

The Hero Hostesses are sharing some summery cards and our favorite summer picnic recipes. I hope you will have fun, be inspired and find some new recipes to try this summer. And don't forget to leave comments on all the blogs because the wonderful folks at Hero Arts will be awarding a prize to three randomly chosen commenters.  The more comments you leave, the better your chance to win!

If you find a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Arts Club Blog HERE. Also, please report broken links to: blog@heroarts.com.

Now it's picnic time!
For me flying a kite is a requisite summer picnic activity! My father-in-law loves to fly kites. He enjoyed building his own kites. Watching his family flying them always made him happy. What could be better than to lay back in the soft green grass at the park or lean back in a beach chair and watch a kite lazily floating on the breeze?

To make this card I started by blending Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn Distress inks on a piece of white cardstock to look like a landscape. Next I spritzed some Perfect Pearls water on the Dots cling background and stamped just with the water. The Distress ink reacts to the water creating a sparkly dot pattern.

For the kites, I added Hero Arts Mid-Tone Shadow inks directly to my white cardstock. I made a section of Butter Bar and another of Pale Tomato. Once the ink dried I stamped the Kite image from Picnic in Versamark ink once on each color and white heat-embossed them. I cut them out and spritzed a bit more of the Perfect Pearls water over them.

To assemble the card I used cream colored crochet thread for the kite strings and Lawn Trimmings twine to tie to the kite tails.

close up of the shimmery effect of the Perfect Pearls in water.

To make the pearly spray: In a small mister bottle place about a 1/4 tsp of Perfect Pearls powder, then fill 3/4 full with water. Replace the spray lid and tighten it before shaking the mixture well. Now you are ready to make sparkly magic! (See inlinkz list below for the products I used.)

A favorite family recipe for all summer gatherings is Fruit Pizza. For years my sister and I would make dueling fruit pizzas. She is an excellent cook, everything she makes is delicious. Me, not so much but my fruit pizza is always a winner! Our fruit pizzas are very different. Hers has a soft nutty cake-like crust and a filling based on pudding. Mine on the other hand has a sugar cookie crust with a cream cheese and whipped cream filling. She serves hers in a beautiful cut crystal round serving platter; I serve mine in the pizza pan I made it in. If you've been following along with my blog posts about my sister and I none of this will be any surprise to you. It will come as no surprise either that no matter which pizza graced the dessert table there was never even a crumb left behind!

So here's my recipe for a fun summer dessert!

(you can right-click on the recipe to save it if you'd like)

(photo credit)

Now it's my pleasure to send you on to a dear friend of mine who is not only a talented and decorated card-maker, she's a fabulous cook as well! 

I know you will enjoy your visit with Virginia!

Here's the products and supplies I used to make "Life's a Picnic":

InLinkz.com

blessings,
nancy