A sunny hello to all…and special Election Day greetings to everyone in the US!  I’m Sally Traidman and I approve the following message. 

Today I’m happy to introduce Kelly Rasmussen, who was my choice for our “Win-a-Day on the Hero Club Blog” week.

Kelly is a talented stamper whose style I really enjoy.  I must confess…it was a tough job to find my buddy because there is sooooo much talent out there!  I sought the help of my fellow bloggers, but I made the ultimate decision myself.  I was looking for someone who shared the same somewhat simple style and design that always seems to show up in my own card making. Kelly’s color palette is also similar…although she doesn’t LOVE pink and orange as much as I do…haha!  Let’s find out a bit more more about Kelly!

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

Kelly:  I love embossing…it gives a stamped image such a crisp, clean look.

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

Kelly:  I use brown on just about every card I make. Love pairing it with different shades of greens and blues.

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

Kelly:  Gems…sometimes a card just doesn’t feel complete without a little bling. :)  Love to color the gems with permanent markers too.

Q4: What inspires you?

Kelly:  I love to browse through a magazine or catalog before I start making a card. It seems to get me in a more creative mode. Home decor magazines, like Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, are great for helping me choose new color combos to try.

Q5: What is your favorite dessert?  (Yum!)

Kelly:  Oh, this is so hard…I have such a sweet tooth! I love coconut cream pie, chocolate chip peanut butter cookies and any type of ice cream dessert. One of my most recent favorites is Apple Dapple Cake. Yum-O!!

Kelly created several cute cards using Hero Arts stamps, and I’ve selected three to show you today.  I used the same stamps as she did and will share three (well actually…four) more cards to give you my spin.

So to kick things off, let’s talk holiday greetings with penguins!  Here is Kelly’s absolutely adorable card featuring the Sparkle Clear Warm Wishes set:

And here is my card featuring the same set:

Featured Supplies:

• Sparkle Clear Warm Wishes
• White Embossing Powder
• Accent Pearls
• Light Blue Gemstones
• Assorted Crystal Gemstones
• Felt Snowflakes
• Other: colored pencils, glitter glue, pop dots, scallop border punch, scallop circle punch, ribbon

Tips on Kelly’s Penguin Card:  I like to add crystal gems to the center of snowflakes for extra sparkle.  Another tip: when using white embossing powder, use a fine paintbrush to brush off any excess powder on the card before embossing.

Tips on Sally’s Penguin Card: I love making “tag” cards. They enable you to create a fast, simple card in five minutes. And the pearl embellishments are perfect for winter snow cards!

Next we turned to the Sparkle Clear Cupcakes set to create some birthday cards.  First is Kelly’s sweet card, which I love because of the colors — look at that delicious pink and orange!

Here is my yellow card…but truly…cupcakes look good in any color, right?!

As a bonus, I made an extra non-birthday card using some of the other elements from the cupcake set. The doodled line stamp is so much fun — I use it a lot for borders, strings, frames, etc.

Featured Supplies:

• Sparkle Clear Cupcakes
• Assorted Gemstones
• Accent Pearls
• Spring Art Flowers
• Other: patterned paper (My Mind’s Eye), pink satin ribbon, button, embroidery floss, pop dots, colored pencils, red/pink gingham ribbon, scallop square punch, wavy scissors

Tips on Kelly’s Cupcake Card:  When deciding on a color scheme for a card, I often like to start by choosing a patterned paper and then solid colored cardstocks to match.  Clear stamps make it simple to make a background using any image, as I did here with the repeated “yummy” sentiment.  Also, tiny buttons make perfect centers for the Hero Arts Art Flowers.

Tips on Sally’s Cards:  That little squiggle stamp is very versatile — try curving it on your acrylic block to stamp around a scallop circle! And to get the solid color for the heart, turn the outline heart over and ink the “wrong” side.

Finally, we each created thank you cards with the wonderful DesignBlock Flourish and Clear Design Thank You Messages.  Feast your eyes on Kelly’s beautiful aqua and chocolate creation, which includes her favorite technique — heat embossing.

And here is my take.  I love sending real “thank yous” in the mail rather than an e-mail thanks…it means so much more. Long live the pretty postage stamps!

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design Thank You Messages
• DesignBlock Flourish
• Clear Design Happy Thanksgiving (for bird)
• Sparkle Clear Hello Birdie (for branch)
• Clear Embossing Powder
• Assorted Crystal Gemstones
• Lavender Gemstones
• Other: brown polka dot ribbon (American Crafts), aqua permanent marker (Bic), scallop scissors, scallop punch, circle punch, lavender polka dot ribbon

Tips on Kelly’s Thank You Card:  I love using VersaMark ink and clear embossing powder to create a subtle background. One more tip:  see what objects you might have around your home to use in your stamping.  The curved edge of this card was created simply by tracing the lid of a container.

Tips on Sally’s Thank You Card:  Random stamping with the many thank you stamps in the set makes a great card with no elaborate design.  Kelly’s favorite embossing technique gives it a classy look.

Enabling alert!  Just like yesterday, ALL of the stamps featured in today’s cards are available in the Hero Arts Online Store HERE.

Now…how about another giveaway today in honor of our special guest? For today’s prize, three lucky winners will each get a Heart stamp plus Kelly’s favorite embellishment — gems — one package each of Citron and Pink!

To enter, just leave a comment for Kelly here on today’s post.  On Wednesday morning the three random winners will be announced.  [Wednesday update: The winners have been announced HERE.   Do keep leaving comments for Kelly if you like, tho!]

Kelly is a GEM…just like her favorite embellishment!! She created some great cards with her Hero Arts stamp winnings.  It was truly a pleasure working with her. Kelly, I hope you enjoyed your day on the blog!

And here’s a little note from Kelly:  

Winning a day on the Hero Arts blog has been an incredible experience!  Working with Sally was so much fun and I admire her wonderful style.  I am truly honored to be amongst so many talented artists.  Thank you Hero Arts for creating this amazing blog!

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog and guest artist. Don’t forget about this week’s challenge — to create a card inspired by one of the Win-a-Day Contest Winners.  You can find all of the details HERE.  And…for those of you in the US, don’t forget to get out and cast your Election Day VOTE!!!

Filed under: inspiredby

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 4:04 am and is filed under Take Two Tuesdays. 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.