Hi everyone! It’s Lisa here, ready to kick off a fun week celebrating friendships! I have a TON of different things to share with you, so I wanted a really broad theme to encompass them ALL — so that’s why I chose “friendship”.  Plus, I am so grateful for all the friends in my life! Let’s dive right in, shall we?

I get asked a bunch about how to add color to images with lots of empty space, like the flowers in the Clear Design Artistic Borders Set. So I thought I’d share several ways to do this. One of my favorites is to stamp a background on a notecard, then stamp the flower over it and cut out — easy!  Check out this card I made for my friend Janani — many thanks for always listening, my friend!

All of the flowers were stamped on notecards from the new Sunshine Notecards set that came out in the 2009 Catalog — LOVE them!  So bright and well, sunny…and those new Midnight Black Pearls make the perfect flower center, too.

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design: Artistic Borders
• Woodgrain Circle
• Houndstooth Background
• DesignBlock: Four Leaf Grid
• Clear Design: Thank You Flourishes
• Pool, Lagoon, Mocha, Sunshine Notecards
• Midnight Black Pearls
• Other: Ribbon (American Crafts)

Next, you can use watercolor pencils as a super quick and easy way to add color.  Don’t believe me that watercolor pencils are quick and easy?  Then check out this intro to watercolor pencil video!  I added lots of tips and tricks, so even if you’ve used watercolor pencils before, hopefully you’ll pick up a trick — or two!

Oh and!  That’s a giant blob of Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue in the center of the flower — took forever to dry, but I think it looks neat + is worth the wait!  Plus I have to add that I just love the new Screen Shadow background, it goes with everything.

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design: Artistic Borders (for the flower, it’s HERE in the store)
• Screen Shadow
• Clear Design: All Occasion Messages
• Teal Gems
• Sunshine Notecards
• Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue
• Other: Ribbon (American Crafts), watercolor paper (Canson), watercolor pencils (Derwent, Staedtler)

Finally, it couldn’t be easier to add color to the flower than to stamp it on a notecard.  To keep it from being too simple, dress it up with felt buttons + ribbon like Sally did here!

Card by Sally Traidman

I love how Sally cut the scallops around the flower border — she is just too clever!  And, she’s a great friend who always lifts my spirits.  Sending virtual hugs to you, Sally!

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design: Artistic Borders
• Houndstooth Background
• Clear Design: Card Messages
• Spring Felt Flowers
• Citron Gemstones
• Other: Ribbon

Now, let’s move onto our challenge for this week: simply create a card, project or scrapbook page using at least one Hero Arts stamp celebrating friendship!  Load it up to the Hero Arts Flickr group by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, February 22th. Please include the tag “friendship” on your submission — and as an extra twist, please add a few details about the friendship you are celebrating in the description.  I can’t wait to read them!

• Fresh Face Winner (someone who has not yet won a contest): $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• Scrapbook Page Winner: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 1st Place: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 2nd Place: $25 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 3rd Place: $15 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog

Now, how about a giveaway?  ONE lucky winner will receive TWO packages of the Clear Design Fancy Friendship set — perfect for celebrating friendships –  and TWO packages of Aqua-Flow Brushes as shown in the video — one to keep, and one to give to a friend!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post about friendships. Then, why not send a link to the post to your friends so that they can enter, too? Here’s a “TinyURL” to copy and paste: http://tinyurl.com/bdqfcv

The winner will be announced on Wednesday.

Oh and one last thing!  Our latest supplement just went live — check out this post to see what we’ve cooked up!

Have fun, friends!

Filed under: friendship

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 4:04 am and is filed under Motivation Mondays. 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.