One year ago today the Hero Arts Blog was born!  WOW!  (Click HERE to go back in time and read the very first post.) Cannot believe it’s been a year already! In appreciation of all of the wonderful stampers (yes, YOU!) who visit our blog, we’ll be celebrating all week long with…

• Special guests!
• A coupon for 10% off the entire Hero Arts Online Store!  Click HERE to start shopping, then use code BLOGBDAY at checkout!  (Feel free to pass it on!)
• LOTS of giveaways!
• A BIG announcement on Friday that you won’t want to miss!
• Daily inspiration…courtesy of our team of Web Artists!

and MORE!

Since the blog is turning ONE, we decided it was only appropriate to feature cards with ONE layer this week. It’s “back to the basics” — we’ll be letting our stamps and inks really shine!

Let’s get started! Today we’ll be showing how two Web Artists used the same set (Clear Design Hello Circles) and came up with completely different looks for their single layer cards.

First up is Kandis Smith with a card fit for a party — what a fun and happy design!  Kandis says, “Creating a one layer card is so much fun! Use color and texture to add more dimension to your card! The felt flowers and smooth clear gemstones really pop off the card surrounded by all the circles of color. Add machine stitching around some of your circles to create a ‘layered’ effect without all the time of cutting out!”

Card by Kandis Smith

Supplies:

• Clear Design Hello Circles
• Clear Design Circular Designs
• Clear Design Thoughtful Messages
• Long White Notecards
• Primary Elements Ink Queue
• Memories Black Ink
• Summer Felt Flowers
• Smooth Clear Gemstones

Tips from Kandis:

• Pick one Colorbox Chalk Queue and use only those colors. They are sure to coordinate and give your card some *pop*!
• Machine stitch around some of the circles. This makes the card feel that it has more layers than it really does. Plus it gives it that “homemade” feel.

Next, Kelly Rasmussen created a stunning one layer card with masked circles in soft, soothing tones.  Kelly says, “I believe this is the first one layer card I have ever made. And even though it has a much more simple look than a multi-layered card, I found it took much more planning and attention to detail than cards I normally make. I couldn’t hide any mistakes with another layer of paper. The masking technique worked perfect for these circle images to create a pattern across the card. And I just love the soft feel of the shadow inks! It was really fun to create a simple card that puts so much focus on the stamps.”

Card by Kelly Rasmussen

Supplies:

• Clear Design Hello Circles
• Clear Design All Occasion Messages
• Cream Notecards
• White & Cream Art Flowers
• Summer Art Buttons
• Assorted Crystal Gemstones
• Soft Pool Shadow Ink
• Soft Green Shadow Ink
• Soft Sand Shadow Ink

Tips from Kelly:

• When making a mask of an image, stamp it on a post-it note…it’s easy to remove and reposition as needed.
• Curve clear sentiment stamps on your acrylic block to match the design of your card.

Thanks Kandis and Kelly — your one layer wonders are inspiring!

In honor of the blog’s ONE year birthday, the challenge this week is to create a ONE layer card!  Please use just one piece of cardstock as your card base with no additional paper layers.  You can add all the ink and embellishments you wish as long as you keep the paper to one layer.  Sponge, mask, emboss, glitter, and color to your heart’s content — the possibilities are endless!  Please use at least one Hero Arts stamp on your creations and submit them to the Flickr Group by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, April 5.  Include the tag “onelayer” (no space between the words “one” and “layer”) on your contest submissions. Next week we will award the following prizes:

• 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?  Actually, how about LOTS of giveaways?!?!  We’ll be giving away goodies every hour from 9 am - 5 pm PST today, plus one more tomorrow morning!  WOO HOO!  Just leave a comment on this post to enter (one only please), then keep checking back as we announce a random winner each hour!  Tell all your friends so they can join in the fun!

UPDATE:  Hourly winners below!! Winners, we will email you for your mailing addresses and send your surprise goodies out to you!

• 9:00 am PST - We randomly picked lucky #344 to win! Congrats to Karen Lindsay! (March 30th, 2009 at 9:16 am)
• 10:00 am PST - #140,  Sue R. (March 30th, 2009 at 7:54 am) is our second random prize winner!
• 11:00 am PST - Our next prize goes to #447, nancydemond! (March 30th, 2009 at 10:04 am)
• 12:00 pm PST - Hooray for #601, Debra Dukes! (March 30th, 2009 at 11:14 am)
• 1:00 pm PST - This hour’s winner is #33 - Hannah Nicole F! (March 30th, 2009 at 6:37 am)
• 2:00 pm PST - Woo hoo to #709, Nathalia - you’re our next random winner! (March 30th, 2009 at 12:30 pm)
• 3:00 pm PST - Our next winner is #274, Lidia C.! YAY! (March 30th, 2009 at 8:49 am)
• 4:00 pm PST - #19, Judy Jung! Yippee!!! (March 30th, 2009 at 6:27 am)
• 5:00 pm PST - The last random winner for today is #642, Jayne! (March 30th, 2009 at 11:41 am).  Keep those comments coming, as we’re doing one more tomorrow morning…!
• Tuesday Morning - And we drew #982, April Y this morning! (March 30th, 2009 at 5:42 pm)  Congrats!

We’ll be doing blinkie giveaways tomorrow — check the link over in the blog sidebar if you want to get started early!

It’s going to be a ONE-derful week and we’re happy you’re here to celebrate with us!

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Filed under: onelayer

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 4:33 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.