Hello everyone and happy Friday!  Today we have a very special guest with us: Jackie Leventhal, founder of Hero Arts!  Jackie started Hero Arts from her home 35 years ago — wow!  Now that Aaron is working as CEO, Jackie can focus on being the Design Director — the brain behind the all of the stamps.  She is a truly inspirational person and we all love working with her.  Now, meet Jackie!

This is a special time for me, it’s my birthday next week. I received a card today from a friend with stamped hearts and she wrote all round them…fun.candles.happy.special… in all these many years (don’t ask how many) I have never seen a card as wonderful…the color, the spirit, the message! Stamps are so special and every time you receive a new greeting it triggers the heart and you feel like, “this is as good as it gets”. That is what is so compelling about making and giving cards. After 35 years of Hero Arts, millions and millions of stamps later, and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of cards later it still feels so good and so special to receive one. Congratulations on the first birthday of our blog. It will keep inspiring and spreading our “secret to life” to so many.

Jackie Leventhal

Thanks so much Jackie!  Happy birthday to you!  (Read more about Jackie HERE!)

Now, the Web Artists have a couple more one layer creations up their sleeves!  Sheri Reguly was up for a BIG challenge this week — creating a single layer layout!  The phrases “one layer” and “scrapbook layout” don’t usually go together…but after looking at Sheri’s single layer page, you’ll wonder “why NOT?!” It’s incredible!!  Feast your eyes on her ONE-derful design…

Layout by Sheri Reguly

And here’s Sheri with more:  “I believe this is the first single layer layout I’ve ever created. It was quite the challenge for me, as I’m a big fan of patterned papers, matting, and layering stamped images. I couldn’t resist embellishing my page with a bold strip of ribbon to introduce further color, pattern and texture to my page. It was also, along with my photo, the inspiration for my summery color scheme. “

Supplies:

• DesignBlock Four Leaf Grid
• DesignBlock Wallpaper Background
• Clear Design Scallop Borders
• Clear Design Thoughtful Messages
• Clear Design Anytime Messages
• Rose Petals Chalk Ink Queue
• Pumpkin Patch Chalk Ink Queue
• Soft Pool Shadow Ink
• StazOn Jet Black
• Art Flowers Summer
• Card Buttons Summer
• Assorted Clear Circles
• Other: ribbon (American Crafts, Offray), brads (Bazzill Basics), thread, staples

Tips from Sheri:

• I only wanted to stamp a small portion of the Four Leaf Grid Design Block onto my page. I taped off the surrounding areas, applied ink to my stamp, then removed the tape prior to stamping the image onto my white cardstock. This helped create clean lines, and aided in achieving the exact same image on both sides of the layout.
• Strips of ribbon are the perfect solution to separate stamped background patterns and disguise imperfect edges, while introducing subtle pattern and texture to the page.

Next, Tami created a whimsical one layer “bird”day card in honor of the blog turning one, featuring colorful birds all dressed up for the blog party!  Tami says, “This card was so much fun to make — I couldn’t stop masking and sponging!  I found that even though I was limited by paper choices, I could still use my favorites — stitching, Stickles, ribbon…and of course LOTS of stamps!  I will definitely be trying more single layer cards in the future.”

Card by Tami Hartley

Supplies:

• Three Birds
• Clear Design Celebrate All Day (party hat and sentiment)
• Dots
• Clear Design Dot Flourishes
• Wood Finish
• Soft Pool, Soft Green, Soft Sand Shadow Ink
• Shabby Shutters Distress Ink
• Chocolates & Blueberries Chalk Ink Queue
• Diamond Stickles
• Spring Felt Flowers
• Other: colored pencils, twill, sewing machine, corner rounder

Tips from Tami:

• To create a colorblocked look, simply use a sheet of copy paper or large post-it notes to mask off the block areas.
• Make your own patterned paper by sponging shadow ink onto white cardstock.  (I like to apply a little more ink at the edges.)  Then overstamp an image, such as the dots and flourishes here, with the same shadow ink.  When the ink dries the effect will be very subtle…and the patterns will be easy to work with!
• When stitching on a one layer card make the bobbin thread match the color of your card base.  Here, I used brown thread on the top but white bobbin thread so it wouldn’t be as obvious on the inside.

Now…we are excited to introduce a new addition to the Hero Blog and Community: The Hero Hostess!  Hero Hostesses will be selected based on contributions to the Hero Flickr Group discussions and challenge submissions.  In exchange for LOTS of FUN products, these select artists will help make our growing community the best that it can be!  Hero Hostesses are encouraged to enter the weekly challenges to provide inspiration, however, they cannot be selected as winners.  After their three month hostess term is up, they can once again enter contests.  We emailed our first selections for Hero Hostess yesterday afternoon, and even THEY don’t know everyone that was selected!  We will announce the hostesses as soon as we’ve heard from everyone.

And how about another random blinkie giveaway!  Just follow the link over in the sidebar where our four blinkies are displayed, add a blinkie to your blog, and then leave a comment on the post HERE to enter!  If you’ve already added one of our blinkies…thank you!  You’re already automatically entered in the drawing!   We’ll announce the random winner on Monday morning.

Finally, we’d like to celebrate Jackie’s upcoming birthday by having a giveaway! Just leave a comment here on today’s post and include a birthday message to Jackie. We’ll randomly select three winners to receive some yummy Hero goodies on Monday.

Thanks for stopping by today!  We’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up the party.  Until then, happy stamping!

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Filed under: onelayer

This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 4:53 am and is filed under Fun Fridays. 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.