Hello, and happy Monday. It’s Lucy here, and I am here for the week to share some Holiday cards.

Today’s card came about when I was looking lovingly at my Winter Scene stamp, and realised that the trees in the background of this sweet stamp were an exact match to the big tree from the Joy of the Christmas Season set.  I immediately had to create a card combining the two.

Card by Lucy Abrams.  Full supplies and instructions here.

I stamped the big tree on some patterned paper, then watercolored it with Peeled Paint Distress Ink mixed with water. When it was dry, I covered it in Rock Candy Distress Stickles… here’s a close-up to see the soft sparkle, it has a more subtle effect than other glitters and I just love it.

I’ll be back tomorrow to announce the November theme and share an even MORE shiny Christmas card (hint hint).  Until then, have a very happy Halloween.

Happy Friday!  I’m back with one more fabulous designer for the week.

You all know Joy Taylor from the Hero Arts Flickr Group, and I’m sure you love her gorgeous creations just as much as I do! Today she’s sharing a beautiful blue Christmas card. She used no less than five different stamp sets to create this beauty (Can you spot them all? There’s CG324 Holiday Background, CG387 Tiny Flakes, CG391 Jolly Holiday Wishes, CL551 Decorate Your Holidays, and CG119 Flourish Background!). But my favorite part is how she customized one of our poinsettias using alcohol inks to suit her card. Genius!

Card by Joy Taylor. Find complete supplies and instructions here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week with these wonderful designers.  I know I’ve enjoyed sharing them with you!

Have a great weekend…

Hello and welcome to Social Club Thursday! With Halloween just around the corner, we thought we’d share a spooky selection of cards with you today! We scoured our amazing Flickr pool and found lots of fabulously scary cards. Here are a few of our favorites!

Cheironbrandon’s “spooktacular” card features some of our favorite Halloween stamps including Bat Background and Halloween Messages. We LOVE the window and perfect mix of traditional Halloween colors.

Vanessa.1978’s creepy Halloween lantern is made by embossing images from our So Scary set onto vellum. What a fabulous lamp to leave in a window on Halloween night…

And finally, we love these sweet little treat bags Kelley Eubanks created for her son’s preschool class. Such simple yet effective stamping, and so easy to make in multiples. Great idea Kelley!

Ladies, thank you for sharing your creations with us. If you’d like a Social Club blinkie for your blog, send us an email at winner@heroarts.com and we’ll pass it along.

And don’t forget… our current contest finishes tonight.

So make sure you upload your last minute cards to the Hero Arts Flickr pool, tagged with October2011B by midnight PST tonight. We can’t wait to see what you create!

Have a great day,

Today’s guest is someone I’m sure you all know and love - Julie Ebersole. She’s just as talented as she is sweet. Watch her video below and you’ll have to agree - she’s a hoot!

The card she’s sharing is simply brilliant. See those beautifully shaded, glittered trees from 657780 Holiday Cheer? They are a breeze to create!

Card by Julie Ebersole.  Find complete supplies and instructions here.

After watching Julie’s video, I know that you’re itching to get the Holiday Cheer Stamp & Die-Cut Combo into your own hot little hands.  Well you’re in luck!  It’s just so happens to be our featured Stamp of the Week! It’s available for 25% off, this week only, in the Hero Arts Online Store.  Score!

Tomorrow is Social Club, and then I’ll be back on Friday with one more fabulous guest. See you then!

As promised, I’m back today with another talented stamper who consistently wows me with her creativity! Today’s card is from Mariana Grigsby, and it’s a stunner! Her combination of Grenadine and gold is so eye-catching, and I love how she carried the swirl theme from CG211 Magical Background through to the star images from CL469 Swirl Christmas.

Card by Mariana Grigsby.  Find complete supplies and instructions here.

Mariana used one of the sketches we’ve featured as part of the October monthly contest.  Just a reminder, this month you can either use one of our fun sketches, or make a holiday card (or both!) to be entered into the contest. Just be sure to get your Round 2 entries, tagged with October2011B, submitted to the Hero Arts Flickr Group by this Thursday, October 27 at 11:59pm PST!

I also have some happy news before I go!  Big congratulations go out to Sharon Verbeem, the latest winner of a $50 Wish List Shopping Spree! We randomly selected Sharon’s comment from all of the Hero Club member comments left on the blog in September. So be sure to comment (and join the Hero Club!) and you could be our next winner!  Sharon, please send an email to winner@heroarts.com for all the details.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another wonderful stamper, and a video!

Happy Monday! It’s Jennifer here.

One of my favorite things about this great hobby of ours is finding new talent - stampers whose work makes my jaw drop. For the past several months, there have been four girls whose cards constantly deliver inspiration. So what did we do? We asked them to create for Hero Arts and share their great work! This week, I will be sharing cards from them. And I know you will love them.

Today I have a pair of cards from the sweet and talented Cristina Kowalczyk. This girl is so good! First, a cute and simple card featuring our little bird from CL541 Snowman Christmas.

Cristina paper pieced this little cutie! The gel pen stripes on the scarf and the glitter on the tail are the perfect finishing touches…

Card by Cristina Kowalczyk. Find complete supplies and instructions here.

This next card is a great combination of elegant and fun.  The array of embossed snowflakes from CL551 Decorate Your Holidays are sophisticated, but the baker’s twine adds the element of fun!

Another great touch - the gems in all the snowflake centers!

Card by Cristina Kowalczyk.  Find complete supplies and instructions here.

Isn’t she talented?! I am hoping you will see more of her work around here. (Thank you, Cristina!)

Join me tomorrow when another fabulous guest shares her holiday creation.

Though our week with BasicGrey has come to an end, the excitement isn’t over yet — it’s time to give away some prizes!! Thanks once again to everyone who visited and left such nice comments this week. We had lots of fun and hope you did too!

We received nearly 2500 comments this week and with the help of random.org, we picked one comment from each day, Monday through Friday. And here are the lucky winners!

• Monday - #445 Sandi Pressley who said “These papers are so bright and colorful…..the projects made with them would be so happy! I would love to win this collection….thanks for the chance, Hero Arts - you ROCK!” (October 18th, 2011 at 4:50 pm)
• Tuesday- #32 Barbie who said “wow every gal could use a little black dress! I would live to make some beautiful scrapbook pages and cards with that paper!” (October 18th, 2011 at 5:44 am)
• Wednesday - #182 Sue McRae who said “Both cards are so lovely and elegant!” (October 19th, 2011 at 10:39 am)
• Thursday- #374 Karen Rice who said “The Picadilly collection IS so awesome!! I completely agree with you, Jennifer! I am sure loving the Hero Arts and BasicGrey combos! Thanks for the chance to win some beautiful and fun prizes!” (October 21st, 2011 at 1:04 pm)
• Friday - #240 Leni who said “LOVE!!!!this card! All the bright colors..and the flowers..like a memory of summer…mmmm….just what I like!” (October 21st, 2011 at 3:10 pm)

Congratulations!! If you are one of the winners listed above, please email winner@heroarts.com (subject line “BasicGrey Winner”) to claim your prizes.

Have a fantastic weekend,

Hi and welcome back to day 5 of our BasicGrey blog week.

I thought I’d shock you all by creating a card with fresh bright colors. HeeHee… This Piccadilly line of stamps and papers made it so fun and easy for me to work with. I kept my stamping simple by just white embossing on the pattern papers and to alter the message to say just “Hello” rather than “Hello There”.  I used a sketch from this month’s challenge as the base for my design, but changed it up a bit.

I also thought I would  try using markers to color in the leaves of the flower even though it was on orange paper and it worked!

Card by Shari Carroll.  Supplies and instructions can be found HERE.

So what do you say we finish the week with another giveaway? BasicGrey is providing a Picadilly collection pack plus your choice of two Picadilly embellishments today!

Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win! Comments will be accepted until tonight (October 21) at 11:59pm PST, with the winner announced over the weekend. And remember, ALL of our giveaways this week are still open! Here are the daily links:

• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday

And of course, head over to BasicGrey’s blog for more fabulous inspiration and stamp giveaways. Their projects this week have been fantastic! We want to thank our BasicGrey friends for partnering with us for this fun-filled and creative week! Let’s do it again.

Thank you so much for joining us here on the blog this week — we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Happy weekend,

Hi everyone! Welcome back to our week with BasicGrey!

I am so excited because I got to play with one of my favorite BasicGrey lines - Picadilly. It is so fun, fresh and colorful. And to challenge myself a bit more, I decided to not only use one of our sketches, but also go with this month’s theme of holiday cards! Yep, I took the summery Picadilly line and worked it into this holiday card…

Card by Jennifer McGuire. Find complete supplies and instructions here.

By the way, for this card I used the second sketch shown HERE (just turned on it’s side). And the red dotted strip? That was from a Picadilly sticker sheet. And those trees? Those were cut using the dies from the Holiday Cheer stamp + die set. And then I just stamped them with the Picadilly Fabulous Patterns stamp.

Now how about another giveaway? Today we have one of the fabulous Picadilly collection packs plus your choice of two Picadilly embellishments up for grabs!

For a chance to win, simply leave a comment on this post. Comments will be accepted through Friday, October 21 at 11:59pm PST, with the winner announced over the weekend. Good luck!

After you’ve entered the giveaway, don’t forget to take a moment to visit the BasicGrey blog to see some wonderful projects from their design team. There’s a giveaway there too! Stamps anyone…?

Enjoy and be sure to come back tomorrow - we’ve got more BasicGrey goodness to share!

P.S. - Scroll down to the post below to check out the first round winners from our October contest and leave them some love!

Welcome to the first of our October’s winners posts. And what a post it is! We’ve had hundreds of beautiful entries, and have narrowed them down to this fabulous selection of cards. What a feast for the eyes…

Our Fresh Face for this month is Iwona Palamountain. Her adorable holiday card features stamps from our Christmas Reindeer set. What a perfectly designed card with amazingly professional coloring. We just love it!

Our Digital winner is paintingeyedoc (Trinh) who used one of our sketches and our Monster Party digikit to create this fun birthday card. What a perfect creation for a little boy.

And now onto our Fab Five, five of our favorite projects, presented in no particular order. Just like our Fresh Face and Digital winners, every member of the Fab Five will receive a $50 Hero Arts shopping spree.

First, ChristineKartenchaos with this fabulous Christmas card. She has used non holiday stamps in SUCH a clever way… not just those sweet owls, but also those wonderful wooly hats, made out of… sheep’s bottoms! GENIUS!

Next, swanlady21 * Janet, who also used a non-holiday stamp in a brilliant way. By stamping the half circle from Flourish Grids twice, she was able to create the look of an elegant Christmas ornament. Beautifully done!

Jdaydesigns used our Starburst Lace stamp to create this fabulous Christmas wreath card. What a clever and unique way to use this stamp. We were also inspired by Julie’s fabulous masked Christmas tree design, which you can see here.

We love this happy holiday card by momi0314. The snowman from Wonderful Christmas looks so happy sitting on this stylish card.  The mix of patterns works beautifully…

And finally, Virginia L who has used the International Skyline stamp to create this beautiful holiday card. Such stunning inking and clever Liquid Pearls snowflakes. Gorgeous!

Congratulations winners! Please contact us at winner@heroarts.com with your address and phone number, and also include your list of $50 worth of product by Thursday, October 27th. You can look through our online store to create your list. Please include “October2011A Winner” in the subject line. There are also blog blinkies available for all the winners - if you’d like one, please let us know in your email and we’ll send it along as well!

And keep submitting… round 2 of this month’s contest ends on October 27th at 11:59pm PST. Tag entries with October2011B, upload to our Flickr pool and you too could be a winner of a $50 shopping spree!

Good luck and happy stamping,