Hi! It’s Kelly here and I want to welcome you back to Hero Arts & BasicGrey week! Today’s cards are all about the Little Black Dress collection. And I know it’s Wednesday, which usually means a video, but since we don’t have one we decided to make it up to you and have a bonus two-card day! Double the inspiration!

First up, I created this card using a bunch of the patterned papers from the Little Black Dress 6×6 Paper Pad.  I love the small prints…they are perfect for cardmaking! I topped each square off with a different embellishment, including stamps, rub-ons, stickers and buttons all from this collection. Also, I got the inspiration for the design of the card from one of the sketches included in this month’s challenge.

Here’s a closer peek showing off all those gorgeous embellishments:

Card by Kelly Rasmussen. Find complete supplies and instructions here.

Next up I have a card to share from the sweet and talented Sally Traidman. Here’s what she has to say about her card:

I love all the new neutral papers from the Little Black Dress 6×6 Paper Pad. My daughter-in-law got me hooked on the color gray several years ago and now it has really become “in”. My card is a combination of beige and gray (graige? LOL!) using CG380 Large Flower Pattern for the background, and the elegant “Thanks” from CG381 Special Lace. The coordinating BasicGrey chipboard pieces combine wonderfully with our Art Flowers and Dots for my card embellishment. And of course I had to add a touch of fabric - tulle this time - you know I can’t resist!

Card by Sally Traidman. Find complete supplies and instructions here.

Now how about a giveaway? The wonderful folks at BasicGrey will be giving away a Little Black Dress collection pack plus your choice of two Little Black Dress embellishments!

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. Oh, and ALL of this week’s giveaways will be open through Friday, so be sure to comment on the Monday and Tuesday posts if you haven’t already — more chances to win!

Don’t forget to check out the BasicGrey blog to see what they’ve created today! I hear there may be another stampy giveaway over there!

Jennifer will be here tomorrow to continue on with the Hero Arts & BasicGrey week and we will also announce the winners from the first round of our October contest!

Have a great day!

Hi everyone! It’s Lisa here for Hero Arts & BasicGrey week! I have so much to share with you today, starting with the news you’ve all been waiting for: Little Black Dress and Picadilly are now available in the Hero Arts Online Store — yay! Plus don’t forget, you get free shipping with your purchase of $50 or more through the end of October for US Domestic orders. What could be better?

Now let’s turn to today’s project, featuring the Little Black Dress Collection! I love this collection so much — just like a “little black dress” it truly goes with everything. It also looks fabulous all on it’s own!

Card by Lisa Spangler. Find complete supplies and instructions here.

Now I have to share a little story. See that long border chipboard embellishment? Well, I was sitting at my desk drooling over it (isn’t it gorgeous?) and lamenting the fact that I couldn’t use it on a standard card without cutting it…and then I had a flash of an idea: I could use a Long Kraft Notecard with no cutting needed! And then! I noticed how there was a stamp that matched it and decided to stamp the envelope flap! I love it when things come together like that, don’t you?

Here’s a closer look:

And another discovery — the crosshatch border stamp is super easy to overlap to make a long border — the pattern makes it simple to stamp it as long as you like!

It’s kind of hard to tell, but I stamped the lace flower to create background using VersaMark Dazzle Frost Ink. It adds a subtle shimmer that’s beautiful — no make that dazzling — in person! And what would a Little Black Dress card be without her pearls?

One last thing I wanted to mention: I added the faux white stitches to go with the white embossed message — I think they add the perfect finishing touch! Just a little trick I learned from the super talented Kristina Werner! (Thanks so much, Kristina! By the way, did you hear about her and Jennifer’s Holiday Card Boot Camp?)

Now how about a giveaway? The wonderful folks at BasicGrey will be giving away a Little Black Dress collection pack plus your choice of two Little Black Dress embellishments!

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!

And! Be sure to check out the BasicGrey blog to see what they’ve created! Psssst, I hear there may be a stampy giveaway over there!

Join us here again tomorrow for TWO cards + another great giveaway!

Holiday Card Boot Camp is about to get three new campers!

Congrats to the following winners, randomly selected from all of the comments on Friday’s giveaway post:

• #27 - Lisa M (October 14th, 2011 at 5:39 am) “What a great hope stamp! Thanks for a chance to win a spot in the holiday card boot camp! I hope I win!”

• #143 - Tona (October 14th, 2011 at 1:16 pm) “I love that hope sentiment. Thanks for the chance to win a seat in this class. It sounds fantastic.”

• #185 - Kathy Grimsdale (October 14th, 2011 at 7:37 pm) “I’m always looking for ideas for Christmas cards so I would looooove to win a spot in this class.”

Ladies, please contact us at winner@heroarts.com and we’ll arrange to get you all set up with your free spot in class. Enjoy!

Hi everyone! Tami here, welcoming you to a very special week as we team up with our friends at BasicGrey! We have so much fun in store for you this week, including:

• Cards from several Hero Arts designers here on our blog.
• Even more projects from the amazing BasicGrey design team over on their blog.
• The arrival of the Picadilly and Little Black Dress collections in our online store on Tuesday.
• Plus giveaways on BOTH blogs each day. That’s right…giveaways Monday through Friday, times two!

All of this week’s projects will combine BasicGrey’s fabulous papers and embellishments with coordinating Hero Arts-BasicGrey stamps — specifically, those from the brand new Picadilly and Little Black Dress collections. Today’s card is all about the Picadilly!

Card by Tami Hartley. Find complete supplies and instructions here.

I made this card with one of the sketches for our monthly contest, and used a BasicGrey Designer Chipboard Sticker as the focal piece. The original chipboard sticker was quite large and would have worked perfectly on a scrapbook page, but I thought a little scissor “pruning” would suit the scale of the card. And now I have three smaller flowers to use on another card! I also used papers from the Picadilly 6×6 paper pad, stamping two different patterns from CG382 Fabulous Patterns onto the yellow and green papers. By stamping tone on tone, you can easily mix the patterns without making the overall effect too busy. A cute message from CL553 Hello There completes the card.

Now as promised, it’s GIVEAWAY time! Today the generous folks at BasicGrey will be giving away a Picadilly collection pack plus your choice of two Picadilly embellishments. Yum! What would you pick?

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 commenting, don’t forget to mosey on over to the BasicGrey blog to see what their talented designers have cooked up today, and enter the giveaway there too! (Rumor has it there may be some stamps up for grabs!)

Thanks for stopping by, and we’ll see you tomorrow for more inspiration with BasicGrey!

Happy Friday, stampers! Thanks for joining me for this week of sketchy goodness! I have so much to share with you today, starting with a limited edition cling stamp.

This limited edition cling stamp, “with hope anything is possible”, is now available for ordering right here in the Hero Arts Online Store.

Use it whenever you want to send a message of hope, or for the “Hope You Can Cling To” card drive that Splitcoaststampers is hosting for the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center to benefit those affected by breast cancer. And you can win great prizes, too — find out more. And even better? Hero Arts will donate 100% of the profits from the sale of this stamp to charities that fight breast cancer.

Next, how about a giveaway? Today we’re giving away not one, not two, but THREE seats in Holiday Card Boot Camp with Jennifer McGuire, Kristina Werner, and friends! Here’s a bit more about the class:

Have you taken a peek at your calendar recently? The holidays are just around the corner! We’re here to help you check hand crafted holiday cards off your to-do list!

Join Jennifer McGuire, Kristina Werner and 12 of their most talented friends as they walk you through how to create your own 2011 holiday card in Holiday Card Boot Camp. Whether you’re hoping to create a card that includes photos, a newsletter, a gift card or more - you’re sure to be inspired. This class includes easy to mass-produce cards, 16 videos, card sketches, and stamping and cardmaking techniques.

Holiday Card Boot Camp runs November 7-21, but all content will always be available after signing up! This fabulous class is only $29 and includes many prizes, along with discount codes to favorite online stores.

For more class information or to register, click here.

Just leave a comment here on this post by 8:00 pm Pacific time on Sunday, October 16th, and we’ll draw three random winners for a spot in class! (If you’ve already purchased the class, a refund will be provided.)

And one last thing before I go…it’s time to announce our first $50 Wish List Shopping Spree of the month!! Congratulations to Anne Bubash, whose September 12 blog comment was randomly selected from all of the September comments. Anne, please email us at the winner’s address located over in the sidebar and we’ll get you all set up to shop. For a chance to win one of next month’s shopping sprees, simply join the Hero Club (it’s free!), then comment here on the blog throughout the month of October. Each comment you leave gives you a chance at the prize!

Whew! That was a lot of info. Better take a break and stamp. :o) I’m hoping everyone enjoys the weekend! We look forward to seeing you on Monday for an inspiration-packed week (and giveaways galore) as we team up with one of our favorite companies.

Until then, enjoy!!

Hello!  It’s Social Club Thursday!  Today we are paying tribute to the humble circle.  We love circles. Circle punches, circle dies, circle shaped stamps… you name it, we love it.  So, we searched through our Flickr pool, and found some lovely cards that featured circles as an integral part of the design.  And here they are…

First up, Heather Maria D, with this adorable circle themed owl card and matching bookmark.  We LOVE the huge goggle eyes, fabulous woodgrain and lovely mix of Autumnal colors on these beauties Heather. Totally cute!

Next, wteresa15 with her sweet Halloween window card featuring stamps from our Owl-oween set.  The circular window adds so much to this design… how clever is the white embossed spider and web on that acetate. Genius!

And finally, paintingeyedoc (Trinh) who used a simple circle to highlight her sweet winter house from the Wishes Come True set.  Such a lovely clean and simple design here.

Ladies, as always, we thank you for sharing your amazing creative talents 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 our current contest is well underway. It’s time to get Christmassy…

Upload your cards to our Flickr pool, tagged with October2011A by 11:59pm (Pacific time) tonight to be eligible to win in Round 1 of the contest. After tomorrow, change the tag to October2011B.  Good luck!

Happy stamping,

Hi everyone, thanks for coming back to the Hero Blog!

I’ve got one last SKETCH to play with today and this one is a doozy!!! I’ve checked out the cards that are popping up in the Flickr Group using all the sketches… and I just have to say… you all are amazing!!!

I chose to keep things calm and quiet with whites, creams but with a bit of BLING!!! By using the Holly Background and embossing folder it’s just a hint of texture that I wanted.

Card by Shari Carroll. Instructions can be found here.

I have a video for you today to help you tie some of the popular style bows that we use.  I thought it might come in handy as everyone starts gearing up to make their holiday cards.

I’ll be back Friday with some super duper fun stuff!

Enjoy!!

Hello and welcome back to the blog!

Yesterday I promised to show you the card I am making for my personal 2011 Christmas cards.  Of course I went with a neutral theme, it’s just what I’m attracted to :o), but you could easily switch it up and use bright holiday colors. I started with one of our October Sketches (but turned the card to vertical).

I wanted to create a card that I can reproduce in quantity, so that means a clean and simple design (but with details).  I used the Holiday Background stamp for two reasons; to put a message on on my card plus add a rich background.

Here’s a peek at the snowy scene details.

The Envelope Pattern stamped with Soft Pool ink works perfectly for a sky!

Card by Shari Carroll. Instructions can be found HERE.

The Holiday Background stamp happens to be one of my new favorites for Christmas.  I look at it not only as a terrific background image but it can also be used for individual greetings! With that said, I’m happy to tell you that it is our Stamp of the Week!!! That means you get 25% off this week only!! To sweeten the deal, all US domestic orders of $50 or more from the online store qualify for FREE SHIPPING now through the end of the month! (No promo code required for either offer.)

Thanks for joining me today.  I’ll be back tomorrow with a final sketch and video.

Enjoy!!

Hello Everyone!!!

Shari Carroll here to share some Sketchy FUN with you!!!  As part of this month’s challenge, we have come up with a few sketches for you to play with.  I will be exploring the possibilities with them all this week.

This first sketch card was totally inspired by THIS Tami Hartley card.  I love the offset space to work with.  And the colors…Ooolala.. that comes from THIS Kelly Rasmussen card. (These girls both ROCK!!!).  I’ve pulled out a nice mix of our Designer Papers and was able to incorporate non-holiday items for a holiday card.

Here’s a close-up of the resist trees.  Very simple!!

Oh and… I’m in LOVE with our Large Pearls!!!

Card by Shari Carroll.  Complete instructions can be found HERE.

Have you started making your holiday cards yet?  With all the great stamps and accessories from Hero, it’s just so hard to decide where to start.  I will be back tomorrow to show you my personal 2011 Christmas card. Hmmm… can you guess what colors I’ll use???  :o)

Enjoy the day!

Happy Friday! I’ve had a wonderful time sharing with you this week, but now I’m ready for the weekend! How about you, do you have any fun weekend plans?

Before I get to today’s cards, I have some good news to share.  You’ve asked, and we’ve listened!  We now have the option to subscribe to this blog via email.  Look over in the Blog Tools section of the sidebar.  And as always, thanks for including our blog in your day!

All week I’ve shared cards that included a tree as part of the design. I thought I’d keep that theme going with today’s post. I have a couple of beauties to share with you, created by some wonderfully talented guest designers. First, a card from Mariana Grigsby, featuring the lovely tree from Joy of the Christmas Season.  I love how she used all of the different colored pearls and gems to decorate her tree!

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

Next is a card from Joy Taylor.  The way she inked the Sparkling Holiday tree is just beautiful!

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

I hope you’ve enjoyed all of the holiday tree inspiration this week.  Now how about some pumpkin carving this weekend? 

Happy Stamping!