Welcome back to my last day of  Trimmings.  I had a couple questions regarding what I thought trimmings are.  Think of embellishing your projects with paper scraps, snippets of ribbon or lace, left over buttons, etc..  Also consider creating projects that can be used for decorating (trimming) the house for the Holidays. I hope that helps.

Today I’ve incorporated a trimming of the silk flower variety along with an inexpensive photo mat board.  I’ve stamped the mat board then added some printed paper, ribbon, corrugated paper, cardstock and a stamped greeting for the holidays.  This would be great gifts for parents and grandparents.

The layering of the trimmings give a nice texture to the finished project. I’m sure it will get touch a lot, so add some extra glue dots!

Supplies

• Antique Flower Background
• Holiday Cheer
• VersaMark Ink
• White Embossing Powder
• Soft Sand Ink
• Other: Basic Grey Paper, Gemstone Flower (Prima), corrugated paper (The Paper Company), lace, ribbon

Remember you still have until Sunday evening at 11pm PST to get your projects loaded into the Flickr pool.  Be sure to tag your creations with Trimming.  I can’t wait to see them all!  I’ll be back next Thursday to announce the winners of the challenge.

Hi everyone + happy Friday!  I have someone I’d like you to meet with me here today — please join me in welcoming Libby Hickson to the Hero Arts Team!  YAY!  She’s  helping out with the blog — there’s always so much going on that we could hardly keep up.   And!  It’s the perfect week to introduce her, since she truly has a sparkling personality!

Let’s get to know her a little better with five fun questions:

Q1: What is your favorite stamping technique? (Simple stamping, embossing, collage, etc.)

Libby: I love to color, with any and every type of coloring medium.  I would get excited about the box of 64 Crayolas as a kid, and that excitement hasn’t gone away!

Q2: What is your “go-to” color combination?

Libby: Pink and kraft.  I also use red and light blue a lot.

Q3: What are your favorite Hero Arts embellishments? (Gems, pearls, buttons, etc.)

Libby: I’m a collector of gemstones - I cannot get enough of them!

Q4: What inspires you?

Libby: I love to play along with cardmaking challenges, they inspire me to try new color combos, layouts or techniques outside of my comfort zone.  I’ve also made a series of cards inspired by my daughter’s outfits, I call them “From Courtney’s Closet.”  

Q5: What is your favorite dessert?

Libby: Anything that combines chocolate and raspberry, yummmm!

Mmmmm, chocolate + raspberry = YUM!  Now, for more yummy goodness, feast your eyes on this sparkling snowglobe that Libby created, starting with the outside:

I just love how Libby used the Clear Design Decorate Your Own set to create her own patterned paper! And how she stamped on acetate to give the look of snow shaking around inside the globe.

Now, here’s a look at the inside with the front lifted up — check out all the glitter on the snow drifts and on the snowman, including the buttons!

Here’s a closeup of all that glittery goodness!

And now for a closeup of a final sparkly touch — the felt embellishments with glitter!

Supplies:

• Small Snowman
• Clear Design Decorate Your Own
• Clear Design Holiday Sayings
• White StazOn Ink
• Colorbox Chalk Queue - Christmas
• Colorbox Chalk Queue - Winter
• Prisma Glitter
• Diamond Glitter Glue
• Other: acetate, ribbon (Chatterbox), black ink (Memento), cardstock , felt accents, button, linen thread

Libby’s Glittery Tips:

• I borrowed Lisa’s fun tip from Monday and rubbed a little Diamond Glitter Glue onto the blue felt snowflake with my finger - loved that idea!
• Tear paper and then coat the torn edges with super sparkly Prisma Glitter to create snowdrifts.
• My tutorial for creating this snowglobe card can be found on Splitcoaststampers HERE.

Thanks so much Libby! I just love all the fun details on your card, especially the glittery snowdrifts! And stamping your own patterned paper?  Brilliant, my friend!

The jumping off point for my snowglobe card was rubbing glitter on a Medium Accent Pearl — I thought it looked like a snowball.  The card just took off from there, I was giggling when I made it!  Here’s the front, featuring a snowglobe:

That snowman looks all sweet + innocent, doesn’t he?  But wait!  What’s that he’s up to?  Throwing a snowball, I see!

Now for the inside of the card — better duck!

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Now for a few tips on how to make it!

To make the base of the snowglobe, just cut a strip of red paper, then round the corners and add ribbon:

Easy!

To make the snowball for the front, just rub Diamond Glitter Glue on a pearl.

To make the snowball for the inside, rub white cardstock with VersaMark Ink, emboss with Sparkle Embossing Powder, then punch out.  (Or, if you have it, you can punch the snowball out of glitter paper.)  Then create a little accordion folded strip like so:

And adhere it to the inside of the card so that the snowball “flies” out when the card is opened!

This would be a fun card to make in batches as there’s not much cutting or coloring, and it’s sure to make someone smile!

Supplies:

• Small Snowman
• Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue
• Clear Design Lots of Merry (for the message)
• Design Block Stunning Snowflakes
• Medium Accent Pearls
• Sparkle Embossing Powder
• VersaMark Ink
• Hero Arts Blossom Notecards
• Rose Petals Chalk Queue
• Other: circle punches (Marvy — I used the pink case punch for the snowglobe, and the blue one for the snowball), corner rounder punch (EK Success), colored pencils, black marker (Copic multi liner — to draw the lines under the snowballs)

Lisa’s Glittery Tips:

• Rub Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue on pearls to create snowballs.  Why not make a whole pile of ‘em?
• Create your own glitter paper by rubbing cardstock with VersaMark ink and then embossing with Sparkle Embossing Powder.
• Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue also makes great snow drifts!
• And, one last tip — although it’s not glittery — while you have your supplies out, stamp the envelope flap! To stamp just the flap part, slip a piece of scratch paper under the flap and then stamp away.  I like to use recycled copy paper.

Hope Libby and I have inspired you to break out the glitter and enter this week’s challenge!  Click HERE for all the details.

Before you head off to stamp, help me welcome Libby and leave her a comment! I’ll go first — Libby, I LOVE working with you, so glad you’re on the team!  Yay!  We’ve gotta go for cupcakes again soon.  They’re *almost* as good as glitter.

And!  Don’t forget to check out Sneak Peek #2 of the Hero Arts 2010 right HERE. Plus, we’ve also got a super fun Stamp Craft by Sally HERE, and Shari’s monthly technique article HERE!

Have a glittery, sparkly weekend,

It’s Friday and we are on to our final color scheme of the week!

This one will have you thinking of Springtime and Easter but instead we are going to show you how well this works on holiday cards. The cool pastel shades of pink, purples and blues remind me of fresh fallen snow, ice on the windows and a splendidly decorated gingerbread house. The touches of green bring the “holiday” feel together.

Up first is a card I made. This was my first chance to play with the Clear Design: Holiday Dolls! They just couldn’t be any cuter! I did a blocking design here by stamping two different backgrounds and then cutting them into smaller rectangles to piece onto the front of my greeting card. A touch of Christmas cheer was added with a line of clear gemstones.

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Holiday Dolls
• DesignBlock: Grid Pattern
• DesignBlock: Reach for the Stars
• Happy Holidays Greeting
• Clear Gemstones
• Spring Mixed Notecards
• Other: patterned paper, scallop punch, colored pencils

Leslie’s Tips:

• The pink swirly stamped image is actually from a large background stamp that I cut apart after stamping to turn the one swirl in a different direction.
• The gemstones come in a long line, all adhered temporarily together. Pulling the entire line and adhering onto a card allows you to get that uniform straight “border”.

Up next we have a beauty of a card by Tami Hartley. I absolutely love how the color combo worked here and the delicate, feminine touch this card has. That satin ribbon really is a nice touch!

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Decorate Your Own
• Antique Flower Background
• Raindrop Background
• Beautiful Memories
• Memories ArtPrint Brown Ink
• Soft Pool Shadow Ink
• White, Chocolate, Pool & Lime Notecards
• Small Accent Pearls
• Frosted Lace Stickles
• Other: satin ribbon, assorted inks, machine stitching, pop dots

Tami’s Tips:

• Outline each snowflake square with a thin line of Frosted Lace Stickles for added holiday sparkle.
• Mount the strip of snowflakes to the card with pop dots for dimension. If you’d like to keep the design flat for mailing, you could omit the pop dots and ribbon, and replace the pearls with Hero Arts Metallic Decor.

Lisa Spangler just outdid herself with a card sweet enough to eat! I love the scalloped shape of the card and the deer on the front is my next “must have” stamp! Lisa says: “I love playing with different color combos, and when Leslie sent me the scheme for today I did a little happy dance!  I instantly thought of using the Young Deer and making her pink — the rest all flowed from there.”

Supplies:

• Young Deer
• Clear Design: Holiday Cheer
• Snowflake Circle
• Pale Pink Gemstones
• Felt Snowflakes
• White Embossing Powder
• VersaMark Ink
• Zig Glue Pen
• Pool, Lagoon, Wisteria, White & Lime Notecards
• Other: ribbon (American Crafts), pink chunky glitter (Doodlebug), Copic markers, circle and scallop dies (Spellbinders)

Lisa’s Tip:

• To make a circle card like this one, cut two circles of the same size — one for the front and one for the back.  Score the back circle about 1/2 inch from the top.  Then adhere it to the front circle.  It will stand up like a picture frame.

Thanks everyone for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed another day with another fun color combination. I hope you are feeling inspired and encourage everyone to enter this week’s challenge -  there is still time!

Welcome back! In keeping with the week’s simplicity theme, today we have two more simple and fun holiday ideas to share. Let’s jump right in!

I created a card that at first glance looks like a simple gift adorned with ribbon and a small tag with a holiday sentiment. But it has a hidden surprise! Can you guess what it is? Three members of my family “inspected” my card and didn’t figure it out until I told them to “unwrap” the gift.

Pull up on the bow and — surprise — up pops a mini photo tag! Just a fun little interactive touch that’s still simple enough to pull off when creating cards in bulk. My kids think die cutting is a whole lot of fun, so they are happy to help with the die cutting of the label shapes for the pull out tag.

Supplies:

• Antique Flower Background
• Clear Design: Holiday Dolls
• Light Kraft Long Notecards (cut in half to make two cards)
• Garden Notecards
• Memories White Ink
• Memories ArtPrint Brown Ink
• Chalk Ink Queue - Christmas
• Other: ribbon (Cosmo Cricket), tag die (Cuttlebug), label dies (Spellbinders Nestabilitites) twine, foam tape, corner rounder

Tips:

• Adhere the gift box to the card with foam tape along the two sides and the bottom edge so that the tag can slide in and out easily. I used a thin tape that was only 1/8″ thick .
• Printing the photos at 2″ x 2″ will allow you to get six photos on a 4″ x 6″ print.
• Instead of a photo, add a stamped sentiment to the pull out tag. The multiple lined sentiment from the Holiday Dolls set (click HERE to view) would be the perfect size!
• Attach a strip of magnet to the back of the photo tag so the recipient can display it on the refrigerator.

Speaking of tags, how about stamping some simple gift tags once you have completed all of your holiday cards this year? Web Artist Lucy Abrams has designed some fabulously simple hybrid tags to adorn your packages. These penguins are so charming, and I love the way Lucy used them. Lucy says, “I love making my own gift tags, and the new Simple Tags Digikit makes it SO easy. I just printed the tags and cut them out, adding snow with a white gel pen and a stamped sentiment. The penguin images are perfect for Christmas; I added these with pop dots for some dimension.”

Supplies:

• Digikit - HA Simple Tags
• Digikit - HA Penguins
• Clear Design: Holiday Sayings
• Clear Design: Large Christmas Tags
• Silver Metallic Decor
• Other: white gel pen, Making Memories eyelets, Creative Impressions ribbon

Lucy’s Tip: Adding some sparkle is an easy and quick way to make simple projects look like they took ages. Hero Arts’ new Metallic Decor looks great on any Christmas project.

Thanks so much for dropping by today! I hope you’ve enjoyed these quick and easy ideas and are feeling inspired to enter the Simple Holiday Stamping Challenge. There’s still plenty of time to play! Click HERE for full details.

Wishing you a happy Friday and a happy weekend ahead,

Hello and welcome back! Today I have two more torn paper projects to share.

First, this easy to create Christmas card takes advantage of the tearing techniques used on other cards this week. The torn vellum reflects the natural shape of a holiday tree and layering the triangles will allow you to make each card an original.

Supplies:

• Handwritten Christmas
• Green Notecard
• Yellow Gemstones
• Sparkle Gems Large Flowers
• Gold Embossing Powder
• Embossing Gun
• Other: Small piece of brown paper, white handmade paper, green vellum, glue dots, craft knife

Instructions:

1. Emboss the greeting along the bottom of a green notecard.
2. Tear pieces of vellum into three triangles. Cut a piece of brown paper in a small rectangle to form a tree trunk.
3. Arrange the triangle shapes to form a tree, attaching each with small glue dots. Add the brown triangle forming a trunk.
4. Using water and a small paintbrush draw a line on white handmade paper and tear a narrow strip feathering the torn edge using a craft knife (see Wednesday’s video for a demo). After the strips of white paper have dried, attach to the tree in a garland.
5. Add gemstones to cover any glue dots.

Tips:

• The same method can be used to create a wreath, with a ribbon bow on top and a sprinkling of gemstones.
• Attaching the vellum to the card so it cannot be seen can be tricky, so the tree is attached to the notecard under the placement of gemstones.
• Some heavier vellum has a definite grain, so you will want to tear a couple of test strips to be sure the long edges of the tree are torn with the grain (you can always tear the triangles against a ruler and avoid any uneven edges).
• This is another great project for using up different sizes of miscellaneous gemstones. The end of the year is fast approaching…so I am trying my “every year’s” resolution to use my miscellaneous supplies (it never works, I say this every year).

Although hearts are usually associated with Valentine’s Day the colors and poinsettias used on this next card suggest Christmas. If you decide to make this your Valentine card simply replace the message stamped on acetate and add pastel flowers.

The bottom edge of the green card is torn and a strip of gold paper (also torn) is adhered to the  inside of the card, as shown below.

Supplies:

• Beautiful Memories
• Poinsettia Art Flowers
• Yellow Gemstones
• StazOn Jet Black
• Other: Red mulberry paper with gold flecks, gold paper, green notecard, acetate, glue, paint brush and water, ruler

Instructions:

1. Using the paintbrush and water, draw a heart shape on the red mulberry paper and tear. Stamp the message on a piece of acetate and set both pieces aside to dry.
2. Tear away a strip of the front of a green notecard using the ruler as a guide. Tear a piece of gold paper to fit inside the card.
3. Arrange the torn heart on the front of the notecard, add the message and trim the edges of the acetate to match the edges of the heart. Attach the acetate on the edges that will be covered with the poinsettias.
4. Place the poinsettias in the corners, adding yellow gemstones to the center of each flower. Glue a folded poinsettia under the top flower (accessories always look better in odd numbers).

Tomorrow I’ll be back to wrap up the week and announce the vellum giveaway winner from Wednesday’s blog. If you haven’t already entered, just click HERE and leave a comment for a chance to win. And don’t forget, you have until this Sunday, October 25, to submit your cards and projects for the paper tearing challenge, as detailed HERE.

Have a great Friday and I’ll see you tomorrow,

I just couldn’t let October go by without mentioning Breast Cancer Awareness month. My idea all started while flipping through Family Circle magazine while having a pedicure last week. I came across a lovely article about Robin Whitten, who started the Pink Tulip Project. You can read more about it HERE. Then I got the pink ribbon in the mail from the Susan Komen foundation…ok…someone is trying to tell me something…so here is what I did.

I made four tulip cards with our new tulip stamp (from the Three Flowers Cling set) and a clear message set. The first one uses the Komen ribbon on an index card from the office supply store! Love those pastel stripes. AND, since PINK is the breast cancer ribbon color, I HAD to use pink on all of them.

Supplies:

• Clings: Three Flowers
• Clear Design: Everyday Sayings
• Memories Black Ink
• Lime Notecards
• Other: pink and green scraps, tiny safety pin, ribbon, striped index card

Next is a FIELD of tulips like Robin’s dream.

Supplies:

• Clings: Three Flowers
• Clear Design: Everyday Sayings
• White Notecards
• Garden Notecards
• Pink Notecards
• Blossom Notecards
• Memories Black Ink
• Other: sewing machine

Third, a solo tulip set against a plaid patterned background…

Supplies:

• Clings: Three Flowers
• Clear Design: Everyday Sayings
• Memories Black Ink
• Yellow Gemstones
• White Notecards
• Other: scallop die cut, printed paper, ribbon, colored pencils

And for the fourth card, I stamped a row of three cheery tulips.

Supplies:

• Clings: Three Flowers
• Clear Design: Everyday Sayings
• Memories Black Ink
• White Notecards
• Pink Notecards
• Lime Notecards
• Pale Pink Gemstones
• Other: ribbon, watercolors

Maybe this will inspire YOU to send a card to someone who is a breast cancer survivor…and read all about the terrific tulip project, AND be aware of your own body. Go Team Pink!!

Because tulips are my favorite flower, I will give away three of the new Three Flowers Cling stamp sets if you leave a comment here by Sunday, October 18 at midnight PST.

Happy weekend…stay in the PINK.

Hello there and a happy Friday to you all! Today I’m excited to introduce a fun little twist on the week’s topic. We’ll be using Hero Arts digital elements along with the paper piecing technique! I have two hybrid cards (a combination of paper and digital) to share with you today. This is the first opportunity I’ve had to really sit down and play with the Hero Arts digital kits. Such fun!

Onto my first card. I decided to play with the Vintage Skyland Birds digital kit and create a hybrid thank you card. This kit comes with a beautiful, collage-y image that’s perfect to print and use as is. Here’s what it looks like straight out of the kit…

I wanted to use seasonal Fall colors so I played around with the colors in my photo editing program. I recolored them solid green, cream and orange, and put them into a Word document to print, which looked like this…

They looked so pretty, I had a hard time cutting them apart –  but this is paper piecing week after all so I grabbed my scissors and started snipping. From the orange piece, I cut the postage stamp frame and the text strip along the right hand side. Then I roughly tore sections of the image from the cream and green pieces.

After lots of  inking, distressing and layering, my tag was complete. I added the tag, some book text, and a sentiment to an ivory card with a subtle stamped script background. Here’s how it turned out…

Supplies:

• HA Digital Kit - Vintage Skyland Birds
• DesignBlock: Old Letter Writing
• Clear Design: Thank You Sayings
• Distress Inks - Old Paper, Walnut Stain, Antique Linen
• Other: cardstock, book text, Caramel Apple Glimmer mist (Tattered Angels), ribbon, twine, machine stitching, pop dots

My next card is a complete 180° from the first — clean, simple and bright. For this one I turned to the True Hearts digital kit shown below. I love the whimsical, sketchy look of these hearts!

Using only black printer ink, I printed the outline design onto white and two shades of pink cardstock.

At this point you could color the hearts…OR…you guessed it…you could paper piece them! That’s what I did. I stamped the Dots pattern on the light pink layer and cut around the outer edge of the heart grouping. Then from the darker pink cardstock I cut the small sections where the hearts overlap and glued them in place. A stamped sentiment from the All Occasion Messages set finishes off the card.

Supplies:

• HA Digital Kit - True Hearts
• Clear Design: All Occasion Messages
• Dots
• White Notecards
• Memories Black Ink
• Rose Petals Chalk Ink Queue
• Other: cardstock,  ribbon, button, string

There you have it — two easy ways to use Hero Arts digital design elements on your paper pieced cards! Just play around and you’ll come up with something uniquely yours. Have fun!

PS - We have a lot going on here on the blog today! Don’t miss the Stamp Craft Extravaganza and the winners of Tuesday’s giveaway below!

Today is my last day with ATC’s, I’m sad to see it end. I’ve had the best time! I’ve called in the girls to help me out today. You won’t believe the talent I’m about to share. For this final day, I’ve decided to go with a Friendship theme to celebrate our first ever Hero Arts ATC swap, plus a couple of the girls did some Holidays because they just couldn’t help themselves.  :o)   Here we go…

I’ve called back our first group of Hero Hostesses along with our current Hero Hostesses to help me with the swap. I am so grateful they could all commit to the task of sorting through and mailing the swap ATC’s. I’ve also asked them to share some of their own artful ATC’s for this last day.  Here they are in alphabetical order…

Cathy

Supplies:

• Pop Stems
• Long Writing Background
• Clear Design: Playful Animals
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Broken China
• Diamond Stickles
• Other: Mint Green Liquid Pearls, white and teal cardstock, (Retired) S3413 Large Harlequin Background Stamp

Deborah

Supplies:

• Sparkle Clear: Hello Birdie
• Clear Design: What’s the Scoop
• Other: ATC, cardstock, Cosmo Cricket patterned paper, Memento & Ranger Distress inks, Signo white ink pen, Copic markers, Doodlebug flower, May Arts ribbon, sewing machine, border punch

Donna

Supplies

• Bird With Holly
• Clear Design: Holiday Sayings
• Other: VersaFine Onyx Black ink, kraft cardstock, Bo Bunny dotted paper, PrismaColor pencils, Inkssentials white pigment pen

Jenn

Supplies:

• HA Spooky Cute Digi Kit
• Clear Design: Happy Halloween
• Clouds
• Other: Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher by Advantus, Ranger Glitz Stickles (Champagne), Bazzill black cardstock, white cardstock, transparency, ribbon, wiggle eyes

Judy

Supplies:

• Clings: Antique Brocade
• Clings: Special Moments
• Take Good Care Greetings
• VersaMark
• Other: mocha and white glossy cardstock, Zing! Brownie embossing powder, metallic ribbon, Fiskars punch, brass beads

Karen

Supplies:

• Bird in Cage
• A Real Wild Poppy (F2897)
• Raindrop Background
• Sparkle Clear: Messages
• Friendship Writing
• Memories Black Ink
• Distress Ink - Peeled Paint
• Chalk Ink Queue - Rose Petals
• Other: crochet trim, paper flower, white gel pen, Tombow marker, Glimmer Mist (Seaglass & Pearl), Moss Green Colorbox pigment ink

Kathy

Supplies:

• Friendship Writing
• Screen Shadow
• Elegant Brocade
• Big Owl
• Lily Pad Greetings
• Woodgrain Pattern

Kelly

Supplies:

• Three Birds
• Clear Design: Friends
• Raindrop Background
• Midnight Black Accent Pearls
• Card Buttons Neutral
• Other: Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Prima flower, string, sewing machine, Copic markers, Spika glitter pens, Kraft cardstock, Making Memories patterned paper

Lin

Supplies:

• Clings: Silhouette Flower
• Take Good Care Greetings
• Other: cardstock, black ink, gems, Brilliance tricolor Peacock ink, Martha Stewart butterfly punch using alcohol inked glossy paper

Lucy

Supplies:

• HA Flutterbies Digi Kit
• HA Poste Deluxe: Love Letters Digi Kit
• HA Papers in Hero Arts Colors Digi Kit
• Clear Design: Everyday Sayings
• Light Blue Accent Pearls
• Memories Black Ink
• Other: Creative Impressions ribbon, kraft ATC, white cardstock, sewing machine, blue thread

Sarah

Supplies:

• Creative Trees
• Antique Flower Background
• Clear Design: Sending Happy Thoughts
• Memories Black Ink
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Peeled Paint, Broken China
• Other: Ranger Mini Mister, Inkssentials white opaque pen, Basic Grey button, twine, sewing thread, white and black cardstock

Tiffany

Supplies:

• Clear Design: C’est Chouette
• Clings: Antique Brocade
• Memories ArtPrint Brown Ink
• Other: Dark Chocolate and Lemon Tart cardstock (Papertrey Ink), Butterscotch ink (Doodlebug), ribbon (Papertrey Ink), Ranger Yellow Diamond Glitter, sea blue, leaf green and orange markers

Tracey

Supplies:

• Sparkle Clear: Scallop Hello Friend
• Other: Bo Bunny paper,white cardstock, black ink, PrismaColor Pencils, brads, sewing machine

Virginia

Supplies:

• HA Friend Definition Digi Kit
• Clear Design: Elephants
• Other: cardstock, black ink, Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Cuttlebug

And now it’s time to announce the winners of the 7 Gypsies giveaway!!! They are…

#129
mabelm said: September 29th, 2009 at 7:36 am
“I’ve never tried an ATC before, this is a fantastic time for it!!! thanks for sharing us those wonderful jobs!!! =)”

#381
Betheroo said: September 29th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
“I love 7 gypsies, and I’m just beginning an ATC class. This is a great giveaway!”

Congratulations! Please email us so we can get your prizes out to you.

I’m looking forward to our first ever swap.  Sign-ups begin today at 11:00 am EST in the Hero Group Flickr discussion area. You never know who you’re going to get an ATC from!

Have a fantastic weekend and I’ll see you soon!

Welcome back! Now that I have you thinking of photos as possible card accessories, here are some ways to add a bit of humor to your Halloween and Fall card projects. From pumpkins to children’s faces, photos can make a card very personal.

The pumpkins and gourds photo on the card below was taken at a local farmers market. If you don’t have a farmers market close to you most grocery stores will let you photograph their winter vegetables and pumpkin displays.

Have you tried using a black permanent marker to make faces on the pumpkins? It is a lot of fun and you can use any kind of face you like. My grandson is off to college so I used a photo of his college mascot to make a Halloween card. I printed a photo of the school logo off the internet, traced around the mascot, cut it out and made a black silhouette on a pumpkin using a black marker. Here, I colored the pumpkins with watercolor pencils and added some green into the mix.

Supplies:

• Tall Pumpkin
• Traditional Pumpkin
• Happy Fall
• Orange Gemstones
• Long Notecards Natural
• StazOn Jet Black Ink
• Other: paper trimmer, green, white and cream cardstock, glue, scissors, watercolor pencils

Instructions:

1. Stamp the pumpkins on white cardstock using a StazOn black stamp pad. Paint the images with watercolor pencils, cut out and set aside.
2. Trim the photo to fit on two layers of colored cardstock and attach the layers together with glue.
3. After attaching the layered photo to the long notecard, add the colored pumpkins. Stamp the message next to the photo and add a line of orange gemstones along the bottom.

This simple photo of a teddy bear can be used for most any occasion. I simply sat the bear on an old baby quilt and click, click I have a bear to decorate for all seasons. The teddy bear photo can be accented for birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas and any other occasion you can think of. I knew there was a reason to save all those stuffed animals in the hall closet.

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Happy Halloween
• Halloween Ink ‘n’ Stamp
• Clear Design: Owl-oween
• Fall Mixed Notecards
• StazOn Jet Black Ink
• Other: orange and white cardstock, paper trimmer, glue, black gingham ribbon

Instructions:

1. Stamp five candy images on orange cardstock. Stamp the hat and broom from the owl set on white cardstock using the black ink pad. After coloring the broom with pencils, cut out the candies, broom and hat.
2. Make slits in the bear’s arms and draw the ribbon through the slits. Tie a knot at each end and add the candies to the ribbon and the hat atop his head.
3. Using the black ink, stamp the message on a piece of yellow cardstock, trim to a small square and mount on light orange cardstock.
4. Arrange the pieces on the card as shown.

Sometimes you have various photos of the same child, yet who could resist both expressions? Include them both and drop the spider stamp down between the photos to add a bit of humor to a Halloween greeting.

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Owl-oween
• Clear Design: Happy Halloween
• Orange Gemstones
• Fall Mixed Notecards
• StazOn Jet Black Ink
• Other: paper trimmer, scissors, glue, fine line marker

Instructions:

1. Stamp spider webs along the top of an orange notecard and add a spider to one web.
2. Trim a wide band of marigold paper to fit across your notecard and attach with glue. Stamp the message below the marigold band.
3. Attach the photos on the marigold band and add a row of orange gemstones next to the photos.
4. Stamp a spider between the two photos. Draw tiny dots connecting the spider to the web.

Tip: I like to do all the stamping first, before adding the photos…just in case.

That’s all for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with the wrap up. Until then, I hope that everyone is having fun with photos. Remember, you have until Sunday, September 27  at 11:59pm PST to submit your challenge entries. (For more information, click here.)

Thanks for stopping by,

Hello and Happy Friday to you! Today we have two more fantastic “before and after” comparisons from our Hero Hostesses. Let’s take a look back in time and see how their stamping has changed…

First, Hostess Lucy Abrams whipped up a beautiful reinvention of one of her older cards. Here she is to tell you more about the process: “When we were set this challenge, I looked back in my photostream and found that the first card I ever uploaded into Flickr was made on September 16th, 2008 — exactly a year ago this week!”

(Click image for a larger view.)

“Since then, the Hero Arts girls have taught me SO much, and I wanted to incorporate some of these things into my new card. I decided to keep them theme of love, and use birds, textured cardstock and pearls, but decided to use my favourite digital image to accompany my chosen stamps. The card has a slight vintage feel, but the digital image makes it more modern and colourful than the original.”

Supplies:

• Vintage Skyland Birds Digital Kit
• DesignBlock: Old Letter Writing
• Clear Design: All Occasion Messages
• Baby Blue Notecards
• Soft Baby Blue Ink
• Memories Black Ink
• Other: cardstock, heart pearls, ribbon (Creative Impressions), die cuts (Spellbinders Nestabilities), pop dots

Tiffany Ervin is another Hero Hostess who has a knack for adding that perfect “something special” to her creations. She’s chosen to remake one of her early cards, which she stamped over a year ago.  Here is her sweet little birdie card…

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(Click image for a larger view.)

And here’s Tiffany to share more about the NEW card she created: “Over the years, my cards have evolved by learning so many new techniques simply from viewing all of the Hero Arts Videos. My earlier cards were very simple, straightforward and with very little layering or emphasis to intricate details. I began to experiment more and yearned to give more definition to my projects……in doing so, I have learned fun techniques such as distressing, embossing, watercoloring, sponging, utilizing single stamps for background stamping, layering, and using fun embellishments to enhance and give dimension to the overall look of your card. I love using some of the smaller wood block stamps to create my own backgrounds as shown on the new card.”

Speaking of the definition Tiffany mentioned, look at the gorgeous details and definition here!

Supplies:

• Heart Flourish
• Heart Winged Butterfly
• Clear Design: Artistic Borders
• Thank You (AR112)
• Medium Accent Pearls
• Ranger Diamond Stickles
• Stazon Jet Black Ink
• Kraft Notecards
• Other:  Red, Bubblegum, and Pixie Dust Ink (Colorbox), white cardstock, textured cardstock (Bazzill), die cuts (Spellbinders Nestabilities), floral white lace trim, fuschia ribbon

Thanks to Lucy and Tiffany for the inspiration today! Both cards have their “signature styles” written all over them. It’s fun to look back and see how our personal stamping styles have evolved…and a year from now it will be even more interesting!

Keep those entries coming for the challenge and have a wonderful day!  I’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week.

See you then,