Archive for the ‘Fun Fridays’ Category

Hoppy Easter

Friday, March 12th, 2010

These cute little bunnies from the New for Spring release  just cried out “fuzzy tails” to me.  I found some pom poms in my stash - perfect!  And once again I needed an appropriate greeting, so I stamped out “HOPPY EASTER” from the Cute Uppercase clear alphabet set to “make it work.”  I thought the tiny pearls tied in with the pom poms.

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Card by Sally Traidman.  Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

And Lisa made it work for our 100 Days of Ideas card. She needed to make a grassy hill, so she curved the flexible clear grass stamp to make the shape she wanted. That is what is sooooo cool about clear stamps.

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Card by Lisa Spangler.  Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

Have a great weekend everyone and make part of it STAMPING!

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Just Ducky

Friday, March 5th, 2010

This card was made for a class of students, but I couldn’t resist sharing it with you. I stamped the Cling Dots background and duck in three different colors: Mango dye ink, Cerulean chalk ink and Ruby dye ink. I cut paper in three colors also. Each person got to pick the color combinations they wanted. Some mounted the duck right on the dots and some assembled theirs just like the sample. Everybody had fun adding flowers and gems.

The cards were all beautiful and there was very little mess. By controlling the colors used and keeping the card design simple each person had a great experience. When you are teaching to an undetermined amount of young children with different skill levels and a minimum amount of time, keeping the supplies so they all coordinate will assure the best result.

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Card by Nancy Taylor. Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

The 100 Days of Ideas card was created by Lisa Spangler and uses the same bird stamp set that was shown in the card yesterday. That is the great thing about stamping…the possibilities are endless!

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Card by Lisa Spangler. Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

Today we see some Easter eggs just waiting to be colored peeking out in the preview. The Easter eggs are the third of six previews from the “New for Spring” release which is coming soon! The stamps have already begun shipping to stores, and will be available in the Hero Arts Online Store next Wednesday, March 10! Stay tuned for another peek tomorrow and then more from Sally next week.

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Have a great weekend. I will be around most of the weekend if you have any general questions about stamping or my blog cards I will be happy to answer them here.

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Go Green!

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Hi, it’s Tracy here today, telling you to go green this St. Patrick’s Day with a Big Green Owl, green card, green flowers, green gems and green ink. That is a lot of green! Luckily green is also my favorite color so I am always looking for reasons to use it.

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Card by Tracy Kyle.  Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

Digital stamps are easy to alter by layering images together with pop dots and special touches like glitter. You can even try printing them on different mediums such as watercolor paper, canvas or even a transparency. There are a lot of possibilities.

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I was inspired by this 100 Days of Ideas card that Jennifer created. The cute google-eyed green monster seems to jump off the card because of the dimension added by pop dots and the eye.

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Card created by Jennifer McGuire.  Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

Happy Stamping!

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More Fun with Ribbon

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Happy Friday everyone!  Welcome back to another day of fun ways to use ribbon.

Today I’m thrilled to share this lovely hybrid card that Lucy Abrams created.  Check out that great stitching on the ribbon…such a fun detail to add to a card!  Here’s what Lucy had to say about her card:

“I’m longing for Spring flowers and blue skies, so I chose soft blues and purples for my color palette. The floral background paper is one of the beautiful papers from the Floral Papers Digikit - I just recolored the image in Photoshop to ensure it matched these beautiful violets from the February Flower of the Month Digikit. For those of you who are “Copic-ly Challenged” like me, these pre-colored digi images are simply wonderful; I love the shading, so highlighted it further with a glitter pen. Finally, I added some zig-zag stitching on the ribbon, and finished the card off with two buttons layered on top of each other.”

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Card by Lucy Abrams. For supplies and instructions click HERE.

For the 100 Days of Ideas card today, we have our last SNEAK PEEK from the Designs in Wood supplement. Jennifer’s card features the gorgeous new Hydrangea stamp. I’m amazed at how realistic the image looks…Jennifer did an outstanding job on the coloring! And the ribbon and string bow is a cute finishing touch.

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Card by Jennifer McGuire.  For supplies and instructions click HERE.

It’s time for our last Designs in Wood GIVEAWAY this week! To be entered to win the new Hydrangea image shown in the card above, just leave a comment on today’s post and let us know which Designs in Wood stamp you can’t wait to get your hands on! We will randomly select a winner from all comments received. Be sure to check back tomorrow…I will be back with all FIVE winners of the sneak peek stamps this week!

Happy stamping!

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A special guest: Sally Lynn MacDonald!

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Hi everyone! Please join me in welcoming a very special guest with very romantic project — the super talented Sally Lynn MacDonald!

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Sally Lynn is an instructor for Copic/Imagination International, of Copic Markers fame. I was lucky enough to take a certification class with her back in December in San Antionio, TX!  She is a gem of a teacher and I had so much fun — and learned a ton, too!  I’m so excited to share her wonderful work with you.  Are you ready?  Feast your eyes!

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Wine bottle tag by Sally Lynn MacDonald.

Wow!!!  What can be more romantic than a bottle of wine adorned with such a wonderful tag?  And!  Sally Lynn used masking to create the image for her tag — too clever! Click HERE for all the details and a closeup of the gorgeous tag.  Thanks so much Sally Lynn!

Now for our 100 Days of Ideas, I thought I’d share Jennifer and Sally’s take on the Clear Design Artistic Grapes set.

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Projects by Jennifer McGuire and Sally Traidman.  Click HERE for more.

I can just imagine going to a dinner party and presenting Sally Lynn’s adorned wine bottle to the hostess, along with Sally’s card, then using Jennifer’s wine charms.  Would that just be fabulous?

See you tomorrow when I’ll be back with another romantic idea,

___lisa1

A stampin’ Sunday…

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Hello!

Today is the Super Bowl… will you be stamping?  I know I will.  While watching TV, I like to do some coloring.  Here is a good example of a fabulous card you can stamp and color while watching the game!

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Card by Lisa Spangler.  For supplies and instructions, click HERE.

Have a great day!

___jennifer

It’s a BOLD Friday!

Friday, February 5th, 2010

I am having so much fun with this week’s BOLD color fun, and this month’s Friendship and St. Patrick’s theme. So many things we could do!

Today, I thought I would share an idea for stamping with color AND coloring with color. Usually I stamp with black ink and then color. For this card, I stamped the flower with green and orange and then then colored with green, orange and yellow. It creates a fun, bold look. Also, to be a bit more eye-catching, I heat-embossed the greeting in white on color - I love the look this gives!

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Card by Jennifer McGuire.  For supplies and instructions, click HERE.

And, it wouldn’t be a blog day here at Hero Arts without a 100 Days of Ideas card!  Here is a one I did using the same frame stamp as above, but instead as a frame for a photo.  I also used the same flowers stamps, but instead cut the stems off.  I love finding different ways to use my stamps.

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Card by Jennifer McGuire and photo by Amy Grendell.  For supplies and instructions, click HERE.

Thanks for joining me this week.  I hope you are feeling inspired to go BOLD with your stamped projects.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for another 100 Days of Ideas!

___jennifer

Apron #5!

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Hello and a happy Friday to you all! The Hostess announcements continue today, so now let’s meet our newest Hostess — Linda Metteer (Linda aka Oz)!

Linda brings something very special to our group — a sense of humor! Whether she’s leaving praise for someone’s card, describing her own card, sharing a video, chiming in on a discussion, or telling a story, she makes us smile and laugh. So good for the soul! (For just a taste of her humor, read this card description, ha!) And Linda’s stamping? Not to be missed! She is one VERY talented gal, and has a way with layering images in unique ways. Lucky for us, today she’s sharing a most beautiful card! Take a look…

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Linda’s got supplies and instructions waiting for you HERE in the gallery. Enjoy!

Now here’s a little Oz interview!

How long have you been stamping and how did you get started? I feel very lucky to say that I was introduced to stamping at a very young age. My mother was always creating something and drug us kids right along! She sewed, decorated cakes, quilted, painted, wood carving, sculpture and I am just scratching the surface. I wish I had 1/8th of her talent. What I do have is her ability to apply everything I have learned before to whatever I am doing now. For that alone, thanks mom, love ya!

When did you discover the Hero Arts blog and did you leap into the Flickr group right away too? Just last January I was watching, and loving, Jennifer McGuire’s videos on YouTube. She mentioned Hero Arts and the flickr group several times and posted a link. As soon as I stole… I mean borrowed.. some Hero Arts stamps from my sister I was up and running. I was extremely impressed by not only the talent but the positive attitude that was being expressed by the members of the group. It is still the major reason I am there. I have always found Hero Arts to be a good quality product, but now I know they have a good quality heart behind it.

What has been your favorite Hero Arts blog challenge so far? The first thing that popped into my head was the “SHAPE” challenge. That was so much fun. I truly look forward to all the challenges, every one has made me think and learn to look at my craft in a different way.

What is your favorite kind of card to stamp? My heart beats vintage… I have old distressed blood running through my veins. But I think it is very important to understand and be able to do other styles. Knowledge is the key that unlocks everything.

If you could have one “stamping wish” what would it be? To continue to meet and share the love of this art form with others. AND to laugh…oops that is 2 … and to have a bigger craft room…oh shoot 3… Maybe my one wish should be to have more wishes!

Thanks Linda, for sharing your talent and for bringing lots of smiles to our group!

Before we go, here’s another idea to inspire you today. Sally Traidman used two different backgrounds to create her signature heart and dropped it onto a lovely lilac card with more fabulous stamped patterns. Love it!

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For more information on her card, click HERE.

Thanks for popping by! Be sure to come back tomorrow to find out who our final apron will be going to. Wishing you a happy Friday!

Hearts and Cupcakes

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Remember the cupcake stamp that Shari used?  Well here it is again in our 100 Days of Ideas… only you may not recognize it.  I used only the top of it on this card with all of the other hearts!

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Card by Sally Traidman

You can find the complete instructions and supply list HERE.

I just can’t get enough of that dotted heart!  Here it is again:

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Card by Sally Traidman

When you stamp it on colored, stamped or printed paper, it changes the look entirely!  Click HERE for more information about this card.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more inspiration!

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Five Minute Friday!

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Is it possible to make a card in 5 minutes? Well, this card comes close. After stamping the background paper and the message you need only to add paper flowers, pearls and layered papers.

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Card by Nancy Taylor

You can find complete instructions and supplies HERE.

Some layering tips:

  1. If you are stamping a background that will be seen, start stamping in the middle and work to the outside edges.
  2. Vary the direction of the image.
  3. If only a thin border will show, stamp around the edges of the paper. No need to waste ink by stamping the center part.
  4. Use papers that have stamping boo boos for layering.
  5. Layer pieces of paper that are not symmetrical. Sometimes 3 or 4 little layered pieces of paper with a message or single colored image make a fantastic card.

Today’s second idea comes from Shari Carroll and also incorporates paper flowers and pearls.

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Card by Shari Carroll

You can find complete instructions and supplies HERE.

Enjoy!

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