Welcome BACK!

It’s finally FUN Friday and I have one more Spring Color card to share with you. I made this card for the 2011 Hero Arts catalog using a layered background which is featured as this month’s technique. The Delicate Leaf Clusters are all stamped individually with distress inks. YUMMY!

Card by Shari Carroll. Instructions and supplies can be found here.

Have you started on your new challenge cards yet?  Our challenge started Tuesday and is themed Birthdays, Stamped Envelopes and the Background Layering Technique.  You can find all the details on our March Challenge Page.  The first round of projects need to be submitted by March 17th.  I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

I also want to remind you of our 50 Grand Celebration going on.

We will randomly pick a winner to receive an assortment of goodies from our new Spring Catalog.  See all the details here and enter to win!

I’ve really enjoyed my week with you and sincerely hope you have many springlike days ahead!

Enjoy your weekend!

Hi everyone! We’re bringing you an extra blog post tonight to let you know about some exciting news regarding a significant milestone in the Hero Arts Flickr Group!

Here’s a screen capture from the group earlier this evening. As you can see, we’re getting very, very close to the 50K mark…!

Yes, that’s nearly 50,000 projects submitted by the wonderful members of the Hero Arts Flickr Group — in just under three years! We’re talking in the neighborhood of 1,400 uploads per month. Wow. Wow. And WOW!!

This most definitely calls for a celebration!

To say thank you for all of your contributions to the group, we have lots of “50 Grand” fun planned! For starters, we’re giving away an awesome assortment of stamps and accessories from the newly released Spring Catalog!

The giveaway will be random and here’s how you can enter to win!

• Stamp a new card/layout/project of ANY theme. The only requirements: please use at least one Hero Arts stamp and please have fun.
• Upload your project to the Hero Arts Flickr Group, and be sure to include the tag 50grand.
• We’re not sure how long it will take to reach the 50K mark, but this contest will run until March 13 at 11:59pm PST. We hope this will give everyone plenty of time to enter…and hopefully we will reach the milestone by that date too!
• On Thursday, March 17 we’ll announce the one randomly chosen winner of the Spring Catalog goodies and also highlight some of our favorite cards submitted for the contest in a special Social Club blog post!

Keep an eye on the Flickr Group for even more fun and surprises in the coming days!

Finally, we’d like to say a great big and heartfelt thank you to all Hero Arts Flickr members who so generously share their stamping with the Hero Arts community. You are an inspiration!

I thought I’d finish my week by sharing one more wonderful card by Sally. Don’t you just love the combination of yellow, green and pink.

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

Sally - thank you for being such an inspiration.  And thank you all for sharing my first blog week - I’ve appreciated all your kind comments so much.

And as our current contest is ended, why not create a card inspired by this beauty over the weekend. We invite you to upload your creations to the Flickr Group and tag them with HAinspirationfriday2.

And finally, it’s time to announce our second Wish List Shopping Spree winner for this month! And that is… Loydene Brock. Congratulations Loydene, your blog comment from December 8th  has won you a $50 shopping spree to the Hero Arts Online Store! Please email us at the winner’s address located over on the sidebar and we’ll organize your spree.  Don’t forget, if you are a Hero Club member, every comment you leave here at the blog gives you an opportunity to win. So keep commenting!

Before I go, I wanted to let you know the Hero Arts team will be sending lots of exciting updates from the CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) Winter Show in the next few days! Be sure to keep an eye on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for the latest photos and videos straight from Los Angeles. We’re so excited to show you what we’ve been working on!

Have a happy weekend,

This morning, Lisa shared a fun little out of focus peek at something she cooked up for the new catalog.  Isn’t her sweet little fox the cutest?

This little guy is a Woodblock stamp called E5465 Fox and he’s so much fun to color!  It was one of the very first woodblock stamps we created for the new catalog!  Lisa snapped this photo before she rushed off to UPS to send the card to Jackie for the catalog.  The heart is from CL500 Love Everyday, a fun new Valentine’s set.  And of course we all know and love the Designer Woodgrain from the current catalog!

We have a Social Club post for you tomorrow and one last peek before the big blog hop on Friday!!

It’s time to reveal another card created with brand spankin’ new stamps!  So did this morning’s peek have you smelling flowers?

Jennifer created this card, which features a new Woodblock stamp from the 2011 Hero Arts Catalog called K5486 Flower Swirl Vine.  These whimsical flowers are perfect for birthdays, thank yous, Mother’s Day, or just to send a happy hello like Jennifer did here.  Aren’t the bold colors she used fun?

We’ll be back tomorrow with another sneak peek!

I thought it would be fun to take you on a virtual tour of the entire ordering process of Hero Arts photo cards on Cardstore.com.  This is fun and you will see me open my cardstore package for the first time on camera!

Here is the card in it’s finished state, freshly embellished with a Hero Arts Accent felt kit.  I love the Stickles on the dots within the photo, they add such a nice effect!  Oh, I used a photograph of my beautiful niece Courtney (starving college student),  I thought she might like these to send out to her friends.

Card by Shari Carroll, check out the technique article for more information.

Are you ready?  Here we go…the Hero Arts/Cardstore.com virtual tour!

A quick note, I requested 2nd day Air shipping to rush my order, this video does not reflect the typical $3.50 shipping rates. Thanks!

And now to announce the winner of the Cardstore.com $50.00 giveaway from.  Whoo hoo!

Maureen Morton
Submitted on 2010/10/04 at 7:20am

“I can’t wait to try this nifty combo! Thanks for always being such a sweet inspiration.”

Congratulations Maureen!  Email us and we’ll send you a code for you to use with your next cardstore.com purchase.

Thanks everyone!  I’ll be back on Friday with one last photo card idea for you.

Enjoy,

Welcome back, stampers. I am so excited to be hosting this week’s blog!

It is back to school time again… already! Some have just started back to school and others will be soon. Can you believe it?! I thought it would be fitting to share some back to school projects this week, especially since it fits into our theme.

For today’s project,  I created some school lunch box cards. These are made from cutting a kraft card in half…so they are the perfect size to tuck in a lunch box. What a great way to remind the kids that you are thinking of them while they are at school. For a bit of fun, I stamped each card with white ink and added Glossy Accents to the stamped pieces.

Cards by Jennifer McGuire. For detailed instructions and supplies, click HERE.

I hope these inspire you to create some bright colored notes for your kids. And if you don’t have kids? No worries - just about anyone loves to receive a cheerful surprise.

Now, how about a peek at a card using some new stamps from the Jingle all the Way Holiday 2010 catalog. This wreath is a favorite!

Card by Sally Traidman. For detailed instructions and supplies, click HERE.

Have fun stamping, and I will be back tomorrow with another fun project.

Hugs,

Today’s Idea Friday will highlight some ideas for stamped gifts and cards for Mother’s Day, which is just around the corner.

Necklaces are a perfect gift and are quick and easy to create with inks, stamps and Ranger Memory Frames.

Necklaces by Jennifer McGuire. Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

If you are busy or running out of time, it is a timesaver to simply add a greeting to an existing card that you have created to customize it for Mother’s Day.  Hero Arts has an assortment of greetings suitable for a Mother’s Day card, as shown below.

I Love You Mom (F5186), Happy Mom’s Day (CL334) or (F5184), You’re a Very Special Mom (E5202), Sending Love on Mother’s Day (D5196), I Heart my Mom (D5200) & Grandma…You’re so Special (C5199).

Below are some greeting cards that could have a Mother’s Day greeting added quite quickly. Who wouldn’t like to receive one of these!

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

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

Card by Richele Christensen. Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

Another quick and easy idea is to create a tag for Mom. If your Mom loves to read, give her books and a handmade bookmark created with a tag. The bookmark could be given on its own or you can add it to the front of a greeting card so that it serves two purposes.

Tag by Richele Christensen. Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

Enjoy your weekend,

Lisa Spangler created todays 100 Days of Ideas card using the  Mi Casa stamps. I love Lisa’s attention to detail with the machine stitching and how she cleverly has the bird carrying a heart gem. Too cute!

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

This springy 100 Days of Ideas card by Lisa is a breath of fresh air, from the puffy cloud background to the lush green hill. It’s such a clever use of Designer Woodgrain and shows that the sky’s the limit when it comes to the versatility of stamps!

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