Hello and welcome to Social Club Thursday!  With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, today we thought it would be fun to highlight some of the fabulous St. Patty’s creations that were shared over on Flickr as submissions to last month’s contest.  So green!  So festive!  So fun!!

Clockwise from the upper left corner, these wonderful cards were created by:  cess.thotts (view the card HERE), hands-paper-scissors (HERE), louisemorcharlton (HERE), judy1223 (HERE), wardn85(Nancy) (HERE) and dustypenny (HERE).  Thank you ladies, you are welcome to display our Social Club blinkie on your blog, if you have one!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the February contest!  You never know when your creation may show up on this blog!  And speaking of contests, the first round of entries for this month’s challenge are due tonight! Remember, the first round of entries are automatically entered in the second round, so the earlier you enter the more chances you have to win.  Click HERE for all the details. If you miss tonight’s deadline though, no worries — you have until March 25th to enter. Good luck!

Now it’s time for the 100 Days of Ideas project - today we have another layout for you!  This beauty from Vicki Boutin features fantastic use of color and Hero Arts images for Silhouette.

Scrapbook page by Vicki Boutin.  Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Last month’s Flowers & St. Patrick’s Day Challenge theme was so much fun!  We loved looking through all of the beautiful entries you shared in the Flickr Pool.  Our heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone who participates in our challenges and contributes to the Hero Arts community - you are the best!  We have some exciting news to share about our challenges today, so be sure to read all the way through this post!!  As is always the case, narrowing down to a handful of winners was tremendously difficult, but we did just that.  Without further ado…

Our Fresh Face prize goes to joytaylor1975.  This is just one example of the many fabulous cards she’s shared in her photostream - be sure to check them all out HERE.  Her style is crisp, clean and completely gorgeous.  We’re so happy to have her contributing to our challenges!

The next card is from our Digital category winner, sarahjane4kids (Sarah M).  She didn’t just print out a digital element from our Sketch Tulips Digikit, **SHE PRINTED IT ON CANVAS**!!  Sorry for yelling, but how completely fabulous is that??

And now on to our Fab Five, 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!

We fell in love with the look quilterlin was able to achieve with our Silhouette Vase stamp!  Absolutely stunning use of color!

As we went through this month’s submissions, time and again we’d pause on a card, admiring its beauty, and then find it was yet another breathtaking submission from Agata Dag.  Here is just one of many that we loved!!  Punching out flowers from the stamped Friend Definition is just wonderful - and do I spy snaps in the flower centers??  Such a cute embellishment!

And in the unofficial “why didn’t I think of that??” category, we have mabelscrap and her fantastic flower made from butterfly wings!!  So very clever!  And the blue and pink colors just pop against the kraft background.  Love it!

We all love the stitched look on cards, right?  Well… oh my goodness… would you just look at what ClaudiaS9 did!!?!  She stamped one of our flowers, and then used that as a guide for hand-stitching with embroidery floss!  Such a fun and sweet card!

And finally, since we’re still excited about stitching - WOULD YOU LOOK AT THIS!?!?  Ok, more yelling, sorry - but wow -  mi kasa (Donna) took our Large Cupcake stamp and used it as a template on felt.  Lots of stitching and “sprinkles” and even a “frosting flower” on top!!  So creative and yummy!

Congratulations to all the winners!!  And now the exciting news!  Starting with today’s group of winners, we will be shipping your prizes directly from Hero Arts, rather than from our shopping site.  Why is this exciting for you?  It means there will no longer be any shipping charges associated with your prizes!!  WOOHOO!!  So winners, as always, please contact us at winner@heroarts.com with your address and phone number, and also include your list of $50 worth of product!  You can look through our store HERE to create your list.  Please include “February2010B Winner” in the subject line.

Thanks to everyone who played along this month, your art was incredibly inspiring to all of us!  Remember our March challenge theme, Spring & Easter, is underway!  You can find all of the details HERE.

And before you go… please be sure to scroll down one post and visit with Nancy today!

Happy Stamping,

This simple card can be used for so many different occasions, sometimes “less is more” as Tami so kindly tells me. However…

I know many of you have had this same experience, so I thought I would share my “goof”, well not exactly a goof, but a “wish I had thought about it more” moment. After making this card I looked at it for the longest time and something just didn’t seem right. Well I was out of time, of course (it must be a personality trait of stampers to do things at the very last minute) and it was the simple concept I had sketched, so off it went to the blog post. The very next day I knew what the finishing touches should have been.

After looking at this card in the light of a new day I wish I had used some leaves from the rose stamp or some punched leaves for the branch and the message should have been one of sympathy instead of thanks. So if it doesn’t seem right to you look at the card awhile longer, you are not being too picky and ask your family if they like it after you fix them dinner.

Don’t forget to listen to that little voice we all have and resist the temptation to send off something that is “just ok”.

And now you know how to make the wings look real, from the video yesterday…

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

I can’t wait to see what Spring & Easter cards appear on Flickr for the challenge!

And finally, today I get to show you the second of six previews from the “New for Spring” release, coming soon! The stamps have already begun shipping to stores, and will be available in the Hero Arts Online Store next Wednesday, March 10! Today we see some whimsical birds just waiting to be revealed.

See you tomorrow!

We have a very special Social Club in store for you today! Take it away, Linda…!

Hello and Happy Thursday, Linda aka Oz here with the talented Apronettes, aka Hero Hostesses. The Hero Artists are so terribly busy this week (taking a nap) that they kindly allowed us to host a day (after we locked them in the closet).  So knowing we had an entire blog entry to fill, the Apronettes put their heads together and came up with the idea to make some cards to share with you today using the theme “Tree of Life”.

First off is Hostess Sue.  Sue added extra interest with her textured grass, clever sun and whimsical shaped sentiment.

Card by Sue McRae. Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

Next Hostess Arlene whipped up this hinged card to share.  Arlene very cleverly made the background lighter in places to help show off her tree.

Card by Arlene McClung. Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

Hostess Vera graced us with a scallop shaped card.  She added stitching and the lovely shades of green to make her card so pleasing.

Card by Vera Rhuhay. Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

Next we have a tri-panel beauty from Hostess Suzz, or “Sue with a Z” as I like to call her. Such a great idea and how lovely it would look displayed on a shelf or window sill.

Card by Suzanne Czosek. Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

And my entry, well what can I say, my life is so full that it took three trees…

Card by Linda Metteer. Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

Hostess Jill’s sentiment of “Live Simply” fits this “Simply Beautiful” card to a T. Check out the added dimension with her leaves.

Card by Jill Foster. Click HERE for complete supplies and instructions.

And of course we have a 100 Days card for you today as well!  This sweet card by Jennifer fit in perfectly with the “Tree of Life” theme!

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

Before we go, we want to remind everyone that submissions for the second round of the Flowers & St. Patrick’s Day Challenge are due by 11:59pm (PST) tonight. Be sure and tag your projects February2010B. You can find the contest details right here if you need ‘em! And remember, if you submitted in the first round, you’re automatically eligible for the second round prizes as well, no additional tagging needed.

I, and all the Apronettes, hope you enjoyed our “share” today. Join us at the Flickr group for more inspiration and sharing everyday. We have to let the artists out of the closet now so they’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up Digital Hybrid week. Take care and ENJOY!

Vera, Sue, Jill, Linda, Arlene and Suzz

We’re halfway through the month of February, so you know what that means!  It’s time to announce the winners of the first half of our Flowers & St. Patrick’s Day Challenge!  I know I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but WOW!! That’s really all I can say - WOW!!  With so many gorgeous entries, you are making the selection of the winners a monthly challenge in itself!  If you want to be completely inspired, check out all of the fabulous first round entries in our Flickr pool HERE.

But even though it was close to impossible, we forged ahead and did indeed choose some winners.  We’ll begin with the first Fresh Face for the month - lrmute.  We immediately fell in love with this beautiful and sweet scrapbook page.  The way she incorporated the Poppy Background stamp is just perfect, and she says on her blog that it has flocking on it, so it must be even more gorgeous in real life!  Be sure to check out the rest of lrmute’s photostream, she is an extremely talented scrapbooker!

The Digital category this time goes to AmieMajelle and her beautiful use of this digi Botanical Tulip image.  The effect of combining the colored image with a stamped Dots And Flowers background and a little stitching and ribbon is just gorgeous!

And now on to our Fab Five, 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!

Forgettable27 had the very clever idea of turning one of our Big Cups into a flower pot!  Then she filled that pot with a fun bunch of flowers - love it!!

We loved Anette Hjerpassen’s fun shaped card, beautifully colored Large Flower, and the clever way she attached her leaf to her ribbon “stem”.  Well done!

There were several fabulous St. Patty’s Day cards in the pool, but this one by heather maria really stood out - it’s so completely gorgeous!!  Love how she used Shari’s heart template to create her shamrock, but even better is her use of the Scallop Borders stamp to create the shape of her card!  So smart!

Next is this beauty from paintingeyedoc (trinh)!  Her gradual color change behind the embossed Antique Flower Background is simply gorgeous, and those ribbon flowers - SQUEAL!!!  She included a step by step on how to create those, too!

And finally, this bright and pretty card from kellsterstamps!  She used the Embossed Layered Resist technique to perfection.  What yummy color choices!

Congratulations winners!  Please email us your name, address and phone number with “February2010A Winner” in the subject line and we’ll get your prizes right out to you!  And thanks to everyone who played along this month!  Remember, there’s still plenty of time to get your entry in for the second half of this challenge, which ends next Thursday, February 25! Find all of the details HERE!

We have a little more inspiration for you with our next 100 Days of Ideas card…which features TWO SNEAK PEAKS from the new Designs in Wood supplement. Tami used the new French Writing with Butterfly stamp along with the Swirl Frame stamp to create this gorgeous masterpiece.  The subtle tone on tone stamping of the Swirl Frame on the green paper and the white embossing of the French Writing stamp are really striking!  She topped it off with a French sentiment from the Thank You Sayings stamp set.

Card by Tami Hartley. For supplies and instructions click HERE.

Now, how about another GIVEAWAY!  Just leave a comment on this post to be entered to win the new French Writing with Butterfly image used on Tami’s card above.  We will randomly select a winner from all comments each day this week, and on Saturday we will announce all five winners. And don’t forget, the 26 new Designs in Wood stamps will be available in the Hero Arts Online Store on Monday, February 22nd.

Happy stamping,

Hi everyone!  It’s time for another Social Club Thursday, where we Hero bloggers get to hang out, chat, socialize, and feature some of  YOU talented stampers!  For this week, I went searching through past contest submissions over on Flickr and looked for cards that had a romantic, floral theme.  It was like looking through a yummy box of chocolates — so hard to pick just a few to share — but I finally narrowed it down to three.

First off, I love this romantic floral heart duo by mabelscrap — just look at all little details that she added, from the stitching, to the ribbon behind the butterfly, to the hearts on the wings!

Next up, I just had to feature this sweet bicycle card by Yada-Yada-Yada, because to me there’s nothing more romantic than a bike ride followed by a picnic lunch with my honey.

Love how she switched out one of the baskets from flowers to hearts — too clever! — and how she outlined the bike with the heart basket in white.  And the stitched road?  Brilliant! I’m going to have to try this.

Finally, this frothy floral creation by Paper Girl really caught my eye!  Just look at all the lovely layers she added:

And now I’d like to present the three of you with this brand new Hero Arts Social Club blinkie!  YAY!

Other stampers who have been featured in the Social Club, please accept the blinkie too!  It’s hot off the press!

Thanks so much to ALL of you for participating in the January contest, what wonderful entries!  (And you just never know when they may turn up even after the contest is over…!) Speaking of contests, the first round of entries for this month’s challenge are due tonight! Remember, the first round of entries are automatically entered in the second round, so the earlier you enter the more chances you have to win.  Click HERE for all the details. If you miss tonight’s deadline though, no worries — you have until February 25th to enter. Good luck!

Now it’s time for the 100 Days of Ideas card. This one is by Jennifer — love how she cut out hearts and flowers from the stamped image.

Card by Jennifer McGuire. Click HERE for materials and instructions.

I think it would make a great “guy” card, don’t you?

Hope you enjoyed today’s Social Club!  I’d love to hear from you, and I bet the three featured stampers would too.   So, if you have any questions or you’d just like to say “hi” please do leave a comment.

See you tomorrow, when I have a special guest with a very romantic idea!

Happy hugs,

We’re back to congratulate the winners from the second half of our January Friendship & Valentine’s Challenge.  But first, a huge thank you to everyone who played along this past month.  Your creations were absolutely amazing, and picking just a handful of winners was next to impossible!  We are continually blown away by the amount of talent in our online community!  You can see the latest challenge entries in our Flickr pool HERE.  And remember, the wonderful entries from the first half of the month were still eligible for these prizes, too.  They can be seen HERE.

And now let’s get on with the show… first up is our Fresh Face winner, going to a stamper who has never won a challenge before.  This time we chose carole-ish and her beautiful Scroll Tree card.  This was one of MANY fabulous entries by Carole-ish this month, check out the rest in her wonderful photostream HERE.

When you see mabelscrap’s card, the winner of the Digital category, we can pretty much guarantee you are going to say “oooh” and “aaah”.  The brightly-colored, cut out digital butterflies on kraft background is absolute perfection.

And now on to our Fab Five, 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!

This card by Pocketful of Paper (Julie) was a favorite from the first half of the month!  Such a cute and clever use of the Buttons stamps!

We loved this sweet card from skermit12 for it’s great pairing of images and sentiment!  Fun, fun, fun!!

WOW is the best way to describe this gorgeous card by prospurring (Anne).  Could her background be any more stunning?

This cutie from Deborah (aka Gigi) made us squeal with delight!  It is the ultimate in sweet simplicity.

And finally, this happy little card from hellokitty 40000.  If it’s raining hearts, let’s leave the umbrellas inside and go out and play!!  Such a fun combination of images.

Congratulations winners!  Please email us your name, address and phone number with “January2010B Winner” in the subject line and we’ll get your prizes right out to you!  And thanks to everyone who played along this month!  Remember, the new challenge for February, Flowers & St. Patrick’s Day, is underway!  Find all of the details HERE!

And as if you haven’t been inspired enough, here’s another 100 Days of Ideas card for your viewing pleasure!  It is in keeping with Jennifer’s bold colors theme this week.

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

Happy Stamping,

Three Hostess announcements down, and three to go! Today it’s my pleasure to introduce our next Hero Hostess, Vera Indarti Rhuhay (Vera Rhuhay)!

Vera is from Indonesia and if you’ve spent time over in the Flickr group you already know how friendly, sweet, and supportive she is. Her enthusiasm is contagious and she creates the happiest of cards! I just love everything she comes up with, and today’s card is no exception — I mean, how beautiful is this!? It’s a hybrid card, something Vera does often and does wonderfully, combining traditional stamping (the circular floral image, in this case) with digital elements (the background.)

Complete instructions and a supply list for Vera’s hybrid card can be found right HERE in the Cardmaking gallery.

Now let’s get to know Vera a bit better with a few questions…

How long have you been stamping and how did you get started? I have been stamping for 1 year, I got started last December 2008. I love crafts, like making flannel dolls, making hair pins, and then one day I got some craft magazine about stamping cards, and since that day I fell in love with stamping.

When did you discover the Hero Arts blog and did you leap into the Flickr group right away too? I accidentally found the Hero Arts blog when I read an article in a craft magazine then I browsed on the internet. I didn’t become a Flickr group member yet, but I heart the Hero Arts blog since that day. Until one day I met with Monika Reeck at her multiply site, and she invited me to join in the Flickr group. I have been a member since January 17th, 2009.

What has been your favorite Hero Arts blog challenge so far? Even though I didn’t like the one layer challenge (this is my weakness so far), I have enjoyed every Hero Arts challenge. Because I think this is the way for me to develop my skills. My favorites so far are the shapes challenge and paper piecing challenge!

What is your favorite kind of card to stamp? My favorite is something that is cute, makes someone smile and feel happy.

If you could have one “stamping wish” what would it be? It would be FUN …meeting and stamping together with Hero Arts artists!

Many thanks Vera! We are honored to have you as a Hostess!

Next up is today’s “100 Days of Ideas” card. It’s a beauty from Sally Traidman that shows the wonderful versatility of the Stripes Pattern Cling background.

You can find complete instructions and supplies HERE.

Join us tomorrow when we’ll hand out our fifth apron! See you then…

Today’s the day!  We’re announcing the winners of the first half of our monthly Friendship & Valentine’s theme challenge.  A great big thank you to everyone who has played along so far, the cards and projects have been absolutely fabulous!  You can check out all of the entries from the first half of the month HERE.

First up, our Fresh Face winner morningsunstudio, who submitted three wonderfully watercolored creations.  She says she used Twinkling H2Os, so they must be even more sparkly and gorgeous in person!  We couldn’t decide which one we loved most!

Our Digital Category goes to ..::aga::.. - such a pretty card with the turquoise and kraft color combination, and her beautiful dragonflies look like they’re about to fly off the page!

And as you may have heard, instead of doing 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes like we used to, starting this month we are giving the same prize ($50 Hero Arts shopping spree!) to everyone in our Fab Five.  But boy oh boy was it difficult to choose just five!!  Here they are, in no particular order…

We loved how designs by diana’s pretty in pink creation used such a wonderful array of Hero Arts stamps!  She combined the friendship and Valentine’s themes perfectly on her delightful card.

Next is a colorful and fun scrapbook page by beescraps, commemorating a happy shopping outing with her own good friends. The Starburst stamp makes a perfect embellishment!

And keeping with the friend theme, LysaQ combined bold colors and cute dolls for a wonderful card to send to a friend.

This clean and simple creation from sugarbuffet really caught our eye.  Adding the paper flower and button to the center of the Starburst Lace image is a great touch.  She created another lovely creation with this stamp that you can see here.

And last but most certainly not least,  heather maria - our jaws all hit the floor when we saw this stunner!  She says this is her husband’s Valentine’s Day card, so let’s hope he appreciates all of the time and love that went into creating this beauty!  And could her stitching be any more perfect?

Congratulations ladies, please email us your name, address and phone number with “January2010A Winner” in the subject line and we’ll get your prizes right out to you!

And thanks again to everyone who played along, your creations were so inspiring!  Remember you are still in the running for the second half of the challenge, and new submissions are due into the Flickr group pool by Thursday evening, January 28th, by 11:59pm PST. Remember to tag your new projects with January2010B.

Before we go, here’s some bonus inspiration for you today in keeping with Sally’s theme of hearts…

You can find complete supplies and instructions for Sally’s polka dotted design right HERE…enjoy!

Happy Stamping!

As Aaron mentioned, we have started a new Social Club. As part of the club we will be showcasing you on our open Thursdays.

This week’s Showcase is featuring leni4jjc. I love this heart card, besides being a perfect Valentine card, I love the colors and the use of different patterns; but all within the same color range. This is a “saver card” (as my mother would say) for sure. Just like the green butterflies yesterday on the video, this card shows how much fun you can have using a single color…hmmm, maybe that would make a good challenge.

Check out leni4jjc’s photo stream when you have a chance, there are some beautiful cards!

Card by leni4jjc

And now for our “100 Days of Ideas” inspiration for today…

Card by Shari Carroll

For complete instructions and a supply list click over to the Card Idea gallery HERE.

Remember that our month long theme is Friendship and Valentine’s and the first round of projects are due into the Flickr group pool TONIGHT, January 14th, by 11:59pm PST. Remember to tag your projects with January2010A.

Thanks for stopping by today,