Hello friends! Today we’re sharing the second batch of winners from our January contest. And I know you’ve heard us say this so many times in the past - how extremely difficult it is to choose just seven winners from so many incredible entries - and this month was the same.  Only worse!!  There were about 350 entries uploaded to the Hero Arts Flickr site for the second half of the contest. And 200+ entries in the first half. Wow!!  You all clearly enjoy making Valentines.

Our first winner is our Fresh Face, and it goes to Chriss Blagrave. We just loved her extremely original use of our Fox. Paper pieced with maps!! So much fun. And her handwritten sentiment is just perfect.

Our Digital category winner is this sweet, happy card from stripey fish! She combined the Flourish Background and Birds & Patterns digikits perfectly. And her fun, bright colors tie it all together!

And now onto our Fab Five, five of our favorite projects, 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.

Our first Fab Five winner, Disp6194, has such a wonderfully unique design! We love her use of color blocking, and the random placement of hearts from our new Sweet Hearts set is a whimsical delight!

There were several lovely entries from lavender&roses - Susanne, all combining the Simple Frame, La Lettre and Untitled Heart stamps with birds. They were all beautiful, making it difficult to decide which one to highlight! So head on over to Flickr and check out the others here and here.

We were blown away by Melania Deasy’s sweet ensemble! Our Newspaper Owl looks fabulous among all the treats. And Melania did a wonderful job with the color challenge! There are detailed photos of all the items in her photostream, go on in for a closer look!

Next is a clean and simple masterpiece from Our Change of Art! The big red heart is such a fabulous pop of color combined with the simply black and white stamped Bicycle.

And we wrap up with another black and white, clean and simple beauty, this time from Simone Naoum. We love how she layered the Etched Medallion. And her addition of the love sentiment from Live Life finishes off this elegant card.

Congratulations winners! Please contact us at winner@heroarts.com with your address and phone number, and also include your list of $50 worth of product by Thursday, February 9th. You can look through our online store to create your list. Please include “January2012B Winner” in the subject line. There are also blog blinkies available for all the winners - if you’d like one, please let us know in your email and we’ll send it along as well!

Our February contest is underway, and first round entries are due in our Flickr pool by next Thursday, February 9 at 11:59pm PST.

We hope you’ll play along, there are a lot of great prizes up for grabs! View all of the details on our contest page.

Thanks for stopping by! Lucy will be back tomorrow to finish up the week!

Hello and welcome to Social Club!  Since this week has been all about ribbon here on the blog, we decided to search through the lovely creations you’ve shared in the Hero Arts Flickr pool and highlight some wonderful uses of ribbon!

Our first fabulous ribbon find was this beauty from MyPinkMexico.  We just love how she wrapped her seam binding ribbon around so many times before tying it off with a big, jaunty bow.  The lace peeking out at the top is pretty fabulous too, as is her lightly stamped Friend Definition background!

Next is a spectacularly fun use of ribbon from crisbj82!  The way she stacked the ribbon on the card is great, but get this - she also dyed the ribbon herself with Distress Inks!  This is a great way to customize plain white ribbon to go with whatever color scheme you’re working with!  We also love to see one of our favorite background stamps, Envelope Pattern, peeking out at the back of the card as well!

And finally, a terrific idea from stampingmathilda!  Storing ribbon on clothespins is an idea we’ve seen before - but stamping on the clothespins first?? SUCH a great idea!!  Godelieve used Thank You Definition on the clothespins - yet another fantastically versatile background stamp.  She created these as little bundles of goodness as gifts.  For the record, I would LOVE to receive this gift!! 

Thank you for sharing these wonderful ideas in the Hero Arts Flickr group!  Mary Dawn, Cristina and Godelieve, as part of being featured here on Social Club, we’d love to give you the Lace digikit, to use in conjunction with your ribbon collections!

Please send an email to the winner’s address located on the sidebar and we’ll get that right out to you.  We also have a Social Club blinkie available if you’d like to add it to your blog to announce you’ve been featured - just let us know!

And last but not least…

We have two $50 Wish List Shopping Spree winners to announce from December! The lucky winners are Judith Blau with her comment on December 14th and Pamela Haskin with her comment on December 27th. Congratulations, Judith and Pamela! 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. Each comment you leave gives you a chance at the prize!

Don’t forget - our second round of the January contest ends tonight at 11:59PST.  Check out the contest page for all of the details!

We’ll be back with more May Arts inspiration tomorrow, see you then!

It’s time to share the first round of winners from the January contest - and let us just say, we loved all of your wonderful creations!  They made our hearts happy!  Looking through them all was like getting a big, inky hug!  Shall I go on?  Ok, how about we just move on to the winners…

First up is our Fresh Face winner, seriayucards (Normah)!  Normah shared several wonderful creations this month (check them out in her photostream!), but this one really stood out with it’s unique blue monochromatic color scheme.  Using the hot air balloon from Past Times makes this a fantastic masculine Valentine!

Momi0314 also had a couple of wonderful entries this month, but we especially loved this adorable mug of happiness.  It features our Cozy Treats digikit, making it our Digital winner this time around!  We also love how she combined the digital element with traditional stamps, including the Newspaper Eiffel Tower background stamp.

And now onto our Fab Five, five of our favorite projects, 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.

Cheironbrandon really wowed us with this clean and simple beauty!  We love how she stamped the image from Four Hearts, and the black and white color combo is used to perfection.

Agata Dag played along with the color challenge, and would you just look at this adorable hot air balloon she created!?  We love the dimension of this card, and love even more the Classic Fabric Design pattern on the balloon!

Next up is Pretty Papers, who used two of the Three People to create a super sweet Valentine!  Sometimes the smallest touches make cards even more special - here it’s the sweet little gem on the heart!

How about a really fun idea that you’re going to want to run to your desk and try for yourself??  That’s how we feel about this super fun use of twine by lalo’s LALA-land!  Stamping the message on an arrow and tucking it into the heart is just genius!

And last but not least, this gorgeous, clean collage design from michellecharity.  Every element is laid out perfectly!  Michelle says she’s infatuated with our new Untitled Heart set - well we are infatuated with her beautiful card!

Congratulations winners! Please contact us at winner@heroarts.com with your address and phone number, and also include your list of $50 worth of product by Thursday, January 26th. You can look through our online store to create your list. Please include “January2012A Winner” in the subject line. There are also blog blinkies available for all the winners - if you’d like one, please let us know in your email and we’ll send it along as well!

I have to tell you - my six year old was looking over my shoulder as I was going through all of the entries so far this month.  He kept saying “Oh! I love that one!” and “That one is really pretty!” and “That one should win, mom!”.  So it’s really too bad he doesn’t pick the winners - you ALL would have won!! 

Remember this month’s contest is still in full swing!  Share the love and get your card uploaded to the Hero Arts Flickr pool by next Thursday, January 26th at 11:59pm PST. Remember to tag them with “January2012B”.  Check out all of the details on our contest page.  We cannot wait to see what you make!

We’ll be back tomorrow with more inspiration from Julie Ebersole! See you then!

Here we are at day 4 of our week-long 2012 Catalog Blog Hop with the Hero Hostesses already — can you believe it?! If Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday left you with a thirst for even more stamping inspiration, you’re in luck because today five Hostesses are all set to bring you a fresh batch of projects using new stamps from the 2012 Catalog!

So how about tasty appetizer before the feast? Here’s a peek at just a few of the fabulous creations you’ll be seeing…

Yep. It’s going to be another filled-to-the-brim-with-goodness kind of day!

Now it’s time to get hopping and see these stamps in action! Sharon Dunn is kicking things off — click here to see what she’s created, then follow the links to each blog.

And remember to leave a little comment love for each of today’s designers as you’re hopping around to increase your chance of winning our giveaways! Three lucky winners will receive a prize pack that includes new stamps from the 2012 Catalog. Leaving a comment on this post gives you one entry, and today we’re adding a twist for a bonus entry! If you go “like” Hero Arts on Facebook, please leave an additional comment letting us know you did so. If you’re already a Hero Arts “liker”, you can also leave a comment to let us know. Thanks!

Hope to see you tomorrow! Same time. Same place. Happy hopping!

P.S. - If you happen to come across any broken links, you can always come back to this post and find links to all of today’s participating bloggers: Sharon Dunn • Kathy Racoosin • Virginia Lu • Sue McRae • Sarah Moerman

Hello and welcome to a new year of monthly contest posts!  I know most of you have put the Christmas things away by now (and I wish I was among you, *ahem*) but today we have to get back in the Christmas spirit just a wee bit longer and share the rest of our December contest winners!  Not all of them have a holiday theme, mind you.  But some do.  And what they all have in common is that they are all fabulous, just like all of the creations you uploaded on Flickr for this month’s contest!

Let’s get this new year started right with a look at our Fresh Face winner, stempeltje1.   We loved this gorgeous, colorful card set Bianca created using several stamps, including the Flower Wreath, Antique Engravings and Papillions butterflies, and the Manuscript Background.  She shared many lovely creations this month, including this beauty from the first half of the contest!

And next is natashakara, our Digital winner!  Natasha created the gorgeous backgrounds, then cut the images out on her Silhouette.  Isn’t it amazing how much fine detail can be achieved on the Silhouette?

And now onto our Fab Five, five of our favorite projects, 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.

The first Fab Five prize goes to sunrin - doreen!  Here she used one of the three featured sketches - she worked with the other ones here and here.  Put them all together and they make a wonderful card set!  And by the way, her use of our brand new Spring Dream stamp? Love!!

So where are the Christmas cards we promised at the beginning of this post?  They begin with Anna-Karin’s gorgeous Greatest Gift card!  She created an entire set of these beauties, each one a little different.  A neutral color palette never looked so stunning!

Next is ctprezzia and her sweet sweet card based on our sketch - we just love how she cut out the images from Merriest Christmas Wishes!  And placing them over the Music Background with a sprinkling of gems is beyond gorgeous!  Clare created several wonderful cards with this stamp this month, be sure to check out her entire photostream!

This next set combines a couple things we’ve already seen today - another wreath, this time Wreath of Leaves, and again the sweet little cardinal from Merriest Christmas Wishes.  But we simply adore how luv2scrapnat combined them together, along with softly stamped snowflakes from Winter’s Butterfly.  The combination makes us swoon, it’s so pretty!

And last but certainly not least, swanlady21*Janet who completely rocked the concept of card sets!!  She turned her set into an amazing advent calendar!!  She used too many different stamps here to name, but isn’t this project flat-out fantastic?? All the way up to her 3D star card at the top of the tree!

Congratulations winners! Please contact us at winner@heroarts.com with your address and phone number, and also include your list of $50 worth of product by Thursday, January 12th. You can look through our online store to create your list. Please include “December2011B Winner” in the subject line. There are also blog blinkies available for all the winners - if you’d like one, please let us know in your email and we’ll send it along as well!

Ok, now we can finally put the Christmas things away and get ready for Valentine’s Day with our January contest and a theme of Love & Hugs & Kisses, as well as a color challenge!

Get your first round entries tagged with January2012A and uploaded to the Hero Arts Flickr Pool before 11:59pm PST on January 12th! We can’t wait to see what you create!

Happy Stamping!

Welcome back to Social Club - our final Social Club for 2011!  As we ring in 2012, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of you who have shared your art in our Flickr pool, shared your thoughts and questions and support and, well, life on our Flickr discussion board, and visited us every day here on the blog.  You are what makes our stamping community great, and we appreciate all of you so very much!

We gathered a few celebratory cards this week as we get ready for the ball to drop into 2012.  First this wonderfully festive card from turleyfamily(Dawn)!  You can almost hear the bang of the fireworks over the Silly Scape skyline as you look at this fabulous creation. But wait. Are they really fireworks? Nope, they are flowers - our Silhouette Burst to be exact.  Oh how fabulous!!

Franziska2010 typed out a sweet and simple message on her My Type typewriter - Happy New Year!

And finally, a happy banner being pulled by our bird and hippo Friends from Sarah Belgium. Hippo found a new hat! So cute!

Thanks for helping celebrate the New Year with us, ladies!  As a thank you for allowing us to post your cards here, we have a little prize for you - The International Scene digikit.  We thought it was appropriate as we thank our Flickr family for a fabulous 2011 - you all share with us from all corners of the globe, and we love that so very much!

Dawn, Franziska and Sarah, please send an email to winner@heroarts.com with “Social Club: New Years” in the subject line, and we’ll get your digikit right out to you.  We also have a Social Club blinkie available if you’d like to add it to your blog to announce you’ve been featured - just let us know!

A quick reminder that the final December contest entries are due tonight, December 29 at 11:59pm PST! Remember to tag them with December2011B.

We’ll see you at Social Club next year!

Ho Ho Ho! We are here to announce the first round of December contest winners and make the holidays even more merry for a few of our wonderful Hero Arts Flickr family members! You’ve made some absolutely wonderful creations for this month’s challenge so far. Choosing just a handful of winners was next to impossible. But select we did, and the winners for December2011A are… drumroll please…

Our first Fresh Face this month is dasa.paperplay! Dasa submitted several fantastic entries, and we loved them all! The one shown here is a pocket card, playing along with this month’s featured technique. We love the warm colors she used with our Silly Scape. Her Christmas Tree card was quite fabulous too - check it out here!

Next up is our Digital winner, which goes to ma.cro! She did such a fabulous job incorporating the tree from Xmas Swirls digikit with the handmade elements of her card. We love how it feels like you’re peeking in through the window at a beautifully decorated Christmas tree. Such fun!

And now onto our Fab Five, five of our favorite projects, 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.

There were so many gorgeous card sets created for the challenge this month, and a couple by eleiphart truly stood out. Emily gets all of the details on her cards just perfect! We love how the colors on Snowing Village are neutral, with a nice pop of red from the bicycle.  Emily says on her blog post for this card that she thinks of Hero Arts when when she thinks of bike stamps. And we pretty much love that!!

Next is another fun pocket card, this time from Heather Maria D! Just look at that furry fabulousness on the mitten!! She knit that from leftover wool she had used years ago on real mittens. Heather says she shouldn’t hoard supplies, but quite honestly we’re glad she does. And of course the Stunning Snowflakes “print” on the mitten makes it over the top fabulous!

Next is a super duper sweet and simple card set from Damask Love. She dressed up the My Type cling set to perfection, we love how it looks all decked out for the holidays!

Are you ready for a stunner? Because the next card from Tina (julmat) is just that! We just love how she die cut the tree and filled the space with glitter! Are you ooh’ing and aah’ing with us or what?? And the stamped Flower Dot Pattern in the background is the perfect finishing touch.

And finally, another lovely card set, this time from walchowDesign. Lai-Yoke repeated her soft, pretty design using Happy Holiday Trees onto such warm and somewhat non-traditional holiday colors. Beautiful!

Congratulations winners! Please contact us at winner@heroarts.com with your address and phone number, and also include your list of $50 worth of product by Thursday, December 29th. You can look through our online store to create your list. Please include “December2011A Winner” in the subject line. There are also blog blinkies available for all the winners - if you’d like one, please let us know in your email and we’ll send it along as well!

This month’s themes - card sets, pocket card techniques and the sketch challenges - are still in full swing!  Entries for this month’s contest will be accepted until 11:59pm PST on next Thursday, December 29th. Get your cards uploaded to Flickr, and remember the new tag December2011B!

Happy Stamping!

Hello and welcome back to Social Club!  How’s everyone doing?  Hanging in there with all of the hustle & bustle of the holiday season?  We know how busy everyone is this month.  So we would like you to stop for a moment, take a deep breath and have a nice hot cup of your favorite beverage with us.  We searched our Flickr pool for some delicious creations to enjoy during our little coffee break!

First up is this gorgeous card from OohLook (Bel).  Our favorite thing about this card is how she cut out the little pots, mugs and spoons from Kitchen Silhouette.  It’s a great reminder that stamps that seem like background stamps don’t necessarily need to be used that way!  And speaking of backgrounds… we love what she did with that, too!

Not a coffee drinker? Then how about a spot of tea?  This little pin cushion made in a teacup from dotukas is really wonderful. Notice how she stamped Scroll Frame and Message on the fabric for the top?! Fabulous.

We’ll leave you with a simple warning from batraplume - drinking six large cups of coffee can have potential side effects! LOL!  But aren’t her ATCs featuring Cup of Coffee fantastic?

We’d like to thank the three of you featured today for sharing your caffeinated creations with us!  Ladies, please send an email to winner@heroarts.com, and include “Social Club: Coffee Break” in the subject line, and we will send you a Hero Arts digital kit, plus a Social Club blinkie for your blog if you would like one. This week, the prize is the Coffee Break DigiKit - to help keep your caffeine buzz going:

And to everyone else, we’re so thankful that you continue to share your creations with us on Flickr!  Keep tuning in to Social Club Thursdays on the blog, you may find  YOUR creation featured here soon!

Before we go, a quick reminder that our current contest is underway!  First round entries are due tonight, December 15 at 11:59PST. But if you don’t make it in tonight, never fear, there’s still round 2!  Check the contest page for all the details, and get your entries uploaded to Flickr!

Tami will be here tomorrow, see you then!

Happy December, everyone! ‘Tis the season for holiday cheer…and a new monthly contest too!

During December, we’re challenging you to create card sets, which of course make wonderful holiday gifts! We also have a sketch challenge, with three sketch options that you can find HERE. And finally, our featured technique for the month is pocket cards — be sure to check out Shari’s fabulous new technique article for one idea that will get those creative juices flowing. Complete details on dates, prizes, and more can be found over on the contest page. We can’t wait to see what you create! The hustle and bustle of the holiday season can be a bit overwhelming, and what better way to relax than by getting a little inky? Enjoy!

Next, it’s time to announce our second group of of November contest winners. Hooray! Our Flickr pool was flooded with gorgeous entries for the contest and as always, selecting winners was a real challenge. Thanks to everyone who entered! Here we go now with our November2011B selections…

First up, our Fresh Face who proves that orange can be a FAB holiday color too! littlemrsp has created this fun tag card with one of our Christmas Reindeer stamps. We love her clean and simple design and she’s added the perfect amount of bling. Such fun!

Our Digital winner is crisbj82, with her pretty, glittery reindeer tag. She used our Swirly Reindeer silhouette digital download, cutting it from some gorgeous patterned paper. Fabulous.

And now onto our Fab Five, five of our favorite projects, 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.

Firstly, michellesielman, who created a number of incredible entries for this month’s challenge! This stunning Christmas card blew us away with its fabulous use of color, bling and glitter. We love everything about it. And check out her adorable peek-a-boo gingerbread man tag too… so cute!

Nancyljk has made this bright and cheery wooden Christmas tag, with stamps from our Tree-Mendous set. All the little details added to this colorful and bright tag really make it shine. Gorgeous work, Nancy!

Next, Smilynstef, whose softly stamped card uses the monthly colors to perfection. It’s wonderful to see such an original holiday card, and our Stunning Snowflake stamp has never looked so good!

This beautiful card by Wteresa15 was inspired by this button tree card by our own Shari. We love the addition of the window, and the wonderfully original choice of lavender for a holiday card. And just look at all that BLING! Yum!

And finally, moonpie creations (Lisa A.). Her fun embellished tag features both a vintage Hero Arts stamp - Needles and Cones - and a new one - Holiday Background, and her embossing is simply beautiful! She even toned down the shininess of her charms with a marker pen to add to the vintage feel…what fabulous attention to detail!

Congratulations winners! Please contact us at winner@heroarts.com with your address and phone number, and also include your list of $50 worth of product by Thursday, December 8th. You can look through our online store to create your list. Please include “November2011B Winner” in the subject line. There are also blog blinkies available for all the winners - if you’d like one, please let us know in your email and we’ll send it along as well!

Happy stamping,

Hello and welcome to Social Club. Firstly, Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends! As we count our blessings on this day of gratitude, we think of you. Thank you for spending time with us here on the blog, and for being a part of this wonderful community of stampers. We hope you enjoy a weekend of celebrations with loved ones… and that you manage to grab yourself some quiet stamping time too!

Every week, our Flickr pool is flooded with all sorts of cards… from colorful to monochromatic, vintage to modern, cute to stylish, collage to simple. Today we thought we’d take a closer look at some deceptively simple looking cards. With their clean design and clever stamping, each of these cards is bound to wow the recipient.

Firstly, Karen from Ontario whose clever use of masking makes this a stand out card. She used markers to color her Earth Flowers stamp, then layered all three images to dramatic effect. Simply beautiful.

Next, eleiphart with this striking floral card. She used a leaf stamp from the Sweet Threads Thank You set to create her flower, and the little knots of baker’s twine make a perfect centerpiece. We love the rounded corners too… such a lovely detail.

And finally, Noonuh, who used a flower from our Pretty Blossom Printable, layered over a simple masked stripe from the Classic Fabric Design stamp. Such a classy layout.