Let me start off by saying “BRAVO” - you certainly pulled out all the stops for last week’s ‘Beyond Paper’ challenge and I literally spent hours pouring over your amazing creations! I wish every single one of you could be in the winning circle this week because you really went all out with your time and talent! Thanks for continuing to inspire!!!

Now, I’m sure you can guess how hard this was to choose only a handful of winners!

Our fresh face winner for the Beyond Paper challenge is *Geordie Girl* - check out this fantastic stamping creation on her ’sweetie bag’! What kid wouldn’t love to receive this special goodie bag at the end of a birthday party? Congratulations and I hope you will keep contributing to the challenges.

Next up is the winner for our scrapbooking category - congratulations to dancingpeardesigns. I love the stamped stars she created with her die-cutter and some denim!

Our first place winner this week is Alice W. (Aliceh83) for her very cool stamped and embroidered owl keychains. I like how she stamped on the fabric and then used that as her ‘guide’ for this show stopper project!

Second place goes to Stampin Sue for this beautiful card in which she stamped dragonflies on acetate and highlighted with colorful alcohol inks. I really like the effect of the embossed dot paper behind the stamped image - subtle but beautiful!

Third place goes to the very creative leapfroglbna (Laura) who in honor of Easter wow’d us all with her stamping on EGGS! This is not an easy thing to do and I applaud you not only for your effort but also for how pretty your Easter Eggs turned out…they are even adorned with rhinestones! Gotta love that!

There were so many wonderful projects to chose from so of course we had to pick a few honorable mentions:

Quilterlin created a little stamped doll quilt and it turned out so pretty! So much love and work went into it - great job!

Check out this adorable stamped mug by newkidfish (Cathy A) - what a wonderful gift this would make for some lucky recipient! I can’t get over how crisp and colorful the stamping is on the mug. If you look in the comments here you can see how she created it.

Our next honorable mention is Avital Gertner for this crafty card that combines stamped fabric along with stamped buttons! I really like the natural tones of the card and how the fabric along the bottom carries a sentiment.

Winners and honorable mentions… please email the blog with your mailing info (see side bar for email link) and we will get your prizes out to you.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week!

Also, Nancy asked me to relay the following message: “Tomorrow is Friday and we have a surprise in store for you. An international design team has created some projects using this week’s challenge. You will love them!!  Stamping really is the universal language of creativity!”

Hard to believe our week is over already… time surely does fly when you are having fun! I hope you learned some new ideas this week and had fun exploring some new stamping ’surfaces’ in the process! As always, it was my pleasure to host and I am having such a fantastic time pouring over all the talented work by YOU all in the Hero Arts Flickr gallery.

• Monday - We explored stamping on a canvas bag, fabric, foam, and metal.
• Tuesday - Stamping surfaces included fabric, flowers, and sticky back canvas.
• Wednesday - How to stamp on clear buttons (video here),  foam, and ribbon.
• Friday - We stamped on cork, buttons, and frosted glass.

Don’t forget you have until tomorrow (Sunday, April 12th at 11:59pm PST) to enter our random draw to win a fantastic prize. You also have until Sunday night to get your outstanding projects in to the Flickr group gallery for judging!

Thanks again for a fun week!

This week has been a lot of fun. I have learned a lot from all the artists’ work we’ve featured and I hope you have too! Who knew there were so many different things to stamp on? Today I have two terrific cards to show you and a fun little giveaway also!

Robyn Werlich never stops cranking out really fantastic stamped projects. For this week, she created a really sweet baby boy card featuring stamped cork! Cork is wonderful to stamp on and punches out really well with your circle punches (using the thin cork). Robyn also stamped stars on her clear buttons before stitching them in place.

Here are some helpful tips from this talented artist: “When stamping on cork, try using a thicker ink like a pigment or chalk ink. Some dye inks will just absorb into the cork and won’t be visible. Experiment! You can also emboss on cork too!”

Card by Robyn Werlich.

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Precious Baby Boy
• Card Buttons Clear
• Other: Cardstock, brown marker, brown StazOn Ink, brown chalk ink, 1” circle punch, 1 ¼” scalloped circle punch

Jennifer McGuire decided to stamp on glass.  There are many ways to do this, but she chose to emboss with white on frosted glass.  So very easy to do! I am completely mesmerized by this pretty card - it is beautiful!

Card by Jennifer McGuire.

Supplies:

• Clear Design Asian Frames
• NEW Clear Design Everyday Sayings
• Versamark Ink (to stamp flower on glass)
• White Memories Ink
• Soft Pool Shadow Ink
• White Embossing Powder (on Versamark on glass)
• Clear Gemstones
• Kraft Notecards
  
• Other: Ranger Frosted Memory Glass, Ranger Foam Blending Tool (to add white to edges), fingernail (for distressing edges), Adirondack Pigment Pens (to add color to gems - lots of yellow with a dot of orange), Bazzill Cardstock, sewing machine

And… to finish Friday up in a fun way - let’s have another giveaway - we like those, right?! We had such a great response to Wednesday’s video project by Kristina Werner, so I’d like to offer up the Woodgrain Circle stamp and the Clear Buttons she used for her button technique. Just leave a comment on this post - you have until Monday morning to be entered into the random draw. Good luck to all!

We have two fun projects to share with you today! We are continuing on with our theme of stamping on things other than paper and coming up with ideas has been such a blast. Keep in mind when you are using ‘unorthodox’ materials on your projects that many will not be archival safe. You can ‘fix’ some things by adding a buffer between it and the rest of your project, or you can treat some with sprays. Ideally use this week as inspiration and concern yourself with archival quality only on the things that you plan to keep forever such as scrapbook pages or special projects.

Ok, let’s get to the fun part! I have been so excited ever since Lisa told me she would be creating Russian dolls by stamping on fabric. Check these out - and now, pick your jaw back up off the floor. Creative magic here. Lisa says these are surprisingly easy to create and I say they are AMAZING! Here is what Lisa said: “I love stamping on things other than paper - so many possibilities! This little doll is going on my kitchen windowsill to help brighten our mornings!”

Project by Lisa Spangler

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Dolls
• Summer Felt Flowers
• Yellow Gemstones
• Memories Artprint Brown Ink
  
• Other: Claudine Hellmuth’s Sticky Back Canvas (Ranger), fabric (Heather Baily), colored pencils (Prismacolor), rice, cotton balls (to stuff the doll with), sewing machine, permanent orange marker

Here is a quick how-to from Lisa:  Stamp the doll and “created by” with ArtPrint Brown on Sticky Back Canvas and color with pencils and cut out. Stick the doll to a small square of fabric that has been folded in half. Cut around the doll, leaving a 1/4 seam allowance. You will now have two pieces of fabric, one for the front of the doll and one for the back. Place right sides together and sew around the sides, leaving the bottom open. Stuff the doll. I put cotton balls in the top to make the face fuller, and then rice in the bottom to make it heavy enough to stand up. Sew the opening closed by hand. Stick the “created by” piece to the back, then add the felt flower and the gem.

Next up I created a card where I stamped on a tight-woven beige fabric. The fabric was cut into a scallop flower shape after I stamped onto it. I also stamped onto Art Flowers in a polka dot pattern. I really like stamping on fabric and do it often. Your stamped impression depends on the fabric you choose - some more textural fabrics will create a more subtle and abstract stamped pattern while this flat tightly woven surface made for a very clear and crisp transfer of ink. The added interest stamping on fabric creates is subtle but really makes a statement just the same.

Card by Leslie Lightfoot

Supplies:

• Scallop Flourish
• Raindrop Background
• Clear Design: Anytime Messages
• Swirl with Flowers
• Memories Ink Orange
• Memories Ink Pink
• Art Flowers: White and Cream
• Other: Fabric, felt flowers, copper mini-brads, patterned paper (striped)

Also, with our challenge this week I thought I’d do a little brainstorming and get everyone thinking about all the possibilities there are for stamping ‘beyond paper’. Remember you have until Sunday, April 12th at 11:59pm PST to upload your project - see all the details of this weeks challenge here and be sure to play along!

Here are just some ideas :

• glass
• sandpaper (yes, it is a ‘paper’ - but not a typical kind)
• paint puddle
• clay
• acetate/transparencies
• cork
• plastic
• ribbon or twill
• foam
• mirror
• leather/suede
• plexi
• wood
• metal
• felt or other fabric
• buttons, paper flowers, embellishments
• velvet impressions

Be sure to return tomorrow for a terrific video by a guest artist, as well as more fun ideas to get you thinking beyond paper!

Hi and welcome to another fun week at the Hero Arts blog!

This month I did a technique article talking all about ways to expand your artistic efforts and create new uses and ‘looks’ for your stamps by stamping on things other than just patterned paper and cardstock. Not that paper isn’t a wonderful foundation to start with, but sometimes it is nice to break our boundaries and try something new for a change. Using your stamps in a variety of ways also makes them more versatile and you can find several different looks to every single stamp you own.

The article called “Beyond Paper” can be found HERE in our techniques section of the Hero Arts website. Since this is such a great topic and requires a lot of expanding of ideas, I thought it would be a fun topic to tackle this week on our blog. We’ll show you a huge variety of stamped projects where our talented designers stamped on all different materials.

Let’s get started!

First I am just dying to share this amazing little project that Tami Hartley made by combining her Hero Arts stamps and a canvas tote bag. Is it not so terrific?! I love how she used subtle brown tones and then added the pops of color in the green, mustard yellow and blue fabrics. The clear buttons tied on add just the right embellishing for this fun project.

Tami says:  “This bag started out as an experiment of sorts — I wasn’t sure what to expect when stamping on canvas but decided to give it a go since plain canvas bags are so cheap!  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the words from Four Bold Messages stamped beautifully and retained their detail.  I used Colorbox Chalk Ink on both the canvas and the fabric patches and then heat set it.  I love that this bag is one-of-a-kind and I can’t wait to use it at the farmer’s market this summer.”

Tami cut fabric scraps into rough rectangles, stamped on them, and frayed the edges for a casual look.  She then stitched each piece to the bag on three sides and stuffed them with quilt batting for a little dimension.

Project by Tami Hartley.

Supplies:

• Three Designer Leaves
• Four Bold Messages
• Clear Buttons
• Chocolates & Blueberries Chalk Ink Queue
• Other: canvas tote bag, fabric scraps, quilt batting, hemp, brown thread

Next is a card I made where I stamped on both metal and foam. The card is made by stamping on thin silver metal and then I punched the metal into scallop borders for the top and bottom of the card. I also stamped into the green foam flower with dye ink and I used white dye ink to stamp a subtle houndstooth design onto the pink foam flower. When the light catches the stamped metal borders on the card, it is shimmery and really eye-catching. A tip when stamping on metal: use Staz on ink pads for a quick drying and permanent design that will not smudge or require heat setting.

Card by Leslie Lightfoot.

Supplies:

• Design Block Flower Background
• Houndstooth Background
• Clear Design: Hugs and Hearts
• Light Green Accent Pearls
• Card Buttons: Summer
• Violet Notecards

The challenge this week is to create a card or project where you have stamped on something other than cardstock or patterned paper! Use your imagination and the inspiration we will offer this week to create something great! Remember you must use at least one Hero Arts stamp on your creations and please submit them to the Flickr Group by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, April 12. Include the tag “beyondpaper” (no space between the words “beyond” and “paper”) on your contest submissions. Next week we will award the following prizes:

• Fresh Face Winner (someone who has not yet won a contest): $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• Scrapbook Page Winner: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 1st Place: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 2nd Place: $25 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 3rd Place: $15 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog

…I cannot wait to see what you all come up with!

So, now I think it is time to start this week off with a fun give away! We all like those, right?! Just leave a comment on this post before tomorrow night (Tuesday, April 7th at 11:59pm PST) and we will randomly draw a winner to recieve this Clear Designs: Sending Happy Thoughts set. I will post the winner on Wednesday, April 8th!

Here is what you could win:

To see some great cards made with these stamps, check out the Project of the Month by Shari Carroll HERE!

Good luck to everyone! Be sure to check back tomorrow for another great day of inspiration!

See you all soon,
Leslie