Hi everyone!  I’m back to announce the winners of last week’s Book Challenge.  The judging was harder than ever on this contest — WOW, what amazing entries!  Click HERE to see them all!

And now for the winners…

Third place goes to kerry lynn yeary  for her super duper fun tag book made with the Big Owl — love it!

Second place goes to Melissa Phillips for her  “Boo Book” — the judges all thought it was just darling!

Here’s a peek at the inside:

And now….

Drumroll…

First place goes to [asm] for her simply amazing instant book! She created her book out of a piece of paper that she made with her daughter, and used the book to journal about the day they made the paper together.  WOW.  Truly, truly a treasure.

Inside peek — love the tab with “a day in the life”…

Congratulations, winners!  Please email us at the address over there in the sidebar so that we can get your gift certificates + catalogs right out to you so you can start shopping!  WOO HOO!

Next we’ll announce the winner of  an autographed copy of Esther K. Smith’s book, “How to Make Books“!

There were so many deserving entries that Esther had a very hard time picking the instant book to win.  She finally settled on this one by clmlcc — who cleverly turned an instant book into a sewing kit — no more lost buttons!

clmlcc, please email us at the address in the blog sidebar so that we can get your autographed book right out to you!

Esther is super nice — just listen to this: for those of you who already purchased her book, send her a self-addressed stamped envelope and she will send you a signed self-adhesive book plate!  Told ya — she is sweet.  The address is HERE on her website. (You can also find an autographed copy of her book for sale there, too — it comes with a free gift!  If you prefer to go the Amazon route, Esther has a link for that too.  It’s all HERE. :)  )  Thanks again Ester — it sure was fun having you as a blog guest!

Don’t go away just yet — since there were so many great entries, we picked a few Honorable Mentions to share with you!

You just have to see this  book elaine3766 created it in memory of her Dad.  She used two white notecards and rounded the corners to create it.  Love how she stamped on the journaling block:

Here’s a peek at the inside where she’ll later add journaling:

Wow. Such a beautiful way to preserve memories.

Next, check out this coloring book that hnpetry made for her 3-year old niece:

Here’s one of the inside pages:

I bet she has BUNCHES of fun coloring it in!

Finally, the judges loved this accordion book with pockets to hold tags and photos by kellsterstamps. Love the pearl “snowballs” and the wiggly eyes on the owls:

Honorable Mentions, please send us your postal address and we’ll send you this Limited Edition stamp plus some other goodies perfect for bookmaking!

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the Book Challenge — you are all winners in my book.  I just have to say it one more time: WOW.  What great entries.

Hope you are enjoying Jennifer’s blog week, and hope you enter the Holiday Challenge — next week, your name could be here!   Don’t forget the Cards for Heros card drive, too — yet another way to win!  For full details on both of these,  just click HERE.

Until next time, happy stamping,

Hi everyone!  Hope you had a great Labor Day Weekend!  So glad that the hurricane didn’t do as much damage as it could have.  And so glad that so many of you had a chance to have some FUN this weekend!

Now for the winners of the “This Book Bracket” Giveaway… here are your random numbers:

#63 - Greyce at 7:27 am on August 29th
#197 - J. Harmon at 9:41 pm on August 29th
#252 - Mikee Chua at 8:22 pm on August 30th

Congratulations to the three of you!  I’ll be emailing you to get your postal address so we can send these right out to you.

Enabler alert!  The This Book Bracket stamp has been added to the Hero Arts Online Store HERE in the Featured Products section.  This stamp is great for personalizing handmade mini books — and it also makes a great gift along with a “regular” book!

Until next time,

Hi everyone!  I really enjoyed my time here with you this week — wish it didn’t have to end.

Here’s a summary of the books I shared:

• Instant books that can be created out of just one sheet of paper
• An accordion fold book that’s two books in one
• A tag book + a fun technique for chipboard
• Flip books

I have so many more book ideas — I just love making books!  They’ll have to wait until another time — except for this one that I made a while back for Nancy’s Envelope Challenge:

I created it by binding envelopes together. See more pictures + instructions by clicking HERE.

Now for a summary of contests that are still open!

• The Book Challenge is open until Sunday at 11:59 PM PST.   Read more about it HERE.
• The Win A Day on the Hero Club Blog contest is also open until Sunday at 11:59 PM PST. Full details are HERE.
• The This Book Bracket Giveaway is running until the winners are are announced on Tuesday.  To enter,  just leave a comment on THIS POST with something fun you plan to do this weekend — from reading all the comments so far it looks like  y’all will be having great times!  If you do have to work though (sorry!), hope you can take a moment for yourself to relax + recharge.

See you on Tuesday,

Welcome to Fun Friday, where we do something FUN!  I thought I’d show you another little book that’s very easy to make — a flip book made out of post-it notes!  Watch this quick little video to see flip books in action + tips for making them:

This is another book that also makes a great gift!  Plus it’s also useful!

Here are the books shown in the video, with a photo of the cover, inside cover + first page, and then the last page of each:

Happiness Grows Flip Book 

Featured Stamps

• Clear Design Buds and Stems
• DesignBlock Happiness Grows

Tip: Try playing around with your message + the stamped image.  Here the flowers appear to “grow” when the book is flipped.

Spider Flip Book 

Featured Stamps

• Sparkle Clear Happy Haunting (for the message + tiny spider)
• Clear Design Owl-oween (for the owl + spider web)
• Spider Border

Tip:  These are a fun “treat” in lieu of candy.  (Although personally I’d rather have some chocolate, ha!)  And another tip: silver pigment ink makes GREAT spider webs!

Magic of the Holidays Flip Book 

Featured Stamps

• Clear Design Owl Christmas
• Sparkle Clear World Christmas (for the tree)
• Sparkle Clear Magic Holidays (for the message)
• Sparkle Clear Gift For You (for the two little stars)
• DesignBlock Stunning Snowflakes

Tip: The star in the Sparkle Clear Magic Holidays set looks great with the stars in the Clear Mixed Gems pack. This book makes a super stocking stuffer.

The instructions for these are simple:

1. Starting at either the top or the bottom of a stack of post-it notes, stamp your image on each page, gradually increasing (or decreasing) the height of the image.  Flip it to see the action!
2. To create the cover, trim a strip of cardstock to a bit more than the width of your post-it note.  Place your stamped post-it note stack to the rightmost edge of your cardstock strip, then score along the left edge of your post-it note.  Fold on the score that you just made, then make a little mark where the cardstock strip touches the post-it note stack, score on your mark and fold over.  Trim cardstock strip so that it is the cover lines up.  Decorate the cover.
3. Finally, remove the bottom protective sheet from your post-it notes stack and then stick it to the cover.

These little flip books get to the heart of why I love stamping so much — being able to use a stamp again and again and again and again and — well, you get the idea.

Now I thought we’d have some more fun with a giveaway! Check out these great book related stamps — wouldn’t they make super bookplates to personalize the gift of a book?

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment with something fun you plan to do this long Labor Day weekend — I’ll announce the three random winners on Tuesday (since Monday is a holiday and I plan to go hiking).  WOO HOO!

[Tuesday update:  The winners have been announced HERE!]

See you tomorrow when I’ll be back for the weekly wrap-up,

Hi everyone and welcome to Watch it Wednesday! Today I’m going to show you an intaglioed tag book. A tag book is the easiest of all to create — even easier than the Instant Book! Just stamp your tags and then hold them together with a binder ring or string or ribbon.  Easy! So, I thought for today’s video I’d show you how to do the intaglio technique. What’s intaglio, you ask? Intaglio is a design incised or engraved into a material. This is a great way to dress up plain boring chipboard. Here’s some pictures to show what I mean:

This technique is super easy — and super fun if you ask me! Plus you don’t need any fancy equipment — just clear embossing powder, a heat tool, inks, chipboard shapes — and stamps — of course! Just watch and see:

• Design Block Stencil (for the heart)
• Design Block Line and Flower Pattern (for the blue flower)
• Design Block Flourish (for the yellow flower)
• Design Block Wavy Leaf Pattern (for the butterfly)
• Clear Design Anytime Messages
• Hearts for Stamping
• Clear Sparkle Embossing Powder
• Embossing Gun
• VersaMark Ink + various other inks
• Hero Arts buttons, gems paper flowers, antique fasteners and pearls
• Felt Poinsettias and Leaves (for the leaves on the yellow flower)
• Notecards in Cantaloupe, Pool, new blue from the Winter pack + Green Apple
• Other: shipping tags (office supply store), binder ring (7 Gypsies, or office supply store), Distress Ink (Tea Dye and Old Paper by Ranger), various ribbons, twine, distress tool, recycled chipboard, Cuttlebug + butterfly die.

Here’s a tip: try cutting your own shapes from recycled chipboard with scissors. Flowers, hearts, Christmas trees and leaves are all easy shapes to try. Look for chipboard that’s white on one side, but if you can only find grey chipboard that’s okay too — just use a dark ink color to cover it up.

Here’s another tip: use the stamp that you create the intaglio with somewhere else on your card.  Looks neat!

Tag books make great gifts! Fill them with your favorite quotes, photos, family sayings or make one for a special occasion. Here’s another gift idea: put together a pretty container with a tag book, notecards + envelopes, and a package of pop dots. Then the recipient can take a tag off the ring, pop it on a card front and they have a card at a moment’s notice. Everyone needs birthday and thank-you cards, so be sure to include those.

There’s still tons of time to enter this week’s Book Challenge — click HERE for all the details. I’ve been checking out the Hero Arts Flickr Group, and I see there are some terrific entries already. Woo hoo! So glad that people are enjoying book week as much as I am.

Don’t forget about the Win a Day on the Hero Blog Contest — you have until Sunday for that one as well! Click HERE for more info.

Tami will be here tomorrow to announce the winners of last week’s Birthday Challenge. See you on Friday,

WOW, what great ideas everyone has for using Instant Books — I loved reading them!  Loved reading how so many of you  made a book out of a scrap of paper as you were watching the video, too.

Now for the random winner of the Clear Design Brackets and Tags and Write Your Message…

Drumroll…

It’s #242, Jamie!   Jamie, we will contact you to get your postal address and get the stamps right out to you.

Enabler alert! These stamps are in the “Featured Products” section of the Hero Arts Online store HERE.  Or look for them at your local retailer — use  the Store Locator over there in the blog sidebar to find one near you.

Watch for a new giveaway on Friday,

It’s take TWO Tuesday, so I thought I’d show you a book that’s TWO books all in one: an accordion fold book that’s also a gift! Create an accordion with journaling stamps that the recipient can fill in with their holiday memories + photos. Here’s the best part — use a Clear Acetate Tag to hold embellishments that the recipient can use to decorate their book!

Instructions for the accordion book:

1. Trim cardstock to 4 1/4 x 12″. Fold in half. With the folded edge on the left, fold the top side in half back to the fold. Flip over and repeat on the other side. Alternatively, you can score your paper at 3″, 6″ and 9″, and then fold the middle one as a mountain fold (so that it points up, like a mountain) and the other two as valley folds (so that they fold down, like a “V”). Sometimes I score first and sometimes I just fold. Guess it depends on my mood!
2. Stamp the Quotes Background and Write Your Message on the pages with ArtPrint Brown ink. I love how these stamps fit perfectly.
3. Distress the edges, then add glitter and set aside to dry. Tip: I added glitter to the dots on the patterned paper on the cover for extra sparkle. Can’t get enough glitter!
4. Cut two pieces of chipboard to 3 1/2 x 4 3/4″. I like to use recycled cereal boxes for this. Or ask your local stamp store to save the chipboard that scrapbook paper comes packaged in for you.
5. Trim two pieces of paper or fabric to cover the chipboard to 4 3/4 x 5″. I used velvet paper, but any flexible paper or fabric that’s not too bulky works great. Some more ideas to try are thin patterned paper, mulberry paper, or cotton fabric.
6. Spread adhesive all over one side of your chipboard. I like to use a glue stick for this. Place it in the middle of your cover paper and press it down well. Fold up the sides to crease them, then trim a bit off the corners, spread more glue on the paper and fold over. Press it with a bone folder. Here’s a photo I did with some mulberry paper to show you how to do the corners.



7. Adhere accordion piece to the covers. I used a permanent tape runner.
8. Create a scene on the front cover with the Holiday Birds Design Accents and Tree Trees Design Line. For the back cover, stamp the Handmade For Tag from the Clear Design Brackets and Tags set, color and adhere. Add more glitter!

Instructions for the embellishment tag:

1. Trace a Clear Acetate Tag on patterned paper and cut out. Tie it to the tag with ribbon.
2. Create lots of fun embellishments and put pop dots on the backs. To make it easy for the recipient to remove the embellishment the tag, leave the paper backing on the pop dot and use a removable glue dot or removable adhesive to adhere it to the tag.
3. You can even add buttons and gemstones to the tag!

Supplies:

• Clear Design Bracket and Tags
• Holiday Birds Design Accents
• Three Trees Design Line
• Pocketful o’ Holiday Trees
• Quotes Background
• Write Your Message
• Memories ArtPrint Brown, Christmas Chalk Queue
• Clear Design Holiday Wishes
• Teal Gemstones
• Red Gemstones
• Small Sparkle Gem Blossom
• Sparkle Gems Blossom
• Summer Buttons
• Tombow Gluestick
• PrismaGlitter
• Glue Pen
• Other: Colored pencils (Prismacolor), twine, ribbon, patterned paper (stripes on the tag are Basic Grey and polka dots on the front cover are Daisy D’s), velvet paper (The Paper Company), kraft cardstock

You can make a bunch of these in a jiffy! I think they’re the perfect gift — no worries about getting something they already have, plus it’s fun + useful. And it’s handmade. I’m pledging to give all handmade gifts again this year. Leave me a comment on this post if you have any questions and I’ll be happy to answer them!

Want to win the Clear Design Brackets and Tags and Write Your Message journaling block? Just leave a comment HERE on Monday’s post!

I’ll have a video + another kind of book to share with you tomorrow,

Happy Monday everyone! I’m super excited about hosting the blog this week. You see, I’ve had something up my sleeve for a while and now I finally get to share! WOO HOO!

It all started a month ago — the night before I went on a two week vacation. I was in the bookstore looking for a book to read on the plane — in the bicycling section — when I happened upon this book by Esther K. Smith:

I pulled it down off the shelf and started flipping through it and WOW! The creative juices started flowing, ideas started popping left and right and I HAD to have it! It was meant to be! Then when I got home that night I had a brainstorm — I should do bookmaking for my next blog week. Then I had another lightening bolt idea: I wondered if Esther would be a blog guest. I found her website and contacted her and she said YES! She is so FUN — just like her book. To learn more about Esther, click on over HERE to her website, Purgatory Pie Press. Or, read THIS interview to see more of her work.

Before I go any further, here’s this week’s challenge: make a book using at least one Hero Arts stamp and submit it to the Hero Arts Flickr Group by 11:59 PM on Sunday, August 31st. Tag it with the code word “book”. (See the FAQ for more info on Flickr.) You can make any type of book you like. Be sure to visit the blog every day this week, as I’ll be showing you how to make tag books, accordion books and more. They can be mini scrapbooks, card books, quote books, a holiday newsletter — it’s totally up to you. Be creative and have fun!

Here are the prizes:

• 1st place: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2008 catalog
• 2nd place: $25 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2008 catalog
• 3rd place: $10 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2008 catalog
• Best “Instant Book”: An autographed copy of How to Make Books! Thanks so much to Random House for donating the book! (In addition to the “book” tag, please add a second “instant” tag for this category.)

What’s an “Instant Book” you ask? It’s the first kind of book that Esther shows in her book! It’s so easy to make that you just won’t believe it — truly instant gratification. You will only need ONE sheet of paper to create it in less than a minute. Yes, really! Here’s a video to see how it’s done:

Isn’t that the neatest thing ever? I think you should stop reading, grab a scrap of paper and create a book right now. Go for it!Here’s a some photos of my mini scrapbook:

Want to see more? Click any of the links next to the numbers to see them larger — or you can click HERE to see them in my Flickr photostream.

1. A storm, 2. Closeup of torn/distressed pages, 3. Photo on the front cover, 4. Limited edition stamped on the back cover, 5. The photo on the first accordion booklet, 6. Closup of a dresser, 7. Closeup of the stamping on the front, 8. Yep, it’s really just a 12×12 sheet of paper, 9. Penstemon blooms, 10. A queen, 11. Journaling on the first page, 12. Closeup of an accordion booklet

Supplies:

• Clear Design Bracket and Tags
• Write Your Message
• Antique Round Mini Fasteners
• VersaColor Laurel Leaf, Memories ArtPrint Brown, Primary Elements Chalk Queue (for fresh citron)
• Spring Buttons
• Other: patterned paper (for the yellow book part: Making Memories, Fresh Anthology; for the accordion graph paper: Pink Paislee, Office Lingo), pen (Sakura), twine, glue dots, paper distresser (Tonic), ribbon, photos printed with max side 2.75″

Here’s the books that some artist friends of Esther’s did that were shown in the video:

From left to right: Big Owl by Jenn King, The Story of How I Fell In Love by Laura Carmelita Bellmont and Get by Polly Faust. Here’s some more views so you can see all the juicy details

1. Don’t You Forget, 2. London, 3. Owl Book Page, 4. Get, 5. The Short Story of How I Fell in Love, 6. 1st Month, 7. Then…, 8. The “O” Page, 9. The “W” page

Click the links (next to the numbers) to see a larger image. Thanks so much to the three of you! WOW! So many neat things you can do with instant books!

Featured Stamps:

• Quotes Background
• Clear Design Bold Caps Alphabet
• Big Owl
• Design Block Postage Background
• London
• Large Dot Line Border

Here’s a great tip from Esther: Since Instant Books are made from a single sheet of paper, and are one-sided, they can easily be photocopied or scanned. I think this makes them prefect for family newsletters. Just create one, unfold it, and print out as many as you want. Easy! Get started on your holiday newsletters now — they’ll be here before you know it.

Thanks so much Esther — both for writing your book, and for being a guest here on the blog. You have truly inspired me . Can’t wait to try more of your books! (I’m working on finishing up a box of chocolate Malt-O-Meal now… for the “Cake Box Book”.) And — I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with for the challenge!

Now, to reward you for reading this looooong post, I thought we’d have a little giveway! One lucky winner will receive the Clear Design Bracket and Tags set and the Write Your Message stamp that I used on the Indian Lodge mini book.

To enter, just leave a comment with an idea for using all those Instant Books I know you’ll be creating. The winner will be announced on Wednesday.

[Update:  The lucky winner has been announced.  Click HERE to see  to see who won!]

See you tomorrow,

PS. In case you were wondering, I didn’t find the cycling book that I was looking for. Still haven’t found it, either. But I think I found something better!