Hi everyone, it’s Lisa here!  I’m back to announce the winners of last week’s Friendship Challenge.  First off, I just have to say one thing: WOW!  I gotta say it again — wow Wow WOW!  The entries you submitted are some of the most amazing ones yet.  Thanks so much to everyone who participated – you truly rose to the challenge!

I really enjoyed reading your descriptions and seeing your creations.  And!  I want you to know that we had a horribly hard time picking the winners, but we finally did. So without further ado, here we go…

Let’s start off with our Fresh Face — this is for someone who’s never won a contest before.  This week’s winner is  lizhaworth! Just look at this super card — I literally laughed out loud when I saw it! She created the mushrooms herself using the Clear Design Hello Circles and Special Edition Artistic Windows — too clever!

Now for the winner of the Scrapbooking Category.  Feast your eyes on this fun layout celebrating a girlfriend’s birthday by Paper Girl!  I just love all the little details that she added, especially the little tag, the flower and stem, and all the flowers + gems.

Now it’s on to our 1st Place winner — oukelli1142! She made some “enormously” fun cards to thank friends for even the “smallest” things! I just love her color combo + all the little details, like stamping the elephant on patterned paper:

She had another card that was also in the running for a prize, so I just had to show you that one too.  Just look at all of the layers and layers of flowers, with the Clear Design Doll peeking out through the window…

Next in 2nd Place we have this adorable card by Susanne Nilsson! I just love all of the stamped pieces in the background, white embossing, pearls and the glitter.  So yummy looking!

In 3rd Place we have  SmilynStef with this gorgeous card!  I just love what she did with the Flower Wood Background + the beads she added to the flower centers.

But we couldn’t stop there — let’s have some Honorable Mentions!

Feast your eyes on these two cards by Tamifess — just look at those awesome sponged backgrounds!  WOW!

Next, I just love how the doll is peeking around the border in this card by Judy1223. Judy said that she “made this card for one of my sister-in-laws (who is also my friend!) as she is going through a tough time and losing confidence day by day. I hope this helps to remind her of what a unique and strong woman she is.”  Judy, that is so special.  Hugs to you and your sister-in-law!

Next, I love this simple, elegant card by juilienj.  What fabulous watercoloring!  And, the pearl hearts add the perfect finishing touch without taking away from the main image.

Finally, just look at this amazing card by Jacqueline.fr — what stunning distress techniques!  And what a beautiful composition:

Winners and Honorable Mentions, please email us at the address in the blog sidebar so that we can send out your prizes. Please indicate your place in the subject line,  so that we know who you are.

And, we’re not done yet!  We just had to recognize these two outstanding entries that were stamped for the WHOLE Hero Arts Flickr Group  First, member wteresa15 hurt her wrist and finger a while back, and the whole group made get well cards for her.  This is her thank you card back to all of them.

I just love her use of the Screen Shadow, paper flowers, and the branch from the Clear Design Scattered Leaves set.

Next, check out this super fun card by karenmp56!

She created this card because — in her words — “I made this card for ALL OF YOU!! I even included the, “HERO HILL” (I see many of the submissions include a hill and I like that look)…..The BIG HEART is mine, showing how much I really CARE about each of YOU and enjoy talking and seeing your inspiring works of art……each of you are ALWAYS IN MY HEART…THANK YOU… Love, Karen”

Now, here’s the REALLY fun part!  The elephant opens up to reveal this!

So super sweet!  Karen and Teresa, please email us at the address in the blog sidebar — we have some goodies to send you! And, if you’ve never checked out the Hero Arts Flickr Group before you really should — it is a wonderful community of friends, and everyone is truly welcome!

Thanks again to all who participated in the challenge, and hope you take a minute to celebrate friendships today!

Hugs,

 Hi everyone and happy weekend! I’ve really enjoyed my week of sharing tips for using both colored pencils + watercolor pencils to make cards for friends.  There’s one more card that I wanted to show you that I did for the 2009 Catalog

For this one, I inked the top part of the Screen Shadow with Soft Pool, and the bottom part with Soft Green to make a hill.  Then I used colored  pencils to better define the edge of the hill and add grass, plus to color the tree.  It looks complicated, but it’s really easy once you know the trick!  More HERE.

Now let’s take a look back at the week

• Monday - tips for coloring stamps with lots of open space + a video on watercolor pencils
• Tuesday - we welcomed the latest member of our team, Kelly Rasmussen, and we both shared tips for friendship cards
• Wednesday - another video, this one on using colored pencils, plus a trifold card
• Friday - more cards + a scrapbook page that celebrate friendship

There’s still plenty of time to enter the Friendship Challenge — see Monday’s Post for all the details. I peeked in on the Flick Group, and there’s lots of great submissions already — wow!  Hope you can join in the fun!

And,  there’s also time to enter Friday’s giveaway!

Be sure to come back next week when each winner of our last Win A Day On the Blog contest has their special day!  Just wait until you see what they’ve come up with — some super spectacular stamping!  And, there will be a giveaway each day, too!   Want to win a day on the blog?  Check out the link over there near the top of the blog sidebar.  If you use a 2009 Catalog stamp for the Friendship Challenge, why not enter it in the Win A Day contest, too?

Wishing you a great weekend filled with fun + friendships,

Welcome back to Friendship Week here on the blog!  Today is “Fun Friday” — when we do something FUN!  I have tons of things to share with you, starting with this card I made for a friend who I want to send love + a BIG hug to — Nancy!

One of my favorite things to do with the Clear Design Dolls set is to stamp a doll on cardstock, then score next to it, fold + cut around the doll, making sure to leave part of the fold still attached and and ta dah! — you have a mini card!  How fun is that?

This is a great little card to practice the colored pencil techniques I showed HERE in Wednesday’s video.

Here’s another tip for this card — to make a bow less bulky, but still make it look as though it is wrapped around the card, try this:  cut a strip of ribbon the width of your card front plus a little extra.  Apply adhesive to the back of the ribbon and adhere in place, securing the ends inside.  Then make a bow with the ribbon and adhere it to the card front.  This is also a great way to use less ribbon, so you can put it on MORE cards!

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design Dolls (now HERE in the store!)
• Design Accents: A Little Note
• Clear Design Hugs and Hearts (for the heart inside the doll)
• Woodgrain Pattern
• Primary Elements Queue, ArtPrint Brown, Black inks
• Sunshine Notecards
• Assorted Gems, Smooth Gems, Summer Felt Flowers
• Other: ribbon (American Crafts), foam tape, colored pencils (Prismacolor)

Next, I wanted to share this scrapbook page + cards that Jennifer and Shari stamped about their friendship — they really are “true friends” –  just look at those smiles!

(Scrapbook page and cards by Shari Carroll and Jennifer McGuire)

Don’t you just love how they used the Clear Design Scallop Borders set?  Click HERE for more info.

Next I have a birthday card that I made for a friend who loves pink — Sally!  I discovered something new while making this card — you can use watercolor pencils to change the color of white paper flowers!  Just scribble on color and wet with a brush to blend. And!  If you scrunch them up a little before they are dry, they’ll have a neat “shabby chic” look.

I watercolored the owl with the same pencils too — quick and so fun to do!  I used the same technique as shown HERE in Monday’s video.

I just love this new owl, her eyelashes crack me up!  And yep, for those who don’t speak French — “joyeux anniversaire” really means “happy birthday”.

One more tip — if you trim a card you can hang things off the side like this greeting and it will still fit inside a regular envelope!

Featured Stamps

• NEW Clear Design Friendship
• Wallpaper Background
•   Design Block Flower Tapestry Background (now HERE in the store!)
• Small, Medium Accent Pearls
• Shabby Shutters Distress Ink, Soft Blossom Shadow ink, Memories Black, Artprint Brown inks
• Garden, Blush Notecards
• Other: watercolor pencils (various), hot press watercolor paper (Fabriano), silk ribbon (Creative Impressions), border punch (Fiskars)

Finally, let’s have a giveaway!  This all started yesterday when Lynn Whelan left a comment asking where I learned my colored pencil + watercolor pencil techniques.  I thought about it, and I basically just sort of made them up after experimenting over the years.

Anyhow, that got me thinking about one of the people who has been a big inspiration to me during my coloring experimentation journey — Dave Brethuaer – he does truly amazing things with watercolors + pencils. Dave is the owner of Memory Box, the maker of our wonderful notecards.  He has a new book out called “Card Design: Rubber Stamping with Colored Pencils” that is packed with great ideas for using these mediums.  Plus, Dave uses some Hero stamps in it, too!

Now for the best part of this long-winded tale — I called him to ask if he would like to giveaway a copy of his book and he said YES! Did I mention that he is a super nice guy?  And, he will autograph it!  YAY!  To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post.  The lucky winner will be chosen randomly on Monday.  In the meantime, you can read more about Dave HERE on his blog.

I love how the stamping community is full of such fun, caring people — it’s like a big family. So happy to be a part of it, and so very thankful for all of the friends I’ve made!

PS.  Don’t forget, there’s still plenty of time to enter this week’s challenge celebrating friendship!  Click HERE for all the details.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about friendship on Monday’s post — it made smile to read them all!

Now for the random winner of the TWO Clear Design Fancy Friendship stamp sets + TWO packages of Aqua-Flow Brushes

Drumroll…

The winning comment is #448, which belongs to Patty W!  Here’s what she said:

I’ve come to realize that friendship is one of those things where the older you are the more you appreciate your true friends - I enjoy having a few very very close special loyal wonderful friends more than having lots and lots of acquaintances. You know, the kind of friends that you can tell/admit anything to and call up at any hour of the day and you know they will always be there for you and support you! Thanks for the chance to win! What a nice idea to give away doubles so the winner can share!

Congratulations Patty!  We will contact you to get your postal address and get the prizes right out to you.

Enabler alert! The Clear Design Fancy Friendship set is now in the “Featured Products” section of the Hero Arts Online store HERE, and the Aqua-Flo Brushes are HERE!

YAY for friendships!

Welcome back to friendship week here on the blog! Today I have the special honor of introducing our newest Web Artist, Kelly Rasmussen! 

Kelly is super talented — I stand in awe of her simple, elegant designs.  You can learn more about her HERE in her Hero Arts Artist Bio.

As you may recall, Kelly was Sally’s pick for our very first Win-A-Day On the Blog Contest — you can read more about their day together HERE. Sally told me that she is so sweet and a true gem!

And, we didn’t know it at the time that she was picked, but she is Tami’s little sister. She is the one who introduced Tami to stamping — kicking and screaming from the sounds of it, ha ha ha!  We are so glad that she did.  What talented sisters!  And they are good friends, too!  Tami says:

“It’s true…Kelly introduced me to stamping many moons ago!  I was living in California at the time and she flew out for a visit and brought an entire suitcase full of stamps and supplies for us to play with.  I was in awe of her then, and I am in awe of her now. I love that we can share this hobby…the stamping as well as the shopping part!  Everything is more fun with her. :)  I’m lucky enough to have received (probably hundreds!) of Kelly’s gorgeous creations over the years. Each one is tucked away in a special box. Most of all, I’ve been lucky to have her as a friend for my entire life. She inspires me in so many ways. Kelly, here’s to you!  I’m so happy for you and I love you!  Congrats, little sis!”

Now, check out this friendship card that Kelly made in her signature style.  I just love everything about it — the layout, the colors, and her clever use of the Screen Shadow and the swirl from the Clear Design: Big Circles set.  Feast your eyes…

Card by Kelly Rasmussen

Featured Supplies:

• Screen Shadow
• Clear Design: Big Circles
• Clear Design: Thoughtful Messages
• Light Kraft Long Notecards
• Pool Notecards
• Colorbox Chalk Ink Queue - Pumpkin Patch
• Soft Pool Shadow Ink
• VersaMark Stamp Pad
• White Embossing Powder
• Spring Felt Buttons
• Art Flowers White & Cream
• Assorted Crystal Gemstones
• Other: white cardstock, Nestabilities scallop squares, buttons, teal permanent marker (to color gems), ribbon, twine, sewing

Kelly’s Tips:

• The screen shadow stamp is perfect for a subtle background. You can stamp images over the top of it without being too distracting.
• Hero Arts gemstones fit perfectly into the center of the felt flowers.
• To keep focus on your stamped image, stick with a solid colored ribbon. With my card, a white satin ribbon worked perfectly.

I just couldn’t resist making a card inspired by Kelly’s color scheme of pool + browns using some of the new stamps from the just released What’s Cooking Supplement!

Card by Lisa Spangler

Featured Supplies:

• NEW Clear Design: Birthday
• NEW Dots
• NEW Wood Finish
• Teal Gemstones
• Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue
• Soft Sand Shadow Ink
• Chocolate & Blueberries Chalk Ink Queue
• Light Kraft Long Notecards (for the chocolate chip cookies!), Crimson, Chocolate Notecards
• Other: ribbon (Bazzill), colored pencils (Prismacolor)

Lisa’s Tips:

• To color the chocolate chip cookies, stamp them on a  Light Kraft Long Notecard, then add shading with a cream colored pencil
• If you see a layout that you love, why not try to modify it?  I loved Kelly’s layout, but my background piece was much bigger than hers.  So, I used a pool strip + moved it up instead of the white ribbon, and used the stack of cookies as my vertical element.
• This color combination is great for masculine cards.

YAY, Kelly!  Welcome to the Hero Arts team! Can’t wait to see what you come up with for Cards of the Week + other Web Artist projects! Can’t wait to get to know you better, too!

Please join me in welcoming Kelly — I know she’d love to hear from you!  You can leave her a comment here on this post.

Hooray for friendships new + old!

PS.  There’s still time to enter the friendship giveaway! Click on over here to this post to enter.

Hi everyone! It’s Lisa here, ready to kick off a fun week celebrating friendships! I have a TON of different things to share with you, so I wanted a really broad theme to encompass them ALL — so that’s why I chose “friendship”.  Plus, I am so grateful for all the friends in my life! Let’s dive right in, shall we?

I get asked a bunch about how to add color to images with lots of empty space, like the flowers in the Clear Design Artistic Borders Set. So I thought I’d share several ways to do this. One of my favorites is to stamp a background on a notecard, then stamp the flower over it and cut out — easy!  Check out this card I made for my friend Janani — many thanks for always listening, my friend!

All of the flowers were stamped on notecards from the new Sunshine Notecards set that came out in the 2009 Catalog — LOVE them!  So bright and well, sunny…and those new Midnight Black Pearls make the perfect flower center, too.

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design: Artistic Borders
• Woodgrain Circle
• Houndstooth Background
• DesignBlock: Four Leaf Grid
• Clear Design: Thank You Flourishes
• Pool, Lagoon, Mocha, Sunshine Notecards
• Midnight Black Pearls
• Other: Ribbon (American Crafts)

Next, you can use watercolor pencils as a super quick and easy way to add color.  Don’t believe me that watercolor pencils are quick and easy?  Then check out this intro to watercolor pencil video!  I added lots of tips and tricks, so even if you’ve used watercolor pencils before, hopefully you’ll pick up a trick — or two!

Oh and!  That’s a giant blob of Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue in the center of the flower — took forever to dry, but I think it looks neat + is worth the wait!  Plus I have to add that I just love the new Screen Shadow background, it goes with everything.

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design: Artistic Borders (for the flower, it’s HERE in the store)
• Screen Shadow
• Clear Design: All Occasion Messages
• Teal Gems
• Sunshine Notecards
• Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue
• Other: Ribbon (American Crafts), watercolor paper (Canson), watercolor pencils (Derwent, Staedtler)

Finally, it couldn’t be easier to add color to the flower than to stamp it on a notecard.  To keep it from being too simple, dress it up with felt buttons + ribbon like Sally did here!

Card by Sally Traidman

I love how Sally cut the scallops around the flower border — she is just too clever!  And, she’s a great friend who always lifts my spirits.  Sending virtual hugs to you, Sally!

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design: Artistic Borders
• Houndstooth Background
• Clear Design: Card Messages
• Spring Felt Flowers
• Citron Gemstones
• Other: Ribbon

Now, let’s move onto our challenge for this week: simply create a card, project or scrapbook page using at least one Hero Arts stamp celebrating friendship!  Load it up to the Hero Arts Flickr group by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, February 22th. Please include the tag “friendship” on your submission — and as an extra twist, please add a few details about the friendship you are celebrating in the description.  I can’t wait to read them!

• 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

Now, how about a giveaway?  ONE lucky winner will receive TWO packages of the Clear Design Fancy Friendship set — perfect for celebrating friendships –  and TWO packages of Aqua-Flow Brushes as shown in the video — one to keep, and one to give to a friend!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post about friendships. Then, why not send a link to the post to your friends so that they can enter, too? Here’s a “TinyURL” to copy and paste: http://tinyurl.com/bdqfcv

The winner will be announced on Wednesday.

Oh and one last thing!  Our latest supplement just went live — check out this post to see what we’ve cooked up!

Have fun, friends!