Hi all!  It’s Lisa here.  Last week I challenged everyone to create a card in 15-20 minutes — or less — using at least one Hero Arts stamp.  The response was amazing — one of the highest number of participants ever!  And the submissions were ALL so impressive — WOW!   See them HERE.

The judges and I had a super hard time picking the winners.  We truly wish everyone could win, but we finally managed to narrow down our choices…

And now the moment you’ve been waiting for has arrived…

Drumroll…

First place goes to kellsterstamps for her super sweet owl gift card holders!  She made eight of these in half an hour — wow!  The judges just love the fun color scheme + all the bling!

Coming in second place is Lucy, England with her beautiful butterfly card that took just 15 minutes to create.  Lucy said that cutting out the butterflies took the longest amount of time — but that they make her feel summery on a cold winter day.  The judges felt happy and warm just looking at them!

And finally, coming in third place is karenmp56 for her peaceful penguin.  Just look at all the little details that make this card special, yet take almost no time at all — from the Sparkle Gem Heart inside the star to the glitter glue dotting each snowflake!

Now to announce this week’s Fresh Face winners!  This category is for those who have yet to place in a contest (1st, 2nd or 3rd). This week we had so many new faces participating that we couldn’t pick just one — so we have a TIE between Pia and Paper Girl!

Here are Pia’s make-it-in-minutes masterpieces! The judges love how she stamped the butterflies in the blank circles of the embossed card, plus used a butterfly as the focal point.  So simple, yet so effective!

And here is Paper Girl’s heartfelt card! Repeatedly stamping an image like the small heart is a great way to get more from your stamps + create a card in a jiffy!

Now for the honorable mentions!

Feast your eyes on this fun tree by Fiona Y! This would make a marvelous masculine card — something that is not always easily done in just a few minutes!

quilterlin whipped up lots cards in minutes using photographs and recycled cards — how clever!  And good for the planet, too!

Next we have this great gift set by ishouldbesleepingbut – wouldn’t they make a super fast teacher gift?  Or a fabulous hostess present as you are dashing out the door to a party?

Last but certainly not least, we have this beautifully done butterfly card by Julie Batta!  The judges love how Julie used the DesignBlock Flourish stamp, plus the color combo!

Congratulations, one and all!  Please email us at the address in the blog sidebar with “Make-It-In-Minutes Contest” in the subject line so that we can mail you your prizes! WOO HOO!

Want to see YOUR stamped creation here next week?  There’s still plenty of time to enter this week’s challenge — click HERE for all the details.  Don’t forget about the new scrapbook category, too!

Hope that you’re enjoying Leslie’s blog week as much as I am.  She has more colorful projects in store for you tomorrow, plus one last sneak peek of the 2009 Catalog!

Thanks again to everyone who entered the challenge,

A merry Monday to you all!  I’m back to announce the winner of the Merry & Bright giveaway from Friday.

Drumroll…

The random winner is…#118, Theresa Forseth!  Congratulations!  We will email you to get your address so that we can send your goodies out to you.

Enabler Alert!  All three of the items from today’s giveaway are available for purchase in the online store. The Collage Merry and Bright Stamp that Dawn and I love so much is HERE. The Strawberry notecards can be found right HERE…and the gems HERE!

Thanks again for joining me last week.  Hope you enjoy Leslie’s week of color!

Wow, “Make-It-In-Minutes” card week has flown by!  I had tons of fun!  Here’s how it went:

• Monday: I shared EIGHT cards plus lots of tips to get you going on the weekly challenge to make a card in 15-20 minutes — or less!

• Tuesday:  The fabulous Claudine Hellmuth dropped by and we played with her new, super fun sticky-back canvas

• Wednesday: A video with a sneak peek of NEW 2009 Shadow Stamps + Shadow Inks

• Friday:  Special guest artist Dawn McVey and I finished up the week with SIX more cards and lots more “make-it-in-minutes” tips

Plus, there were FIVE sneak peeks this week into the 2009 Catalog –  see them all HERE!

There’s still plenty of minutes left (ha ha!) this weekend to enter the weekly challenge.  You have until Sunday, December 7th at 11:59 pm PST to submit your cards — all the details are HERE.

I’ll be back on Monday to announce the lucky winner of Friday’s giveaway.   There’s still time to enter that too — just leave a comment HERE on Friday’s post.

Have a merry merry weekend,

Hi everyone! I’m back with more tips on how to make cards in minutes — that only look like they took much longer.  I have a very special guest today to share her tips, too: the super talented Dawn McVey!  Welcome, Dawn!

Dawn says:  “I was so excited when Lisa asked me to make a few cards for the Hero Arts blog that were easy to make in about 5 minutes.  Everyone is so busy at this time of the year so any little time savers come in handy!  Having a few go-to quick cards in your line-up will make it so easy to whip one up just in time to run out the door to an event.”

If you’re not already familiar with Dawn’s work, you are in for a real treat!  Check out this merry + bright card:

Wow, I just LOVE it!  Especially that color combination — gotta love the look of Lagoon, Crimson and Apple Green together.  Here’s my take using the same DesignBlock Big Holiday Words stamp:

And here’s the inside:

Featured Supplies For Both Cards:

• Sparkle Clear Holiday Messages (for Merry Christmas)
• DesignBlock Big Holiday Words
• Three Trees
• Pocketful o’ Holiday Trees
• Clear Design Christmas Owls
• Clear, gold, and white embossing powder

Dawn’s tip: Using large background stamps with a shimmery ink or embossing powder is a quick way to make a card look like it took way more time to make than it did!  Here, Dawn embossed the Design Block Big Holiday Words with clear embossing powder, and the Merry Christmas message with gold.  So yummy!

Lisa’s tip: Use a punch to draw attention to an image! For this card I punched a circle out of the card front so that the owl could peek through.  Then I punched another circle out of a Crimson scrap.  Then I punched a larger circle out of the Crimson scrap to create a donut shape and adhered it to the card front.

Next, feast your eyes on this beautiful, elegant card featuring the DesignBlock Stunning Snowflakes by Dawn — WOW!  No one would believe that this card only took five minutes!

Here’s my take using the same DesignBlock Stunning Snowflakes stamp:

Featured Supplies For Both Cards:

• DesignBlock Stunning Snowflakes
• Clear Design Jolly Christmas (for the frog and Peace & Love message)
• Sparkle Clear Holiday Messages (for Season’s Greetings)
• Silver, clear sparkle embossing powder
• VersaColor pigment inks in Petal Pink, Celadon, Lime and Silver
• Smooth Clear Gemstones
• Sparkle Gem Hearts
• Other:  pool polka dot ribbon (American Crafts), teal permanent marker (Bic)

Dawn’s Tip: Add a little glitter or other bling to your card! And speaking of glitter, a touch of glitter on your cards is a very affordable and fun way to give them that extra little sparkle when you’re in a hurry!

Lisa’s Tip: Emboss pigment inks with clear sparkle embossing powder so that you don’t have to wait for them to dry!

Dawn and I have one more card each to share with you, using one of her favorite stamps — and mine too — Collage Merry and Bright!  Here’s Dawn’s:

Notice the glitter around the edge — love it!  I just love her pink, cream and brown color  combo too — it’s so “in” right now!  I decided to pump up the pink a little by using a strawberry notecard for mine:

Featured Supplies For Both Cards:

• Collage Merry & Bright
• Clear Design Fancy Scrolls
• Felt Poinsettias
• Clear Mixed Gemstones
• Other: Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), ribbon, green permanent marker (Bic)

Dawn’s Tip: Using larger focal point images such as the Santa Collage stamp (a favorite of mine!), are ideal for quick cards because you can stamp them one time in a solid color of ink, and it’s ready to go on your card front!  Fast and easy!

Lisa’s Tip:  Use permanent markers to color clear gems — no more wasting time searching for matching embellishments!  And one more tip: let your ink do the coloring!  I used red and brown VersaColor pigment ink cubes here.

Now, how about a giveaway?

One lucky winner will receive Dawn’s + my favorite Collage Merry & Bright stamp, a package of Strawberry notecards, and a package of Clear Mixed Gems! To enter, just leave a comment on this post.  The random winner will be announced on Monday.

Thanks so much for being my special guest, Dawn!  That was super fun.  Want to see MORE of Dawn’s fabulous work + enter a fun giveaway that includes another of her favorite Hero Arts stamps?  Click on over HERE to her blog!

If you make a card this weekend that only takes a few minutes, why not enter it in the “make-it-in-minutes” challenge?  There are lots of great prizes, including the new Fresh Face category for someone who has never won before!  Come on and join the fun — all the details are HERE.

But wait, there’s MORE!  We have another 2009  Catalog sneak peek for you HERE!

May your day be merry + bright,

PS.  The  Collage Merry + Bright Stamp is HERE in the store…!

Wow, there are so many great ideas in Monday’s comments for making quick cards — thanks for sharing your tips!

And now, without further ado — here are the five random winners of the square photo frame cards!

Summer Braxton, who said on December 1st at 8:33 am:

I use rub-ons, stickles and patterned paper when making a card in a hurry. Your quick cards were just fantastic!!

Therese H, who said on December 1st at 8:53 am:

I just discovered the VersaColor stamp pads which allow you to add color and sparkle at the same time - you can use a clear embossing powder with a bit of glitter in it, or just use a holographic embossing powder. Two steps in one!

Jodie Reimink, who said on December 1st at 12:06 pm:

My tip would be to do them in assembly line fashion. That way you can work on a little bit every day and still feel like you are getting somewhere!

Alison Lindsay, who said on December 2nd at 3:35 am:

Loved all the ideas for fast cards. My best tip is to do things together - cut all the card blanks first, then stamp, then assemble, rather than make one card from start to finish.

Jeanette, who said on December 2nd at 8:37 am:

Great article! My tip for quick cardmaking is to save your left-over punched or die-cut pieces in an easily-accessible drawer or bag. Then, when you’re ready to make some cards, just pull out a few and get going. All you’ll have to do is make the card base and the greeting. Happy holidays!

Winners, we will contact you for your mailing addresses and get the cards right out to you.  Enjoy!

Hi there!  I’m back with more tips on making cards in minutes — that still look great!  The first tip I wanted to share today is to add a special little something to the card front.  I have a very special guest with me to show you how it’s done: the one and only Claudine Hellmuth!

I’ve always been a HUGE fan of Claudine’s work — it makes me so happy just looking at it!

If you’re not familiar with her work, Claudine is a mixed-media collage artist whose designs have been chosen for fine art poster designs, featured in numerous magazines, used as book illustrations and published as greeting cards, gift products and more. She has appeared on the Martha Stewart Show and has written two books and has three instructional DVD’s.

Here’s a picture of us taken at a trade show — that’s Claudine on the left — hi Claudine!

She recently developed a new line with Ranger, featuring acrylic paints, brushes and…sticky-back canvas.  What’s sticky- back canvas, you ask?  It’s canvas that comes in sheets and has an adhesive on the back.  The weave is so tight that it is perfect for stamping on.  You can do so many super fun things with it, like this flower brooch that Claudine made to share using the Clear Design Flower Blossom Borders set:

Featured Supplies 

• Clear Design Flower Blossom Borders
• Antique Round Standard Fasteners
• Other: Claudine’s sticky-back canvas and acrylic paints

Isn’t that flower brooch just too clever?  Imagine how much fun it would be to receive one.  I think I’m going to have to make one for myself!  Claudine has step-by-step photos for making them HERE on her blog — plus a giveaway!  There’s a giveaway going on here too, so be sure to enter them both!

Claudine sent me some sticky-back canvas to play with  — I had so much fun!  Here’s what I came up with

These owls have a “magnetic” personality — there’s a magnet stuck on the back!

And, here’s a make-it-in-minutes tip: do some prep work ahead of time — only, don’t think of it as “work”, think of it as fun!  Whenever you have that itch to be creative, but aren’t sure what to make, grab a paintbrush and paint a background.  It can be watercolors — or what I did here, sticky-back canvas.  You can apply this prep work tip to other projects too — try stamping a bunch of cards with a Design Block, or stamping an image on tags.

I love using silver and gold during the holidays, so I painted one sheet of sticky-back canvas gold and another silver.  I just kind of streaked it on — I wasn’t being careful or trying to paint any shape in particular.  Later on when I had the idea to create the owl magnets, it was all ready to go — I just stamped them in black dye ink (Memories), cut out a rough shape around the owl, stuck it to some chipboard, and cut around it more closely.  Then I added the eyes, scarf, magnet to the back and popped it on a card — ta dah!

The silver and gold paints really add a certain shimmer that the photos just don’t capture — wish you could all come over and see them in person!

These owls can be used for the holidays — or all winter long.  Or, leave off the scarf and they can be used all year!  I didn’t put a message on the front of the card — I plan to put one on the inside when I go to use it.

Featured Supplies

• Big Owl
• Other:  Claudine’s sticky-back canvas, silver and gold acrylic paint (Golden) red striped ribbon (Bazzill), mutli-color ribbon (American Crafts), wiggle eyes, die (Nestabilities), Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), chipboard (recycled from a package of scrapbook paper — but you could use cereal boxes or whatever you have on hand)

Want to win a package of Claudine’s sticky-back canvas?   Just leave a comment here on this post!  The random winner will be announced on Friday.

Thanks so much for the giveaway Claudine, and for joining me on the blog. It was fun!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a video using all-new 2009 stamps!  Until then, check out another 2009 Catalog sneak peek HERE.

And, if you haven’t already entered it, there’s a giveaway going on THIS POST, too!

Until tomorrow,

Welcome back and happy first of December!  Can’t believe it’s here already.  How did THAT happen? The holidays are just around the corner — and, if you’re like me — you’ll be rushing around trying to get everything done.   So this week I’ll be showing you lots of tips and tricks for making cards in minutes — that look like you spent ages on them!   Let’s dive right in…

You know how I love glitter!  One huge time saver for me when making cards is to let glitter do the coloring.  For these cards, first I stamped the Design Block Stunning Snowflakes on the card base, then I stamped the ornament.  Next I ran a nice thick line of glue along the inner edge of the stamped line, being careful not to go over the line.  Then I used a paintbrush to pull the glue towards the center.  Sprinkle on the glitter, let it dry, sew (or draw!) a line for the ornament to hang from and you’re done!

Oh and here’s another neat thing about glitter — you can glitter right over part of an image to cover it up.  Here, I glittered over the to/from.  It’s a great way to get more from your stamps!

Featured Supplies

• Clear Design Holiday Tags
• Design Block Stunning Snowflakes
• Other: red glitter (unknown), green glitter (Martha Stewart), glitter glue, corner rounder punch, silver thread + sewing machine.  Note:  You could also use glitter glue, but if you are making a bunch of these it’s more economical to use regular glitter + glue.

Now for two more cards and two more tips.  If you have time to do some coloring, use watercolors!  I love using them because you don’t have to be perfect — the soft edges and impreciseness are all part of “the look”.   Another tip I’ve learned for making cards in a hurry is to eliminate as much cutting as possible.  I followed that trick + using glitter to do the coloring on the ornament cards above, too!

Here’s how I watercolor:  using a blunt pencil, loosely scribble circles where you want the color to go.  I used two greens here. Be sure to use a blunt pencil so that you don’t make grooves in the paper.

Then use a wet brush to blend the colors, let dry, and assemble your card!

Here’s another tip:  look for images that just need a hint of color, like this cute penguin tag!  For this one, I just put some blue watercolor pencil along the edges, then pulled it in towards the center of the tag with a wet brush.

Featured Supplies

• Flourish Christmas Tree
• Clear Design Holiday Gift Tags
• Felt Snowflakes
• Felt Poinsettias
• Teal Gemstones, Clear Gemstones
• Other: watercolor pencils, ribbon (American Crafts), embossing folders (snowflake background and houndstooth, Cuttlebug), scalloped rectangle die (Nestabilities)

Now for the next tip — keep the focus on the message!  After all, that’s really what the card is all about.  Use pop dots to make your message — well, er — POP!

And, here’s another tip — use embellishments to add that extra “little something” — it’s so fast and simple.  Here’s a little button snowman with a paper scarf and nose, plus black gems for eyes:

Another tip:  try stamping your message in an unexpected color — I used grey here.

Featured Supplies

• Clear Design Holiday Wishes
• Happy Birthday Background
• Neutral Card Buttons
• Black Gemstones
• Sparkle Gem Hearts
• Other: patterned paper for the snowman’s scarf (Basic Grey)

And, two more tips for today — use tone-on-tone stamping!   Tone-on-tone stamping means to stamp with ink that is the same color as your cardstock.  You’ll be able to put together a card in minutes this way, and it will be easy to coordinate embellishments.

Here I stamped the Design Block Holly Flourish with  VersaMark ink + clear sparkle embossing powder for a white-on-white look.   Which brings me to my last tip for the day — use Design Block stamps — they cover most cards in one swoop!  This card is a little larger, so it took two swoops.

I actually spent the most time trying to decide what color ribbon to use, since so many would work and had to ask my mother-in-law, Dotty, to help me choose.  Oh and — that’s my little nephew — he’s such a sweetie!

This card is so fast to make — once you pick out your ribbon, ha ha — that even if you haven’t started on your cards yet you can get them all done in a jiffy!

Featured Supplies

• Sparkle Clear Magic Holidays (for the “naughty n’ nice” message)
• Design Block Holly Flourish
• Square Photo Cards and Envelopes
• VersaMark Ink
• Clear sparkle embossing powder
• Other: photo (taken by Dotty, thanks Mom!), ribbon (The Paper Studio)

Want to make some of these cards?  ALL of the stamps used today are HERE in the Hero Arts Online Store!  Woo hoo!

If you haven’t guessed it already, the challenge is to use at least one Hero Arts stamp to make a card in minutes!  Try to limit yourself to 15-20 minutes.   You don’t have to count time spent doing a sketch or gathering your supplies.  The card can have any theme you like — I shared holiday cards today, but I’ll have non-holiday cards to share tomorrow and later in the week! Upload your card to the Hero Arts Flickr Group by Sunday, December 7th at 11:59 pm PST and tag it with the code word “minute-cards.”  Please include any tips in your description.

Here are the prizes:

• Fresh Face (someone who has not yet won a contest!): $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2008 catalog
• 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

Speaking of prizes, let’s have a giveaway!

These photo frame cards are perfect for making cards to send to everyone on your list!  I’ll randomly select five winners Wednesday morning.  To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post with a tip for making cards in a flash.

See you tomorrow when I’ll be back with more make-it-in-minutes tips + a very special guest!  Meanwhile, there’s a sneak of the 2009 Catalog HERE that I know you’ll want to peek at!