Wow everyone!!  The one layer projects you all submitted for last week’s challenge were incredible!  (You can view them all here!)   It was great to see you embrace a challenge that we thought might be a little more difficult than some.  It’s truly amazing what can be done with just stamps, ink, and paper!  The judges had their work cut out for them, but finally narrowed it down to their favorites and then we randomly picked from that pool.

So here we go, friends!

Our Third Place winner this week is Judy1223, who came up with a number of “one layer wonders” this week.  This cheerful card caught our attention with its spectacular coloring…so pretty!

We also loved this simply elegant set of anniversary cards by Judy.

Coming in Second Place this week is Paper Girl for her super creative Summertime lemonade card!  The judges were blown away by the design, complete with a straw and  “lemon” slice.  Irresistible!

Now, for First Place! Congratulations to jaemom, who fooled us all at first glance with this AMAZING single layer card.  Lots of masking and patience went into this beauty and it sure paid off — her faux layers add up to one fabulous card! She even provided detailed instructions and tips in her description here.

Our Fresh Face prize is reserved for someone who has never won a challenge and this week it goes to Yada-Yada-Yada!  We loved her clean and simple butterfly “hello” card.   Such a great design!  She was inspired by the card Laura demonstrated in Wednesday’s video here.  (To explore our video archive, click on the camera icon over in the sidebar.)

Winning the Scrapbooking category this week is sarahjane4kids for her wonderful “Blowing Dandelions” page. She made one layer look like so much more — way to go Sarah!

And take a look at how she cut around the flowers…wow!

With so many outstanding entries, we couldn’t stop there!  We will be sending prizes to the following four Honorable Mention winners as well.

First, to Chris Millar for this beautiful floral card.  The judges loved all the little details she added!

Next, feast your eyes on this great beach scene card by tomoh08 — such a creative use of stamps!

Stamps&cars definitely broke the single layer card mold with this lovely design.  Amazing shading!

And finally, we have an Honorable Mention for this super sweet and playful layout from kristinaproffitt.  We loved the colors and the way she stamped the quote with the Small Variety Alphabet.

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

Thanks everyone for playing along!  We look forward to seeing you next time!

+

Wow!  What a week…what a party!  Thanks so much for celebrating our first blog birthday with us! We had tons of fun and hope you did too!

All parties must come to an end, but this one’s going out with a bang because today we have a very special announcement to make.  Please join us in welcoming the first group of Hero Hostesses!!

• Jenn Biederman
• Kelly Booth
• Lisa Carroll
• Judy Jung
• Donna Mikasa
• Deborah Nolan
• Karen Piskor

We are very excited they have agreed to be as Hero Hostesses! Congratulations! YAY!  These wonderful artists all have huge hearts, and make wonderful contributions to the Hero Flickr Group discussions and challenge submissions.

In exchange for LOTS of FUN products, these select artists will help make our growing community the best that it can be!  Hero Hostesses are encouraged to enter the weekly challenges to provide inspiration, however, they cannot be selected as winners.  After their three month hostess term is up, they can once again enter contests.

And! Special thanks to our talented team of Web Artists for sharing all of the creative one layer ideas this week!  They’ve shown that sometimes less truly is more.  As has become customary on Saturdays, here’s our grid of inspiration from the past week…

You can take a closer look at these projects by clicking on any of the daily links below.

• Monday - Two takes on using circle stamps in your one layer designs, courtesy of Kandis and Kelly.
• Tuesday - Single layer krafty goodness by Jacki and Robyn.
• Wednesday - Simply beautiful looks with reverse masking by Laura and Barbara. (Be sure to check out Laura’s awesome video tutorial!)
• Friday - Happy and colorful one layer creations  — a layout from Sheri and a birthday card from Tami.

Reminder:  you have until Sunday, April 5 at 11:59 pm PST to create and submit your one layer creations to the Flickr group.  More details on the challenge are HERE.

One last thing! Our final giveaways of the week are still going on!  Just leave a comment HERE on Friday’s post to enter.  We will announce the winners on Monday morning.

Thanks to everyone for helping us celebrate our first blog birthday!  We’ve got tons of fun things planned for this year — cannot wait!

Wishing you a happy weekend!

+

Hello everyone and happy Friday!  Today we have a very special guest with us: Jackie Leventhal, founder of Hero Arts!  Jackie started Hero Arts from her home 35 years ago — wow!  Now that Aaron is working as CEO, Jackie can focus on being the Design Director — the brain behind the all of the stamps.  She is a truly inspirational person and we all love working with her.  Now, meet Jackie!

This is a special time for me, it’s my birthday next week. I received a card today from a friend with stamped hearts and she wrote all round them…fun.candles.happy.special… in all these many years (don’t ask how many) I have never seen a card as wonderful…the color, the spirit, the message! Stamps are so special and every time you receive a new greeting it triggers the heart and you feel like, “this is as good as it gets”. That is what is so compelling about making and giving cards. After 35 years of Hero Arts, millions and millions of stamps later, and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of cards later it still feels so good and so special to receive one. Congratulations on the first birthday of our blog. It will keep inspiring and spreading our “secret to life” to so many.

Jackie Leventhal

Thanks so much Jackie!  Happy birthday to you!  (Read more about Jackie HERE!)

Now, the Web Artists have a couple more one layer creations up their sleeves!  Sheri Reguly was up for a BIG challenge this week — creating a single layer layout!  The phrases “one layer” and “scrapbook layout” don’t usually go together…but after looking at Sheri’s single layer page, you’ll wonder “why NOT?!” It’s incredible!!  Feast your eyes on her ONE-derful design…

Layout by Sheri Reguly

And here’s Sheri with more:  “I believe this is the first single layer layout I’ve ever created. It was quite the challenge for me, as I’m a big fan of patterned papers, matting, and layering stamped images. I couldn’t resist embellishing my page with a bold strip of ribbon to introduce further color, pattern and texture to my page. It was also, along with my photo, the inspiration for my summery color scheme. “

Supplies:

• DesignBlock Four Leaf Grid
• DesignBlock Wallpaper Background
• Clear Design Scallop Borders
• Clear Design Thoughtful Messages
• Clear Design Anytime Messages
• Rose Petals Chalk Ink Queue
• Pumpkin Patch Chalk Ink Queue
• Soft Pool Shadow Ink
• StazOn Jet Black
• Art Flowers Summer
• Card Buttons Summer
• Assorted Clear Circles
• Other: ribbon (American Crafts, Offray), brads (Bazzill Basics), thread, staples

Tips from Sheri:

• I only wanted to stamp a small portion of the Four Leaf Grid Design Block onto my page. I taped off the surrounding areas, applied ink to my stamp, then removed the tape prior to stamping the image onto my white cardstock. This helped create clean lines, and aided in achieving the exact same image on both sides of the layout.
• Strips of ribbon are the perfect solution to separate stamped background patterns and disguise imperfect edges, while introducing subtle pattern and texture to the page.

Next, Tami created a whimsical one layer “bird”day card in honor of the blog turning one, featuring colorful birds all dressed up for the blog party!  Tami says, “This card was so much fun to make — I couldn’t stop masking and sponging!  I found that even though I was limited by paper choices, I could still use my favorites — stitching, Stickles, ribbon…and of course LOTS of stamps!  I will definitely be trying more single layer cards in the future.”

Card by Tami Hartley

Supplies:

• Three Birds
• Clear Design Celebrate All Day (party hat and sentiment)
• Dots
• Clear Design Dot Flourishes
• Wood Finish
• Soft Pool, Soft Green, Soft Sand Shadow Ink
• Shabby Shutters Distress Ink
• Chocolates & Blueberries Chalk Ink Queue
• Diamond Stickles
• Spring Felt Flowers
• Other: colored pencils, twill, sewing machine, corner rounder

Tips from Tami:

• To create a colorblocked look, simply use a sheet of copy paper or large post-it notes to mask off the block areas.
• Make your own patterned paper by sponging shadow ink onto white cardstock.  (I like to apply a little more ink at the edges.)  Then overstamp an image, such as the dots and flourishes here, with the same shadow ink.  When the ink dries the effect will be very subtle…and the patterns will be easy to work with!
• When stitching on a one layer card make the bobbin thread match the color of your card base.  Here, I used brown thread on the top but white bobbin thread so it wouldn’t be as obvious on the inside.

Now…we are excited to introduce a new addition to the Hero Blog and Community: The Hero Hostess!  Hero Hostesses will be selected based on contributions to the Hero Flickr Group discussions and challenge submissions.  In exchange for LOTS of FUN products, these select artists will help make our growing community the best that it can be!  Hero Hostesses are encouraged to enter the weekly challenges to provide inspiration, however, they cannot be selected as winners.  After their three month hostess term is up, they can once again enter contests.  We emailed our first selections for Hero Hostess yesterday afternoon, and even THEY don’t know everyone that was selected!  We will announce the hostesses as soon as we’ve heard from everyone.

And how about another random blinkie giveaway!  Just follow the link over in the sidebar where our four blinkies are displayed, add a blinkie to your blog, and then leave a comment on the post HERE to enter!  If you’ve already added one of our blinkies…thank you!  You’re already automatically entered in the drawing!   We’ll announce the random winner on Monday morning.

Finally, we’d like to celebrate Jackie’s upcoming birthday by having a giveaway! Just leave a comment here on today’s post and include a birthday message to Jackie. We’ll randomly select three winners to receive some yummy Hero goodies on Monday.

Thanks for stopping by today!  We’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up the party.  Until then, happy stamping!

+

Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us for another day of festivities and one layer cards!

Crisp white card bases are the foundation for today’s cards which feature reverse masking. First, we have a card from Web Artist Laura Griffin that’s a breath of fresh spring air — so pretty!

Card by Laura Griffin 

Laura says, “We all love to see how many layers we can get on one card, right? Sometimes, we forget that single-layer cards can have dimension too! In this example I trimmed around the wings of a butterfly image and bent them back to make the butterfly look like it is flying (no glue dots required). For a finished look, you can also emboss a border around your image with nothing more than a stylus and a piece of scrap cardstock.”

Laura created a video to accompany her card since it’s Watch It Wednesday — check it out for step-by-step instructions!

Supplies:

• Clear Design Designer Butterflies
• Clear Design All Occasion Messages
• White Notecards
• Primary Elements Chalk Ink Queue
• Small Mixed Gemstones
• Other: sponge, stylus, rectangular scrap of cardstock, lightbox (optional)

Tip from Laura:  You can create your own custom-inked background in a flash. Just trim a rectangle out of scrap cardstock, center the window on top of your card, and use a sponge to ink around the edges. Try circles and punched shapes too!

Next, Barbara Hache has come up with a charming one layer card that also uses the reverse masking technique.  What a fabulous and versatile design — think of all the different images you could stamp in those circles!  Barbara says, “When making a one layer card the details become very important. I wanted the colors of the chalk to show through so I stamped the images in a single color of ink. While I don’t always use a lot of layers in my cards, I found going back to the very basics to be a bit more challenging!”

Card by Barbara Hache

Supplies:

• Clear Design Sending Happy Thoughts
• Black Memories Ink
• White Notecards
• Other: circle die (Accucut - convertable insert circles), colored chalk

Tip from Barbara: When making a card that requires evenly spaced elements, I find it easier to make a template first. I used a circle die for my mask. This would be very helpful when making more than one card.

Thanks for the inspiration Laura and Barbara!  Love your clean and simple designs!

Now…in honor of Watch It Wednesday and all of the videos we’ve had on the blog in the past year… let’s have a giveaway of some great goodies!  To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post about the videos!  We want to hear what you like about them, what you want in the future, what your favorites are — anything!  We’ll pick three random winners tomorrow morning.  Did you know that we have 75 videos in the archive?  Yep, it’s true — just look for the video camera over there in the sidebar and follow the link to see them!

Ready, set, action!

+

Welcome back to our blog birthday bash!  Today we’re sharing more ONE layer card ideas in honor of our ONE year of blogging…and giving away more prizes too!  (More on the prizes in a bit!)

First, Aaron Leventhal, CEO and son of the founder of Hero Arts, Jackie Leventhal has a few words to say:

Happy First Birthday Hero Arts Blog!!! It seems like just yesterday, our little blog was just a twinkle in our eyes. Today, thanks to the inspiring contributions from the Hero Arts’ Artists over the past year, from techniques, to card samples, to videos, to challenges, to sharing from the heart, the blog has become everything we hoped for it. Just as important, the passion, contributions, and excitement each of you bring, as users of the blog, has created the most wonderful community. Thank you to everyone for your enthusiasm, comments, suggestions, and so much more. We look forward to spending another exciting year and beyond with all of you!

Thanks Aaron!

Next, Web Artists Jacki Jones and Robyn Werlich have come up with some super creative “less is more” one layer designs.  Both feature stamping on kraft card bases.  When we think of single layer cards, we often think of stamping on white, but kraft can be a wonderful alternative, as these two show.

Jacki Jones used our Long Light Kraft Notecards to stamp a yummy cookie card.  Here is Jacki to share more about her card: “One of my men, in this case, my 13 year old son, was looking for a card in my stash and couldn’t find anything he felt comfortable sending. After whipping up a card for him really quickly, I made a mental note that I needed to start building a stash of cards that can be appropriate for men or can be given by a man. With that in mind, I only added a little glitter to this card — no flowers or ribbon. And besides, who doesn’t like chocolate chip cookies?”

Jacki masked the cookies and even accented the chocolate chips with Diamond Stickles!

Card by Jacki Jones

Supplies:

• Clear Design Birthday
• Chocolate Chip Cookie
• Memories Artprint Brown Ink
• Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue
• Long Light Kraft Notecards
• Other: color pencils, pearl cotton, tapestry needle

Tip from Jacki: Use masks to layer the images and color pencil to shade and highlight to create depth. The cookies were stamped first, and then a mask was created to cover the cookies while the background was stamped. The cookies were colored just a shade darker than the Kraft card. Cream color pencil was added near the top left and more brown was added to the lower right to darkened up just a bit. I also lightly shaded the area outside the cookie on that same side.

Next, Robyn Werlich created a beautiful one layer card featuring embossed flourishes and dots.  We love the little pops of color she added with the details!  Robyn says, “I love to do multiple layers on my cards, but if you are looking for a quick yet classy card, this is the way to go. By stamping two images and embossing them both with clear embossing powder, you get a very classy card with no layers. I used stitching in the middle to help create a visual divider that made the card look like it had two parts to it. Very easy and fun to do!”

Card by Robyn Werlich

Supplies:

• Clear Design Card Messages
• Bold Flourish DesignBlock
• Raindrop Background
• Kraft Notecards
• Art Flowers Summer
• Art Flowers Spring
• Art Flowers White & Cream
• VersaMark
• Clear Embossing Powder
• Other: brads, machine stitching, white string, small tag

Tip from Robyn: By stamping two different images on my card and embossing them, I was able to use my sewing machine as a “divider” for the card instead of using paper. It made the card look like it had additional layers when in reality, it was very simple to make.

Thanks Jacki and Robyn for sharing your “krafty” single layer designs!

Now, let’s have more giveaways! See those blinkies over there in the blog sidebar? Follow the link THERE and leave a comment on THAT post to enter a blinkie giveaway!  At various times later today we’ll pop in to announce three random winners — plus, we’ll have more throughout the week!

And, to really get things started, let’s have an extra blinkie giveaway right now, with a BIG WOO HOO to #238, Lee Anne, who added the charming houndstooth owl blinkie to her blog HERE!

UPDATE:  Random blinkie winners below!! Winners, we will email you for your mailing addresses and send your goodies out to you!

• Our first random blinkie winner today is #275 - Shemaine Smith, who displayed the birthday blinkie on her blog HERE!
• Hooray for our next winner… #25 - Maylee!  HERE is her blog with the birthday blinkie festively blinking away!
• Our last blinkie winner for today is…drumroll… #345 - MegB! Check out the sweet houndstooth owl blinking away HERE!

That’s all for today!  We’ll be back tomorrow with more giveaways!  So keep on adding blinkies to your blogs!
+

One year ago today the Hero Arts Blog was born!  WOW!  (Click HERE to go back in time and read the very first post.) Cannot believe it’s been a year already! In appreciation of all of the wonderful stampers (yes, YOU!) who visit our blog, we’ll be celebrating all week long with…

• Special guests!
• A coupon for 10% off the entire Hero Arts Online Store!  Click HERE to start shopping, then use code BLOGBDAY at checkout!  (Feel free to pass it on!)
• LOTS of giveaways!
• A BIG announcement on Friday that you won’t want to miss!
• Daily inspiration…courtesy of our team of Web Artists!

and MORE!

Since the blog is turning ONE, we decided it was only appropriate to feature cards with ONE layer this week. It’s “back to the basics” — we’ll be letting our stamps and inks really shine!

Let’s get started! Today we’ll be showing how two Web Artists used the same set (Clear Design Hello Circles) and came up with completely different looks for their single layer cards.

First up is Kandis Smith with a card fit for a party — what a fun and happy design!  Kandis says, “Creating a one layer card is so much fun! Use color and texture to add more dimension to your card! The felt flowers and smooth clear gemstones really pop off the card surrounded by all the circles of color. Add machine stitching around some of your circles to create a ‘layered’ effect without all the time of cutting out!”

Card by Kandis Smith

Supplies:

• Clear Design Hello Circles
• Clear Design Circular Designs
• Clear Design Thoughtful Messages
• Long White Notecards
• Primary Elements Ink Queue
• Memories Black Ink
• Summer Felt Flowers
• Smooth Clear Gemstones

Tips from Kandis:

• Pick one Colorbox Chalk Queue and use only those colors. They are sure to coordinate and give your card some *pop*!
• Machine stitch around some of the circles. This makes the card feel that it has more layers than it really does. Plus it gives it that “homemade” feel.

Next, Kelly Rasmussen created a stunning one layer card with masked circles in soft, soothing tones.  Kelly says, “I believe this is the first one layer card I have ever made. And even though it has a much more simple look than a multi-layered card, I found it took much more planning and attention to detail than cards I normally make. I couldn’t hide any mistakes with another layer of paper. The masking technique worked perfect for these circle images to create a pattern across the card. And I just love the soft feel of the shadow inks! It was really fun to create a simple card that puts so much focus on the stamps.”

Card by Kelly Rasmussen

Supplies:

• Clear Design Hello Circles
• Clear Design All Occasion Messages
• Cream Notecards
• White & Cream Art Flowers
• Summer Art Buttons
• Assorted Crystal Gemstones
• Soft Pool Shadow Ink
• Soft Green Shadow Ink
• Soft Sand Shadow Ink

Tips from Kelly:

• When making a mask of an image, stamp it on a post-it note…it’s easy to remove and reposition as needed.
• Curve clear sentiment stamps on your acrylic block to match the design of your card.

Thanks Kandis and Kelly — your one layer wonders are inspiring!

In honor of the blog’s ONE year birthday, the challenge this week is to create a ONE layer card!  Please use just one piece of cardstock as your card base with no additional paper layers.  You can add all the ink and embellishments you wish as long as you keep the paper to one layer.  Sponge, mask, emboss, glitter, and color to your heart’s content — the possibilities are endless!  Please use at least one Hero Arts stamp on your creations and submit them to the Flickr Group by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, April 5.  Include the tag “onelayer” (no space between the words “one” and “layer”) 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

Now, how about a giveaway?  Actually, how about LOTS of giveaways?!?!  We’ll be giving away goodies every hour from 9 am - 5 pm PST today, plus one more tomorrow morning!  WOO HOO!  Just leave a comment on this post to enter (one only please), then keep checking back as we announce a random winner each hour!  Tell all your friends so they can join in the fun!

UPDATE:  Hourly winners below!! Winners, we will email you for your mailing addresses and send your surprise goodies out to you!

• 9:00 am PST - We randomly picked lucky #344 to win! Congrats to Karen Lindsay! (March 30th, 2009 at 9:16 am)
• 10:00 am PST - #140,  Sue R. (March 30th, 2009 at 7:54 am) is our second random prize winner!
• 11:00 am PST - Our next prize goes to #447, nancydemond! (March 30th, 2009 at 10:04 am)
• 12:00 pm PST - Hooray for #601, Debra Dukes! (March 30th, 2009 at 11:14 am)
• 1:00 pm PST - This hour’s winner is #33 - Hannah Nicole F! (March 30th, 2009 at 6:37 am)
• 2:00 pm PST - Woo hoo to #709, Nathalia - you’re our next random winner! (March 30th, 2009 at 12:30 pm)
• 3:00 pm PST - Our next winner is #274, Lidia C.! YAY! (March 30th, 2009 at 8:49 am)
• 4:00 pm PST - #19, Judy Jung! Yippee!!! (March 30th, 2009 at 6:27 am)
• 5:00 pm PST - The last random winner for today is #642, Jayne! (March 30th, 2009 at 11:41 am).  Keep those comments coming, as we’re doing one more tomorrow morning…!
• Tuesday Morning - And we drew #982, April Y this morning! (March 30th, 2009 at 5:42 pm)  Congrats!

We’ll be doing blinkie giveaways tomorrow — check the link over in the blog sidebar if you want to get started early!

It’s going to be a ONE-derful week and we’re happy you’re here to celebrate with us!

+