Hi, everyone!  It’s Jennifer and Tami here.  We are thrilled to announce the winners of last week’s paper challenge.  There were so many fabulous entries this week — great job using those patterned papers!  Our judges picked their favorites from which we randomly picked the following winners:

Our FIRST PLACE prize goes to this amazing advent calender entry by meghan-solo.  Isn’t it wonderful!  We all really love the penguin peeking in on day 6.

Next, we have SECOND PLACE.  Look how creative 1scrappycat is — she added little masks onto the animals.  So cute!

THIRD PLACE goes to christakrupski for this adorable Halloween card.  She did a great job matching her stamped image to her patterned paper.  Excellent!

We couldn’t stop there, of course!  Next we have an honorable mention for stampingmathilda for her gorgeous scraplings.  Wouldn’t you love to receive one of these?!

Another honorable mention goes to stampersuzz for this very elegant masterpiece.  Wow!

(Each honorable mention winner will receive a few goodies for their win!)

And!  In honor of the All-Star Paper Week, we picked a bonus winner – an entry that used one of the paper companies we featured.  This winner will receive a few goodies from each of the featured companies.  The lucky one is [asm].  Check out the great combination of patterned papers and stamps (and the adorable drawing!) used on this layout…

Congratulations to all of the winners! Please email us with your mailing address (see the sidebar) and include “Paper Challenge Winner” and your prize in the title.  We will get them right out to you.

Thanks, everyone!

As “All-Star Paper Week” winds down we thought it would be fun to present a review of the week in photos.  Take a look — and click on any photo to be taken to that project’s blog post:

We’d like to thank the wonderful companies and talented designers who took part this week…

• KI Memories/Shannon Tidwell
• Basic Grey/Kelly Goree
• Making Memories/Laura Vegas
• American Crafts/Kelly Purkey
• Bazzill Basics Paper/Amy Totty

Now…it’s time to announce another lucky prize winner!  Thursday’s American Crafts giveaway winner is…#300…Lindsay G! Congratulations Lindsay! We will email you for your address.

We still have one more giveaway winner to announce so stop by tomorrow to find out who the Bazzill treats will be going to!  And don’t forget about the weekly challenge — you have until Sunday at 11:59pm PST to submit your entries to the Hero Arts flickr pool.  Click HERE for all the details.

Thanks for joining us this week,

Welcome back to our “All-Star Paper Week!” Each day we will focus on a different company in the paper crafts industry. Today we will be featuring the fabulous Bazzill Basics Paper…and have yet another great giveaway!

Bazzill Basics Paper is well-known in the industry for their incredible cardstocks and embellishments.  Hero is proud to call Bazzill a friend.  Here is a bit more about Bazzill: “Bazzill Basics Paper is an innovator in the scrapbooking industry in the United States and 13 countries around the world. Its products are sold in independent scrapbooks stores, on-line, and in major retail craft and scrapbooking stores. Six years ago, Bazzill introduced high qualtiy, acid-free cardstock that is now offered in 8 textures and more than 500 colors and has become an industry staple. Cardstock is used as a base and as embellishment while creating scrapbook pages, greeting cards, and other paper crafts.”

We are proud to have Bazzill designer Amy Totty here today to share THREE projects made with Bazzill and Hero Arts.  Amy said, “Cardstock and stamping really go hand and hand in my book.  The stamps you use can have many different looks just based on which texture you decide to stamp it on. How fun is that!”

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Four Bold Messages
• Hero Arts Tickets
• Bazzill Cardstock (Hilary, Yam, Cajun)
• Bazzill Brads (Paper Brads-Raven, 10mm-Haley)
• Bazzill Flowers (2″ Daisy-Hilary)
• Bazzill Ribbon (Cream Dashed)

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Long Seasonal Borders
• Bazzill Cardstock (Pomegranate, Hilary, French Vanilla)
• Bazzill Brads (10mm-Pomegranate)
• Bazzill Ribbon (Cream Dashed)

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Large Christmas Circle
• Hero Arts Clear Design Dots and Lines
• Bazzill Tag (3×3 square)
• Bazzill Cardstock (Cherry Splash, White/OP)
• Bazzill Brads (5mm-Candy Apple)
• Bazzill Ribbon (White Sheer Dot, Red Gingham, Green Gingham)

Don’t you love how Amy filled the stamped dots borders with brads? So clever. Thanks, Amy!

Now we have a couple of cards from some Hero artists. The first is from Shari Carroll. She used Hero Arts along with Bazzill Basics Paper’s fabulous “Just The Edge” borders and the amazing new Dotted Swiss paper.  (This paper is cardstock with a slightly embossed dot — yum!)

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Clear Design Share Laughter
• Hero Arts Neutral Card Buttons
• Fall Chalk Ink Queue
• Bazzill Dotted Swiss Cardstock
• Bazzill Just the Edge (butterfly border)
• Other: polka dot paper (DejaViews), string

Tami Hartley also created a card with the irresistible Dotted Swiss, combining it with Bazzill’s Orangepeel textured cardstock and pre-scalloped cardstock — a great timesaver!  She stamped a Hero Arts CardArt stamp right over the top of two shades of Dotted Swiss cardstock.

The surface is slightly raised, yet smooth enough to stamp on, providing beautiful texture and interest…

Supplies:

• Hero Arts CardArt Best Kit
• Hero Arts Gems (Citron, Olive, Orange)
• Bazzill Dotted Swiss Cardstock (Celtic Green, Irish Eyes, Salt)
• Bazzill Cardstock with an Edge (Large Rectangle Geneva)
• Bazzill Orangepeel textured cardstock (Hazard)
• Other: satin ribbon,  machine stitching, pop dots, white pen, white colored pencil

Time for another GIVEAWAY!  Check out these great Just the Edge Cardstock border embellishments from Bazzill!   Just leave a comment here by Saturday, October 18th at 11:59pm PST telling us what what your most-used color of Bazzill cardstock is.  (We love Parakeet!)  We will pick a random winner of these:

How about another giveaway?  Go over to the Bazzill Basics Paper website later today for a chance to win some Hero Arts stamps as well!  Just click HERE and scroll down.

Remember, you still have time to enter this week’s paper challenge — all of the details are HERE.

See you soon!

Hello, all! We are continuing our fun “All-Star Paper Week” where each day we focus on a different company in the paper crafts industry. Today we are thrilled to have the always inspiring American Crafts! And, of course, we have a great giveaway.

American Crafts is one of the most innovative companies in the paper industry. Their papers and embellishments are always so colorful and fun to use with stamps! Here is a bit more about their company:  “Steve and Alma Mitchell founded American Crafts in 1995. Soon thereafter their sons Jeff and Wayne joined them. In 2001, after a successful tour of providing high quality products to the general craft market, American Crafts decided to focus on their passion for Scrapbooking and create innovative, high quality, well designed products specifically for the Scrapbooking industry. Since then, we have steadily expanded our product offering and elevated our position within the market. We attribute our success primarily to what we consider our greatest strengths: high quality products and superior customer service. We look forward to many more years of creating awesome tools to make preserving memories fun and easy.”

For our American Crafts day, we asked our friend and American Crafts Design Team member, Kelly Purkey to share her talents with us.  First she created this stunning layout, saying, “American Crafts and Hero Arts go together so well.  Both of the companies have such a fun, playful touch to their products.  For my NYC layout, I used two of the bigger stamps that Hero offers to create backgrounds on the backsides of American Crafts double-sided paper.  I love how the simple, classic designs of the papers work with the interesting details in the stamps.  So much fun to match together!”

Supplies:

• Hero Arts DesignBlock Flowers
• Hero Arts Clear Design Bold Caps Alphabet
• Hero Arts Clear Design Long Travel Borders
• Hero Arts Circular Designs
• Hero Arts Small Variety Alphabet
• Hero Arts Pale Pink Gemstones
• Hero Arts Smooth Clear Gemstones
• American Crafts papers and cardstock

Kelly also created this adorably fun card.  That American Crafts cloud paper is perfect for cards with trees and owls! An American Crafts Flair badge provides the cute greeting.

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Clear Design Birds & Branches
• Hero Arts Four Bold Messages
• American Crafts papers, cardstock and Flair embellishments

Next we have a cheerful card from Hero Artist Lisa Spangler.  Lisa says, “I love American Crafts paper, ribbons and embellishments — so bright and cheery!  Just what I needed to create this card and matching envelope for my very special aunt who has been in the hospital.   I mixed Christmas paper with ‘everyday’ paper — who says you can only use Christmas paper at Christmastime?”

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Clear Design Tree, Birds & Messages
• Hero Arts DesignBlock Flourish
• Hero Arts Chocolate, Green Apple, Strawberry Notecards
• Memories Artprint Brown
• VersaMark
• Hero Arts Antique Round Fasteners
• Hero Arts Olive Gemstones
• American Crafts ribbon
• American Crafts patterned paper
  • Everyday - Hey There  (hearts)
  • Christmas - Bushels of Fun (stripes)
• American Crafts Fieldhouse foam flower
• Other: colored pencils (Prismacolor), paper edge distressor (Tonic for Tim Holtz)

Isn’t that foam flower cool?!  Lisa shares how she created it:  “Ink the DesignBlock Flourish with VersaMark ink and set it aside — this way you have it all ready to go. Use an embossing gun to heat the foam flower until it just begins to curl, then flip it over and heat the other side until it just barely begins to curl.  Quickly press the stamp into foam and lift off — ta dah!”   TIP: Make sure you ink the stamp first to prevent it from sticking to the foam.

The envelope liner is another great touch that adds so much to the overall presentation. Lisa says, “To create the envelope liner, trace the envelope flap on your patterned paper and cut out. Trim the sides a little so it will slide in, then use a glue stick to adhere in place.”

We have another fun card to share from Kandis Smith.  Isn’t it wonderful?

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Sketched Birds
• Hero Arts Clear Design Thoughtful Messages
• Hero Arts Clear Design Robots
• Hero Arts Teal Gemstones
• Hero Arts Gemstones
• American Crafts Moda Bella Tailored and Bohemian papers

Woohoo!  GIVEAWAY TIME!  Check out these fun products from American Crafts!  Just leave a comment here by Friday, October 17th at 11:59pm PST telling us about the card you mostly recently made and we will pick a random winner of these products:

And…how about some more?  Go over to designer Kelly Purkey’s blog today for a chance to win even more American Crafts products!  Just click HERE. [Edited Oct. 17 to reflect revised contest location.]

We have a lot going on here today — be sure to scroll down so you don’t miss Leslie’s announcement of the winners of last week’s masculine challenge as well as the winners of the Basic Grey giveaway!

One last reminder!  You still have until Sunday to enter our paper challenge.  For more information, click HERE.

Take care…

Our “All-Star Paper Week” has been so much fun! And we are very excited about today’s featured company…Making Memories! Since Making Memories has so many great products, we have a lot to share today, including several fun projects, a video and giveaways.

Making Memories has been part of the paper crafting industry for such a long time — setting trends and inspiring many.  We just can’t get enough of their products! For a bit more about Making Memories, we thought we would share what they say about their company:  “Mix two parts home-spun design talent with one part Fortune 500 leadership, sprinkle in a passion for memories, and you have the ingredients for creating one of the country’s leading memory preservation companies. Utah-based Making Memories is one of today’s most recognized scrapbooking supply manufacturers, whose designers are considered among the industry’s most admired trendsetters.”

Jennifer couldn’t stand not playing along, since Making Memories is one of her favorite companies. She created a card featuring a photo of her friends and fellow Hero Arts artists…

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Clear Design Jolly Christmas
• Black Memories Ink
• Hero Arts Smooth Gems
• Making Memories Fa La La papers, ribbon, brad and snowflakes

Jennifer also created a mini card and mini gift bag using all of the companies we’ve featured so far this week — Making Memories, BasicGrey, KI Memories — along with Hero Arts.  This quick video shows something fun you can do to add sparkle to your projects.  Look how great the products work together…

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Clear Design Holiday Gift Tags
• Hero Arts Clear Design Jolly Christmas
• Black Memories Ink
• BasicGrey light green patterned paper
• Making Memories glitter, snowflakes, brad, green snowflake patterned paper
• KI Memories star lace paper
• Paper Shaper Punches
• Other: liquid glue, cardstock and mini paper bag

GIVEAWAY TIME! Check out this incredible giveaway from Making Memories! They were sweet to send products from the favorite new holiday line, Fa La La. Just leave a comment here by Thursday, October 16th at 11:59pm PST telling us what what your favorite holiday cookie is and we will pick a random winner of these treats:

And…we couldn’t stop there.  Go over to the Making Memories blog today for a chance to win some Hero Arts stamps as well! Just click HERE.

See you tomorrow for some more fun…plus the announcement of last week’s masculine challenge winners!

Hey! Welcome back to our “All-Star Paper Week.” Each day we will focus on a different company in the paper crafts industry.  Today we will be featuring the fabulous BasicGrey…and have a great giveway.

We love the variety of colors and one-of-a-kind styles BasicGrey has to offer. Their product lines continue to impress year after year! To learn a bit more about BasicGrey, we thought we would share what they say about their company:  “We specialize in creating cutting edge paper. Our work reflects a raw and progressive design style built to stimulate and inspire. We combine pure inspiration with craftsmanship to produce a portfolio of high quality, unique paper lines we like to call curious.”

And do you want to know what we love most about BasicGrey? They make fabulous 6×6 pads with smaller, scaled down prints — perfect for cardmaking. Gotta love that! (You can see an example pad HERE.)

First, we want to share a project created by BasicGrey’s lead designer, Kelly Goree. Kelly is a super-talented artist with a heart of gold. We instantly fell in love with what she created with BasicGrey and Hero Arts!  Isn’t it fun?!  Kelly said, “I ‘faux-stitch’ on my layouts and cards all the time. So when I saw these amazing border stamps by Hero Arts, I was immediately in love. They are so easy to use and I especially love the the stitching stamp and straight-line stamp can be bent and curved to form any pattern you might want.  How cool is that?  These stamps along with the adorable Owl-oween stamps were the perfect complement for the funky cool vibe of BasicGrey’s Offbeat line.”

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Clear Design Owl-oween
• Hero Arts Clear Design Dots & Lines
• BasicGrey Offbeat patterned paper and chipboard alphabets
• Other:  Bazzill cardstock, Delta Rubber Stampede ink

Now, here are some projects from Hero artists. Like Kelly, Tami Hartley paired BasicGrey’s Offbeat line with Hero Arts stamps. Tami said: “I fell in love with this large scale pod-branch patterned paper when I first laid my eyes on it.  Part of me wanted to frame it and hang it on our living room wall, but part of me wanted to use it on a card.  I decided this pattern could possibly lend itself to a holiday theme. (I think the colors from Shari Carroll’s fabulous shabby chic creations were still fresh in my mind!) I added a strip of stamped snowflakes, a seasonal framed sentiment, a few pearls — and voila! — a quick holiday card with lots of impact.”

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Clear Design Frames and Messages
• Hero Arts Sparkle Clear Holiday Messages
• Hero Arts Sparkle Clear Warm Wishes (snowflake)
• Hero Arts Neutral Card Buttons
• Hero Arts Accent Pearls
• Chocolates & Blueberries Queue
• Basic Grey patterned paper (”Eccentric” and “Unexpected” from Offbeat line)
• Other:  ribbon, metallic silver thread, machine stitching, pop dots

And Tami has a fabulous tip:  “When in doubt, pair a patterned paper with a neutral like kraft paper!”  Good one!

Jennifer McGuire created this card with BasicGrey and Hero Arts. Jennifer said: “BasicGrey continually amazes me with delicious papers that I just have to have. And many of their paper lines work well with Hero Arts. When I saw their new line, Urban Prairie, I couldn’t wait to use it. And the Hero Arts background stamp is perfect with it!”

Supplies:

• Hero Arts DesignBlock Stencil
• BasicGrey Urban Prairie Olio Rub-ons
• BasicGrey Urban Prairie 6×6 Paper 
• Hero Arts Clear Gemstones
• White Memories Ink
• Hero Arts Strawberry Notecards
• Other:  punches, ribbon

And now we have a delicious giveaway from BasicGrey! Kelly was kind enough to send products from the favorite new line, Urban Prairie. Just leave a comment here by Wednesday, October 15th at 11:59pm PST telling us what color of patterned papers you like most and we will pick a random winner of these treats:

Want another chance to win? Kelly will have a great giveaway of Hero Arts stamps today on her blog. So be sure to visit HERE for another chance to win!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Be sure to come back every day this week for more fun!

Hello!  Welcome to another fun week here on the Hero Arts Blog.  This week we have something different — and we think you will love it. We will have many great ideas from many great artists, a fabulous challenge and giveaways most every day!  Can’t get any better! This is our “All-Star Paper Week.”  Each day we will focus on a different company in the paper crafts industry.  We will have projects that these companies created using their products and ours, along with projects from our artists. And…giveaways! We are kicking off this week with one of the top paper crafting companies, KI Memories. (And, keep reading — we have a giveaway AND the announcement of our fun challenge!)

We can’t say enough wonderful things about KI Memories.  Their playful and imaginative designs work wonderfully with Hero Arts!  Want to know a bit more about KI Memories?  Here is what they have to say: “We strive to create products that are innovative, of high quality and sound design. In addition, we are obsessed with having products that are fun and inspiring to use. We want our customers to find the creative inspiration to celebrate life, their life, by working with our products.”

We are excited to have KI Memories’ Special Projects Coordinator, Shannon Tidwell on our blog today.  Shannon is well-known in the industry for her playful and creative creations.  And, to top it off, she is one of the kindest people in the industry.

Shannon first created a layout that combines the playful style of KI Memories with that of Hero Arts.  Shannon says,  “KI Memories’ Festive products were primarily used for this non-Christmas layout.  The jewel tones are too lovely to save for just Christmas.  I stamped the Big Owl on white cardstock and then colored it in with colored pencils in shades that matched the paper.”  Oh…and isn’t her new baby precious?

Layout Supplies:

• Hero Arts Big Owl Stamp
• Festive Holly Jolly Patterned Paper
• Festive Gift Wrap Patterned Paper
• Festive Foil Shapes Epoxy Stickers
• Festive Glitter Alpha Rub-ons
• Festive Mini Sashes
• Borderlines Cardstock Stickers-Multi
• Gizmos 2 Sheer Delights
• Bloom Words Felt Embellishments
• To Do List Clear Stamps

Shannon also created this super fun card with KI Memories and Hero Arts.  Isn’t it adorable?  Shannon said, “KI Memories’ Festive Decor 3D Santa hat sticker fit perfectly on top of the Santa Owl.  The owl looked like the life of the party to me!”

Card Supplies:

• Hero Arts Santa Owl Stamp
• Colorful Funky Stripe Sentiments Notecard
• Festive Gift Wrap Patterned Paper
• Festive Decor 3D Stickers
• Festive Party 3D Stickers
• Festive Mini Sashes
• Borderlines Cardstock Stickers -Multi

Thank you so much, Shannon!

And we just couldn’t resist playing along.  Hero Artist Jennifer McGuire decided to mix some of KI’s colorful papers together with a Hero Arts heart to create a bold card.  Jennifer said, “The colors of KI Memories are always the best.  My favorites? Their stripes.  I use thin strips of their stripes all the time.”

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Love Flourish (heart)
• Hero Arts Heart to Heart (message)
• Versamark Ink
• Hero Arts White Embossing Powder
• Hero Arts Kraft Notecard
• KI Memories Bloom and Festive Papers
• Other: corner rounder and string

Another of our favorite products from KI Memories is their lace paper. We will have a video showing a fun way to use it on Wednesday. Be sure to come back!

Now! Time for this week’s challenge: Create something using using patterned paper and at least one Hero Arts stamp. Submit it to the Hero Arts Flickr Group by Sunday, October 19th at 11:59pm PST. Be sure to tag it with the code word “paper.”  And…if your project includes a product from one of the companies we feature this week, you will be eligible for another prize. From these particular entries, we will pick a winner of a bonus prize that includes a mix of products from our All-Star Paper Week companies.

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

We can’t wait to see your entries.

In the meantime, how about a fabulous giveaway from KI Memories! Shannon and the KI Memories folks were very generous to give us lots of prizes!  Just leave a comment here by Tuesday, October 14th at 11:59pm PST telling us what type of patterned paper is your favorite (stripes, dots, floral, etc.) and we will pick SIX random winners! One grand prize winner will get a KI Memories t-shirt, plus some KI Memories products.  Five other winners will get a KI Memories t-shirt. Here is the grand prize:

And what’s even better? Today, Shannon will be posting a great giveaway of Hero Arts stamps on the KI Memories blog. So be sure to visit HERE for another chance to win!

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to come back every day this week for more paper-y fun!