Hello and Happy Thursday! We’ve got some winners to announce today but first we want to thank each and every one of you who participated in our Simple Holiday Stamping Challenge! It was a fabulous week of fabulous entries, and we thoroughly enjoyed click, click, clicking through the gallery, admiring your creations. (You can view them all HERE –so many wonderful interpretations of “simple”!) Now let’s take a look at some outstanding simple holiday cards!

Our Fresh Face prizes goes to Kim Dellow for this tree-mendous card that caught our attention with its great color combo! And her stitching? Perfect!

In the Digital category we have this gorgeous creation from scrapperjjb! She printed a tree from the Scribble Trees DigiKit and added some lovely finishing details. The result is a card that’s simply beautiful!

Now for our First Place winner — congratulations, kimberlykscrawford! Her snowflake card is breathtaking and is a wonderful example of simple stamping. So elegant with the silver accents!

The Second Place prize this week goes to Virginia L for her beautiful layered holiday design. Everything about this card says “classy”! We especially loved the touch of glitter on the pine bough.

In Third Place we have a simply sweet set of cards from sugarbuffet featuring reindeer set against a polka-dot background. Adorable proof that less is more…

But wait, there’s more — we’d like to recognize several outstanding Honorable Mention creations too!

We fell head over heels for this design from Lucille K — clean, crisp, fresh, and simply perfect!

Next, NinaB (Croatia) stamped a card so sweet, you can almost taste it! The ruffled ribbon detail is irresistible…

Another Honorable Mention goes to Sanne - Denmark for her beautiful scalloped square card. The added touch of gold makes the design extra special and really makes the trees stand out.

And finally, take a look at the simple elegance of Rosemary D’s pine bough design. We love the way she highlighted the ornament with the color block and the gems.

Way to go! Winners and honorable mentions, please email us your addresses and phone numbers with “Simple Holiday Winner” in the subject line and we’ll take care of your prizes. NOTE: We now have a NEW, separate email address for blog winners to use when contacting us. You can find it over in the blog sidebar under the heading “Email Us”.

Great work this week everyone…thanks again for sharing your simple holiday cards!

Happy holiday stamping,

Happy Halloween! No tricks here today — just a look back at the week’s treats! Special thanks to our Web Artists for the simple holiday card inspiration shared all week long…

Daily links:

• Monday - Sheri, Kelly and Barbara share three simply sweet cards with a touch of pink
• Tuesday - Two more fabulous, easy-to-create holiday cards from Kandis and Leslie
• Wednesday - Elegant embossed designs from Laura and Jacki
• Friday - My package card with a surprise and Lucy’s adorable penguin gift tags

Thanks so much for joining us on the blog this week! I hope we’ve given you some ideas that will help simplify your holiday cardmaking process. Remember…less is more! We look forward to seeing all of your simple holiday cards in the Flickr pool! You have until 11:59 pm PST on Sunday to submit your entries. (More info HERE.)

And good news for U.S. stampers! The end of Daylight Savings Time means we gain an extra hour this weekend — an extra hour to stamp!

Have a fun and safe Halloween weekend!

Welcome back! In keeping with the week’s simplicity theme, today we have two more simple and fun holiday ideas to share. Let’s jump right in!

I created a card that at first glance looks like a simple gift adorned with ribbon and a small tag with a holiday sentiment. But it has a hidden surprise! Can you guess what it is? Three members of my family “inspected” my card and didn’t figure it out until I told them to “unwrap” the gift.

Pull up on the bow and — surprise — up pops a mini photo tag! Just a fun little interactive touch that’s still simple enough to pull off when creating cards in bulk. My kids think die cutting is a whole lot of fun, so they are happy to help with the die cutting of the label shapes for the pull out tag.

Supplies:

• Antique Flower Background
• Clear Design: Holiday Dolls
• Light Kraft Long Notecards (cut in half to make two cards)
• Garden Notecards
• Memories White Ink
• Memories ArtPrint Brown Ink
• Chalk Ink Queue - Christmas
• Other: ribbon (Cosmo Cricket), tag die (Cuttlebug), label dies (Spellbinders Nestabilitites) twine, foam tape, corner rounder

Tips:

• Adhere the gift box to the card with foam tape along the two sides and the bottom edge so that the tag can slide in and out easily. I used a thin tape that was only 1/8″ thick .
• Printing the photos at 2″ x 2″ will allow you to get six photos on a 4″ x 6″ print.
• Instead of a photo, add a stamped sentiment to the pull out tag. The multiple lined sentiment from the Holiday Dolls set (click HERE to view) would be the perfect size!
• Attach a strip of magnet to the back of the photo tag so the recipient can display it on the refrigerator.

Speaking of tags, how about stamping some simple gift tags once you have completed all of your holiday cards this year? Web Artist Lucy Abrams has designed some fabulously simple hybrid tags to adorn your packages. These penguins are so charming, and I love the way Lucy used them. Lucy says, “I love making my own gift tags, and the new Simple Tags Digikit makes it SO easy. I just printed the tags and cut them out, adding snow with a white gel pen and a stamped sentiment. The penguin images are perfect for Christmas; I added these with pop dots for some dimension.”

Supplies:

• Digikit - HA Simple Tags
• Digikit - HA Penguins
• Clear Design: Holiday Sayings
• Clear Design: Large Christmas Tags
• Silver Metallic Decor
• Other: white gel pen, Making Memories eyelets, Creative Impressions ribbon

Lucy’s Tip: Adding some sparkle is an easy and quick way to make simple projects look like they took ages. Hero Arts’ new Metallic Decor looks great on any Christmas project.

Thanks so much for dropping by today! I hope you’ve enjoyed these quick and easy ideas and are feeling inspired to enter the Simple Holiday Stamping Challenge. There’s still plenty of time to play! Click HERE for full details.

Wishing you a happy Friday and a happy weekend ahead,

Happy middle of the week (already!) Today we’re kicking up our simple holiday designs with a little heat embossing. Embossing always gives a card that extra “something special”. Impressive results with minimal effort — definitely a good thing! And what’s better than a little silver and gold for the holidays? Today our Web Artists offer ideas for both!

First, Laura Griffin gold embossed poinsettias on a red ornament for the ultimate in simple holiday elegance. Laura says, “Whenever I mass-produce cards, I try to keep it simple. The new Hero Arts cling stamps are perfect for simple designs. When I first saw the Poinsettia Circle stamp, I knew it was meant to be a Christmas ornament! After heat embossing the image with gold powder onto a crimson notecard, I die-cut the circle, then added a custom topper complete with silk bow. Watch today’s video for details on how to make this card and for tips on mass-producing cards for the holiday season.”

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Holiday Sayings
• Poinsettia Circle
• Gold Embossing Powder
• Chalk Ink Queue - Christmas (Warm Red)
• Versamark
• Crimson, Kraft Notecards
• Other: red silk ribbon, gold elastic cord, scallop edge scissors

Laura’s Tip: Need to create holiday cards for all your family and friends but daunted by the task? Break apart your stamping and cardmaking into segments so you don’t have to do it all in one day! Heat emboss all of your circles to start, then punch/diecut them out later. You can create an assembly line on another day to pull the finished cards together.

Now how about something silver for the holidays? Jacki Jones came up with a sophisticated design that combines a silver embossed tree with blue, green and white. Such a classy look!  Jacki shares, “As much as I love to color, I rarely choose an image that requires a lot of coloring when I’m making multiples. I chose to emboss the Winter Pine in silver for a big impact with just a little effort. When making family Christmas cards, I create an assembly line and enlist other family members to help. With a little planning, this card is quickly and easily duplicated many, many times.”

Supplies:

• Winter Pine
• Sparkle Clear: Holiday Messages
• Winter Mixed, Holiday Mixed, White Notecards
• VersaMark
• Silver Embossing Powder
• Silver Metallic Decor
• Other: gingham ribbon, corner punch, mini glue dots

Jacki’s Tip: Consider the embellishments and how they are packaged before planning the card. I divided the package of Silver Metallic Decor, so that I could get four cards from each package by using both sizes on each card.

And that’s a wrap for this Wednesday. I hope these ideas have inspired you to grab — or perhaps dust off — your embossing gun and powders. Have a great day, everyone!

P.S.  Don’t forget…there’s still a chance to win one of two great prizes on yesterday’s post!

Good day, stampers! Today two more Web Artists are here with their versions of holiday cards, simple style!

Let’s start with Kandis Smith and her absolutely adorable card featuring the Clear Design: Holiday Dolls set. I love the non-traditional color palette she used here! Here’s Kandis with more: “How cute are these little Christmas dolls? I could just eat them up!! I think they are perfect for a darling little holiday card. Make this holiday card a snap by stamping multiple dolls across a piece of white cardstock. Then while watching a favorite TV show, sit down and color them all at the same time. Later all you’ll have to do is cut them out and put a pop dot on the back! Super fast!”

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Holiday Dolls
• Cream, Lime, Winter Notecards
• Clear Smooth Gemstones
• Pale Pink Gemstones
• Memories Black Ink
• Chalk Ink Queue - Primary Elements
• Other: patterned paper, corner rounder, ribbon, decorative scissors

Tips from Kandis:

• Arrange two different sizes and colors of gems on the page — it appears that you spent more time on the card than you did!
• Use simple decorative scissors on one side of the cardstock to add a little interest without a lot of time!

Leslie Lightfoot brings us our second card today, a wonderful example of simple stamping. She stamped the background as well as the sentiment tone-on-tone, and added interest with colorful stripes. Leslie says, “This card went together really simply. I stamped the background onto kraft notecard and then stamped the message onto a red rectangle of cardstock.”

Supplies:

• Flourish Pine
• Joy
• Holiday Mixed, Kraft Notecards
• Memories ArtPrint Brown Ink
• Memories Ruby Ink
• Red Metallic Decor
• Other: patterned paper, brads, heart punch

Tips from Leslie:

• I love to add a touch of striped patterned paper to most of my cards, it adds a splash of color while allowing the stamped images to still stand out.
• For a subdued stamped look, stamp with the same color ink (in a darker shade) as your background paper.

Two great cards…now how about two great giveaways?! Today we are giving away two different prizes — the clear stamps Kandis used on her card (Holiday Dolls) and the woodblock stamps Leslie used on hers (Flourish Pine and Joy.)

For a chance to win, simply leave a comment on today’s post  by 11:59pm PST on Thursday, October 29. We’ll pick two random winners and announce them on Friday.

Thanks for stopping by today! Tomorrow we’ll have a video and we’re going to “heat things up” — see you then!

This week it’s all about simple and it’s all about the holidays! It’s not too early to starting thinking about your holiday card designs, if you haven’t already. The Hero Arts Web Artists will be here all week long to present some fabulously simple designs and tips to help you get a jump start on your holiday cardmaking. When it comes to the holidays, we often need to produce a large number of cards quickly, and the simplicity of this week’s designs will be perfect for that.

Today we have a trio of PINK cards to share. As you may have noticed, pink has been popping up in holiday color schemes all over the place…such fun! (If you prefer a more traditional holiday color combination, try substituting red or burgundy for the pink in today’s designs.)

First up is a sweet and simple Christmas card Web Artist Sheri Reguly whipped up in a matter of minutes. Here’s Sheri with more: “The Sparkle Clear: Merry Christmas set is perfect for those quick and easy holiday cards. There’s no need for coloring the tress, making mass producing this design a snap. Gemstones, metallic decor and a touch of ribbon complete this classic design.”

Supplies:

• Sparkle Clear: Merry Christmas
• Blossom, White Notecards
• Chalk Ink Queue - Pumpkin Patch
• VersaMark
• Silver Embossing Powder
• Red Gemstones
• Silver Metallic Decor
• Other: patterned paper (Basic Grey), ribbon (SEI), decorative edge scissors (Fiskars)

Sheri’s Tips:

• A pencil line acts as a guide for aligning the trees. It will later be covered by the patterned paper, so there’s no need to worry about making it too dark or erasing it afterwards.
• Silver embossing powder and metallic decor help add just the right amount of holiday sparkle to this design.
• A single edge trimmed using decorative scissors is a quick and easy way to add that extra touch of flair.
• By trimming 1/2″ off the bottom edge of the notecard, it allows the card to fit into the envelope relatively, despite the bulk of the bow.

Next, Kelly Rasmussen came up with a great design that would be easy to create in multiples, opting for a tone on tone look plus a couple pops of pink. Kelly says, “One of the best ways to keep holiday card making simple for me is to limit my supplies. By not having too many steps and eliminating time consuming tasks, like coloring images, I was able to make this card in under 15 minutes. And once you get the first one done, the rest of them always go much faster.”

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Holiday Sayings
• Clear Design: Decorate Your Own
• Clear Design: Winter’s Butterfly
• Green Apple Notecards
• Chalk Ink Queue -Primary Elements (Lime Pastel)
• Other: pink and white cardstock, scallop border punch, corner rounder, white gel pen, pink embroidery floss

Kelly’s Tips:

• Save a little time by using faux stitching instead of machine stitching.
• A tone on tone background is a simple way to create a big impact when creating many cards at one time.

And finally today, here is a simple yet stunning card from Barbara Hache featuring the Big Pine Bough stamp and a super creative ornament fashioned from a spiral paper clip. Brilliant! Barbara shares, “When making a large number of the same design, I like to break each card into steps. That way, I can work in 10-15 minute blocks of time and then all I’m left with is the assembly. To make a simple card special, I like to add just a bit of glitz ! The sparkle on this card is the ornament hangers that are made with gemstones.”

Supplies:

• Big Pine Bough
• Clear Design: Holiday Cheer
• Kraft, Pool, Pink Notecards
• Small Mixed Gemstones
• Memories Black Ink
• Chalk Ink Queues - Primary Elements, Pumpkin Patch
• Prisma Glitter
• Other: spiral paper clip, patterned paper (My Mind’s Eye), double sided tape (Sookwang), lace ribbon, corner rounder (EK Success)

Barbara’s Tips:

• To make the ornament I adhered the spiral paper clip to the patterned paper with double sided tape and then covered it with Prisma Glitter.
• The gemstones are perfect for hanging ornaments because they come in a strip making them easy to apply in a straight line.

So…for this week’s challenge we invite you to create a simple holiday card, using at least one Hero Arts stamp or digital element. Of course “simple” means different things to different stampers. For this challenge you can determine what it means to YOU — there is no right or wrong definition. Here are a few ideas from our team about what might encompass simplicity:

• minimal layers and embellishments
• clean/uncluttered style
• 10-15 minute completion time
• easy to mass produce

Please upload your simple holiday card creations to our Flickr group by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, November 1. All entries should be tagged with the phrase simpleholiday. By entering, you could win a shopping spree of your choice of Hero Arts products from the Hero Arts Online Store! (Shipping charges apply.) Winners will also receive a 2009 Hero Arts catalog, sent separately. The prize amounts are as follows:

• Fresh Face Winner (someone who has not yet won a contest): $50
• Digital Winner (create something using a Hero Arts Digital Kit): $50
• 1st Place: $50
• 2nd Place: $25
• 3rd Place: $15

Looking forward to a fun week with you all…happy holiday stamping!