Welcome back everyone! So how are you liking all the sneaks so far? I’m so excited to be bringing them to you, they are great stamps aren’t they?

Here is yet another one, we’ll call it #8, and it’s a real Beauty!!!

If you’re just tuning in, this week I’ve been working on combining our sneak peek stamps with a sketch of the day. You can find all the challenge information in Monday’s post HERE.  And now my sketch for today.

I chose to shabby my card up a bit, since I love that style. I used a Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ornate Plate as my embellishment, love his stuff!

Here’s a close up of some of the details….

Supplies:

• Sneak peek Silhouette Flower (Gg105)
• Soft Sand Shadow Ink
• Peeled Paint Distress Ink
• Walnut Stain Distress Ink
• Pearl Accents Medium and Small
• Other: Tim Holtz idea-ology Ornate Plates, 7Gypsies Paper, Making Memories Paper, Circle Card, lace trim, Ranger Glossy Accents and Ribbon
  

Interested in seeing how to make this card? I’ve included some tips on how to watercolor with your inks and markers.

Okay, put on your shades, I’ve gone from subdued colors to really bright. This is my Digi card for the day.  I’ve got a friend that needs a lift, so I pulled out some super strong colors for her.

Supplies:

• Four Posies Digital Kit
• Art/Life Digital Kit
• Pinstripes and Dots Digital Kit
• Blossoms and Stems Digital Kit
• Photoshop CS3

And to celebrate all of our new stamps and especially the introduction of Hero Arts Cling….How about a giveaway! I thought Lisa’s giveaway last week was so fantastic, I decided to do a repeat! One lucky winner will receive Special Moments (CG108), Antique Brocade (CG102), one package each of small and medium accent pearls, and a package of Blush Notecards!

Just leave a comment here to enter the drawing. Let me know what you think of our new release from the sneak peek, comment by 11:59 PST tonight.  I’ll announce the winner on Friday!

Thanks everyone, enjoy the day!

Here is our Sneak peek #7.  Now this is nice, just my style….it has green!!!   This pine bough is sure to please, imagine the coloring possibilities!

And now the sketch for today, it looks a little simple as is, but once you add your special stamping treatments to it, you can make it look amazing, I promise!

So once I mixed the sneak peek stamps with the sketch, this is the card I came up with.  I colored the stamp with markers and did a little water spritz before stamping.  This technique made it so easy to get the needles and stems colored properly.  Robyn Werlich did a technique article on coloring stamps with multi-colors, she covers using markers on your stamps.

Supplies:

• Sneak Peek Big Pine Bough (K5242 )
• Sneaky Peek Joy (F5246) Can be viewed August 17th
• Walnut Stain Distress Ink
• Kraft Notecards
• Buttons in Neutral
• Other: Beige paper Basic Grey, Corrugated The Paper Co., Markers Tsukineko, string

And finally, my digital project for the day.  I’ve used a couple kits but included the free Stone Etchings so you can check it out.  I can just play with these kits for hours. My layout is purely digital, not printed, it will go in my gallery as is.   I think I might email it to my niece Courtney to add to that smile on her face.

Supplies:

• Floating Leaf Digital Kit
• Stone Etchings FREE Digital kit
• Long Handwriting Digital kit
• Pinstripes and Dots Digital kit
• Font 2p’s Unforgettable
• Photoshop CS3
• Photograph

Be sure to scroll down to take a look at the Sneak Peek reveal from yesterday. Oh and if you missed the link to all the sketches for the week you can download them HERE.

Thanks for stopping by, I’ll be back tomorrow with a video, sneaks, reveals, and more cards!  Have a great day.

Hi everyone!  I hope you’ve enjoyed the sketches, projects and giveaways this week. Special thanks to Kelly Goree from BasicGrey for joining me, and to Becky Fleck from Pagemaps for some wonderful sketches.  Here’s a look back at this week’s sketch-inspired creations…

Monday:  We kicked things off by stamping with the new Patterned Hearts set and showed peeks of all eight of the week’s sketches.

Tuesday:  The fun continued with more sketches as we featured the new Clear Design Hello Circles stamp set. (And…if you’re needing a quick little last-minute holiday gift, check out the candy bar wrappers!)

Wednesday:  We stamped with Clear Design Birds & Branches and I shared a video on creating slider cards.

Friday:  More inspiring sketches! The Clear Design Bold Caps Alphabet was used for two more cards and a layout.

If you haven’t had a chance to play with the sketches yet don’t worry — we’ve extended the deadline.  And…we have extra prizes to award this week!  Click HERE for all the details.

Happy holidays!

Welcome to the second day of our Sketch Challenge with BasicGrey!  Kelly Goree and I are here to share some more sketches, a few projects AND a giveaway.  Keep reading!

Today, Kelly and I decided we would both use the NEW Hero Arts ClearDesign Hello Circles stamp set and the popular BasicGrey Offbeat line.  Also, we are thrilled to have sketches from the popular PageMaps by Becky Fleck.  (Thanks, Becky!)  Here is today’s card sketch…

And here is my card using this sketch.  I actually turned it sideways and created a tri-fold card.  I used the BasicGrey Offbeat 6×6 paper pad, which I love so much.  (Did you know that BasicGrey has fabulous papers with small-scale patterns that are perfect for cards?  Yum!)  I used circles from the NEW Hero Arts Hello Circles set to enhance the papers and to also add stamping to the scallops of the scallop circle.  A perfect fit!  And not only did I use the new Hello Circles set from Hero Arts, but also the new Heart Winged Butterfly.

Supplies:

• Hero Arts ClearDesign Hello Circles (NEW)
• Hero Arts Heart Winged Butterfly (NEW)
• Hero Arts ClearDesign All Occasion Messages (NEW)
• Memories Black Ink and Colorbox Chalk Ink
• BasicGrey Offbeat 6×6 Paper Pad
• Other: Punches (EK Success), paper piercer

Here are some quick chocolate bars - perfect for my son’s friends - that I made with the same card sketch.  (For another idea for wrapping chocolate bars, click HERE.)  On this project, I embossed on buttons.  Here is a tip for stamping on buttons: Take a sticky note and place it sticky-side up on your desktop.  Lay a button - flat side up - on the sticky portion.  Stamp on it with Versamark and then shake on some white powder.  Hold on to the sticky note so you can emboss the button without burning your fingers.  And there you have it!  An embossed button.

Supplies:

• Hero Arts ClearDesign Hello Circles
  
• Hero Arts Sparkle Clear Warm Wishes
• Memories Black and White Inks
• Hero Arts White Embossing Powder and Buttons
• BasicGrey Offbeat 6×6 Paper Pad
• Other: Chocolate bars, string, sewing machine, punch

Now it is time for the layout sketch!

Kelly outdid herself today with this colorful creation.  I love how there is so much fun stuff to look at, but the focus stays on the photo.

Page by Kelly Goree
Supplies:

• Hero Arts ClearDesign Circle Hello set
• BasicGrey Offbeat Papers & Element Stickers
• Memories Black and Colorbox Chalk Ink Queues
• Other: Pen (Pentel), Cardstock (Bazzill), pencils (Prismacolor)

If you love Kelly’s work as much as I do, be sure to sign up for the BasicGrey newsletter HERE.  It is packed full of great projects.  (And speaking of newsletters, be sure to sign up for ours HERE so you know when all the newest stamps are out and more!)

It’s giveaway time!  Just leave a comment here by Thursday at 11:59pm PST telling us which of the new 2009 Hero Arts sneak peek stamps you like best.  (To see all the peeks, click HERE.  And remember that all these stamps are now available at participating stores.)  I will pick a random winner of this Hero Arts and BasicGrey goodness…

And, not only do we have a giveaway, but Kelly has one over on her blog, too - HERE.

Have a great day and I hope you can make some time for stamping…

Welcome to another fun week at Hero Arts!  I am so excited about this week.  Not only do we have a fun challenge for you, but each day we will have a special guest from one of my favorite companies.

This week, Kelly Goree from BasicGrey will join me in a sketch challenge.  Sketches can be such a great timesaver… something we could all use this time of year, huh?  Each day we will have a new card AND scrapbook page sketch for you.  And, for some added fun, Kelly and I picked a favorite Hero Arts stamp set and BasicGrey paper line to use together each day.  So, not only will you see some great sketches, but you will get some ideas for the versatility of your stamps and papers.  I am so excited to have Kelly here.  Welcome, Kelly!

First, here are the products we will feature today.  The stamp set is the fabulous Hero Arts Patterned Hearts… new for 2009!  And the paper is BasicGrey’s new Bittersweet line.  Both are arriving in stores now.  Aren’t they wonderful?

And here is today’s card sketch… (Click to see it bigger.)

This is the card I created based on this sketch.  There are a few tips on this card to share:

• For some added fun, I turned a Hero Arts Crimson notecard inside out.
• On the white, I stamped Hero Arts new Valentine Flourishes with Versamark and embossed with white powder.  This gives a subtle tone-on-tone white background.
• For the hearts and butterfly, I again embossed with white on red paper before cutting out each image.
• Nothing makes a card more special than a cute little photo.

And since these new Patterned Hearts match our Patterned Butterflies perfectly, I just had to use them together!  Here is a close-up showing the wire antennae I added, along with the greeting inside, which was signed by my son.

Supplies:

• Hero Arts Patterned Hearts (NEW)
• Hero Arts Patterned Butterflies
• Hero Arts Valentine Flourishes (NEW)
• Hero Arts Basic Alphabet
• Hero Arts Crimson Notecard
• Hero Arts White Embossing Powder
• Hero Arts Small Pearls
• Versamark & Memories Black Ink
• BasicGrey Bittersweet Paper
• Other: Wire

And now it is time for the scrapbook page sketch!  (Click to see it bigger.)

And the wonderful Kelly Goree created this great page with the same products.  Here are some great tips from her page:

• The hearts were stamped with Versamark on white paper and embossed with clear powder.  She then rubbed pink and brown ink over it, wiping off the excess.  What a great resist technique!
• The hearts were given even more texture by cutting them out with decorative scissors.

Page by Kelly Goree
Supplies:

• Hero Arts Patterned Hearts (NEW)
• BasicGrey Bittersweet Papers, Stickers and Chipboard
• Colorbox Chalk Ink Queues
• Versamark and Clear Embossing Powder
• Other: Cardstock (Bazzill), brads (Queen and Company), pen (Zig)

So… this week’s challenge is to create a project inspired by one of the sketches we use this week.  You can make any type of project (card, page, etc.) and use any of the sketches we share… just be sure to use at least one Hero Arts stamp.  And remember that we added a new BIG prize that will go to a scrapbook page!  And, this week, we have an added prize that will be given to someone who also uses BasicGrey on their project.  That is a lot of prizes! :)  Upload your card to the Hero Arts Flickr Group by Sunday, December 28th (this date was extended) at 11:59 pm PST and tag it with the code word “sketches.”  Please tell us which sketch you used in your description, and if you use BasicGrey please note that as well.

Here are the prizes:

• NEW! Scrapbook Page Winner: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2008 catalog
• 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
• This week only: Use BasicGrey on your project, too, and a random winner will win an assortment of BasicGrey paper!

And, would you like some peeks of this week’s sketches?  Here they are.  But if you want to get a head start on the challenge by seeing all the sketches, just click on the peeks to see the full size.

Monday’s card and page sketch, from me & Kelly:
 

Tuesday’s card and page sketch, from Pagemaps:
  

Wednesday’s card and page sketch, exclusive for Hero Arts from Pagemaps:
 

Friday’s card and page sketch, from me:
 
Be sure to come back each day this week.  We will have some GREAT giveaways, tips on sketches and inspiring projects.  And!  I will have lots of peeks at the NEW stamps now available at Catalog Debut stores!  Have fun creating…