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Flashback Friday Part 3: The 1990s
Hero Arts
Your calendar does not deceive you - it is Thursday! So why are we here with the next Flashback Friday feature? Since our 3-day countdown leading up to the May Monthly Hero kit launch is scheduled to begin tomorrow, we decided to adjust on the fly with an early flashback. We hope you don't mind! :) It's already time to explore Hero Arts' third decade in business and CEO Aaron Leventhal is back to provide an overview of the 1990s:
"The early 1990s saw Hero Arts move from consumer shows to wholesale, and soon international distribution. The 1990s included a heavy dose of backgrounds and borders, messages and themes, including a full catalog and a Christmas supplement each year. Popular techniques included hand coloring with pencils, watercoloring, bold ink colors and more for cardmaking, with only wood stamps, as no clear or dies were yet available. Hero Arts won a number of awards for its color label tops and catalog photography and layout, and got its first patent for Press-A-Frame. The industry was in dramatic growth, and independent retailers were the focus of the industry, with some stores so popular people would choose their vacations based on the stores they wanted to visit."
Check out some of the era's understated and elegant catalog designs:
The 1990s were marked by bright and colorful stamp labels and you can see many of them if you check out the photos tagged #herocelebrates45 on Instagram. Thanks to our customers for sharing - we've truly loved seeing these treasures!
* Above photos courtesy of @cardcrazycook on Instagram. Thank you! *
Does anyone remember the Press-A-Frame that Aaron mentioned was our first patented product in 1996?
"Using the paper template and a pointed pressure tool in the kit, stampers can quickly add a variety of shaped frames around stamped images."
Here's an example of the projects you would have found if you opened the pages of our 1998 catalog. A fun tidbit: Sally Traidman, still on the Hero Arts team today, created some of these beauties!
Do you own any stamps with colored labels? Let us know in a comment below and we will pick one winner at random to receive a $25 Hero Arts gift card! Comment by Thursday, May 9 at 11:59pm PT and you'll be entered to win.
Thanks for stopping by today! Until next time...happy stamping!
The 1990’s were when I really got into stamping, so I have quite a collection of wood mounted stamps with colored labels. In fact, I have several of the sentiment stamps in the photo, and some gorgeous background stamps as well. I unmounted a few of my larger wood mounted stamps, for easier stamping and storage, but most of them are still intact and a treasured part of my collection.
I think I have every one of the stamps on this e-mail. These stamps have stood the test of time since I have used them over and over again. Many of the HA stamps are classics which will always remain in my collection. I have especially admired the quality of the rubber and the flawless impressions they have produced. I also still retain the old catalogs dating back to the early nineties. I pull them out occasionally since the examples and colorings are timeless. I have many memories shared with loved ones and stamping buddies using these stamps. They have become a part of my history. When I taught classes at various stamp stores, I could always rely on Hero Art stamps to come through with inspiration. Thank you for being part of my life.
Yes, I have some with the colored labels which I still use.
I love everyone of my HA stamps and I have many many from the 1990s – love the colored labels and I still use these stamps all the time. I’ve been stamping for well over 30 years and one of the first stamps I bought was from Hero Arts, and I still use it! Truly HA stamps are works of Art and timeless classics! Thank You!!!!!
Yes I do have one with a colored label!!♥️