Saturday, January 8, 2011

90-Minute Scramble!

Happy Saturday!

Last night, there was another 90-minute scramble over on the Hero Arts Flickr sight. Linda was the hostess with the mostest and she had such a fun theme! Many of the ladies who participated got into their jammies and stamped away until the wee hours of the morning! The theme was "ring out the old year, ring in the new." She wanted us to use one Hero arts stamp from 2010 and one from 2011. I used the beautiful Hydrangea stamp from last year and the new Magical Background stamp. (it was released in 2010 but has a 2011 date on the tag.) These are two of my very favorites! Here's the card I came up with.



I kept it very simple, stamping the background with Hero Arts Soft Sand Shadow Ink, then the Hydrangea over that with a bit darker brown, Hero Arts Soft Brown Shadow Ink. I colored the flower with Copics, added the white twine, Hero Hues pearls and Hero Arts sentiment.

Check out all the other beautiful entries here. I love these challenges! If you have not joined in on the fun yet, you really should! They are a blast! The next challenge is scheduled for the week of January 17th. I'm hosting this next one! The exact day and time are still to be determined and will be soon. I sure hope you can join in!

Thank you, Linda for such a fun night! The theme was so clever and you were the perfect hostess!

Please remember starting Monday, the Hero Hostesses are sharing their joy of stamping with a blog hop! Start at the Hero Arts blog, and hop along to see some wonderful inspiration! It lasts all week with 4 or 5 hostesses each day! Believe me, you won't want to miss one single day! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Playin' With New Stamps . . . .

. . . .makes me really happy! I know you feel the same way! There is such an excitement that comes with opening that box from Hero Arts that's left at the door! It doesn't hurt to have some days off from work at the same time! I really had a fun day today, inking, embossing, playing and smiling! Here are some of the cards I've made with my new goodies.




This one was inspired by Jennifer McGuire's peek video on the Hero blog yesterday. I love painting with inks and Perfect Pearls, and the Hand Drawn Flower is so fun to color!



Here is a close-up so you can see the pretty shimmer.



You all know this stamp well! The Fab Flourish, as I call it. I thought it would be cool to double stamp it for a shadow effect and I really like the way it turned out and I actually stamped the sentiment straight too! You just can't go wrong with a beautiful stamp like this, no matter what you do with it!




And this last card is a fun one. I used acetate, which I never do. Have always been afraid of it. Silly, I know. The Basic Grey, green dotted paper is stamped with my new Large Plaid Background stamp (LOVE!) using Lavender chalk ink and clear embossed. I stamped a small flower from the new Blossom Art clear set, in white StazOn, onto the acetate card. I added a couple of punched butterflies, also stamped with the plaid, to the outside of the card. Hope you understood all that! It was fun using the acetate and I hope to use it more often now.



One more thing before I sign off. Hero Arts is having a hostess blog hop next week! It will be all week long, Monday through Friday, with different hostesses each day! I'm so excited, and quite frankly, honored to be a part of this fun week! So keep your eye out starting Monday for a really fun week, full of inspiration from the hostesses, using new 2011 Hero Arts stamps! Woo hoo! :)


Thanks for stopping by! Find joy in the little things today! :)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Finally!

Hi all!

You may remember back in October, I won the challenge for the Hero Arts blog. It was for the end of the month. . .October2010B. I was so excited and quickly placed my order for the free stamps! I know from a previous win that it can take about a month to receive the prize, so when the end of November came, I watched for the package to arrive.

Thanksgiving came and went with no stamps. Then in December, life got busier than usual and I actually hadn't thought about it for a week or so. I received an email in the beginning of December from Hero Arts, telling me that the Magical Background stamp was out of stock and they asked me to choose something else. I was disappointed but replaced it with some paper, inks and gems.

Then I waited. . . .and waited. . . .and waited some more. I finally decided that something went wrong and sent an email to Hero Arts telling them I still had not received my prize. They got back to me that day, apologized and sent the order the next day. Well, the stamps finally came today!!! And the best part is that they now had the Magical Background in stock! Yippee! I've been trying to get my hands on that stamp since I saw it at Scrapfest!


Sorry the story got so long, but I'm very happy to finally have these fun stamps now! I also chose the Plaid Background, the Fabulous Flourish and the little cling called Let it Snow. Here is the only card I had time to make so far, but believe me, I'll be playing more very soon! :)




Well, it's really late and I need to get to bed. Can't wait to crawl under the covers and get warm! It's been so cold here! We woke up to -7 (that's BELOW ZERO) this morning! I keep telling myself, "Spring is coming, spring is coming, spring is coming." Maybe if I say it enough times, it'll happen! Yea, right!

Thanks so much for coming by! Your visits and comments mean so much to me! Night. . .

Monday, January 3, 2011

Christmas Cards I've Received

This post is way past due and I am so sorry for that! I received some beautiful cards this year from Flickr friends and blogging buddies. I love each and every one of them and know you'll enjoy viewing them too!


This first one is from my blogging buddy, Sue. She has not joined the Hero Arts Flickr group yet (wish she would!) so if you haven't seen her creations, you should! Her blog is here.




The rest of the cards are from my Flickr friends. You'll recognize the names and creations. This one is from Agata!




Here is the one I received from Dawn!




This one is from Donna!




From Lai-Yoke!




Sue Givens sent me this one!




This card is from Rosemary!




Here's one from Vanessa!




And this one is from Sanne!




Greta sent this one!




My hostess sister, Joy sent me this card!




And this last card was sent from Celina! She had my name in the Christmas card exchange.




Thank you all for sending me these lovely cards! I must apologize for not sending all of you cards in return! I have no excuse except for the old stand-by. . .I was so busy. That really isn't good enough because you are just as busy, but were able to find time to send cards, and I wasn't. So hopefully you will accept my apologies and know just how much I appreciate your kind gesture!

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your day! :)

Sunday, January 2, 2011

My Favorite 2010 Favorites From Flickr Friends!

Hi everyone!

I've been looking through my favorites and trying to load them here on my blog but of course I am not very tech savvy, so I have put them in a gallery on Flickr for you to look at. Just click here to see these amazing creations!

Thank you to all of my Flickr friends who inspire me on a daily basis! I can't wait for another year of stamping fun and more inspiration!

Have a happy Sunday and thanks for stopping by! :)