I spotted this hydrangea at the grocery store last week and just HAD to have it — I’ve never seen a creamy white one before.  It was the inspiration for this card– I decided the flowers looked like a purple and pink version.  I made a blue version too, just have to finish it up. (Guess I gotta little carried away!)

Click on over to the Hero Arts blog for the full materials and instructions.  I’m the featured blogger there this week — I just love it when it’s my week, it’s so much fun seeing all of you plus meeting new friends too!

I’ll be back later today with more inspiration from a class I’m taking,

Hi everyone!  I have had a busy busy week, how has yours been?  I finally stole a few minutes to put an idea to paper that’s been dancing around in my mind’s eye, inspired by the winter sky photos that I took last weekend.

I was going to wait until tomorrow to take the photos — the sun peeked out a bit today, and it’s supposed to make another appearance tomorrow.  But then I thought no, a sunny photo just won’t do.

It wouldn’t let me capture the quiet, peaceful mood of the scene, the soft pinks, purples and blues.  And it would wash out the sparkles.

Oh no, sometimes sunshine just doesn’t do.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t want some tomorrow, ha ha!  It’s been raining and cold here for weeks, and this Texas gal is craving sun.  (I’ve been told by my northern friends and family that 30 F is NOT cold, so I must no longer be an Ohioan…)

(Supplies: Stamp by Paper Bag Studios, called Lone Tree.  I got it years and years ago.  I see there is now a cling version, plus a set, check it out here. I created the background with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in spun sugar, tumbled glass, broken china and stormy sky.  I just rubbed them on some white cardstock with a sponge, then stamped the tree in Hero Art’s night chalk.  Misted the whole thing with Perfect Pearls in water, a trick I learned from Jennifer — thanks Jennifer!)

Peaceful winter skies to you,

Hi everyone!  The Hero Arts 2010 Catalog is up, woo hoo!!!  Check it out HERE and let me know what you think!  Here’s a super quick pic of it + my bionic boot, ha!  (This was taken with my cell phone, so excuse the poor quality.)  Anyhow, just a few little tidbits to share:

• I got to eat one of the candies on the front — chocolate covered mints, yum!
• I also ate part of one of the DONUTS on page 27 — the one with the sprinkles — double YUM!
• The houses on pages 35 + 81 were some of my favorites to do.
• And the clocks on page 15.
• Oh and the bird + rose on page 61.
• And the bees on page 19 — love that bee!
• And the girls on page 20!
• Can’t wait to stamp the doily on page 60 and the big cup on page 51.
• If I wrote down every stamp I couldn’t wait to try I’d be here all day, ha!  I love them ALL!

Anyhow, I’d love to hear what you think!

And!  I get my stitches out tomorrow — double woo hoo!

Hugs,

Howdy and welcome to my little stop on the Hero Arts 2010 Catalog Blog Hop! Hope you’ve enjoyed the hop so far — how do you like all the NEW stamps?

I’m so excited that you finally get to see what we’ve been working on all these months — woo hoo!  I originally planned to use the Clear Design Sweet Wonderful You (CL381) set from Sneak Peek #6, and share how I colored the girls, along with a video…

But then I had surgery to fix a torn ligament in my ankle, and I discovered that stamping is hard to do when you’re on crutches — doh!  So, the video will have to wait until later.  You can subscribe to my blog (over there in the sidebar) so that you don’t miss it.

In the meantime, I thought you’d like to see these sketches that I did when I was trying to figure out hair and skin colors.  Notice anything different about the girls?  Yep, they have no mouths!  It’s all part of the process of making a Hero Arts Stamp — Jackie, the founder of Hero Arts and Creative Director doesn’t stop until she’s absolutely perfected a design.

After I decided that the girls were a no-go for now, I reached for one of my favorite new doily stamps to make a super fast card trio!

I’ve loved this doily stamp from the second I saw it — so pretty.  I had an idea to turn it into flowers and use leaves from the Clear Design Speckled Ornaments (CL401) set — it has lots of distress marks as part of the design, so I decided to distress my doily flowers, too!  Hero Arts’ notecards are white core, so they are perfect for distressing.

Here’s my finished trio — these really did come together in a jiffy

Supplies: Hero Arts Starburst (F5318, the doily), Clear Design Truly Appreciated (CL380, the messages), Speckled Ornaments (CL401, for the leaves), Hero Arts notecards, small and medium Accent Pearls, sandpaper, Tim Holtz paper distressor, circle punches (large is Marvy pink case, small is EK Success Whale of a Punch), Mega Nestabilities Curved Rectangles (Spellbinders).

And! I’d like to give a little shout-out to my handsome hubby J for helping me with these cards — he got out my die cut machine for me, cut out the card bases, setup a chair to keep my ankle propped up on, kept me supplied with an ice pack and pain medicine, and even helped me photograph the cards!  Love ya J!

Now, hop on over to Kelly’s blog!  I just love her fabulous, elegant style.  Remember, as you hop from blog to blog be sure to leave a comment on each one — the more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win!

Happy hopping,

Hi there!  Did you miss me?   I’ve was off traveling again — this time to San Francisco for a strategy meeting for work — check out what we did for our team building exercise, it was the best one that I ever did.

I flew in a day early so that I could hang out with my friend Mon and play!  We had so much fun eating — and eating again — and again — and talking and laughing!

Here we are outside of Dynamo Donut in San Francsico — it’s gotta be one of the best donut places in the whole world!  I just had to bring along my choco Fuji Instax camera to mark the occasion.

That’s Mon on the left holding a Chocolate Rose donut — I’m holding a Chocolate Anise donut.  Not shown is a Chocolate Spice donut — can you tell we like chocolate?  Ha ha ha.

We gave other flavors some love too — check out this yummy apricot + cardamom donut

And then there was this little pistachio number — with crystals of salt, mmmm

And no, we didn’t eat these all on the same day…!  We had to have coffee with our donuts, and Mon took me to Bluebottle — they have some seriously good coffee.  It was so smooth it was almost like chocolate!  Double yum.

Just so you know — we ate other things besides donuts — super tasty Vietnamese food and Indian — triple yum!

We had to do some shopping to work off those donuts — we went to a bunch of cute shops on Valencia street, to Union Square,  and to a fun fabric shop called Peapod with LOTS of super cute Japanese fabrics.  Can’t wait to make some owls with the linens and cottons

And I also snapped up this handmade rose brooch at another shop

I think it’s made out of old sweaters, can’t wait to try and make one myself.

And!  We stayed up late one night making — are you ready for it?  Felt edamame!  You see, there’s this Japanese family of characters called Mameshiba — they are highly evolved legumes that talk!  They always say something strange like “Did you know…a hippo’s sweat is pink?” and then the person who *was* going to eat them changes their mind.  Here’s a video to see what I mean:

And, here are our beans!

We were giggling + giggling while we made them!  Here’s mine in a shot ala the video

Too funny.  So glad I got to hang out with you Mon — and so glad we’re friends!  Can’t wait until our next adventure.

So, now you know where I’ve “bean”!

Howdy and Happy Friday the 13th! Hope your day is going well, mine sure is! It all started when I made this card yesterday for the Hero Arts blog.  Here’s the front:

Look closely above the snowman’s left hand to see what started me giggling:

And then I had THIS idea for the inside of the cad and REALLY started giggling:

Hee hee!

To find out how I made it, click on over to the Hero Arts Blog.

There’s LOTS more going on over there today, including:

• I am introducing Libby, the newest member of the Hero Arts team!  YAY Libby!  LOVE working with you girl!  You are so fun!
• Sneak Peek #2 of the Hero Arts 2010 Catalog!
• A recipe book by Sally
• AND!  A technique article by Shari!

Woo hoo!

Have a great weekend,

…I will attempt to photograph glitter, acetate AND white StazOn ink, at midnight, because — I’m crazy?  No, it’s because, well, it’s been one of THOSE days, ha ha!

Want to see how to make this card?  Hop on over to the Hero blog and watch the video! AND!  There’s also a giveaway going on to win ALL of the stamps that I used to make it!  WOO HOO!

Have a sparkly day,

I must have taken a gazllion photos of this first project that I did for the Hero Arts Blog trying to show all the glittery goodness

I was about to pull my hair out, but then I finally decided that the last two were my faves and went with them.

The second project I did for today was much easier to photograph — maybe because it has so much less glitter, ha ha!

I tried to think of some photo tips to share, but really, there don’t seem to be any rules — each piece is different!

I guess if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to tilt the piece to try and capture the light falling on the glitter just so.  And speaking of light, try different times of day + locations.

And for some pieces — like the first one — taking the photo inside with a lamp just doesn’t work — gotta have natural sunlight, even if it’s rather dim + gloomy out.  But that can be okay, too!

To see the full materials + instructions for these canvases, head on over here.

Have a shiny day,