Jennifer McGuire, ink.

Configurations + Giveaway

Happy Sunday.

I thought I would share a project I created for Tim Holtz to use in his Idealogy booth at CHA.

It is bright, huh? I think it stood out too much in the booth - ha. But I wanted to show how you can get a completely different look with the same product. I tend to do that with Tim's products - show how you can use it for a totally different look.

Configurations are Tim's fabulous dimensional shadow boxes. And boy are they fun. LOVE them.

Colin loved helping me with this. It was actually super simple to make.

I first painted all the pieces I wanted to use white. These pieces are actually from his soon-to-be-released Print Tray Configurations. I just used the pieces I wanted and saved the others for another project. (The price of these Configurations is really quite good.)

I then painted the soon-to-be-released Tim Holtz letters with bright colors. Couldn't just use black. :)

And Colin and I collected some of his favorite things to fill the boxes, adhering with hot glue. The little Magic Treehouse books? I went to the used bookstore and got them and cut them up with my strong Tim Holtz scissors. I am saving the pages to use on cards in the future!

Can it get any brighter?

Such fun. After I was done, I adhered all the boxes together with a glue gun.

And Colin loves it. It sits in his room on his dresser.

If you are looking for some ideas using Configurations in a more "traditional" way, try these links:

• HERE are some Tim created.
• Another great one HERE from Wendy Vecchi.

Maybe this will inspire you to create one of these for your kids! And to get one lucky crafter started, I have a Configurations! Just leave a comment by Wednesday night for your chance to win this...

Oh, and remember to use discount code hero10 for 10% off your entire order at Simon Says Stamp through February 22. See you again soon.

 

Project Supplies:

Favorite Scissors

Craft Sheet

Tim Holtz Letters

Claudine Hellmuth Paints

Configurations

 

Flip Die Cut Card + Giveaway

Hello. Saturdays are the best, aren't they?

I have a very purple card to share today. Not sure why I went with purple, but here it is. I used my favorite die cut to create a flap that opens to reveal the message. (The dark purple background is just a solid piece - this doesn't open like a traditional card.)

Lots of Hero Arts love on this baby, huh? Card supplies are listed below. Just click the pictures to find out more.

Also, I have a fun giveaway! This goes to a random past comment - one left by mamichelle! You are the lucky winner of these goodies that Heidi from Simon Says Stamps sent me...

BTW, if you have recently won a prize, I will be shipping this week.

I have some more giveaways to give... :)

Happy weekend to all!

Card Supplies:

Copics	Glossy Accents	Memento Ink	Adhesive	Neenah White Paper
Stamp Press	THE Fiskars Trimmer	Multi Purpose Plate	Thank You Definition	Tim Holtz Ornamental Die
Hero Hues Cards etc	Friends	Vagabond Die Cutting Machine	Flowers

 

NEW Stamps + Discount Code!

Hello!

Have some good news for you. The newest Hero Arts stamps - including our stamps with BasicGrey - are in stock now. And to celebrate, Heidi over at Simon Says Stamp said I could share with you a discount code (hero10) for 10% off your ENTIRE order! Gotta love that.

Click HERE to see all the new goodies.

Wanna see my favorites?

You can never go wrong with a dot background. It works for every project. And this one is a bit quirky and perfectly perfect...

This set just screams for some Copic coloring...

Hello, gorgeous background. It is nice to meet you...

Hero Arts also brought back some classic sets - stamps that had been requested from stores from past releases. I was so very happy to see this gem in the catalog...

And Hero Arts + BasicGrey = a match made in heaven. Clearly. I wasn't sure about this background, but once I used it I was totally hooked. Hook. Line. Sinker.

And this background? No enabling needed here. Yummmm...

Flowers. And a stem with leaves. You need this set...

And, last but not least... the new Hero Arts Hero Hues Patterned Papers. These are AMAZING. Perfection. Trust me. They are super heavy (heavy enough to make notecards from), white on white side (great for embossing and sanding), tone-on-tone (easy to use) and the colors are delicious (delicious, I tell ya). Trust me. You will love them. I am color-picky and these rock. 12 sheets in a pack... check out the rainbow HERE...

Great stuff, huh?

Remember to use discount code hero10 for 10% off your entire order HERE through February 22.

Enjoy!

Baby Cards

Hi!

Before sharing some cards, I gotta share with you a few comments people left on my blog yesterday. I had mentioned that I had spent a lot of time with my son on his class Valentines and ignored my cleaning and laundry and such. Many of you left comments relating to this choice I made - love that about crafters! Here are two of my favorite comments:

Samantha said, "My girls are 22 and 16. These kind of things, and the time spent together, are what they remember, which is worth every second and cent spent doing them, and all the other things left undone. Screw the laundry."

So true, so true.

And Karen said, "These are so cute! I can just see you snuggled up together, having some together time getting these done and Colin getting better. BTW, no justification needed. I remember a great stamp (Hanna Stamps maybe???) that said "A clean house is a sign of a lazy stamper." Now those are words to live by!"

Ha - true also. Just thought these ladies were so right. We crafters know how to use our time well. :)

Now... on to another project that took a lot of time and left a lot of dust and laundry to pile up... hee.

My son's wonderful teacher had a baby on Christmas Eve. So, over the holidays I spent a lot of time coloring little bears to put on a set of notecards for her...

I printed the baby's name on Neenah white cardstock and then stamped the Papertrey Ink bear over them. Then my 13-year old step-daughter and I spent lots of time together coloring them all...

I am not sure how many cards we did, but there were a lot...

The insides were blank so she could use them as thank you notes. And the bears had a little touch of glitter pen and Glossy Accents for shine. The bows on their necks were colored with Copics to match the bears perfectly...

And each card was embossed with little dots...

And I put them all in a few clear boxes...

... with matching stamped envelopes and a bow to finish...
Yes, it took a ton of time. But it was so worth it. Colin saw me put the care into the gift. And Audrey and I chatted about boys and vacations over hours of coloring. So, if you ask me, it was time well spent. :)

And his teacher loved them.

Thanks for stopping by today. I have more giveaways this week. But in the meantime I will be sending some Hero Arts stamps to Samantha and Karen for their wonderful comments. Thanks, girls!

See you tomorrow...

 

Card Supplies:

Corner Chomper	Copics	AC Adhesive	Glossy Accents	Memento Ink
Foam Dots	Neenah White Paper	Stamp Press	THE Fiskars Trimmer	Craft Sheet
Mini Glossy Accents	Clear Glitter Pen	Papertrey Baby	Dot Embossing	Hero Hues Cards etc

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope your day is wonderful.

I spent most of this afternoon working on Valentines for Colin's classmates - love it. Colin and I initially intended to create these together - having him do all the coloring. But after he was up all night with a double ear infection (and 3 hours at an urgent care this AM), I ended up doing the coloring while snuggled up on the sofa with him. He helped with assembly and such though. He loves when we do things for his classmates.

Here is a peek at what we created for 22 adorable kiddos...

I used Hero Arts robot, background and quote balloon stamps and little letters from Papertrey Ink. (See links at the bottom of this post - all supplies will be there.)

I created the message on my computer and stamped the quote balloon around it.

Colin stamped "beep" repeatedly on each piece with Soft Pool Ink. After coloring the robots, I added a bit of shine with a glitter pen and some fun with google eyes.

The red is an envelope that holds a little gift...
 
In the envelope is a tiny bag with a mini notebook and a fun small mechanical pencil.

These are such fun to create. I bought mini composition books (for less than 50 cents) and covered the front. The pencil image is from a Hero Arts digital kit and I added the face to it for fun. The smile actually is a Hero Arts stamp in THIS set - made it fast and easy. Then we stamped stars on the background.

Printing digital pieces like this makes crafting so much faster. But then by adding a bit of stamping and google eyes, it looks lovingly handmade.

I am sure many parents will wonder why I put so much time into these. Or that I must have so much time on my hands to create things like this. But it is just a choice I make - I love to make these fun little gifts because I know it makes them happy. In the meantime, my house is a mess and the laundry didn't get done. Oh well. :)

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day! Oh, and good news. I have some giveaways this week. Hint, hint. ;)

Take care.

 

Project Supplies:

Copics	AC Adhesive	Glossy Accents	Memento Ink	Distress Inks
Stamp Press	THE Fiskars Trimmer	Craft Sheet	Favorite Scissors	Robots
Message Balloons	Dotted Background	SImple Alphabet PTI	Pencil Digital	Fun Stamps
Soft Pool Ink	Clear Glitter Pen	Hero Hues Cards etc

A bit of enabling...

Hey there.

I haven't done much enabling lately, so I figured it was time. :) There are lots of great goodies popping up thanks to the recent CHA show.

First up? The new Distress Ink Stains. Yes, you need these. Yes, there are many fabulous techniques that you can use these for. Yes, I will be sharing lots with them soon! :) You can find them all HERE.

Next we have these fun big letter stamps from Hero Arts. Love how big they are and the price is really great. (Find them HERE.)

Quite some time ago I found some great little flowers on etsy.com and have loved using them. Now they are available through Prima! These are such fun to use... plastic and durable and great for any crafting. (Find them HERE.)

Here is a card I did several months ago using a similar flower...

We are redoing the kid's bathroom starting on Monday. Completely gutting it. Blech. But once it is done I am covering the walls with happy art. Lots of happy art. HERE is my currect fave...

Totally random here: Looking for a good and healthy recipe? Try THIS one for Panko-Crusted Salmon from the Barefoot Contessa. We love it - and Colin swears it makes him run faster. :)

I'm off to watch a movie. Inside Man. Anyone seen it?

Night!

Handmade Valentine Ideas

Hello!

Just got home from our fabulous vacation. I have a lot to catch up on, but wanted to pop in and share a bit.

Colin and I are trying to decide what to do for his Valentines this year. In the meantime, I thought I would share here what we did the last two years in case they inspire you.

We don't put candy in ours - we try to avoid too much of that as does his school. Last year we did little craft kits for them to create with at home... (For more photos of the projects and instructions, click HERE.)

Those were SO much fun to put together. The little crafts? Those were from cheap Hobby Lobby tubs. Love.

The year before, we created little folded bags holding mini coloring pages and markers. Easy and fun... (Click HERE for more info and photos.)

I am stumped on what little goodies to include this year. Any ideas? I may just go with pencils. Hmmm...

See you soon with some more sharing!

greetings from brussels!

Hello! I am on vacation in Europe for the week. I had loaded lots of photos into my albums on Typepad so I could write posts while I am here. But for some reason it is stuck and I am having no luck.
So I will post when I get home later this week. In the meantime, if you like travel photos, you can check out my photos on Twitter.
Have a good day. I am off to dinner and a delicious Belgian beer.
Night!

A good laugh

Hello!

I am heading to Europe tomorrow to meet Ken for a week. Gran and Pa will be staying here - Camp Gran. :) I will share from the road!

In the meantime, just wanted to share some laughs.

When Shari (fellow Hero Arts artist) and I are together, we often get the giggles.

We usually start by taking care of each other...

Then smiling...

 
Then doing something totally immature...

And that makes us laugh. Hard.

And then we have to get serious. This was a video we did for the Hero Arts blog. But you gotta watch Shari at the beginning. SO funny - we laughed so hard. (And thankfully our boss cracked up too. :)

 

We have such fun.

And it was great having two of my favorite people finally meet - Shari and Kelly.

Good times. I love my job.

BTW, the winners of the In The Classroom DVDs from the other day are mommamikki and Vee P. I emailed you!

See you soon - from across the world!

Cards for Kids Winners!

Hello!

Below are the winners of the latest Cards for Kids drive. Big thanks to Kristina and Jana for pulling together this list! If you have questions, please contact Kristina.

You may still send cards for the kids. (Info can be found HERE.) But we will not be starting an official round for awhile, as we plan to do a card drive for the elderly soon. Stay tuned for more info on that.

Here are the winners! (Copied from Kristina's post HERE.)

The winner of a gift certificate to LNZart.etsy.com for any $12 print that you'd like is Leslie Hansen!

The winner of the  "Today mini art journal" and "Pretty Wings 'n Things Stickers" from Shopevalicious.com is Dena Carper!

 

 

The winner of the $15 gift certificate to For the Luv of Art.com is Kari Dejarnette!

The winner of this beautiful handmade brooch from my sweet friend Jennifer Johner's Etsy store that you can see HERE is Elena Huey!

The winner of their choice of any of these prints from Grace Hester Designs is Cheryl Oman!

The winner of a prize pack of 6 digital images of the your choosing from Chicken Girl Designs via I {heart} Papers is Brigitte Elste!

 

The winner of one SLR camera strap of your choice from Cotton Candy by Natalie is Dana Colbourne!

 

The winner of the sweet little ballerina outfit (the purple and pink one pictured below) along with matching headband, dress up shoes and gloves goes to Jennie and Kayla Holwadel!

 
The winner of a Tonka Strong Arm Fire Engine is Cindy Groh!

The winner of a $20 voucher to shop at the very cute store - Pixiepetals goes to Tony RomRiell!

The winner of this beautiful barette from my friend Jennifer Johner's beautiful etsy store is Valarie M. Florer!

 

The winner of the Best Friends Forever Kit from my sweet friend, Heather at scrapbookbakery.com is Brenda Urbanik!

 

The winner of a $15 gift certificate to For the Luv of Art.com is Kelly Bertram!

And the winner of a set of two stamps sets - Cake Shoppe and Cake Shoppe Too by Mint Motif, my sweet friend Kimberly Crawford's stamp line, via I {heart} paper is Linda Beyer!

The winner of an A Muse prize package - retail value of $60 that includes the following goes to Lynnette Teixeira!

• two clear stamp sets (Nature & Trees)
• A Muse pigment black ink pad + reinker
• Two A Muse 4-bar notes with envelopes (Bark & Madeira)
• A Muse grosgrain stitched ribbon
• Clear block (2.5" x 3.5")

 

 

And the winner of the $25 gift certificate to my sweet friend Elle's store - Elle's Studio goes to Tarynne Wise!

 

The winner of the Midnight Rooster goodies goes to  M. Romoser!

 
And the winner of a set of TWO stamps sets - Cake Shoppe and Cake Shoppe Too by Mint Motif, my sweet friend Kimberly Crawford's stamp line, via I {heart} paper goes to Sherri Stone!

The winner of an 8x10 print of this print - printed on canvas paper from Vol. 25 is K McMillin!

 

The winner of a prize pack of 6 digital images of the your choosing from Chicken Girl Designs via I {heart} Papers goes to Katrina Hansen!

 

The winner of a HUGE and awesome collection of digital kits by the sweet and talented Janet Carr of Janet Carr Designs & Little Feet Digital Designs by Janet Carr is Sandy Ang!

 

The winner of the September Main Work in Progress Kit goes to Mary Pat Siehl!

The winner of a $15 gift certificate to Shabby Miss Jen Designs is Karen Shiffert!

 

The winner of a  wonderful Family Rules print from the great etsy store - I Love it All goes to Kari Dejarnette!

And the winner of a $25 gift certificate to Impress Rubber Stamps donated by a sweet blog reader named Nicky goes to Vanessa Menhorn!

The winners of the $25 gift certificates from Lawn Fawn are Donna Calamari and Nha Do!

 

And last, but not least, the winner of the grand prize for this round, which is a lovely songbird necklace by Lisa Leonard is Joy Ott!!

Kristina has contacted all the winners.

Thank you everyone!