You're the Best!

For the Hero Arts blog hop, I helped my friend Karen upload her photos onto her Flickr photostream so hoppers could visit her there and see her wonderful creations.

Since she lives in Michigan, with the time difference in Hawaii, we were on the phone until the wee hours of the morning (for her), having a lot of fun trying to put a mosaic together. It was a successful tutoring session and blog hop, and now Karen knows how to link....Yay!

A few days ago, Karen sent me this new stamp set from Hero Arts. I love that it comes with a sentiment and gems.

I made this card by stamping two girls and giving them different hair colors. I also used black gems for the eyes and a white gel pen to put a sparkle in their eyes.

The stamp is a cutie, and I know I'll be using her many times over. Thank you, Karen! You're the best!

Stamp: You're the Best

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Stampin Up

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Other: Copic markers, Hero Arts gemstones, sheer dot ribbon,

K&Co puffy stickers, Nestabilities Label One dies, Sizzix dot embossing folder,

pop dots, Inkssentials white pen

A New Year's breakfast

Traditionally, most Japanese households serve ozoni on New Year's morning. It's a broth filled with vegetables, together with mochi--glutinous rice cakes. As a child, I used to dread coming to the breakfast table and coming face to face with my bowl of ozoni. And my mother reminding me to "chew the mochi really well because a lot of children and old people choke on it." Great....a hazardous breakfast.

This year, instead of our usual pancakes, I served French toast made with thick slices of Portuguese sweet bread paired with REAL Wisconsin maple syrup. I even dusted it with a sprinkling of powdered sugar. And after trying the real stuff, I can't go back to Log Cabin or Mrs. Butterworth's ever again.

Yes, I did make a small pot of ozoni--because it's tradition--and we chewed it really well.

Happy New Year to all!

*Edited to note: I didn't mean to make light of the fact that people have choked on mochi and there are indeed reported cases of death. I apologize if I've offended anyone who experienced this firsthand.

A few more Annies

I found a couple more Annie images in the wonderful stash that Alice shared with me. Even though the designs are rather small, they're surprisingly quick and easy to color.

Stamps: Sugar Nellie, Cornish Heritage Farms, Hero Arts

Cardstock: Neenah, Stampin Up

Ink: Memento, Versafine, Colorbox

Other: Copic markers, Nestabilities dies, Sizzix embossing folder

Hero Arts gems, ribbon, pop dots

These are probably the last two cards that I'll be sharing in 2009. We have some major housecleaning

and preparations to do for the New Year and that means cleaning my stamp area, packing up the Christmas stamps and hunting for my Valentine stamps.

Here's wishing you all a very safe and Happy New Year!

I hope 2010 will be a very good year for us all...

Meet...Annie!

My super sweet friend Alice shared a box full of stamped images with me and I found several of these Sugar Nellie Annies inside. I decided to make a cheery Goth card since I started coloring her hair black.

These Annie stamps are by Leanne Ellis and is it just a coincidence that Pure Innocence artist Heather Ellis shares the same last name? I wonder if they're related? Does anyone know?

I love Annie and I'll be making a visit to Funky Kits to get more stamps of my own. Thanks, Alice, for introducing me to Annie!

Stamps: Sugar Nellie, Hero Arts sentiment

Cardstock: Stampin Up, Neenah

Ink: Memento, Versafine

Other: Copic markers, Nestabilities dies, pearls,

sheer dot ribbon, pop dots

Still more Innocence

I'm waiting patiently for my new Hero Arts stamps to arrive in the mail. In the meantime, I made a few cards with more (yep, you guessed it!) Pure Innocence digis.

My new favorite Nestabilities die is the nested blossom. I've used it here on all three cards, and I think it goes well with the Pure Innocence images.

These two digi images are now on sale at Heather Ellis' website . Pure Innocence clear stamps can also be found at My Favorite Things. The clear stamp sets come with sentiments, but the digi sizes can be played with--something I've learned to appreciate.

My daughter asked me to make some cards for a friend. I think I'll be making a set using Pure Innocence images since they're fast and fun to color--and I think I may have bought them all.

Stamps: Pure Innocence digital images, Hero Arts

Ink: Versafine

Cardstock: Stampin Up, Papertrey Ink

Other: Nestabilities blossom dies, Cuttlebug embossing folder,

Sizzix embossing folder, Copic markers, sheer dot ribbon,

Inkssentials white pen, Martha Stewart butterfly punch,

pop dots, K&Co pillow stickers

Have a Gorjuss Christmas!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

I had this Gorjuss Girl cut and colored a long time ago and finally decided to use her on a Christmas card with non-traditional colors, along with my favorite brown.

Hope Santa brings you what you wished for!

Stamps: Gorjuss Girls, My Sentiments Exactly

Ink: Memento, Versafine

Cardstock: Stampin Up, Papertrey Ink

Other: Copics, Cuttlebug embossing folders, buttons, ribbon, pop dots

A treeless Christmas...

I've seen photos of some gorgeous Christmas trees on friends' blogs. Perfectly sculpted, beautifully decorated trees. Here's a photo of ours. This is the first Christmas that we are without a real, honest-to-goodness, bloomin' live evergreen. Oh, we could have gotten one earlier. We kept seeing that Christmas tree tent up and thinking that they'll still have trees for sale the following weekend.

But there were definitely less trees for sale than last year and it didn't help that several containers of trees were rejected and returned because of some bugs that the inspectors found. I think our daughter would have taken a tree with bugs and sprayed it with insecticide herself, if it meant having a live tree.

So thank goodness for the 18" artificial one that her boyfriend gave her last year. I kind of like it. You don't have to water it, it was already decorated and even has lights on it. The only thing missing is.......the smell. But at least we have a tree to put our presents under! Or around....

More Pure Innocence

Here's another card made with Pure Innocence digis. Heather Ellis' Etsy shop is closed until January 3rd because she's on holiday, but you can still get some digis from her second website here and, as Erin informed me, they are now on sale! And there are a few new images as well. Thanks, Erin!

I just love the innocent charm of Pure Innocence designs. They are quick to color and make for super quick cards. Hope you'll like them, too!

Stamps: Pure Innocence digital image, Hero Arts sentiment

Ink: Colorbox, Versafine

Other: Copic markers, Nestabilities Label dies, Sizzix embossing folder,

K&Co pillow stickers, MS butterfly punch, ribbon, twine

Post Blog Hop...

I've finally recuperated from the Hero Arts blog hop a few days ago...It was so much fun! So many wonderful ideas from special guest bloggers--did you see Tim Holtz?? --that my wish list of the newest stamps got even longer!

I want to mention that the technique that I used on the row of houses can be found here. The wonderfully talented Jennifer McGuire shared this during Fall Stamp Camp at Two Peas. When I first followed her tutorial, I couldn't stop making the backgrounds.

Just follow Jennifer's tutorial and you'll be water splotching, too. I covered the embossed house design and "grass" portion with a protective piece of paper so the water spots would show only on the "sky" portion. I hope you'll try it.....it's so much fun!

Also, the paper wallet was a lift from a cute one that my super creative friend Kelly Booth shared on her blog a few weeks ago. She sewed hers, which made for a stronger wallet, while I used terrifically tacky tape and faux stitching. We both used velcro closures. Thanks, Kelly, for the great gift idea!

...........

The online version of Hero Arts' 2010 catalog is available here! The catalog features all the new stamps shown during the blog hop and favorites from last year, too. Enjoy!

It's time to hop!

Welcome to Hero Arts' 2010 Catalog Blog Hop! The excitement has been building all week and the hop has officially started! Start here and visit over 30 blogs featuring ideas using Hero Arts' newest stamps!

The 2010 catalog will feature some house stamps and this row of houses stamp has a lot of possibilities--new home, a move, housewarming. After embossing the houses, I ink distressed and water splotched the "sky", then stamped over the entire card with the Friend definition stamp. I trimmed the image to make a smaller card and added a puffy heart sticker for dimension.

And here are two ATCs that I made with some smaller pieces using the same technique.

Stamps: New! Row of Houses (H5328),

Friend Definition

Ink: Distress Ink in Peeled Paint, Pine Needles, Broken China, Spiced Marmalade and Walnut Stain; Versamark

Cardstock: Stampin Up and Basic Grey

Other: Clear embossing powder, buttons, twine, puffy heart stickers

I am so glad that I got to play with these little girls. They are so cute and fun to color! I tried to use different skin tones and hair colors and it felt like I was playing with paper dolls! There are so many possibilities for using them, too.

Here's a simple paper wallet to hold a little cash or a gift card. I used a Cuttlebug folder to give some texture and decorated with Hero Arts felt flowers.

On this card I trimmed off the heads (ouch!) and tilted them slightly towards each other for a "best friends" card. I also sanded down the embossed background to make the flowers pop.

Stamps: New! Sweet Wonderful You (CL381)

Cardstock: Hero Arts notecards, Stampin Up

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Other: Copic markers, Sizzix embossing folder,

Hero Arts gemstones, felt flowers, sanding block

Thanks so much for hopping by! Now hop on over to

Lisa's blog for more great ideas on using Hero Arts' 2010

catalog stamps.

Remember, if you find a link that doesn't work, you can always hop back to the Hero Arts blog for a list of direct links to all the blogs in the hop!