Congratulations Hero Arts! 45th Anniversary Blog Hop!

Hello Ai (and Hero Arts) Fans!

Today, we are joining in a huge party for our friends at Hero Arts! They are celebrating 45 years in business (WOW!) and we are so thrilled to be friends with such a fun bunch!

Through The Stamping Village at Creativation, we were able to work closely with their wonderful team in a whole new way. It is amazing how collaboration was born, with Aaron Leventhal of Hero at the helm, helping us all dream and create together to make a fabulous space for our beloved customers at the show!

We endearingly joke with our friends at Hero about our companies being the "older folks" of the stamp industry (Ai will be celebrating 32 years in July!). You know that friend that always understands? We get to chat like old friends with the awesome team at Hero about the industry over the past few decades, and the joy that is to come!

Congratulations on this major milestone, Hero Arts! Big hugs to you all!

So today, we collaborated again with card designs from Jessica and Niccole using Hero Arts dies and our Ai Stamps!

A 45th birthday is definitely an occasion to celebrate! I couldn't wait to play with the Hero Arts Birthday Message Fancy die, this thing is huge and could be the main focus of any card. Except I'm going to pair it with a stamp that is equally as fun and dramatic! The Art Impressions Girlfriends Spectacular set, with that large of a number you bet the cake will be bright!

There is a card process video below. I'm going to keep things fun and bright by using rainbow colors. I love the look of white on Kraft and I wanted to make the Birthday Die really stand out. To do that I created a backdrop with the Girlfriends Spectacular set using Gina K. Amalgam ink and Neenah Dessert storm cardstock. I kept to a rainbow color scheme for the clothes of these Girlfriends. I love how the kraft cardstock deepens all the colors. I kept the marker count low by using some cool grays colors to shade with. For the white clothing, I used a Prismacolor Pencil.

After die cutting the freshly colored panel with the Hero Arts Birthday die and mounting it to a card base. I also used the beautiful birthday die 3 more times; once with black craft foam and the other two with white cardstock. I layered those 3 together then adhered the stack to the negative die cut area, of the card panel. Topping it off, and to complete the "Happy Birthday" sentiment, I used the happy word from one of the sentiments in the Spectacular set. Which I heat embossed with white embossing powder on black cardstock and trimmed out with scissors. 

To add some subtle shimmer I used 3 colors of Alcohol Pearl inks and created a rainbow, then die cut the Yupo paper with the amazing Hero Arts Circle Confetti die. This one is a lot of fun! I didn't use the die cut background but instead, adhered the small rainbow confetti pieces to the panel surrounding the spec wearing girlfriends. If you look closely you might see a 45th enamel pin. being worn by one of the ladies. 

You can watch the card process here. 

Copic Markers

C1, C3, C5

R05, YR04, Y18, G14, B16, V06,

E74, E35. E31,  E15, E07

RV85, RV81

Prismacolor Pencil

White

Happy 45th Hero Arts! 

45th Anniversary???? Congratulations Hero Arts!! 45 years is certainly something to celebrate. 

 I paired the Hero Arts Anniversary Fancy Die and Circle Confetti Fancy Die together, along with Art Impressions Crafty Girl Set and the Flip Card Die.  What better set to pair a stamp company and the Crafty Girls from Ai?
At first, I thought the card was getting too fancy.  But then I thought, what craft person doesn't like a little glitter?  I went with blue glitter paper because Sapphire is the traditional and modern gift for 45 years.
I only used the confetti from the Circle Confetti Fancy Die set. I cut out the confetti with the blue glitter paper.  I staggered them around the cut out of the Sunburst Fancy Die. I wanted some dimension to my card so I cut out three layers to the word happy from the Ai Flip Card Die and layered them on top of each other.  I centered them down the middle of my card front.
I wanted my Crafty Gals to pop so I made a pop-up piece of cardstock to hold my gals.  When the card is open the Crafty Gals stand up.  I used the sentiment Craftiness = Happiness on inside card top of the card with blue glitter paper framing it. I staggered some confetti pieces around the sentiment to draw your eyes up on the card.  I wanted to make sure the Anniversary card was centered around the Crafty Gals. I finished it off with a big Happy Anniversary across the bottom. After all 45 years as a craft company is a MAJOR celebration ... YAY Hero Arts, congratulations!! 

Thank you so much for letting me contribute to celebrating such a wonderful company and such a big accomplishment!  HAPPY 45th ANNIVERSARY HERO ARTS!

Copics used:
B000, B12, B14
C1, C3, C5
E00, E11, E53, E55, E57,  E71, E74
G40, G43, G46
R20, R35, R37
Y13, Y15, Y17
YR61, YR65
W1, W3, W5, W7

Until next time ... Hugs & inky fingers!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Here is the full list for the hop! 

Hero Arts

Amy Tsuruta

Art Impressions < You are here

Cathy Zielske < Hop to here

Debby Hughes

Gina K Designs

Jenn Shurkus

Jennifer McGuire

Kristina Werner

Lawn Fawn

Lisa Stein

Megan Hoeppner

Sandy Allnock

Simon Says Stamp

Tasnim Ahmed

Wanda Guess

Winners will be drawn from people who leave comments along the blog hop over the three-day event - comment all three days for more chances to win! Comment by Sunday, June 2 at 11:59pm PST, and the winners will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Hero Arts: 3 $145 Gift Certificates, 3 $45 Gift Certificates

Altenew: $50 Gift Certificate

Art Impressions: $25 Gift Certificate

Ellen Hutson LLC: $50 Gift Certificate

Gina K: $100 Gift Certificate

Jennifer McGuire Ink: $100 Hero Arts Gift Certificate, 5 Share Handmade Kindness goodie bags

Laurie Willison: 2 Card Hanger Dies

Lawn Fawn: $50 Gift Certificate

My Sweet Petunia: 1 Prize Bundle (Original MISTI, a set of Creative Corners, a Cut-Align, and a bar magnet)

Online Card Classes: 5 spots in the Stamp Happy In Good Company: Hero Arts class

Pink Fresh Studio: $45 Gift Certificate

Scrapbook & Cards Today: 3 copies of Scrapbook & Cards Today Summer 2019 Issue

Scrapbook.com: $50 Gift Certificate

Simon Says Stamp: $50 Gift Certificate

Thanks for stopping by. We hope you enjoy a cookie or slice of cake today as we toast to a pillar company in the stamp industry!

As always, Happy Stamping!

O' Frap! Spring Chicken Set | By Jessica Shier

Hello Ai Fans!

With the release of those cute Hedgehogs and adorable Pandas, I decided to explore more of the cute critters in the Funny Farm line of stamps. I chose the Spring Chicken set and also the Oval Double Stitch die. It was not my intention to make the background the shape of a egg but it does work so well! 

I started with stamping the 2 chickens with Gina. K. Amalgam ink then coloring them with Copic Markers. I do have the list of markers I used below. This time I used maily cooled tone grays to match the same tone of the gray cardstock. After I was done coloring them, I fussy cut the pair out and inked the edges with a Memento black marker. 

For my fun egg shape I trimmed a piece of Gina K. Lemon drop cardstock with the Art Impressions Oval Double Stitch die. I believe I used the second from largest. To get the rays I ink blended 

Distress Oxide Ink in Tumbled Glass, through a radiant rays stencil. It didn't quite reach the bottom of the oval. But I easily remedied that with the green cardstock, which was a scrap and already had a curve. I use the same oval die on the green cardstock so that the stitching would continue all the way around. 

I've also been using some colored craft foam to create dimension lately. I cut some of the orange foam with a Art Impressions Circle Double Stitch die and also a darker yellow cardstock. I layered those so that the cardstock was on top and the orange craft foam is only glimpsed from the side. 

I cut two colors of gray cardstock with two different types of edge dies, just to mix it up and add more texture. 

For the sentiment I used a Distress Oxide ink in Abandoned Coral. I love this sentiment, I am not a morning person and only coffee will get me up and going. To create the speech bubble I sketched a oval around the sentiment and added a point. Then fussy cut it out and erased the pencil marks. I popped this up with some foam dimensional squares. 

The inside I used another fun sentiment from the Spring Chicken set, which I paired with the party hat wearing chicken. 

Copic Markers Used:

W6, W3, W1, W0

C5, C3, C1

E77, YG63, B00,

R05, R02,

Y38, Y35, Y21

That's it from me! Thank you for stopping by today. Happy Stamping!

CUTIE ALERT! NEW Critter Cubbies Now Available! PLUS, Challenge 257 Furry Friends!

Hello, Ai Fans! These sets might be the cutest ever! Our NEW Critter Cubbies line features an animal clubhouse and critters that fit right in windows and doors! Of course, there are matching dies to cut everything out! We have our cat and dog lovers covered with our Cozy Cat and Dog House Cubbies! For those of us who love little critters, check out our adorable Hamster Wheel and Woodland Tree Cubbies! Coloring is quick when these images are so small and sweet, and the cubbies are sized to fit an A2 card. Grab yours today at artimpressions.com and find inspiration in our video from Creativation!   Today we have Carol to share a super sweet kitty card with us! Hello Ai Fans! Have you seen all the adorable new Critter Cubby sets?  They are so fun and interactive with all the little doors and window openings!  I've used the Cozy Cat set for this card today. I stamped all the images and colored them with alcohol markers.  Then I used the included dies to cut everything out.  I used some patterned paper for the layers.  I also popped up the kitty play house up with foam tape.  The sentiment is also included in the set and popped up with foam tape. Thank you for taking a look!  We can't wait to see what you create for the Furry Friends challenge! Are you ready to join our challenge? It will be a lot of fun! This challenge is called "Furry Friends" so it's all about enjoying our favorite animal stamps! We always look forward to seeing your entries and have a tough time picking winners - we hope you'll join us for a chance to win Ai stamps! Here are the Challenge Rules: ✻ Please make a new card or creation. You can make any crafty item you wish; this is not limited to cards! ✻ Limit two submissions per person. You will receive extra votes if you use Art Impressions stamps! ✻ The Ai Challenge is open to everyone, international submissions are welcome! ✻ Include a link back to the Ai Blog or grab our button on the top right of our sidebar! ✻ Share the Ai love by clicking and commenting your fellow crafters. ✻ Make sure to get your link up by Wednesday, June 5 at 5:00 p.m. PST to enter your creations. ✻ Good luck and happy stamping! You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter Before we go, let's recognize the winners of last week's Shaped Cards challenge! Top spot goes to... Reetta Heimonen Congrats, Reeta! This bracket shaped card is adorable with our Teachers Rule set! Be sure to email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address to claim your prize! Honorable mentions go to... Beverly Sizemore Janet K  Congrats, you two! Bev, your cupcake card is so sweet with our Birthday Wishes gal flying by! And Janet, how clever is your coffee cup card with Hot Java Mamas! So cute with those little coffee beans. Email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address and select a stamp set of your choice for a prize! Happy Stamping!

Panda Bear-ista! by Crystal

Hi Ai fans! 

I loved Pandas as kid and well I still do they are just so darn cute. So this week I have a card to share using the new Pand-tastic stamp set. 

I started by stamping the panda bear onto the center of a die cut Double Stitched circle. Then I stamped the image again onto some pattern paper. I colored in the panda bear which is super fast. 

I fussy cut the mug out and adhered it over the first image I stamped. I also inked the edge of the die-cut circle with distress ink. to stamp the sentiment "BEAR-ista!" I used a piece of acetate to curve it to follow the shape of the circle then stamped it. I die cut to different size of the Rectangle Double stiched dies to place the circle on. I also used the Flag Double Stitched dies to tuck under the circle. 

 I die cut to different size of the Rectangle Double stiched dies to place the circle on. I also used the Flag Double Stitched dies to tuck under the circle. 

Spectrum Noir Markers:

Blender, CC1, IG9, IG6, IG4 

Happy Stamping! 

NEW VIDEO! Bridge & Cottage Scene Watercolor

Hello Ai Fans!

With only three stamps used in last week's project, it's time to stretch your skills this Watercolor Wednesday! This week, Bonnie creates a square composition using our WC Mini Cottages and WC Bridge Sets. Bonnie simply stamps the two main images, creates rolling hills and water with her WC Palette, and then adds foliage and flowers around the edges and cottage!

Did you try out this beautiful scene? We always want to see what you are creating, so use the hashtag #AiWatercolor on Instagram or post on Facebook Page to share your photos with us!

Have a beautiful Watercolor Wednesday!

View on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QWzaPVCg4is

Circle of Happiness by Niccole Kulig

Hello Ai fans!

I am stopping by today to share with you a card that I had a lot of fun making.  Sometimes you do not need a lot of supplies to make a cute card.  Below I am sharing a card that you can make if you are a pro or a beginner.  It is very versatile.

I used the Art Impressions die set called Circle Double Stitched Dies.  I used a variety of glitter cardstock.  I put two dies together to make the circle outline and not a solid circle. I glued them to my card and finished it with the sentiment Oh Happy Day from the WC Sentiment 2 stamp set.

Here is a  better view of the "Oh Happy Day" stamp from the WC Sentiments Set 2 from Ai.

Here is a close up of the Circle Double Stitched dies.  Aren't they fun?? I do not have any Copics to list today. Like I stated earlier ... It is fun to make a card sometimes with minimal supplies.

Thank you so much for stopping by.  We will talk to you again soon.

Until next time ... Hugs & inky fingers!