Scrapfest Pictures and all the fun!

Hi ya everyone! I just wanted to share all the fun at my first ever Scrapfest! I met up with my fellow Hero Arts groupies first thing in the morning and proceeded to have a blast!

First up for the day was the Tim Holtz class! Barb (in the pink)  and I stood in line hoping to get right up front and we ran into Sarah (in the white & gray) from Canada right away.

Tim's class was a total blast and we got to sit in the front row (wohoooo!)  I even talked with Tim a bit (nervous as heck) asking him if Ranger was ever going to make distress ink markers. He told me they were in the works but they were working on getting all the technical difficulties figured out and it would still be a while before they hit the stores! He was making jokes and keeping us all motivated throughout the whole class. We got to have our picture taken with him once our class was over and all of us walked away with some very nice goodies (NEW embossing folders not in the stores yet and a big pack of grunge board- plus we got to keep most of our supplies used in making the wonderful memories book!)

Her I am working on my project.

Barb and I were in 7th heaven- it was so fun to sit only 5 feet away from him the whole time (he is so nice and of course incredibly COOL)!

Then Barb and I had to run upstairs to go to our 2 Hero Arts classes! We met up with a few more of our fellow Flickr friends and I must say- this class was soooo fun  and very fast paced.  Shari and Jennifer were so nice and so goofey throughout the whole class-  even though they were barking out orders the whole time.....but in a good-fun way! They kept giving away fun Hero Arts goodies all through the class too which was very unepected :) I ended up winning a wonderful Christmas sentiment stamp, a pack of felt snowflakes and some yummy red poinsetta flowers and Hero Hues gems!

Here is Natasha with Jennifer at the end of the class. Natasha is just a little firecracker (8 months pregnant too!) and she is just the sweetest little thing that can even outtalk and outshop my own mother. We ended up going to Archivers and wow- she just kept adding more and more goodies to her shopping basket! Love you Natasha!

So now I thought I would show you some of the wonderful cards we made in the Hero Arts class and a few from the make n takes as well.

Aren't these just gorgeous creations! Love using all the Perfect Pearls and distress inks here! Plus we got to use a ton of the new stamps from the "Jingle All the way" catalog. Another fun bonus- we got to keep one set of new stamps that we used to make our cards! I got to keep the set "Real Leaves" which was one of the sets I was going to try to find at buy Archivers! OMG can you imagine my excitement getting the set I've been drooling over for free- how very generous of Hero Arts!

These were all made on the first day- wow we were busy!

Then I had a nice relaxing lunch with my neighbors from Minnesota- Linda and Barb! (sorry Barb- this was the only picture I had of both of the 2 of you!) A bit more shopping and walking around and by then I was pooped out and ready to head home for the day. I must tell you all, I came home with a huge bag of free goodies- I was really shocked and amazed at the amount of stuff that Hero Arts and Tim Holtz gave away- plus I had my fair share of things purchased at Archivers too!

I'll be back to post another round of photos later today or tomorrow. My camera died on me half way through the second day and I'm waiting for my friends to email me some of the pictures they took. It was a great first day at Scrapfest and the best part was getting to meet and hang out with my new friends! Barb is the sweetest lady and soooo darn FUN- I knew I was going to like here! We plan on getting together again very soon to chat and make some cards! Linda is a wonderful lady as well and just being able to meet all the other ladies from the Flickr Hero Arts pool was such a joy!

Thanks for stopping by and if you can manage it I suggest you attend next years Scrapfest- it was so fun! Keep your eyes open on here for some upcoming blog candy as well- I got a few duplicate things I already have and some other Halloween goodies to give away too.

Inky Hugs, Anne

Card making weekend for OWH!

Hi ya cardmakers and friends!

This weekend the Hero Arts Flickr pool is having a virual cardmaking party for Operation Write Home. There are many fun and interesting challenges going on and I decided to participate making several cards.

First up here is a sketch card where I used some yummy Basic Grey papers, my new favorite embossing folder by Stampin Up (Square Lattice), and some new clear stamps by Hero Arts called "Joy To All". I pulled out the holly punch to go along with the holly on the Basic Grey paper and added a few silver gems for the berries.
I just love the way this card turned out......and I don't normally say that about my own cards- he he!


I made 4 christmas cards (I had no intention of making so many) and one quick birthday card. And by quick I mean quick- less than 15 minutes to stamp it and photograph it! We were given 1 hour total but I didn't see the post until there was only 15 minutes left. Man- that was very intense and super fun! I've never made a card soooo darn fast in my life :) Ink pads and stamps were flying left and right- panic set in as I had only 15 minutes to get one made! But I made it- yeahhhh :)

I'll post all the other cards here without listing every little detail.....I know this is going to be a long post today. If anyone has any question please just send me an email or Flickr mail. Most all the cards created used Hero Arts stamps and some Basic Grey papers and of course that SU embossing folder.


Here is my 10 minute card. This was a quick one-whew!






Another Christmas card following the above sketch- just rotated it and added only 3 items.




And 2 more silver and blue Christmas Cards!






Here is one last card I made late last night for the 1.5 hour challenge to make a one layer card. I got out my Eclipse masking tape and Hero Arts stamps and got busy with my distress inks. Sorry for the poor quality picture but it was pitch black when I took this photo last night.







It feels really good to have made some fun cards for our dedicated and brave soldiers. If you want to find out any more information please visit the Operation Write Home website for all the details and maybe you can donate some cards as well.

Thanks for stopping bye and hope you all have a great week ahead!

Only 6 more days until Scrapfest- I'm counting them down and can't wait!


Inky Hugs, Anne

Quick and easy gift Bags

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to show you how I whip up a quick and pretty gift bag in no time at all. I am really bad a wrapping presents- no matter how hard I try they always look like a 6 year old wrapped them- so I take the easy way out and use gifts bags whenever I can.

For these ones I started out with just a plain old paper bag found at Michaels for a whopping 59 cents. I found some yummy wide ribbon on sale too (the kind with the wire in the edge) and my brain got cooking on how to jazz up that boring old bag.

I randomly stamped some pretty leaves from the Hero Arts set "A Season of Giving" on the bag using my Brilliance inks - then embossed them.

I cut a piece of the ribbon to wrap all the way from the front to the back (the wire in the ribbon makes folding over the edges and base a snap too) and adhered it in a few spots with some double sided Scotch tape. I found a precut die cut shape and stamped the sentiment and inked up the edges- added 2 little leaf buttons and a few Hero Hues pearls. Then I dug through my stash of ribbon and found that lovely sparkly brown ribbon for the base of each handle. And yes I know the plaid ribbon isn't exactly sitting straight- but the handles on this bag are a bit wonky and not centered -guess I should have picked a better bag!


Here is a close up shot of the tag for you to see better- aren't those buttons sooo cute!

I found some other super fun Spider web ribbon and decided to do a Halloween treat bag also. I LOVE this ribbon- the little orange dots along the edge are sooo sparkly!

I did pretty much the same thing as the first bag- stamped some fun Spiders (Hero Arts again) on the bag and found some coordinating orange ribbon for the handles. Made a matching tag and that's it. Soooo quick and easy! Now I just need to find some yummy tissue papers to go inside both the bags. The "Happy Birthday" bag I will be using for my sister's birthday next week- going to fill it up with some goodies from Bath & Body Works, a gift card, and a few sweet treats.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I showed you and quick and easy way to make a pretty gift bag in no time at all.

Inky Hugs, Anne

Hero Arts-Flicker Blog Hop

Hi ya everyone! Today is the day for the first ever Hero Arts-Flicker blog hop- wohoo!
I'm really excited to be a part of this and wanted to share 2 cards I made for this.
I'm crazy for fall- everything about it- all those leaves turning beautiful colors- baked apple goodies- football games, lots of bonfires, and walks in my woods.

So I made 2 cards honoring my love for fall and using my favorite colors. The first one uses the Hero Arts stamp "S5179" Swirly frame and a lovely little studio G stamp I found last week at Archivers. I stamped the frame using Brilliance pearlescent beige and the image was stamped using distress inks- spiced marmalade & vintage photo. I sprayed my own homemade mix of gold Pearl Ex powder and Lumiere paint onto the die cut leaves to add to the shimmer of the frame.

               

The next card uses more die cut leaves and the sentiment is from the set "CL361" Season of Giving. Each leaf was stamped using an assortment of Hero Arts and other stamps for a bit of interest. The gold button/embellie is made from Fimo clay and the texture on it is from using the part of the Hero Arts stamp "S5317" Starburst Lace. I used some Hero Hues pearls on the ends of the sentiment and the sentiment is stamped using vintage photo. Did some distressing around the edge of the embossed panel.

                        

I hope you are having fun hopping along on the Hero Arts blog hop, and to keep hopping along click here  to go to Valeries blog!

Thanks for stopping by everyone and I hope you enjoyed my fall themed cards!

Inky Hugs, Anne

Pairing up with Pia- part one

Hi ya bloggers! Today I've got some fun and exciting cards to show you. Over at the Hero Arts Flicker page we were all inspired a few weeks ago by Hero Hostess Joy and Jennifer Mcguire who paired up to create some amazing cards using the same set of stamps and many of us wanted to join in on the fun and do the same thing. Joy was kind enough to organize the pairing for us and we got our partner assignments a few days ago.

I got paired up with the ultra talented Pia Overgaard (go see her blog- she is amazing) and after chatting a bit we decided to use the new "Frightful" set from Hero Arts. If you know me at all you know I'm crazy for Halloween -it's my favorite holiday of the whole year and I've been itching to get making some cards!

We each made 2 cards for this first round of pairing up. I went with the bold traditional Halloween colors and just couldn't resist using the cute ghost. I also used my favorite dotted paper that was a free digi download I found years ago (buy have since lost the link to it- bohooo) and my Cuttlebug spider web embossing folder. I decided to make the ghost look a bit silly and added the googlie eyes to him and I popped up the ghost on some dimensionals.  Sponged some dusty concord distress inks behind the image and the edges of it as well and added some wide ric rack.

For my second card I used the cute ghost again (love it) and just stamped the sentiments randomly all over my base. I got out the white gel pen for a bit of contrast on the black scalloped circle and used some fun lime green ribbon and a plastic spider dangling off the button. The spider is from an old set of confetti left over from last years Halloween party.

 

This pairing up has been so fun and intersting- hope you like our cards!  Pia and I will do a second round of cards later this month......wonder what we will decide on for that one.  Don't forget to go visit Pia's blog and see what she created- I can't wait to see myself.

Our weather here in Wiscinsin has gotten quite cool this week- I think fall might actually be starting- yeah!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you all have a great holiday weekend!

Inky hugs, Anne