Laura Griffin Designs

When I heard about the I {heart} Hero Arts blog hop, I had to join in the fun! Thanks goes out to Ashley M. for organizing.

The challenge was to create a thank you card in honor of Hero Arts that uses your fav HA stamps. I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite to work with – so I just selected two that have been seeing a lot of ink lately… S5208 Designer Woodgrain & an owl from the LP131 Four Stylish Owls.

Other supplies: Chocolate notecards, White staz-on, & acetate notecard (all Hero Arts), ribbon (Hobby Lobby), stapler, Mega/Giga scallop punches (Marvy), Vanilla/Caramel cardstock (SU!), Corner Rounder (Fiskars), Copic Markers, google eyes, Versamark, white embossing powder

Ashley gave all the hoppers two questions to answer:

The first is to tell your Hero Arts story and how you got started using Hero Arts products.

I still remember the first time I saw the real flower line in a local stamp store when I first started stamping about 5 years ago. Wow – what gorgeous flower images! I just had to have them all.

I also fell in love with the font used in their sentiment stamps at the time…and I still love those stamps today:

The second question is to tell why we are thankful for Hero Arts. Wow! There are so many reasons.

* Hero produces a wonderful, quality product and have brilliant designs in both wood-mount & clear stamp sets

* Hero is a “green” company and have taken conscious steps to minimize their carbon footprint

* The people associated with Hero couldn’t be nicer… from the shipping department to the CEO, I’ve only had the best of interactions with everyone I’ve come into contact with.

* Their generosity…man, have you seen all the cool giveaways Hero has done in the last year?!?!

* Hero really listens to their customers and are constantly searching for ways to improve how they do business – have I said how AWESOME the new webpage is?!?!?!

* Having the opportunity to share my love of Hero with the online community as a member of the web design team. It’s been a dream come true to be a part of this talented group of ladies, and I can’t say enough good things about my experience so far!

Make sure you drop by the blog hop to see everyone else’s projects, and hope you have a great weekend!
~Laura

My fav stamp company, Hero Arts, is launching a new look for their website & blog this week. I can’t wait to see the new surprises they have in store for us on July 15th!

To celebrate, the folks over at Hero are being ultra-generous and giving away incredible prizes! Just check out the blog and leave comments every day for your chance to win. Believe me…today’s prize package is amazing and they are giving away not one, but two!

To start off the week, Hero asked some of their web designers and hostesses to create projects inspired by the website. I made a set of five onesies inspired by a T-shirt stamp craft in the archives. It was made by the ever-so-talented Barb Hache a while back. Here’s a sneak peek of the onesies…but go check out the Hero blog for the supply list, a full image, & more info! And don’t forget to leave a comment for your chance to win the prize!

I thought I’d share a couple of “green” projects I made recently for the Hero Arts website that combine two of my favorite things…polymer clay and rubber stamping!

First up is this lil’ tin – that turns trash into treasure! This was made from a round altoid tin and uses some darling new Hero Arts stamps. I *HEART* that deer! And the background cloud stamp is greeat too. You can click on the picture for a larger image.

Never used polymer clay & curious how? Or are you an expert that wants to make a quick gift for a friend? Check out the step-by-step video HERE.

Second up is an elegant Kanji necklace. This is SUPER easy project to make, and uses those burnt out incandescent light bulbs you haven’t gotten around to throwing out yet. Turn them into jewelry molds! I filmed another step-by-step video you can see HERE. Hope you enjoy them and happy stamping!

Recently, I shot a video for the Hero Arts blog showing how you can create reverse-masked backgrounds using scrap cardstock, a craft knife, sponge, & some chalk inks. I also demonstrated how to make your own dry-embossed borders. You can see the original video HERE.

I created a short follow-up “bonus” video that wasn’t needed for our web artist blog week, so I thought I’d share it with you now. It shows you how to create your own reverse-masked custom shapes (in this case a heart) to take the technique even further. Hope you like it & happy stamping!

If you haven’t checked it out yet, be sure to drop by the Hero Arts website this week for some new inspiration. There are some terrific projects on the blog this week including a hand-stamped tote by Tami Hartley (perfect to take grocery shopping, to the library, or to stash supplies for a day of stamping with a friend).

You’ll also find a new card-of-the-week using the Spring Messages stamp set. I love how you can combine punches, cardstock, & small stamped images to make a simple, cheerful card. The set comes with several different sentiments along with lots of spring-themed images. Here’s a sneak preview below, but you can get step-by-step instructions and larger images HERE.

Happy Stamping!