Hero Hostess Blog Hop 2014

I gotta tell ya, the Hero Arts Catalog Blog Hop with the Hero Hostesses is one of the highlights of my crafting year! I just love Hero Arts, the stamps are so excellent and the people there are the best! It's so wonderful to get the band of lovely hosti back together. I feel very blessed to be part of this group.

Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments. For a chance to win, leave a comment on any of the stops along the hop on any day, including each day’s starting post at the Hero Club Blog. The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning!

You should have arrived here via Crafty Girl Designs, the blog of sweet and talented Anita! If you get lost along the way today you can always head back to the Hero Arts blog to get back on track.

I had lots of fun with the stamps I received: Birthday Blackboard, Petals of Beauty, Dauber Bunch and Need Caffeine. I used them all and even added some of my older cherished Hero Arts stamps. Yes, I cherish my Old Letter Writing stamp and it comes out to play often.

Quick and Easy is the theme for my cards. I have found I have less time to stamp for fun now that I'm working more. I stamped all but one of these cards in one day, how great is that?

First up I had a bit of fun with the Dauber Bunch set. I will be playing with lots of different techniques with this set, but for this card I was inspired to fill the flower petals with text so I did a bit of masking to create this card:

I used mini sponge daubers to fill the petals with Butter Bar Shadow ink, Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade Distress inks. The patterned paper is from Lawn Fawn's brand new Hello Sunshine 6x6 paper.
I'm learning to embrace the white space and in a effort to actually send my cards in the mail I've chosen to leave this card unembellished.

Next I made three cards using the beautiful new wood mount Petals of Beauty stamp:

Old Letter Writing makes an appearance here! The lovely floral image is stamped with Hero Arts Mid Tone Shadow ink in Charcoal. More Hello Sunshine paper, some twine and a few enamel dots finish this simple card.

Just more simple stamping, this stamp is perfect for quick and elegant cards.

I absolutely love this Birthday Blackboard stamp!! It stamps so nicely and it's adorable. I used Charcoal Shadow ink and trimmed it out to pop up on the fun Hello Sunshine paper. The twine is a new color of Lawn Trimmings called Cloudy. I just love how easy this card came together, I can make a bunch of these to have on hand and (hopefully) never miss sending another birthday card!

The minute I saw the Need Caffeine clear set I knew I wanted to make a set of note cards with it. I kept my Charcoal ink out to stamp these solid images. The card bases are brand new 4 Bar size note cards from Lawn Fawn. These are the pretty gray color called Hippo. I used some scraps of Hello Sunshine and Let's Polka paper and this set came together quickly with some die cut pieces. 

I can use this set as a gift or just send individual greetings to my equally caffeinated friends!

Now it's time to send you on your way to My Impressions, to see what sweet and talented Sarah has to share. Before you go I hope you will leave a comment and consider following my blog. 

blessings,

nancy

Here's all the wonderful Hero Arts products I used for this post:

InLinkz.com

Coming Attractions- Hero Hostess Blog Hop

Join the Hero Arts Hostesses for our annual Blog Hop next week! We've been playing with lots of the brand new Hero Arts stamps and we can't wait to share the fun! The Hop starts on Monday at the Hero Arts blog.

My hop day is Thursday; see you then!!

My CHA 2014 Recap

I'm somewhat recovered from participating in the extreme sport we like to call CHA. Prep starts months in advance, then only intensifies as the show approaches. Once the show floor opens to buyers it's non-stop activity until 4 days later when we hear that disembodied voice over the loudspeaker announcing the show is closed. Then the real fun starts with taking down the booth, packing the product, the samples, the demo supplies and sorting it all for the next show. What follows is my photo heavy journey through the experience of exhibiting at CHA 2014.

On Wednesday, while the guys (Mike and Matt) and Kelly were at the convention center assembling the booth, Chari and I had an intense day of  Make n Take kitting to accomplish in my kitchen. That girl is so sweet, I just love working with her.

We also did some Daphne sitting; she and Tia hung out on the couch together.

On Thursday and Friday we add the product, the samples and the decoration to the booth. We were joined by fellow fawnie, Ivy and Lawn Fawn Design Team member, Tiffany Johnson.

Tiffany working on some scrapbook layouts on the floor. She's an amazing crafter and so sweet!

Here's some work in progress pics:

Once the show opens it's non-stop make and takes for me. Our booth was always hopping with people. Lawn Fawn proved once again to be a very popular brand!

Our 4 Make n Take cards. We do a different card each day. The first day we did Happy Trails, then Let's Roll, Wish You Were Here and on the last day Hello Sunshine. 

We switched up the sentiment on the day 3 card to "wish I was there" to use for the Operation Write Home "Make and Give". We left the arrow and heart separate for the heroes to add to the card to customize them.

I always meet the most wonderful people doing Make n Takes! 

That's Sandy Allnock of Operation Write Home in the bottom photo. She is truly a lovely person.

Lots of men joined in the crafty fun this year!

Look at those wonderful smiles! Clockwise from top-left:

Heidi- the lovely owner of Simon Says Stamp; she is adorable!

Britta- our former intern and sweet friend!

Kristina- lovely and talented!

Mariko- what a special lady

Beth- young crafter whose dad videoed the making of her card

Thanh- adorable, the hat says it all!

Lenny- finally met this sweet crafter who traveled all the way from Belgium!

Marie-Pierre- she made all the cards and was so delightful!

May- So happy to see this talented crafter again.

I love this photo of Marie-Pierre and me on the last day:

She is such a sweet and genuine person and she visited everyday to make a card. Here's a link to her blog post about her CHA experience: Pretty Please by Marie-Pierre Capistran

Top photo: The Fawnie Ladies- Ivy, Chari, Jasmine, Kelly Marie, Lisa, Lynette and me

We had dinner on Saturday at my neighborhood Mexican restaurant, Ricardos with Heidi and Stephanie of Simon Says Stamp and on Monday we went to Lazy Dog Cafe with Kathy Racoosin, Jennifer McGuire, Britta, Tiffany and Linda Barber. Since I live so close to the convention center,

I got to play chauffeur for our out-of-town friends.

Unfortunately my photos from Lazy Dog didn't turn out so good but here's a cute shot of Kelly Marie and Heidi from Ricardo's:

Just because the show is over doesn't mean we can relax. Now we get all the new products ready to be shipped next month! We'll be putting together Collection Kits, packaging sequins and flair, stocking stamps and dies and twine and paper and note cards. I'll be making sense of all my supplies and making lots of sample cards to send to stores. The fun continues! I love this job and I'm so grateful to Mike and Kelly, they are the best!

blessings,

nancy

Lots of Lawn Fawn Fun

I have been working like crazy lately getting ready for CHA; making sample cards and designing Make 'n Take cards. Lawn Fawn has some amazing new products, really fun papers and stamp sets releasing next month! We've been busy getting them all ready to go. Oh and moving into new digs too. I love working at the new office and warehouse. It's a shorter commute now and I can take the pretty and scenic Santiago Canyon Road (no more fighting the freeway traffic, yay!)

Some cards I made using awesome new stamps were featured on the Lawn Fawn blog. They will be displayed in the Notions booth at CHA and one of them even made it into the new 2014 Lawn Fawn catalog!

 Happy Trails:

Hello Sunshine:

Let's Roll:

Wish You Were Here:

Now I'm off to get all my make 'n takes ready for the show. They will be similar to these cards but they will feature the new paper lines too! Thursday and Friday I'll be at the convention center arranging products and decorating the Lawn Fawn booth getting ready for the show to start on Saturday. I love the winter show in Anaheim, it's less than 5 miles from my house so no travel, easy commute and I get to sleep in my own bed. 

If you will be at the show, please stop by the Lawn Fawn booth #2742 and say hi!

blessings,

nancy