Hero Arts 2012 Catalog Release Parties and City of Lakes Christmas Show 12/10/11

What a busy day - I had yesterday!  Must've been the extra excitement of the 2012 Hero Arts Catalog release parties and my chorus Christmas show - I was up at 4 a.m.!  Since I was awake and had my stuff all ready to go, I went ahead a made a card for our Hero Arts Flickr group holiday exchange.  Won't share that yet since I'm just putting it in the mail tomorrow.

Was at Archiver's in Roseville MN when they opened at 10:00 a.m.  Bought some great new Hero Arts goodies and then headed over to Anchor Paper in St Paul where they also had a release party.  Their make 'n take wasn't supposed to start until 11 but they had it ready early.  Good thing as I had to travel to Bloomington for my chorus Christmas Show.  We had to be on stage ready to go at 1:00 for a stage check and I had my stage make-up to put on after the release parties.  Didn't want to scare anyone at those!!

So here are a couple photos from the release parties - you can see more in my Flickr photostream if desired.

I'm at Archiver's holding up some of their display boards - the clerk thought

it would be good in the photo - I didn't make any of these!!

This is one of the display's at Anchor Paper in St Paul MN, not too far away from the Roseville Archiver's.

Here's a photo of my dear friend, Connie Miller, and me in our Christmas show garb and make-up.  False eyelashes, bright red lipstick and all.  We each got to wear whatever holiday garb we wanted - I chose a beaded and sequined duster coat that my retired quartet, Chord Company, ordered but decided against for the group.  The duster looked great on the three tall members but our lead is petite and she looked frumpy in it.  So I just kept my coat and the rest went back to the store - it has come in handy for several occasions such as this!

Don't we look alike?  We have been mistaken for sisters often; she is like a sister to me and has been adopted into my family.  See her gorgeous crown pin?  She is a Sweet Adelines International quartet champion with Four Star Collection!

Finally, after the show - you'd think I'd be tired?? - I went to the Archiver's in Woodbury where I knew some friends were doing Scrap Mania.  By the time I got cleaned up of all the stage make-up and drove across town and picked up my craft supplies, it was already 7pm.  I still had 4 good hours to invest in Christmas cards!  I'll share this one, made with one of my new 2012 Hero Arts stamps - a great friendship background.  Since I needed a card for Connie to give at our Christmas party tomorrow night, I decided to use that stamp along with the wreath stamp.  Here's my card:

Long post - whew!  Hope you're having a great Sunday!  Thanks for stopping!

Crafty weekend and a special birthday coming up 12/9 - Virginia Lu!!

It's been awhile again - I guess I'm not a devoted blogger.  Oh well, I do what I can....

I've been busy this weekend working on Christmas and other cards.  It was great to be in the crafting mood!  Today I'm sharing two cards I made this weekend - first a birthday card for a special friend and then a Christmas card.

My friend Virginia is celebrating a special birthday.  She's having a virtual party and we've been busily uploading cards to our Flickr group.  Virginia was a Hero Hostess when I first joined the Hero Arts group.  She was very kind and encouraging, plus she makes fabulous, inspiring cards!  Hope you have a great birthday, Virginia!

This card uses Out of Print Papers from Basic Grey, #s cut on the Silhouette (Snap ITC font) and stamped with Hero Arts Flower Dot Pattern (loooove this one).  I matted the #s on Hero Arts Big Ticket - another fun stamp I've used a lot.

This next card developed from various parts and ideas roaming around my head.   I started with the blue background piece I'd been playing around with.  A la Jennifer McGuire from her 2011 Holiday Card Boot Camp, I covered cardstock with Broken China Distress Ink (inkpad direct to paper).  Then I put Picket Fence Distress stain on Hero Art’s Artistic Circle design block and stamped the blue piece.  I had a bit too much stain and the design spread out - didn't like it and set it aside for a week.  Then I had the thought to overstamp with the holiday text.  Hmmm, I liked it.  Mounted on a predesigned card base from Michaels (comes in a pack of 24 with 2 designs - this snowflake and a green with dots).  Was playing around with my Silhouette and decided the caroler silhouette image would be great here.  Cut it out using a piece of Basic Grey Out of Print paper.  The finishing touch is a grungeboard shape from Tim Holtz.  I’ve been faithfully following his 12 Tags of Christmas – not that I get any tags made from his inspiration – but I thought his Christmas Star would add a lot to my card.  Painted it with gold paint and spritzed it w/Perfect Pearl mist.

Thanks for stopping!