Hello and welcome back to our “Win-a-Day on the Hero Club Blog” week. I am very honored to introduce you to the fabulous Deborah Nolan…

I was so happy to pick Deborah. Her incredible talent, boundless creativity and fun personality made her an easy choice! Here’s more from her…

Q1: What is your favorite stamping technique? (Simple stamping, embossing, collage, etc.)

Deborah: Straight-up stamping, but I love to embellish with colored pencils and Gamsol.

Q2: What is your “go-to” color combination?

Deborah: This is hard for me. Probably my favorite is to use kraft, warm chocolate brown, and then robin egg’s blue/creamy pink/sea-green.

Q3: What are your favorite Hero Arts embellishments? (Gems, pearls, buttons, etc.)

Deborah: Definitely the pearls and gems.

Q4: What inspires you?

Deborah: The HA bloggers and the stampers at the Hero Arts Flickr Group. For sheer concentration of raw talent and fresh ideas, this is THE place to visit.

Q5: What is your favorite dessert?

Deborah: I never met a cookie I didn’t like. Actually, we never have dessert, but I am quite partial to chocolate store-bought birthday cake with BUTTERCREAM icing (whipped is just plain wrong).

When I started emailing with Deborah in preparation for this day, her excitement was contagious. She had so many fun and creative ideas! So we decided to put a fun spin on our day and go with sketch and color palettes for our projects. It was such fun.

Here’s the first sketch and color palette Deborah came up with.

And here is the striking card that Deborah made. It’s one of those cards that makes your jaw drop!

(Card by Deborah Nolan)

And here is my card based on the same sketch and color palette. I traced the greeting and stamped images with a glitter pen for added fun.

(Card by Jennifer McGuire)

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design Four Dolls
• Clear Design Mix and Match Elements
• Clear Design I Care Frame Messages (for butterflies)
• Clear Design Card Messages
• Dots
• Black and White Memories Ink
  
• Summer Assorted and Kraft Notecards
• Accent Pearls
• Other: cardstock, Prima Petites flowers, silk ribbon (Archiver’s), jewelry hemp (Hobby Lobby), markers (Tombow, Sharpies), Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, chalk (Pebbles Inc.), Fiskars Scallop Punch, glitter pen

Here’s the second sketch and color palette Deborah created.

And… check this out! What a clever use of these stamps!

(Card by Deborah Nolan)

And here is my card. The yellow circle lifts up to reveal a message for the recipient. To do this, I just put a small crease about 1/2″ from the top and put adhesive just on the small flap. Easy!

(Card by Jennifer McGuire)

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design Hello Circles
• Clear Design Great Flourishes Messages
• Clear Design Elephants
• Clear Design All Occasion Messages
• Heart Winged Butterfly
• Together Special Edition (for small butterfly)
• Design Block Scattered Flowers
• Hero Arts Memories Inks
  
• Summer Assorted Notecards
• Assorted Crystal Gemstones
• Other: cardstock, jewelry hemp (Hobby Lobby), chalk (Pebbles Inc.), heart punch, pop dots, wire, EK Success circle punches, colored pencils

And here’s the third sketch and color palette we used for inspiration.

Now - I have to say that this is the most creative card I have seen in ages. Wow! Check out how she used the scallop border stamps to create the decoration on the elephant. How fabulous!

(Card by Deborah Nolan)

And here is my creation… totally inspired by Deborah! I also used one of Hero Arts’ new long notecards.

(Card by Jennifer McGuire)

Featured Supplies:

• Clear Design Elephants
• Clear Design Scallop Borders
• Clear Design All Occasion Messages
• C’est Chouette
• Soft Sand Shadow Ink (for the light birds and under the colored pencil)
• Light Kraft Long Notecards
• Hero Arts Prisma Glitter
  
• Hero Arts Gemstones
• Other: cardstock, patterned paper (My Mind’s Eye, Fancy Pants, K & Company), gems (Mark Richardson), feather (Zucker Feather Products), gingham ribbon, embroidery floss (DMC), chalk (Pebbles Inc.), Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, pen (Zig Writer), Fiskars cutter with scallop wheel, colored pencils

Now…we have one final Hero Arts apron to give away this week!

For a chance to win, just leave a comment on this post by 11:59pm PST tonight (February 27). The winner will be announced tomorrow morning along with the weekly wrap up. Good luck!

Deborah - I had such fun working with you. And I am most thankful that I can now call you a friend. You are the best!

And Deborah said:

“Hero Arts has made three of my dreams come true. Being selected for a day on the blog was Dream #1, and it’s been a wonderful experience. Meeting Jennifer McGuire is something I’ve wanted to do since 2002, so getting paired with her put a cherry on top of Dream #2. (And she’s as nice as I had hoped, btw!) Finally, Dream #3 was to be part of a stamping community filled with loving, supportive, creative women - and this truly defines the Hero Arts Flickr Group. So, thank you, Hero Arts, for creating this blog, for providing us with fine-spirited leaders, and for giving us all the opportunity to grow and learn and cultivate relationships through stamping. You are, quite simply, the best.” You can find more of Deborah’s work (and wit!) on her blog and in her photostream at Flickr.