Monday, January 24, 2011

High Hopes Challenge 101 - Glitter/Sparkle

Welcome back High Hopes fans!!

We're so glad you all enjoyed out last challenge!!
The winner of the 100th challenge is:
Congratulations, Jolita.
Please contact me at stampandcreate@bellsouth.net with your mailing address and choice of 3 High Hopes stamps.
Here is her adorable card using Emileigh's Cool Ride

This week's Challenge is hosted by Andrea and she is challenging us to add some Sparkle or Glitter!!
A Girl's gotta have some bling!! But I love how some of our Divas have managed to create a more masculine design with their sparkly creations!!

Just remember, you must use a High Hopes image to be entered into the drawing for 3 free High Hopes stamps. And please link directly to your challenge card - not to your blog's main page.

If you are in need of some High Hopes stamps, check out our Diva stores:

Nikki Fairbairn - Bunny Zoe's Crafts based out of the UK/Europe
Lacey Stephens - Stamp and Create based out of the US
Amy Leggate - Paper Romance based out of Canada
Karen Goguen/Cathy Siroski - The Rubber Room based out of Canada
Amy Wegener - Stampin' Stuff based out of Australia

Also, our challenges are now every other week - so this challenge is open until Feb 7th.

And here are the Diva's Sparkly/Glittery creations!!

Andrea - our challenge hostess



Tina - High Hopes Owner
Now it's your turn!!



Wednesday, January 19, 2011

100th Challenge Blog Hop Winners

Wow!! What a blog hop!! There were so many people who participated in our 100th Challenge Blog Hop - thank you all so much for all of your lovely comments.

Since there was such a large amount of stamps to win at stake, we did require that you had to comment on ALL stops on the hop to be entered! I'm sorry to say that I had to keep drawing names since a few people who's names were drawn did not comment on ALL of the blogs :-(

So after a tedious task of verifying comments, the winners of the 100th Challenge Blog Hop are:

Grand Prize: $100 retail value of unmounted or cling mounted High Hopes stamps
Ildiko

2nd Place: $50 retail value of unmounted or cling mounted High Hopes stamps

3rd Place: $25 retail value of unmounted or cling mounted High Hopes stamps

and 4th Place: $25 retail value of unmounted or cling mounted High Hopes stamps

Congratulations, ladies!!
Please contact me at stampandcreate@bellsouth.net with your mailing address. Once I have that information, I will put you in contact with Bethany so you can choose the stamps for your prize.

You have 1 week to claim your prize otherwise I will redraw names next Wednesday.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Paper-Piecing Tutorial

During our blog hop, we mentioned that we will have a Special post in between the bi-weekly challenges. During these special posts, we will host special tutorials!!!
Our "Anything Goes" 100th Challenge is still open until Monday.

Now onto our tutorial...
Our very first Tuesday Tutorial is on “Paper Piecing”. Many of the High Hopes images are perfect for this fun technique. Paper Piecing isn’t hard but it will add a great touch to any of your stamping projects.

For paper piecing you want to use an image that has good open space that you can “piece” the paper into. I love BFF Girls because their clothing is perfect for this technique.

You’ll need:

Stamps (I used BFF Girls & Special Treat by High Hopes)

White Cardstock

Patterned Cardstock

Markers/pencils/or other coloring medium

Die Ink

Small scissors

Additional cardstock & supplies for finishing your card

Step 1:

Stamp the image on a white panel.

Step 2:

Stamp the image again on different patterned paper. In order to conserve my patterned paper I only ink up and stamp the area I will need to cut out

Step 3:

Cut out the pieces that you are going to use and set them aside

Step 4:

Color the parts of the image that will not be covered with paper. It’s best to do this step before doing the paper piecing so that there is less chance of accidentally marking on the patterned paper.

Step 5:

Glue the paper pieces on to your image.

I used my markers to add a little more color to the heart and the trim of the shirt on the girl on the left and the stripes on the shirt on the girl on the right.

Finally…make your card. It looks great when you use some of the same patterned paper on your card that you pieced on to your image!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Party Animal Challenge Winner

If you are looking for the 100th Challenge Blog Hop, click here.

With all of the excitement of the 100th Challenge and the return of some of our former Divas, I totally forgot to pick the winner from the Party Animal Challenge!!

The winner is:
Congratulations, Vicky U!!

Please email me your choice of 3 High Hopes stamps along with your mailing address to: stampandcreate@bellsouth.net to claim your prize!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

100th Challenge Blog Hop!

**Note: The blog hop is now closed. See this post for the winners of the blog hop**
The challenge is open through Monday, Jan 24th

It's time for the 100th Challenge!! Yay!!

To celebrate, we have a blog hop complete with lots of prizes!
As you stop along the hop, make sure to leave comments because there is candy along the way!!

The 1st prize is $100 retail value of unmounted or cling mounted High Hopes stamps!! WOW!!
The 2nd prize is $50 retail value of unmounted or cling mounted High Hopes stamps!!
And the 3rd and 4th prize is each
$25 retail value of unmounted or cling mounted High Hopes stamps!!
That's a lot of stamps!!

In order to have a chance to win, you must leave a comment on each blog along the hop.

The hop will remain open until 12:00pmEST/5:00pmGMT Monday, Jan 17th.
And the winners will be announced next tuesday.

Oh, you may notice that we have a few special guests joining us for this challenge!! We have 7 former Divas joining us!! Whoo Hoo!! Make sure to say hi to them when you stop by!

Before we get to the Hop and Challenge, we wanted to announce that
we are changing the challenges to every-other-week.
Therefore this challenge (not the hop, but the challenge), will remain open until Monday, Jan 24th.We will have a special post on the weeks in between the challenges.

Speaking of challenge...
This week's challenge is: Anything Goes!!
You may use any High Hopes card or image.
Yes, we will still have our normal prize for those who enter a card in the challenge

Now let's act like the Easter Bunny and get hopping...

You are already at the first stop on the hop!
Our wonderful leader and owner of High Hopes, Tina, has pulled out her tools and created this awesome card for our special challenge!!
Tina has paired Spring Bunny Sampler with Cute Bunny Holding Carrot to create this fabulous card!!

Here is the list of the rest of the Blog Hop...
Anna Wight (former Diva and Special Guest)
Ila (former Diva and Special Guest)
Katharina Frey (former Diva and Special Guest)
Kimmie Reid (former Lead Diva and Special Guest)
Michelle Petermann (former Diva and Special Guest)
Niki (former Diva and Special Guest)
Ying (former Diva and Special Guest)

When you are done with the hop, make sure to come back here to leave a comment to enter the drawing for the prizes.

Please use the link below to enter your card in the challenge
(DO NOT USE THE LINK TO ENTER THE CANDY, ONLY FOR THE REGULAR CHALLENGE)



Saturday, January 8, 2011

It's almost here...

We are so excited that our next challenge - coming up on Tuesday - is our
100th Challenge!!!

To celebrate, we are having a blog hop complete with mega prizes AND awesome Guest Divas. For those of you who have been fans of High Hopes for a long time, you will be thrilled to see who our Guests are!!

The blog hop will begin early
Tuesday starting at 12:01am EST/5:01am GMT.

There will be prizes for those who complete the blog hop and participate with our challenge.

Feel free to grab the banner to post on your blog to help spread the word.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Last week of our Holiday Break

Welcome back, High Hopes fans!!

This week is our last of our Holiday Break.
We will be back next week with our first challenge of the year which also happens to be our ...100th Challenge!!

We will be celebrating with a Blog Hop and we have some special guests who will be joining us as well! You WON'T want to miss it!!

In the mean time, if you have put Christmas away and are ready to move on to Valentine's Day and Spring, a few of the Diva's have stores filled with High Hopes images...

Nikki Fairbairn - Bunny Zoe's Crafts based out of the UK/Europe
Lacey Stephens - Stamp and Create based out of the US
Amy Leggate - Paper Romance based out of Canada
Karen Goguen/Cathy Siroski - The Rubber Room based out of Canada
Amy Wegener - Stampin' Stuff based out of Australia

Now here are some awesome samples from some of the Divas for some eye-candy!

Sirpa has used an "oldie but goodie"!!
We'll be back next week with our 100th Challenge Blog Hop!!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Meet Diva Tanya

Tanya

I'm from a small town in BC,Canada. I'm married to my wonderful husband and we have 3 children...all girls ! ! I have been addicted to stamping for about 7 years. My obsession has taken over a large part of my life as well as my house, hee hee. I am so excited to share my obsession with the High Hopes Diva family and you. I'm proud to be joining as a Guest Diva and hope to see you all join in having some fun with us ! !

Meet Diva Sirpa

Sirpa

I live in a small village called Nummela, Finland. I have been stamping for about 1.5 years. Watercolouring and distress is my favorite. I love High Hopes stamps.

Meet Lead Diva Lacey

Lacey

I live in Sunny Florida, USA with my husband Scott and 2 children (Ansley and Ryan). I have been stamping for over 5 years. From the first time I created my first card, I fell in love with stamping. I love to watercolor and participate in challenges. I so thrilled to be a High Hopes Diva; it is truly a dream come true!

Meet Diva Kristine

Kristine

I live in Sunny Southern California with my husband, Jeff, my 16 year old son, and our labrador, Jadie. My daughter, Tyler is 18 and a Freshman, attending college at Cal Poly, San Louis Obispo. My son is heavily involved in music-marching band, jazz band, etc. and Jeff and I are die hard band roadies. When I'm not helping with the kids in the band you'll find me happily stamping, coloring, and creating cards, scrapbook pages, and other projects in my craft room. I have been a huge fan of High Hopes Stamps for years and am so excited to be a guest diva!

Meet Diva Karen

Karen

I am an empty nester living in SW Ontario with my hubby and our boxer Layla. I have been stamping for 3 years and my passion is water colouring with Tombow markers. I am so honored to be a High Hopes Diva.

Meet Diva Jeanne

Jeanne

I live in Texas and I've been stamping for over 3 years. My weapon of choice when it comes to coloring is Copic markers. I'm very proud to be a part of the High Hopes team. Tina and the ultra talented Divas are a true joy to work with.

Meet Diva Andrea

Andrea

I have been an OBSESSED paper crafter for a few years now ever since I was introduced to stamping and refound my passion for paper, glitter, ink and glue that I had as a child. Yes I found my true love and haven't looked back. Speaking of true loves I am also very blessed to be married to my best friend for over 15 years and we have 2 beautiful girls together. My girls love to craft with me and my hubby is glad he now knows where he can always find me- in my craft studio hee hee! I was introduced to High Hopes stamps awhile back at the same time I found copic markers and it was a match made in heaven! I love using High Hope stamps with their amazing images and my favourite colouring medium. To be a guest designer for High Hopes is a dream come true! I am looking forward to sharing my art with you over the next few months.

Meet Diva Anna

Anna

GRIN!* I am so excited to be a guest stamper for High Hopes! As a former High Hopes designer, I carry a warm place in my heart for the High Hopes family. It's WONDERFUL to re-join the team! ...A little about me... I was born and raised in northeastern Washington where my family still lives. Growing up I had a love for horses, nature, and EVERYthing artsy…especially coloring! I remember being a very young girl lying on the living room floor at my Grandma’s house (that horrible bumpy brown carpet numbing my elbows) coloring with Mom. All these years later, I continue to find joy in coloring, as well as paper crafting, rubber stamping, illustration, and photography. Now I live in Texas on a small farm with my fiance and our menagerie of farm animals! I invite you to visit my blog; I enjoy sharing a variety of crafty goodness as well as life on the farm, and frequently introduce readers to the adorable cows, goats, and chickens we raise! Now, let's get stamping!

Meet Diva Alex.

Alex.

I`m a SAHM and i live in a small town in Germany with my hubby Andy and our 4 kids . I stamp since 2007. Most of my stamp works are scene cards. Scene is my favorite work and I love it so much. I colour with watercolors and chalk. I saw High Hopes Stamps at the beginning of my stamping hobby and fall in love with these stamps! I am so proud to be a High Hopes Diva!!!!