What a wonderful surprise....

   I was so happy and very excited to find out last evening that a card I had created was featured this week over a "A Blog Named Hero".   It was a new window card that had been inspired and created while taking the A Cut Above Class and was the one that I submitted to their Window Card Challenge earlier this week.   On top of that I had an email earlier in the day, telling me that I one was the winners of a random prize drawings they had held in honor of opening the new blog!!   Yippee!!

    My thanks to Mary Dawn and Linda for choosing this card as one that will win a "Heroine Badge".   As soon as I have my badge, I'll be adding it to my side bar.   I also wanted to say thanks to all the girls over at Hero's Flickr group for the sweet comments!   This is the card that I had submitted -- it was a fun card to create and all the inspiration came my class and the Window card Challenge!!

 
    Today, I'm back in class and we are now working on the Silhouette Cameo portions, which has been awesome.   Much of today's class focused on all the optional types of materials you can cut in this awesome machine.   Jennifer shared two super cute  fabric projects, Nichol also shared a super cute project that was created with vinyl and Kristina showed us to to do glass etching, all of which are brand new to me.  I did but a vinyl kit shortly after I bought my machine, but I have not even opened it.  You can be sure that I will now, especially since I know there are so many fun new things I can do with it!!

    On top of the great projects, each of the videos also teach us new ways to manipulate images and different ways to use many of the features and menus that are part of the Silhouette Studio program.   I really love it and I'm finding it easier to use each and every day.   By the way, if you are considering buying a Cameo, you can download and try the Silhouette Studio Software for FREE!   Simply go HERE and try it out!   That was something I have done before I bought the machine, it's also a wonderful way to see all the fabulous shapes you can buy and download form the Silhouette online store!!

     After today's class, I created two new cards, both of which were inspired by class and the new things I have learned how to do.  My first card was created for fun and includes another way of using the wonderful sentiment images that were given to each of us from Ali Edwards.   The Thank You sentiment, along with the butterflies and the shaped mat on my card were all cut on my Cameo!   Once I had the elements all cut,  I simply picked out more matching paper (from Memory Box), a green Hero Hues card base and some white Hero Arts Pearls - which I put all together to make this nice little Thank You card!!

   I also created a second Thank you card with some of my left over pieces.  For this card, I cut a new mat on my Cameo and ran it through my Cuttlebug in a brand new M-Bossibilitie folder which I had bought earlier this week, after seeing them used in class for the very first time.   These are new and are double sided embossing folders created by Spellbinder!!   I used the Garden Delight folder to emboss this card, which was created for today's new "Embossing" challenge over at Crafting By Designs.

  And that is my last card today.   I'm getting ready to have dinner and then I'm going to clean up my craft room for a whole new day tomorrow!    For anyone who loves Hero Arts, like I do -- they are hosting a new 90 Minute Scramble tomorrow over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group - starting at 2PM EDT!   I am excited to take part and always enjoy the scrambles.    I'll also be looking forward to tomorrow's Paper a la Mode Challenge at The Outlawz, as that too, is a favorite!!  Hope you all have a fabulous night and a wonderful weekend!!