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Your calendar does not deceive you - it is Thursday! So why are we here with the next Flashback Friday feature? Since our 3-day countdown leading up to the May Monthly Hero kit launch is scheduled to begin tomorrow, we decided to adjust on the fly with an early flashback. We hope you don't mind! :) It's already time to explore Hero Arts' third decade in business and CEO Aaron Leventhal is back to provide an overview of the 1990s:
"The early 1990s saw Hero Arts move from consumer shows to wholesale, and soon international distribution. The 1990s included a heavy dose of backgrounds and borders, messages and themes, including a full catalog and a Christmas supplement each year. Popular techniques included hand coloring with pencils, watercoloring, bold ink colors and more for cardmaking, with only wood stamps, as no clear or dies were yet available. Hero Arts won a number of awards for its color label tops and catalog photography and layout, and got its first patent for Press-A-Frame. The industry was in dramatic growth, and independent retailers were the focus of the industry, with some stores so popular people would choose their vacations based on the stores they wanted to visit."
Check out some of the era's understated and elegant catalog designs:
The 1990s were marked by bright and colorful stamp labels and you can see many of them if you check out the photos tagged #herocelebrates45 on Instagram. Thanks to our customers for sharing - we've truly loved seeing these treasures!
* Above photos courtesy of @cardcrazycook on Instagram. Thank you! *
Does anyone remember the Press-A-Frame that Aaron mentioned was our first patented product in 1996?
"Using the paper template and a pointed pressure tool in the kit, stampers can quickly add a variety of shaped frames around stamped images."
Here's an example of the projects you would have found if you opened the pages of our 1998 catalog. A fun tidbit: Sally Traidman, still on the Hero Arts team today, created some of these beauties!
Do you own any stamps with colored labels? Let us know in a comment below and we will pick one winner at random to receive a $25 Hero Arts gift card! Comment by Thursday, May 9 at 11:59pm PT and you'll be entered to win.
Thanks for stopping by today! Until next time...happy stamping!
Yes, a Christmas one!
I just love walking down memory lane! So exciting! The 90’s products are just outstanding!
I’ve been stamping since the mid 1990’s. I have many vintage Hero Arts stamps, several in the boxed sets. Love and treasure them all.
That flashback to the ‘90’s was awesome!!! Love hearing about our craft in the past!!! Of course I have quite a lot of stamps with 90’s color labels! I’m old.. so old, It feels like the 90’s was just last year!! I LOVE your company!!! Thanks for all you do!!!! (And have done..) Congratulations!!
My discovery of card making and Hero Arts only happened in the last few years … so I don’t have any of these colourful, iconic wood block stamps from earlier times. I can imagine that as well as using them as intended, putting them on display is a great way to decorate a craft space! Anita :)
So fun to see such a history and still going strong!
Sunflower E653 1995 is still one of my favorites!
i love my HA stamps with color labels and HA was the first stamps i had way back when!
I have quite a few of the colored labeled stamps from early 2000 which I love and still use.
I sure do, haha… how fun!
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