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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!
It’s always fun to look back at our roots. Love your products.
Although all these stamps and designs are so beautiful, I’m afraid I don’t have any of them. I had not yet discovered the paper crafting scene. Thank you for sharing these decades of flashbacks with all your fans!
Wow, I do have the pansy stamp and the trio of flowers ! I did a winter Friday afternoon craft program with grade school kids in the early 1990s and for heat embossing we held the paper over a hot light bulb. The beginning of my love of stamping !
Those irises, I must have stamped and gold embosses countless time for cards. Coloured them in with my Tombow markers and a water brush.
Hi, enjoying the history of Hero Arts. I have quite a few coloured stamps – oldest one so far is E1455 large daisy 1998 – and just noticed the mini set of 3 daisy (that came with a dauber and little paper pad) has a very similar style. I still have the poetic prints set in its box with the little great stamp ideas leaflet dated 1995. Thanks again Hero Arts.
Feeling very nostalgic and it was so fun to review all the stamps I do have from Hero Arts. I have quite a few (over 60!) wood mounted stamps with colored labels. A very Happy Birthday, Hero Arts!
That was before I started stamping, but they’re cute!
My first attempt at coloring a stamped image was with #F1020 Birdhouse Border, one of the stamps I have with a colored label. A fun one with lots of little details!
I think I did have a few stamps with coloured labels. But I unmounted them years ago. So I’m afraid I can’t check!
The flashbacks are so fun! I do have Hero Arts stamps with colored labels :) A bucket of bugs, some trees and a from the kitchen of stamp.
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