Flashback Friday Part 5: The 2010s

It's Friday which means it's time for another flashback! Over the course of the past four weeks, we've enjoyed sharing the story of Hero Arts with you, including the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and today...the 2010s. Time flies when you're having fun! Hero Arts CEO Aaron Leventhal joins us again with a summary of the decade:

"The 2010s started off in difficult ways for the stamp industry, with a deep recession claiming many wonderful independent retailers, and larger ones too, including Archivers, driving many to sell online. The decade was also a creative one, and Hero Arts advanced its elegance theme with designs related to journaling, Color Layering, floral, collage, coloring, and more. Hero Arts dramatically grew its line of inks, with Shadow Inks in soft and medium hues, as well as Hybrid Bolds, Ombre, Liquid Watercolors, Daubers, Child Safe, and more. The decade also started with Hero Arts in partnership with other vendors, including co-branded products with Sizzix (and the first dies by Hero Arts), and artists Lia Griffith and Kelly Purkey. The decade was marked, too, by the introduction of the popular Hero Arts My Monthly Hero, an online-only monthly kit that, for the first time, was a popular product-line not featured in the famed Hero Arts Catalogs."

Speaking of catalogs, do any of these bring back memories?

Donuts and cupcakes were popular themes in the early part of the decade, as shown on this sweet spread from our 2010 Catalog, entitled "The Art of the Stamp."

Bring on the color, bring on the techniques! We mentioned in our 1980s post: "...there were only a limited number of ink colors -- black, brown, red, blue, green -- before exciting and new colors like hot pink and purple hit the industry by storm." By contrast, check out just a few of the color products from the 2010s!

The pages of the 2013 Catalog were chock full of coordinating Hero Hues accents, from gems and pearls to buttons, dots and ribbon.

And then there was the excitement of My Monthly Hero! We released our first kit in October 2015 and it sold out in just a few hours. Perhaps some of you own this poinsettia-themed kit?

GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment below and tell us one of your favorite techniques. We will pick one winner at random to receive a $25 Hero Arts gift card! Comment by Thursday, May 23 at 11:59pm PT and you'll be entered to win.

Our Flashback Friday series may have come to a close, but our 45th Anniversary celebration is far from over. In fact, the best part comes next week when we host a BIG 3-day blog hop filled with an incredible lineup of artists and industry friends! We can't say too much, but just wait until you see the prizes!! That all begins on Wednesday, so mark your calendars now and get ready for lots of fun!

Thank you so much for joining us. Happy weekend!