Hero Arts July My Monthly Hero Kit and a Giveaway!

Hi everybody and happy Monday! Today is the day we've all been waiting for! My Monthly Hero Kit release day! The theme for this month's kit is Atlantis and it is so cool! Today I have three cards using the add-ons from this month's kit to share with you.

My first card features my favorite stamp from the whole release... the Deep Sea Background cling stamp. This is a red rubber stamp and it stamps this full background image beautifully. It's a bit larger than an A2 sized card.

I used my Hero Arts liquid watercolors to paint the whole scene. I did film the process but didn't have time to turn it into a video for you. So, if you'd like to see a process video for how I colored this please leave me a comment and let me know. If you guys are interested I'll do my best to get that video edited soon for you.

After I watercolored the whole scene I added some metallic ink to the waves, clouds and treasure chest. I also added some shimmer from my Nuvo Glitter Gloss pen to the whole ocean so that it would sparkle.

Here's a look at some of the products that I used...

For my second card I used the Underwater Pattern Bold Prints background stamp. This is a 6"x6" stamp full of all kinds of underwater fun! 

I watercolored using Nuvo Aqua Flow pens and when that dried I stamped the image in black ink. I added some die cut seaweed in silver and black as well as some Dream Drops and subtle sequins.

The sentiment is from this month's main kit as is that gorgeous coral colored embossing powder.

This card came together with a soft, dreamy look that I think is really pretty.

For my last card I used another 6"x6" background stamp called School of Fish Bold Prints. I used my Misti stamping tool to make this card otherwise getting this effect would have been impossible. I started by inking up the center of my stamp in red and stamping it. Then, I did the next segment of fish in orange. I followed those with both yellow and green. 

After I had all of the fish inked up properly I stamped the whole image again in clear embossing ink. Then I poured on clear embossing powder and heat set it. That gave me one clear layer on top of my fish but I wanted them to have some dimension as if they were coming off of the card. I re-heated the embossed fish with my heat tool and immediately covered them again with clear embossing powder. I did this three our four times until all of my fish were thickly embossed. I used my anti-static tool before I embossed the whole background. I did not use it after that when I was trying to achieve thick embossing. This allowed for some specks of powder to stick on white areas of the card (for other cards this might be seem like a mistake but it was part of the distress effect on this card).

Now I have a white background with embossed fish. Because these fish are embossed I can now ink blend over the top of them without worrying about changing their color. I used my reactive inks to ink blend the background. I made the center of the card, where the tiny fish are, lighter in color as if they were swimming up towards the light.  I splattered my card with white metallic glimmer paint to give the look of bubbles and texture. Then, to finish my card off I stamped a sentiment from the main kit on a piece of card stock that I had colored with an ink pad (I just rubbed my Fruit Punch ink pad on white cardstock until it was saturated with ink). I cut it at a wonky angle and used foam tape to adhere it to my card. The final touch was to add some embellishments that looked like water droplets or gems and some dream drops.

Ok you guys, that's all I've got for today. If you're interested in checking out any of the products that I've shared I've got them all listed below for you. If you have any questions about how I made these cards please feel free to ask!

Now, as always Hero Arts is having a generous giveaway (details below), all you need to do is leave me a comment below to enter to win. If you're interested in purchasing this month's kit we have great news for you! The kit should start shipping this Friday, July 17th and continue shipping through next week.

To continue on with this inspiration filled hop please head on over to the lovely Mariana and check out what she's got to share today. If you prefer a list of hoppers, I've got one linked up for you below.

Have an awesome day and thanks for stopping by!
Maria




GIVEAWAY:

Hero Arts will give away one $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, July 19th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

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