Monday, October 4, 2021

Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Release and a little bit of Steampunk Grunge!

Hey everybody! The wait is over! It's time for the Hero Arts October My Monthly Hero release and this month's kit is a festive holiday kit (affiliate links may be used at no extra cost to you)!

Before I get to my cards, if you aren't familiar with the My Monthly Hero kit, it's a kit that is released by Hero Arts on the first Monday of every month. It always has a fun, themed, collection of stamps, dies and other goodies. The cost is just $34.99/month and the value is always much greater! This month's kit is valued at $72!

You have the option to subscribe (subscribing now means your first kit will be the November release), or, to buy your favorite kits as one-off purchases. Be aware that once these kits sell out they are gone for good. If you see a kit you like make sure to snatch it up quickly!

This kit has an absolutely gorgeus, A2 sized window die. It has beautiful, etched details and a perfect spot at the top for adding a sentiment. I die cut it from white cardstock and lightly ink-blended it with Splash Reactive Ink. Then, I heat embossed the sentiment using Onyx Pigment ink and Clear embossing powder. I also ink-blended a second panel in Lemon Drop ink, splattered it with Midas Touch and set it aside to dry.

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Next, I heat embossed the tree, candelabra and champagne glasses in silver. I colored them all with my copic markers and then die cut them using the coordinating dies the come in the MMH kit. 
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I used foam tape to put my card together. I turned the candles upside down to create a chandelier and tucked the champagne glasses inside one of the windows. The final step was to add the Christmas tree to the front of the card.
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For my next card I went the complete opposite of my first card. This time I went for a metallic, grungy look by combining the new Gear Clock Boldprints with the new Steampunk Holiday set. I started by ink-blending a piece of Aegean cardstock with Blue Hawaii ink (around the edges only). Then I heat embossed the Gear Clock background stamp with Sand embossing powder. After that I used the Novel Prose background stamp to do some taco stamping (fold the stamp like a taco and stamp with it) and heat embossed that with white puff embossing powder.

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To finish off the background, I heat embossed the sentiment and some gears in Onyx ink and clear embossing powder. I used two different sentiments to do this and I used washi tape to cover up the part of each sentiment that I didn't want to use. I also took a black posca pen and marked up the background a little bit.
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Last, I heat embossed the little steampunk owl and key in brass on Pitch Black cardstock and then cut them out using the matching dies. I attached them to my card using foam tape and positioned them so that the owl was perching on the key.
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Every once in a while I like to make a single layer card that's easy to mail so I decided to do that with the gorgeous Christmas Tree stamp. I heat embossed the image and sentiment onto Cherry Cardstock using Gold Glitter Embossing Powder. I decided to color the image with my colored pencils but I wasn't able to get the contrast I was hoping for so my coloring just looked, "blah." I basically never throw anything away (I try to fix everything) and this card was no exception.

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I grabbed my fine tipped, colored Posca Pens (acrylic paint pens) and decided to try coloring the tree with those. Because the paint is opaque I was able to get bold colors and make the tree standout on the red background. It was a little hard to color perfectly because the pen tips were larger than some of the tiny details of the stamp but I ended up being happy with how it turned out.
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After that all I had to do was to glue my panel to a cardbase and my card was done!
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Ok! That is it for today but please make sure to enter our fabulous GIVEAWAY and continue on with our BLOG HOP for tons of amazing inspiration! 

Have an awesome day!
Maria

GIVEAWAY:
We will give away ALL OF THE OCTOBER ADD-ON PRODUCTS, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, October 10th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

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24 comments:

  1. Absolutely LOVE your cards, as always! I love the vibrant pink tree, and then that owl background is #goals. TFS!

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  2. Wonderful cards of window scene, steam punk & another with Christmas tree use of gold.
    Melissa
    "Sunshine HoneyBee"

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  3. Love your single layer card! Stunning 'rescue' job. Kudos for persevering and then sharing'

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  4. Your cards are great-that steam punk owl one has great color combination, and I could see using it as a masculine card for other occasions.

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  5. Love the pinks used on the Christmas tree, so beautiful! Love the owl steam punk as well! Beautiful cards!

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  6. The mood effect you achieved with the the tree and with the owl card is amazing! Drooling over the color combinations. Even the tiny bulbs in the tree appear to have their shiny reflection points. So pretty!

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  7. Great cards! Love the pink tree and the chandelier! I would love to see a video of how you made the steampunk card. The owl is just adorable! Thanks for sharing.

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  8. I love pink Christmas trees! Though I didn’t order the steampunk add ons I might have to rethink after seeing your card!

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  9. Super cards. Love how you turned the candelabra upside down to create a chandelier. So clever.

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  10. Such a beautiful trio of cards! Dramatic colors! Gold is always good!

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  11. Thanks for working with the steampunk add-ons! Superbly done!

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  12. I love the pink tree and the fun owl! Great job!

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  13. I think the steampunk owl is my favorite of the three but they are all great! I’ve actually seen a pink flocked Christmas tree!

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  14. Fantastic job!
    Love the Pink tree and the Steampunk owl!
    Thanks for the inspiration.

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  15. Gorgeous cards! Love the steampunk owl…
    Thanks for sharing.

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  16. Your cards are really stunning! I especially love the pink Christmas tree.

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  17. Love that steampunk card! That dapper owl is great... and that background. Yaaaaaas.

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  18. Love your cards Maria! All so very different and equally eye-catching in their own right!! Love the pink Christmas tree and the clever steampunk card!Thanks so much for sharing. Stay safe! :)

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  19. Wonderful cards! Your steampunk card is so much fun!

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  20. Love each of your cards! Beautiful inspiration:)

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  21. Such beautiful cards! I really love the soft colors of the first one you shared. :)

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  22. Awesome cards! I love the bright colors on the first one!

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  23. Gorgeous cards! I love the window scene with the pink tree!

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