Monday, February 6, 2023

Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Release February 2023: Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Hey everybody! The wait is over! It's time for the Hero Arts February 2023 My Monthly Hero release and this month's kit is a fantastic, butterfly themed bundle! 

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 of this Classic kit is just $34.99/month and the value is always much greater! This month's kit is valued at $74! Starting with this release there is now a PREMIUM KIT option!!! The Premium Kit will include everything that the Classic (original) kit includes plus some additional upgrades. Premium Kit subscribers will receive the kit for $49.99 and the value for this month's kit is $108 so you'll be receiving over double the value! All current MMH subscribers (signed up prior to January 31, 2023) will receive this upgraded kit at no additional cost! Lucky you guys!

Check out the kits to see what is included:

-CLASSIC KIT

-PREMIUM KIT

You have the option to subscribe (subscribing now means your first kit will be the March 2023 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! There are also a ton of amazing add-on products! You can buy the add-ons as a bundle at a discounted rate or just pick up your favorite products. 

For my first card I am using the fancy butterfly dies from the Premium Kit, a sentiment from the Classic Kit and the new Background Texture Strips. I started out by die cutting my butterflies from Canary cardstock and inkblending the edges with Fruit Punch Reactive ink. Then I pressed some of the edges of the butteflies into Versamark Embossing Ink and heat embossed them in Gold. I added some extra detail to the butterflies with white gel pen and set them aside.

Cardbomb, Maria Wills, Hero Arts, My Monthly Hero  February 2023, Premium kit,butterflies, mixed media, cards, handmade, diy, art, color, die cutting,

Next, I took a piece of A2 sized Pitch Black cardstock and stamped the right side of the background using Unicorn White Pigment Ink (some full strength and some second generation) and a scripty stamp from the Background Texture Strips stamp set. I wanted to add gold to the background so I splattered it with Gold Glimmer Metallic ink. I had some cardboard packaging from my cat's food that I've been wanting to use on a project so I tore that and glued it to my background piece. In order to tie it in to the black background I added some black splatters (you can do this with ink or with black acrylic paint). Then I grabbed my Gold Hero Wax and rubbed it over the raised areas of the cardboard and up the left side of the black background. This helped to connect the cardboard to the background and give the butterflies somewhere to sit. Three different gold mediums (embossing powder, glimmer metallic ink, Hero wax) might seem like overkill to you but they each have a different finish and a different texture so they end up being eye-catching in different ways while still coordinating.
Cardbomb, Maria Wills, Hero Arts, My Monthly Hero  February 2023, Premium kit,butterflies, mixed media, cards, handmade, diy, art, color, die cutting,

After all of that the only thing left to do was add a sentiment. I stamped the "happy birthday" sentiment in Onyx Pigment ink onto Sand Cardstock and heat embossed it in clear. Then I die cut it with my Nesting Circle Infinity Dies, cut the bottom off and ink blended the edges with Sand Core Ink... and, that's all there was to it!
Cardbomb, Maria Wills, Hero Arts, My Monthly Hero  February 2023, Premium kit,butterflies, mixed media, cards, handmade, diy, art, color, die cutting,

My next card focuses on one of the new stamps from today's release called Abstract Butterfly Wing Background. Today, I used this stamp "as is" to make a large, colorful background but I'm really looking forward to using the more detailed parts of it for mixed media projects. For this card, I stamped the card onto white cardstock using Hero Pigment Inks in Rose Quartz, Citrine and Canary. These inks have a much longer drying time than core inks so I was able to stamp multiple times to get good coverage (and blend the colors) then cover them with Clear Embossing Powder to heat emboss the image.Cardbomb, Maria Wills, Hero Arts, My Monthly Hero  February 2023, Premium kit,butterflies, mixed media, cards, handmade, diy, art, color, die cutting,

Heat embossing a solid image allows for a cool technique called Emboss Resist. I used both Splash and Blue Hawaii Reactive Inks to ink blend over my entire image and background. The embossed image resisted the ink so that it only sank into the (once white) background. I used a paper towel to wipe down the embossed areas and remove any extra ink that might be sitting on top of the image. I cut this piece down just a smidge and added it to a black A2 cardbase.

Cardbomb, Maria Wills, Hero Arts, My Monthly Hero  February 2023, Premium kit,butterflies, mixed media, cards, handmade, diy, art, color, die cutting,

I wanted to add a sentiment but I didn't want to cover up too much of the background. I decided a simple, "HI," would do and I used my Luggage Tag Alphabet Frame Cuts to cut the letters out three times. I glued the letters together so that they would be very thick and then I glued those onto my card front. 
Cardbomb, Maria Wills, Hero Arts, My Monthly Hero  February 2023, Premium kit,butterflies, mixed media, cards, handmade, diy, art, color, die cutting,

Just in case you didn't see my blog post from yesterday here's a look at another card that I made using a butterfly from the Premium Kit. All of the details are on that blog post and you can check it out HERE.
Cardbomb, Maria Wills, Hero Arts, My Monthly Hero  February 2023, Premium kit,butterflies, mixed media, cards, handmade, diy, art, color, die cutting,

Now, I've got to tell you that I had an incredible time creating with this release and I've created many more cards than what I've shared today. Tomorrow (Tuesday, February 7th) at 11am Pacific, Aaron (Owner of Hero Arts) and Creative Team Member Lydia Fiedler will be doing a live (Hero Arts Facebook and YouTube Channel). I've sent a total of ten cards/projects in for them to share including a fun mixed media project using the rub-ons from the Premium Kit. I've also used the Papillon Digital Kit and it is freaking amazing! It was my first time using a digital kit and I'm totally sold on it after this experience. You can tune in live or watch the replay to see those samples on video. I will also be sharing those cards/projects here on my blog over the next few days.

Ok! That's all I've got but the rest of the Hero Arts Creative Team and the Guest Designers have so much incredible inspiration to share. I hope you'll join the blog hop and enter the giveaway.

Have an amazing day!
Maria

GIVEAWAY:
We will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, February 12th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

BLOG HOP LIST:

PRODUCT SUPPLY LIST (Affiliate links may be used at no extra cost to you): 

26 comments:

  1. love how you used this fun kit - the texture on the first card is yummy - thanks for the ideas

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  2. Beautifully butterflies! I LOVE the black background one!

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  3. All three of your cards are gorgeous! So creative with your backgrounds!

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  4. I love all of your gorgeous butterfly themed cards! Those dramatically contrasting colors are stunning! Lovely work!

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  5. Love these cards! That close up wing stamp is awesome! My favorite card is the first one. I love using corrugated cardboard in my art, and it looks so cool! 💜💜💜

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  6. Such beautiful cards! Love the colours you used!

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  7. That first card is magnificent! This is a great release

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  8. Marisela Delgado said: Hey, girly! Gorgeous cards! mariandmonsterd@yahoo.com

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  9. Great cards. Bright colors are beautiful

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  10. Beautiful cards. I love gold splatter on pitch black cardstock.

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  11. Fun cards! Love the texture of the first one.

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  12. Beautiful cards! Can't wait for the live to see all the other cards you created!

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  13. Beautiful cards. I love the colors and the unique styles.

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  14. love the Hi and the Thank You cards those are my faves!

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  15. The contrast in your colors looks wonderful. I especially love the BIG print of the details.

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  16. Great choice of colors on your butterfly cards.

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  17. Pretty Cards! Very creative use of the box on this card! Thank you for sharing!

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  18. Love your cards. So lifelike

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  19. Fantastic collection of cards. Love
    the repurposing of the cat food box.
    thanks for sharing

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  20. Wonderful cards! I love the gold on the first card. I absolutely love the abstract butterfly wing bold print! Great designs!

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  21. Fantastic cards! I really love the birthday card!

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  22. Awesome colors and designs! Beautiful cards!

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  23. I love what you did with the abstract butterfly wing that blue is popping! But the Monarch colors will always be a fave I really like that corrugated Accent on your card.

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  24. I love the blue background for your abstract butterfly wing stamp that you did. Thanks for sharing the process I can't wait to get my kit

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  25. These cards are super pretty. I love your bright vibrant colors

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  26. Your cards are always so creative!
    Great idea to use the cat food box with your card, so many items around the house we can use in our card making.
    Thanks for sharing!

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