Hey everybody! It's time for your My Monthly Hero Countdown and this month's kit is so much fun! I've used just two stamps from the kit to make this simple but sweet card.
I started out by stamping the house and sentiment at the same time in versa mark ink. Then I heat embossed it all in clear embossing powder.
Next, I masked off the sentiment at the bottom as well as the little house. This allowed me to ink blend the background with my reactive inks (Splash, Blue Hawaii and Grape Slush). I sprayed the background with shimmer spray and then splattered it with silver metallic paint to complete the wintery look. The last details were to remove the masking paper and color in the house and glue on some star sequins and clear enamel dots.
Ok, you guys, that's it for today. I hope you've enjoyed this little sneak peek of the November My Monthly Hero kit. If you want to win a kit before you can buy it then head over to the Hero Arts Blog and leave a comment so that you can enter to win!
I'll see you all back here on Monday for the full kit reveal!
Hey Everybody! This month's My Monthly Hero kit from Hero Arts is almost here and that means the countdown is on! This month the kit is going live on Tuesday, September 8 so mark your calendars (Monday is Labor Day so it's going live a day later than normal)! The kit goes live at 10am Pacific and once it's sold out it's gone for good. If you want to make sure you never miss a kit you can subscribe here-subscribers are guaranteed a kit!
Today I've got a sneak peek of the kit for you. I've used the main image from the kit to create a fun pumpkin patch. I also had fun ink blending the happy sky with what I'm calling a harvest moon (or harvest sun?).
The sentiment is also from the main kit and was the perfect finishing touch for this pumpkin card.
Alright you guys-that's all you get for today! I promise to share more details on how this card was made on Tuesday when the hop goes live! Plus, I have a totally different take on this kit to share with you for the launch as well. I can't wait to share it all with you soon!
Oh! I almost forgot... Hero Arts is doing a giveaway and one lucky winner will be winning the September My Monthly Hero kit. All you have to do to enter is go HERE and leave a comment to win. Good Luck!
Hello Everybody! It's so nice to have you back here and I hope you are having a wonderful day. Today I am back as party of a blog hop featuring the new Unity Products from Hero Arts. This is a wonderful collection of products that focuses on inclusion and unity. It is important for people of color to be represented in our stamping/art community not just within the products that we use but in the positive messages that we put out into the world as well. These new Unity products are perfect for doing just that.
For my card I decided to use a new set called Kids United. It has adorable images of children being kind and loving and it has a die set (Kids United Frame Cuts) to go with it too. I chose the image of the two boys. They just look like they are such good buddies and I really wanted to color them. I used my copic markers to color them in and then I cut them out by hand so that there wouldn't be any white space around them. After that, I heat embossed the "Lead With Love," sentiment from the Power to the People stamp set in white onto black cardstock. This sentiment is my favorite out of the whole set. I think it's such a good reminder of how we can all choose to live.
I wanted the boys to be on a fun background so I grabbed a gel print from my stash and cut it down to 4"x 5 1/4". I adhered that with foam tape onto a black A2 sized card base. Then, I popped my boys and the sentiment up with foam tape on the gel print background.
That's it for today you guys. If you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments below. Also, be sure to check out the giveaway info. All you need to do to enter the giveaway is drop me a comment. I hope you will keep hopping along with us to check out all the inspiration we have to share using the Unity Products. Next up in the hop is my super talented friend, Mindy Eggen. You can head over to her blog or navigate the hop by using the links below. Enjoy!
Have an awesome day!
Maria
GIVEAWAY:
Hero Arts will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by leaving a comment between now and Sunday, September 6th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.
Hey Everybody! Happy Wednesday and welcome to the release of the Hero Arts Winter Catalog! If you haven't had a chance to browse through the catalog yet then this is the hop for you because it is jam packed with inspiration from so many talented crafters.
For today's card I decided to use a new set called Gift Peek-a-Boo Infinity Parts. It coordinates with the Square Peek-a-Boo Doors dies and sets you up to make an easy, interactive card (it cuts a square that swings open like a door). I stamped one of the larger gift boxes onto a piece of white cardstock in my Hero Arts Intense-ified Black ink. This is one of my go-to inks because it works well with both copic markers and watercolors. I also stamped this fun sentiment from Snarky Christmas Messages.
I colored the image in with my copic markers and then die cut it to create a door around the gift box.
So, today my card is a little bit of lie... but a good lie, right? How could I not put an adorable puppy inside of the gift box after a sentiment like that?!
To add the puppy I stamped the image from the new Fawn and Friends stamp set onto a separate piece of white cardstock. To line it up perfectly I placed the clean stamp on top of the gift box in my Original sized, Black Misti. When it was in the right place I picked the stamp up with my Misti door and then stamped it onto the white paper.
I colored the cute puppy with my copic markers and then adhered that piece of cardstock behind the gift box. After that, when I opened the gift box door I had a cute puppy inside! I glued this whole piece onto a piece of black cardstock so that I would have that black strip at the side. Then, that whole deal got added to a top-folding A2 sized, white card base.
Ok, you all, that is it for today! I'm so glad you stopped by and I hope you'll keep cruising along on this blog hop with us. Next up on the hop is the incredibly talented Michelle Short. You can head on over to her blog or you can use the list below to navigate the hop. Before you go, I want to make sure you know we're having a giveaway (details below) and all you need to do to enter is leave me a comment below.
Have an amazing day and enjoy the hop! I'll be back tomorrow with another Hero Arts hop featuring the new Unity stamp sets. See you then!
Maria.
GIVEAWAY:
Hero Arts will give away three $50 gift cards, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by leaving a comment between now and Sunday, September 6th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.
Hey everybody! It's the 20th and if you follow my blog you know that means it's time for another My Crafty Friends Hop! Today we are featuring products from the fabulous Gina K. Designs and she has offered to give our readers a 20% discount at the Gina K. Designs shop when they shop with a Crafty Friend! All you have to do is click this link to shop and use the code CRAFTYFRIENDS20 to receive your discount (more info below).
Now onto my card! Today I decided to use this gorgeous collaboration set from Gina K Designs and Hero Arts. I love that the crafty community comes together to support each other and work together. This stamp, Friendship Blooms, is the result of one of these beautiful efforts. I stamped my image in copic safe black ink on to Hammermill cardstock.
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I used my copic markers in a variety of colors to create a floral rainbow. I have been wanting to do this for some time now I really enjoyed the process.
After I added all of my color I went back in with my cool gray markers and added shading to the flowers. Then, I grabbed a fine tipped copic marker and had some fun adding shadow, lines and dots.
The sentiment on this card is one of my favorites after stamping that some clear sequins were the perfect touch to finish off my card.
That's is all for today folks! You know my Crafty Friends have a ton more Gina K. inspiration for you so I hope you'll continue on with our hop by heading over to Becky's blog. If you prefer to follow the blog list I'm adding that below for you too.
Before you go here's a reminder that if you shop today or tomorrow you will receive a 20% discount if you shop with me at Gina K. Designs and use the code CRAFTYFRIENDS20 at check out. Enjoy!
Bye for now and I hope you all have an amazing day!
Hi Everybody! Guess what day it is? Yep! It's time for another My Monthly Hero Kit release from Hero Arts! If this is your first time hearing about these monthly kits then here's the skinny: every month Hero Arts releases an exclusive kit filled with amazing products at an exceptional value. The kit cost is $34.99 and the value of most kits is over $60! You can subscribe to this kit to make sure you never miss out, or, you can buy them month to month as you like-BUT, once they are sold out they are never coming back so make sure to pick up the ones you like right away. There are also monthly add-ons that coordinate with the theme of the kit. The add-ons are amazing and for those who want all the add-ons there is a discounted Get Them All rate. I think that's what you need to know but please let me know if I've missed anything, or, if you have any questions.
This month's kit has a fun Northern lights, sea, nautical type theme and I had so much fun with it that I've made a video. My video shares six background techniques that work really well with the dies in this kit. I hope you'll enjoy it and maybe even try out some of the techniques I shared.
Before I get too far along I want to make sure you know that there is a GIVEAWAY today! Hero Arts has a generous giveaway for you all this month so be sure to check out the details at the bottom of my post. HINT: Leave a comment on my blog below and you are entered.
And now, here's that video...
For my first card I ink blended the background using a variety of colors from the Hero Hues Reactive Ink line.
Once my background was ink blended I stamped the large background set that comes in this month's kit with Clear Embossing and Watermark ink. Then, I covered the ink with White Satin Pearl embossing powder and heat set it.
I love this embossing powder! It lets the color from the ink blended background shine through the pearlescent finish for such a magical look!
For my next card I did the exact same thing that I did on my first card... but in reverse order. Isn't it wild how different the two backgrounds look?
For this card I heat embossed my background first and ink blended on top of the heat embossed image.
This created a "resist' effect and the areas that had been embossed did not absorb any ink.
The background for this next card was created using the Hero Arts liquid watercolors. These watercolors are bold and vibrant and just a couple of drops can go a long way.
I wet a piece of watercolor paper and added watercolor very quickly using horizontal brush strokes (watch the video to see how). Then I added dies cut from white cardstock to create a scene.
My next card features a simple, ink blended background.
I used ink blending brushes and Hero Hues Reactive inks in Splash and Blue Hawaii. Then I spritzed the background with iridescent shimmer spray and splattered it with White Metallic ink.
The result was a gorgeous, shimmering background that a made a perfect backdrop for the lighthouse die.
This card features a sparkling night sky. I started out with a piece of black cardstock and gave it a few spritzes of Nuvo Sparkle Spray. The effect is absolutely magical!
I cut the mountains from some holographic purple cardstock from a past MMH kit and backed it with white mountains to make it pop off of the dark background.
The moon is cut from holographic cardstock and I thought the eagle was the perfect majestic finish to this card.
My last card is all about stenciling and the background showcases a creative way to use the negative pieces of your die cuts. I used the negative piece from the tree die as a stencil to ink blend a forest onto the bottom of my card.
Then I ink blended the sky with some blues to add a back drop for more stenciling. I used the new Shooting Star stencil (which is an add-on to this month's kit) and smooshed my embossing ink pad over the top of it.
Then I covered it in silver glitter embossing powder and heat set it. To finish the card off I added a heat embossed sentiment.
Here's a last look at everything that comes in this month's kit. In addition to the supplies that I have used you will receive black water color paper (what?! so cool!), a glow in the dark lacquer pen (heart eyes), and star sequins! There are so many great things in this kit!
Ok, you guys. That's all I've got for today. Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out the new MMH kit. I hope you like it! Please check out the note from Hero Arts, Giveaway info and the blog roll below to keep hopping along with us. From here you will head on over to Mariana's Blog-enjoy!
Have an awesome day you all!
Maria
A NOTE FROM HERO ARTS:
We are working on restarting our operations in a safe manner, bringing back our production and shipping teams with social distancing, and keeping our warehouse cleaned under the strictest standards. We are first focusing on all of the orders in-house for all of our wonderful and patient customers, subscribers, and international customers, and hope to get back to regular shipping times once we are through what was delayed. We estimate June kits and add-ons will begin shipping on Friday, June 19, after all previous orders have gone out.
GIVEAWAY:
Hero Arts will give away one $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, June 14th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.
Hi Everybody! Guess what day it is?! It's the first Monday of the month and that means it's time for the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kit release! If this is your first time hearing about the MMH kit you can CLICK HERE for more information. This month's kit is all about Australia. It wasn't long ago that Australia suffered a devastating amount of damage from relentless fires. Among the damage was great loss of life to much of Australia's wildlife. This month's kit is a tribute to Australia and it is truly beautiful! For my card I made an ocean scene (video tutorial below)...
...but the kit is full of images of a variety of wildlife as well as trees, terrain and other items to help you build scenes (check out that stencil!).
Here's a link to my video if you'd like to check it out:
I love the stencil included in this month's kit and I decided to use it to create an ocean scene with a fiery sky!
I started off by heat embossing the sharks in black. Next, I masked off the top portion of the stencil so that I could focus on the lower half of the card. I ink blended the ocean using Hero Arts reactive inks in blues and blue greens. Then I used a sponge dauber to add some embossing ink. I sprinkled that Sparkling Sea embossing powder to give the water a salty, shimmering texture. I used an embossing pen on top of that and heat embossed some puffy white embossing powder to give the look of sea foam.
Next, I cleaned off my stencil and masked off the bottom portion. I ink blended the sky in Hero Arts Reactive Inks in yellows, corals and bright pink. Then, I used a yellow Copic marker to fill in the white space so that it looked like it was glowing.
To finish my card off I mounted it onto a top-folding black card base and added a heat embossed sentiment from the kit. I love how striking those black sharks look against the bright ink colors.
This kit is so much fun! I hope to have time to create more with it soon because I had so many ideas for it. Interestingly enough while the world seems to be standing still I am busier than ever. I have just closed my business (so I'm cleaning out a huge commercial space) and we are also moving house. Soon things will settle down over here and I will have more time to craft. In the mean time, I cannot wait to see what you all will create with this kit!
Before i go here is some important information:
GIVEAWAY:
Hero Arts will be giving away a $50 gift certificate to one lucky winner! To enter just leave a comment here on my blog.
SHIPPING:
Shipping is estimated to begin on April 20th. Aaron (owner of Hero Arts) and his family will be shipping the kits themselves. Please be patient as there are just three of them and thousands of kits to be sent. Thank you Aaron, Laura and son for your dedication!
RUBBER STAMP AVAILABILITY:
Did you know that Hero Arts employees hand cut the rubber stamps?! They also hand mount the rubber stamps onto wood blocks for wood stamps. The amount of care that goes into Hero Arts products is truly amazing. Due to the Shelter In Place that is currently in effect in California there are no employees in the warehouse to cut and mount these stamps for us. For now, they will be unavailable.
WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!
Now, more than ever, it is so important to remember that we are all in this together. Hero Arts has created this beautiful pin as a reminder to us all. 100% of net profits from the sale of this pin will be donated to support COVID-19 disaster relief.
Ok, you guys! That's it for today. Head on over to Seeka's blog and see what beautiful things she has created to share with us today!
Hey everybody! It's the first Monday of the month and that means it is time for a new My Monthly Hero Kit release from Hero Arts! I also want to make sure you know that there is a generous giveaway from Hero Arts and the details will be at the bottom of my post.
I decided to go for a bit more of a mixed media look with this kit. I ink blended the background using My Hero Hues Reactive inks. Then I sprayed the background with my shimmer mist and spattered it with my White Glimmer Metallic Ink.
I wanted to add some gold gilding flakes so I stamped my tree trunk using a liquid glue. Once that dried to the right tackiness I covered it with gilding flakes and used a dry paint brush to remove the excess. I also painted some extra adhesive onto the background and adding gilding flakes to that too.
I wanted the tree to really sparkle and have dimension so after stamping it I added gilding flakes and then a ton of glittering leaves (dragons scales from a past MMH kit). It really catches the light in real life. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about the sentiment. I used a sentiment from the kit but I did a little bit of stamp surgery on it. Originally it said, "live life in full bloom." I cut the "bloom" off to get the sentiment that I used.
For my second card I wanted to do something a little bit different. I used the swirl stamp to create a background. The super cool thing about this stamp is that if you stamp it once then give it a 180 degree flip... the stamp will exactly together with the first stamped image. I used this method to stamp from left to right across the page. If making the stamp fit perfectly together as described weren't enough, it also fits together from top to bottom making it incredibly easy to put many rows of this image on top of each other to create a cool background. This is what I did using rainbow colors.
I used the Wood Frame Infinity Dies to cut a black frame and popped it up on the background. I cut the tree trunk from silver foil. The tree leaves are cut from vellum, heat embossed in Black Sparkle embossing powder and colored from behind with pink copic markers. The final touch was to add sequins followed by Nuvo Dream Drops.
Ok, guys, that is it from me for today. Thanks so much for stopping by! Before you go please remember that Hero Arts is generously gifting a $50 gift certificate to one lucky winner. To enter yourself just leave me a comment below (by March 8 at 11:59 pm and you will be automatically entered. The winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.
The last thing that I want to make sure you know is that due to production delays, kits will begin shipping on March 16th this month.
