Hero Arts Spring Catalog Release 2023- Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Hello everybody and welcome to the Hero Arts 2023 Spring Catalog Release! Today is a day that many of us have been waiting for and I am so excited to get to share a few of the new products with you today. Before I get to my cards though I want to mention some of the fun new stuff that is launching today. Just click below if you're interested in going straight to check them out!

-Hero Arts 2023 Spring Catalog

-Hero Arts 2023 Creative Essentials Catalog

-NEW Neon Liquid Watercolors

-Hero Arts Spring 2023 Stamp-A-Long!

-Hero Arts Spring 2023 Product Bundle

Ok, let's get on to my cards! I decided it would be fun to use some of the same products for both of my cards but to showcase them in two very different ways. So, my first card is clean and simple (for me) and my second card is more of a grunge, mixed-media style. Both cards use the Overlapping Hexagons Bold Prints and the Yay! Birthday Bundle sets. My second card also uses the Friendly Messages Bundle.

I started my first card by stamping the Overlapping Hexagons Bold Prints in Granite ink on white cardstock. I colored the centers of the hexagons pink, cut it down to 4" x 5.25" and mounted it to a Paradise card base. While I had the Paradise Cardstock out I also cut a large hexagon using the Hexagon Infinity Dies. I sprayed it with White Iridescent Shimmer Spray and set that aside to dry.

Next, it was time to create my focal point. I stamped the cake image from the Yay! Birthday stamp set in black ink and colored it with alcohol markers. I also stamped the "Hooray!" sentiment in Onyx Pigment Ink and heat embossed it using clear embossing powder. I used the coordinating dies to cut both of these out (I LOVE that there are dies for the large sentiments in this set!.

Once my large hexagon was dry I added foam tape to the back and adhered it to my card front. I added foam tape to both the cake image and the die cut sentiment and centered those on the large hexagon. I thought about adding embellishments but like the clean, soft, shimmery look of this card so I left as is.

For my second card I put drops of Core Inkers (Ultra Pink, Summer Sky and Paradise) on my glass worktop. Then I sprayed the drops with rubbing alcohol and smashed some copy paper (from my printer) into the ink. This process yielded a vibrant, colorful background that I loved. I "taco stamped" the Overlapping Hexagons Bold Prints randomly onto the background using Onyx Pigment Ink and heat embossed it using Clear Embossing Powder. Next, I splattered my colorful background and an A2 sized piece of Pitch Black Cardstock with White and Gold Glimmer Metallic Ink and set those aside to dry.

I wanted to create a focal point that would not cover up too much of the background so I decided to use vellum and small tag with a bold sentiment. I cut the vellum with my Nesting Circle Infinity Dies and used the Tag Infinity Dies to cut a tag out of Mist Cardstock (I used a black pen to hand decorate the tage). I heat embossed my sentiments using Onyx Pigment ink and Clear Embossing Powder and then i cut them out using their coordinating dies. I used foam tape to adhere the sentiment to the tag and then then the tag to the vellum. I trapped a length of black metallic thread between the layers for a little extra texture.

I used liquid glue to add my colorful background to the black mat. I glued it offset and then cut off the excess. I added my focal point making sure that the adhesive was was hidden behind the tag (so it wouldn't show through the vellum). The final touch was to add some black enamel dots as embellishment.

Ok, you guys, that is it for today but we've got an amazing blog hop today and a ton of insanely talented crafters are sharing their creativity to bring this catalog to life for all of us. I hope you will keep hopping along (blog hop list is below) and make sure to enter the giveaway as well!

Have an awesome day!

Maria

GIVEAWAY:

We'll be giving away two $50 gift cards, drawn from the comments left along the hop. Comment on all the blogs for more chances to win! You have until Sunday, February 26 at 11:59pm to enter. The winners will be announced on the Hero Arts blog.

BLOG HOP LIST:

Hero Arts

Hero Arts Creative Team: 

Channin Pelletier
Dana Joy
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Kelly Taylor
Libby Hickson
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis: You are HERE.
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Pocono Pam
Seeka

Special Guests: 

Carissa Wiley
Cathy Zielske
Daniel West
Jenn Shurkus
Jennifer Ingle
Jennifer Kotas
Jennifer McGuire
Laura Bassen
Meg Brooks
Nichol Spohr
Rebecca Keppel

Sharing on Instagram: 

Ralph Tyndall
Alberto Gava

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

Hero Arts Digital Kit: Papillons - Clean and Simple Cards!

Hello everybody! I'm so glad to have you back today because I wanted to share a few more cards featuring the new Papillons Digital Kit from Hero Arts. I shared some vintage style cards using this kit in a post a few days ago (CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE VINTAGE CARDS) and I wanted to share some clean and simple cards as well.

For these cards I printed the images out onto some linen/vintage finish office paper. I used two images that were pre-colored and printed one in black and white so that I could color it with my alcohol markers (that one is bottom center). I also selected images with no writing so that I could add my sentiments. After printing (using Word) I cut the images down to A2 sized pieces. I added sentiments from the Sending Love Mail stamp set in black ink. The only thing left to do was to add these beautiful butterflies to Ivory Cardbases and this easy card set was done!

Alright, that's all I've got for today but please let me know if you've got any questions. If not, I hope you'll have a ton of fun with this digital kit!

Have an awesome day!

Maria

Hero Arts Digital Kit: Papillons - Vintage Cards!

Hey everybody! I'm back today with a super fun and easy set of vintage-style butterfly cards. Over the last few months Hero Arts has been release digital papers and kits with their releases. There have been some really fun ones but I think this new Papillons Digital Kit is my favorite to date (and at just $4.99 it is a screaming deal!). Now, I was a little worried if I'd be able to use the kit or not because I don't have any fancy editing software. I shouldn't have worried because I was easily able to use this kit with Word. I downloaded the kit and then I just dragged the images into a blank word document and resized them how I pleased.

There are a variety of images that come with the kit, some are single butterflies, some are multiple butterflies, some have writing and some don't, etc... You can add them and arrange them and size them however you like. The kit does come with paintbrushes.... I do think you need software (maybe Adobe?) to use those, however, they were not necessary for this kit to be be absolutely phenomenal!

For these cards I decided to go for a vintage look and I printed the images out in color (yes, color! I didn't even have to color them-but you can print them inn black in white and color if you want to) on some vintage looking printer paper I had in my office. I cut them down to A2 sized papers and used Sand Core ink to ink blend around the edges. Then I used Sand ink, black ink and Gold Glimmer Metallic ink to splatter the background (the splatters are subtle and don't show up well in the pictures.

I wanted to glam the butterflies up a little so I used a paint brush to paint on some Gold Glimmer Metallic Ink. You can kind of see this in this pictures. I took a quick video of this to share but somehow I deleted it (sorry). To finish my cards off I glued the beautiful Papillon papers to Ivory Cardbases. These were fun, easy and make such a sweet little card set. 

Ok, you guys, that is it for today but please come back tomorrow because I've got more to share!

Have an awesome day!

Maria

Hero Arts February 2023 Premium My Monthly Hero Kit: Mixed Media!

Hey everybody! I hope you're having an awesome day! Today I'm excited to be back with another creation using goodies from yesterday's Hero Arts release. Yesterday the new Premium My Monthly Hero kit came out and I absolutely died when I saw the rub-ons (image transfer sheets) that are included in the kit. These are so cool because you can rub them onto a background if you want, or, you can rub the butterflies onto paper, vellum, etc and use the coordinating butterfly dies (also in the Premium kit) to cut them out. On this project I've done both.

I started out by using my Rounded Rectangle Infinity Dies to cut out a piece of watercolor paper. I sprayed that with DIY Reactive Sprays in Root Beer and Blue Raspberry and ink blended around the edges with Indigo Core ink. Next, I added some of the floral and star rub-ons to the background then stamped the Background Texture Strips in Sand ink. I added White and Gold Glimmer Metallic ink splatters too.

To add more texture to the background I stamped the Background Texture Strips again using Onyx Pigment in and then heat embossed that in clear. I rubbed the edges into some Versamark embossing ink and added Sand Embossing Powder. This added some amazing, gritty texture to the edges. Next, I grabbed my Star Cluster Stencil and added some Gold Hero Wax. I wanted a little more of that gold so I rubbed some Hero Wax around the edges with my finger.

Once my background was done I used the gorgeous butterfly rub-on and transferred it a piece of white cardstock. I die cut it with the coordinating dies from the Premium kit. Then I added a coiled up piece of black metallic thread to the back with some foam tape and added that to my project to finish it off.

That's it for today you guys but please come back tomorrow as I'll be sharing three cards that I made with the gorgeous new Papillons Digital Card kit!

Have an awesome day and I'll see you back here soon!

Maria

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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:

Hero Arts

Channin Pelletier
Dana Joy
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Kelly Taylor
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis: You are HERE.
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Pocono Pam
Seeka

Essie
Jennifer Kotas
Meg Brooks
Nichol Spohr
Rebecca Keppel

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

Hero Arts Countdown to Creativity: February 2023 My Monthly Hero Release

Hey everybody! It's almost time for the February 2023  Hero Arts My Monthly Hero release and this month's kit is a fabulous kit for creating some gorgeous butterfly themed cards and projects!

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! 

BIG NEWS!! Starting with the February 2023 release Hero Arts will now be offering both a Classic Kit and a Premium kit every month! The Classic kit will be what you're familiar with and will stay priced at $34.99. The Premium Kit will include everything from the Classic Kit plus some fabulous extras! If you are already a kit subscriber (prior to January 31, 2023) you will be receiving the Premium Kit at no additional cost (February 2023 only-after that you'll need to upgrade your subscription if you'd like to keep receiving the 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! 

Today is Day Three of the Countdown to Creativity and I've got a card featuring one of the many gorgeous, detailed butterfly dies from the Premium kit! These dies feature both an inner (detailed) portion as well as as a separate outer die which can be used either on their own or together. On This card I've used them together.

I started by cutting a piece of Paradise Cardstock down to 4" x 5.25" and inkblending the edges with Blue Hawaii Reactive ink. Then I splattered it with both white and gold metallic glimmer ink. I also heat embossed some of the diamond stars from the main kit in gold onto the background. 

Next, I used the fancy butterfly dies from the Premium kit to cut out two butterflies from Canary and Pitch Black cardstock. I used Fruit Punch Reactive ink to ink blend the edges of the Dandelion butterfly and then glued that to the black butterfly slightly offset. I glued the double butterfly to my background and added that to a black cardbase. I added a sentiment from the kit (I masked it off so that I could use just part of it) with foam tape.

The final step was to add some Pewter Hero Pearls to the background and some white gel pen to butterfly to make some of those fabulous details pop!

Ok, guys, that's it for today! If you'd like a chance to win this kit before you can buy it then head on over to the Hero Arts blog and find out how (plus check out all three days of incredible inspiration for this kit which is coming at you tomorrow!).

Have an awesome day guys!

Maria

Hero Arts My Monthly Hero December 2022 Release: Blog Hop and Giveaway

Hey everybody! The wait is over! It's time for the Hero Arts December 2022 My Monthly Hero release and this month's kit is a fantastic, celestial themed bundle! It's got a large 6"x8" clear stamp set with coordinating die cuts. It's also got a cling background stamp, some Pitch Black Cardstock and a Rose Gold pigment mini ink pad. 

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 $82!

You have the option to subscribe (subscribing now means your first kit will be the January 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've used the new MMH kit. I started out by inking up the background stamp using Taffy, Creamsicle and Lemon Drop Reactive Inks. I did this by rubbing the ink pads directly onto the stamp and then making sure I had a smooth blend with a blending brush. I stamped onto white cardstock. I did this a couple of times until I had the coverage I wanted. 

I colored the images I wanted with copic markers and then I cut them out by hand and pieced them together. I added foam tape to the back of the images, figured out where I wanted them positioned, and then I heat embossed my sentiment (Onyx Pigment ink and clear embossing powder). Then, I adhered the images to the card front.

I added my card front to a Pitch Black card base. The final step was to add Gold Hero Pearls to give my card more of a galactic look. 

For my next card I used the new Celestial Bold Prints stamp for the background. I inked it up Reactive Inks (Pool Party, Lemon Drop, Taffy and Grape Slush).  I stamped repeatedly onto Pitch Black Cardstock until the colors were laid down heavily. Then I stamped again in Versamark ink and heat embossed in clear to trap the colors in place.

I trimmed the background down to 4'x5.25' and adhered it to a mat of gold glitter cardstock.

To add a focal point I used the Celestial Fancy Dies. I gut the sun and star out of gold metallic cardtsock and the cloud from vellum. The sentiment is from the Orbit stamp set and is stamped in black on Mist cardstock. I added the die cuts with foam tape and that was it for this card.

That's it for my cards today you guys but I hope you love this month's celestial release as much as I do. The rest of the team has amazing inspiration to share so please keep hopping along with us.

Have an awesome day!

Maria

BLOG HOP LIST:

Hero Arts

Hero Arts Creative Team: 

Channin Pelletier
Dana Joy
Daniel West
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Kelly Taylor
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Seeka

Special Guests: 

Jennifer Kotas
Meg Brooks
Nichol Spohr
Rebecca Keppel

Hero Arts My Monthly Hero October 2022 Release: Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Hey everybody! The wait is over! It's time for the Hero Arts October 2022 My Monthly Hero release and this month's kit is a gorgeous, wintery, Christmas bundle! It's got a large 6"x8" stamp set filled stamps that are perfect for scene building or for using individually. There are also sentiments in a most beautiful font. The coordinating die set cuts out all of the images including the sentiments! The kit also includes a cling background stamp of falling snow, two different white ink cubes, and some gorgeous papers (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 $79!

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! 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 share today I wanted to show how easy it is to make gorgeous holiday tags with this kit. I started out with a piece of Mist cardstock. I selected two of the images from the kit to build a scene. I stamped one with Granite ink and the second with INTENS-ified Black ink. The lighter gray ink helped the first image to fade into the background and made it look further away. The black ink brought the second image to the foreground and also allowed me to overlap the two images without losing any of the detail. After stamping the images I used my Tag Infinity Dies to cut out a tag in the size that I wanted.

I used some post-it tape to create a mask for the bottom portion of my tag. Then, I used a blending brush and some Blue Hawaii Reactive Ink to ink around the edges to darken up the sky before heat embossing the falling snow background stamp in White Satin Pearl. I used white and yellow Posca pens to snow and light to the windows on the images. Next, I heat embossed my sentiment in white onto Cherry cardstock, die cut it with the coordinating die, and adhered it to my tag with foam tape. A couple of rhinestone gems and some twine added the finishing touches to my tag.

For my next card I decided to use the Gingerbread House Fancy Die which is an add-on to this month's kit. I left the die set connected and ran it through my die cut machine twice, once with Luxe watercolor paper (I didn't end up watercoloring so white cardstock would've been fine), and again with Sand cardstock. I started by ink-blending the edges of the gingerbread house with Sand ink to add a little depth. Then I used my red and yellow Posca paint pens to color in the windows and sash on the house as well as the stripes on the candy cane. I added Gold Hero Pearls to sash on the house to fancy it up a little bit. I colored the gingerbread cookie and tree with my copic markers and set them aside.

I wanted to have some really great, textured snow on this card so I used the Snow & Froth Technique Kit (lacquer pen and white puff embossing powder) to add snow to the roof top and the door of the gingerbread house. To do this, just squirt the lacquer pen everywhere that you want snow, cover it with white puff embossing powder, and heat set it. You will end up with most wonderful snow!

For the background I started out with a piece of Mist cardstock and I inkblended the edges with Blue Hawaii Reactive ink. Next I grabbed the Sprinkled Dots stencil, taped it to my background (add tape to back of cardstock to prevent tearing). and applied Glitter Paste with my palette knife. I hit the glitter paste with my heat tool to dry it quickly and then I adhered my assembled gingerbread house and accessories to the card using foam adhesive. I stamped the Holiday Sentiment Strips in black ink on Cherry cardstock then cut all of the sentiments out at once using the Sentiment Strips Fancy Die. This combination is so awesome bc you end up with so many perfect sentiment strips at once and anything you don't use immediately can be saved for another project. Anyhow, I added my sentiment strip using foam tape and that was it for my card.

Here is another card that I made using the October 2022 kit. If you want all of the details for this card then over to this blog post HERE.

That is it for today you guys! I hope you love this month's kit as much as I do. Please check out the details for the giveaway below and make sure to check out the rest of the blog hop for some incredible inspiration!

Have an awesome day!

Maria

GIVEAWAY:

We will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, October 9th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

BLOG HOP LIST:

Hero Arts

Hero Arts Creative Team: 

Channin Pelletier
Dana Joy
Daniel West
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Kelly Taylor
Libby Hickson
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis: You are Here.
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Pocono Pam
Seeka

Special Guests: 

Jennifer Kotas
Meg Brooks
Nichol Spohr
Rebecca Keppel

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

Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Release August 2022: Blog Hop and a Giveaway!

Hey everybody! The wait is over! It's time for the Hero Arts August 2022 My Monthly Hero release and this month's kit is a stencil lovers dream! It's got a set of four layering stencils to create a beautiful desert scene. There are also a sentiment stamp set, some coordinating dies, four ink cubes, five sheets of Luxe watercolor paper and bronze PearlEx (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 $70!

You have the option to subscribe (subscribing now means your first kit will be the September 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. 

HOT TIP: Ok, so here's something I quickly figured out with this kit... I am someone who struggles with leaving white space on a card (especially in a landscape scene like this where white space within the design would really break it up). If you are like me then I suggest the easy solution of starting either with colored card stock and ink blending on that, inkblending a background in the colors of your choice before using the stencils, or, grab a background from your stash and have fun with that!

For my first project I decided to grab a watercolored background from my stash and be inspired by the vibrant colors. This panel was created with DIY Liquid Watercolor sprays and I believe I used Pink and Dandelion but it looks like I could've sprayed a little Creamsicle Reactive spray in there too. I decided to put the pink up top for a magically hazy sky and the yellow/orange tones worked well for a desert floor. I used the stencils from the kit and inkblended in Taffy reactive ink to add the gorgeous skyline and some sandy pits. For the next layer I used a sponge dauber to gently add in highlights with Gold Glimmer Metallic Ink. If you decide to do this make sure to go easy so that the gold doesn't run under your stencil and you can get some crisp highlights. I wanted more gold so after the first layer dried I went back with a paintbrush and thickened it up.

I wanted to give the mountains a little bit more definition since doing pink mountains against a pink sky didn't provide a lot of contrast. I grabbed a pink colored pencil and traced around the edges of the mountains and added a little shading where I thought it would look good. That was an easy way to make the mountains pop. I wanted to add to the sky as well so I masked off the bottom part of the card (coordinating dies make this easy) and splattered it with White Glimmer Metallic Ink. Before moving on, I heat embossed my sentiment onto the panel using Onyx Pigment ink and clear embossing powder.

Next, I used a separate piece of white paper to stencil my cacti in Key Lime Fizz and Green Apple Reactive Inks. I used the coordinating dies to cut them out and adhered them with foam tape. I finished my card off by adding it to a black mat and a card base. 

I made this next card using a new stencil called Desert Road Stencil. I used some Pixie Spray to lightly adhere it to my cardstock before working with it so that I could get clean lines. I inkblended everything above the dark brown section using Dandelion, Pale Tomato, Sand, Caramel, Cup O' Joe, and Espresso inks. It was too hard to keep the colors separated by section as I had originally planned so I blended over the tops of the stencil lines and ended being happy with the look

By the time I was halfway down the card I was tired of inkblending and started wondering if it would work well to use my copic markers with the stencil. I decided to try it out and this technique allowed me to get some nice shading in my gray road and to move quickly down the rest of the card. I do think the ink blending at the top looks smoother though. 

I added a sentiment from the Seaside Highway HeroScape set and a black mat to finish off this card.

Here's another card I made using the kit. This one has a watercolor look that was easy to achieve. If you'd like the details for this card you can find them by clicking here. 

Ok, that's it for today you guys! I hope you have an amazing week and that you'll keep hopping along with us for more inspiration. Remember to comment below to enter yourself in the giveaway!

Maria

GIVEAWAY:

We will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, August 7th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

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