Hero Arts Countdown to Creativity: I Love You!

Hey everybody! It's almost time for the August Hero Arts My Monthly Hero release and this month's kit is absolutely gorgeous!

But first, 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! 

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!

Today is Day One of the Countdown to Creativity and I've got a sneak peek of this month's kit to share with you. One of the things that is really exciting to me about this kit is the inclusion of three of the Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors. I absolutely love these watercolors and the colors that are included in the kit are three of my favorites (Pink, Dandelion and Indigo). I used the liquid watercolors to create my own sprays (I'm planning to have a video on how to do this up on Monday so stay tuned) and they can be used to create the most stunning backgrounds!

After spraying myself a gorgeous background and letting it dry I splattered it with White Glimmer Metallic Ink to give it a galaxy look.

Then, I used one die and one stamp to create a sentiment in black. I love using black with bright colors as it just seems to make everything pop!

Ok, that's it for today you guys! I can't wait until Monday when we get to spill the beans on this whole release because it is so much fun and has so many great elements to it!

While you wait for Monday to roll around make sure you enter to win a kit before you can buy it! Head on over to the Hero Arts Blog to enter.

Bye for now but I'll see you back here soon!

Maria

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Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Kit May 2021: Vitamin Sea!

Hi everybody and happy Hero Arts release day! The May My Monthly Hero Kit is here and it is fantastic... or, should I say "fintastic?!" Hahaha! Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

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! 

You have the option to subscribe (subscribing now means your first kit will be the June release), or, to buy your favorite kits as a 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!

Now, onto my card! The main image in the kit is quite large and I thought it would be awesome on a slimline as I'd still have room to add some fish at the top of the card. I started out by watercoloring my background panel using Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors in Dark Teal, Deep Ocean and Indigo. Then I stamped randomly on the background in black ink. To finish off the background I added white acrylic paint using the Delicate Petals stencil and then added splatters with gold metallic ink. The final touch was to add a sandy bottom by heat embossing it with Sand Embossing Powder.

I stamped and colored all of my images using copic markers. Then I adhered them to my card face using foam tape.

After adding my heat embossed sentiment I added some clear and white enamel dots and then glued the whole thing to a black cardbase to make it pop.

I also wanted to share a second card I made using this kit. You may have already seen it yesterday but I wanted to share it in the same post as the first card to show that you can also make clean and simple cards with this kit. 

If you would like to learn more about this card please check out my blog post HERE.

Well that's just about it for today you guys but before I go I want to make sure you know about the generous giveaway from Hero Arts as well as that this is a blog hop. Giveaway details as well as the blog hop list are below. I hope you love the May MMH Kit as much as I do!

Have an awesome day!

Maria

GIVEAWAY:

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

BLOG HOP: 

Hero Arts
Channin Pelletier
Dana Joy
Daniel West
Debi Adams
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Libby Hickson
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Pocono Pam
Seeka

Special Guests:

Jennifer Kotas
Jennifer Shurkus
Nichol Spohr
Rebecca Keppel

Visit on Instagram:

BreAnn Loveland
Kailash Naidoo

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Hero Arts Mum

Hey Guys! Happy middle of the week! I'm back with another card using this gorgeous mum from Hero Arts and with another entry into the A Blog Named Hero: Put a Flower On It challenge. This flower has got so much detail in the petals and is really fun to watercolor. I used only two colors (Melon Mambo and Pacific Point) but they blended easily into many different shades of prettiness.

I used Distress Oxide Inks to blend the background (Peacock Feathers, Lucky Clover, Crushed Pistachio and Twisted Citron) and then spritzed water over it to create the droplets. I also flicked some black ink over the top of that.

I popped the mum and heat embossed sentiment up on foam adhesive to give them some dimension. Then I added sequins and put it all on a Night of Navy card base.

I'm entering this card into the Put a Flower On It challenge over at A Blog Named Hero. If you're looking for some awesome flower themed inspiration using Hero Arts products I hope you'll go check out what their design team has created because it's all amazing! Just click HERE to head over to their blog.

Thanks for stopping by today! I'll be back tomorrow with the crew from One Stamp At a Time for a big blog hop. See you soon!

Have an amazing day!

Maria

Hero Arts: Put a Flower On It

Hey Everybody! Happy weekend to you! I'm here today with a quick post so that I can play along with this month's A Blog Named Hero challenge: Put a Flower On It.  I was so excited when I saw this Mum stamp come out in Hero Art's recent spring release. They've got some other mum stamps that I love that are wood block... I'm a cling/photomolyer lover so you can imagine how happy I was to see this stamp released in photopolymer as part of their Hero Florals line (DC235). 

I started by heat embossing the flower image in gold on watercolor paper. Then I watercolored using pink and yellow which blended together to give me some fun orange and peach tones.

I watercolored the background piece in blue and then splattered it with ink. I used sparkly embossing paste and a Tim Holtz stencil (THMS106) to create a subtle but fun, textured background.

My sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamps Mom's Clematis set and is heat embossed in silver on vellum (isn't that font gorgeous?!). Finally, I finished the card off by adding clear embellishments that I colored blue with an alcohol marker and some some sequins.

You can check out this challenge or play along by heading over to the A Blog Named Hero Challenge Blog by clicking HERE or on the graphic below. There is some great inspiration from the design team so I hope you'll head over there.

Ok, that's all for now! I hope you all have an amazing weekend and I'll be back tomorrow with some Mother's Day fun.

Bye for now,

Maria

E-mail: mariawillis@hotmail.com

Happy Birthday Sucker!

Happy birthday Sucker!! Hahaha! Today is my friend Sara's birthday and I have been saving this card for what feels like forever just to give to her. Sara has an awesome sense of humor and likes punny cards so I really hope she will like this. 

I used shimmery white paper and quite a few Distress Oxide inks to create this background. I added layers of ink, spritzing with water to oxidize the ink and also added multiple layers of distress resist spray between the layers of ink. The Distress Resist Spray added such a fun, slightly rough texture to the background. The awesome octopus is from Hero Arts and is called the "Color Layering Octopus." I love that this octopus looks like it's in motion, either swimming or crawling across the ocean floor.

Well, that's it for me today, short and sweet for once. The biggest thing I wanted to say is Happy Birthday Sara! You're so old today! I hope you like your card. Hahaha! 

Alright, bye everybody! See you back here soon. Have an awesome day!

Maria

mariawillis@hotmail.com

PS: If you have questions please don't hesitate to ask. You can shoot me an email or leave me a comment below. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. 

Let's Get Hopping Blog Hop: Very Vanilla

Hello Everybody and welcome back to another blog hop! If you haven't visited my blog before... my name is Maria Willis and I am an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator from a small mountain town in California, USA called Boulder Creek. I love making cards and other crafty things and I'm so happy that you've decided to join me for the fun today!

Today I'm hopping with the Let's Get Hopping crew and the theme for this month is Very Vanilla Cardstock. I decided to combine the theme with my March 2018 Paper Pumpkin kit for a card that reminds me that spring is near... Well, technically it's already spring here in California but it doesn't feel like it yet.

For my card I used one of the envelopes that came in the Paper Pumpkin kit. I cut it open, turned it inside out and instead of using the vintage themed side, I opted to use this bright green prettiness instead. The stripes on the DSP are Very Vanilla so the paper matches my Very Vanilla card base perfectly.

I wanted to add a contrasting color and thought the circle of Soft Sky went well with the green and still looked soft and natural. I layered my sentiment piece (stamp and die are both from the PP kit) and the circle on top of a strip of Very Vanilla cardstock that has been splattered with a Stampin' Blends marker. I embellished my card using the twine and wooden embellishments from the Paper Pumpkin kit. The card needed a little something extra so I added pearls to finish my card off.

Now I'm finding myself curious to know if you all find yourself using Very Vanilla or other creamy, off-white colored cardstocks very often? I realize that I've been using it more often lately and I'm not sure why... although I suppose I've been doing more vintage and shabby chic cards recently. Both of those styles usually work really well with Very Vanilla. Anyhow, let me know if you use it or not. If not, what color card base tends to be your go-to color? 

If you're looking for more Very Vanilla inspired creations head on over to Tracy Bish's blog by clicking on the next button below. As always, if you have any questions please let me know. You can leave me a comment below or shoot me an email and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. 

Have an amazing day! Thank you for stopping by and I'll catch you back here soon.

Bye!

Maria 

E-mail: mariawillis@hotmail.com

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#TGIFC153 - March Madness - Anything Goes!

Hey! It's Thursday night/Friday morning at midnight and that means we've got another amazing challenge for you over at TGIF Challenges! This is a really good one too so you might want to play along with us. The theme is March Madness and anything goes this week (yes, that's right, make anything you want to)! I took this opportunity to mix and match some of the random things I had sitting on my desk to make a card. I watercolored this unicorn months ago and smooched that background weeks ago. Unfortunately, this is the nature of my desk... I have half-finished crafty things all over the place and I've been thinking lately that I should really make an effort to get all these fun pieces onto cards.

The unicorn was watercolored with Pacific Point and Melon Mambo inks with Daffodil Delight for the horn. I cannot remember what colors I used on the background although it appears to be Melon Mambo, Pacific Point... and maybe something else thrown int there. I'm sorry that I can't remember exactly what I did but on that day I went on a background making rampage and ended up with a bunch of different backgrounds of unknown color combos. The sentiment is from Fairy Celebrations and is just perfect with this unicorn.

That's all I've got for today folks but if you've got a second then head on over to the TGIF Challenge Blog to see what the rest of the design team has made to share with you today. With an anything goes theme the projects are sure to be amazing! Another cool thing for this week is that if you decide to play along you can case any design team member that you want! Have fun!

Have an amazing day you all! See you back here soon!

Maria 

mariawillis@hotmail.com

Want to shop with me? No problem, just click the button below. 

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Email: mariawillis@hotmail.com

Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

March 2018 Paper Pumpkin Kit: May Good Things Grow

Hi Everybody! Thanks for stopping by for a visit. Today I've got a card that I've made as an alternate to the March 2018 Paper Pumpkin Kit called "May Good Things Grow." I've been having fun making alternate projects with kit and you'll see more of what I made over the next week.

I used a Very Vanilla card base with a mat that I embossed with the Garden Trellis Embossing Folder.  I used the gorgeous wood embellishments that came as a free gift in the Paper Pumpkin kit this month embellish my card. These wooden embellishments have a beautiful, natural wood finish but I glammed them up a bit by heat embossing them in gold. To do this I pressed the wooden embellishments into my Versamark ink pad. Then I poured gold embossing powder over them. I used tweezers to hang on to them when I used my heat tool so that I wouldn't burn my fingers. Both the flowers and golden leaves hanging out in the background were from the free gift pack. I used a stamp from the kit, a fun die cut from the kit (I sponged the die cut), the twine and gorgeous pearl embellishments from the kit to make the centerpiece for this card.

The vintage rose background paper, Fresh Fig ribbon and cool, brass brad are also from the Paper Pumpkin kit! I added a circle of watercolor paper that I cut out with my stitched circle framelits and added some color to it with Fresh Fig ink and my aqua painter. I also splattered some ink onto the Very Vanilla background so that it wasn't quite so vanilla.

Have you tried embossing wood embellishments before? Have you tried any other interesting techniques with them? If so, I'd love to hear about it! Let me know what you've tried in the comments below.

If you have any question about this card, or, you would like help purchasing products to make your own cards please let me know. Remember that Sale-a-Bration is almost over. You've got until March 31st to take advantage of getting a free gift for every $50 USD (before tax and shipping) that you spend in my store. It's also a great time to join my team as there are some pretty amazing perks for signing up right now. Let me know if you've got questions!

Ok, I'm outta here but I will be back tomorrow with more Paper Pumpkin alternatives. I'm excited about what I've got to share tomorrow so I really hope you'll come back to check it out.

Have an amazing day!

Maria

E-mail: mariawillis@hotmail.com

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Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

#TGIFC151 - Inspiration Challenge

Hello, hello! I hope you're having a terrific day today! I'm glad to have you join me today as TGIF Challenges has a really fun theme this week. It's Inspiration week over at the challenge blog and TGIFC has shared a gorgeous picture to get everyone inspired to create along with them. Here's what I've created for the challenge (scroll down to see the inspiration picture). 

I heat embossed the roses from the Petal Palette stamp set multiple times on a piece of watercolor paper. Then I used just five colors to watercolor the whole thing: Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lime Twist, Emerald Envy and Bermuda Bay. I love the way these colors blend to make such vibrant and gorgeous shades of the colors. 

I heat embossed my sentiment on vellum and added some wooden embellishments to frame it out. I also added Gold Metallic Thread, Gold Ribbon and some Gold Enamel Embellishments. I offset the watercolored background on a base of Night of Navy cardstock and that was it for this card.

Here is the Inspiration picture from #TGIFC151. I tried to stay true to both the theme of flowers and to the color scheme as well. If you'd like to see some more amazing projects using this inspiration piece then head on over to the TGIF Challenge Blog and check out what the rest of the design team has made. If you've got a great idea of your own then we'd love to have you play along with us too!

That's all for today but I am so glad that you stopped by. If you have any questions please let me know. You can reach me by leaving a comment below or by shooting me an email. All of the products that I have used today are available for purchase in my store (link below).

Have an awesome day!

Maria

mariawillis@hotmail.com

Want to shop with me? No problem, just click the button below. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Email: mariawillis@hotmail.com

Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Fat Unicorn!

Not long ago I spent a little time having fun making backgrounds. I sponged, I spritzed, I watercolored... I just had fun creating without any purpose besides having fun. This is one of the backgrounds I made and it seemed just perfect for one of these fat unicorns from the Myths & Magic set.

I used just two colors (plus Daffodil Delight on the horn) for this whole unicorn. I used Tempting Turquoise and Melon Mambo. I love how these two colors blend so beautifully together to make such a range of colors. I used more ink on the main and tail than I did on the body of the unicorn. On the body I started out with a very light wash of Tempting Turquoise and and then add a small amount of Melon Mambo to the areas that I wanted some highlighting in. It gave a pinky-purpley color that I like.

I added some die cut stars or "magic bursts" cut out of silver glimmer paper. Then I added White twine and some washi tape and called this card done. Sometimes when you have a pretty background and a fat unicorn it's a good idea to stop before you overdo it. 

I hope you like my card today. Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back tonight with a card for this week's TGIFChallenges and I hope you'll come back to check it out. That's it for now but thanks so much for stopping by. As always, if you want to make your own fat unicorn cards and need to buy the stamp set... I'm your girl. Let me know if you need some help or have any questions. Otherwise, if you prefer to shop on your own, feel free to click the link below and have some fun!

Have an awesome day!

Maria

Want to shop with me? No problem, just click the button below. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Email: mariawillis@hotmail.com

Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!