Mixed Media Love with Hero Arts!

Hey everybody! I'm stopping for a quick hello and to share some mixed media love for some awesome Hero Arts products! This project is up on the Hero Arts blog today but I wanted to share it here too. For all of the details on how I made it please head on over to the Hero blog.

I had the background in my stash so I grabbed a piece of vellum and heat embossed in Onyx Pigment ink using the Mini Hearts Bold Prints set. I heat set it with clear embossing powder, sprinkled a little gold embossing powder over that, and heat set it again for a cool, gilded look to my hearts.

After that I used the Love and Florals Fancy Dies to create a die-cut sentiment. I added a little white detail to the letters so they would pop off of the card little more. All of the layers of the card are adhered with foam tape so there is a ton of dimension to this card!

Ok! That was short and sweet but I hope you liked today's card. Remember, if you'd like more details please head on over to the Hero Arts blog to read more.

Have an awesome day!

Maria

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

Hey everybody! The wait is over! It's time for the Hero Arts Januaray 2023 My Monthly Hero release and this month's kit is a fantastic, love 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 is just $34.99/month and the value is always much greater! This month's kit is valued at $77!

You have the option to subscribe (subscribing now means your first kit will be the February 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 decided to go with a mixed media look because this set as an amazing assortment of stamps that are perfect for layering up a cool background. So, I sprayed a piece of watercolor cardstock with liquid watercolors and then used Granite ink, black ink and white embossing powder to stamp my background using stamps from the kit. I also roughed up the edges with my fingernail then splattered the background with gold metallic ink and rubbed it with gold Hero wax.

Once my background was done I adhered it to a piece of Pitch black cardstock that I had splattered in gold.

The final steps were to heat emboss my sentiment with Onyx Pigment ink and clear embossing powder onto watercolor cardstock sprayed in pink liquid watercolor. Then, I cut some heart wands out of gold foil and adhered those to my card as well. I cut some of the ends off and glued those to the top left of the background too.

The add-ons this month are fire and I decided to  make a quick and easy card using the new Heart Flourish Plate and the You're Mine set.

I started by cutting the die out of Cherry cardstock and gluing to a Pitch Black cardbase.

Next, I heat embossed my sentiment in gold and added some gold embellishments to finish my card off. This is such and east but striking card to make and it could be easily reproduced with any colors and sentiment that you like.

If you haven't seen the card that I shared for the countdown a couple of days ago, here's a look at that. You can find full details HERE.

Ok, you guys, that is it for today but my Hero friends have so much more amazing inspiration using the January 2023 kit so please keep hopping along with us (blog hop links below) and make sure to enter the fabulous giveaway!

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, January 15th 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
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Kelly Taylor
Libby Hickson
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Pocono Pam
Seeka

Hero Arts Global Team:

Anna Mahtani
Erica A-B
Jen Kray
Michelle Lupton

Special Guests:
Arjita Singh
Essie
Jennifer Kotas
Karen Boyce
Lounon
Meg Brooks
Nichol Spohr
Rebecca Keppel

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

Hey everybody! It's almost time for the January 2023 Hero Arts My Monthly Hero release and this month's kit is a fabulous kit for creating some really fun Valentine's and love themed 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! 

You have the option to subscribe (subscribing now means your first kit will be the February 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 Two of the Countdown to Creativity and I've got an easy Valentine's Day card for you.  To make this card I started off with a piece of water color paper and I sprayed it with Pink Liquid Watercolor spray. I heat embossed it in black using Onyx Pigment ink and Clear embossing powder. Then I cut the piece down with a paper trimmer and matted it on black cardstock with some foam adhesive on the back. I set that bit aside so that I could work on the background.

To create the background I used one of the stamps from the set (only the edges because it actually has a sentiment in the middle), inked it up in black and stamped repeatedly until my background was as full as I wanted it. Then, I adhered my pink Valentine focal point to the center of the card front.

Next, I cut some hearts from the kit out of gold foil (on the bottom I only wanted one heart so i just snipped the other heart off) and glued them on to the sentiment piece on opposite corners.

Well, that is it for today but make sure you check out the sneak peeks from other creative team members, and for a chance to win the kit before you can buy it make sure to head over to the Hero Arts blog.

Have an awesome day and I'll see you back here on Monday for the full release!

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 Countdown to Creativity: October 2022 Release!

Hey everybody! It's almost time for the October 2022 Hero Arts My Monthly Hero release and this month's kit is a fabulous kit for creating gorgeous holiday scenes and more.

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 November 2022 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 colorful Christmas scene to share with you. I started by stamping some of the scenes in Onyx Pigment Ink and then heat embossing them in clear. I used the coordinating dies to cut them out. 

I figured out where I wanted the scene images to fit on my card front and ink blended the sky using Reactive Inks in Taffy and Lemon Drop. I inkblended the bottom with Pool Party then sprayed the whole background with white iridescent shimmer spray. Then, I stamped and heat embossed the Santa and elf images onto my background pieces. 

Finally, I added the die cut scene images using liquid glue and foam tape. I cut the excess off of both sides so that the images would be flush with the background. I added the background piece to a Pitch Black mat and that was it!

If you'd like a chance to win this kit before you can buy it head on over to the Hero Arts blog and enter for your chance to win. There are two more days of the countdown so be sure to check back for the next couple of days and see all of the inspiration from the design team!

Have an awesome day and I'll see you on Monday for the full release!

Maria

PRODUCT SUPLY LIST (Affiliate Links may be used at no extra cost to you):

Let That Shitake Go!

Hey everybody! It's Maria here and I am really happy to be here to share a mixed media card that I had so much fun making. I started out wanting to focus on the beautiful new Leaf Circle Stencil (so great for Autumn cards, right?) and when I saw how magical it looked in gold I decided to go with more of a nature/woodland theme. I know this card looks like a lot but it's actually easy to make so let me walk you through it step-by-step.

BACKGROUND:

1. Cut a piece of Luxe Watercolor Cardstock to 4.25" x 5.5"
2. Spray the background with liquid watercolor sprays of your choice (I added liquid watercolor and water to a spray bottle to create my own sprays). I used Leaf, Jungle Mist, Indigo and Art Print Brown. Allow to dry.
3. Spray the same watercolor colors onto your work surface and smoosh your dried background into the color. This will add unpredictable visual texture and some extra color to your background. Allow to dry.
4. Place your Leaf Circle Stencil over your background piece. I secured mine from the back with washi tape so that it would stay in place. Use your palette knife to spread Gold Hero Wax through the stencil. Don't worry about perfection- partial stenciling will add character to your background.
5. Remove the stencil (put it in water so it will be easy to wash later) and immediately sprinkle some Sand Embossing Powder over the wet wax (a couple of pinches should do the trick). Make sure not to completely cover the wax so that you can still see the gold.
6. Heat the embossing powder and wax to set them. This will melt the Sand Embossing Powder and it will also bubble the wax for extra texture.
7. Splatter the background with White Glimmer Metallic Ink for extra magic.

FOCAL POINT:

1. Stamp the text stamp from the Sending Love Mail stamp in Granite ink onto vellum.  Cut this piece to 2.5" x 3.5" and set it aside.
2. Use the Mushrooms and Ferns Fancy Dies to die cut mushrooms and ferns from Luxe Watercolor Cardstock. I left the ferns white.
3. Using Liquid Watercolor sprays, spray the tops of the mushrooms Orange and the stems Art Print Brown.
4. I used Tomato ink (ink-blending) and Copic markers to add a little bit of extra color and shading to my my mushrooms.
5. Stamp the sentiment from Zen Messages in Aquamarine Pigment ink, heat emboss it in clear and cut it into a strip.

ASSEMBLE:

1. Add your background to a cardbase. I used Precision Glue to do this.
2. Adhere your sentiment strip to the vellum piece then layer the ferns and mushrooms on top using either foam adhesive or glue dots to create dimension.
3. Add foam adhesive to the vellum making sure to hide it behind the sentiment, ferns and mushrooms. Attach the focal point to the background.
4. The final step is to splatter the focal point with White Glimmer Metallic ink. I covered my sentiment with a piece of washi tape to protect it. 

Now you've got a finished card with tons of color and eye-catching texture! I hope some of you might have fun recreating this card or using some of the techniques I've shared today.

I hope you all have an awesome day today, but if your day is feeling hard, try to just let that shitake go!

Crafty hugs,

Maria

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.

BLOG HOP LIST:

Hero Arts
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
Jennifer Kotas
Meg Brooks
Nichol Spohr
Rebecca Keppel

Andrew Granick: Visit him on Instagram

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

Hero Arts Countdown to Creativity: August 2022 Release!

Hey everybody! It's almost time for the August 2022 Hero Arts My Monthly Hero release and this month's kit is a fun one especially for all of you stencil lovers out there!

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 2022 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 card with an faux-ish watercolor technique to share with you. This month's kit comes with a set of four stencils that allow you to create a gorgeous desert scene. The kit also comes with Luxe Watercolor cardstock so I took that as my que to create a watercolor scene using my stencils as the guide. 

I used my DIY liquid watercolor sprays with the stencil to create layers of color. All I did was place my stencil down and then spray my color over the top. Once that layer had dried I added the next layer of color. The colors that I used were Cocoa, Mulled Wine, Leaf, Jungle Mist and Teal. Once I had the full desert scene I added color to the sky by masking off the scene (there's a die that makes this easy) and spraying it with White Iridescent Shimmer Spray followed by a splatter of White Glimmer Metallic Ink.

The final steps were to stamp my sentiment in Onyx Pigment ink and heat emboss it in clear, then add my scene to a Nautical mat.

Well, that is it for today folks! I hope you've enjoyed this little sneak peek. If you'd like a chance to win this kit before you can buy then head on over to the Hero Arts blog and enter for your chance to win!

Have an awesome day and I will see you back here on Monday for the full (super amazing) release!

Maria

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