My Monthly Hero May 2023 Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Hello, friends! Welcome to the May 2023 May Arts My Monthly Hero Blog hop! I am so excited to be a guest designer for this kit. You are going to absolutely LOVE IT! I could not stop creating with this kit and there are even more amazing add-ons!!!

I created this super fun card with the classic kit. I stamped the bike with pigment ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder so it looks like a the finish on an actual bike and I love it so much!!! The bike building stamps are so easy to use and then you have the die to cut it out perfectly! There is even a grass die for the grass stamp! WHAT?! Yes. Yes, there is.  

But, that's not all, folks! I played with the premium kit along with the classic kit for this one! These silhouette dies are everything. I cheated just a little bit... the die actually has a little girl riding the bike, but I snipped off the pony tail so it looks like my son. LOL! Versatility is a good thing! 

The image above shows you all of the goodness in both the classic and the premium kits. You can choose the version that works best for you, which makes it even BETTER!!! You can shop the full May collection HERE! Did someone say ICE CREAM TRUCK?!

Our May release celebrates the freedom and joy of childhood! And what child, young or old, doesn't love riding their bike, breathing the fresh air with wind in their hair? This Premium Kit includes a 6" x 8" stamp set featuring Color Layering bicycles as well as the elements to decorate them, including items for the basket, pets and balloons or flags to hang off the back. The set is also full of useful sentiments in a convenient message strip font. There are coordinating dies, as well as a fabulous flower stencil for decorating your card background, or even your envelope! Three pigment ink cubes in happy colors, clear embossing powder, and two colors of glitter paper complete the list of items also available in the Classic version of this kit. We are excited to include a three-piece die set as the star of this upgraded Premium version of the kit. Each die can be used on its own, or combine them for creating an adorable layered scene. Our Hero Transfers have proven to be a huge hit thanks to their versatility and ease of use, and this kit includes four sheets of colorful bicycle and flower rub-ons, perfect for your cards, envelopes, planners, journals and more! The dies that coordinate with the 6" x 8" stamp set also loosely line up with the transfers - not exactly, but they may prove to be "close enough" depending on your project. Rounding out the kit are two sheets of fabulously cool holographic paper.

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

The incredibly talented Jennifer Kotas is next on the hop! Be sure to head on over to her blog to see some more fantastic inspiration!

Click the links below for the FULL hop experience!

Hero Arts

Hero Arts Creative Team: 

Channin Pelletier
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Kelly Taylor
Libby Hickson
Lydia Fiedler
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Pocono Pam

Special Guests:

 BreAnn Loveland
Essie
Jennifer Ingle
Jennifer Kotas
Jennifer McGuire
Meg Brooks
Rebecca Keppel

Hero Arts Spring Catalog Blog Hop and Giveaway

 

Hello, friends! I am so excited to be joining the Hero Arts Spring Catalog Blog Hop today! If you came from Jenn Shurkus' blog, you are off to a great start! If not, feel free to jump over to the Hero Arts Blog to get the full hop list! This catalog is stuffed with SO many amazing new designs and it includes some less new designs you may not have noticed before, too, so be sure to check it out! AND.... guess what?! There is actually a second catalog available now, as well! The Creative Essentials catalog is full of all of the most essential craft supplies you could possibly desire from Hero Arts. It's pretty amazing. 

I actually have TWO cards to share with you using the beautiful new Wonderful Day bundle and a few other fantastic things from this catalog. 

For this card, I used the new Overlapping Circles stencil as my background and then used the Wonderful Day stamps, stencils, and dies to create a CAS design that is loaded with color! The sentiment comes from the Every Day Sentiment strips stamp set cut with the sentiment strips die. 

AND...I have a surprise! I made my first ever card making video. Please be kind, it is literally my first and I have no idea what I am doing, but it was wicked fun to create! I will grow with it. I promise. LOL!

I loved this set so much I had to make another card with it right away! For this one, I used the full collection of gorgeous flowers and went with lots of color and a bit of glitter! I used the sentiment strip die to emboss the background, giving it a very deep, pronounced striped look. 

Thank you for stopping by today! Your next stop is Jennifer Kotas. You can find the complete hop list on the Hero Arts Blog! 

GIVEAWAY! 

Leave a comment to enter!

Hero Arts will 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.

Pigment Ink is not the Enemy

 Is it just me, or does it seem that pigment ink has gone a bit out of fashion. Hybrids seem to be all over the place and we love our reactive and I think our trusty Dye inks are still the king when it comes to every day creating, but good old fashioned pigment ink - the SUPER juicy kind - doesn't seem to get any hype anymore. Well, I'm here today to give it a bit of hype. 

Rose Gold metallic Hero Hues ink, folks. Yup. It's pigment ink. And that, my friends, is the very reason it stamped so smoothly, so evenly, and so shimmery on this card background! That amazing cling stamp, along with the others used on this card, came from the December My Monthly Hero kit and oh, my goodness!!!! Honestly, I was intimated by the ink at first, but I really wanted to try it because the color is just so gorgeous. I inked up that rubber cling stamp and made it happen and I am so glad I did!

Quick tip: Heat set pigment ink backgrounds and seal with Workable Fixatif before adding other elements to the card. That will help prevent smearing. 

Go dig out one of those pigment ink pads and have some fun! 

Feel like 3D Florals Take Too Much Time? Not These Ones!

 Hello, friends! Have you checked out the latest release from Spellbinders Paper Arts yet? I think a lot of us get intimidated by floral die cut sets that have some level of 'assembly required'. I was absolutely thrilled when I discovered this new Carolina Allspice die set from Spellbinders. This CAS card came together so quickly and it was so easy to do!

I die cute the set of flowers (three layers all in one die) three times and simply cut the leafy bit one time. I then used distress inks to add color with blending brushes. SO FAST and SO EASY! I added color to both sides, knowing I wanted to do a little 'sculpting' to give the card lots of dimension.

I was able to add visual depth by blending several color tones and then simply rolled the petals a bit before adhering them all in the center. This also allowed for a gorgeous Clean and Simple design after adding a simple foiled sentiment. This sentiment is actually intended for the inside of cards, but I thought it was perfect for this one! 

The dies and foil plates I used on this card and the one I posted yesterday are now all available at 15% off! 

British Ducks and Whatnot

 Did you know that was a thing? There are British Ducks. No, really. Very. British Ducks. I didn't know that until I went to London over Christmas, where I met the most British duck I've ever seen. Here... let me introduce you....

There she is. Tell me she is not the most British duck you have ever seen. And, yes, she lives in the Queen's Gardens. And she is lovely. I did not take her home. but I sure did want to do so.

All that to say, ducks are pretty fun. and this new SUPER cute duck die set from Spellbinders is no exception to that!

Ummm... seriously, though! I used an amazing new raindrop 3-D Embossing folder for the background along with blended distress inks and then pieced together the adorable duck, giving him sparkly red rubber rain boots and a sparkly rain cap along with a red umbrella. 

The sentiment die is from the new Raining Hearts Etched Die set and I love it! I stacked it three deep to give it a bit of structure and dimension. And... because I borrowed a couple of the child's rubber ducks for this photo shoot... he insisted on being in a shot with them.

He's a pretty cute little duckling, himself, if you ask me! HA! 

So, head on over and check out the newest release from Spellbinders and spend your day contemplating the nationality of ducks. If you do those two things, I promise you will have a wonderful day. You truly will!

Have a good one!

Star in a Jar

                                            

Start in the Jar by Sam Hay and Sarah Massini is a delightful picture book about a little boy who rescues a fallen star and keeps it in a jar until it can be returned home. We love this book in our house. Okay, well, we love LOTS of books, but this is definitely a favorite for the three year old member of the family. Given that, when I saw the December Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kit, I simply HAD to have it!

Just look at that perfect little boy with his star in a jar!!! How could I not? My son was also delighted to see these stamps! I'm sure he will be using them, as well. I created the background using a rainbow of inks and the Star Cluster stencil (one of the great add-ons!) and then stamped, colored, and die cut the image from the kit before heat embossing the sentiment and adhering to the card. I love the super colorful background! It makes me smile!

If you haven't checked out the Monthly Kits from Hero Arts, I highly recommend you give them a shot! They are amazing!!

I hope your day is filled with the wonder one finds when capturing a star in a jar!