Good morning! Today is the monthly Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Blog Hop celebrating the fabulous new My Monthly Hero kit! This month, we are featuring a beautiful autumnal kit, chock full of gorgeous botanical images with a bit of Asian influence! For today’s hop, you should have arrived from Jennifer McGuire‘s blog, and your next stop is Caly Person‘s blog! The My Monthly Hero kits are always an excellent value, and this month is no exception.
This kit, including a large 6×8 stamp set, coordinating dies, beautiful fancy oval frame die, and accessories is valued at over $70, but is available for purchase now for $34.99! These kits frequently sell out, so it’s always a good idea to subscribe if you want to ensure that you’ll get your hands on one! The kit & add-ons go live in the Hero Arts store on Tuesday, September 4th at 1pm eastern/10am pacific. The main kit is available for a limited time only – once it’s gone, it’s gone. Kits begin shipping from Hero Arts on Friday, September 7th.
I combined the gorgeous autumnal fancy frame die with the new Glimmer Metallic Inks in my countdown post here, but today I wanted to show some of the beautiful botanical images included in the main stamp set. There are some stunning florals included, which the ever-knowledgeable Jessica Frost-Ballas informed me are Chinese lanterns. These plants have a bright red bulb-like flower that drip off of the main stems so gracefully… I knew I needed to do some watercoloring with these gorgeous flowers.
I began by stamping and die cutting several of the Chinese lantern images from the kit using Hero Arts’s Intense Black ink, a waterproof ink that stays nice and crisp even on watercolor paper. I then watercolored the images using the new add-on Orange Liquid Watercolor, followed by some shadows created with the Red Glimmer Metallic Ink. I used the Glimmer Ink instead of just using Strawberry Liquid Watercolor because the Glimmer Inks are a bit more bold and slightly more intensely pigmented than the regular liquid watercolors…. plus, they’re metallic, so yay! They react similarly to the watercolors in that, when you lay down the concentrated color, you can create a nice fade with a clean, damp paintbrush. I added touches of the Red Glimmer Metallic Ink over the top of the orange, then pulled the color out with my wet paintbrush to create almost a glaze of metallic shimmer. I added some Moss Liquid Watercolor to the foliage, as well.
For the background, I used the new Patterned Leaves Bold Prints, stamped in Red Royal on some red card stock. I love the subtle texture that the tone-on-tone background provides for the floral bouquet. It’s just enough to add interest to the background without distracting from the beautiful floral images. I adhered my bouquet of exotic flowers to the card front using liquid adhesive, then added a stamped sentiment strip to the bottom of the card front using dimensional foam adhesive.
Now for some fun giveaway information! Hero Arts is giving away a September My Monthly Hero kit to one lucky winner (and if you purchase a kit and then win, they will reimburse you!). All you have to do to enter is comment on the blog hop posts. The more comments you leave, the more chances to you have to win! Here’s the full lineup in case you get lost:
The Hero Arts Blog
Ilina Crouse
Lydia Fiedler
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Libby Hickson
Janette Kausen
Amy Kolling
Kelly Latevola
Jennifer McGuire
Emily Midgett<— you are here!
Caly Person
Michelle Short
Jenn Shurkus
Yana Smakula
Nichol Spohr
Julee Tilman
Well, that’s all for me today! Happy hopping, and good luck!
Beautiful card! I love the red background!
I love that red and gold together. That image is so super and I love what you did with it! Thanks for sharing your creativity and such a wonderful product!
Stunning! Love the colors!
So inspiring! Love the kit.
Striking!! Your colors are so rich and warm. Love the Patterned Lanterns background stamp… lots of possibilities come to mind.
A beautiful card and a wonderful kit and add-ons!
Love the oriental background.
Beautiful card – clean and simple.
thanks for sharing
txmlhl(at)yahoo(dot)com
Such a beautiful card with the gorgeous colours & the background stamp as well just makes it that much better. We grow these, & they are bright orange & once dried, last a long time, although they can be fragile.
Beautiful card the flowers.are.lovely.
that background die is growing on me more and more. it’s calling my name!!!
Such a beautiful card with a lovely background!! 🙂
Beautiful card, love the autumn colors.
The Chinese lanterns look so pretty against your tone on tone background.
Beautiful card and I’m loving this new Hero Arts kit! Thanks for sharing with us on this fun blog hop!!
I’m very partial to red so your card is a standout to me! Love all the work you put into it. Thanks for posting!
What a gorgeous card! I love how it stands out on the red background! Love the look of the tone on tone background on the card base too! Thanks for the great inspiration today!
I ADORE the background! It’s STUNNING! Great coloring on the stamp too!
Wow it’s breath-taking!
Excellent kit from Hero Arts and your card color is beautiful. I love the red.
Beautiful card. Love your Chinese lanterns and that Font on the sentiment is perfection.
Beautiful card, the red card background is stunning.
This is STUNNING!! I love the dark red background!!
I love the background and coloring on your beautiful card! The kit is really lovely.
I love your pretty Chinese lanterns! Gorgeous!
Beautiful card – your lanterns are coloured so fabulously and the background is just perfect!
Beautiful card and kit!!!
The gorgeous orange Chinese lanterns against that stunning deep red background — just beautiful. This stamp is gorgeous.
The beautiful stenciled background is stunning behind the striking colors of the Chinese Lantern branch. I appreciate your showing it to me.
Nice card Emily! Love these flowers on top of the red!
Oh Miss Emily….what a beautiful card…..this new kit is just beautiful…..Loving this blog hop…thank you so much for sharing…..big hugs
Beautiful card! Not only is the kit lovely, the background stamp you used is a must have, too.
Beautiful card – great kit!
Oh my goodness, I love the background, so beautiful!
Great! Thanks for sharing.
Love it, the red background really makes it pop.
Lovely!
Bright and beautiful….thank you!
Love your card. I like your grouping of multiples.
The red background shows off the red Chinese Lanterns!
I love that you used a deep red background card.very striking.
Beautiful card! I love the look of the oranges and greens against the red background. Not sure I would have thought to try the red but it’s perfect, especially with the tone on tone look of that great new background stamp. It’s so delicate yet provides just the right amount of texture. Thanks for inspiring me!
I just love your card.
The card is beautiful..Hero has the best kits.
Wow!!! Fabulous card!! Beautiful colors!!!
Thank you for the inspiration!
Lovely card! Thank you for sharing!
The Chinese Lantern flowers are lovely and the background stamp just adds to the beauty of your card!!
Lovely card! Love this kit! Thanks for the inspiration!
Beautiful autumn card. I love the coloring and the style.
Very pretty colors! Really love the red, makes the card pop!
love the colors – very striking!!
Awesome card!!
I like the black background against the orange of the flowers
I clearly meant red but wrote black
Loved your use of the glimmer inks, the metallic really shines through. Need to get these!
Love the bold red background!
You are such a talented artist! Thank you to all for inspiring me to create.
Gorgeous card ! Your colouring is beautiful! So inspiring! I am so in love with these Chinese lantern flowers! Fab kit !
Such a gorgeous card! Love the red background.
Thanks for sharing…
Your card is gorgeous!
So pretty. Love the colors.
Beautiful
I love the new set and all of the creative ideas!
The red background really showcases the Japanese Lanterns. What a great stamp!
Your card is just beautiful! Love the colors that you used on the Chinese lanterns.
Oh I like the texture that stamp gives to that card – do like monochromatic backgrounds.
Really beautiful card. That red background is gorgeous and makes the images pop.
The red background really pops. Beautiful card.
The background really ties the whole card together!
Gorgeous card! Love the use of red ink on the red card background with that stamp. It almost looks like fabric!
Beautiful card, Emily, as always!
I love the color of the background cardstock and the subtlety of the background image. Makes the lanterns really pop.
I am in awe with this gorgeous card. I can just keep looking at it. I love the colors you use.
I love your card! Your fall colors are so pretty. The background stamp is awesome, I have to get it!
Lovely card, beautifully colored
I looove this fabulous card!! Everything about it is wonderful! Am ordering this kit today!
Beautiful card! I really love that background stamp! It adds a lot to your card. 🙂
Such a striking card! I absolutely love the red background – fabulous!
This red color makes your base card looks like velvet !!
[margessw(at)icloud(dot)com]
Beautiful palette on this absolutely elegant card. Thanks for sharing your creativity.
I love fall and this kit! You design team members amaze and inspire me every month!
Wow those Chinese lanterns are colored so nicely and they look really great on that background!
Gorgeous card Emily, so sorry I never got to tell you while the hop was on as life got in the way, you know what I mean. Love your colour work on this so so delicate.