Hi there! The first Monday of the month means the new My Monthly Hero kit and August release from Hero Arts, and this month we are out on the road! You should have arrived here from Daniel West, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. You can also check out the full hop list at the Hero Arts Blog!
This month’s kit features a fabulously easy layering stencil set, complete with coordinating dies, and a super versatile sentiment set. Here’s a peek at the main kit:
The individual contents of the kit are valued at $70, but the retail cost is $34.99! Such a great deal. The kit comes with the ink pads to create a traditionally colored desert scene, but I chose to create a night scene using gray and black ink, allowing the saturation in the deep purple Eggplant cardstock to make the big visual impact, as well as a secret weapon to create that massive, luminous moon. Let’s get started with the details!
I began by blending the stencils traditionally on two panels of Eggplant cardstock using Pitch Black and Charcoal inks. The intense purple cardstock shines through on even the black ink blending! Also, can I just say that these were quite possibly the easiest layering stencils that I have ever used?? Each stencil comes with little squares notched into the corners that you blend a touch of ink over with the first stencil still in place, and as long as you line up your subsequent stencils with those little corner squares, your layering will be absolutely spot on! Such an innovative idea that takes the guesswork out of the layering.
One of the stencils features a nice round moon, and instead of blending the black or gray ink over the top, I used the Hero Tools Palette Knife to spread some White Hero Wax. I was thrilled with how bright the white wax showed up on the purple cardstock, and the slightly pearlescent wax really makes the luminous moon feel almost real. I dotted some white gel pen stars around the moon. Such beautiful contrast to make up that night sky! Looking at the photos now, I wish that I had blended some Nautical ink just on the top of the card panel before doing my stenciling to give the desert night sky an even more authentic look.
I die cut the various cacti from the second blended panel, then used foam adhesive to pop them up. I like to use lots of height and dimension on tone-on-tone cards like this to help make the images stand out. I heat embossed a greeting from the kit on a strip of Eggplant cardstock, then backed it with a slightly larger strip of black glitter paper. I love the touches of bright white on that stark background…. the contrast is so interesting to me! The entire team has shown a ton of different color schemes to use with this month’s kit using such a huge variety of the new Core Ink line. Such versatility!
The add-ons for this month’s kit are fabulous, too! Remember Carrie Bradshaw’s hot pink crocodile luggage from SATC? That’s what I was channeling when I created this project using the new Luggage Fancy Dies. I die cut the different cases using Ultra Pink cardstock, then blended Ultra Pink ink around the edges. I also used a paintbrush to add some white details using more White Hero Wax.
For the card base, I clear embossed the new Road Side Bold Prints onto an A2 panel of Pitch Black cardstock. I love the subtle texture that this gives the background!
For the greeting, I heat embossed a sentiment from the Seaside Heroscape stamp set onto a strip of Ultra Pink cardstock, then backed it with a slightly larger strip of black glitter cardstock. I stacked the luggage on the embossed card front and adhered it with foam adhesive, then added the greeting with a double layer of foam tape for lots of height. I added a few glittery black luggage tags for some extra sparkle.
Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now for some fun giveaway information:
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.
Your next stop is Ilina Crouse. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!
Nighttime in the desert never looked so inviting!! Loving all of your makes with this month’s kit.
The Eggplant color is wonderful for the night sky scene. The luggage die is one add-on I ordered.
Melissa
“Sunshine HoneyBee”
Oooo I LOVE IT in purple! Gorgeous cards!
LOVE the purple & black!
Those colors…Wow! They are beautiful cards.
Love the purple scene!
The purple night sky…beautiful
I love the purple card! I need to put the eggplant paper on my wishlist. Thanks for sharing!
Ove the way you used the bold cors and black! So pretty. I need this kit!
Stunning eggplant landscape card. I love it.
The purple, and the 3D effect–wonderful.
Absolutely stunning cards! I love the night feel of the desert card.
Being a purple lover, you can guess what I thought when I saw your first card…very awesome! Both examples are gorgeous.
Wonderful cards! I love the desert card with the black and gray over the purple cardstock.
Love your creative and appealing cards! Your nighttime desertscape looks so three-dimensional and interesting! And LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this kit!
Two great travel-themed cards. I have a niece that would love all that pink luggage but my favorite card is the desert scene. I would not have thought to use that color combo but love the way it looks. Thanks for sharing!
The card with the Purple and Black combinations is stunning!
The second one is so cute!
Thanks for sharing.
Wow! Your cards are stunning! Purple is my favorite color and that card is amazing.
Wow! Your cards are gorgeous! The luggage really pops against the black background and I absolutely love how the purple landscape looks
Wow, so dreamy. Colors and composition are fantastic.
Gail
Both cards are so adorable!
Fabulous cards. Love the night desert scene.
I absolutely love the eggplant starry night desert scene!
Wonderful cards! Your purple scene is a real show-stopper!
Awesome! You know which is my favorite.
These sets are fantastic! I love the impact the bold eggplant has!
So much in this release speaks to me! You’ve done a fabulous job showcasing it.
Nice cards with really interesting colors! It’s nice to see creations with unexpected colors.
Love the first card. The purple gives
depth to the design. The stacked
luggage is fun. thanks for sharing
txmlhl(at)yahoo(dot)com
Super cute night desert scene! Loved the travel card too, really enjoyed the background the most!
I really dig your use of the vibrant , almost neon colors of purple and pink in your 2 cards. Something different and fun! Anyone would enjoy receiving either of these cards!