Hero Arts My Monthly Hero January 2023 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hi there! It’s time for the first Hero Arts My Monthly Hero release for 2023, and we are sending you all lots of love with these gorgeous new Valentine’s- and love-themed products! You should have arrived here from Channin, and your next stop is Ilina. This month’s kit is full of a unique collection of images, dies, and other goodies to make your love cards even more fun to create and to give! Here’s a peek at the kit:

The January My Monthly Hero kit comes with Clear Stamp Set, 6″ x 8″, 18 Fancy Dies, 2 Frame Cuts, Heart-Shaped Daisies Stencil, 6″ x 6″, 3 Sheets of Kraft Cardstock, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 1 Sheet each of Azalea and Peony Cardstock, 5.5″ x 8.5″, Love Mix Sequins. The contents of the kit are valued individually at $77, but you can purchase this kit for only $34.99! These kits frequently sell out quickly, so you can also subscribe to make sure that you are guaranteed your own kit each month. Click HERE to see the subscription details! I have two cards for you today that I created using primarily the fancy dies with the kit, so let’s get started with the details!

The large stamp set included in this month’s My Monthly Hero kit contains some super unique images and beautiful sentiments, but I fell in love with the cute chocolate kiss and heart fancy dies included in the kit. My little boys have had to take medicine that tastes kinda grody recently, and I have been (shamelessly) bribing them with a chocolate kiss in exchange for being good boys and taking their medicine. I decided to pull out some pink and red foil cardstock and cut a bunch of hearts and kissy lips to go with my sparkly silver kisses!

I had one card idea in mind and so die cut a ton of different sizes of matte red foil hearts, shiny hot pink lips, and sparkly kisses (cut using Hero Arts’s Holiday Sparkle silver glitter paper). The original arrangement that I had in my head didn’t quite work, but I had die cut enough hearts, kisses, and lips to create two separate card fronts! Both cards feature Pitch Black card bases. The colorful foil and sparkle cardstocks absolutely glow on the black background!

This first card features an arrangement with a trio of kisses towards the bottom of the card, with some hearts and lips floating up like bubbles! I made liberal use of my foam tape roll with both of these projects, adhering nearly all of the die cuts with foam tape to add lots of interest and dimension to these projects. The card above combines the LOVE die cut with silver embossed sentiment strips, trimmed to fit and adhered with liquid and foam tape.

This second card features the “leftovers” from my first card using die cuts from the My Monthly Hero kit. I began by adhering my two glittery silver kisses towards the center of the card, then arranging the remaining foil die cuts around the silver kisses in a fairly random pattern. I adhered nearly everything with more foam tape, which I think adds so much fun texture and height to this card! I added some metallic black gems for some extra shine and to fill in some of the blank spots.

My next two cards are somewhat the polar opposite of my previous two cards. They feature bright, crisp white, with pops of bright magenta foil! (Side note-colored foil is ridiculously difficult to photograph without it looking black. I promise the foil I’ve used today is all deep pink!) When I began crafting for this release, I had one idea in my head, but it didn’t work as well in execution as it did in my mind’s eye, so I ended up with enough pieces to create two different cards yet again! I’m not upset about it!

My first card features the fabulous new Hearts Hot Foil Plate. I used some sparkly pink hot foil to create an almost-polka-dotted background featuring these bitty, shiny hearts. I used the Heart Infinity Dies ti die cut some foiled hearts in various sizes from the hot foiled panel, from large all the way down to tiny. I wanted to create a cluster of hearts on my white card front. I also die cut a few hearts from the hot pink foil that I used earlier, as well as a couple of Azalea hearts, all in a variety of sizes.

For the greeting, I heat embossed a greeting from the new You’re Mine stamp and die bundle using some super glittery hot pink embossing powder. I wanted to keep the minimal color scheme true without adding a bunch of extra components, so I searched my stash and found this shocking pink with aqua sparkles. I thought this embossing powder worked beautifully with the iridescent sparkles in the hot foil! I embossed the greeting on white cardstock using Hero Arts Embossing Ink, then die cut the embossed greeting as well as another of the same die from some more Azalea cardstock. I offset the pink die cut slightly to create a pink shadow and help the sentiment pop from the background.

I arranged the heart cluster on a plain white A2 card front, adhering them all with foam tape for lots of dimension. I added the greeting using a double layer of foam tape to give it extra height!

My second card uses the beautiful new Heart Flourish Cover Plate die as a subtly textured background for the Box of Chocolates Fancy Die. I began by die cutting the box from the Box of Chocolates die from some Azalea cardstock, then did some ink blending with Raspberry Jam and Plum inks around the edge, adding some tiny white dots with a white gel pen to coordinate with the other white accents on the card. I also die cut the beautiful bow from some more hot pink foil to make a pretty, gift-worthy box of chocolates!

I stamped some little tags to go on my chocolate box using the new Loving Sentiment Strips stamp set. It coordinates with the Sentiment Strips Fancy Die to make it super simple to create a bunch of sentiment strips all at once! I also stamped and die cut another greeting from You’re Mine stamp and die bundle. I stamped the greetings with Ultra Pink ink to pair nicely with the pink chocolate box.

I die cut the Heart Flourish Cover Plate from some white cardstock and adhered it using Precision Glue to a white A2 card base. The detail in this cover plate is simply gorgeous. Even though it’s a very detailed and busy pattern, the white-on-white creates a subtly textured botanical background that serves to create some interest behind the bright pink chocolate box, rather than overwhelming it. I adhered the chocolate box with some foam adhesive, then added the sentiment strips as tags on the chocolate box, then used a double layer of foam tape to add the “be mine” greeting. The little white dots on the chocolate box tie all of the different elements together!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. That was a long post! Now for some fun giveaway information:

Hero Arts is giving 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.

Your next stop on the hop is Ilina. You can also start back at the beginning at the Hero Arts Blog. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!