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

Hi friends! It’s the first Monday of the month, and that means a new My Monthly Hero release from Hero Arts! We are hopping along to celebrate and inspired with the new goodies! You should have arrived here from Dana, and your next stop is Jessica. You can also start back at the beginning at the Hero Arts blog!

This month’s theme is all about traveling. The United States has such a diverse landscape, and is full of natural beauty that is unique to the United States! Here’s a peek at the Classic Kit:

The Classic Kit includes: Clear Stamp Set, 4″ x 6″, 4 Park Scene Fancy Dies, 1 Sheet each of Papaya, Canary, Palm, Kiwi, Woodland and Mist Cardstock, 5.5″ x 8.5″, Brass Embossing Powder, 0.5 oz., and Gold EarthSafe Glitter, 0.5 oz. The individual contents of this kit retail for $73, but can be yours for only $36.99! Score!

The My Monthly Hero Premium Kit features all of the elements from the Classic Kit, but with several fabulous coordinating additions! The Premium Kit includes: everything from the Classic Kit plus Poppy Clear Stamp Set, 3″ x 4″, 7 Poppy Coordinating Frame Cuts, 4 Sheets of Cactus Hero Transfers, 6″ x 8″, and Spring Green & Gold Two-Tone Spray, 2 oz. (Color may be substituted). The individual contents of this kit retail for $107, but can be yours for only $49.99! (I shared some colorful poppy inspiration using the Premium Kit in my blog post yesterday, which you can check out HERE.) If you don’t want to subscribe to the Premium Kit, you can also purchase just these additional My Monthly Hero Premium Elements separately. Such a great option to get these beautiful additions! (You can always subscribe to be guaranteed a kit each month, because they sell out frequently and are not restocked!)

Because this kit was not my usual aesthetic, Pinterest was my friend. I typed in “California graphic aesthetic” in my Pinterest search bar and found lots of options for inspiration. The images that I found the most striking were the ombré color blocked strip “sunsets,” and I used those to create the backgrounds for the fancy die cut silhouettes. Let’s get started with the details on my projects!

To create my color blocked sunset for this slimline card, I selected a rainbow ombré of cardstock from the Hero Arts Premium Cardstock lineup: Passion Flower, Periwinkle, Arctic, Canary, Papaya, Coral, and Azalea. I trimmed them down in strips, gradually getting thinner as I went down the card front. I mounted them all on a slimline Pitch Black card front, spacing them equidistant so that there was a thin black strip between each color.

Once I had created my slimline sunset background, I used the fabulous detailed Fancy Dies included in the Classic Kit cut from more Pitch Black cardstock to create tons of contrast for the silhouette images. I adhered the trees directly to the background using Precision Glue, then used foam adhesive to pop up the grassy die cut to add a little more dimension and to help it stand out from the treeline.

For the greeting, I white embossed one of the fabulous sentiments from the stamp set included in the Classic Kit onto a strip of Pitch Black cardstock. I added some foam adhesive to the back, then added some liquid adhesive to the back of the foam adhesive so that I could ensure that it was straight on the card front! Those few seconds of wiggle room that are achieved with the liquid adhesive are so helpful with sentiments especially!

My second card utilizes the color blocked sky technique again, this time creating a bright blue sky to accent my navy blue bears and treeline from the gorgeous new Bear Family Fancy Die set. I began by trimming down some strips of cardstock using Peacock, Adriatic, Paradise, Arctic, and White cardstock, again gradually making each strip slightly thinner than the last. I mounted all of the cardstock strips on an A2 panel of Nautical cardstock, again placing the strips equidistant from each other to create thin strips of navy blue between each color.

For the bears, I die cut the tree line, momma bear, and her twin baby bears (how appropriate for this double twin momma!!) from Nautical cardstock. I added some light shading to the bear die cuts using a deep navy blue Copic marker, softening the edges with the colorless blender. I added the tree line to the bottom of the ombré sky with some foam adhesive. To accent my little forest, I die cut an arched frame using the Arches Infinity Dies from some more Paradise cardstock and popped it up with foam adhesive, as well. I added momma and babies to the bottom of the card. The light turquoise frame and the subtle shading on the bears helps the bear family to stand out a bit more from the navy tree line!

For the greeting, I heat embossed a sentiment from the sweet new Bear Hugs Stamp & Cut set. I heat embossed the “sending bear hugs” on a strip of Nautical cardstock using white embossing powder, then nestled it amongst the trees and popped it up with some foam tape.

Well, that’s all for my projects today!

To celebrate this release, Hero Arts will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, August 13th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Jessica is your next stop. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!