Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Release Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hi friends! Today, we are hopping along to help introduce the absolutely stunning October 2023 My Monthly Hero Collection from Hero Arts. You should have arrived here from Dana, and your next stop is Ilina. You can also start back at the beginning at the Hero Arts Blog. This month’s collection is an homage to serene winter scenes, elegant critters (who knew?), and gorgeous, classic holiday imagery. Here’s a peek at the Classic Kit:

The Classic Kit features: • 3 Large Scene Fancy Dies, • 4 Fancy Word Dies, • Swirl Snow Clear Stamp Set, 3″ x 4″, • 4 Sheets of Pitch Black Cardstock, 5.5″ x 8.5″, • 4 Sheets each of White, Slate, Winter Blue & Frosted Blue Cardstock, 5.5″ x 8.5″, • White Acrylic Spray, 1 oz. The total contents of the kit are valued individually at $71, but you can purchase for only $36.99! Such a great value.

The Premium Kit includes all of the elements from the Classic Kit, as well as: 3 Mini Peeking Fancy Dies, Nordic Layering Clear Stamp Set, 4″ x 6″, and • 20 Vellum Snowflakes. Individually, all of these elements would retail for $103, but you can purchase this kit for only $49.99! If you don’t wish to subscribe to the Premium Kit, you can always elect to purchase the Classic Kit and the Premium Elements individually. To find out more information about the My Monthly Hero subscription plan, click HERE. These kits frequently sell out very quickly and are limited edition, so don’t wait if you’re on the fence, because they might not be there when you come back!!

I have three cards to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details.

I love a good non-traditional holiday color scheme, and blue, white, and silver is unique enough to keep these holiday cards interesting with enough typical imagery to maintain a fairly classic holiday aesthetic. I shared a project HERE during the Countdown using only elements from the Classic Kit, but today’s projects center around elements from the Premium Kit and glorious Add-On products.

My first card centers around those stunning silver foiled vellum snowflakes that are included in the Premium Kit. I wanted to pay homage to these ethereal snowflakes by layering them on an acetate card, giving them a floaty, weightless look. I trimmed down the pearlescent blue cardstock from the Premium Kit to A2 size, then trimmed down a piece of clear acetate to 4.25″ x 5.25″, then scored the acetate at the .25″ mark to create a fold for my acetate card. I folded the lip over the top of the pearly blue panel and adhered it using super strong double sided tape, creating a unique top-fold acetate card base!

After I had created my card base, I arranged the vellum snowflakes and flourishes in a cluster on my card front. I heat embossed a greeting from the Premium Kit‘s main stamp set using silver embossing powder on a piece of Arctic cardstock. In order to hide my adhesive on these semi-transparent snowflakes, I added some strips of double sided adhesive to the back of my sentiment strip, then placed it on top of the vellum snowflake cluster. This allowed me to hide the adhesive (at least from the front) by adding adhesive behind the solid sentiment strip. I did use some tiny dots of liquid adhesive behind the solid foiled areas for pieces that did not peek out from behind that solid sentiment strip. The final touch was to add a few shining silver pearls from my stash! Such a unique, elegant project!

My second card features the same blue, white, and silver color scheme, this time with a few pops of red. I silver heat embossed the elegant reindeer from Folk Winter Animals onto some white cardstock, then used alcohol markers to very simply color the image, adding some pops of red to the details. I also heat embossed several snowflakes and a greeting, die cutting them using the coordinating dies from the Folk Winter Animals Set.

For the background, I wanted to keep things very simple, so I lightly blended some Dusty Blue ink on the center of a white A2 card base, then splattered the background with some shimmering white watercolor, creating the look of snowflakes drifting softly down around my leaping reindeer! I popped up all of the heat embossed elements with some foam adhesive. This card would be fun to mass produce, made simpler by removing the alcohol marker coloring and just keeping the color scheme an elegant white and silver!

My second card features another of the Add-On products, this time using the Holiday Reindeer Fancy Die. I have a mild obsession with deer for winter cards. I find their elegance and air of mystery so intriguing! I die cut the from Nautical cardstock, cutting the scarf from some shimmery dark blue cardstock from my stash. I layered the two die cut pieces together with Precision Glue and added some shiny silver pen details to the scarf and the eyes. I also die cut the baubles from the Holiday Reindeer Fancy Die set from silver glitter cardstock.

For the background, I lightly blended more Dusty Blue ink on a white card base, then blended Stone Wash ink with the Dancing Light Stencil directly over the top of the pale blue blended background. I created a frame using the Rounded Rectangle Infinity Dies and a panel of A2 sized Arctic cardstock. I popped the frame up around the edge of the stenciled background panel using foam adhesive, then added my reindeer and baubles using liquid and foam adhesive. I silver embossed a greeting from the Holiday Season Messages Bundle onto some white cardstock and tucked it on the card front with some more foam tape. Finally, I added a few shiny silver pearls for one more festive, shiny element!!

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, October 8th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

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