Hero Arts My Monthly Hero May 2024 Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hi friends! I am happy to be hopping along with this month’s My Monthly Hero release for my friends at Hero Arts. You can find the full hop list on the Hero Arts Blog! This month’s release (click HERE to see the entire release!) is totally appropriate for Hero Art’s 50th birthday. (I *know,* right?!?! FIFTY YEARS?!) It’s all about birthdays this month, and the new kit features some absolutely gorgeous items that are great for girly birthdays (my favorite) or more gender-neutral birthdays. To celebrate and to say thank you to their amazing customers for fifty equally amazing years, Hero Arts has even included some special gifts with the May 2024 kit. Incredible, right? Hero Arts is amongst the best of the best!!

Here’s a sneak peek at this month’s Classic Kit, an $80 value for only $36.99:

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Here’s a peek at the Premium Kit, which features all of the elements of the Classic Kit plus some amazing coordinating products that will work beautifully on their own or with the elements from the Classic Kit:

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I chose to go full feminine for these projects today, featuring one of my favorite color palettes: a pastel sunset ombré. I used my Holbein watercolors with the gorgeous images and the watercolor paper included in the kit to create this pair of pretty projects, so let’s get started with the details!

My Holbein watercolors are amongst my favorite watercolor tubes in my (embarrassingly vast watercolor collection); the color palette is simply stunning, very creamy, and a bit unique amongst fine art watercolors. Most of the watercolors in my collection are very vivid, intense jewel tones that can be diluted down with the amount of water added. The Holbeins, however, come in a variety of creamy pastel colors in addition to the vibrant options, making it super simple to keep that light and airy look that sometimes is a bit harder to achieve with the super intense watercolors.

I started my first project by heat embossing a variety of the different elements from the May 2024 Classic Kit, which is full of gorgeous images and a huge variety of birthday and celebratory sentiments, onto the included watercolor paper using gold embossing powder. I then used my Holbein watercolors to add some Jaune Brilliant No 1, Jaune Brilliant No 2, Shell Pink, Brilliant Pink, and Quinacridone Red watercolor to the embossed floral cake and ombré cake slice. (I want a piece of cake with those colors! So pretty!) I also added some glittery gold watercolor accents for extra sparkle. Who doesn’t like a little extra sparkle on their birthday?

For the background, I taped an A2 panel of the watercolor paper included in the Classic Kit down to my watercolor board and added a very diluted spotlight wash of the same Holbein watercolors used for the cake. Once this was dry, I splattered it with some more glittery gold watercolor.

Once my background panel was completely dry, I trimmed it down and then matted it with an ever-so-slightly larger panel of Hero Arts’s gold glitter paper. I mounted that on a full size panel of creamy white cardstock, creating a double frame around my watercolor wash background. After die cutting the images and embossed sentiment with their coordinating dies, I popped them all up with a variety of heights of foam adhesive to give lots of interest and definition to the different elements. I like to keep two different heights of foam squares on hand, and then use them in single and double layers to get lots of interest! (I will link both styles below.) A smattering of coordinating sparkling gems finished the project off!

My second card features the marvelous balloon cling stamp from the Premium Kit. (You can also purchase the Premium Elements on their own without subscribing to the Premium Kit. Click HERE to see the Premium Elements on their own!) I heat embossed the image again using gold embossing powder on the watercolor paper included with the Premium Kit, then used the same shades of Holbein watercolors to create a luscious ombré background. Once the watercolors were completely dry, I added some sparkly gold splatters and confetti accents with my handmade gold glitter watercolors.

After completing the background, I trimmed the watercolored panel down and added some more gold glitter paper on only two sides of the panel. I nestled the two plain sides into the opposite corner of a creamy A2 panel of Antique Ivory cardstock.

For the greeting, I gold embossed the “make a wish” sentiment from the Premium Kit onto some more Antique Ivory cardstock and die cut the large “wish” sentiment with the coordinating die. (I just LOVE when companies provide coordinating sentiment dies!) I die cut a few balloons using the new Balloon Bunch Fancy Dies from the Add-On collection for this month, die cutting them in coordinating shades of peach, cream, and pink and adding some subtle ink blending on the edges. I popped the balloons and their glittery gold strings up using some foam adhesive and added a few sparkling gems for additional shine!

Well, that’s all for today’s projects. Now for some fun giveaway information:

Hero Arts will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, May 12th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

You can see tons more inspiration from the entire Hero Arts Creative Team and special guests over on the Hero Arts Blog. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy, happy birthday to Hero Arts!