Hi there! We’re celebrating the new Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kit a day late because of the holiday, but boy is this one worth the wait! We are hopping along to share all kinds of inspiration with you. You should have arrived here from Debi Adams, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. This month’s theme is celebrating all things tropical, including the main kit with a stunning flock of layering flamingos. (Side note: did you know that a group of flamingos is called a “flamboyance”? How very appropriate!) Here’s a peek at this month’s My Monthly Hero Kit:

This month’s kit includes: 6″ x 8″ Clear Stamp Set, 7 Coordinating Frame Cuts, 5 Ink Cubes (Cotton Candy, Peony, Azalea, Arctic, Paradise), Self-Adhesive Pink & Teal Gems, Teal Hero Pearls (0.6 oz), all valued individually at $75, but can be yours for $34.99! You can also subscribe to make sure that you receive your kit each month without having to worry about them selling out before you snag one!

My first project uses several of the components of the kit! I began by heat embossing the flamingo base layer on some vellum cardstock using gold glitter embossing powder. The sparkling flamingos are so trendy! I die cut the image with the coordinating die, included in the main kit.

Next, I used blending brushes to blend three of the inks included in the kit on two A2 panels of cardstock: Peony, Azalea, and Paradise. I emphasized the Peony ink in the center area on both panels to look like the skyline, where the sun meets the water. I used the Beach Frame Fancy Die to cut the frame from the center, trimming a few of the more detailed images from the bottom but leaving the palm fronds hanging down to create lots of tone-on-tone texture. I also stamped just the detail layer of the water included in the main kit using Paradise ink over the top of the blending. I love how the ripples in the stamp look even more realistic picking up the colors of the sunset blended on the card base!

I popped up the beach frame die cut using foam adhesive, then stamped the greeting from the main kit using Intens-ified Black ink in the center of the blended base layer. I popped up the glittery gold flamingos using a double layer of foam adhesive. So much fun color and sparkle on this project! I don’t know if I should pick a favorite, but I think this kit is one of my most favorite My Monthly Hero kits this year!

My second card features the beautiful new Monstrera Bundle. My initial instinct was to watercolor the heck out of this set and give it tons of detail, but I was in a glittery embossing powder mood, and I wanted to show how beautifully detailed this main image is just by itself! I heat embossed the main image from the Monstrera stamp set onto some of my favorite Adriatic cardstock using the gold glitter embossing powder. I die cut the heat embossed images with the coordinating fancy cuts.

Next, I blended some Nautical ink on the corner of my A2 Adriatic card base to help further highlight the beautiful gold-embossed leaves. I also splattered some Gold Glimmer Paint on this beautifully saturated card base. I think that the splatters of gold look like fireflies! Once my paint had dried, I trimmed one of the Monstrera embossed die cuts in half and arranged them on the corner of my card front, adhering them with lots of foam tape for extra dimension.

For the greeting, I used some more gold embossing powder on the Adriatic cardstock, then matted it with a little Nautical cardstock to add a touch of contrast, but not enough to really distract from the detailed monstrera leaves. So much sparkle, so much saturated color, but still tasteful. Love it when things don’t have to be complicated to make a dramatic statement!
Well, that’s all for my projects today! 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, July 10th 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 Crouse. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!
