Hi there! The first Monday of the month means a new My Monthly Hero release from Hero Arts, and this month we are introducing a gorgeous new collection with super fun graphic flowers, patterns, and textures to create cards in a variety of styles, including mixed media! You should have arrived here from Dana Joy, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. Here’s a peek at this month’s Classic Kit:
The contents of the Classic Kit (shown above) retail individually for over $75, but is available for only $36.99! Such a great bargain. And, if you want even more value and incredible products with which to play, you can purchase the Premium Kit, shown below:
The contents of the Premium Kit retail individually for $107, but are available as a kit for a great value of $49.99. You receive all of the elements of the Classic Kit, plus a huge set of amazing standalone dies, stencil, and colorful enamel dots. I have two projects, featuring elements from both kits, to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!
I kept things crisp with black and white for these cards, adding some fresh pops of blue and minty green to complement the crisp black and white.
This card uses only elements from the Classic Kit. I stamped the flowers and foliage with Intens-ified Black Ink using stamps from the large 6×8 stamp set, then used my OLO markers to color them in a beautiful shade of periwinkle blue with some minty green foliage. I die cut them with the coordinating Frame Cuts, which are included in the Classic Kit.
To create the accent strip, I used the little decorative flourish stamp (which I think is intended to decorate the pitcher stamp) to stamp a pretty black and white pattern. I trimmed the strip down and backed it with a slightly wider strip of Pitch Black cardstock (which is currently in stock-hooray! This is hands down the best black cardstock I’ve used.) I popped up the strip on my white A2 card front with some foam tape, then arranged my flowers in a graceful swag and adhered them with some more foam adhesive. I heat embossed a greeting from the Classic Kit onto some vellum using black embossing powder, then die cut it with the coordinating die (love that the sentiments are included with the frame cuts!) and added it to the card front with some more foam tape. A few iridescent gems finished it off.
My second card features the fabulous standalone dies found in the Premium Kit. We all know how expensive dies are, and there are a *ton* of standalone dies included with the set in the Premium Kit. I used them to create this sweet floral bouquet, cutting the foliage from some Shamrock cardstock and the blue flowers from Lapis and Periwinkle cardstocks. I die cut a vase from some more Pitch Black cardstock and arranged a bouquet inside this super tall vase. The Premium Kit die set includes vases in a wide variety of sizes and shapes, as well as several different sizes and styles of flowers and foliage to give you so many options for layouts and combinations!
To accent the vase, I stamped one of the textured background stamps included with both kits. I inked up the linen textured background with Cornflower ink and stamped it on an A2 card front. I popped up the floral bouquet with some foam tape, then added a simple black and white stamped and die cut greeting. A few iridescent white gems finished off the card!
Not to be outdone by this beautiful kit, the April Add-Ons are absolutely marvelous. I used the brand new Arches Infinity Dies to create this framed, shaped card. To start, I inked up the beautiful new Color Layering Bold Flowers Stencils with Dusty Blue, Stone Wash, Nautical, Kiwi, and Fresh Lawn inks using the super soft Blending Brushes from Hero Arts. I used the largest of the new Arches Infinity Dies to cut a large patterned arch die cut background panel.
I thought the pretty blue and white patterned background would be perfect for a Mother’s Day card, so I die cut the Mother’s Day Window Fancy Die from some white cardstock, trimming the die cut sentiment out from the oval window to create a standalone sentiment die cut. I also die cut a few flowers using the Shoes and Hat Fancy Die set to accent the flowers in the background.
To create my shaped card base, I created a regular A2 card with a side fold, then placed the largest Arches Infinity Dies on the card front, making sure to offset the die so that the card’s fold was within the die itself, keeping the fold intact. I ran the entire thing through my die cut machine, which created a shaped card! I adhered the patterned arch background to the shaped card base, then die cut a coordinating navy blue frame using the Arches Infinity Dies and some Nautical cardstock. I popped up all of the die cut elements on the patterned background using foam tape to create lots of dimension on this project. I added a few iridescent gems to the flower centers for some sparkle!
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, April 9th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.
Your next stop is Ilina Crouse, or you can start at the beginning at the Hero Arts Blog. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!
