rock n roll

Good morning! We are celebrating the release of the darling February My Monthly Hero kit with a blog hop full of inspiration for both the main kit as well as the super cute add-ons, all of which are now available for purchase! Here are some details of the kit:

Kit Contents:

6″ x 8″ Clear stamp set
24 Coordinating dies
3 Ink cubes (Nest, Robin’s Egg, Feather)
2 5½” x 8½” sheets Stone woodgrain cardstock (111 lb. cover)
2 5½” x 8½” sheets Bubinga woodgrain cardstock (111 lb. cover)
2 Mini grapevine wreaths

This kit contents are individually valued at over $70, but Hero Arts has priced them at $34.99…. such a great value! The kit is available for a limited time only – once it’s gone, it’s gone. Kits begin shipping from Hero Arts on Friday February 9th. You can also subscribe to receive the kits every month to ensure that you never miss a kit!

I used the main kit in my countdown post on the Hero Arts blog (which you can see here), so I thought I would use one of the adorable add-on sets for my blog hop post today: A Little Bird Told Me.

To start, I die cut a little bird house using one of the new Infinity dies (available at certain retailers now, but will be available at the Hero Arts store on February 15!) and a Circle Infinity die from some Pool Layering Paper and Midnight Mix papers. I stamped the birdhouse using a (sadly) retired Hero Arts woodgrain background stamp, but you could also use the lovely embossed woodgrain papers that come with the kit! (I didn’t have those papers when I made this card, but expect to see them soon, because they’re GORGEOUS.)

I stamped the bird from A Little Bird Told Me and a few of the flowers using the “rock ‘n roll” technique. Essentially, you stamp your image once with a lighter color, then add some “shadows” with a darker color. For the bird, I stamped first with Wet Cement, then added some robin-esque details with the Vintage Ombre Metallic Rust. I repeated the process with the flowers using Soft Pink and Ultra Pink. I used a similar technique for the branches; since they are all one piece, I stamped the brown part of the branch after wiping the brown ink from the leaves, then added the green, being sure to wipe any extra green from the branches so as not to create a muddy mess. I die cut all of the different elements with the coordinating dies and set them aside.

For the card base, I blended some Pool ink around the edge of an A2 Snow panel to create an ethereal “sky,” then added some vellum and white clouds cut with the Nesting Cloud Infinity dies. I arranged all of the die cuts on the card front to get an idea of placement, then stamped my sentiment from the A Little Bird Told Me stamp set using Intense Black ink. After adhering all of the die cuts, I decided that the branches needed a little more fullness, so I added some of the standalone die cut branches from the main kit die cut from plain white paper, then colored with some aqua and brown Copic markers and adhered them directly to the card base. I like doing a mixture of dimensional and liquid adhesive to add lots of depth to the card.

The final touch was to add some of the new Hero Arts Lacquer Pen to some of the flowers. (This accent pen is part of the new catalog and will officially be released in the Hero Arts store on February 15!) And that’s all! Lots of layers and dimension on this project, and that’s okay by me! Sometimes you just need depth and texture on a project.

Now, for some giveaway fun! Hero Arts will select one winner from the comments across the blog hop… the more comments you leave, the more entries you have, and the more chances to win! Giveaway closes Sunday, February 11th at 11:59pm, and the winner will be announced the following week. (If you have already purchased the kit, Hero Arts will reimburse you!)

Now, your next stop on the hop is the incomparable Jessica Frost-Ballas!

The Hero Arts Blog
Jennifer McGuire
Yana Smakula
May Park
Emily Midgett
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Wanda Guess
Lydia Fiedler
Amy Tsuruta
Janette Kausen
Michelle Short
Ilina Crouse
Clare Prezzia
Libby Hickson