A Blog Named Hero

A challenge blog dedicated to our love of Hero Arts!

You’re the World

Hello there! Joy here and I am super excited to share my first post with you.

A little about me – I am originally from India, and I currently live with my husband in Hong Kong. Even though I made cards ever since I was a kid, it was only after moving to Hong Kong in 2014 that I was introduced to the amazing world of stamps and dies. In fact, my very first stamps were the ones from Hero Arts and needless to say, I loved them. I started getting even more inclined towards card making with each passing day, and now I can’t imagine my life without it. I love creating one layer scenes for my cards and bringing them to life with my Copic markers.
Professionally, I am a Pilates (Mat and Reformer) Instructor, and I love training people and seeing them get stronger each day. I am also a macro and landscape photographer.

Let me now take you through the process of my card. This month’s theme is Anything Goes, and I decided to use my favourite technique, ink blending, to make my card.

I started by stamping the turtle from the Carry The World Stamp Set on a white Copic friendly cardstock using Intens-ified Black ink. Next, I fussy cut the image and used my Copic Markers to colour it. Then I added details on the image using my Sakura White Gelly Roll pen.

To create the background, I inked an A2 watercolour cardstock using Sea Glass, Early Dawn, Blue Water and Blue Hawaii Reactive inks along with a sponge dauber. I inked the edges using Black Soot Distress Ink to add more depth to the card panel.

After that, I splattered water on the background and dabbed off the excess using a paper towel. I also splattered White Iridescent Shimmer on the background panel. Next, I used a mini brush, dipped it in water and drew the rays of light. I dabbed off the excess water using a paper towel. I love how the inks react with water and how beautifully they lift off. Then I stuck the turtle on the card panel using precision glue and stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set using Intens-ified Black ink. Lastly, I stuck this card panel on an A2 card base.

Thank you for joining me today. I hope you were inspired and I hope you join the challenge for a chance to win a Hero Arts gift card!. Have a beautiful day.

 

 

It’s Always a Good Idea (To Send a Little Love)

 

Hello Card Making Friends, old and new!

I’m Essie (@essiecards on Facebook, @escards on Instagram, and  www.essiemakescards.blogspot.com.)  I’m excited to bring you my first post as part of the 2021 Design Team for A Blog Named Hero!  As a long-time fan of Hero Arts, being part of this talented team is my crafty dream come to life.

I have two teenagers and a tolerant-of-my-hobby husband.  We live and work in the Mid-Atlantic portion of the United States and, at the moment, we are all looking hard for a pair of kittens to join our busy household. 

And that’s enough about me for now–let me share some cards with you!

For this month’s “Anything Goes” challenge, I made a set of four cards that send love.  Whether we send cards like this for the Valentine holiday last week or to simply tell friends and loved ones that we are thinking of them, brightening someone else’s mailbox with color and affection is always a good idea!

Below are two closeups of the most elaborate of these cards–a  silvery bow-tied, heat embossed vellum card that opens up to a  watercolored version of that same candy hearts peekaboo stamp.   I love the soft blurry depth this gives the vellum card front.

The interior watercolored panel also opens so that my handwritten message can be tucked away rather privately.  A love-shaped die cut gives a little hint at the interior bright pink sentiment  

But…I had more heat-embossed panels, so I made three more cards!

First, I used my favorite peekaboo die to make little window that fit around each of the candy hearts.  I shined up those candy hearts with a little glimmer and clear lacquer.  Each window  opens to reveal more hearts–in fact, that itty-bitty heart stamp was part of the love stamp and cut set I used in the first card.

Finally, to use up the last of my candy heart panels, I pulled out my January 2020 Hero Arts kit (which is coming back as permanent stock — check out page 29 of the 2021 spring catalogue!) I die cut the kit’s tiny envelope and flowers to quickly make two more cards.  

 

So, that was four cards in a crafty afternoon–one complicated, one peekaboo (love that peekaboo die!), and two that I call “easy hearts & flowers.”

I hope you enjoyed this post!  More new teammates will be posting here in the coming days, and we’ll be back every month to offer up a new challenge and some ideas you might try in your card making adventures.  

I hope you’ll play along with our Anything Goes Challenge this month.  I look forward to seeing your latest creations!

                                           Thanks so much for stopping by,

Trio of Tags

Hi everyone, Caren here today.  I hope all who celebrated had a great Thanksgiving.

Today I have a trio of tags to share with you today.

I stamped the Graphic Snowflake Bold Prints stamp onto white card stock with Versamark ink and heat embossed with silver embossing powder.  

I then used tag dies from my stash to die cut three dies from the stamped image.  I ink blended with three different colors of distress ink.  I colored the images from an older Hero Arts stamp set – Snow Much Joy – with Copic markers.

I stamped my sentiments – from the November 2017 My Monthly Hero kit – onto some banners.  I adhered the images and banners to my tags with dimensional adhesive.  To finish the tags, I added some coordinating twine.

Thanks so much for visiting and don’t forget to visit the challenge to link up your project for a chance to win a Hero Arts gift card!

Winter Greetings

Hello everyone.  Hope everyone’s week is starting off great. It’s icy and snowy here today.

My card today is a shaker card.  It features a see thru element which is this months challenge!

My images are from a previous My Monthly Hero kit.  I colored them with Copic Markers and die cut them using the coordinating dies.  My sentiment is from the Stacking Snowflake stamp set.  I filled the shaker part with various sequins from my stash.

Thanks so much for visiting and don’t forget to visit the challenge to link up your project for a chance to win a Hero Arts gift card!

Happy Holidays

Hi everyone, Caren here today.  My card today features all dies with not stamping today!

I die cut the Christmas Lights Border Fancy die and the Happy Holidays Script die from sparkly silver paper.  I adhered these to a aqua card base with liquid adhesive and added a white jewel to dot the I in holidays.

This clean and simple design would be easy to mass produce in different colors.

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to join in on this month’s challenge – which happens to be clean and simple!