A Blog Named Hero

The official Hero Arts challenge blog!

Let’s Celebrate!

Hi, everyone, it’s Lee Ann here. I hope you are all having a great week! Today I’m sharing another Celebration Birthday card featuring some of the first stamps that I picked up over 5 years ago at the Hero Arts Factory Store. This card for me shows that you can create something completely new even from your older stashed items.

I am loving the current trend of black and white left uncolored with a bright pop of spring colors. This palette in the center of the card is made up of, Hero’s Mid Tone Dye Inks Butter Bar, Bubblegum, Fresh Peach, Pale Tomato, and Soft Vanilla. I used a long paint strip stamp from my stash and over-layed the pretty pinks and yellows, then white heat embossed on top and added white gel pen details. I slipped this strip under the partially cut circles that I stamped in black ink with the top part of the tree stamp. I added some small illustrations copied from the stamp set with a black micron pen to fill in the blanks.

I used white gel pen and some nuvo drops in coordinating color for small embellishments and trimmed the corners for finish.

Be sure to check out our 45 years of Hero Arts celebration and join our May challenge! Click here for all the details.

Thanks so much for stopping by, More details on my blog if you are interested!

– Lee Ann

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You’re My Lucky Star

Hi everyone it’s Jessica here. Happy Saturday! Today I’m sharing an out of this world encouragement card featuring Lucky Star.

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But first, be sure to check out our 45 years of Hero Arts celebration and join our May challenge! Click here for all the details.

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Now on to today’s card, I started by die cutting an A2 sized rectangle with Bristol Smooth Card Stock.

I wanted an emboss resist effect so I treated the card front with an anti-static tool and heat set the constellations with white embossing powder.

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Now it’s time to get inky and I blended Distress Inks in Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire and Wilted Violet. Once I was happy with the blend,  I added drops of water to activate the ink.

Next, I stamped and coloured the main images using Spectrum Noir TriBlend Markers. To finish off the card I added a sentiment strip, coordinating sequins and 3D foam tape for dimension.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

– Jessica

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Best Fishes on your Birthday

Hi everyone, it’s Caren and it is my first solo post on A Blog Named Hero.  I’m so excited to join the team.  I’ve been a fan of Hero Arts for about 20 years.  They have been a company who I’ve consistently looked to over the years.

For my card today, I’m featuring the two fish stamps from the Fishy Stamp and Die set.

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I started by stamping, coloring, and die cutting out the fishes from the Fishy Stamp and Die set.  For my background, I used distress ink with the Wave Stencil on a piece of white card stock.  I used the stencil with a darker blue ink first.  Then I used a lighter shade of blue ink to cover the entire panel without the stencil.  This cuts down on the stark whiteness of the card stock.

I then heat embossed the sentiment from the same stamp set with white embossing powder on a piece of black card stock.  I then back the black card stock with a piece of orange paper that matches my colored fish.  I assembled the card and used foam adhesive to adhere the fish to the panel.

This was a fun card to make and I think it is versatile enough to be given to a guy or girl.  Don’t forget to join in on this month’s challenge for Clean and Simple cards.  I think this card would qualify, how about you?  Leave your thoughts in the comments.

April Challenge

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Stamping!

A Clean and Simple Birthday!

A huge slice of birthday cake for Hero Arts 45th Anniversary!  Hero Arts started making stamps in the 1970s and is still going strong today.

Did you know that all of Hero Arts stamps are made at their factory in California and that the company has put many green practices in place?  All of that, as well as great stamps!

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For my post today I wanted to wish them a Happy Birthday/Anniversary with this modification of the layering cake stamp set inspired by some of those amazing rainbow cakes we all see on Instagram. I used the Color Layering Birthday set and the Snarky Mix and Match Messages for the Sentiment.  I really like the bold, and simple font and it has some funny second lines that go with it. To start the design, I stamped it out on scrap paper to see if I would be able to realistically layer all the rainbow colors.

Then I took an 8.5×11 piece of Dove white and  Pebble Hero Arts Cardstock and cut off 4 inches so that when I folded it in half, it would be 3.5 inches wide by 8.5 tall, your scrap can be a card layer for another card.

I inked up the cake portion of the stamp two colors at a time with my mini-ink cubes from MMH kits, so red on the bottom part and orange on the top, then the next two colors and the next, stamping two by two all the way to the top. You can use any inks you have in ROYBGIV ( red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) order. I wanted 8 layers so have two purples.

I then used Versamark to add the white embossing powder to the frosting area, and heat set it till it was smooth. For the frosting between the lower layers I used my Versamark pen to draw in the rest of the frosting lines between the colors and on the side of the cake. Then fussy cut it out after stamping the candle on top.

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I wanted a clean look with the cake really emphasizing the tall format of the card so used the Happy Birthday, and gold embossed that and the sparkles behind the candle directly on the card base. I gold heat embossed the candle too but afterward made it three dimensional with some liquid pearls in gold and orange. I added the cake with some foam behind it and added a soft Copic shadow underneath it.

I love that you can make all your favorite flavors of cake and frosting and don’t have to stop at just two layers with this set. If you have any questions just ask. Enjoy!

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Watercolor Florals | Hero Arts You’re Beautiful

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Hi everyone! It’s Jessica here and I’m so excited to share my first solo post featuring You’re Beautiful. But first, our April Challenge is up and I hope you’ll join us! Click here for all the details!

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I started by creating an A2 sized stitched rectangle on Bristol smooth card stock and stamped the flowers in a random pattern.

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Next, I colored in the images with Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers and Sparkle Liquid ink in pink garnet. For the sentiment, I heat set white embossing powder on black card stock. To finish off the card, I added coordinating sequins, a teal ribbon and 3D foam tape for dimension.

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Thanks so much for stopping by!

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