A Big Bright Celebration with Hero Arts

This month's Hero Arts release is all about birthdays--and the Digital Kit add-on is birthday ready, too!

The Birthday Blow Up Digital is full of images ready for a birthday party.  There are balloons for days, a lovely Happy Birthday and this bold CELEBRATE image, that I used to make this quick, bright card.

I printed the CELEBRATE design (it has a kind of 1960s vibe, I think) onto lightweight cardstock using my LaserJet and colored in the CELEBRATE letters using my copics (RV02, B01, and Y13). These three primary colors make a rainbow where yellow and pink create orange, and yellow and blue make green.  I colored in the open stars and rectangles and that was it for coloring (took less than five minutes).  I foiled my card front using heat-activated foil, matted the image with silver cardstock, plonked it onto a white A2 card base and that was that--ready for the party!

Thanks for dropping by!

Essie

Spring Flowers with Hero Arts Digitals

 I'm excited to joing the April Hero Arts new release blog hop--so many lovely new designs! While I'm waiting for my new My Monthly Hero kit and add-ons (can't resist!), I've used one of the two new digital art kits to make a quick set of note cards--perfect to give as a little gift!

This is a super simple card set--thanks to the Spring Flower Panels Printable.  And this printable is beyond easy to use--it is literally two different single page printable panels, each providing 4 A2-sized panels in bright spring colors.  To use it, just download the printable to your computer and print it on any color printer.  Here's my printout--on plain old copy paper, because I was too impatient to load my printer with cardstock!

I used a double-sided adhesive sheet to affix the printout to lightweight cardstock and cut each panel out using my Hero Arts Infinity Rectangle Dies. I matted each panel with Hero Arts Pitch Black card stock (I hoard this stuff), and then quickly built these two cards using the Smile Friend Stamp & Cut XL set.

I made these two using the Butterfly Foliage Fancy Dies.  

I used white cardstock triple-stacked for all the die cuts.  I added the black-matted panels to A2 card bases, and that was that.  

If you came here through the Hero Arts' blog hop, congrats on making it all the way to the end!  Please leave me a comment!  Hero Arts will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, April 7th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Essie

A Big Hello with Hero Arts

 Hi Crafty Friends,

Well, as I endure my third case of COVID (yes, third), I decided that an easy all occasion hello card was what I needed for my stash.  And thanks to latest Hero Arts Digital kit, called Mix & Match, I found a cool graphic that I quickly turned into a rainbow of "hellos" background and topped it with (what else?) a great big HELLO -- this time using the alphabet die that was part of the incredible My Monthly Hero December 2023 kit (and yes, that fabulous kit is still available).  

And honestly, that's my card--ready for almost any occasion (get well, happy birthday, miss you):

I hope you've had a chance to enjoy the rest of the hop, which celebrates the February release and brings us all tons of inspiration (while we wait for our February kits to come to our homes).  Here's the whole list so that you don't miss a single creation!

Hero Arts

Hero Arts Creative Team:

Lydia Fiedler

Jeannie Lieu

Pocono Pam

Natasha Polite

Rachel Kleinman

Mindy Eggen

Seeka

Heather Ruwe

Karen Brown

Charlene Madrid

Channin Pelletier

Rosie Lopez

Dana Joy

Kailash Naidoo

Natasha Vacca

Michelle Short

Jennifer Kotas

Ilina Crouse

Special Guests:

Emily Midgett

Nichol Spohr

Kelly Taylor

Essie

Thanks for dropping by!

Essie

Elegant Valentines with Hero Arts Digital Designs

 Hello Crafty Friends,

I had a bit of a lightbulb moment recently:  My children are no longer little kids.  My son (20) and daughter (17) still (claim to!) love to get cards from me--but cutesie critters from my stash are no longer great choices for either of them.  Time to change up my card-making for the kids. 

Fortunately,  the Swirl Valentine Digital Kit from Hero Arts is just what I need to create elegant cards for both of them.  

Here's the card for my son:

How to:  Using the burgundy background in the kit, the swirly big heart, and the Love You sentiment, I quickly built a card for my son--I printed the background on our family color printer and then over printed the heart and sentiment over the background using my laser jet printer.  I added silver toner foil to the design, ran it through my Minc foiling machine matted it with silver cardstock, and put it on an A2 card base.  Too. Easy!

Here's my daughter's card:

How to:  I created a background using the Leaf and Floral Stencil and pink inks.  I printed the same image and sentiment I used for my son's card--but this time I printed it onto vellum paper using my laser jet.  I added hot pink toner foil to the vellum, and ran it through my Minc.  I also blended pink inks onto the back of the heart image to help it stand out.  I placed the vellum design on the background and that was it!

Two elegant cards for my nearly adult kids (wow, time flies), ready in plenty of time for Valentine's Day. 

My post is part of the February Hero Arts blog hop -- and if you leave comments here and on other stops along the hop, you could win $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, January 14th at 11:59pm PT, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Here's the entire hop list:

Hero Arts

Hero Arts Creative Team:

Charlene Madrid

Michelle Short

Karen Brown

Rachel Kleinman

Lydia Fiedler

Dana Joy

Rosie Lopez

Ilina Crouse

Seeka

Natasha Vacca

Mindy Eggen

Channin Pelletier

Jeannie Lieu

Natasha Polite

Heather Ruwe

Pocono Pam

Special Guests:

Nichol Spohr

Emily Midgett

Kelly Taylor

Essie   

Thanks for stopping by!

Essie

Lucky Number Seven - with Hero Arts Digitals

 Hi Friends,

Welcome to the December My Monthly Hero (MMH) blog hop!  There's so much inspiration for you--I hope you're hopping all the way through.

My crafty friend Deborah is the kind of grandmother I hope I'll be someday--active, fun, crafty, and completely devoted to her grandson, who is about to be seven.  Today's card is inspired by her  grandson, who turns seven next month.  

Hero Arts has three fun and affordable digital kits to kick off the New Year--and this Whimsical Numbers Digital Kit, has numbers in a very cute script, that looked perfect for the occasion!

How To:  

1. This is a simple gatefold card, using a bright green cardstock base that is 5.5 X 8.25 inches, scored and folded on both sides, 2.25 from each end.  I've added a white panel to the inside, and it is the usual 4 X 5.25 inches.  

2. Setting aside the card base, I used the word seven image from the Whimsical Numbers kit to make a quick background by copying that "seven" word multiple times into a blank Google slide, and moving the images around to create a strip of sevens that marched in a line, two horizontal sevens intersected with a vertical seven.  I repeated it several times to ensure that the strip was longer than 4 inches --so it would be long enough to cover the A2 background I wanted.  I grouped this strip of sevens, and copied the grouping several times, arranging them one below the other on the slide.

3. In Google slides under tools recolor, I found both a bright green and teal recolor option, so I chose those two colors, creating a green and teal color scheme.  

4. After printing the slide onto lightweight cardstock (but you could also use plain old copy paper for this technique,) I cut two panels that fit just inside the "gates" of the gatefold:  2 X 5.25 inches--and mounted them on the gates.  

5.  I also took the word seven, blew it up, and did a shadow technique on a separate google slide, again using teal and bright green recoloring.  After printing this out, I die cut the shadowed word on the smallest of three larger stars from Hero Arts 5-Point Stars Infinity die set.   Using the green card base color and a teal that matched the background, I die cut two progressively bigger stars, and a few smaller stars in both colors.  

6.  The rest is kind of obvious:  Mount the 3 big stars on top of each other, and then glue down the left half (ONLY!) of the star onto the left "gate."  Add the random smaller stars in a way that pleases your eye and that's it.  Minimal supplies for a maximally happy birthday card for a very well-loved young man!

I'd love to see your results with this month's new Hero products--digital and physical--there's so much new fun on its way!

Here's the full blog hop list so that you can see everyone else's creations:

Hero Arts

Natasha Vacca

Lydia Fiedler

Heather Ruwe

Seeka

Jeannie Lieu

Jennifer Kotas

Karen Brown

Pocono Pam

Channin Pelletier

Michelle Short

Rosie Lopez

Mindy Eggen

Natasha Polite

Charlene Madrid

Ilina Crouse

Rachel Kleinman

Essie

Kelly Taylor
Emily Midgett

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!

Essie

Digital Merriment with Hero Arts

 Hello friends!

    This month Hero Arts has FOUR (yes, 4!!) new digital kits/printables to release with the November My Monthly Hero card kit and add ons--and I've kind of just "gone to town" with these and have made some gift tags, a card that features the too cute digital papers, and a whole lot of foiling with the printable owls and some backgrounds I created with the kits and foiled myself.  Instead of a lot of instruction, let me just "show the goods."  

    First up, using the adorable Christmas Icons Digital Papers and the teddy bear from the Vintage Toys Fancy Dies, I made this simple, graphic card.  

Next up:  Gift tags!  Here, I used the Festive borders and the Frosty Borders kits and made some eassy designs and holiday greetings.  I used the colors Hero provided (often I recolor them using the Google slide app) and printed them onto plain old copy paper.  I glued the paper to holiday colored card stock to  create quick little gift tags, which are always in short supply at my house this time of year!

    And finally:  Foiling!  I used the kits again to make two different snowy backgrounds and printed them on my laser printer in black (toner) ink.  You know that this lets me foil these designs with my Minc machine (or you can use a laminator) using toner reactive foil.  I made a couple of handfuls of designs using those snowy backgrounds and also foiling the Owl Tag Printables--so now I have a ton of sparkly owls and tags that will be perfect for holiday packages.  I used the negative foil piece from one of my snowy backgrounds and two little owls to put together a super quick --and super shiny!-- rainbow Christmas cards with two rainbow-foiled owls taking center stage as holiday ornaments.  My daughter says it's "too wild" for her. . . which is fine, I have plenty of wild & crafty friends who I think will love this one.  

    And that's it--plenty of fun with these four new digital products from Hero Arts--I'd love to see what you make with them!

Thanks for stopping by!

Essie

Penguin Pals from Gina K. and Thermoweb

 Hello friends,

I was so thrilled to win an early copy of the new Gina K./Thermoweb collaboration - The Penguin Pal Card Kit, and a huge bundle of Gina K. and Thermoweb foils. flock, glitter gel, and huge assortment of adhesives!  Thanks so much Thermoweb and Gina K!  If you follow me on IG or here on my blog, you might know that I am a foiling junkie!  (and you know I have my name on the list for Gina's new Fuse Foiling System.  

My box of goodies showed up yesterday afternoon, just in time for me to make a card and two tags using all the foil-y, flock-y goodness I could, some of the kit's stamps, the sweet penguin die, and the cool snowflake and starburst die.  Here's my card: 

And then, even though it was way past my bedtime, I made a couple of quick tags--because I really wanted to try out the light pink and blue flocking (see that pink penguin!) and the kit stencil, which I paired with the gold glitter glitz gel I received and the Christmas tree die.

And in case you're curious:  Two photos that show everything that came as my prize with the Penguin kit: 

These foils and Glitz gels are soooooo sparkly!  And LOOK at all these adhesives, and flock and the toner card fronts (which I totally hoard!)

So, Christmas has really come early for me!  Thanks again, Thermoweb and Gina K.--you've kicked my holiday making into sparkling high gear!

Thanks for stopping by,

Essie