Five Cards With The Hero Arts January 2020 Card Kit

Hello my friends! I'm here today to share with you five cards I made with the fabulous January My Monthly Hero Card kit. The theme is all things floral, specifically die cut florals. In addition to the many floral dies, the kit includes a sentiment flag die and two wonderful dies that have all kinds of uses - a small envelope and a bouquet wrap. The 4 x 6 stamp set has many sentiments to fit the sentiment flag die. They cover a variety of occasions. There are also several stamps that fit the mailing theme such as a cancelled stamp and a stamp image.

The kit comes with 6 1/2 sheets of shimmer paper in dark pink, light pink and blush. There are also 2 half sheets of heavy duty kraft cardstock. The kit also comes this month with pink sparkle embossing powder, pink satin ribbon and a generously sized Aqua glimmer metallic ink.

The flower die cuts are great but how do you color these quickly and still get some shading effects? Other designers have showed how to make and use masks to protect different parts of the flower while coloring. Someone else actually cut the flowers and stems apart. I really didn't like that idea as you would have to make double the flowers. I decided to try a pack of eye shadow applicators from my local Dollar Tree. I'm happy to tell you that these worked wonderfully and make it easy to control where the oxide ink is applied. No need for masks or cutting! Yay! I highly recommend you pick up yourself some inexpensive eye shadow applicators too. You're going to love them, I promise!

All these wonderful florals need a nice background to help them shine so I decided to use 5 different embossing folders to make the backgrounds. A good quality cardstock is needed to produce embossed backgrounds without cracking and breaking. I used the included shimmer card stock for 4 of them and they didn't disappoint. For one of the cards I used light weight designer paper. This doesn't emboss as well but it can produce a distressed shabby chic look which worked nicely for the effect I was going for.

So let's get to the cards. Here is card 1. It features the pale blush shimmer cardstock in the kit and a single red rose in this calming sympathy card. The embossing folder is from Darice and I enhanced it with black iridescent gems from Studio Katia.

Next is card 2. This one features the beautiful butterflies and greenery stems in the kit. This is where I used the designer paper and embossed it with a Darice butterfly folder. It has a nice distressed look to it. I painted the butterfly wings with Distressed Oxide ink closest to the body and on the tips. In the middle of the wing, I painted the Aqua glimmer metallic ink. I melted some of the pink glitter embossing powder on the wings too. They are so pretty and shimmery!

Valentine Card 3 features the bouquet wrap and several of the flower and greenery die cuts. The adorable conversation heart background is embossed with another Darice folder.

Card number 4 features the bouquet wrap again but this time in vellum. The flowers are purchased from Michaels. I wanted to show how quickly you could make a card without taking the time to use the flower dies. Let's face it. Some days there's no time to spare and you need a card quickly. This fits the bill! These purchased flowers are a common size and worked wonderfully. The bouquet is highlighted with a scroll patterned embossed background from Darice.

Finally comes card 5 which is a totally different take on the bouquet holder. I turned it over, puffed it up with foam tape and added a tail with bows. I think the puffiness makes it look like there is wind pushing it up, up and away! I inked a cloud embossing folder for an organic cloud background. You guessed it! It's another Darice folder.

I've got a full tutorial on my YouTube channel if you want to try these yourself or just get some creative ideas. You can see how I used the eye shadow applicators too and judge for yourself if you would find them useful.

Click on the thumbnail for the video or if that gives you trouble, click on this link: VIDEO TUTORIAL

I hope you enjoyed seeing some ideas for this kit. It is unfortunately sold out but if you missed out, I have a feeling it'll be in their next catalog because it's a big-time fan favorite. It was sold out before it even shipped and I don't think that has happened for a long time.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Creatively yours,
Janet

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