May My Monthly Hero Countdown: Idea #3 + Giveaway

Hello and welcome as we continue the countdown to the release of the May My Monthly Hero Kit! Release day is Monday, May 6 at 1pm Eastern/10am Pacific. We will be here for the rest of the weekend, sharing inspiration before the launch. Now let's join Jess for another look at this fantastically crafty kit.

Hello! Jess here and I am just head over heels for May's My Monthly Hero kit! It is perfect for creating cards for your crafty friends of all kinds! ;) Today I've created two cards using one of my favorite background techniques: ink smooshing using our soon-to-be released Reactive Inks!

For my first card I smooshed Pool Party and Thistle Reactive Inks onto a piece of scrap acetate. (I got a little excited and jumped the gun on using these inks before they're available; however they will be available at your favorite retailers earlier this month and will be in the Hero Arts shop on May 22nd! And once you get your hands on them you'll realize why I couldn't resist! ;) ) Anyway, I spritzed the inks with water and then pressed the acetate to a piece of watercolor paper. I let the ink soak in for about 15 seconds and then lifted the acetate. I immediately spritzed the leftover ink with even more water and pressed it to a second piece of acetate to create a softer smooshed background. I let those dry while I worked on the rest of the card.

While the backgrounds were drying I stamped a bunch of the envelope, folded card, and heart stamps from the kit onto Dove White Hero Hues cardstock with Versafine and heat-embossed them with clear embossing powder. I added a little grey shading to the envelopes and cards with Copic markers and colored the hearts a pretty pink. Most of the more intricate stamps in the kit have coordinating dies but these easy envelope shapes do not so I fussy cut those. Then I used the coordinating dies to die-cut the hearts and cards!

Once the backgrounds were dry I stamped the sentiment onto the softer background with Versamark and heat-embossed it with detail black embossing powder. I also stamped the second sentiment on Pitch Black cardstock and heat-embossed it with white embossing powder. I used a combination of Precision Glue and foam mounting tape to arrange the images on the smooshed backgrounds and then adhered the panels to Dove White top folding card bases. Finally I added a layer of clear lacquer to the hearts to finish the cards with a little shine!

Win a kit before you can buy it! Just leave a comment on this (and every) Countdown to Creativity post! We’ll randomly draw one lucky winner from all the comments left across all countdown posts, and announce the winner first thing Monday morning, May 6, before the kit launches at 10am Pacific. The more you comment, the more chances to win!

Good luck!