August My Monthly Hero Release Hop + Giveaway

Hi friends! Today I'm so honored and super excited to be joining the August My Monthly Hero Release Hop with Hero Arts. If you've been hopping along and arrived from the delightful blog of Jessica Frost-Ballas, you're all set. If you're just tuning in, you can keep hopping from here or head on over to the Hero Arts blog to start from the beginning. There's a fabulous giveaway prize of the main kit for one lucky commenter, so you're going to want to hop along and shout out some love to all of these fabulous artists. The giveaway closes Sunday, August 12th at 11:59pm, and the winner will be announced the following week.

I must say when I sat down to create with these adorable stamps that I was feeling a little bit lost being on the designer end of a release and a bit nervous to be joining this list of talented artists. Mark quietly calmed my fears by saying, "Just do YOU." Such good advice for us all, and I'm pretty sure I need a stamp (and a wall-sized poster) of that saying to remind me of this on a daily basis! So here I am, just doing ME. I hope you're inspired (and have a cuppa something fabulous at your side, since this is going to be a long post)!

Once I started creating, I just couldn't stop, wanting to try a variety of ideas with some of the optional add-ons for this month's kit. My first idea was a shabby chic card centered around the beautiful Tea Party Fancy Die. I grabbed some papers from the Santorini collection and cut the die and the oval frame, from one pattern and just the oval from another. I added some shading to the edges with distress oxide inks, then added accents with the Crystal Clear Laquer Pen to the window frame and the tea set up. This pen is my handy dandy new best friend. I *just might* have went a little cray-cray with the glitter because I loved working with this pen so much!

Next up I added some lace trim to around the edge of the oval with red line tape and popped this layer up on foam tape.  The background is another design from the Santorini line, sponged with distress oxides.  The stamped flowers and sentiment are from the darling Spill the Tea stamp set and cut with the coordinating Spill the Tea Frame Cuts. I colored them with copics, then coated them with the Crystal Clear Laquer Pen and sprinkled some glitter on. I did the centers first, with a latte colored glitter, then the petals with a diamond glitter. May have sprinkled a bit much, but you can never have too much glitter, right?

I finished with a few more glitter accents on the designer paper, then added in a chipboard bird, some paper flowers and a seam binding bow to complete the shabby chic look. I love how this turned out and have an idea to make some shabby chic ornaments for Christmas gifts with this die set. Can't wait to give it a go.

For my second card, I couldn't wait to ink up the lovely Mocha Maiden! Isn't she something? Definitely not how I look drinking my morning coffee, but maybe an accurate portrait of how it makes me feel! Haha! She's stamped in Intense Black Ink and colored with Arteza real brush pens and a wink of stella clear glitter pen. I had another heyday using that Crystal Clear Laquer Pen and sprinkled glitter, because a diva should sparkle wherever she goes, right?

For the layout I used the oval from the Tea Party Fancy Die to cut the image as well as an offset black mat. The background is the super cool Distressed Tile Bold Prints background stamp, embossed with White Puff Embossing Powder. I can see myself using this background a lot, and with the white puff embossing it has so much texture!  I blended some distress oxides over the embossing and then buffed with a baby wipe for a nice resist. I figured this diva surely was a sweety, so selected the punny sentiment from the Spill the Tea stamp set and a few rhinestones to finish things off.

Next up is the adorable kitten in a cup from the Kit-Tea Stamp & Cut. How purrr-fect is she? Once the boys are back in school, we're going to get a cat again and I just can't wait to meet my new little companion! I stamped her in Intense Black Ink and colored with Arteza real brush pens and a wink of stella glitter pen. Once I cut her out with the coordinating die, I decided the cup was looking a little plain, so stamped some of the flowers from the set. Then I used that Crystal Clear Laquer Pen again to coat the flowers.

While this was drying, I decided to play with some alcohol inks, so made a little background with a variety of blues, greens and a gold mixative. At this point, I decided the flowers on the cup needed to bring in some of the turquoise from the background, so I colored the dried lacquer with Copic markers and then highlighted the centers with a drop of white nuvo drops. I finished off with a sweet little sentiment from the set.

My final card today uses the gorgeous teacup from the Spill the Tea stamp set and coordinating Spill the Tea Frame Cuts. I stamped in Intense Black Ink and watercolored with distress inks. I spent a lot of time getting just the right look on the roses, then decided to add some accents with that Crystal Clear Laquer Pen and lost a lot of the highlights. Oops!

For the background I embossed the Floral Doily Bold Prints background stamp with White Puff Embossing Powder and then blended with distress inks and buffed with a baby wipe. I love the effect! I selected the come oolong sentiment from the same set, cut with a circle and finished off with some black accents and a little stamped and die cut leaf with pearls.

Alrighty! If you're still with me, you deserve a high five! ✋ Thanks so much for hanging out with me as a I shared these cards.  I hope you found a little inspiration for these delightful optional add-ons.  The August Main Kit is absolutely fabulous and if you're a coffee lover like me, you NEED it! Be sure to snatch one up before they're gone! I can't wait to hop along and see what all these fabulous artists created with the kit!

August 2018 My Monthly Hero Kit

August 2018 Optional Add-Ons

If you haven't heard of My Monthly Hero, they release a new kit and optional add-ons the first Monday of each month. The kit is available for a limited time to non-subscribers and once it's sold out it's gone for good. You can also subscribe to the kit so you never miss one.

Alrighty, your next stop for inspiration is Kelly Latevola. Check out the entire hop list below. Happy hopping!

The Hero Arts Blog

Amy Kolling

Amy Tsuruta

Clare Prezzia

Emily Midgett

Ilina Crouse

Janette Kausen

Jennifer McGuire

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Julee Tilman (That's Me!)

Kelly Latevola

Laurie Willison

Libby Hickson

Lydia Fiedler

Michelle Short

Nichol Spohr

Wanda Guess

Yana Smakula

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Hero Arts - My Monthly Hero August... [ HA ] Hero Arts Get Them All August Add-Ons [ HA ] Hero Arts Tea Party Fancy Die [ HA ] Hero Arts Spill the Tea Stamp Set [ HA ] Hero Arts Spill The Tea Frame Cuts [ HA ] Hero Arts Mocha Maiden [ HA ] Hero Arts Distressed Tile Bold Prints [ HA ] Hero Arts Kit-Tea Stamp & Cut [ HA ] Hero Arts Floral Doily Bold Prints [ HA ] NK350 Crystal Clear Lacquer Pen -... [ HA ] PW121 White Puff - Hero Arts [ HA ] MT100 Original MISTI Laser Etched... [ HA ] Ranger Ink - Antique Linen Distress... [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Tea Dye Distress Oxide [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Ground Espresso Distress... [ SBC ] Prima Santorini 8x8 Paper Pad [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Wilted Violet Distress... [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Dusty Concord Distress... [ SBC ] Canson XL Series Bristol Pad, 9"X12"... [ AMZUS ] Tsukineko - VersaMark Watermark Ink... [ SBC ] Arteza Real Brush Pens, 96 Paint... [ AMZUS ] ZIG - Memory System - Wink Of Stella... [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Tim Holtz - Alcohol Ink... [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Tim Holtz - Adirondack... [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Alcohol Ink - Citrus [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Alcohol Ink - Pool [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Alcohol Ink -Mermaid [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Alcohol Ink - Limeade [ AMZUS ] Jacquard - Pinata Alcohol Inks - Rich... [ AMZUS ] Nuvo Crystal Drops - Gloss White [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Distress Ink Mini -... [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Distress Ink Mini -... [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Distress Ink Mini -... [ SBC ] Ranger Ink - Distress Ink Mini -... [ SBC ]