July My Monthly Hero Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hi friends! It's July and we're kicking the month off with another FABULOUS My Monthly Hero release. The July kit is a gorgeous scene building kit with majestic mountains, rows of pine trees and some lakeside fun. It also includes FIVE ink cubes and two NEW colors of cardstock! The add-ons are spectacular, too, so be sure to check them all out in the shop! 

If you've been hopping along, you should have arrived from Debi Adams' blog. Your next hop stop after this will be Laurie Willison's blog. blog. The entire hop list can be found later in this post.

Once again, Hero Arts is generously giving away a fabulous prize for a lucky commenter along the hop.  Leave a little love in the comments section for all these amazing artists and if your name is drawn you'll receive this month's kit absolutely free! If you're not a kit subscriber, what are you waiting for? This is the most fun I have all month!!!  😉 But really, the kits are a FANTASTIC value and frequently sell out. Subscribing guarantees you'll never miss a kit. Plus there's such a wealth of inspiration from the designers each month! Speaking of inspiration, let's jump right in, literally!

Confession: I don't usually gravitate to scene building stamps. I love seeing the end results, but my brain doesn't process the pieces and parts very easily. This month I completed a couple of cards with the kit and then started seeing the sneak peeks on the Hero blog from the gals Talk about MAJESTIC mountains, am I right? I must admit I feel a bit like the poor gal at the back of the exercise videos. You know when they're all, "If at anytime this gets a bit much for you, follow Julee for the modified moves!" Haha! 😅

Regardless of how I arrived there, I do think this card turned out pretty cool. I used the two new colors of cardstock included in the kit (and also available individually) I wanted a kind of rustic fishing lodge poster look, so started building my scene with sand cardstock and layering the little dock pieces.

Next I stamped the cattail images to fill in by the posts and started working on the water, stamping the ripples in dusty blue and unicorn inks, randomly on the Lapis cardstock.  The trees are cut from meadow cardstock and layered with lime green and pine using the color layering stamps from the kit.

For the backdrop of the card, I stamped the beautiful Fishing Net Bold Prints in brown and then embossed the birthday sentiment at the bottom. I framed this with a Wood Frame Infinity die cut then sponged my layers with soft brown and cup o' joe inks for a real rustic finish.

My little jumper was no line watercolored with inks. Too much fun, right?

I was having so much fun, I decided to make another card with the trees, only with a mountain background. Here's where some of those modified moves come in to play. I stamped and cut the trees and layered them in front of my blue mountains. I then cut the hill die and layered it behind my mountains as if there were some in the distance. After looking at the peekers, I'm pretty convinced it's supposed to go in front, but your can be perfect or you can make art, right?  I made my tree line extend out onto a lovely meadow by sponging a little green ink there, which is often how they look here in Idaho.

We have super majestic sunsets in Idaho, especially up in the forests, so I knew I wanted one behind my mountain scene. I took some of the lapis cardstock and stamped it with the fabulous Fishing Pattern Bold Prints and cut a circle in the center as a home for my sunset. I then sponged some white cardstock with soft cantaloupe, pale tomato and dandelion inks, adding in some direct to paper swipes for some striations, and then softening with a bit of unicorn pigment ink.

I layered a piece of vellum with the embossed sentiment under the lapis cardstock and then layered the sunset portion below this to finish off the card.

I had so much fun making that sunset, I decided to play with the Forest Sunset Fancy Die add-on next. I layered one of the circle dies from the Infinty Circles Die Set around the fancy die to cut it in a circle shape. I cut it twice, so I could piece it together, and make the coloring process a bit easier.

For the sky I used the same colors and technique as above.. dandelion, soft cantaloupe, and pale tomato blended across, then swiped direct to paper randomly and then another swiping with unicorn pigment ink. I then used lime green and pine inks to shade the trees, leaving the clouds white and coloring very lightly with a soft blue copic marker. When I had all the blending done and put it back together, I decided to create a white frame for it by running two of the infinity circles through the diecut machine together.  I then glued this on top and mounted the whole thing on a circle cut from foam.

The background is blended with a makeup brush in the same three colors, just using more yellow and orange than red.  In the bottom I stamped the sweet silhouette of a l'il fishermand and the sending summer joy sentiment from the Lake Time Fun add-on. Isn't it sweet?

There are so many fun add-ons this month! I just couldn't resist playing with this sweet little raccoon  and coffee mug from the S'mores Bonfire add-on. The raccoon image is actually holding a s'more stick, but I masked that portion off so I could do something else with him. Once I saw him, I knew exactly what! And this card became a mash-up of so many elements from the kit and add--ons!

He kind of looks like he's sleepwalking, don't ya think? That's how I feel before coffee, so I decided to create a little scene where he's in search of his morning cuppa. I added a tree line in the background with the detailed tree silhouette image from the kit. Using my MISTI, I first stamped it in lime green, then inked it up again in lime green and highlighted the tips with pine and stamped again. Next I blended in some grass, adding in a few patches of grass from the Lake Time Fun set here and there.

I colored and die cut the tree, tent and coffee mug with the coordinating S'mores Bonfire frame cuts, then colored with Copics. I added a bit of white gel pen accents to the mug to get the speckled ceramic campfire mug look, then I layered it all togehter, adding in the hill die cut from the kit as a couple of boulders the coffee is resting on.

I wanted a fun rustic sign type of sentiment, so pulled out the fabulous Log Letters and Numbers stamp set and stamped the word COFFEE in cup o' joe with the arrow below, giving a little guidance to our sleepy li'l raccoon.  This is shaded with soft brown and cup o' joe ink and then mounted onto a Wood Frame Infinity die cut, sponged with the same inks.

I finished off with a little subtle soft blue sky. Happy accident... I found that when you use your sand eraser on recently blended cardstock, it erases the ink. I liked the streaky look it gave to the sky, so decided to swipe my eraser across the whole sky.

Okay,  if you're still with me, you deserve a crafty high five! ✋ I have a couple more cards I created, but I'll save them for another day and let you get on with the hop!

I hope you've enjoyed my makes and a bit of my creative process. I had so much fun going lakeside with this month's release! If you're a kit subscriber, remember you can order any of this month's lovely add-ons to ship with your kit with no additional shipping fees if you place your order before Thursday. All of the add-ons are added to the Hero Arts catalog and restocked. The kit is only available while supplies last, so pre-order yours while you can! Kits begin shipping from Hero Arts on Monday, July 8th (due to the Independence Day holiday this week).

Here's a closer look at the July My Monthly Hero kit. I've also linked the entire release along with the supplies I used for these cards below for your convenience.

Kit Contents:

• 6" x 8" Clear Stamp Set
• 14 Coordinating Frame Cuts
• 2 Fancy Dies
• 5 Ink Cubes (Dusty Blue, Lime Green, Forest, Cocoa, Sand Stone)
• 4 5.5" x 8.5" Sheets of New Hero Hues Premium Cardstock (2 each Meadow and Lapis)
• Blue Pearl Embossing Powder 0.5 oz.

For a chance to win the giveaway of this month's kit, leave some comments for the talented designers linked below. Here's the full hop list. Next up on the hop is Laurie Willison.  Happy hopping!

The Hero Arts Blog
Caly Person
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Michelle Short
Amy Kolling
Debi Adams
Julee Tilman ✋ That's ME!
Laurie Willison
Lydia Fiedler
Mariana Grigsby
Libby Hickson

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July My Monthly Hero Release

My Supply List