January My Monthly Hero Release Hop + GIVEAWAY

Hi friends! The first Monday of the month is definitely my most favorite Monday! That means it's time to kick-off another FABULOUS My Monthly Hero release. The January kit is fresh and gorgeous with a beautiful love/friendship theme. A fabulous collection of add-ons (including a coffee set! SQUEE!) complements this release beautifully,  so be sure to check them all out in the shop!

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

GIVEAWAY:
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 a $50 gift card to Hero Arts! Enter by Sunday, January 12th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

The January MMH kit lends itself well to a vintage style, which happens to be one of my favorite styles to create in! I went for a shabby chic style birthday card for my first project.  I started by cutting the mini envelope from the kit (isn't it so cute???)  from 80# cardstock and then sponging with soft brown ink and assembling.

Next I moved onto my tuck-ins.  I started by stamping the letter in cup o' joe, then trimming, distressing and adding a bit of soft brown and cup o' joe to the edges for a worn look.  I die cut the flowers, then colored with watercolor pencils and tucked in on top of the letter.

To accent the envelope, I stamped the letter in royal red on peony cardstock and then cut with the Nesting Hearts Infinity Dies. Next I cut the long banner die from the kit, stamped happy birthday on it, then ran through my machine with the die the opposite direction to get a fishtail on either end.  I finished up with some patterned papers and a bit of lace from my stash.

My next card uses the floral wrap and a ton of filler dies from the main kit. I was a bit nervous when I first saw all the dies and not as many stamp images in the main kit, but once I got to work I found it was so fun to work with the die cuts! They're all so beautifully detailed that you really don't have to do much to make them pop!

I used the love mail post script stamp from the kit to decorate my flower wrap, then added some sponging around the edges before assembling. The floral sprays are stippled with grape juice ink and then with white glimmer metallic ink, and the leaves and butterflies are cut from colored cardstock.

I embossed the sentiment from the kit in white and then cut with the banner die.  My background is stamped with the Old French Writing wood mount stamp. I couldn't find it on the site, but I did buy mine pretty recently at JoAnn so it is still available. I stamped it repeatedly in soft brown ink on cream cardstock and then layered everything together and finished off with some baker's twine.

For my next card, I wanted to use some of the images from the kit and thought they would pair well with the Peek-A-Boo doors fancy die. I used a previously cut die cut that I had cut the doors off of as a guide to place my stamps, then quickly colored the images in with Copics.  I then cut the peek-a-boo doors from Arctic cardstock and stamped over it with the small script stamp from the kit.  I cut the corresponding doors to my colored images off with an x-acto knife, then decorated the other doors with heart infinity die cuts and a couple of xoxo sentiments embossed onto cardstock that I cut apart.

I left one swath of doors unadorned so I could add the sentiment.  I embossed the sending my love in white on four different colored cardstocks, then taped together, accented with teeny hearts, and popped up over the doors. Such a fun card!

There are so many fabulous add-ons this month!  I'll have lots more cards with them this month, but I wanted to make sure this fabulous kit got some love in today's post!  That being said,  my coffee loving soul just couldn't resist a quick card with the new Cup of Love add-on set!

I stamped the cup and spoon, then colored with Copics and cut with the coordinating Cup of Love Frame Cuts. I did a little masking with a circle and some Taffy and Pool Party reactive inks for a background, then stamped the sentiment in my circle and popped up my die cut images.

I used the Happy Valentine's Day sentiment from the main kit, embossed in white on black cardstock as a strip beneath this and accented with a heart I colored and hand trimmed from stamping another spoon image.  A little glitter on the hearts and a thin black mat finish things off. I love how versatile all the sentiments in this month's kit are! I can see myself adding them to all sorts of cards!

I hope you've enjoyed my makes and a bit of my creative process. If you're not a subscriber already, the kit is only available while supplies last, so pre-order your kit today! Kit shipping begins Friday, January 10 and continues throughout the following week.

If you ARE already a 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.

Here's a closer look at the January 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:

• 4" x 6" Clear Stamp Set
• 14 Coordinating Fancy Dies
• 8 5.5" x 8.5" Sheets of Cardstock (Gold Breeze, Kraft, Fireweed, Rose)
• Pink Sparkle Embossing Powder 0.5 oz.
• Aqua Glimmer Metallic Ink 😍
• 2 Yards Pink Satin Ribbon

For a chance to win the $50 Gift Certificate giveaway, leave some comments for the talented designers linked below.  Happy hopping!

Next up on the hop is Laurie Willison! 

Hero Arts
Amy Kolling
Amy Tsuruta
Caly Person
Channin Pelletier
Daniel West
Debi Adams
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Julee Tilman ✋ That's Me!
Laurie Willison
Lydia Fiedler
Michelle Short
Nichol Spohr

Compensated affiliate links are used where possible. When you place an order after clicking one of my links, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for using my links and supporting this blog. 💙

January My Monthly Hero Release

My Supply List