May 2020 My Monthly Hero Release Hop + GIVEAWAY

Hi friends! The first Monday of the month is here again! And that means it's time to kick-off another My Monthly Hero release! The May kit is a smile making kit filled with sunshine and rainbows, and even some of those FABULOUS Karin markers everyone's been talking about! It's all about sending happy mail, something we could all use a little of right now! I suspect this one will go fast, so be sure to grab yours while you can!

If you've been hopping along, you should have arrived from Jill Hawkins' 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 one $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, May 10th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

I was so excited to get these day brightening goodies in my mailbox, and couldn't wait to get started!
Today I'll be sharing cards with some of the fun add-ons. The first thing that grabbed my eye was the Sun Background Stencil and the Paper Layering Window Shutters.  I stenciled the background onto Arctic cardstock with Pool Party and Blue Raspberry reactive inks.  Then I die cut the window shutters from white cardstock.  I cut some vellum pieces to back the windows with, then pulled out the flowers from the One Thing at a Time Stamp & Cut. I lined up the three larger stamps in my MISTI and stamped four different times with four different shades of reactive inks, rotating the paper 1/4 turn each time.  Then I lined up the inner flowers on the MISTI and stamped again with darker shades of ink.  I cut the flowers out, then adhered them to the window shutters, adding some pearl, rhinestone and enamel dot accents.

The sending smiles sentiment is from the Hero Greetings Sending Smiles set. I embossed it in white on pitch black cardstock, then added to the bottom of the stenciled panel.  I then chose a strip of lace to cover up the part of the stenciled  "sun" that was peeking out around the window and postioned the window panel to cover up the other parts of the sun.

Next I wanted to use the Sun Background Stencil  in a more traditional way, so I stenciled it onto white cardstock with lemon drop reactive ink.  When I made the card before, I had left over ink from my stenciling, so I added a little green apple to my mat, then sprayed the mat with water and smooshed some watercolor paper onto it to for a fun background.  I thought it looked very cloud like, so it was the perfect time to pull out the Cloudy Sky Scene Dies. 

I cut the smooshed background with one of the cloud dies, then positioned around the card panel.  The today is the day sentiment from Affirmation Messages was the perfect fit for the sun.  I then picked out this sweet little pup from the Merry Woof set to be the bearer of happy mail! He's colored with copics and cut with the coordinating frame cuts.

I started this next card with a blended background as a backdrop for the  Cloudy Sky Scene Dies. I used lemon drop, creamsicle, fruit punch and berry smoothie reactive inks, blending well between colors.  I then cut the two cloud dies, then sponged lightly with pool party ink and layered onto the blended panel, adding the second layer on foam tape for some dimension.

I wanted my Airplane Fancy Die to shine, so I cut it from pebble cardstock, then coated with watermark ink and embossed with silver sparkle embossing powder. I just love how sparkly this powder is! I selected sentiments from the Sky's the Limit Balloons set, adding one directly onto the card, and embossing the other on black cardstock to add in the clouds.

Once again, I had left over ink from blending, so decided to do a little more smooshing for a background.  I then added some extra flowers I had stamped and cut from my first card and cut some envelopes using the  US Mailbox Fancy Die and papaya, canary, and azalea cardstock.

 I then used the word die from the Thinking of You Stamp & Cut, cutting it 3 times from pitch black cardstock and layering for thickness.  A black panel, skewed behind the main panel completes the card.

While I had the fabulous US Mailbox Fancy Die out, I had to use that big postbox.  I pulled out some old favorite Authentique patterned paper and cut the envelopes from different patterns.  The mailbox is cut from nautical cardstock, and I used the same Thinking of You die, this time with canary cardstock.  I little brown inks edge all the panels and I added the first part of the sentiment directly to the page in Cup o' Joe ink.

You made it to the end! 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! Hero Arts remains closed due to the shelter-in-place order. We have only limited capabilities at this time. Currently we estimate that shipping will begin on May 15, and continue until all boxes have shipped. We are so appreciative that so many have continued to order despite knowing we have long delays. Thank you for your patience, support, and kind wishes. It means the world to us, and we send love and appreciation your way.

Here's a closer look at the May 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
• 7 Coordinating Frame Cuts
• 7 Envelope Art Icon Fancy Dies
• 3 Karin DécoBrush Metallic Markers (Gold, Pink & Blue)
• 5 White A7 Envelopes
• 5 White A2 Envelopes

Kit Value: $79.99
Kit Cost: $34.99

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
Channin Pelletier
Daniel West
Debi Adams
Heather Nichols
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Jennifer McGuire
Jen Shults
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Jill Hawkins
Julee Tilman
Laurie Willison
Libby Hickson
Lori Craig
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. 💙

May My Monthly Hero Release

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