October My Monthly Hero Release Blog Hop + GIVEAWAY

Hi friends! It's time to kick-off another My Monthly Hero release! This month we've got a fabulous Scandinavian folk art theme to play with. I absolutely love the possibilities with this set, especially for making handmade ornaments, which I love to make and gift to friends and family!

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

For my first card, I decided to pair the smaller stamps in the kit with the Peek-A-Boo Doors Fancy Die.  I chose cornflower blue and red royal for my colors, stamping in alternating colors all around the outer doors.  I left the inner doors plain so I could add my other stamps.  The santa and reindeer image is die cut and popped up on foam tape.  I stamped the jingle all the way sentiment and the bell, then cut with the plain oval die from the kit and matted with the wavy oval cut from lapis cardstock.  I added a silver snowflake embellishment to finish things off.  I love this clean fun look, and since I loaded all the stamps up in my MISTI it would be easy to mass produce. I did stamp messages from the previously released Christmas Messages set inside all the open doors for a peek-a-boo surprise.

As I mentioned before, I love to make handmade ornaments.  So as soon as I saw the kit, I couldn't wait to use it to create a fun shaker ornament.  To start, I cut several ornament with the oval cut out from chipboard coasters and glued all the layers together.  Next I removed the oval die and cut the solid ornament once from acetate, once from chipboard, and once from patterned paper to cover the back of the ornament.  I then cut an oval from patterned paper and stamped with the sentiment and one of the snowflakes from the set. 

I adhered the solid ornament of pattern paper and the chipboard ornament to the back of my layered piece, then I adhered the stamped oval inside.  To fill the shaker, I added a bit of icicle glitter and some clear sequins, then covered with the acetate and the patterned paper ornament.  The wavy oval is cut from white cardstock and then I centered the plain oval in it and cut again for a sweet little frame for the oval.  I finished off with some silver cording and a white seam binding bow.  Super fun, and I know I'll be making lots of these! 

My next card pairs the gorgeous new Northern Winter Cover Plate  with the ornament from the kit for a fun card.  I had a bit of a smooshing party, using strawberry liquid watercolor and red glimmer metallic inks on watercolor paper to make several backgrounds.  I layered the cover plate die cut in white over one of the finished backgrounds. 

I then used another background to stamp the ornament in ruby pigment ink and emboss with sparkle embossing powder.  I die cut and layered onto a die cut chipboard piece to give it some heft, then cut an oval from the same background paper and embossed the leaping reindeer and the Merry Christmas sentiment and popped up for some dimension.  I added the ornament to the card as if it was hanging from the center snowflake, using a white gel pen to add a little line for the "string".  I finished off with a white seam binding bow.

While I was having my smooshing party, I also did several backgrounds with indigo liquid watercolor, blue glimmer metallic ink, and silver glimmer metallic ink.  I used one of these for this card, adding in some snowflakes from the kit embossed with white embossing powder around my focal image.  The bottom of the background is done by dabbing embossing ink randomly around and then embossing with white puff embossing powder for a snow flurry look. I then sponged around the edges with blue glimmer metallic ink.

The tree is the GORGEOUS Floral Holiday Tree Fancy Die add on.  I die cut it once from white cardstock, then separated the two dies and die cut just the solid tree from white cardstock.  I painted the solid tree with blue glimmer metallic ink, then layered together and added to a chipboard tree for some thickness. The sentiment from the kit is stamped with sapphire pigment ink and embossed, then matted with a piece of cardstock painted with the blue glimmer metallic ink to match.

I was liking the look of these fancy dies on a smooshed background that I decided to do one more card.  This background was done with purple liquid watercolor and a lot more white space.  I then cut the beautiful Crowned Swan Fancy Die  from some holographic paper from a past kit. You could just as easily just cut from a piece of cardstock painted with purple glimmer metallic ink, though. I stamped the sentiment from the kit in amethyst pigment ink and clear embossed.

I also have one more card I sneak peeked this morning using the October Fancy Word add-on and the previously release Pure Magic set.  You can view this post for the creative details.

Whew! You made it to the end of the post! 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! We estimate kit shipping will begin Friday, October 9, and continue throughout the following week.

Here's a closer look at the October 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
• 12 Coordinating Frame Cuts
• 1 Ornament Shape Die
• 2 Inner Ornament Dies
• 3 Embossing Powders (Red, Glacier Blue, White Sparkle), 1/2 oz. each
• 1 Watermark & Embossing Ink Cube

Kit Value: $76.00
Kit Cost: $34.99

Don't miss this month's Featured Products Collection.  We've assembled a collection of products we feel work well with this month's release. One of the perks to being a My Monthly Hero subscriber is an extra discount on these products. Subscribe now so you can get the best deals!

GIVEAWAY:
Hero Arts is generously giving away one $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, October 11th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Hero Kids Collection:

The Hero Kids Monster Kit begins shipping this Friday! Such a fun way to get the kiddos being creative away from a screen! And these monster scenes are so cute!

Be sure to check out the entire Hero Kids Collection. There are some cute, cute sets! My order with the Eat Cake All Day Stamp & Cut just arrived and I can't wait to use it! I also got the Party Monsters set.  I think they'll work great with the Peek-a-Boo dies I love to use.

 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
Channin Pelletier
Dana Joy
Daniel West
Debi Adams
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Libby Hickson
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Pocono Pam
Seeka
Amy Kolling
Jennifer McGuire
Julee Tilman
Laurie Willison
Mariana Grigsby
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. 💙

October My Monthly Hero Release

My Supply List