Hero Arts My Monthly Hero July Blog Hop

Hello friends! I'm participating in today's Hero Arts blog hop!  I'm sharing two cards using the new July My Monthly Hero kit. The kit features a gorgeous ocean theme, with boatloads of jellyfish, octopus, sea turtles, coral, etc. HA! Seriously, it is a huge set. As usual, once the kit sells out, it is gone. I'm predicting a sell out.

UPDATE:  THE KIT SOLD OUT and a winner has been selected.  

NOTE:  Hero Arts will donate 10% of profits from sales of the July 2016 kit to the World Wildlife Foundation for ocean preservation.  Sweet.

Card #1

Made this card with the add on stamp set, Color Layering Octopus. Apparently, octopus** are trendy. Who knew?

I stamped the solid octopus over the embossed layer, using Kuretake Clean Color markers on Strathmore Bristol paper. I learned from Kristina Werner that you can get a great image stamping with these markers if you condition the stamp with Ranger Black Archival ink (then clean the stamp!). It worked perfectly!  A little watercoloring over the image and on the panel, a little gold shimmer, black speckles, yada yada, and it was done.

Card #2

For my second card, I just wanted to make a pretty pattern.  So, I  used a bunch of small images from both sets, using every acrylic block I own, and carefully stamped out a pattern.  The tiny fish are great for filling in gaps.  Clean and fresh.

The main kit:

The Color Layering Octopus add on:

You like?  Me too!

Here's a list of the designers participating in the blog hop. Hero Arts will select one comment from all the blogs to win the kit. Good luck!

Hero Arts Blog
Yana Smakula
Amy Tsuruta
Clare Prezzia
May Park
Laura Bassen
Lydia Fiedler
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Justin Krieger
Jennifer McGuire
Jenn Shurkus
Veronica Zalis
Libby Hickson
Joan Bardee <----- me!

 ** There's a dispute over the proper word for more than one octopus. I'm sticking with octopus.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Good. Now, it's time to clean up the craft room!