XOXO | Hero Arts January 2022 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hello and happy Monday, I’m so glad you’re here! It’s release day at Hero Arts and we’re celebrating the beautiful new January release with a blog hop full of inspiration and a giveaway. If you’ve arrived from visiting the wonderful Pocono Pam, you’re right on track. If you’d like to start from the beginning, head on over to the Hero Arts blog.

This month’s gorgeous kit includes everything you see here:

And, here’s how Hero Arts describes this month’s fun release, “Our January release was inspired by a trip to Paris, and the locks left by lovers and dreamers on the bridges there. This month’s kit is great to get started on your Valentine’s Day projects, but can be used to show friendship and appreciation throughout the year. The focal point is a gorgeous cover plate die, with ornate detail surrounding a keyhole. It can be used alone, or layered over any number of beautiful scenes. To get you started, we included a lovely Color Layering stamp set featuring a rope swing covered in inviting greenery. There are ink cubes which work well with the stamps, and the kit is rounded out with some iridescent red gems.”

My first card today features the kit. To recreate this card:

1. Use the cover die to cut a piece of Dove White cardstock; then trim off the border of the resulting piece
2. Trim another panel of Dove White so that it’s just a bit smaller than the piece created in step one
3. Position the open keyhole over the panel to get a sense of where the sky should meet the ground, then mask off the lower area of the panel at that horizon line
4. Use blending brushes to blend Tide Pool and Summer Sky inks over the exposed area, concentrating Summer Sky towards the top of the panel
5. Remove the mask and then mask off the top of the panel, at the horizon line; then blend Soft Brown ink over the exposed area
6. Use Soft Brown ink to stamp the stone pathway and then use a brown color pencil to add some shading and detail to the stones
7. Stamp two swings in Caramel ink onto white cardstock and use the coordinating die to cut them out
8. Glue the upper rope parts of the swings to the background, leaving the seats of the swing loose
9. Use foam tape to adhere the keyhole panel over the ink-blended background/swings panel
10. Onto another piece of Dove white cardstock, stamp the layered branch image using Green Apple and Fresh Lawn inks for the leaves and Caramel and Cup O’ Joe for the branch
11. Use the coordinating die to cut out the branch and then adhere it to the card front with foam tape
12. Stamp the sentiment in Onyx pigment ink onto a strip of cardstock and then adhere it to the card front
13. Adhere the card front to an A2-sized card base

And here’s a card I shared during the release countdown using the same kit (details can be found here).

My next card features the new Chocolate Candy cling stamp and a sentiment from the V-Day Mini Messages stamp set.

To recreate this card:

1. Use Clear Embossing & Watermark ink and white embossing powder to heat emboss the background image onto a 4.25″ x 5.5″ panel of Peony cardstock
2. Use blending brushes to blend Bubble Gum ink around the border of the panel, then set aside
3. Use the Nesting Hearts Infinity dies set to cut four sizes of hearts, two in white, one in Azalea, and the largest from vellum layering paper
4. Stamp the sentiment onto the smallest heart and then layer and adhere the hearts together
5. Use foam tape to adhere the heart to the background
6. Adhere the card front to a card base

Thank you so much for visiting! Your next stop is the wonderful Jennifer Kotas! Be sure to read below for giveaway details.

Giveaway

Hero Arts will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, January 16th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.