Well we have entered the wonderful month of April and that means there’s another My Monthly Hero Kit by Hero Arts launching on Monday, April 5th. Whoo hoo! I love getting a surprise every single month! You too? This month’s kit is a bit different than many of the ones from the past as it has a geometric look and feel. Can I just say how much I love it? Different styles push my creative envelope, make me think harder and definitely broaden my range of art. How about you? In my mind, I see a lot of mixed media being done with the designs in this collection so naturally, I decided to play in that sand box. I chose to use one of the geometric stencils, three geometric butterflies and two of the sentiments in the kit to make this card.
Ok, so what IS going on here, right? Ah, this is fun and so easy. I will take you through the steps and I think you will enjoy it too! That is a cool stencil, btw!
I “smooshed” several colors of Reactive Inks, (Creamsicle, Lemon Drop and Pool Party) onto one side of the stencil. Coat it well. (Hint: I chose these colors because they blended well without ruining the ink pads. Keep that in mind when choosing your palette.) Use lighter colors first and the darker ones last. I kept the blue close to the yellow so when they merged, it made green. 🙂
Now lightly mist the paper with water. This helps to pull some of the ink off the stencil and onto the paper. Flip the inked stencil onto Dove White cardstock or watercolor paper and run both the stencil and paper through your die-cutting machine, making sure to sandwich both between two cutting plates. Btw, I like to cut my cardstock larger than the stencil so that if I flip it and I’m not totally centered, more often than not, I have room for error. See below.
Once you have run it through the machine you can remove the stencil and it will leave you with a colored background image with white designs (see first photo) BUT I KEPT my stencil in place and masked and sponged the open designs with coordinating Reactive Inks. Make sure to mask off the areas you aren’t coloring with that particular color.
This gave me an entire colored piece of cardstock for a background.
I like how bright and colorful it is. The nice part about mixed media is that it isn’t about perfection. It’s about color, layering, patterns, and of course, the journey.
I trimmed down my paper to be 3 3/4″ x 5″ and attached it to a Dove White top folded card. (Tip: If you have some flawed areas, it might be the area you get to trim out. 🙂 ) A few geometric butterflies that were inked in coordinating Reactive inks onto Dove White cardstock and die-cut were placed on the background. I then stamped and embossed two sentiments and adhered them in place.
Fun card, easy to make and no card ever looks exactly the same, just the way I like it. This kit has sooo much goodness packed in it, I have only shown you a small piece of what’s inside. To see more and what others have created with this set, check here at Hero Arts.
And we have a giveaway with this Countdown. Simply leave a comment on each blog post to be entered to win a kit before it’s available to everyone else! We will randomly select one winner on from all the comments left on the posts. Good luck!
Don’t forget to check back on Monday where the entire My Monthly Hero Kit is revealed along with add-ons, a blog hop and another giveaway!
XO,
Very cool design. The stencil gives the card a very interesting look and does make one think outside the box.
Wonderful artsy look to this with great colors of smooshing ink.
Melissa
“Sunshine HoneyBee”
Happy April 1st! I had hoped Hero would add stencils to the kits. Looks like it came true. Love all the colors and thinking how the geo design would pair well with our studious kids from last month. Beautiful card thank you dir sharing.
This is wonderful. Love the colors and the sharp modern images. Reactive ink is so fun to use too.
I love geometric … what a fun technique
Loving the geometric theme! So far I have seen butterflies and fish. What other awesome stamps are included?
Awesome use of the stencil, and your colors make me happy
Debby, I fell in love with this bright geometric shapes color and butterflies. This kit it’s great for cartoons multimedia projects, tfs.
This is awesome –can hardly wait to see the rest of the kit!
This is stunning.
Thank you for going through your process. Mixed media can be intimidating to me. You have inspired me to give it a go!
Nice spring colors.
Love the vibrant colors you used!
That stencil is intriguing! Like your colors!
I love that that Hero Arts shakes things up with the MMH kit each month!
Love this method. I never thought to ink the stencil. Thanks for a great tip. This card is so cute.
I love this. The colors are beautiful! Beautiful work
Very fun set. Thanks for the idea with the stencil.
I like the colours you chose. Very different.
Love the look of those butterflies – so unique. And woohoo for stencils! Can’t wait to see more!
Wow what a stunning colorful card love it
Your cards are so stunningly beautiful! I love the bright colors and the stencil is cool. Great job!
Love your coloyr combo. Those geotag wings on the butterflies are awesome!
Love your color combo. Those geotag wings on the butterflies are awesome!
Love the colors you chose. Interesting seeing how you used the stencil.
Love that technique with the stencil!
Love the color choices. They work to bring the shapes to life.
Beautiful color palette and unique stamp set!
Oh my goodness, I dont remember seeing this stencil technique and then run through the machine! Intrigued! Sounds like a fun kit.!
Absolutely gorgeous card! Wow!
What a fun, creative geometric card. And a cool new stencil? Looking forward to the big reveal!
Love your card and super excited about this kit!
Love the colorful geometric design! Great card! Thanks for sharing.
I love the wonderful design and clever use of colour on this fun eye-catching card!! Thanks so much for sharing!! Stay safe! 🙂
Great idea to ink up the stencil itself to create part of the background. I’ve never been into geometrics because I haven’t really known how to use them but maybe this is the month I try to stretch myself and experiment a bit. Thanks for sharing and inspiring!
I love the modern feel of this card and, especially, the colors!
I love what you did with this stencil. This geometric kit looks very interesting.
So cool! Ex cited to see the entire kit!
I love the design and the colors! Neither is in my wheel house-but they will be now! Thank you!
I love the bright colors and how you made the background! I’m definitely going to have to try it!
Oh first day sneaks are already very exciting. Love what you did here to create the background. Love that geometric butterfly. Very excited to see the kit!!!
What a fabulous graphic and modern card design!
What a fun combination of colors!
Seeing your card really build the excitement of the kit. Simply can’t wait.
The modernity of the stencil is a welcome change of art style from recent months.
I love the technique and the result of the card. It is so bright and cheery. Also, I do not need to win a kit because I already have a subscription.
Your card is fabulous!! I love the way you used the stencil, that is such a great idea!!
Hello from Malta, New York. I am looking forward to see more of this kit. I do not do much on mixed media but this kit looks like a winner for that. Great card Debbie. I hope you have a video in how you inked the stencil.