Hero Arts Blog

Welcome back, everyone! The Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero December challenge is here! The theme this month is "Shake It Up". We want to see all the shaker cards! You could make a traditional shaker card, or a full-front shaker card. You could use acetate, cellophane, or tulle to create your window, or something else - surprise us! And you could fill your...

Welcome back, everyone! The Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero November challenge is here! The theme this month is "The Great Outdoors". You could interpret this in a number of different ways. Maybe you could depict an outdoors scene on your card? Or you could have a window or a door on your card? Or you could say that anything from nature represents the...

Welcome back, everyone! The October challenge at Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero has now begun! The theme this month is one of my annual favourites – "Merry Everything". We want to see all your festive holiday creations – Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, any festive celebration that you like! And remember, it's not all about cards – we hope to see tags, decorations, scrapbook pages – anything that...

Hello! The new September challenge at Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero begins today. The theme is "Die-lightful". We want you to use your dies in any way you want – as a focal point, as a background, you could create your own stencil using a die – the possibilities are endless!  Here's some inspiration from our design team to get you in the...

Hello! The new August challenge at Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero begins today. YAY! The theme is "It's Hip to be Square". We want you to incorporate a square or squares into your project in any way you want! Here's some inspiration from our design team to get you in the mood... Kanan Pandya You can find Kanan on Instagram and her blog....

Hello! The new July challenge at Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero begins today, and the theme is "Another Year Older". We want to see birthday cards! Any style, technique, theme, size, shape, colour scheme, as long as it's for a birthday! Here's some inspiration from our design team to get you in the mood! Kailash Naidoo You can find Kailash on Instagram. Kanan...

Hello! The new June challenge at Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero begins today, and the theme is "By the Sea"! You might make a seaside themed card, or something with mermaids, or ships, or boats, or anchors, or you could do a technique involving water, or use a blue/green colour sheme  – the possibilities are endless! Here's some inspiration from our design team...

Hello! The May challenge at Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero begins today, and the theme is "Get Scrappy" – in other words, use up your scrap paper! You might decide to do some paper piecing, or a collage, or use scraps to die cut, or use leftovers from a previous card – the possibilities are endless. Here's some inspiration from our design team...

Hello! The new April challenge at Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero begins today, and the theme is "Blend It Up" – in other words, we'd like you to use ink blending. You can use a brush, a foam tool, even your fingers if you like! As long as it involves some kind of ink blending, it qualifies. Here's some inspiration from our design team...

Hello! The March challenge at Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero is here, and the theme is "Send a Hug" – this could mean an encouragement card, a sympathy card, a thinking of you card, or simply a card with "hugs" as the sentiment!  We've been introducing our new design team on Instagram, but here they are all together, with their inspiration for the...

Welcome to the very first Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero challenge! We are still in the process of choosing the 2022 design team, so for this challenge, we have some guest designers who will be providing us with some inspiration! And the theme is Anything Goes – any colours, any style, any theme, any shape, any project type – let your imagination run wild! Michelle...

We have some exciting news! A Blog Named Hero has merged with the Stay Crafty with Hero challenges! Michelle Lupton will run this new combined challenge, and we are looking for a design team! We are looking for crafters who: love Hero Arts! love to create beautiful and engaging projects with their Hero Arts products enjoy sharing their projects on Instagram are comfortable and proficient...

Hi crafty friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge. This month we are challenging you to create projects that somehow include CIRCLES, whether through stamping, die cutting, stenciling, embellishing, or any other creative uses you dream up! We'll include all of the details further down this post; but first, here's some gorgeous inspiration from Jayne to kick off our newest challenge. As cardmakers, we frequently use basic...

Hi crafty friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge. This month we are challenging you to create Holiday Tags! We'll include all of the details further down this post; but first, here's some gorgeous tag inspiration from Ilina to kick off our newest challenge. Hi everyone! With the holidays fast approaching it's the perfect time to get a head start on creating some gift tags for all...

Hi crafty friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge! This month we are challenging you to create projects using Fall Colors. You can use the colors in this challenge banner or whatever fall colors speak to you! We'll include all of the details further down this post; but first, here's a beautiful, seasonally appropriate card from Maria to kick off our newest challenge. Hi everybody! It's Maria here and...

Hi crafty friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge! This month we are challenging you to use your stencils! You can use stencils with ink blending, embossing or glitter pastes, dry embossing...the sky's the limit!  We'll include all of the details further down this post; but first, here's a cheery card from Jess to kick off our newest challenge. Hi crafty friends! Jess here with a card for our...

Hi crafty friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge! This month we are challenging you to make rainbow cards! We want to see all of your bright and colorful rainbow creations, whether they include a rainbow color scheme or actual rainbow imagery! We'll include all of the details further down this post; but first, here's a beautiful card from Ilina to kick off our newest challenge. Hi everyone!...

Hello crafty friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge! This month we are challenging you to make interactive cards. We want to see all those shaking, sliding, moving, flipping, and revealing creations! We'll include all of the details further down this post; but first, here's a clever card from Daniel kicking off our newest challenge. Oh man! I have been entrusted with the sacred duty of...

Hello crafty friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge!  This month we are challenging you to make cards For the Guys! You can create a card for any occasion: anniversaries, birthdays, graduation, weddings, get well soon, congratulations...just think of those special guys in your life and make a card to celebrate them! We'll include all of the challenge details further down this post, but first, here's a fun...

Who's ready for summer and a little Fun in the Sun? We sure are. So we've made it the theme of our next challenge! You can interpret this theme however you'd like - any sort of imagery that makes you think of sunshine, summer, having fun - you name it! We'll include all of the challenge details further down this post, but first, here's a gorgeous card from...

Hello crafty friends! It's time to Stay Crafty With Hero! This month's challenge should be an easy one. It's one of the main reasons we create handmade cards. This month we are challenging you to make Birthday Cards! It can be any sort of style or design, and use any sort of stamp, die, stencil or whatever type of product you wish. Whatever birthday theme you like, let that...

Hello crafty friends! Are you ready to Stay Crafty With Hero? We don't know about you, but we are ready to Bring on Spring! So that's the theme for this month's challenge. Whatever spring means to you - brighter days, buds on trees, flowers blooming, or perhaps even rain? Whatever spring means to you, let that inspire your cardmaking or creative time this month. We'll...

Hello crafty friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge! This month we are encouraging you to join us in making Gift Card Holders. Any sort of gift card holder will do. We have a couple products that create holders - Gift Card Holder Fancy Die and Paper Layering Present Gift Card Pop-Up - but feel free to get creative and make your own! We'll include...

Hi friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge. Did you know that just 45 minutes of creative activity significantly lessens stress in the body, regardless of artistic experience or talent? That is why we started this challenge last year, when the pandemic appeared and our lives were turned upside down. And now here we are in 2021, still in need of crafty therapy. We hope you'll...

Hi friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge. We are constantly in awe of the amazing cards our Creative Team makes using our products. Do their ideas inspire you in your cardmaking? This month, we want to see that inspiration. Our theme is Inspired By... We're challenging you to create a card inspired by a Hero Arts Creative Team member! You can find...

It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge. With Thanksgiving in the US coming this month, we decided to make the theme Thank You Cards. This has been, without question, an incredibly difficult year. But one way to get through it is to think about all of the things you still have to be thankful for. Gratitude can lift spirits and help heal. And telling somebody you...

Hi friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge. Have you tried the latest trend of making long, skinny cards referred to as "slimline" cards? We are seeing them everywhere, and they look like so much fun! So, we want to challenge you to make Slimline Holiday Cards! If you aren't familiar with slimline cards, they are generally sized to fit into a regular business-sized envelope....

Hi friends! We're back with another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge. This time, the theme is Fall & Halloween. Make any sort of card or project you like, as long as it has a Fall or Halloween theme! Have fun creating, and best of all, mail your card to someone special when you're done! We'll include all of the challenge details further down this post, but first, here's a gorgeous...

Hi friends! We're back with another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge. This time, the theme is Critters. Make any sort of card or project you like, as long as it includes a critter! And any sort of critter will do, too. Have fun creating, and best of all, mail your card to someone special when you're done! We'll include all of the challenge details further down this post, but...

Hello friends! We're back with another Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge, and we're so excited to share this one with you! Last December, we partnered with Creativebug to host the Daily Practice on their website. It is called A Card A Day with Hero Arts, and it's a fun introduction to stamping, and includes a ton of techniques to try. Typically you have to have a...

Hi friends! We're back with another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge, and this one's a pretty easy one. The theme is Friendship. Any sort of friendship card will do! So get crafting, and share your creations with friends. We'll include all of the challenge details further down this post, but first, here's some beautiful inspiration from Jessica! Hi friends, Jess here with a cheery card...

We hope you're enjoying our Stay Crafty with Hero Challenges here on our blog. We're certainly having fun sharing them with you! It's time for our 11th challenge, and this time the theme is One Layer Cards! For this challenge, resist your urge to add layers, and just keep it simple! We can't wait to see your clean designs. We'll include all of the challenge...

Hi everyone! It's time to kick off another challenge! Can you believe this is our 10th Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge already? For this week's challenge we'd like you to Build A Scene! Combine images to create whatever type of scene you're inspired to pull together. Can you get really creative and combine several stamp sets or dies? We can't wait to see what you create! We'll...

Hi everyone! We have a special treat for you for our Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge this week! We have a special guest helping out with the next theme. If you follow this blog, you are familiar with Julee Tilman - she's been wowing us with her card inspiration in our My Monthly Hero release blog hops for quite a while now. And for as...

Hi everyone! It's time for our next Stay Crafty with Hero challenge! This week's theme is Small Joys. Over the past couple months, we've really been aware of how important it is to savor the small things in life. This sparked an idea for a challenge! Let's savor the "small joys" in our stamp sets! We're challenging you to make card or project using smaller stamps or dies....

Hi everyone! It's time for our next Stay Crafty with Hero challenge! This week's theme is Essential Kindness. We're challenging you to make thank you cards to give to essential workers! The simple act of giving someone a handmade card can brighten their day - you are cardmakers, you know this! Bring a card with you for the grocery store cashier, the pharmacist, leave one for...