Hero Arts Blog

Our December Stay Crafty Challenge is all about the sparkle and shine. Share your glittering creations and enter for a chance to win a $50 Hero Arts gift card.

The November Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero is all about digging through your bits, pieces, unfinished objects and scraps to find gems to create a new card.

In this post, we share the Stay Crafty challenge for October 2025, Mellow Yellow. The A Blog Named Hero design team share inspiration.

Show off your creativity in our September Stay Crafty Challenge—enter now for a chance to win a $50 gift card!

Show off your creativity in our August Stay Crafty Challenge—enter now for a chance to win a $50 gift card!

Show off your creativity in our July Stay Crafty Challenge—enter now for a chance to win a $50 gift card!

Join the May 2025 Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Stay Crafty card challenge for a chance to win a $50 gift card!

Join the April 2025 Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero card challenge for a chance to win a $50 gift card! The theme this month is "Opposites Attract".

Join the March 2025 Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero card challenge for a chance to win a $50 gift card!

Join the February 2025 Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero card challenge for a chance to win a $50 gift card!

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! Our theme this month is "Deck the Hall" – we want to see cards for the festive season! Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, New Year, Hogmanay, Festivus, Newtonmas, any festivity you like! Here's some merry inspiration from our design team. You can follow the links below each card to discover even more ideas from these...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! This challenge is going to be easy – we want to see any card you would make for a family member! It could be a birthday card, a thank you card, a sympathy card, a hello card – anything you like, as long as you would give it to someone in your family!...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! This month, we're getting prepared for Thanksgiving cards and our theme is "Thanks for the Memory". You can make a thank you card, or create a card based on a memory you share with the recipient of the card. You can make any kind of project, using any techniques, as long as it...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! This month is the perennial favourite challenge theme – Anything Goes! Get as creative as you want – any technique, any project, any colours or theme – let your imagination run wild! Here's some beautiful inspiration from our design team. You can follow the links below each card to discover even more ideas...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! Our theme for August is "Sugar Sugar" – we have a sweet tooth! We want to see anything that is sweet – cakes, chocolates, ice cream, fruit, honey, hot chocolate, or make a card for your sweetheart. Anything sweet is welcome! Here's some beautiful inspiration from our design team. You can follow the...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! For July, our theme is Color My World. You could colour in a background, or a focal image, you could use pencils, markers, ink blending, any and every way you want to add colour, we want to see it! Here's some beautiful inspiration from our design team. You can follow the links below...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! For June, we're going smoooooooth! We want to see ink blending! You could ink blend your background, ink blend onto a die cut, ink blend a focal point, ink blend through a stencil (or even layering stencils) – use your imagination, but also use your ink blending tools! Here's some beautiful inspiration from...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! For May, our theme is Tea for Two. You could interpret this in a few different ways – make a card with two of a particular element on it, make two cards as a pair, make a tea-themed card, use two colours or two colouring media, or make a card with the number...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! April is A Blog Named Hero's anniversary - we started back in 2012 as a challenge run by Linda Trace and Mary Dawn Quirindongo. Since then, we have had so many challenges and a wonderful group of design team members and guest designers. We'd love for you to celebrate our anniversary with us...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! For March, we're remembering the first time we saw embossing powder melt, and thought that it's "a kind of magic!" We'd like you make any project you like, as long as you use embossing powder! Here's some beautiful inspiration from our design team. You can follow the links below each card to discover...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! For February, we asking "Do You Believe in Love?" We'd love to see everything lovey dovey - and that doesn't mean just Valentine's Day cards! Anything that conveys a feeling of love - so a birthday card with a love message, or a wedding or engagement card, or a card with a heart...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! For January, we're saying that everything old is new again! We want you to use the old along with the new – maybe that's an old stamp with a new one, or an old technique with a new product, or make a new version of an old card of yours – anything that...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! For December, we're going shiny! We'd like you to make a project with shine, and there are so many ways of doing that. You could use foil, shiny embossing paste, sequins, acetate, glitter, let your imagination run wild! Here's some fabulous inspiration from our design team. You can follow the links below each...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! For November, we would love to see cards to thank a friend. Our friends do so many things, both big and small, that make them special in our lives, and they deserve our thanks. Here's some fabulous inspiration from our design team. You can follow the links below each card to discover even...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! For October, we want to see your holiday cards. As you know, there are lots of holidays coming up in the next few months, so make a card for Kwanzaa, for Halloween, for Hanukkah, for Thanksgiving, for Dia de los Muertos, for Christmas, for New Year, or even for today, which is World...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! For September, we want you to make a card for a friend (can you hear the theme song from "Friends" playing in your head?). It could be a birthday card, a sympathy card, a you are awesome card, a hello card – any card that you would make for a friend. Here's some...

Welcome to a new Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! For August, we have everyone's favourite challenge theme – Anything Goes! We want to see CAS or complicated, monochromatic or colorful, multimedia or one-layer, slimline, shaped or square, and every technique under the sun! Let your creativity go wild! Here's some inspiration from our design team. Michelle Lupton You can find Michelle on...

Welcome to another Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! This month, we are celebrating all things summer. Anything that reminds you of fun in the sun would be great for this challenge, or just use sunshiny colours - your choice! Here's some inspiration from our design team. Lara Rizzotto You can find Lara on Instagram and her blog. Michelle Lupton You can find...

Welcome to another Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! This month, we want to go on a sentimental journey and make the sentiment the star! You might chose a large sentiment, add heaps of sentiments, put sentiments in the background as well as in the foreground, whatever you like to make the sentiment the main character of your card. Here's some inspiration from...

Welcome to another Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero Challenge! This month, we are imagining the Nutcracker and doing the Dance of the Flowers (or Waltz of the Flowers, whichever you prefer!) We want to see all of your gorgeous florals – be they stamps, dies, foil plates or stencils, be they colourful or monotone, be they in the background or a loud and...

Welcome back for another Stay Crafty Challenge with A Blog Named Hero! This month's challenge theme is "They Say it's your Birthday" (April is our birthday month at A Blog Named Hero - we're 11 years old!). I know I'm always running out out birthday cards, so any excuse to top up my stash! You can make your project using any colours, any theme, any...

Welcome back for another Stay Crafty challenge with A Blog Named Hero! This month's challenge theme is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". We're looking forward to a colourful gallery this month. You can use any technique, any style, and any colouring medium, as long as you have a rainbow colour scheme! Here's some inspiration from our design team. Jennifer Kotas You can find Jennifer on Instagram...

Welcome back for another Stay Crafty challenge with A Blog Named Hero! This month's challenge theme is "Animal Crackers". We want you to get out your critter stamps – furry friends, creepy crawlies – if it goes baa, cluck, moo, roar, bark, honk, meow, neigh, oink, hee-haw, quack, trumpet, whoop, squeak, howl, gobble, hoot, croak, chirp, whistle or buzz, and if it crawls, hops, flies,...

Welcome to 2023! The Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero challenge is back for another year, with a brand new challenge theme. (Yes, we're a bit earlier than usual, to give you plenty of time to join in!) This month is "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". We want to see Valentine's cards, hearts, cupids, anything related to love! Here's some inspiration from our design...

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...