Hero Arts Blog

We hope you’ve enjoyed spending your weekend with our Countdown to Creativity! The launch of My Monthly Hero is only a few short hours away, and we’re super excited to share our March kit with you! As promised, we have one kit to giveaway to a lucky blog reader. We’ve randomly selected a comment from our Idea #4 post ~ congratulations to Karen Link! Karen said “So beautiful!! I want to learn to color like that!! Cant wait for the 7th!!” Karen, please contact us (winner@heroarts.com) and we’ll get your kit out to you!

We’ll be back at 12pm EST – see you then!

Read more

We hope you’ve enjoyed all of the peeks leading up to today’s launch of our [hero_product_link sku="MH104" text="My Monthly Hero March 2016"] kit! Be sure to scroll down to the end of this post - we have an amazing list of bloggers joining us today as we introduce this kit. And a couple of wonderful prizes, too! (Note: This giveaway is now closed.)

This month's kit is all about coloring! If you love adult coloring books, you are going to enjoy the fun coloring cards and coordinating stamps and dies in this kit! We've teamed up with a very talented artist - and lover of all things Copic marker - Marianne Walker!

Marianne is the Product Director for Imagination International Inc, the North American importer for Copic Markers. She has worked for Copic for over 15 years. In that time, she has authored or co-authored 8 books on coloring with Copic markers. Marianne has been a freelance illustrator for many years, including designing stamps for the stamp company Our Craft Lounge. Marianne has a BFA in Multimedia Design from the University of Oregon. She is a happily married mother of 2 kids, enjoys gardening, reading, and is very devout in her faith, teaching Sunday School each week.

Marianne is the artist behind the fun images included in this kit. The contents include:

• Twelve coloring cards drawn by Marianne, printed on A2 sheets of high quality X-Press It paper
• A 4" x 6" clear stamp set featuring a selection of Marianne's flower drawings, pulled from the coloring cards
• A set of eight coordinating Frame Cuts dies
• Our alcohol marker-friendly Intense Black ink cube
• Four blank quarter sheets of X-Press It paper, for stamping your own coloring scenes
• Six notecards - two each of Iris, Poppy and Cerulean
• A package of Mixed Accents

This kit has a retail value of $42.00, which is an excellent value at $29.99!

The stamps and dies can be used alongside some of the coloring cards to add extra dimension to your projects! As Marianne showed you in Idea #2, for example - you can color the coloring card with the snail, then stamp, color, die cut and pop up another snail on your card! Here's a closer look at the coloring pages Marianne illustrated for this kit. They are sized perfectly to turn into card fronts!

This month's kit has been paired with three optional add-on products. The first is [hero_product_link sku="DC184" text="Ribbon Messages Stamp & Cut"]. It was designed to pair perfectly with the first four coloring cards in the image above, but it's useful to add to any of your stamping projects.

Marianne drew a second 4" x 6" stamp set this month, perfect for coloring! [hero_product_link sku="CL964" text="Marianne's Flowers"] is a gorgeous set of classic flowers.

The best part about Marianne's Flowers? The images are very similar to the images in Marianne's book, the [hero_product_link sku="PS755" text="Coloring Flowers with Copic Markers Coloring Foundations book"]. If you've ever wondered how to best shade these flowers with your markers or other coloring mediums, this book will teach you! And best of all? Marianne even autographed the books!

This month, we're joined by Marianne and several ladies from the Copic certified instructor team to introduce this kit! Their coloring is AMAZING, you're going to want to check out their blogs! Please be sure to hop on over and leave them some love – we’re giving away two prizes! One reader will receive a free kit (or reimbursement if you've already purchased your kit!), and another reader will receive a prize package from Marianne consisting of a 3 pack of Sketch markers, a Flowers line art pack, and 3 Kirarina 2win scented markers (retail value over $40!) Leave your comments on all of these blogs by Sunday, March 13 at 11:59pm ET. We will announce the winners next week. (Note: This giveaway is now closed.)

Marianne Walker
Marianne Walker (BONUS POST!! A tutorial using one of the coloring cards!!)
Sharon Harnist
Cindy Lawrence
Lori Craig
Debbie Olson
Michelle Houghton
Mariana Grigsby
Libby Hickson

The [hero_product_link sku="MH104" text="My Monthly Hero March 2016"] kit is available in limited quantities, and we know they are going to go quickly. Grab yours right HERE, before they are gone!

Read more

We are getting very close to the My Monthly Hero release tomorrow - Monday, March 7 at noon eastern!

I think one of the stamping techniques that will never be outdated is coloring. Coloring is fun, relaxing, and even though you are not an expert at the beginning, with some practice you can improve your skills, and become a master. :) This month's new My Monthly Hero kit includes a beautiful selection of images which are perfect to color with your favorite coloring technique.

I created a card using a rose image, which is included in one of the optional add-on stamps sets, Marianne's Flowers. To color the image I used my Copic Markers, and then, I fussy-cut the image with scissors.

I created a plaid background on a white card stock rectangle. To do this, I adhered a strip of foam onto an acrylic block, and I used this as a stamp. I used different color of Shadow Inks until I completely covered the panel. After that, I adhered it over a pink card base.

Next, I white-embossed a [hero_product_link sku="C6147" text= "Thank You"] sentiment over a black card stock strip.

Finally, I layered a strip of white cardstok, a piece of decorative tape, the rose image, and the sentiment strip over the card base and then, I embellished the card with pearls and gemstones.

Win a kit before you can buy it! Just leave a comment on this (and every) Countdown to Creativity post! We’ll randomly draw one lucky winner from all of the comments left across all countdown posts, and announce the winner first thing Monday morning, before the kit launches at noon eastern. The more you comment, the more chances to win!

Read more