My Monthly Hero Scene Building Stamp Set

My Monthly Hero is a card kit from Hero Arts.  I have Hero Arts stamps that are at least as old as my children.  My daughter is 26.  I’ve been a Hero Arts fan for a long time.

One of the nice things about them was that you could purchase them in your local craft stores.  Remember that 26 years ago, the internet wasn’t a thing and you didn’t order anything you wanted online.  Online wasn’t a thing ordinary people had in their houses, let alone everywhere else.

More recently, I’ve been getting these monthly card kits for over a year and I love them.

You get a huge stamp set with a coordinating die set.  They come beautifully packaged with a pretty piece of satin ribbon that I always keep and use on a project or two.  They also have card stock and something else.  This month it was a tube pretty pink glimmer lacquer which upon playing with, I discovered makes beautiful shimmery pink drops on my projects.  They have sometimes included embellishments or specialty paper.  It’s always a surprise!

The stamp and die set this month was a scene building flower shop with a bicycle and tons of sentiments.

It was amazing!

Here is my creation:

I’m a work in progress here, so remember that I’m embracing the imperfections.

Of all the classes that I have taken to date at Altenew Academy, the one that I was apprehensive about was the scene building class.  I believe the instructor was Nichol Spohr and she was amazing.  Her instructions were fantastic and what a talent.

I also really admire Kelly Latevola’s scene building, Copic and watercoloring, and her single layer cards.

While I’ve been embracing the Copic coloring, the watercoloring and the single layer card lessons that I learned, I’ve been shy about trying the scene building.

All that masking looks like so much work.  And then you color it in.

This was part of the way through and you can see the masks.  The moment I stamped the flower shop, I realized I did not line it up correctly.  I thought I had lined the bottom up with the crate!  (If you look at my final piece, you can see that I drew in a table and it was a fix that worked out just fine.)

After I got all the stamping done with the masking, I colored it all in with my Copics.  Then it came time to create the sky background and I did not want to color it all in with a Copic marker.  I remasked everything and used my Distress Oxide inks and blended a sky on.  I’m thinking that I saved a markers worth of ink doing that!

I’m sharing this shot just to find out if this happens to you.  My desk was tidy when I started and the space shrinks as I create.  Does this happen to you?

I almost tossed this out a few times in the process of making it.  I decided to forge ahead.  My son came down to my craft room and started a project of his own and it was a pretty fun afternoon.  We listened to classical piano music and yacked while we created.

In the end, I liked my final project.  It’s no Nichol or Kelly, but it is not a terrible Kim.  One thing that I learned from both Kelly and Nichol is that they take the time to make a practice version just to lay things out and make a plan before they start.

I’m sharing this (bravely) on Virginia Lu’s blog.  She has a feature that she starts on the 9th of each month called Show and Share where she encourages us to share something new that we’ve tried and then see what other crafty types have been up to.  What a lovely idea!

Here is a link so that you can see all the fabulous things people shared this month:  Yes, Virginia.

Can I just tell you that Virginia Lu is the BEST commenter in all of the blogosphere?!  She leaves amazing comments that always inspire and encourage you.  If you visit her site, make sure to leave comments on the blogs that you visit.  Comments mean so much to the people sharing their creations with you.  Please don’t be shy about leaving comments and letting someone know that you visited and what you liked that day!

I’m so delighted that you stopped by today to see what I’ve been up to!  I have more to share tomorrow, so please stop back to say hello!

Have a wonderful day!  I challenge you to stretch your creative muscles and use some of your craft stash to try a new technique or make a project you’ve been dying to try.  Remember to embrace the imperfections!