July 2018 My Monthly Hero - Release Blog Hop + Giveaway!

It's My Monthly Hero release day over at Hero Arts! This month's kit is so much fun - it's a trip to the county fair! For my project today, I played with some of the optional add-ons to the kit.

Isn't this carousel horse the cutest? The set has three different carousel creatures - a regular horse, a sea horse and this beautiful unicorn. The set is called Ornate Carousel. Ornate, indeed. I colored it with my Copics, then coated a bunch of the areas in gold Stickles (which may have been still wet when I photographed this - oops). It has matching frame cuts, too - but I tortured myself with fussy cutting.

The other awesome new product I used is this absolutely gorgeous Marquee Frame die. It was cut from sold gold cardstock, and is a total wow factor. The subtle background behind the carousel is the new County Fair Bold Prints, stamped in Bubble Gum ink and then covered with a piece of Classic Vellum Layering Paper.

For my next card, I wanted to show you the yummy new color of Liquid Watercolor - PINK!! So many have been wanting a pink added to the collection, so I'm pretty excited about this.

I created the quick background with a bold wash of the pink liquid watercolor, and then also painted in the cotton candy from the add-on set You're Sweet As Pie with Pink, as well as Indigo for the cone. The message from the stamp set was embossed in Detail Black Embossing Powder, and die cut with the Nesting Oval Infinity Dies from Classic Vellum Layering Paper.

Now it's time to hop! We're got a great hop list this month, full of inspiration. And if you missed the countdown posts on the Hero Arts blog, they had tons of ideas for using the stamps from the main kit. And like every month, there's a giveaway - be sure to comment on every blog in the hop, and a lucky winner drawn from the comments will receive a free kit!

The Hero Arts Blog
Amy Tsuruta
Clare Prezzia
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jennifer McGuire
Kelly Latevola
Laurie Willison
Libby Hickson (you are here!)
Lydia Fiedler
May Sukyong Park
Michelle Short
Nichol Spohr
Yana Smakula

Thanks for stopping by!

Affiliate links are used on this blog, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting me, and clicking on my links to shop! I'm showing the entire release, for your convenience.

July 2018 My Monthly Hero Shop at: Hero	Ornate Carousel Shop at: Hero	Ornate Carousel Frame Cuts Shop at: Hero	County Fair Bold Prints Shop at: Hero
You're Sweet As Pie Shop at: Hero	You're Sweet As Pie Frame Cuts Shop at: Hero	Pink Liquid Watercolor Shop at: Hero	Marquee Frame Fancy Die Shop at: Hero
Indigo Liquid Watercolor Shop at: Hero	Detail Black Embossing Powder Shop at: Hero	Nesting Oval Infinity Dies Shop at: Hero	Bubble Gum Mid-Tone Shadow Ink Shop at: Hero
Classic Vellum Layering Paper Shop at: Hero

Hero Arts + Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L Collaboration Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome! Today I am thrilled to be hopping along with the fabulous teams at Hero Arts and Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L. We've joined forces for one big happy blog party! You should have stopped here by way of Janette Kausen's beautiful blog. If not, head back to the Scrapbook Adhesives blog to start at the very beginning!

I am a huge fan of the basics from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L - their adhesives and foam squares. I use them on pretty much everything I make! And I also use them at the classes I teach, when we provide the adhesive. The people at Scrapbook Adhesives are so kind, I love joining forces with them!

For today's projects, I used the Hero Arts Artistic Peony Frame Cuts in a bit of a different way. This die set was designed to be used to cut out the Artist Peony woodblock stamp.

The stamp is GORGEOUS, but I thought it would be fun to use the die by itself. Turns out, with a little liquid watercolor, the result as a stand alone die is gorgeous, too!

I painted the flower on the left with Strawberry Liquid Watercolor, and the one on the right with Mulled Wine.  The flower centers are Dandelion. I die cut the flower again, and trimmed into "leaf" shapes, and painted those with Moss. I love that the centers are a separate die cut - I popped those up with 3D Foam Squares White Mix, and the leaves were attached using my favorite adhesive - the E-Z Runner Grand Refillable Dispenser. A little Diamond Stickles in the flowers centers made me swoon even more!

Eventually I'll put these flowers onto cards or other projects, but for right now they are making me happy just hanging out on my desk where I can look at them!

Now onto the good stuff....

There are two fabulous prize packs up for grabs today. Each prize pack is valued at $35 - one sponsored by Hero Arts and one sponsored by Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L. Winners will be drawn from the entries collected on Rafflecopter - you have until Sunday, June 24th at 11:59PM Central to enter. Click HERE to enter and follow each step. Good luck! Winners will be announced next Tuesday, June 26th.

Now let's get hopping. Next on the list is Linsey Rickett! I can't wait to see what she made! Here's the entire hop list.


Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L®
Hero Arts
Amy Tsuruta
Christine Meyer
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Libby Hickson (you are here!)
Linsey Rickett
Margie Higuchi
Michelle Short
Shannon Morgan
Shellye McDaniel
Teri Anderson
Terri Burson
Tracy McLennon
Valerie Ward
Yvonne van de Grijp

Thanks for stopping by!

WINNERS!

I have some happy news to share - the winners of my giveaway during the kickoff of The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge! I had two cling backgrounds to giveaway:

And the randomly drawn winners are:

Cheryl Rigney, who said "Fabulous coloring!! Here's another thing added to my "I need to try this" list." and MiamiKel, who said "Libby, your card is breath-taking! It's seriously amazing, and I keep staring at it to make sure I don't miss any details! I am inspired to give this another go (first one, well, we don't talk about that - LOL!) Thanks for the gorgeous inspirational piece and the chance at your giveaway!"

Winners, drop me an email at stampinlibby at gmail dot com and I'll get your goodies out to you!

June 2018 My Monthly Hero - Release Blog Hop + Giveaway!

Hello and welcome! Today I'm hopping with Hero Arts and friends as they release the June edition of My Monthly Hero and the associated add-on products. You should have hopped here after visiting Jessica Frost-Ballas. If you didn't, head back over to the Hero Arts blog to start at the beginning!

This month's kit is probably up there on my list of all-time favorites. It takes me away to a relaxing day at the seashore, and I very much love that! You'll see a couple of the projects I made with it over at the Hero Arts blog today. Here are a couple more, with ideas beyond the beautiful Color Layering water stamps!

For this first card, I used the oh so fabulous sand embossing powder in the kit to create texture on some starfish! I began by applying direct-to-paper Summer Sky ink (included in the kit) to create the blue background. Next, I embossed some scrap cardstock with the sand embossing powder (again applying the VersaMark for the embossing direct-to-paper), and then I die cut the starfish. They are popped up with foam squares for fun dimension.

For my second card, I created a sympathy card using some calming images from the kit.

Again, I began by inking up the background direct-to-paper with the Summer Sky ink. Next, I stamped the base cloud images using Unicorn White ink. Once it was dry, I stamped the second layer using Soft Granite. I love the beautiful birds flying around the card, stamped in Intense Black ink.

Here's a look at the entire amazing kit. I am fairly sure this one is going to be a quick sellout!

I'm part of an amazing blog hop today! Be sure to leave a comment for everyone along the hop - Hero Arts will be drawing a winner among all the comments to receive a free kit! Get your comments in by Sunday, June 10 at 11:59pm PST.

The Hero Arts Blog
Jennifer McGuire
Jenn Shurkus
Laurie Willison
Lydia Fiedler
Nichol Spohr
Wanda Guess
Amy Tsuruta
Clare Prezzia
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Libby Hickson (you are here!)
Yana Smakula
Michelle Short

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to grade your kit before they are gone. Check out all of the fun add-on products, too! You can buy them all and save a little money, if you love them as much as I do!

Happy stamping!

Affiliate links are used on this blog, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting me, and clicking on my links to shop! I'm showing the entire release, for your convenience.

June 2018 My Monthly Hero Shop at: Hero	Unicorn White Ink Shop at: Hero	VersaMark Ink Shop at: Hero	Intense Black Ink Shop at: Hero
Seas The Day Seagulls Shop at: Hero	Seas the Day Seagulls Frame Cut Shop at: Hero	Seal of Approval Shop at: Hero	Seal of Approval Frame Cuts Shop at: Hero
You & Me By The Sea Shop at: Hero	Beach Messages Shop at: Hero	Beach Please Stamp & Cut Shop at: Hero	Abstract Wave Bold Prints Shop at: Hero
Beachy Bold Prints Shop at: Hero	Beach Frame Fancy Die Shop at: Hero	Wave & Sea Confetti Die Shop at: Hero	Liquid Watercolor Dark Teal Shop at: Hero

The Daily Market 30 Day Coloring Challenge + Giveaway!

Today I'm thrilled to be joining my friend Kathy Racoosin as she kicks off her 10th coloring challenge! She started yesterday on June 1, and the challenge will run through the end of the month. And she's done it ten different times now! How amazing is that? She inspires the crafting community to take a break from the crazy and just spend ten minutes relaxing and coloring, each and every day. I love that so much! So you should have arrived here by way of the Stamping Bella blog - if not, head back to The Daily Marker to start at the beginning!

For Kathy's challenge, there is no need to make what you color into a finished card - it's just about the coloring. But of course you're welcome to make cards! So this is the card I made, after coloring a pretty new background stamp from Hero Arts.

I stamped Blossoms for Coloring Bold Prints in Versamark ink on black cardstock, and white heat embossed. Then I got to work with my Chameleon colored pencils. I love using these - I'm not a coloring genius like Kathy, and it makes it to easy to blend as two colors that go great together are together on one pencil! But I didn't even do much blending on this - the color itself pops so much on the black paper. For some colors I put white down first and then went over it with the color. I love the look!

I finished the card by adding a message from the Peonies stamp set (which, by the way, is another fun one to color!), and mounted the panel on a Snow folded card.

I'd love for you to try coloring this fun background, too! I have two cling backgrounds to give away today, both from the recent Hero Arts Summer Release - Blossoms for Coloring and Flowers for Coloring! I'll draw two winners from the comments to receive one of these stamps! Please leave your comment on this post by next Saturday, June 9 at midnight.

Now let's hop! I'm so honored to be a part of this amazing list of stampers & craft companies! From here you should be heading over to my amazingly talented friend Lydia's blog, Understand Blue. I'm sure she'll be knocking your socks off with something!

The Daily Marker

Altenew

Concord & 9th

Creative Chick

Gina K Designs

Hero Arts

Honey Bee Stamps

Jennifer McGuire

Kristina Werner

Lawn Fawn

Lime Doodle Design

Mama Elephant

Neat & Tangled  

Paper Smooches

Power Poppy

Simon says Stamp  

Stamping Bella

Stampin Libby (you are here!!)

Understand Blue  

Waffle Flower

Wplus9

And be sure to visit The Daily Marker for all of the details about The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge!! Kathy has lined up a bunch of fun for her 10th challenge!

Thanks for stopping by,

Affiliate links are used on this blog, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting me, and clicking on my links to shop!

Blossoms for Coloring Bold Prints Shop at: Hero	Flowers for Coloring Bold Prints Shop at: Hero	Peonies Shop at: Hero	White Embossing Powder Shop at: Hero
VersaMark Ink Shop at: Hero	Heat Tool Shop at: Hero	Chameleon Pencils Shop at: SSS