My Monthly Hero May 2021 • 10 Cards 1 Kit!

Hello Folks! Scott here with my 10 cards created using the My Monthly Hero May 2021 Kit. We are in for a trip to a coral reef with this kit , featuring some of the most beautiful creatures to inhabit the ocean depths.

I must apologize for being a little late with my post this month. I have been preoccupied with a fun bit of renovation going on in the craft/office/guest bedroom. Our second bedroom is basically 8′ x 14′ and has always doubled as a guest room by way of a futon – the drop wing desk folds down and the futon folds out.

My dest is on the left and Joel’s desk is on the right with the drop-leaf between us – you can see my green cutting mat on the drop-leaf – that is basically my crafting area. Needless to say, all the cupboards are full… and the white cart at the end of the futon is a recent addition to replace an old set of plastic drawers on wheels that finally collapsed under the load of Too Much Paper! I feel like I’m at a slight disadvantage living in New York City… (craft room wise!) not only do we have limited space, but we live two blocks away from the George Washington Bridge so we get A LOT of dust! I don’t think I could have racks and racks of colorfully filed paper just sitting out in the open. So I’ve always been focused on covered storage for all my supplies. My Silhouette Portrait even has a dust-cover!

For a number of years, I had seen some sideways Murphy Beds that had desks attached to them (when folded up) and have been dreaming about one for oh, so long… I found one I really liked but it was HUGELY expensive, so I kept looking around and finally made the plunge and bought this one! (thank you, COSTCO!!)

So this is my new 6′ 4″ craft desk that just happens to have a bed attached to the back of it! I can really spread out! And everything on the desk can stay there as the bed folds out – it automatically stays level and tucks neatly under the bed! We got rid of the drop-leaf table and filled in that space with a lateral file cabinet – MUCH better use of that space – and it fit perfectly!

This Murphy Bed was quite a bear to assemble as the whole thing has to be carefully leveled, and anchored solidly into the wall. Ultimately, we will add cabinets and drawers to the left and right and across the top of the bed – I found some Ikea cabinets that will fit perfectly, but IKEA seems to be out of everything up and down the entire east coast!! The room feels very different but there is much more floor space without the futon! My desk chair fits the new desk as well and I can roll back and forth and to and fro and grab and go!

You can see the edge of the desk nice and flat, level with the floor snuggled up right under the bed! I’m THRILLED! I’ve been working on getting things set up, figuring out new lighting and where to stash everything – when we get cabinets installed the white cart should disappear. We will keep an eye out for lumber prices to drop back to normal and IKEA to get restocked (sometime..!) and meanwhile all my supplies out in the open are contained in plastic and boxes…!

Interestingly enough, all this reno totally quashed my crafting mojo – I was just not feeling it – and even when I sat down to work I kept fussing about… moving things around and figuring out where this tool can and cannot live and what I want on the desk and what needs to be stored away… I was pleased to finally get things together enough to get this batch of cards completed. It’ll take some time to get used to this new set-up and I’ll save the whole craft-room tour for whenever we complete the cabinets and final storage solutions. Till then, let’s make some cards!

I’m not very well practiced with no-line coloring, so I took the Contour Ink and that coral stamp and started playing.

I stamped the coral on some watercolor card stock using the Contour Ink, and colored this with my Derwent Inktense Watercolor pencils. I’m not sure I would suggest that Contour ink for this image… there is SO MUCH DETAIL on this stamp that some of it gets lost with the no-line coloring. I did add some highlights with a white gel pen too. I used the matching die to cut out the coral, and filled in the white border with an alcohol marker. I stamped the coral again on a piece of Hero Hues Arctic card stock using Blue Hawaii Reactive ink, added a touch of shading with an alcohol marker, and stenciled some water ripples over the whole panel using Splash Reactive ink.

I liked the water ripples and thought my coral was feeling a little flat, so I stenciled some ripples on top of the coral as well! I die cut both pieces with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and applied a spray or two of Sheer Shimmer Spritz to the background and the coral. I added a thin black mat behind the background panel and glued that to a White card base. I stamped the sentiment using the Intensified Black ink and added clear embossing powder for more shine. Finally, I mounted the coral with foam tape and embellished with some green droplets from the MMH March 2019 kit. I’m always searching for easy ways to add some depth to my underwater cards – no easy task! I think this has some nice dimension and a serene underwater feel..!!

That card was time consuming with LOTS of coloring and fiddling… I wanted something very easy after that…!

If this doesn’t scream Marlin and Nemo! The large clownfish is one of the only two fish stamps looking to the right in this stamp set…

I masked off the bottom edge of the square with some post-it tape and stamped the single coral on the bottom using Blue Hawaii ink. I stamped the bubbles using the same ink and added dots of the Splash ink around the square, using disposable micro applicators and added small white dots with a gel pen. That softened up the edge of the square and camouflaged the not quite sharp edge of the ink blending. I stamped the fish on some Bristol Smooth card stock using the Intense Black ink and colored them with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and die cut them out. I stamped the sentiment with Blue Hawaii ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Add the fish using some foam tape and there’s Marlin telling Nemo that he really is fintastic!

I wasn’t going to give up on the coral stamp just yet. Let’s see what happens if we stamp it in Intensified Black to color?

Okay… I think that will work! That big coral stamped on Bristol Smooth card stock with the Intense Black ink, colored with Zig Clean Color markers, die-cut and mounted to this stenciled background – that’s all this stamp needed…!!

On a panel of Hero Hues Nautical card stock, I stenciled in some sunbeams and some dots (SSS Falling Snow stencil) using a light touch of Unicorn White pigment ink. When dry, I sprayed the background with some Sheer Shimmer Spritz and die-cut it with a LFSRdie and glued it to a white card base. I stamped the sentiment using VersaMark ink and embossed it with some White embossing powder and added the coral with foam tape. I used that whole entire coral stamp here – straight up and down that’s 5″ – Now that I’ve conquered that stamp, I never want to color it again! LOL!!

I can’t do an underwater kit and not play with some alcohol inks – what kind of watery backgrounds will emerge..!

This fellow does makes me laugh – he certainly seems Salty!! This would make a great Father’s Day card for a fisherman or even your favorite Grump!! I took my alcohol inks and some Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink card stock and just played around till I was happy with the results – lots and lots of layers here – that’s one way to get some watery depths! While my alcohol inks were drying, I stamped the fish (is this a rock fish?) on some Bristol card stock with the Intense Black ink, colored him with my Zig markers and die-cut him out.

While there was still a touch of tacky to the alcohol inks, I rubbed some silver foil to the sticky parts for some extra shine. I stamped the bubbles using Unicorn White ink and embossing them with clear embossing powder. I die-cut the inked panel with a HA Rounded Rectangle Infinity die, added a thin white mat behind that and glued it to a black card base. I stamped the sentiment using VersaMark ink and white embossing powder, and added two “sway” peel-offs from the Love From Lizi peel off collection to the sides of the card front – nice shine and rather masculine too! I rounded the the right corners with my corner chopper and mounted the fish with foam tape. I love the expression on his face! BTW – this is the only other fish stamp in this set looking right…!

I still have a piece of my alcohol ink background that I can use… I thought this alcohol ink session went very well!

I die cut the leftover background piece with a Tonic Studios Scallop Square Layering die and glued a thin black mat behind that. I cut a piece of this Dark Blue pearlescent card stock to 3′ x 4.25″, positioned the two panels and decided where to stamp the sentiment. It is stamped with VersaMark ink and embossed with SSS Steel Navy embossing powder. The fish are all stamped on Bristol smooth card stock with the intense black ink, and the lion fish is colored with my Zig markers but the other two fish are painted with my pearlescent watercolors – hard to see in a photo but the blue tang and angel fish do sport a hint of reflection. I glued the inked background to the card front and mounted the fish with foam tape and added green and blue droplets for more shine. Not that the alcohol ink needs any help!

One more sentiment in this stamp set – can I come up with another way to use that big coral stamp?

I kind of combined a couple of techniques on this card. I was thinking about the spotlight effect where you only color a shaped portion of a stamp, but I was also thinking of inking a stamp with watercolor markers and just using the stamped outlines as your paint. So I did them both! Interesting, but a little unfocused – I think the spotlight detail has to have much more contrast to really stand out – and you’re not going to get that much contrast just using the outlines as your ink…. I did stamp some Bristol card stock with an old Echo Park Make Waves A2 stamp using Splash Reactive ink, and stamped the coral on top of that using watercolor markers to color the different parts of the stamp. I used clean water to color the coral and background inside the rectangle – not enough contrast – the orange watercolor is overly strong and the purple is shy, but the Splash ink blended nicely.

Instead of adding more color, I just outlined the rectangle with a blue Pigma Micron pen. I stamped the fish and the sentiment with Intensified Black ink, embossed the sentiment with clear embossing powder and colored the clown fish with my Zig markers. I trimmed the painted panel to 3′ x 4″, and added a thin black mat, a thin Arctic mat and a final thin Black mat before glueing all down to the White card stock with the lined texture card base. I used this clown fish a lot – he’s the only fish that is not presented in a plain silhouette – he’s actually looking for something. I think both clown fish in this set will get used a lot over the years! And I need to remember to practice one technique at a time!

We all know seahorses occupy one of the most unique birthing profiles… I can use that!

Father’s day is right around the corner! I printed this sentiment on a white card base using my Silhouette Software and the Noteworthy font. I stamped, colored and die-cut our seahorse as usual, and added him to the card front with foam tape. This is a fun bit of a pun and a terrific Father’s day card!

I had another idea for those Darice Easy Frame Templates so let’s dig those out again!

I taped the Darice oval template to a panel of White card stock, and ink blended Black Soot Distress Oxide ink through the opening. I removed the template and printed this sentiment on the panel using the Raustilla Font. Then I stamped the jellyfish with Unicorn White ink a couple of times and used the same ink to do a little shading under the umbrella cap. Then I stamped the jellyfish once more with VersaMark ink and embossed that with the Underwater Glitter embossing powder. NICE!! I added flotsam around the jellyfish with my white gel pen and Stardust Gelly Roll pen for more sparkles. I like this one a lot – great encouragement card or even a sympathy card!

This next card is quite silly and strictly for grins and giggles. I’d like to dedicate this card to the irrepressible Clara Peller!

Totally fun pun!! A lovely simple giggle for anyone who needs some cheering up! This little guy looks like he actually did lose something important! The sentiment is printed on the card base using the Brady Bunch Remastered font, the clown fish stamped and colored as usual and the bubbles are stamped with the HA Soft Sky ink. This one makes me giggle!!

I found another sly little pun and wanted to use it with this set of cards… I’ve been practicing some watercolor skills…

I watercolored this sunset on the water using Daniel Smith watercolors (dot cards) on some watercolor paper and die cut it out with a LFSRdie. I was originally going to frame this scene with a HA Layering Wood Frame die but decided to go with a couple simple mats instead – a thin white and a thin black mat, and I turned the wood frame into some wood planks. Very Coastal! I printed this fun, slightly pun-y sentiment directly on the card base using the Raustilla Font. I stamped the starfish and scallop shell on Bristol card stock with Intensified Black ink and colored them with Zig markers and die-cut them out. The planks are die cut from some light brown card stock and glued to the edges of the card front. I added the shell and star fish to the corner of the painting with foam tape, and mounted the whole piece to the card front with foam tape as well. A few stars in the sky thanks to a white gel pen, and we have a blissful scene exhorting the benefits of a little time at the beach. If nothing else, those positive ions certainly help!

And Voila! That’s my ten cards inspired by the My Monthly Hero May 2021 Kit. Cards eager to lure you to the beach!

There’s actually a pretty wide variety of cards here, simple and elaborate, splashy or austere, and useful for so many different occasions. My eye is drawn to the top center card – that coral reef stamp has been colored within an inch of its life! That really pays off, but it took too much time to even think about making more than one or two! PHEW! This kit IS still available at Hero Arts (surprisingly). If I’ve managed to spark your imagination or inspired some ideas of your own, I would heartily recommend grabbing a kit for yourself. The MMH Kits are a great value and a terrific way to monitor your craft budget and still get something new every month! If you do go shopping at Hero Arts, please use my links! It helps support this channel, and is truly appreciated more than you can imagine!

My Monthly Hero May 2021 Kit: http://shrsl.com/2z9xr

Hero Arts: https://shrsl.com/1rv00

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me today… it is always dearly appreciated! I think we’re at a good holding place as far as the renovations go… I will keep you posted when there are updates! Everything seems to be settling in nicely and I am looking forward to making new things in my new space! If you haven’t subscribed to this site please join us at the top of the page, and remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Share me will all your friends, don’t run with scissors… and as always, I wish you and yours Love and Light, Grins and Giggles, and Happy Crafting!

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