I’m on the CommUNITY blog post at Hero Arts today!!

Hello Folks!!! I’m featured on the Hero Arts Blog today for their monthly series CommUNITY – about embracing and honoring the creativity of individuals who are often underrepresented, and supporting and empowering individuals to be their authentic selves as they create and share. Look for a new CommUNITY guest artist on the Hero Arts Blog every month!

I’m using the Power to the People stamp set for my first card, and I noticed that the sign with all the hands didn’t have any hands on one side. AHA! I masked off the the top line of the sign and stamped with Intense Black Ink. I reversed the stamp, lined it up with the first stamping, masked off the top line of the sign again, and stamped with Intense Black Ink. That gave me a great big sign with twice as many participants! Since we are getting close to the midterm elections, I thought this was a timely sentiment, and stamped that in the middle.

I water-colored all the hands using the Skin-Tone Liquid Watercolor set – those three watercolors (Terracotta, Cocoa, Coffee) gave me a huge variety of skin tones – and since all the arms are different colors, you can hardly tell that the stamp has been doubled! I finished watercoloring this card with Dandelion Liquid Watercolor, and a watered down gray on the sign.

One of the most interesting things about the Power to the People stamp set is the plethora of sentiments – 17 in all – that cover a wide range from personal to political. I chose five of the sentiments to stamp on the left and right side of my card using Contour Ink. That provides a great background for this card and even though the sentiments are only partially complete, you can still make them out by reading right to left! 

The Color Layering Flower Power stamp set is perfect for sharing some love with the important people in your life. I stamped the hair outline with Butter Bar Ink, the filler layer with Lemon Drop, the detail layer with Creamsicle, and the accent flowers with Azalea Core Ink. I stamped the face with Sand Ink, the details with Cup O’ Joe, the shading with Sand again (with a light touch of Azalea on her lips) and her eyes with Paradise. I thought this stamp set was going to be a bear to line up, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the layers lined up quite easily (just keep an eye on the centers of the flowers)! 

I used the Flower Circle Stencil for the background using Butter Bar, Lemon Drop and Key Lime Fizz inks, and the sentiment is stamped with Cup O’ Joe (FUNNY GIRL is currently running on Broadway, and I couldn’t resist the Hello Gorgeous!). I die-cut the background with a Nesting Rectangle die and added a thin mat of Canary cardstock to the back. I die-cut my Flower Girl with a Circle Infinity die and and cut four more blanks to give that circle some dimension without having to use foam tape. 

BUT, before I glued all those pieces together, I got a wild idea to add a little touch of dimension to our Girl, so I stamped just her face one more time. Then I fussy-cut her face from the top of one ear to the top of the other and finished the cut about a half-inch above her hairline. Then I fussy-cut her hairline (from ear to ear) on the original stamping, and tucked her forehead under her bangs and glued both pieces together. Her bangs are now on top of her face, but from the ears down, her face is on top of her hair. Subtle but actually quite effective! I glued all the circle die cuts together and down to the background. Let your imagination go wild coming up with different color combinations for the “hair” – and it wasn’t until I stamped and fussy-cut her face alone when I realized you could give her ANY hairstyle you like! That’s an excellent face to have in your stash!

I’m thrilled to have been asked to share some of these great CommUNITY products with everyone here today! I hope I’ve inspired you to take another look at these unique stamp sets – and ALL the products in the Hero Arts CommUNITY line-up! Happy Crafting!