10 Cards 1 Kit • Hero Studio Card Kit of the Month • July 2024

Hello Folks! Scott here with my 10 cards created with the New Hero Studio Card Kit of the Month for July 2024! Sorry I am so late this month… there was a bit of a mix-up at headquarters and my kit didn’t arrive till the 15th. This is month number two of the New Hero Studio line up of products and subscriptions for a variety of tastes and budgets! The Card Kit of the Month is themed around a Victorian seaside holiday with a whole assortment of stamps, dies, inks and more to transport you to the seashore of times gone by. Here’s the contents of our kit:

Another huge batch of supplies to inspire and excite us! The stamp set is silhouette based with figures and landmarks as well as the sea and a cloudy sky and six sentiments. I always love the Hero Arts Palette Ink Pads, and Hero Arts Cling Stamps are just about the best in the world! Looks like we’re headed to the beach this month!

I did a little research on Victorian swimming before I started playing with this kit… it turns out that co-ed swimming on beaches was actually against the law – legal segregation of bathing areas in Britain ended in 1901 – the end of the Victorian era. Women would use a Bathing Machine (basically a cabana on wheels) that would be horse-drawn out into the water and discharge the women straight into the surf – already changed into whatever bathing outfit they had and readily covered up by the water. All that bother in a vain attempt to appear “respectable”. We’ve come a long way, baby!

I found it interesting that this kit combined silhouette stamps (usually stamped in black) with clouds and seashore (usually stamped in colors). I thought I’d avoid the black (and the figures) to start out with.

On a piece of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White card stock, I stamped the clouds and the water using Pool Party and Blue Raspberry inks in the Palette ink pad. I stamped the fence part of the foreground stamp and the footprints using Hero Hues Sand ink, and the boat using Hero Hues Caramel ink. The lighthouse, boat, bird (just one!) and sentiment are stamped with Concord and 9th Dove ink. If I had my druthers, I would have done the fencing in Caramel and the boat in Sand… but this will work!

I wanted a little more height to the clouds (making them lower in the sky) so I ink blended Blue Raspberry above the stamp and tried to blend out the stamp line. To add a little more color to the background, I reached for my Pebbles Chalk Palette and softly blended some sand and sky – I also added light touches of grey to the fence and brown to the boat (so they weren’t pure white). I added some lights to the lighthouse with the Lemon Drop ink and a Micro Applicator.

I die-cut the panel with a HA Rounded Rectangle Infinity die and cut a mat from Dark Grey card stock using the next larger die. I ink blended Pumice Stone Distress ink around the edges of the stamped panel and glued that down to the grey mat. Both of those are glued to an A2 White card base with 1/4″ rounded corners. The scale of these stamps is a little specific… the lighthouse seems to work best in this position, and of course the fence and boat are meant to be in the foreground, but the sailboat can be far away (real boat) or close-up (toy boat). And “Seas the day” is a great pun!

I do try to use every stamp in a stamp set – including the sentiments – and wanted to see how Black silhouettes would work with the more colorful natural elements.

On a piece of Ivory card stock, I stamped the water and sky with the same inks trying for a little bit of a lighter hand by using blending brushes to soften the inks before stamping. I stamped all the images using Pitch Black ink. (I do like the coverage of that ink!) The foreground is the right side of the foreground stamp split left and right – I added some stems to the bottom of the right side of the stamp – under the life preserver (otherwise flat) using a Pigma Micron pen. I like the kids standing in the water..!

I did have the problem of the water showing through the top of the life preserver… I grabbed my PH Martin’s Bleed Proof White watercolor and filled in the preserver – I also added some white to the stripes on the lighthouse to balance out the white on the life preserver. Works well! I die-cut the inked panel with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die (3.25″x 4.5″). I swiped the Palette ink pad on a scrap of White card stock (keeping the blues in the middle) and die-cut that with another LFSRdie (3.75″x 5″). I glued those together and added a thin Ivory mat before gluing all down to a White card base. Keeping the silhouettes in black is pretty stark, but it still works nicely for this buddy card.

If you want to give your stamps a little more detail, you can color on your stamps directly with watercolor markers and with the help of a stamping platform get a good (repeated) impression . And I’m always interested in trying to stretch a stamp set that’s apparently made for portrait cards into a landscape card.

Using TomBow watercolor markers, I stamped the couple on White card stock – using a stamp platform lets you repeat stamp until you get the desired amount of ink on the page. I thought these guys came out well, so I die-cut them with their matching die – surprise – the die cuts them out individually! So I glued them together a little bit closer to each other – ah, romance!

On a piece of White card stock I stamped the water twice – feathering out the edges where they would overlap – and that gave us a surf that covers the whole landscape card front! I stamped the fence using Sand Stone ink, and the boat, life preserver (with a little Sand Stone at the bottom) and the row of cabanas using Sand ink. Using my TomBow markers diluted with a little water, I painted in the fence, the boat (lightly), the life preserver, and the cabanas. I used the foreground stamp and some Micro Applicators to add in more sandy footprints between the foreground stamps. I also used my Pebbles chalk palette again to add color to the beach and the sky – nice and soft.

I stamped the birds (only four!) and the sailboat with Dove ink and stamped the sentiment using Sand Stone ink. I die-cut the panel with a Rounded rectangle die and glued it to a Kraft card base. I used a Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen to add some shimmer to the water and mounted our couple using foam tape. I love the boat behind the fence, and the colorful details of our romantic couple… and, YES, with a little care, these stamps will work in a landscape orientation!

On the back of our Studio kit card, it shows using the water stamp upside-down in the opposite direction… let’s try that!

I stamped the upside-down water on the right side of an Ivory card stock panel using the blue inks again, and thought it might benefit with a more defined horizon line. I masked off a horizon at the top of the stamp and ink blended Pool Party across the front of the card panel. I didn’t try to cover the bottom edge of the surf but did try to get to the farthest left edge of the stamp. Since we have a horizon, we should have some sun too! I reversed the masking and used Lemon Drop ink to blend in a little sunshine, and a small sun using masking with a hole punched out. That works!

I stamped the couple using Pitch Black ink, and stamped the kids next to them. The littlest kid fits right between them! I stamped the seashells, beach ball and (toy) sailboat and birds (all five!!) with Pitch Black ink, and used a Pigma Micron pen to add more divots and texture around the stampings and the shore. That helps fill out the “sandy” area. I stamped the sentiment with VersaFine Onyx Black ink and embossed that with Clear embossing powder. I die-cut the panel and the Kraft mat with HA Rounded Rectangle dies and glued them all down to an Ivory card base with 1/4″ rounded corners. I love the family grouping here, and I think that water stamp works just fine in this orientation! I avoided layered stamping so no touch-ups were needed, and I guess I was simply eager for a definitive horizon line!

Though I probably use “thank you” cards more than any other, I couldn’t think of a specific scene that would work for that, so I thought some vignettes might convey the sentiment a little easier.

How about some little monochromatic vignettes? I cut a piece of masking to 4.25″ x 5.5″ and die-cut some 1.25″ holes through the masking using HA Circle Infinity dies. I placed the masking on a Neenah Solar White A2 card panel and ink blended Pool Party through the holes – darker on the bottom left and fading out towards the top right. I stamped the three images inside the circles using the Blue Raspberry ink. I think the kids holding hands implies a connection (see the “thinking of you” card) and the boat implies assistance, while the birds represent freedom or completion – all the things you think about when you are proffering your thanks to someone!! (I’m trying here!).

I swiped some Blue Raspberry ink around the edges of another panel of White card stock and added some random spots of clear embossing powder for a bit of a watery shine. I die-cut both panels with HA Rounded Rectangles dies and glued them to a White card base with 1/4″ rounded corners. I think the rounded rectangles feels a little more vintage, and this clean and simple monochrome arrangement works very well as a thank you card

That’s five sentiments… we only have the Happy Birthday sentiment left… I’ve used all the images stamps so let’s use the Sand Castle Fancy dies for our Birthday card! And of course we have to break out the HA Sand Embossing powder!!

I die-cut the Sand castle four times from this sheet for some three dimensional layering!. The back layer is the full Castle with the upper “doorways” cut-out and backed with the Blue Vellum. For the next layer, I cut off the three towers and the three “doorways”. For the third layer I cut off the side pieces and the center door, and then cut out the front rampart (and door) from the fourth piece. I colored all the edges of the die cuts with a dark Brown Alcohol marker and used thin foam tape to stack them all together. I can’t imagine a better way to use this die!

I die cut the flags from more of the sand embossed paper and die cut the pennants from some Lemon Drop ink swiped on some watercolor card stock and glued to the “sand” posts and then behind the side towers. I grabbed my Gina K. Designs Oval stitched dies (both small and large) and die-cut Ivory card stock with the small die and some Kraft Card stock with the large die. I find it incredibly hard to line up oval die-cuts, but these dies make it easy because you line up the smaller oval with the stitched lines on the larger oval. I die-cut a little sand hill with a stitched hillside die and the small Oval die, colored the top edge with Brown and glued that to the Ivory background.

I die-cut the bucket from a swatch of Blue Raspberry on watercolor paper, and the shovel from a Pool Party swatch on the same watercolor paper. I die-cut another panel of Ivory card stock with a LFSRdie (5″x 3.75″) and ink blended Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink around the edges before gluing that to an A2 White card base. I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of Ivory card stock with the same ink, embossed that with Clear embossing powder and die-cut it with the matching die. I also die-cut the sea shell from the sand paper too.

I decided we needed a birthday candle to drive home this sentiment so I turned to the MMH May 2024 Kit and stamped the striped candle on a scrap of white card stock. I colored that with my TomBow markers, fussy cut it out (including a “wick” to keep the flame attached) and glued that to the back of the center sand castle tower. The ovals (with the hill) are glued to the card front, then the castle (with flags and candle) is glued to the oval. I used a White gel pen on the rim of the bucket and glued the shovel inside before adding those (and the shell) with foam tape. Finally the sentiment is added with more foam tape. I really love that die and the sand embossing powder, and I love this beach-y B’day card!

I’ve used all the stamps in our stamp set (including all the sentiments) and all of the Fancy dies, so now it’s all on me!

I was really itching to make that lighthouse red and white, and after coloring the couple stamp, I realized that I could do the same with the lighthouse stamp! I stamped the lighthouse in the center of a panel of Neenah White card stock using my TomBow Markers and my MISTI Stamp Platform. This stamp was easier to color than the couple was… and I am very pleased with the overall effect! I created this sentiment using my Silhouette software and the Dream State font, and printed it directly on the stamped panel. I die-cut the panel with a LDRS Fancy Rectangles die, and die-cut some of the Lava Holographic card stock with the matching larger die and glued them together. The Lava card stock gives us a nice sense of watery reflections!

I took a card base of Ivory card stock and stamped the Rock Cling stamp on the front using Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide ink. A lighthouse is supposed to protect you from the rocky coastline! I glued the matted layers to the stamped card front and finally added some Lemon drop ink in the lighthouse window and beacon. You know how much I love white space, and vignettes, so this card thrills me to no end!

The Rock Cling stamp is good for a background, (though those rocks are pretty large…!) but can it hold up on its own?

A fancy cut-edge detail takes this cling stamp one step further! I used some Ranger Mixed Media card stock in Ivory for this card. I stamped the cling stamp on a 6″x 6″ panel using Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink and then lightly double stamped it with Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide ink. Then, using a damp paintbrush, I pushed some of the stamped ink around to give some color variation to the rocks. I mainly went over the stamped lines and detail but I didn’t scrub so hard as to erase the stamping. Now we need some shadows. I used Pumice Stone Distress ink with a paintbrush and colored in all the shadows and spaces between the rocks – I kept the shadows to the lower left hoping to add some extra dimension to this stamp.

I traced a line following the rocks that were whole (not behind other rocks) from top to bottom and fussy cut the stamped panel in two. I die-cut the other three sides with an A2 sized LFSRdie. I took an Ivory Mixed Media card base and traced the cut line of the rocks on the front panel and fussy cut the edge of the card base. Then I just glued the stamped panel to the card front matching all the edges. I printed the sentiment using my Silhouette software and the Arial Black font. I printed that on a scrap of matching Ivory card stock and die cut it with the smallest LFSRdie. There are a number of fun rock sentiments out there that would work quite well with this unique cling stamp!

I was having a hard time figuring out how to use the Map Hero Transfer sheets with this kit… so I grabbed a bunch of my “experiments” I did with this kit and created a pseudo multi-media card using the rub-ons.

Another vignette card and a good pun! The Map transfer sheet actually works pretty well in this arrangement. I tried to use the part of the rub-on that has as few place names as possible. I went ahead and used the top left part of the rub-on sheet on an A2 panel of White card stock and set it aside. I also realized you can actually stamp and emboss on the Vellum sheets in the kit – When I was playing around with the Rock Cling stamp, I stamped it on some of the Purple vellum using Unicorn White ink and embossed that with White embossing powder. The embossing stayed on the Vellum quite nicely! I wasn’t sure what to do with it so I just set it aside. Not quite the makings of a multi-media card!

I stamped the boat on a scrap of White card stock using HA Caramel ink and die-cut it out using the matching die. Using a HA Square infinity die, I cut another piece of the Lava Holographic card stock to 2.25″ square and matted that on a 2+3/8″ square of the Blue Vellum. I die-cut the rock embossing vellum to 3″ square and glued the three layers together. I trimmed the map panel to 3.5″x 4.75″ and matted that on a thin Ochre card stock and down to a White card base. I decided to add the square layers toward the top of the card front instead of the middle, and all we need is a sentiment.

I printed this greeting using my Silhouette software and the Times New Roman and Dream State fonts. I trimmed that down to a simple banner and mounted both it and the boat to the card front with thin foam tape. Again, that Lava card stock gives a great impression of water, and the vellum is a little shiny too, and I like how the embossed rocks and map rub-on play off of each other. I also like that you can see the “here be monsters” parts of the map. Tide down indeed!!

Literally NO water was used on this background.

Now that’s kind of amazing! I trimmed the inked panel to 3.75″x 2.5″ and stamped the water on the left using Unicorn White ink embossed with White embossing powder. I stamped the foot prints using C&9 Dove ink. I also used the Dove ink to stamp the cabanas on my swatched watercolor paper. Instead of going rainbow, I followed the Lemon Drop line of the swatch. I die-cut the cabanas using their matching die.

I printed this fun sentiment on a scrap of White card stock using my Silhouette Software and the Stencil font. I trimmed that to size using a LFSRdie. I cut another piece of the Lava Holographic card stock to 4+1/8″ x 2+7/8″ and glued the colored panel on top. I was looking through my scraps for some dark grey card stock and found this die-cut stamp piece already cut out. Perfect for the last layer. I glued everything to a White card base and added the cabanas and the sentiment with foam tape. I just love that background… Might have to take some other Palette Ink pads to that Bristol Smooth card stock..! I Love the whitecaps of the water on the blues… perfectly beach-y! This card makes me laugh!

That wraps up my 10 Cards inspired by the Hero Studio Card Kit of the Month for July 2024! I did manage to use every stamp in our stamp set, all of the fancy dies, some of the rub-on transfers and a good amount of the specialty papers.

This is a fun variety of summer at the beach cards! I think the Victorian Seaside stamp set is quite versatile, and that Sand Castle die and cling stamp are great stash builders! I enjoyed coming up with so many ways to use these supplies. This kit is still available at Hero Arts – if something here has caught your eye or your imagination, you should grab a kit for yourself before they are all sold out! If you do go shopping at Hero Arts, please use my links listed below. It helps support this page at no cost to you, and is always supremely appreciated!

Hero Arts: https://heroarts.com?sca_ref=6639489.ubrhdU2VDFY73qx

Hero Studio Card Kit of the Month July ’24: https://heroarts.com/products/ck0724-july-card-kit-of-the-month?sca_ref=6639489.ubrhdU2VDFY73qx

Thank you so much for spending some time with me today! Your attention and time are always appreciated. I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I did! Let me know which cards are your favorite, and if you would take a moment to click the “like” star at the bottom of this post, send me a comment, share these cards on your FaceBook and Pinterest pages, and post this for all your crafty friends and neighbors! I send you and yours Love and Light and Happy Crafting!

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