Swing On By - My Monthly Hero Kit + Giveaway

Happy Monday! I'm actually in the middle of my journey home from vacation in Santa Fe right now, so I've had an amazingly relaxing week. If you have a spare million laying around, I'd love for you to lay it on me so I could move there permanently. Thanks a bunch!

But it's also Hero Arts Kit day, and this month is super fun - it's all about friends & family, and if you love genealogy, you will LOVE this kit.

I'm starting with an add-on this month, because I can't do ANYTHING without warming up with no-line watercolor. I started by stamping the sweet teddy bear from Swing On By in Fadeout Ink on Fabriano cold press watercolor paper. Then I used my favorite, most economical masking paper - stamping the bear on it again, and masking him before stamping the tire swing image over him.

I don't know about you, but I've been stamping for about 25 years, and still to this day, I have to tilt my head to the side and stick my tongue out to figure out how to mask images to get the things that I want in the foreground. Am I alone in this? I don't always get it right the first time, but I did this time, and the bear is nestled into the tire swing instead of entering another dimension, which happens sometimes.

After that, I used my ultimate mixing palette of Daniel Smith watercolors from this miraculous book that all of us in my Daniel Smith split group use - we love it so much. (If you are still trying to grow your Daniel Smith collection, this split group is a very inexpensive way to do it. Click here for more info.)

Don't we all need a friend to give us a little push sometimes? My friend Lori is the one who gave me the little push to start my own Daniel Smith collection obsession, and for that I'm very grateful. I stamped the sentiment in black and just matted the watercolor paper. When I've spent a lot of time watercoloring an image, I keep the card pretty simple.

May My Monthly Hero Kit [ HA ] Get them all - All May add-ons [ HA ] Swing By Soon [ HA ] Swing by Soon Frame Cuts [ HA ] Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink [ INK ] Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors [ BLIC ] The Ultimate Mixing Palette: a World... [ BLR ] Fabriano Artistico 140 lb. Cold Press... [ AMZUS ] Avery Removable Label Paper [ AMZUS ] PS623 Sea Mix Layering Papers (12) |... [ HA ] Basic Black 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5... [ SUP ] Paper Snips (103579) [ SUP ] Escoda : Watercolour Travel Brush Set... [ JCK ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSW | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | SBC ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | ELH | CST | ART | SBC ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Multipurpose Liquid Glue by Stampin' Up! [ SUP ] Nesting Porcelain Bowls - BLICK art... [ BLIC ]

Next, I was inspired by one of my favorite artists in the world for a card with this month's kit. My friend Yoorah sent me a Banksy card a few months ago with this image - one of my all time favorite Banksy images. If this is the first time you've heard of Banksy - I highly recommend the movie Exit Through the Gift Shop, as well as a Google image search for Banksy art.

So when I saw the kit images, the very first thing that popped into my head was this Banksy image. I wanted to take the silhouette image and add that white space that makes Banksy's graphics so... Banksy. I also loved the sort of wistfulness of the balloon getting away from this little girl, and I knew I could recreate that with the kite. I sort of cracked myself up with the sentiment from one of my absolute all time favorite sets from Hero - this one. Get it? Above and beyond? I amuse myself in very simple ways. :)