From the Vault - Celebrating the Hero Arts 45th Anniversary!

As I write this post, I'm about to hop on a plane and go to California to help celebrate my beloved Hero Arts 45th anniversary.

Hero Arts made the very first rubber stamp I owned. My mom and I had gone to a newly opened craft store - I grew up in a small town with not much in the way of craft stores outside of needle and fabric arts - and we came home with stamps, ink and that gateway drug we all know as embossing powder.

We heated it up over our gas stove burner - hey kids - don't try this at home - and watched in wonder as it turned to shimmery, gold magic on the cardstock.

Since that day - which was more than 35 years ago - Hero Arts has been a part of my life in a big way.

I was fortunate enough to get to know the owner - the founder's son - through my day job, and as I've told you before, he's a national treasure.

Two Austin friends - Lisa Spangler and Libby Hickson were working for Hero before Libby left me for Atlanta, and Libby still works there. I've been part of the kit launch team since the very first kit, which I put together and poorly photographed for the launch in a conference room in Cincinnati. It was such an exciting launch, and the kit program has gotten even better every month since then and is something I look forward to every month.

Their artists are sweet, funny and kind people and I can't wait to see them all in the facility I've been dying to tour for years. I feel very fortunate to be able to do this, and I wish you could all come with me. There's nothing like the marriage of stellar human beings with fantastic products that bring you joy - there's nothing better.

So to celebrate this important moment, Hero has gone into the vault and brought back some of their classic designs from their beginnings, and it gave me such nostalgia to work with these. It's fun to look at how stamp illustrations have changed since I started stamping.

First up - this awesome birthday set was calling my name. There's nothing like a festive panda right? a festive panda with MAD balancing skills. I colored his cake with Copics and cut him out with the matching dies, which we certainly didn't have 35 years ago.

But I've buried the headline here - THEY HAVE NEW HYBRID WATER REACTIVE INKS!

They are gorgeous, bright colors, and you can do all sorts of fun techniques with them. I did a basic wrinkle free distress technique to do two two color blends. The first blend was Pool Party and Splash, and I did that all over a piece of watercolor paper. Then I used my circle infinity dies to cut a hole in that panel.

I repeated the process with Creamsicle and Lemon Drop reactive inks and put that behind the cutout.

I stamped the sentiment from the same set in Intense Black.

Not one to be wasteful, I couldn't throw away that gorgeous inked circle I'd cut out, so I grabbed another From the Vault set - a classic, vintage travel set - it's beautiful. I stamped it, colored it with red & grey Copics and cut it out with the matching dies. I stamped the clouds from the set onto the circle, and then colored them with a white gel pen. 

On the kraft panel, I stamped the background with the waves stamp, which I often use for air currents - I think this is my third or fourth post with this gorgeous background - super versatile. The sentiment is from the same set.

You know what the coolest stamp of this release is though? It's a collage of a bunch of From the Vault images all on one background. LOOK AT ALL THE CATS! :) I can't wait to ink this one up. Love some of the vintage cartoon illustrations. FYI - this comes in a bundle with the catalog of this release so get that for sure - the catalog is beautiful.

And of course they have giveaways and their friends in the industry have donated some amazing prizes, listed below!

• Hero Arts: 3 $145 Gift Certificates, 3 $45 Gift Certificates
• Altenew: $50 Gift Certificate
• Art Impressions: $25 Gift Certificate
• Ellen Hutson LLC: $50 Gift Certificate
• Gina K: $100 Gift Certificate
• Jennifer McGuire Ink: $100 Hero Arts Gift Certificate, 5 Share Handmade Kindness goodie bags
• Lawn Fawn: $50 Gift Certificate
• My Sweet Petunia: 1 Prize Bundle (Original MISTI, a set of Creative Corners, a Cut-Align, and a bar magnet)
• Online Card Classes: 5 spots in the Stamp Happy In Good Company: Hero Arts class
• Pink Fresh Studio: $45 Gift Certificate
• Scrapbook & Cards Today: 3 copies of Scrapbook & Cards Today Summer 2019 Issue
• Scrapbook.com: $50 Gift Certificate
• Simon Says Stamp: $50 Gift Certificate

So what do you have to do to be entered? Leave me a comment of course! Tell me what your favorite Hero Arts stamp or kit is!

Your next stop on the hop is Nichol!

And here are all the products I used today - have fun shopping! Loveyameanitbye.

WS1015 From The Vault All Stamp Bold... [ HA ] CG757 Ocean Waves Bold Prints - Hero... [ HA ] From the Vault Travel [ HA ] From the Vault Travel Frame Cuts [ HA ] From the Vault Birthday [ HA ] From the Vault Birthday Frame Cuts [ HA ] From the Vault All Stamp Bold Prints [ HA ] Circle Infinity Dies (H) [ HA ] Hero Arts Intense Black Ink [ HA ] Pool Party Water Reactive Ink [ HA ] Splash Reactive Ink [ HA ] Creamsicle Reactive Ink [ HA ] Lemon Drop Reactive Ink [ HA ] Sakura CLASSIC WHITE Fine Line 05... [ SSS ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... [ AMZUS ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Cut Align [ MSP ] Ink Off Cloth [ INK ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets... [ CHC ] XL Stamp Storage Pockets [ ELH ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]