VIDEO: Don't Worry - Bee Happy! + Giveaway

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

It's the first Monday of the new year - WHEE! After last year, I'm ready for anything! 

Mostly I'm ready for spring. It's been an odd weather year and my garden doesn't know what to do with itself. It alternates between parched, drowned and cold. Time to get some tomatoes going! Which reminds me, it's time to order seeds!

But I digress. Today the new Hero kit is out and it's looking forward to spring too, so I have a video for you with the main kit today - using an art journal collage style to create a vintage card background, so stay tuned for that. 

But first, I had to share this dramatic background stamp that's in the add-ons this month - I love this graphic style of background, and I love bees, so winning! This adorable queen bee set with all her worker bee minions is too cute! I just colored them with my fine point Graph'it markers (coupon in the footer!) and then I added liquid snow to her collar and the hem of her skirt - she reminds me of the Snow Queen anyway! It's very puffy and dimensional. I cut a little square of white cardstock for the sentiment and used a bee and the dies from the set next to that. The glitter paper is from the main kit, cut with circle infinity dies. 

The kit itself is BEE-utiful! The large flowers are so beautiful for coloring. I have a card with them coming later this month. I'm not sure what type of flower that is but it sure looks like my dogwood in the backyard, which I love. The chonky bees are really big, as you'll see on my card and I'm 100% in love with that honeycomb die. 

I cut a piece of Duralar with the die and then blended Dandelion and Caramel inks over it for a background for chonky bee #1. This bee was left over from the vintage card I did the collage background video for below. The sentiment is from the kit.

Now I love art journaling because you have the opportunity to make sensory cards - textured surfaces that are fun to look at, but also fun to run your hand over in your journal. I'm convinced this is how texture pastes, etc. were born, because I spend almost as much time touching my textured art journal pages as I do making them! And you'll see in the video, creating these is done with my built in paintbrushes - my fingers! I had a piece of ephemera that was postage AND bee themed, so I started with that, and used the postage stamp infinity dies to frame my bee and sentiment focal point to tie in with that theme. I'm used to the "plaid" style of drywall tape, and love using it, but I found a new patterned tape that I love at Lowe's - I cut that with my circle infinity dies and added those for texture. I used the honeycomb die from the kit with translucent embossing paste to create a frame for the letter writing girl on the ephemera, and used Dandelion, Caramel and Cup o' Joe inks for the rest. The postage stamp is cut with the new Honeycomb fancy die and then I used the stencil I created with the kit honeycomb die to ink blend on that as well. The final accents were made with turquoise paint, a silicone paintbrush and a flat stencil brush. 

Ready for the video? Click here if you don't see the player below.

Here are all the bee-worthy add-ons this month. 

Here are the supplies I used.

Hero Arts January 2021 My Monthly... [ HA ] January 2021 Add Ons [ HA ] Hero Arts Geometric Bee Pattern Bold... [ HA ] Hero Arts Bee the Queen Stamp Set [ HA ] Hero Arts Bee the Queen Frame Cuts [ HA ] DI199 Nesting Circle Infinity Dies... [ HA ] DecoArt Snow Writer Paint | BLICK Art... [ BLIC ] Graph'it Brush & Liner — Marker Universe [ MRK ] postage stamp infinity - Hero Arts [ HA ] Hero Arts Honey Pot Fancy Dies [ HA ] Hero Arts Hexagon Infinity Dies [ HA ] Bee and Flowers Wreath Frame Cuts [ HA ] Hero Arts Bee and Flowers Wreath... [ HA ] Hero Arts Floral Love Frame Cuts [ HA ] Hero Arts Floral Love Stamp Set [ HA ] Hero Arts Peek-a-Boo Honeycomb Fancy Die [ HA ] Hero Arts Abstract Honeycomb Bold Prints [ HA ] Hero Arts Bees and Flowers Wreath... [ HA ] Hero Arts Bees and Flowers Fancy Dies [ HA ] Hero Arts Bees and Flowers Bold Prints [ HA ] AF331 Dandelion Bold Ink - Hero Arts [ HA ] AF332 Caramel Bold Ink - Hero Arts [ HA ] AF214 Cup O' Joe Mid-Tone Shadow Ink... [ HA ] Colour Shapers Tools | BLICK Art... [ BLIC ] Blick Economy White Bristle Stencil... [ BLIC ] Ranger TEXTURE PASTE TRANSPARENT... [ SSS ] Easy Joint Tape 2-in x 100-ft Solid... [ LWS ] Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint... [ RNG | SSS ] Duralar Matte - Yupo Substitute [ BLIC ] Hero Arts Blog [ HA ]

And for one lucky commenter, there will be a $50 gift card waiting! So leave me a comment with your thoughts on bees, and then see what other inspiration is out there with this kit!

Hero Arts
Channin Pelletier
Dana Joy
Daniel West
Debi Adams
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Pocono Pam
Seeka
Nichol Spohr
Jennifer McGuire

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

The Missing Year

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

I keep getting calendar reminders of my 2020 trips. I would have been at my favorite event today - the Artisan Expo in Santa Fe, taking classes from my favorite artists with my sister.

But I'm not. I'm in the same place I've been since March - my office.

And even though in some ways it feels like an entire decade has passed in the last six months, the year has also whooshed by, because there were no milestones to slow it down. No trips, no retreats, just a lot of nothingness.

My garden has benefited for sure. But temporally, it's odd. What would have happened this year? That's what I wonder about. Who would I have met? What new food would I have tried? What would have happened in the baseball games I didn't attend or the cooking classes I didn't take? What's missing from this year is the serendipity of the everyday, if I had to sum it up. Everything is so, so controlled. No room for surprises. 

I'll tell you one thing I've done - I've sent a lot more cards, and I've experimented with a lot more art supplies. So today's card and video are about both of those things.

I've waited basically all my life for a traditional watercolor pencil I could truly say I love, and I finally found it. I bought myself these pencils for my birthday and tried them out, and they checked all the boxes I talk about in the video and I'm tickled pink. The little enevelopes are from this background stamp, and I used this die for the greeting. I didn't add where from, because it's greetings from the missing year...

So here's a link to the video if you don't see the player below, then come back for how I'm virtually traveling :).

My Monthly Hero Kit August 2020 -... [ HA ] DC279 Greetings From Stamp & Cut -... [ HA ] Happy Mail Background :: 6x6 Clear... [ INK ] Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle Pencil... [ BLIC ] Art Impressions 48 PACK Mini Action... [ SSS ] Liebman's Deli | Nationwide Shipping [ GLD ] Lick Honest ice Cream - Ship... [ GLD ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets... [ CHC ] XL Stamp Storage Pockets [ ELH ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]

So in the absence of my trips, I've been taking virtual trips through food. You know I have a dairy allergy, and so I had been using this site to get my favorite local vegan ice cream delivered prior to the pandemic, because the store location is kind of a pain with traffic and parking - if you're just DYING to get rear-ended in this town (it's happened to me EIGHT times since I've lived here), then take a drive up South Lamar. But the ice cream is simply the best vegan ice cream - no gums or garbage, and local ingredients. They have dairy ice cream as well. What's cool about the way they sell it online is you don't have to be a local to get it.

The other day, I was on their site and a suggestion popped up for me for a kosher deli in New York I have eaten at many times. Kosher is always safe for me because they are dairy free by definition. And lordy do I miss the food in New York. So I took a little trip via Paypal and ordered some food from the deli and it was amazing. Just like I'd remembered, and perfectly packed and shipped, which had been my experience with the ice cream as well. So I decided to take a culinary trip once a month and visit some of my favorite restaurants around the country from home. I'm not driving, eating out or traveling, so why not splurge and have my favorite matzoh ball soup delivered? Or my favorite bagels? Or knishes, which don't exist here. Life is short. It doesn't have to be boring. Doodle around their website and treat yourself.

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE