Hi friends! It's time for another Stay Crafty With Hero challenge. Did you know that just 45 minutes of creative activity significantly lessens stress in the body, regardless of artistic experience or talent? That is why we started this challenge last year, when the pandemic appeared and our lives were turned upside down. And now here we are in 2021, still in need of crafty therapy. We hope you'll carve out a little time to join us with these challenges. We post once a month. Allow yourself to sit down and play for at least 45 minutes, to wash away a bit of stress. 

Our theme this month is Include A Heart. With Valentine's Day right around the corner, we're challenging you to create a card or project that includes a heart. Making a valentine is not required - any use of a heart will do. We'll include all of the challenge details further down this post, but first, here's a gorgeous card from Seeka!

Hello there, it's Seeka here with you today sharing a card featuring the pretty new Floral Love set. I love that these beautiful floral letters are perfectly sized to fill a card front and are versatile enough for intricately detailed cards as well as clean and simple cards!

I began by using Clear Embossing & Watermark Ink and White Embossing Powder to heat emboss each of the letters onto Azalea cardstock. I cut the letters out with the coordinating Floral Love Frame Cuts dies and then set them aside.

For the background, I cut a 4" x 5.25" inch panel of Peony cardstock and then created subtle impressions of nesting hearts by using two dies from the Nesting Hearts Infinity Dies set to dry emboss the panel.  The dry embossing technique requires the use of an embossing pad in your die cutting sandwich. The soft pad prevents the die from cutting through the paper, leaving behind an impression of the die instead.

Next, I used a blending brush to blend Cotton Candy Mid-Tone Shadow Ink onto the corners of the panel. To finish off the background, I splattered it with white gouache and then stamped the sentiment in INTENS-ified Black Ink. Because I stamped over the dry embossing, there were a few small areas of the sentiment where the stamp didn't make contact with the paper; I used a black pen to fill in the gaps.

To assemble the card, I used foam tape to adhere the letters to a heart I'd cut from Dove White cardstock using the same Nesting Hearts Infinity Dies. Then I used more foam tape to adhere the heart to the center of the dry embossed hearts. To finish, I adhered the card front to a Dove White Top-Folded Card base.

Now it's your turn! Create a new card for this challenge with the theme Include A Heart. Use the Inlinkz tool at the very bottom of this post to link up your card, and you will be entered into our drawing. We will be giving a $50 gift certificate randomly to one person who plays along! (Yes, that's right! We increased the prize heading into the new year!) To link up your project, you need to share it publicly somewhere you can grab the link - this can be your blog, Instagram, a Flickr account - anything that allows you to have a URL or website location to link up.

We, of course, encourage you to use your favorite Hero Arts products. But any and all entries are eligible for consideration. We really care most about you bringing a little inky joy into your life. Entries must be submitted by Thursday, February 4th at 5:00pm PT to be eligible for the giveaway, and the winner will be announced when we announce our new challenge on Friday, Febuary 5th. Scroll down below the product thumbnails to find the linkup! If you share your project on social media, we'd love if you'd use the #staycraftywithhero hashtag.

We hope you had fun creating cards inspired by our Creative Team last month! Thanks to everyone who created for the challenge. Our random winner is Terri Burson who was inspired by Jessica Frost-Ballas. We love how she used our Decorated Winter Branches Window Fancy Die.

Congratulations Terri! Email us at info@heroarts.com with "Stay Crafty Challenge Winner" in the subject to claim your prize.

Here's to connection, creativity, inspiration, and kindness. ❤

Click on products to shop:

CM509 Floral Love
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DI860 Floral Love Frame Cuts (C)
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Nesting Hearts Dies - Hero Arts
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AF371 Cotton Candy Mid-Tone Shadow Ink
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AF435 Intens-ified Black Ink Pad -...
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AF419 Clear Embossing & Watermark Ink
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PW110 White Embossing Powder - Hero Arts
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PS300 Hero Hues Premium Cardstock Peony
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PS301 Hero Hues Premium Cardstock...
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PS325 Hero Hues Dove white - Hero Arts
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PS400 Hero Hues Dove White Top Folded...
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Enter our contest by linking your project below! Please enter your name in the caption area. By linking your project, you are giving us permission to feature your card on our blog, social media or newsletter, crediting you as the artist.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

  • Ellie

    Great new theme and beautiful sample!
    Congrats to last month’s winner!

  • Marva Yem

    Can’t wait for the new items 👍😉😊

  • Janis in ID

    Congratulations to the winner!! YAY!!
    Love Seeka’s gorgeous floral letters!! Such a pretty card.
    Thank you for another fun challenge.
    Stay healthy and creative!
    <3 J

    jwoolbright at gmail dot com
    HerPeacefulGarden.blogspot.com