Hello everyone! Are you ready to start thinking about Valentine’s Day? I am! Truth be told I still need to decorate our apartment for Christmas and put up a Christmas tree (we don’t even have ornaments yet) but I am ready to switch gears a bit and shift from the red, white and green to pink, white and red. How about you?
Today we are celebrating Hero Arts 2017 Valentine’s Day Release – a collection of fun new products to play with and create (more about this below)!
Like this card? Pin it and save for later!
I made quite a few cards using new goodies and I’ll be sharing them here on my blog over the next few weeks, so stay tuned! Today I’d like to share to very simple watercolor cards made using Hero Arts London and Paris destination stamps.
I used Arches watercolor paper (there simply is no better watercolor paper in my book) and stamped my images using versamark ink, next I added white embossing powder and heat set it with my heat tool.
I wanted to create little watercolor prints of Paris and London, but I didn’t have a lot of time to work on these, so instead of carefully painting every single detail I did a simple ombre watercolor wash using Distress inks (I am listing the colors I used below in my supply list).
After my panel was was dry I did come in and accentuated some of the elements on my heat embossed panels to help them pop. I used same colors of inks, they were simply watered down less, so ended up looking a lot more vibrant.
To complete these cards I trimmed my panels to about 3 3/4 x 5″ and foam mounted them onto A2 top folding landscape cards made out of Simon’s Fog cardstock. I also wrapped some May Arts natural twine around the front panels and added a few Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
Here’s a look at my watercolor London card – same idea, same layout, same technique, just a different stamp.
You could easily turn these into travel greeting cards by adding sentiments like “Bon Voyage”, “Happy Vacation”, “Greetings From” etc.
HERO ARTS VALENTINE’S DAY RELEASE
 Hero Arts Nesting Hearts Infinity Dies Shop at: HA |
 Hero Arts Hugs Shop at: HA |
 Hero Arts Smitten Shop at: HA |
 Hero Arts Heart Pattern Bold Prints Shop at: HA |
 Hero Arts Romeo and Juliet Shop at: HA |
 Hero Arts truly, madly, deeply Shop at: HA |
 Hero Arts Destination Paris Shop at: HA |
 Hero Arts Destination London Shop at: HA |
 Hero Arts Love Tattoos Shop at: HA |
 Hero Arts Love Swirls Stencil Shop at: HA |
HOP ALONG
The Hero Arts Blog
Jennifer McGuire
Yana Smakula – you are here!
Mariana Grigsby
Amy Tsuruta
Clare Prezzia
Jana Millen
Ilina Crouse
Libby Hickson
GIVEAWAY
Hero Arts is giving away two $25 shopping sprees, drawn from comments left across all blogs in the hop. Please comment by Thursday, December 15 at 11:59pm PT and Hero Arts will announce the winner the following week.
SUPPLIES
I’m listing the products I used below. Click on the link to go directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!
Hero Arts Destination Paris H6194 Shop at: HA |
Hero Arts Destination London H6195 Shop at: HA |
 Hero Arts White Embossing Powder PW110 Shop at: SSS | SC | HA | AZ |
 Hero Arts Heat Embossing Gun PW200 Shop at: SSS | SC | HA | AZ |
 Versamark Watermark Emboss Ink Pad Shop at: SSS | HA | AZ |
 Arches Cold Press Watercolor Pad 9×12″ Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Simon Says Stamp Fog Gray Cardstock Shop at: SSS |
 White Fun Foam 12 Pack 9 x 12 Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Tim Holtz Distress Mini Ink Pad Spun Sugar Shop at: SSS | SC | AZ |
 Tim Holtz Distress Mini Ink Pad Picked Raspberry Shop at: SSS | SC | AZ |
 Tim Holtz Distress Mini Ink Pad Abandoned Coral Shop at: SSS |
 Ranger Studio Paint Artist Brushes Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 May Arts IVORY Twine String Burlap Shop at: SSS |
 EZ Runner Grand – Permanent Shop at: SC | AZ |
 EZ Runner Grand – Permanent – Refill Shop at: SC | AZ |
 EK Success Powder Tool Applicator Shop at: SSS | SC | AZ |
 Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear Sequins Mix Shop at: SSS |
 Sakura Quickie Glue Pen Shop at: SSS | AZ |
Such a beautiful card with soft colors!!
Oh oh oh the cards are gorgeous and I can see me needing the two stamp sets right away. TFS
Beautiful!! I have always been intimidated by watercolor but love the idea of using ink and not paint. You made it look so easy I will have to try it.
That’s beautiful and so easy to do! Thanks for the inspiration.
I love the London and Paris cards. Great colors!
I love that watercolor technique you used! I can’t wait to try it with one of my stamps!
What a great idea to use a watercolor wash, then highlight select items – perfect for that ‘card in a hurry’! Going to give this a try!
Sweet cards, and I just can’t enough with the city scene collection!
love the color combo – so soft and pretty!
I love the look of your ombré card!
Sweet looking card!
Beautiful! I just love the soft water coloring you did. Everything about your card reads romance. Jil
Absolutely adore this soft and pretty card. Breathes and glows romance in every way.
I just love the “Love Tattoos”. The one that spells out love, with the arrows is my favorite.A close second is the love stamp & cut set. I really *need* those asap. Time to fill up my Christmas list with lots of Hero Arts goodies!
Betsy in the frrreeezzzing cold Seattle suburbs
Thanks for sharing the beautiful card.
Oh my goodness Yana, these are really beautiful! I am not ready for Christmas yet either! Working on it though:)
lovely scene for this card. thanks for the inspiration.
Love the soft romantic colors, the perfect backdrop of the Destination Paris image!! <3
So pretty! These are gorgeous stamps and the soft watercolor wash works perfectly!
So soft and pretty! TFS.
Beautiful card.
Love how some parts are highlighted.
the shading and the colors are great.
thanks for sharing.
Beautiful cards! I never would have known what to do with those stamps.
So soft and pretty!
Very nice, love the soft colors.
Lovely cards! 🙂
beautiful soft pastel colors
this is a beautiful example of use of the stamp which I would love to try. thank you
Love the white embossing with the distress ink! So beautiful! Christmas isn’t even here and I’m already excited for Valentine’s Day!
Awesome cards!
Very nice colouring and splendide result thank you
Thank you for such a sweet and soft card! So lovely and versatile!
Beautiful card; I love your work and this is no exception! It is so soft looking. I love the white embossing powder on the white paper and the ombre shades of pink/orange. The sequins add a bit more pizazz! Thanks for sharing.
Oh La La! Love them!
I really love what you did with the Paris and London stamps! And I also have become a big fan of using distress inks to watercolor. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
Such pretty cards, thank you for sharing!
Gorgeous Valentines cards!
Wonderful card! Using my favorite stamps in the release!!
Your cards are beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Absolutely beautiful cards! Love the colours!
Ooooooh!! I really love this embossed in white with subtle color water colored over it…just beautiful!
I love the Paris stamp.
ROMANTIC!!! CAS & just ROMANTIC is all I can say! I LOOOOVE IT YANA! VERY INSPIRING for VALENTINES!! (I LOOOOVE to do Valentines!) 😉
These cards are both romantic and sweet. Love the pinks.
Such a dreamy card. Love it!
Carol b
Love the subtleness of the the image in comparison to the watercolor.
Loving the soft sweetness of these cards! Wonderful watercoloring!
very different but pretty cards
Such beautiful, soft cards. Love what you did here. Thanks for sharing!
Love the background you created. Beautifuk cards.
These watercolor destination cards are sooo pretty with the soft colors and light gray cardstock.