Hello! The Hero Arts Creative Team is celebrating the release of the September Hero Studio with a blog hop! If you are hopping along with us, you have just come from the Hero Arts Blog.

This month’s Hero Studio release is the autumn-themed “Fall in the Forest”.

Contents of the kit:

• Fall is my Favorite 6×8 Stamp Set • Fall is my Favorite Coordinating Dies
• Treehouse Die Set
• Sunset Enamel Dots
• Brown Twine, 1 yard
• 10 Sheets of Cardstock- 1 of each color, 5.5″ x 8.5″ (Truffle, Merlot, Cinnamon, Terra Cotta, Carrot, Coral, Bellini, Beeswax, Saffron, Tuscan)

It’s been a long while since I broke out my watercolors and I thought this was the time to do so! I created an autumn or fall palette with just the basic colors by adding a tiny bit of color from opposite the color wheel. For example, I took bright yellow color and mixed it with a tiny bit of purple (which the color opposite of yellow on the colorwheel). This made the bright yellow, more of a mustard color. I did the same with Green, Orange, Red, Blue, and Purple. Just by color mixing, I was able to extend my color palette from a few basic colors to a wider variety of colors.

If you would like a copy of a color wheel guide, I have a PDF file you can download here.

I created two cards using this palette. For the first card, I die-cut the tree that came in the kit using Hero Arts Luxe White watercolor paper. Then I stamped the image of the squirrel and all the leaves using Contour Ink which is perfect for no-line coloring or in this case, no-line painting.

I used the colors I mixed to paint the tree, first taking a wet brush to the die-cut with a very diluted brown color. I made the brown using the red and adding a little more green until I got the desired shade. I created bark-like patterns with the watercolors by making uneven lines going up and down the trunk. For the inner part of the tree, I used a very dark brown which was part of my watercolor set. But if you don’t have this kind of dark brown you can use black to mix in with the brown.

Then I used the same brown to color in the little squirrel. The leaves were a combination of green, yellow and orange. Then I fussy cut them out using detailed scissors.

The background was simple to do. First I wet a panel of watercolor paper and with a thicker brush, picked the colors and started swiping the brush across the page. First I used the red, then orange and then yellow.

Once the panel was dry, I glued all the elements in place in a horizontal orientation. First, the dark brown “hole”, then the tree trunk, then the squirrel and lastly all the leaves but not before stamping the sentiment “Wishing you a Cozy Fall” using Root beer Reactive Ink from the Nature Reactive Ink Palette. The sentiment is from the September Stamp & Cut of the Month, Pick of the Patch.

Then I used Truffle cardstock for the matting.

For the second card, I used the same color palette. The blue for the bed was made by adding more blue to the mixture.

I die-cut all the elements from the September Die Set of the Month “Cozy Critters” using watercolor paper.

Then I watercolored the pieces individually before assembling. The sentiment “You + Me” is from the card kit. I framed the Cozy scene with the largest of the Wood Frame Infinity die which I also watercolored.

Hero Arts will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Friday, September 5th at 11:59pm PT, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week. Leave a comment on all stops for more chances to win!

For more inspiration, hop along with us. Next on the hop is the wonderfully talented, Channin.

Have fun hopping along!

Have a wonderful crafty day!

Til next time!

Anna