Hello Folks! Scott here with a new set of 10 cards inspired by the My Monthly Hero June 2023 Classic and Premium kits. We’re headed to the beach this month with a new HeroScape stamp set and Beach Window Fancy die that easily transports us right to the seashore!

I will once again work on making five cards just using the Classic Kit and then five more adding in the Premium supplies as well. Now, the ink cubes included in this kit are water-reactive, and we have watercolor paper too… It seems like we’re being encouraged to use these inks on the watercolor paper…!

On a 4.25′ x 5.5′ piece of the watercolor paper, I stamped the first (largest) water stamp using Splash Reactive ink. Then I stamped the second ‘ripple’ stamp using Blue Hawaii Reactive ink. I had to stamp both of those multiple times to get a decent impression, though I still had some deep textures that weren’t capturing the ink. I did a light ink blending for the sky with the Splash ink, and stamped the clouds using Blue Hawaii. I stamped the sun and the small ‘ripple’ stamp using Lemon Drop and Creamsicle Reactive inks, and added the extra smaller clouds using Splash ink. Finally, I ink-blended some Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink on the bottom for the sandy beach.

Once everything was stamped, I still had some white texture spots from the watercolor paper that just wouldn’t ink up. Time to break out some water and a paintbrush…! That’s just what this needed… I was able to blend away all the texture spots that were resisting the inks, added a little more color where the sea meets the sand, got some nice striations in the sky, and de-emphasized the stark outlines on the big cloud stamp. This feels little more painterly to me! I also used some Iridescent Watercolor ink (from the Oct. ’16 MMH kit!) on the sun and its reflection to add a touch of glitter, and I drew a thin line between the sea and sky with a white gel pen to define the horizon. I added the birds stamped with Granite Core ink, and trimmed the panel down to 3.75″ x 5″, added a thin White mat, and a thicker Dark Blue Pearlescent mat and then glued all those to a White A2 card base.

I stamped the silhouette 3 or 4 times using Intense Black ink, let that dry overnight, and then (the next day) stamped it two more times with the same ink. That just about completely erases the ripple lines she’s stamped on top of. I wasn’t sure where I was going to put this sentiment so I stamped and embossed it on a piece of vellum using the Blue Hawaii ink and clear embossing powder. I die-cut the sentiment using the matching die. I finally decided to center the sentiment on the sun, so I ran the die-cut sentiment through a Xyron Sticker maker and stuck it down in place. Well, this card took an inordinate amount of time with my fiddling around and experimenting with this kit, but I really like the finished card. I’m not too sure about this sentiment – though you may just be sending peaceful thoughts to someone at the end of their day, this does feel like a bereavement card to me… the sun breaking through the clouds and a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

Enough with that watercolor paper… let’s see how these stamps behave on some plain card stock!

On a panel of plain Staples Ivory card stock, I stamped the big water stamp in sections – Splash, Blue Hawaii, Taffy, to get a little more color on the water. I used a blending brush to pull some of that color up into the sky, and ink blended some Lemon Drop ink on the upper part of the sky. I stamped and embossed the second ‘ripple’ stamp using Embossing and Watermark ink and Clear embossing powder… that adds some nice shine on the water! I stamped the setting sun (or is that rising?) with the Lemon Drop and Creamsicle inks and used the same inks on the small ‘ripple’ stamp and embossed that with more Clear embossing powder. (the Reactive inks stay wet long enough to emboss with them!)

I die-cut the Beach Window Fancy die from some of the watercolor paper (I’m sure I had some grand idea about painting it..!) and discovered that the next-to-the-largest HA Oval Infinity die matched the oval of the Fancy die with just enough clearance to make a perfect little frame. I die-cut the inked Ivory panel with the same oval die and glued both pieces together and down to a White card base.

Using my MISTI Stamp Platform, I curved the sentiment to match the oval, stamped it with Intense Black ink, and embossed it with Clear embossing powder. I like the sentiment outside of the frame… no competition with the beachy scene inside the oval! And I really like that window die! A good amount of detail without being overly fussy – works quite well in simple white – adding great detail and texture to the card while not drawing focus from the scenery!

Let’s try something like this but with a night sky instead… that round sun stamp could just as easily be the moon, right?

On a panel of Pitch Black card stock, I stamped the large ocean stamp with HA Unicorn White pigment ink and let that dry thoroughly before stamping it again with Blue Hawaii Reactive ink. I turned to some Perfect Pearls for the second “ripple’ stamp, inking that with Perfect Medium ink and using the White Perfect Pearl on top. Nice pearlescent reflection without any sparkles! I stamped the moon and the small ‘ripple’ stamp with Embossing and Watermark ink and embossed those with White Sparkle embossing powder (from the October 2020 kit!). Now there’s some glitter! I stamped the clouds (upside-down) on the top of the panel with HA Unicorn White pigment ink, and used a White gel pen to add just the smallest sprinkling of stars in the sky.

I cut a panel of Dark Blue Pearlescent card stock to 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″ and die-cut the window die from the center. I trimmed down the stamped panel to match and glued them both together and down to a White card base. I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of the pearlescent card stock with Unicorn White ink and embossed that with White embossing powder. I die-cut the sentiment with the matching die and glued it to the card front… kind of feels like an extension of the moon’s reflection on the water…! I love it when we get sentiment dies in our kits!

We have all sorts of people and items to populate our seashore, but it felt like the Window die limited the space where we could add those images. I thought I’d skip some of the items in our kit to help me make a more complete scene.

I took a panel of Hero Hues Arctic Card Stock and stamped the second “ripple’ stamp with Unicorn White ink. I also stamped the clouds in the same ink (upside-down again!) on the top of the panel. I ink-blended some Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink on the bottom of the panel for our beach.

I stamped the lighthouse with Granite Core ink and the dock with Charcoal Core ink, and the kids and dog with Intense Black ink. I got some nice reflections in the water by stamping the dock and lighthouse lightly on a piece of acetate, flipping that over and pressing the ink down underneath the original stamping. I stamped the sun in the sky and its reflection ripples with Lemon Drop ink, and added some of the bird footprints going in a few directions down in the lower left corner.

I printed this pun-y sentiment (and oldie but a goodie) on the panel using my Silhouette Software and the Black Jack and DIN Condensed fonts. This is a pretty good approximation of the sentiment fonts in the stamp set. I used some of my Pebbles Chalk pastels for the dark “mist” on the horizon, and some Micro brushes with Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide ink for the shadows on the kids. Some White Gel pen adds more foamy white water where the sea and shore meet. I trimmed this panel down just a little bit and glued it to a White card base. I really like the soft colors here, as well as the reflections and the shadows on this card…. very serene…!

These HeroScape stamps are obviously intended to be used on an A2 card in a portrait orientation – they are all 4.25″ wide. Well, you know me… I’m not happy unless I can figure out a way to use those stamps in a landscape orientation.

I LOVE THIS! The landscape orientation really makes the water/ocean/lake look much more expansive! I stamped the big stamp using Splash Reactive ink, masked off the sky and ink-blended more of the same ink on the sides to extend the stamp to 5.5″ wide. I stamped the second “ripple” stamp with Embossing and Watermark ink, extended that stamp to the edges with an Emboss-it pen, and embossed all with Glacial Blue embossing powder (also from the MMH October 2020 Kit). The smallest ripple stamp is embossed again with the White Sparkle embossing powder.

I flipped the masking around to ink-blend the sky using Blue Hawaii, Purple Galaxy and Licorice Reactive inks. I spattered the stars with some White India Ink, and blended a little moon halo with Unicorn White ink. I die-cut the moon from White card stock using the included die, and ink blended it with Charcoal and Granite Core inks. A tiny round blending brush gives us some nice “craters” on the moon. I trimmed that panel to 3.25″ x 5.5″, added a thin Dark Blue Pearlescent mat (top and bottom) and went to work on my sentiment.

I printed this sentiment directly on a White card base using my Silhouette Software and the Dream State font. This is the ending lyrics to that old stand-by “I’ll Be Seeing You” which was a big hit for Bing Crosby in 1944 – after being featured in the Ginger Rogers and Joseph Cotten movie “I’ll Be Seeing You” that same year. It seems just about everybody has made a recording of this song from Billy Holiday to Michael Bublé – Rosemary Clooney’s is my favorite! Later, the song became notably associated with Liberace, as the theme music to his television show of the 1950s. A lovely Miss You card!

That feels like a good exploration of the Classic kit. Let’s move on to the Premium kit and those fun layering stencils.

This came out so nice that I almost couldn’t bring myself to cut it! I even considered making a 6″ x 6″ card – maybe even a mini slimline card… but, ultimately, I had to return to my standard A2 card format!

I cut the stenciling down to 4′ x 5.25″ and glued it to a thin Metallic Gold mat and down to a White card base. I created this sentiment (good pun!) using my Silhouette Software, printed it on White card stock and cut it out (along with four “blanks”) using my Silhouette Portrait. I glued all five layers together for a dimensional chip-board feel. I added some sparkle highlights on the sentiment using a Gelly Roll Stardust pen and glued it down to the card front. I’m loving this! The photograph doesn’t do the foiling justice – very shiny in person! Looks like a party just waiting to happen!

Now, rainbow seashells aren’t exactly accurate, so I thought I would try a more realistic color palette for these shells.

I like this one almost as much as the rainbow shells! Very beach-y! On a plain panel of Staples Ivory card stock, I used Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink for Stencil ‘a’, Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide ink for Stencil ‘b’, and Aged Mahogany Distress oxide ink for Stencil ‘c’. Of course I couldn’t leave well enough alone, and added some Hero Paste Glitter over the ink on Stencil ‘c’ – it took on the ink color beautifully, and added a nice touch of sparkle as well. Once the glitter paste was dry, I trimmed the panel to 4″ x 5.25″, added a metallic Rose Gold mat and glued those to a White card base.

I liked my “Shellebrate!” sentiment so much I created this dijon-yellow version. I printed, cut and glued five layers as I did previously and even added the glitter highlights as well. We do have this “happy birthday” sentiment in our kit and it turned out to fit just perfectly under the right side of the sentiment. A perfect card for anyone celebrating a birthday on the beach! And that glitter paste adds a really great texture to this card as well!

We only have five sentiments in this stamp set, so I was looking forward to coming up with some (puns?) of my own.

I really do like that Fancy Window die and, since the palm trees are quite prominent, decided that this was a good pun for a straightforward and fairly simple card. I cut the window die from some green pearlescent card stock in my stash, Printed this sentiment on a piece of Hero Hues Arctic card stock using the Hiragino Sans W7 Font, ink-blended Splash ink around the edges, and glued the two pieces together and down to a White card base.

I did manage to fussy cut three complete shells from my original rainbow panel, and added them to the bottom of the oval with foam tape. Those add a nice pop of color and shine and really anchor that Window die. Some crystals and sequins from the Bahama Bliss sequin mix adds a nice finishing touch and lots of sparkle.

I feel like I’ve short-changed the Beach Window Fancy die a little bit, so I thought I’d give it some extra attention… and we get another fun pun!

I die cut the Window die from a 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of Bristol Smooth card stock, and colored everything with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. On another panel of Ivory card stock, I masked off a horizon line, and used the Splash ink to blend in the water below the masking. I stamped the second ‘ripple’ stamp with Embossing and Watermark ink and embossed it with the Glacial Blue embossing powder. I stamped the sun and the reflection ripples with the Lemon Drop ink and embossed the ripples with the Iridescent Embossing powder. Very interesting embossing powder! As you shift it around in the light, it changes color! The yellow ripples become blue! Cool! I also stamped the leading edge of the first large ripple stamp where the water meets the beach with Embossing ink and embossed that with the White Sparkle embossing powder. That gives us a little foamy water where the waves crash on the shore!

I stamped the sailboat on a scrap of ivory card stock using Granite Core ink and die-cut it with the matching die. I stamped the pelican directly on the colored panel with the same ink. I trimmed the die-cut border on the sailboat and glued it in place – so you can see the sailors between the palm leaves! I added thin strips of foam tape behind the free-floating palm branches and the top of the trunks and glued the rest of the Window die to the inked Ivory panel and then down to a White card base.

I printed the sentiment on a scrap of Ivory card stock using my Silhouette Software and the DIN Condensed Font. I do love this pun! I die-cut the sentiment with an LF Everyday Messages Banner die and mounted it to the card front with foam tape. That really anchors the window die perfectly. I enjoyed coloring the window die (not much else to color in this kit!) but you need to be careful that your background doesn’t compete with your colored die-cut! Love it!

Now, this isn’t a pun… but it is a great play on words…! When I saw the (obviously) Orca Whale stamp I knew what to do!

I stamped the whale in position on a panel of White card stock using Intense Black ink, and I stamped and fussy-cut a mask for the whale at the same time. I placed the mask on the whale, then the circle “sun” mask on top of that and then I masked off the horizon line and ink blended Blue Hawaii below the horizon mask. Then I masked off the water, and ink blended the sky with Lemon Drop ink. I removed all the masks and am left with a great vignette featuring our Killer Whale!

I die-cut the inked panel with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die (4.5″ x 3.25″) and printed this great sentiment using my Silhouette Software with the Dream State and DIN Condensed fonts. I glued that to a black mat and then to a White card base. Very straightforward but quite impressive just using the Orca stamp and some simple masking. Love it!

And that completes my 10 Cards 1 Kit post inspired by the My Monthly Hero June 2022 Kits. Quite a nice variety of cards and looks this month. I almost used every stamp in this stamp set… I didn’t get to the cairns stamps (the stacked rocks) and I didn’t use the “hello friend” sentiment, but everything else is on the cards! The Beach Window Fancy die is terrific either plain or painted… The seashell layering stencils are simply gorgeous and can be ink blended in an infinite variety of colors… and the water ripple layering stamps work brilliantly! I feel like I need to get to the seashore asap!

Everyone must be yearning for the beach these days as both the Classic and Premium kits have sold out already! Hopefully, I’ve been able to give you a few different takes on ways you can use this kit, and maybe even inspired some ideas of your own!

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me here today. Your support and encouragement mean everything to me! Let me know which cards are your favorites and remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Share me with all your friends…. beware of sea urchins and jellyfish… and as always I’m sending you and yours all my Love and Light and Happy Crafting!

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Hello Folks!! Scott here with my 10 cards inspired by the My Monthly Hero May 2023 Classic and Premium Kits. Hero Arts claims this kit is celebrating the freedom and joy of childhood with two color layering bicycle stamps and all the elements needed to decorate them. There’s a fun Pop-Art flower stencil and some Pigment ink cubes as well!

Lot of pink bicycles on that transfer sheet…! In fact, there’s lots of pink in this kit…! Not sure about all the glitter and holographic card stocks included… as a youngster, most of my bikes were pretty plain and rarely sported more than a clothespin holding a baseball card between the spokes…! Once again, I’ll try to make my first five cards using only the supplies in the Classic Kit! Let’s see how these color layering bicycles stamp…!

Very easy to line up this bicycle stamp! I started with the bike body stamped in the Teal Pigment ink included with the kit, then I stamped the wheels/seat/hand grips with HA Charcoal Core ink and the spokes with HA Granite Core ink. I die-cut the bike with the included die, and decided I wanted a different color for my handlebar basket. I stamped the basket portion lightly on a scrap of Ivory card stock with Frayed Burlap Distress oxide ink, fussy cut the basket out, and glued it over the teal basket on the bike…

I stamped and die-cut the grass on a piece of HA Kiwi card stock using Green Apple Reactive ink, and added another grassy border behind that using a LF Grassy Border die and more Kiwi card stock. I die-cut a piece of blue watercolor pattern paper with a Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle die and stamped the sentiment using HA Intense Black ink and embossed that with some of the clear embossing powder. I added a thin blue glitter mat behind that, trimmed my grass pieces to size using the Stitched Rectangle die and glued them all down to a White A2 card base.

The true fun of this card is achieved by attaching the bike to the card front with a Mini Action Wobbler (on the back wheel) for some bouncy “wheelie” action. Offsetting the wobbler on the back wheel adds a great deal of action to the bike without even having to flick the bike by hand…!

There’s one more color layering bike in this set… only two stamps so a little bit easier than the profile bike!

I do like the perspective on this bike stamp! I stamped this bike on White card stock with the HA Charcoal and Granite Core inks and then added some details with a Red and Black Pigma Micron pen and some touches of a White gel pen as well. This feels very metallic to me…!

I cut a piece of 110# White card stock to 5″ x 3.75″ and dry embossed the stencil on that. Dry embossing a stencil is a great way to stretch the usage of your stencils and I think it works beautifully for this background. I added a thin mat of the Pink Glitter card stock behind the embossed piece and glued both to a white A2 card base.

I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of White card stock using the Pink Pigment Ink cube from the kit and embossed it with the clear embossing powder. I die-cut the stamped sentiment with a Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banners die, folded the flag ends before mounting to the card front with foam tape. The bike is mounted with foam tape as well, and this whole card feels very spring-like and quite comforting!

Fortunately, there are a few stamps in this set that don’t necessarily have anything to do with bicycles…!

Straightforward, simple, colorful and perfectly appropriate for a Birthday! I stamped the round and heart balloons using my MISTI Stamping tool and the Fruit Punch, Creamsicle, Lemon Drop, Green Apple, Splash and Grape Slush Reactive inks. I masked off the strings to stamp the balloons and masked off the balloons to stamp the strings with Granite Core ink. I die-cut the stamped panel with a LFSRdie, added a thin red mat and glued both to a White card base.

The sentiment is stamped with the Fruit Punch Reactive ink and embossed with the Clear embossing powder. For a little touch of bling, I die-cut a scrap of metallic red card stock with the smallest heart die in the kit and glued that next to the sentiment. I did add some highlights to the balloons with a White gel pen and we have an all-purpose Birthday Card! Sorry… no bike this year!!

I was convinced that I could turn the profile bike stamp(s) into a Tandem Bike… it took a couple of tries (I even did one where there were THREE wheels… OOPS!) but I think this works pretty well…!

I stamped the main bike stamp (Splash Reactive ink) twice on some masking paper and trimmed away the front on one and the back on the other to join the two together to make this Tandem bike… It was a little bit fussy trying to keep the handlebars on the back from encroaching on the seat of the front bike but this feels pretty good! I extended the chain guard on the front bike with masking and a blending brush, and created the extra center support (behind the center white flower) with more masking and ink blending.

I stamped the seats and hand grips with Fruit Punch Reactive ink and the wheels with Charcoal and Granite Core inks, and the Streamers with the Yellow Pigment ink from the kit. Finally, I used a Blue, Red and Brown Pigma Micron pen for some details on the bikes, and added a portion of the box stamp to the back with the bundle of food and wine using Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide ink. I die-cut the stamped panel with a LFSRdie, added a thicker blue glitter mat and glued those to a white card base.

I used the grass die (and the LFSRdie) to cut a piece of Green card stock and ink blended the negative of the Lawn Fawn grass die (card 1) on top with Green Apple Reactive ink before gluing that in place. The sentiment is stamped with Splash Reactive ink and embossed with Clear embossing powder.

I die-cut the two clouds from White card stock three time each, glued them together for some extra dimension and ink blended a little Splash ink on their bottom edges before gluing them to the card front. I die-cut a bunch of yellow and white flowers using the dies in our kit, added little inked centers, gave them a little bit of shaping and glued them to the card front. I did stamp the basket flowers in the yellow Pigment ink in the basket but they were a little too blobby to tell what they were so I just glued a couple of die cut flowers on the basket. This would make a great anniversary card!!

I did take some red glitter paste and used that with the Flower Stencil for a bright, graphic and sparkly background.

I stamped the perspective bike with Embossing and Watermark ink and embossed it with HA Red embossing Powder. I stamped the seat/wheels with Intense Black ink and embossed those with the Clear embossing powder, and die-cut it out. I stamped and embossed the flag exactly the same, and die-cut that as well.

I die-cut a panel of White card stock with a LFSRdie, stamped the sentiment with intense black ink and embossed that with Clear embossing powder. I added a mat of Black glitter card stock and glued those to a White A2 card base. I trimmed the glitter stencil piece to fit inside the stitched lines of the back panel and glued that flat to the card front.

I tried flipping the glitter stencil piece around to the right so I could put the flag on the back of the bike, but it just didn’t feel right, so I put the flag on the front fork instead… not very practical, but it looks good with this arrangement. I like this ‘monochrome’ card a lot though I wish my reds were a little closer in color… c’est la vie…!

So that’s my five cards only using the materials in the Classic Kit. Now we can dig into the Premium supplies which feature the three piece tri-fold fancy dies. Let’s see what happens if we connect them all together…!

Now that’s a tri-fold card! I managed to die-cut these four panels so there was only one hinge… That means die-cutting the first panel on the back of an A2 card base, the second panel on the inside front panel of the same card base, the third panel on the back of an A2 card base and the Stitched Clouds (from my stash) on the inside front panel of the same card base. So the only added hinge is on the left between layer 2 and 3. That was fun!

I masked and stamped the sentiment(s) using the Teal Pigment ink and embossed all with Clear embossing powder. I die-cut a piece of HA Arctic card stock with a LFSRdie and glued it behind the cloud to complete the card. These die-cuts are so detailed, I didn’t think they needed any embellishments or color… really sharp done up in White! Naturally, this card stands on its own, and I love the dimension you get when the layers are relaxed and opened up a little!

You can use those dies all together like this or individually as you like… I suppose you could even cut the ponytail off the rider and turn “her” into a “he”… the possibilities are almost endless…!

When I was trying to think of things to do with the glitter card stock in our kit, I realized that our pigment inks should work on top of the glitter card stock…!

Might be the brightest yellow ink in my stash!! I reapplied the Yellow ink over the faded out pink ink for this great glitter background.

I die-cut the third tri fold die from some HA Pitch Black card stock and added a rub-on blue bike on the top… those rub-ons work very well on black! I added some of the yellow flower rub-ons as well! I stamped the sentiment with Splash reactive ink and embossed it with the Clear embossing powder. I glued the black panel to the stenciled glitter background, trimmed them to 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″ and glued all to a White card base. I am loving that stenciled glitter sky!

That was a fun use for the glitter card stock… how about the holographic card stock in the Premium Kit?

Here’s a good pun for this month! I printed this sentiment on a piece of White card stock using my Silhouette software and the Courier font. After figuring out the placement of everything, I die-cut the printed panel with a LFSRdie and added another rub-on blue bike to the left side of the panel. I cut the “broken” holographic card stock in small strips and added them as little motion lines to our bike. I glued that panel to a smooth holographic mat and then down to a White card base. My piano tuner at work is an avid bicyclist (summer or winter, rain or shine) and not only does he hold his bike in the highest regard, but he does claim that bicycling is the best therapy he has ever experienced…!

Of course, when I was learning to ride a bike, I was constantly told to keep pedaling… keep pedaling… keep pedaling…

And that feels like a perfectly appropriate sentiment for anyone… at any age…! I did another rub-on bike on a piece of 40# vellum and die cut that with a HA Nesting Circle Infinity die. I created this sentiment using my Silhouette Software again with the Courier font, and printed that directly on a White A2 card base. I attached the vellum with little dots of glue behind the bicycle. Great encouragement card!

My last card was actually inspired by Pocono Pam and the card she created for Day 2 of this kit’s sneak peeks!

I had to up the ante a little bit with this one, and made an interactive card with the bicyclist riding around the circle!

I started with two LFSRdie cut panels and my HA Nesting Circles Infinity dies. I die-cut the circular opening (3″) in one of the die cut panels and used the Yellow pigment ink to lightly stencil the flowers on that panel. I die-cut a larger circle and colored that with the Yellow Pigment ink. I die cut another even larger circle to be our “spinner” and stamped little arrows (MFT Interactive labels) with Charcoal Core ink, and punched little notches around the edge to help grip the spinner. I attached the spinner to the other die-cut panel with a brad, and centered it to the left side of the card.

I die-cut the bicyclist from Pitch Black card stock, die-cut the bottom edge of that with the matching circle die and glued that to my yellow circle. I temporarily taped the rectangular die-cut panels together and figured out where to attach the yellow circle to the spinner circle (don’t glue too close to the brad!). I stamped the sentiment on the front panel with Intense Black ink and embossed it with the Clear embossing powder. I used thin foam tape to attach the rectangular panels together.

I cut a piece of Pitch Black card stock to 4″ x 5.25″ and glued that to the front of a White A2 card base. I then used some normal thickness foam tape to attach the action panel(s) on top of the black mat. I wasn’t going to use this sentiment to begin with… I thought it was a little odd… but it works quite well on an interactive card like this! I guess you might equate this to a hamster wheel, but I prefer to think of it as a Globe of Death circus and carnival stunt – the one with motorcycles spinning around inside a steel mesh globe…! Needless to say, this ride could just go on forever and ever…! Or at least until the wheels fall off!

And that’s our springtime bicycle adventure! Despite there being nine card with bicycles, I think we have a pretty decent variety of looks and styles here… and even a couple of interactive cards as well!

I managed to use most (but not all) of the stamps in our stamp set… the animal silhouettes and fence and decorative flowers and hearts went unused though I did use the flower and small heart dies. We used the flower stencil on four cards, the glitter card stock on four cards and, of course, the Clear Embossing Powder.

This embossing powder could not have come at a better time… I was on the last dregs of my Clear embossing powder, and the final bits had become adulterated with specks and spots of foreign materials, so I simply dumped out the old and refilled my container with this new batch of Clear Embossing powder – filled up my pot almost half-way! Thank you!

I did use all of the tri fold fancy dies, a number of the rub-ons and even some of the holographic card stocks! I think I gave this kit a pretty good run for the money even if I didn’t use all the stamps!

This Classic Kit is still available at Hero Arts, though the Premium Kit has sold out (don’t ask me…!?). If you’re ready to break your bike out of cold storage and venture forth in this glorious springtime, grab a kit for yourself before it sells out too! If you do go shopping at Hero Arts, please use my links listed below. It is dearly appreciated and actually helps support this page (at no cost to you!). Thank you, Thank you!

My Monthly Hero May 2023 Classic Kit: http://shrsl.com/42o88

My Monthly Hero May 2023 Collection: http://shrsl.com/42o8d

Thank you so very much for sharing your time with me here today. Let me know what you think of this kit and what card(s) are your favorites. I always appreciate hearing from you and am thrilled to be a part of your crafting adventures! Please remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Share me with all your friends… Don’t run with scissors…! and I’m sending you and yours all my Love, Light, and Happy Crafting!

DISCLOSURE: This site contains some affiliate links to products. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links (at no cost to you). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you!

Hello Folks! Scott here with my ten cards created with the My Monthly Hero April 2023 Classic and Premium Kits. This month we are treated to an interesting mix of florals, vases, and all sorts of “multi-media’ elements. There is SO MUCH STUFF in this kit!! And to top it off… all the sentiment stamps have dies to cut them out!

Between the Classic and the Premium, we get 40 dies in this kit!! Amazing! As usual, I’ll create my first five cards using only the elements in the Classic Kit. I started out fairly simple…

I do love those background texture cling stamps – so handy for creating backgrounds and extra textures on your cards. I stamped the texture weave cling stamp in the center of a White A2 card base using Hero Hues Granite Core ink. I did wipe down the edges of that cling stamp to soften them a bit. Then I stamped the hashtag pattern stamp on top using Hero Hues Charcoal Core ink.

I stamped the vase and flower bundle using HA Intense Black Ink on some Bristol Smooth card stock, and colored the flowers with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush watercolor markers. I actually used the Bermuda ink cube to watercolor the vase, but the Core ink cube didn’t quite behave as a simple watercolor – I should stick to the Reactive inks if I want to use inks to watercolor! But I was able to get a decent blend on the vase, and after that dried, I fussy-cut a negative mask of that vase from some ThermOweb Masking paper, and stamped the circular texture stamp on the vase using the Bermuda ink cube.

Once dry, I die-cut the flowers and vase with their matching dies, glued them together, and mounted them to the card front with foam tape. I stamped the sentiment on some 110# card stock using the Bermuda ink, and die-cut the sentiment. I attached the sentiment with more foam tape and we have our first card for the month. That’s a decent little pun there, and the colors really pop on that simple two-tone grey background!

All of the online descriptions of this kit really played up the multi-media aspects…. Okay… I can go there…!

I often reach for my Tim Holtz pattern papers when creating a multi-media card and this background (Collage Mini Stash) felt kind of perfect. I embellished the background with the text pattern cling stamp using Charcoal ink, and added some white ink splatters as well. I stamped the flowers, leaves and pitcher on Bristol Smooth card stock with Intense Black ink, colored them with my Zig markers, and die-cut them out. The sentiment is stamped on matching Tim Holtz pattern paper with VersaMark ink, embossed with White embossing powder, and die-cut with the matching die. I added the swirls on the pitcher using the smaller swirl die colored with the Green Apple and Bermuda ink cubes, trimmed down and then glued to the pitcher. A White gel pen adds some highlights to the stamped and colored images.

I laid out my arrangement on the background and planned out the green swirl stamps – notice how you don’t see the tail end of any of them! I stamped them with VersaMark ink and embossed them with some Love From Lizi Atlantis Green embossing powder. I die-cut the background panel with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die, and ink blended some Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink around the edges. I glued that to a thin white mat and then to a thicker Auburn Pearl mat and then down to a white A2 card base.

I have to admit that I am not well versed on the art of flower arranging… I’ve used the two pre-arranged stamps in the kit and now I have to turn my attention to the single bloom stamps! When I realized that the large bloom stamp had two six-petal layers, and we have that “rare flower” sentiment, I knew what I had to do…

A black and white card certainly makes this rainbow bloom stand out! I covered a plain Panel of White card stock with our Washi tape, lining up the text between strips and then die-cut that panel with a LFSRdie. I completed the cut on the Washi tape at the stitched lines, and removed the excess giving me a nice white frame around the washi background. The seams between the washi tape were starting to bother me a little, so I added some thin black peel-off stickers on the seams and just made it part of the pattern. I added a black mat to the washi background and glued both down to a White card base.

I stamped, colored and cut the bloom and the sentiment(s) just like the first two cards, and die-cut the leaves from some 110# card stock. I did use a small stylus to add a simple vein on each leaf… that adds a lot of detail to the otherwise plain die cut! All the die cuts are attached to the card front with foam tape. I really like that Washi tape background, and I can’t imagine a more Rare Flower…!!

I do believe I can embrace the multi-media aspect of this kit a little more vigorously…!

This card actually started with the center panel – a 2.25″ x 3.5″ scrap of white card stock directly inked with squares of the Butter Bar, Green Apple, and Crimson Core ink in a simple 2 by 3 rectangle (2 of each)… the Butter Bar ink cube was SO juicy that I grabbed a blending brush and just blended everything together… but you can still make out the squares of color. When that panel dried (took a LONG time) I stamped the texture weave cling stamp with Intense Black ink and embossed the text cling stamp in White.

I stamped the flower on a scrap of card stock with VersaMark ink, lengthened the stem with a VersaMarker Pen and embossed that with HA Gold Embossing powder, colored it with my Zig markers and die-cut the bloom and just the beginning of the stem, and then fussy-cut the rest of the stem. The sentiment is stamped, embossed with Gold, and die-cut the same.

I have this old 8″ x 8″ DCWV paper pack called the Fiber Stack with this interesting textured card stock – the orange mat and red strip are torn to size (using a metal ruler) and glued to the card front (red) and behind the stamped panel (orange). I added some more gold embossing next to the red strip using the “tile” stamp, added a piece of lace and then a thin pin-stripe peel-off sticker. The white textured “rope” on the left is paper string unwound a little bit.

I added some white speckles on the inked background, mounted the flower and sentiment with foam tape and added the whole matted piece to the center with more foam tape. How’s that for multi-media! I do love the look of this card!

I have a few more image stamps to use in this stamp set… this happened by just fooling around with the unused stamps!

Nothing planned… totally random stamping here, but I love it! These blooms and buds are colored with Prismacolor colored pencils, and I did add the small swirls (for filler) embossed with Love From Lizi Pastel Purple Party embossing powder – very sparkly IRL! I cut the stamped and colored panel to 5″ x 1.75″, glued that to a thin black mat and a thicker metallic purple mat and then down to the center of a White A2 card base. The sentiment is stamped with Grape Slush Reactive ink and embossed with Clear Embossing powder. For some reason, I am totally taken with this card… must be the thrill of ignoring my obsessive anal-retentive control issues and just going with the flow… if only for a while!!

That’s five cards from the Classic kit! I even managed to use all the image stamps in the stamp set… more sentiments to go of course… and now we get to play with the Premium parts too! You give me 20 flower, foliage, and vase dies and my mind is going to automatically go graphic!

I think I was struck by the large size of this leaf die…! These are all die-cut from some simple textured green, yellow and orange card stock (the yellow is cut on the non-textured side) and the flowers aren’t inlaid, they are layered. I spaced out the leaf die cuts on the front of a White A2 card base, trying to keep them as straight as possible, and glued the flowers down at the ends. Some extra dots from the center of the flowers fills in the white spaces above the flowers.

The sentiment(s) is stamped with Green Apple Reactive ink, embossed with Clear Embossing powder, and die-cut with the matching dies. I added those to the center of the card using foam tape. I really like the bold graphic here!!

It seemed to me that the flower dies had obviously corresponding stem/leaf dies for each of them. Like these…

I couldn’t resist going back to that Tim Holtz pattern paper for this card. A little touch of perfect with a sentiment like that! I die-cut that pattern paper with a LFSRdie and ink blended some Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink around the edges, and glued it to a matching Tim Holtz pattern paper mat and then down to a white card base.

The vase is die-cut from more of that Fiber card stock and stenciled with the straight doodle stencil and Creamsicle Reactive ink. I added a ‘mat’ around the vase by die-cutting a second vase in black, splitting it down the center and gluing it to the back of the orange vase. Little strips of black card stock finish out the top and bottom of the ‘mat’. I think that highlights the vase beautifully!

The stems/leaves are die-cut from the same textured Green card stock and I did add simple veins with a stylus. The flowers are die-cut from watercolor card stock and some petal texture is added with a stylus. The centers are cut from yellow card stock and layered on top of the white flower. I glued the flowers to the stems and arranged three in the vase and attached those to the card front with foam tape. The flower on the ground is glued directly to the card front. The nice thing about these dainty, thin stems is that you can give them a little curve quite easily!

The sentiment(s) is stamped on matching pattern paper with VersaMark ink and embossed in white, die-cut with the matching dies and mounted with foam tape. For a final touch, I found these gold glitter wooden stars in my stash and glued them to the card front. I added little spots of Gold gel pen in the flower centers to match up with the stars. This would make a great Birthday card but could also be fun for other occasions!

Again… I thought these flowers and leaf dies were meant to go together…

The background is an old Darice Moroccan Geometric background die cut from watercolor card stock and glued to a White card base. I stamped the texture weave cling stamp on more Tim Holtz pattern paper using Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink, trimmed that down to size and glued that to the bottom of the die cut on the card front.

I did ink up some white card stock using the included Core inks and overlapped the Green Apple and Bermuda inks together to give us a new green! I die-cut the stems from the green inking and the blooms from the Butter Bar inking. (I did supplement the stems with some cut from watercolor pattern paper from my stash). I added a little shading to the blooms with alcohol markers and some highlights with a White gel pen. I cut off a couple of the top leaves from the shorter flowers and then glued the flowers and stems together.

I die-cut the vase from some Orange card stock, did some ink blending and stenciling with Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink and added highlights with a White gel pen. Looks very much like a clay pot! I glued the flowers on the vase and added all to the card front with foam tape on the vase and on each bloom.

I actually wasn’t going to use this sentiment (I thought it was too similar to the Thank You sentiment) but my sister called me this week and while we were catching up, she actually said that I was appreciated! Well, that was enough for me! The sentiment(s) are stamped on 110# white card stock using Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink and embossed with Clear embossing powder. I die-cut those and added them to the card front with foam tape. I’ve actually used every stamp in our stamp set now! Some green Enamel Stickers adds a little bling to this card, and I may just have to send this one off to the sister and let her know how much she inspires me!

Of course, it is that time of year again… when thoughts turn to Mom and we reach for new ways to show our affections…

Those look like Lilies to me! The background sports the triple rainbow stencil all along the left side. I stenciled that with Grape Slush, Splash, Key Lime Fizz, Lemon Drop, Creamsicle, and Fruit Punch Reactive inks and blended more Lemon Drop ink over the whole panel. I trimmed that to 5″ x 3.75″, added a thin black mat and glued those to a white card base.

The leafy stems are die-cut from my inked up panel (with simple veins added to the leaves), and the flowers are die-cut from watercolor card stock, and a little Butter Bar ink is blended on their bases. I glued the flowers to the stems, arranged the flowers together, and added the extra greenery (trimmed from the bottom of the flower stems) to fill in the arrangement. The vase is die-cut from more watercolor pattern paper from my stash, and the curvy stripes are stenciled on with Crimson Core ink. I wanted more of a glass or ceramic effect for this vase, so I covered the whole thing with clear packing tape and trimmed the edges to match. That works GREAT! AND you don’t have to wait forever for the Glossy accents to dry! I glued the assembled flowers onto the vase.

I have a couple of Happy Mother’s Day stamps in my stash, but nothing would really fit effectively on this card – I didn’t want to cover up the stenciling, and those flowers take up a lot of real estate…! After fiddling with a number of options, I came up with this vertical sentiment. I die-cut the HAPPY (old Alpha Dies in my stash) from some of the watercolor pattern paper (matching the vase) and then twice from thick black card stock. I glued all three layers together to make this chunky “shadowed” sentiment and gave all the letters some shine with a Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen.

The stamp is from last year’s MMH April ’22 kit that I stamped directly on the card front using Intense Black ink and embossed that with Clear embossing powder. I glued the “HAPPY” directly to the card and added the vase and flowers using foam tape, and added some of the yellow Enamel Stickers for a little more shine. I so very rarely do a sideways sentiment – I’m a little surprised at how terrific this looks and you can bet that this is the card I’ll be sending out for Mother’s Day this year!

Looks like I’m not going to get to ALL those vase dies in the Premium kit… I did have plans to do a “vases only” card with some pun-y sentiment like “Kiss My Vase” or “I never forget a Vase!” or even “The Seven Vases of Dr Lao:” but decided to use this pun instead!

This card makes me giggle, and uses the last three “drops” stencils as well! On a 4.25″ x 5.5″ panel of White card stock, I stamped the texture weave cling stamp with the Green Apple Core ink, and the text cling stamp with Intense Black ink, and stenciled the three “drops” patterns using Green Apple (horizontal), and Butter Bar (vertical) Core inks and Splash Reactive inks for the blue.

The leaves and stems are die-cut from the last scraps of my inked up card stock, and the flowers are die-cut from watercolor card stock and ink blended with Lemon Drop and Creamsicle Reactive inks, and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink for the centers. I layered them together, added some white gel pen highlights, and glued them to their stems.

The vases are die-cut from Auburn Pearl card stock – nice touch of shine there – the small “vase” is trimmed off the bottom (or top depending how you look at it!) of the small vase die. I added a little shadow to both vases with an alcohol marker and glued the flowers into the large vase. I fussy-cut the “sprout” from one of the excised leaves from Card #8 and glued that to the small vase and added both to the card front using foam tape.

I printed the sentiment on a scrap of white card stock using my Silhouette Software and my favorite Brady Bunch Remastered font, did some partial die-cutting with a LFSRdie to size it properly, and added it to the card front with foam tape. I really like the multi-media effect achieved here by just using the stamps and stencils, and that pedestal vase is probably my favorite vase die, and, of course, I love the pun and that adorable little “sprout”!

Ten cards just like that! There is certainly a huge amount of product to play with this month, and you can explore the multi-media aspects of this kit or just keep it simple and graphic! And flowery!

So… I used ALL the stamps in this kit, but I didn’t get to every die… (there are 40 of them!) I used all of the ink cubes and some of the Washi tape and all the Doodle Stencils and even a few Enamel Stickers! That’s LOTS and LOTS of flowers this month, but I do think I was able to come up with a good variety of looks and designs for a lovely batch of cards!

This kit is still available (Classic AND Premium) at Hero Arts! If I’ve managed to fertilize your spring flower bug, or planted some new ideas in your head and you’d like to grab this kit before it sells out, please use my links below when you go shopping at Hero Arts! I am always grateful when you do, and it really does help support this page!

My Monthly Hero April 2023 Classic Kit: http://shrsl.com/416nt

My Monthly Hero April 2023 Premium Kit: http://shrsl.com/416nw

Hero Arts April 2023 Release: http://shrsl.com/416oe

Thank you so very much for sharing some of your time with me here today! Let me know which card(s) is your favorite and if you have any questions! I am continually honored with your attention and always inspired to make your time here as pleasant as possible! Please remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Share me with everyone you know(!) Don’t run with gardening shears… and, as always, I send you and yours Love and Light and Happy Crafting!!

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Hello Folks! Scott here today with 10 cards created from the new My Monthly Hero Classic and Premium Kit for March 2023. This is our first regular month with the Classic/Premium kit having introduced the new options last month. This feels a little more balanced with most of the goodies contained in the Classic kit and just a few special items added for the Premium kit. We’re off to the farmer’s market this month with lots of fruits and vegetables paired with lots of puns!

That’s a nice batch of complimentary supplies to go with the Classic kit. The Fruit & Veggie Window die is adorable, and I always love when I can add more watercolors to my stash!

Once again, I figured I’d do five cards using only the Classic Kit and five more using anything and everything. There’s a lot of puns to get to here as well!

This is one of my favorite puns in this stamp set! And I really like that the image stamps are more realistic than cartoony! I figured I’d break out the ol’ Spectrum Noir Alcohol markers and practice coloring some fruit as realistically as I could manage! I stamped the Orange on Alcohol marker card stock with Intensified Black ink and colored it with my alcohol markers… I do love using markers to add texture and this orange was just begging for some stippling! I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of card stock and trimmed it to 2″ x 3/4″ and added a thin Kiwi mat behind. I die-cut the orange with the matching die and turned my attention to the background.

The Fruit Cling stamp in our kit features lots of sliced-in-half citrus (quite unique!) and is terrifically detailed as well. I grabbed the Butterfly Garden Pallet Reactive ink pad (from last month’s kit!) and used that to stamp the fruit cling stamp on some of the watercolor card stock, and added a little Clear embossing powder for a tiny bit of shine. I trimmed that to 5.5″ x 2 1/8″ and added another thin mat of the Kiwi card stock behind that as well. I glued the background to a White Card base, and added the Orange and sentiment with foam tape. I’m loving these stamps, and I have another 4.5″ x 3.25″ panel of this colorful cling stamp to use on another card! Squeeze the Day!!

All the puns in our stamp set are oriented to specific fruits… I thought I’d let the sentiments dictate where to go next.

I haven’t had the opportunity to do a lot of alcohol marker coloring lately, and I really enjoyed coloring all these stamps this month! I was so thrilled with this apple, that I didn’t want anything competing with it on this card. So I simply die-cut a piece of the watercolor card stock with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die (4″ x 2.75″), stamped the sentiment on that with Intensified Black ink and embossed it with Clear embossing powder. I mounted that to a White card base with foam tape and added the die-cut apple with more foam tape… there may be no fancy colorful background here, but there’s plenty of dimension! You know how much I like my white space… I am loving this card!

And we continue our parade of fruits…

I took great care to make sure that I left a little spot of highlight on each grape in this bunch. I have often complained that my Spectrum Noir markers don’t have as fine a brush nib as Copics do…but with a little extra care, you can get into some very small areas! This background is die-cut from some Hero Hues Lavender and Amethyst card stock using an old LDRS Fancy Rectangles and Layers die. I figured I couldn’t put round grapes on a square (or rectangular) background! The two die-cuts are glued together, and I stamped the sentiment using Hero Hues Purple Galaxy Reactive ink, embossed that with Clear embossing powder, and glued it down to a White card base. I die-cut the Grapes and foam taped them on the front and added a few grape cluster clay embellishments. These are cute (but fairly tame) puns!

I’m sure I’m spending an inordinate amount of time coloring these fruits, but I am completely enjoying myself!

This one’s for all the Moms out there!! Hmmm… bananas are certainly one of the easier fruits to color! I do like the “peel better” pun quite a lot and it made me think of a prescription… so I searched around on the internet for a usable image and found these AMAZING “Dr. Mom” prescription sheets. (phar-ma.com) I printed out a sheet of prescriptions, trimmed one to size, and distressed the edges with some scissors. I cut some Hero Hues Canary card stock to match the size of the prescription, glued them together and down to a White card base. I stamped the sentiment with the Intensified Black ink, and mounted the die-cut bananas with foam tape. Truly a fun ‘get well’ card!

I do have more fruit to color, but I’m feeling like I may have short-changed the big cling stamp. I picked out a 6″ x 6″ piece of watercolor card stock from my stash and stamped the cling stamp using Intensified Black ink. Now I can’t use Alcohol markers on watercolor card, and there’s some tiny details here, so I grabbed my TomBow dual brush markers.

Interesting perspective on that citrus… the pith is most always white, but you can still see a bit of the peel on the edges. The TomBow markers proved to be a great choice for getting that much detail colored in on this stamp. Lots of fruit!

When I color an image that’s 6″ and don’t want to lose any of it, I automatically gravitate to a slimline card!

This mini-slimline card is 3″ x 6″ and used exactly half of my colored cling stamp! I cut the colored panel right down the center, and then fussy-cut the edges with a little border. I cut a 6″ x 6″ White card base, scored it at 3″ and traced the edges of the cling stamp on the front of the card base and cut the front to match the edges.

That was a fast five cards using the Classic kit… now I can include the extras from the Premium Kit… window die time!

Here’s our vegetables!! On a 4.25″ x 5.5″ panel of the watercolor card stock, I used the Orange and Green Neon Brights Liquid Watercolor along with the HA Dandelion Liquid Watercolor to paint the background. The Neon Brights settle down a lot when diluted with water and blended with the Dandelion watercolor beautifully.

I die-cut the window die on a piece of 4.25″ x 5.5″ alcohol marker card stock and colored it with my Spectrum Noir Alcohol markers. Slow and steady really works for these small images! I glued the watercolor background to a White card base, stamped the sentiment using Intensified Black ink (embossed with Clear embossing powder) and added the window panel with foam tape. I realized there was no other black on this card so I added a couple of black peel-off stickers to the top and bottom of the card front. That pulls everything together and adds a little more shine as well!

I do enjoy paper-piecing an interesting die-cut, and, since I didn’t do one last month, I thought a shaker card was called for using this Fruit and Veggie Window die.

I die-cut the window die in a piece of plain Ivory card stock and die-cut all the fruits and veggies from scraps of colored card stock, trimmed them out and glued them in place on the Ivory die cut. I added touches of Alcohol marker for some shading, and used a White gel pen for the turnip and radish… I got a big kick out of die-cutting the watermelon seeds from shiny black card stock. I also ink blended some Lemon Drop Reactive ink around the edges of the window panel, and lastly, glued a piece of acetate behind the window opening.

I printed this sentiment on another 4.25″ x 5.5″ panel of Ivory card stock using my Silhouette Software and Arial and Dream State fonts. Nice match to the sentiment stamps! I stamped the orange slice and the tomato(?) tomatillo(?) around the sentiment with more Lemon Drop Ink. I added a double layer of foam tape to the back of the window panel, added a bunch of the clay embellishments behind the window, and glued that to the sentiment panel.

I still haven’t used the kiwi stamp, cherry stamp or the two berry stamps… and there are a few more puns to get to…

Does anyone remember this keyhole window die from the MMH January ’22 kit? I originally grabbed this kit because I remembered there was a die for a key that I thought would work well with this kiwi pun, but then I saw the keyhole cover plate die and , lo and behold, not only did the kiwi stamp fit perfectly, but the sentiment did too!!

I cut a 4.25″ x 5.5″ panel of the Kiwi card stock and die-cut the window die from some Auburn pearlescent card stock. I stacked those layers together and positioned the sentiment in the keyhole and stamped it on the Kiwi card stock using Intensified Black ink and some clear embossing powder. I stamped, colored and die-cut the kiwi as usual and added that with touches of foam tape. For me, the challenge of a stamp set like this is in choosing a nice variety of backgrounds… I think the fruit cling stamp can become a little overwhelming when used as a background, and I wasn’t over-the-top in love with the Orange and Green liquid watercolors… All the more reason to scrounge through past kits for some help!

Speaking of past kits… I actually remembered this pattern paper from a card kit I got back in 2017…! I remembered right where it was stored too! A little obsessive filing of past kits certainly paid off for me this time!

This was the only piece of that terrific cherry pattern paper I had left. Just the perfect amount! I stamped, colored and die-cut the cherries and added some Clear Lacquer pen on top for a great touch of juicy shine. The pattern paper is 5.5″ x 2.5″ matted on a thin black mat and a thicker Red Pearlescent mat and glued to the center of a White card base. The sentiment is stamped on a scrap of white card stock, fussy cut around and attached to the card front – along with the cherries – using foam tape. Can you say “cherry much”! I think this one’s kind of perfect!

The berry stamps are the smallest images in this stamp set… they don’t seem large enough to feature all on their own…

Here we have a new background from this kit that actually features itself! I stamped the blueberries and raspberries in a pattern on some alcohol marker card stock and colored all with my Alcohol markers – adding light shadows and taking care to leave highlights on all the fruit. I die-cut the colored panel to 3.25″ x 4.5″ using a LFSRdie, added a thin black mat and a thicker “mauve-ish” pearlescent mat and glued those to a White card base.

The sentiment is stamped and embossed on heavy-weight vellum. I actually made two – one with Purple Galaxy Reactive ink (didn’t seem right) and one with Berry Smoothie Reactive ink (right name, but still didn’t seem right)… BUT, when laid on top of each other, the two colors came together in a much more complimentary way. I glued the two vellum sentiments together using a Zyron sticker maker (no visible glue lines) and glued those to the card front. Here’s a fairly simple pun made all the more effective with a background full of colored berries. I like this color palette a lot!

Before you know it, we’ve reached the end of my 10 Cards 1 Kit post featuring the My Monthly Hero March 2023 Kit! Quite a batch of colorful cards this month… and lots of fruity puns!

It feels like I made a really good dent in this kit! I did use every image stamp and most of the sentiments (“I’m bananas for you” and “hello” didn’t make the cut), I used the Fruit Cling stamp two different ways as well as the Premium window die. I used plenty of the Kiwi card stock but none of the Coral, and I only have one and a half sheets of the watercolor card stock left. I didn’t use much of the Neon Brights liquid watercolors but they will join my other Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors in my stash. All in all, a great kit with lots of new items I’m pleased to add to my arsenal!

This kit (both Classic and Premium) is still available at Hero Arts! If you like what you see here, or I’ve managed to plant some seeds in your crafty brain, please use my links to grab one of these kits for yourself. It is always immensely appreciated and helps support this page while costing you nothing extra! Thank You! Thank You!

My Monthly Hero March 2023 Classic Kit: http://shrsl.com/3zd6z

My Monthly Hero March 2023 Premium Kit: http://shrsl.com/3zd75

Hero Arts MMH March 2023 Collection: http://shrsl.com/3zd76

HAPPY SPRING! Thank you so very much for joining me here today! Your attention and encouragement keeps me inspired and humble… I hope you enjoyed these cards as much as I did creating them… It seems I was quite starved for some coloring this month! Please let me know what your favorite card(s) is and remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Friend me, Follow me, and Share me with all your crafty friends! Don’t run with scissors (or vegetable peelers!) and, as always, I send you and yours Love and Light and Happy Crafting!

DISCLOSURE: This site contains some affiliate links to products. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links (at no cost to you). Thank you!

Hello Folks! Scott here with my 10 cards prompted by the first-ever Premium Kit from My Monthly Hero. Hero Arts is expanding their MMH kits this month with a Premium option! And to introduce this option, every subscriber gets a premium kit this month at no extra charge! From now on… you can choose to purchase (or subscribe!) to the Classic MMH Kit or the Premium MMH Kit (Premium costs more (naturally)).

This new offering of the Classic or Premium Kit will be interesting to watch as the next few months roll out…

If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know that butterflies aren’t really my thing… I’ve always thought they were a little over-used in the craft world… But I’ve been getting the MMH kits for a number of years now, and I do believe this is the first truly butterfly-centric kit I’ve received from HA! That in itself garners some attention!!

I figured I’d explore this new Classic/Premium thing, and start with cards made from the items in the Classic Kit first!

I die-cut the Fancy Die on some White card stock, and used the four layering stencils to color the die cut using inks from the Palette Ink Pad. Lemon drop for the bodies, Taffy for the butterfly details, Thistle for the flowers and Key Lime Fizz for the greenery. I added touches of Silver glitter card stock behind the moon, stars and dot cut-outs, but the whole card was feeling a little pale to me, so I took a Pigma Micron pen and outlined all the details… That gives lots of pop!

The background is a piece of pattern paper I had that matched almost perfectly, and I stamped the sentiment in the center using Intense Black ink and embossed that with Clear Embossing powder and then sprayed the whole background with some Sheer Shimmer spritz for a little sparkle. I curled up the edges of the die cuts, and glued everything to a White card base. I did add two layers of card stock frames behind the die cut to add a little depth and dimension. Nice! The stencils work brilliantly and the Butterfly Window Fancy die is rather spectacular!

We can treat that window die like an embossing folder, and complete the actual die-cuts to make lots of butterflies!

Using the embossing plates on my die-cutting machine, I embossed the die on the front of the Stardream Coral pearlescent card stock folded in half to make the card base. While I was at it, I die-cut the window die from the Azalea, Lagoon and Amethyst card stocks and fussy-cut out all the butterflies. I stamped the sentiment in the center with Thistle Reactive ink and embossed that with Clear embossing powder. Then I gave a light fold to the wings of the assorted butterflies (with help from the HA Reverse Grip tweezers) and glued their bodies down to their respective places. Very colorful! This really highlights the butterflies (sentiment!), and there’s a nice shine to all the pearlescent card stocks!

How about some foiling on those butterflies? Since we have a stencil, we can use some Deco Foil Transfer Gel!

Well… THAT makes me happy!! On Pitch Black card stock I used the Deco Foil Transfer Gel through stencil A (bodies), let that dry, added Rainbow Shattered Glass Deco Foil on top and ran it through my laminator. GORGEOUS! I fiddled around with the “you shine” sentiment and a bunch of different glittery embossing powders but couldn’t come up with a sentiment that held its own with the foiled butterflies.

And here is the main reason I invested in a Spellbinders Glimmer Foiling machine… Foiled Sentiments!! This “Love you” sentiment (which fits perfectly!) is the Foil Script: Wishes – Hot Foil Plate & Die Cuts from Honey Bee Stamps. I foiled the sentiment on more Pitch Black card stock with Rainbow Glimmer foil and die-cut the sentiment. I die-cut three more blanks and glued them all together to make a chunky dimensional sentiment. I glued the card front to a White card base and glued the sentiment into place. I’m thrilled at how well the Glimmer Foil and Deco Foil products work together! Loving this!

Lets try the layering stencils WITHOUT the die! Maybe I can get a little brighter colors using just the stencils this time!

A batch of rainbow butterflies certainly brings a bright splash of color to this card! On a White card panel, I ink blended the rainbow with Purple Galaxy, Blue Hawaii, Green Apple, Lemon Drop, Creamsicle, and Fruit Punch reactive inks. The flowers and leaves are Green Apple and Fruit Punch Reactive inks, and I used Soft Granite for the butterfly details and the moon and stars. Then I used some Tsukineko Golden Glitz metallic ink for the moon, stars and dots details as well as a little soft ink blending around the edges of the card front.

The sentiment is stamped with Fruit Punch and Creamsicle Reactive inks and embossed with Clear Embossing powder. Very colorful one-layer card- a little shine and lots of colors… I really like those layering stencils!

Now a shaker card seems a natural choice for a fancy window die, but I still have all those butterflies I fussy-cut…

A flight of butterflies sweeps this card upward and uses all but two of my previously fussy cut butterflies! I cut a piece of Black Tie Glitter card stock to 4″ x 5.5″ and glued that to a White card base. I folded up the wings of all the butterflies with the help of a HA Reverse Grip tweezer and glued their bodies down to the card front. The sentiment is die cut from 3 layers of White card stock and a top layer of Iridescent White card stock.

I think this die came from a (Spellbinders?) die-cut Advent calendar from a couple of years ago… nice and small and perfectly sized for this card. I glued all the layers together and then down to the card front. There’s a great sense of movement on this card, and even distance as well…! Almost feels like they’re coming right at ya! Love it!

That’s five cards using the supplies from the Classic Kit. Now let’s expand our reach by including the Premium elements as well…When I first saw the Fuchsia & Gold Luster Duo Spray, I thought it was empty and the contents had either dried up or leaked out… but NO…! Just add water to the bottle and you get this intense Fuchsia color with golden highlights!

It’s a little hard to see the gold sparkles in this intense Fuchsia background, but it is very apparent in person! I thought this would make a perfect background to highlight the intricacy of the Butterfly Window Fancy Die. I used the Duo Tone spray on some plain White card stock and let it dry – that’s only 3 or 4 sprays! Amazing color! Once dry, I cut the panel to 4.25″ x 5.5″ and embossed the sentiment using Embossing and Watermark ink and HA Gold embossing powder and glued it down to a White card base.

I die-cut the window from a piece of Tim Holtz Metallic Champange card stock cut to 4.25″ x 5.5″, outlined the piece with foam tape, and mounted that on the Fuchsia background. I added the die-cut Champagne stars around the sentiment and let the die and the color speak for themselves. That Fuchsia & Gold Luster Duo Spray is spectacular all on it’s own!

Time to play with the Butterfly transfer sheets – Rub-On Time!! I wanted to do a card that featured JUST the rub-ons…

My favorite thing about rub-on transfers is how easy you can combine multiple images into one. This card uses all three of the flower pieces from one sheet of transfers – and where all three join together is indecipherable! (I did lose the two buds on the right side of the largest flower transfer.) These are rubbed onto a panel of the Stardream Coral card stock die-cut to 3.75″ x 5″ with LF Stitched Rectangle die.

I stamped the sentiment using Intense Black ink and embossed it with Clear embossing powder. I set the beautiful blue butterfly transfer as if it had just landed on the sentiment, rubbed it down and added some of the transfer stars as well. The card front is double matted on some Pearlescent Blue card stock (closest to the color of the butterfly that I could find in my stash) and a thin black mat before gluing down to a white card front. LOTS of bang for your buck here – basically a very simple card to put together, but with completely lovely results! Even I like those butterfly transfers!

That’s the Luster Spray and the Transfer Sheets… the Premium Frame cuts actually die-cut the butterfly transfers too!

There is that ubiquitous Happy Birthday stamp in our stamp set this month… time to use it! On a White card panel die-cut to 3.75″ x 5″ I used Blue Hawaii Reactive ink to color this Stampendous Flourishes stencil – one of my favorite “party” stencils in my stash! I stamped the sentiment with Intense Black ink and embossed that with Clear Embossing powder. Some Sheer Shimmer Spritz adds a little sparkle to the background, and when that was dry, I glued the panel to a Pitch Black mat and then down to a White card base.

I transferred this butterfly to a piece of white card stock and die-cut it with the matching Frame cut. I folded up the wings a little and glued the body to the card front. You have to admit those rub-on transfers add a high level of polish and finesse to a card, and are so simple to use! Easy peasy yet beautiful!

Of course there are Fancy butterfly dies with lots of fine detail to go along with the Frame cuts… something to color!

I die-cut these butterflies from some Canson XL Watercolor card stock and colored them with my TomBow markers. It was nice to be able to do a little coloring this month! I also took a Pigma Micron pen and traced all the die-cut details on the yellow and pink butterflies – but didn’t need that definition on the black and blue butterfly (except for the antennae)!

On another 3.75″ x 5″ stitched rectangle panel I ink blended Lemon Drop Reactive ink through the butterfly stencil and brought the two sides of the stencil closer together to make a smaller, more circular group of lepidoptera for our background. I created the sentiment using the My Favorite Things Mini Well-Connected Alphabet stamps with Intense Black ink and embossed that with Clear embossing powder.

I glued the inked panel to a mat of HA Canary card stock (a great match to the Lemon Drop ink) and to a thin black mat and down to a White card base. A little fold on the wings of the butterflies gives them a little shape and I glued their bodies to the card front. With the NINE fancy dies in the Premium Kit, you could color butterflies till the cows come home… definitely useful for when you run out of your transfer sheets! And I do love this simple sentiment!

We got a sheet of rub-on transfers with our MMH September ’22 kit and I noted then that transfers are naturally translucent… light will pass through the transfers until they are rubbed down on card stock – but on acetate???

It’s been a long time since I made a light-up card! These butterfly transfers work beautifully for a light up card… and we couldn’t ask for a more perfect sentiment! The first thing I needed to do was make sure that the transfers would work on clear acetate. Turns out they stick beautifully to acetate! I rubbed-on the butterfly transfer to the center of a 3″ x 2″ piece of acetate.

When I put the butterfly behind the window, I realized you could see right through the edges – between the transfer and the die-cut edge… A piece of vellum would alleviate that, and also provide a little diffusion for the light. So I taped the acetate butterfly in place behind the window, and taped the vellum behind that.

I think this is a terrific use for those butterfly transfer rub-ons…! Especially because we have Frame dies for them as well. I know of nobody who doesn’t delight at the receipt of a light-up card… if only batteries lasted forever…!

There we have five cards using the Classic Kit and five cards using the Premium Kit. I know some people will probably hesitate to level up to the Premium Kit – though, of course, still a great value, the Premium option is more expensive… I’m not quite sure how I feel about the whole Classic / Premium thing… I’ll have to see more months with that option.

I confess… I really do like all these cards this month! Even though there are five cards using that window die, I think they all read quite differently! The transfers are simply beautiful and make creating stunning cards quite simple! I did manage to use a little bit of everything in this Premium Kit… I used all the sentiment stamps (one, twice!) the inks, stencils, card stocks, dies and transfers… I didn’t use the small icons in the stamp set… (moon, star, and butterfly) but what’s the point when you have all these rub-ons and/or die-cuts that are basically the same shapes!

Yes… butterflies are certainly popular… Both versions of this kit have sold out already – the Premium Kit sold out very fast! And even all the monthly add-ons have sold out!! Remember, as a subscriber, you are guaranteed to receive a kit each month… whether the Classic or the Premium! Here’s the link if you’d like to take a look at the new subscription pricing for subscriptions to My Monthly Hero: https://heroarts.com/pages/subscribe I know I can’t wait to see what the coming months have in store for us!

Thank you so much for sharing some time with me here today. I hope you enjoyed my take on this kit! Let me know if you have any favorites! Remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Share me with all your crafty friends… don’t run with scissors, and, as always, I wish you and yours Love and Light and Happy Crafting!!

Hello Folks!! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Scott here with my 10 cards inspired by the My Monthly Hero January 2023 Kit. Sorry this post is a little bit tardy, but we were actually able to spend some Holiday time with my family right after the new year. It’s been three years since we were all able to be together, and it was great to see everyone and reconnect! Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and this kit is a “perfect match” for anyone on your list! The centerpiece of this kit are dies to create a faux matchbox, which lies flat on your card or project and can be decorated and filled with the numerous stamps and dies included in the kit.

I completely embraced the Valentine theme this month, and, naturally, enjoyed the faux matchbox Frame Cuts for the pun-ny opportunity it provides! Most of the stamps seemed geared toward the “matchbox” but the wide variety of dies expands the possibilities of this kit way beyond a simple “matchbox”

But a simple matchbox is where I started. I stamped the sentiment on a piece of thin Kraft card stock (I found the Kraft card stock included in the kit was a little too thick to fold) first in Unicorn White pigment ink and then (shifted ever so slightly) Vermillion Archival ink. I used the permanent Archival ink so it would actually cover the Unicorn ink. This echoes the simple two-tone printing often found on matchboxes. I die-cut the piece and folded over the side flaps. I added a darker brown strike plate on the side and die-cut the inside box from the (darker) Kraft card stock in the kit.

I took the three heart dies, and before I detached them from each other, I die-cut a bunch of them from three red card stocks in the Altenew Red Cosmos Gradient card stock set (Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, Ruby Red). That gives me a lot of options for a bunch of “target” hearts using all three colors. The matches are die-cut from some light grey card stock, and the match heads are cut from dark grey card stock, trimmed down and glued onto the sticks. I die-cut the flame from some textured red and yellow card stock and glued that to the match heads.

I did some light ink smooshing on the A2 card front with Tattered Rose Distress Oxide ink, and glued all the elements in place. I thought about making the inner box pull out, but settled on this static arrangement. I think it’s interesting how quickly I gravitated to the dies in this kit… lots of options with the dies… and I do love the double-stamped sentiment!

There are some truly unique and interesting stamps in this kit, and I started fooling around with a few of them together.

The “Nutrition Facts” stamp inspired this “Box of Valentine” card! I stamped these four stamps on some scrap paper until I got the arrangement I liked, then I sketched a box shape around that before committing all to card stock. I stamped the “valentine” portion with Cotton Candy, Peony and Azalea HA inks to give me a nice gradient, and then stamped all the text stamps with Intense Black ink. Using my original sketch, I cut out a piece of White card stock in the shape of the box, and stamped the XOXO stamp at a bit of an angle on the side. I did some ink blending on the top and side with the Azalea and Peony inks and outlined all the edges with a black marker. I trimmed down the stamped “label” and glued that to the front of the “box”. I did use a White gel pen and a Black Pigma Micron pen to sketch a little detail on the “valentine” stamp, and attached the “box” to a Kraft card stock base (from the kit) with foam tape. I think that nutrition stamp is unique and quirky and deserves to be highlighted on this “box of valentine” card. I wonder what’s inside?

This banner stamp seemed to take up the least amount of room, so I stamped that on a scrap of off-white card stock using Hero Arts Butter Bar, Tangerine and Azalea inks. After the colors were down, I stamped a layer of Embossing and Watermark ink on top and embossed the whole piece with Clear embossing powder (can’t let the background have ALL the shine)! I fussy-cut the sentiment and glued that to a 1 1/2″ x 2 3/8″ piece of Vellum.

I die-cut the background with a Nesting Rectangles die to 3.75″ x 5″, glued that to a 4″ x 5.25″ yellow mat and then down to an A2 White card base. I glued the sentiment flat to the card front, and added three small hearts die-cut from textured Red, Orange and Yellow card stock. A clear glaze pen adds a bit of shine to the die-cut hearts, and a spot of foam tape gives them some dimension. I enjoyed figuring out how to bring some yellow into a valentine, and the sparkle is lovely!

It’s time to experiment with the interactive nature of the faux matchbox dies in this kit. But I think I may have interpreted these dies in the opposite direction of how I see everyone else using them…

It does looks like most everyone is using this matchbox die with the strike plate to the left, but I visualized the inner box actually sliding into the sleeve through the dimensional top. Does that make sense? I do think this gives a true matchbox feeling… the inside actually slides out from the outer ‘sleeve’. This matchbox is made just the same as my first card but stamped with the dove sentiment and colored with colored pencils. I also shaded the bottom of the inside box and colored the heads of my heart matches (die-cut from grey card stock) with colored pencils as well.

The background is a piece of Tim Holtz pattern paper that I printed this hand drawn xoxo pattern on. The pattern is a free background from Silhouette and will turn any paper into a Valentine background. I trimmed that to 4″ x 5.25″ and glued it to a Kraft (from the kit) card base. I die-cut the heart from pink and stamped the “pull” command on that (from the MFT Interactive Labels stamp set) as well as the sentiment on the side using Intense Black ink.

Those matchbox dies work extremely well! In fact, there are so many dies in this kit that the possibilities seem endless!!

White A2 card base, Peony background cut to 4″ x 5.25″, textured red card stock with a scalloped-heart border punch, envelope die-cut from Ivory card stock, heart colored with alcohol markers, and the love die cut from Peony and Ruby Red card stock. The “sending” sentiment stamped with Unicorn White ink and embossed with Very Vanilla embossing powder. Finally, lots of sequin hearts from the sequin pack. Just the right amount of shimmer! Very traditional!

There are a few dies in this kit that match up with one of the sentiments, and it seems a waste not to put them together.

Kraft (from the kit) card base with Azalea ink blended on the edges. White pearlescent card stock for the box (with the tabs cut off) and the sentiments stamped with Intense Black ink (and clear embossed) and Vermillion Archival ink on the side. Ring die-cut from Gold card stock with a white glitter diamond glued on top, and the emerald and rubys die-cut from more glitter card stock (and more diamonds) and arranged coming out of the top. Some touches of alcohol marker adds a little more definition to the facets on the gems, and they are all mounted to the card front with foam tape. Here’s another card just bursting with sparkles!

I have to admit that the gummy bear stamp and die in this kit kinda threw me… there’s no “sweet’ or sweetie” in our sentiments… no references to gummys or bears… Unfortunately, I do not care for gummy bears… let’s try this.

I think that makes for a terrific teddy bear!! He may be a little stiff, but at least he’s not gummy! I stamped him on a scrap of Neena Solar White card stock, colored him with my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and die-cut him out. I did add a touch of detail to his eyes and nose with a Pigma Micron pen.

I printed this sentiment on a piece of Ivory card stock using my Silhouette software and the Dream State font. I die-cut that with a 3.25″ x 4.5″ Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and ink blended some Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink around the edges and in the center above the sentiment. That is matted on Kraft card stock then White card stock and then Auburn Pearl card stock before going down on an A2 White card base. The bear is mounted with foam tape and a single heart sequin adds a touch of shine. This is a great masculine Valentine card and you know I love the pun!

And there are even more dies in this kit! There is a nice Hershey’s Kiss die, and thankfully a “kiss” sentiment as well!

The banner from the dove stamp inspired this card. Looks like the pull tab on a Kiss! I die-cut the kisses from some Sizzix Silver Texture roll paper… love how much it looks like foil! I stamped and fussy cut the banner using Intense Black ink and some alcohol marker on the hearts. I glued the banner and the two kisses together in a little vignette.

I stamped the scallop stamp on the Azalea card stock using Azalea ink and die-cut it out using the matching die. Gotta look close to see that same-color stamping..! I matted that on a piece of Coral Berry card stock and trimmed the corners to match. I performed a little stamp surgery cutting away “reasons why” from the “reasons why I love you” stamp so I could stamp the simple “I love you” on the card front using Azalea ink and I set that with clear embossing powder.

I liked the vintage feel of the teddy bear card, and I’m looking for something fun to do with the heart flower stem die…

I’m loving the classic feel of this card… not to mention the classic song! The LOVE letters are cut from Ruby Red and Black card stock and glued together for a nice shadow effect. I die cut four large hearts from the Peony card stock, and four flowers from a scrap of Green card stock with the heart flowers added in Coral Berry card stock shaded with a little alcohol marker. I glued the stems to the hearts in two directions, and added the letters on top.

I spaced the heart letters out on a 4″ x 5.25″ piece of Ivory card stock and turned to my Silhouette software to lay out the lyrics. I printed this using the Monterey BT font and did more ink blending around the edges with Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink. I added a thin black mat and glued those to a top-folding Kraft card base

I’ve actually neglected one of the matchbox stamps in this kit and decided that a Magic Slider card would be a great way to really push the interactive nature of this kit!

This sentiment is stamped on light grey card stock using the same inks as card One. Four of my bulls-eye hearts adorn the edges of the front panel, and the pull-tab on the bottom makes the inside box pop out from the top.

The inner box is two layers of grey card stock with the bottom of one box cut out, colored darker, and glued back in place. Some Kraft card stock for the matchsticks and lots of textured red and yellow card stock for the flames! It has actually been a long time since I created a Magic Slider card! I do have a how-to in pretty good detail about this card on my accompanying video at CardCutups channel on YouTube. This is one of my favorite interactive cards to make, and it works so well with this whole faux matchbox theme! C’mon baby, Light My Fire!!

That should cover all my valentine needs this year! We have a nice variety of cards with only four actual matchboxes…! And while I wasn’t able to use every single sentiment stamp in this kit I do believe I used every single die! Let me know if you have any favorites this month!

This kit is still available at Hero Arts! If I’ve managed to catch your eye, or you know someone who’s your perfect match, then you should grab a kit for yourself before they sell out! If you do go shopping at Hero Arts, please use my links…! It is always sincerely appreciated and actually helps support this page!

My Monthly Hero January 2023 Kit: http://shrsl.com/3w8r5

Hero Arts January Collection: http://shrsl.com/3w8r8

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me today! I wish us all a New Year filled with lots of friends, tons of joy, and plenty of time for crafting!! Please remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Share me with all your crafty friends… Don’t run with scissors…!! I send you and yours lots of Love and Laughter and as always, Happy Crafting!

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Hello Folks! Scott here with my 10 cards created using the My Monthly Hero December 2022 kit! We are headed skyward this month with a kit featuring a big Celestial Cling Stamp, stars, moons, planets, galaxies, and some cute “space cadets” (Hero Arts terminology – not mine!)

When I first laid my eyes on this kit, I was immediately hesitant thinking I would have to create 10 different galaxy / night sky backgrounds, but, upon further examination, realized that there were some creative ways around that! I do always try to use every stamp in a kit, and since there are 10 sentiments in this stamp set, I set about trying to bring all of them to life!

I also did some preliminary backgrounds before I started working on specific cards… I stamped the cling stamp on some Black card stock from my stash using the Rose Gold Mini ink pad… that worked better than I thought! I also did a double panel of a watercolor galaxy using my Daniel Smith watercolors and some Black Soot Distress Oxide ink. I tried a new medium for my spatter stars – Dr. Ph Martin’s Bombay India Ink in White. I’m loving that ink! No thinning down needed, just dip in a paintbrush, wipe off the excess, and spatter away! (the smaller the brush, the finer the spatter)!

One of the easiest ways to create a “galaxy” background is to just spatter some stars on Black card stock. The Pitch Black card stock in this kit is perfect for this… If she’s flying to the moon, then the night sky can be just black and white – there aren’t any colorful stellar nurseries or beautiful nebulae in our immediate vicinity, so simple stars it is! I spattered a 4.25″ x 5.5″ panel of the Pitch Black card stock with stars, let that dry, and split the panel in half vertically.

I stamped the star cluster on the front of an A2 card base using Intense Black ink, embossed them with clear embossing powder, and colored them with my Zig markers. I glued the star panel to the center of the card front, added some black glitter peel-offs to the edges, and added the two die-cut images with foam tape. The sentiment is stamped on a scrap of Black card stock with Unicorn White ink and embossed with White embossing powder, and glued to the card front. With her arm up in the air, it almost feels like she’s riding a bronco… but I trust her trip was smoother than that!

Lots of “star” sentiments this month… and most of them are fairly generic in tone… HEY… The sun is a star…!

I think this may be my favorite stamp in this stamp set! I die-cut a panel of White card stock with a Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle die, stenciled the sunburst rays with Lemon Drop and Creamsicle Reactive inks, stamped the sentiment with Intense Black ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I added two thin mats of black and yellow behind that, and glued those down to an A2 card base. Lastly, I added the die-cut sun with foam tape. Love that stamp!

We have a stamp in this set that was more cloud-centric than star-centric… don’t need a galaxy for this one either!

I cut a panel of white card stock to 4″ x 5.25″ and embossed that with an old Darice Clouds embossing folder – I was thrilled at how well the folder clouds matched up with the stamp clouds! I glued that to an A2 panel of Hero Hues Periwinkle card stock and down to a White card base. The sentiment fit perfectly between the embossed clouds (Intense Black ink, clear embossing powder) and I stamped, colored and die-cut a few extra stars on strings that I attached to the top with foam tape and glue. Finally, I attached the ladder to the card front with small pieces of foam tape. Delightful!

Now to those characters outfitted with space suits… I guess I can’t avoid a galaxy background forever…!

This is one-half of my water-colored galaxy background that I added a little sparkle to with some Sheer Shimmer Spritz. I die-cut that background to 3.25″ x 4.5″ and added a thin black mat to the back. I stamped the sentiment using Unicorn White ink and embossed that with White embossing powder – shows up on that galaxy background perfectly! I glued the background to an A2 card base at a jaunty (weightless!) angle and added the two “space cadets” with foam tape. Either they’re collecting stars or distributing stars, but either way I’m sure they are having a stellar day!

Now we can take a look at that cling stamp and how well it stamped on Black card stock using the Rose Gold ink!

There is a nice shine to that ink that isn’t readily apparent in the picture… and I’m very impressed with all of the delicate line work in that stamp! I trimmed that background to 4″ x 5.25″ and glued it to a White A2 card base. I trimmed the other half of my Black spattered card stock to 1.75″ wide, glued that to the center of the card front, and added more black glitter peel-offs to the edges. I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of Black card stock with Unicorn White ink and embossed it with White embossing powder, trimmed it to size and added three more layers behind. I glued the sentiment flat to the card front and mounted the shooting star with foam tape. “Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight: I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight.”

Now that I’ve used that big background cling stamp once, let’s try adding some color to it this time!

Splash, Blue Hawaii, and Purple Galaxy Reactive ink direct to the stamp with some light feathering between using blending foam. Three or four stampings for each color gives us this brightly colored cosmos background. Even though it takes a lot of ink, I am liking this cling stamp more and more every time I use it! I did add some Sheer Shimmer Spritz to the background for some extra sparkle. (I can’t resist!)

There is that one stamp in our set that took me a while to wrap my head around… the “cloud mailbox”… ??

I’m supposing that a “cloud mailbox” wouldn’t be in outer space… so I ink blended some clouds on the background panel using Splash Reactive ink and a MFT Mini Cloud stencil. I trimmed that to 2.25″ x 4.25″ and stamped the sentiment using Splash Reactive ink embossed with Clear embossing powder. On a White card base, I stamped the “happy mail” sentiment with Splash Reactive ink repeatedly down the left side of the card front. I glued the cloud panel to the upper middle of the card and added some blue metallic card stock strips to the edges.

I stamped, colored and die-cut two more of the clouds, the big Star on a string (w/no string) and our balloon boy (w/no balloons) on Bristol Smooth card stock and colored all with my Zig markers. The clouds are glued flat to the card front, the star is glued to our cadet’s hand, and the “cloud mailbox” and cadet are mounted with foam tape. I tried really hard to justify these stamps and sentiments and create a usable card within the parameters of this kit. I think this works!!

That card used up two of our ten sentiments, so I only have two more sentiments to go…! I had an idea on how to use the crescent moon stamp suggested by the DreamWorks logo..!

I think she looks absolutely adorable sitting on that crescent moon!! I stamped her (along with the extra shooting star) on Bristol Smooth card stock, colored with Zig markers, die-cut them both and cut her away from the star she was originally sitting on, and nestled her onto the crescent moon. This is the second-half of my water-colored galaxy (with sparkles!) attached to a thicker Black mat and glued to a White card base.

I performed a little stamp surgery to remove the “you’re” from the “you’re a star” sentiment and stamped that along with the “out of this world” sentiment on a scrap of black card stock using Unicorn White ink and White embossing powder. After trimming that compound sentiment to size, I added two more layers of Black card stock behind and glued the stacked sentiment to the card front. All the die cuts are then mounted with foam tape. I really like just about everything about this card! Not sure why the “out of this world” sentiment didn’t have a subject, but this works!

One more sentiment to go! And I can use that cling stamp in the most basic way imaginable – black on white!

Of course there’s some Sheer Shimmer Spritz on this galactic background as well! I stamped the cling stamp with Intense Black ink on White card stock, trimmed to 3.75″ x 5″, matted on some yellow card stock, and glued to a White A2 card base. I stamped our extra cadet on Bristol Smooth card stock and colored her with my Zig markers and die-cut her out. I stamped and embossed the sentiment on a scrap of White card stock, trimmed it to size and glued that flat to the card front. I didn’t manage to get a picture of it, but I did stamp a Happy Birthday on the inside of this card. Our cadet is attached with foam tape and some yellow gems add a little matching color and sparkle for a final touch. Love how the star is shining on her and her helmet, and I really like the simple black, white and yellow color scheme.

Now I have used every single stamp and every single die in this kit. It occurred to me that the cadet holding the planet balloons would make for a terrific birthday card too…!

I thought I’d try a pop-up shadow box card! Perfect for someone floating through space! I stamped, colored and die cut our balloon cadet as I have all the images this month, and I stamped the big blue planet a second time, colored it, fussy-cut it out and added it on top with some foam tape for a little extra dimension in those balloons! I did die-cut one more blank to glue to the back of the colored image for a little added stability.

I took a piece of the Pitch Black card stock, cut it to 7.25″ x 5.5″, and scored the two ends at .5″, 1″, and 1.5″ (to accordion fold both ends to give us the pop-up action). Once scored, I took a 3″ x 4.25″ Nesting Rectangle die and die cut a window in the center. I attached our balloon cadet with some small acetate strips to the back of the frame, and proceeded to accordion fold the edges. I glued the back flap of the folds to the front of a White A2 card base.

The sentiment is an old Lawn Fawn Scripty border die which I die-cut three times from 110# white card stock and once from some iridescent white card stock and glued all those layers together for a very sturdy sentiment. I glued that across the opening on the front of the card.

And that covers all ten of my cards using the My Monthly Hero December 2022 Kit! Though I originally thought this kit was fairly limited in its variety, I came to realize that there’s actually a lot that can be done with everything in this kit!

I truly love that sun stamp, and the cadet with balloons is perfect for any high-flying birthday, and the cling stamp is a unique combination of clouds stars and galaxies perfect for a wide arrange of backgrounds! We have a little bit of everything here from very simple to fairly complicated, and not too many galaxies…!!

This kit is still available at Hero Arts! If you like what you see, and I was possibly able to inspire your galactic imagination, I suggest grabbing a kit for yourself before they are all sold out! If you do go shopping at Hero Arts, please use my links below. That helps support this page and keeps the crafty goodness coming your way!

My Monthly Hero December 2022 Kit: https://shrsl.com/3unhg

Hero Arts December 2022 Collection: http://shrsl.com/3unkx

Thank you so much for sharing your time (and another year!) with me here. It is so supremely appreciated, and I am truly grateful for all your support and encouragement. Please take a moment to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Friend me, Follow me, share me with all your crafty friends… remember… don’t run with scissors… and I wish you and yours a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season and a New Year filled with Light and Laughter! Thanks for everything!

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Hello Folks! Scott here with our new My Monthly Hero November 2022 Kit! Another Christmas themed kit with a huge bunch of detailed dies… Ornaments, tags, and, yes, cards are the order of the day with this surprising Holiday Kit!

Looks like we’ll be doing a lot of die-cutting this month! Everything seems to be oriented around this 3.25″ circle die, so it seems a wreath is the obvious choice to get us off and running!

For some reason, I thought glitter paper was the way to go for our first ornament card – it really does have some nice sparkle! And I wanted this ornament to be double-sided, so I thought I’d start with an acetate circle and build my wreath up from that. I did die-cut two of the stick wreaths for my base layer (front and back) from some HA Colors of Earth card stock, and glued those to both sides of the acetate window. I die-cut four of the large-leaf swags from some dark green glitter paper, added some shading with alcohol markers, and glued those (two to a side) on the sticks. I die-cut four of the small-leaf branches out of a lighter green to highlight the poinsettias and set them aside.

I die-cut two poinsettias and four of the small flowers, added shading with alcohol markers and gave the petals a little shape with a medium-sized ball stylus. I added small white pearls to the centers and glued the flowers (along with the light green foliage) to the front and back. A couple of bows for the two sides and a loop of ribbon finishes off the wreath and some small red gems add more sparkle along with the suggestion of berries.

I actually considered just making 10 ornaments this month, but receiving a Christmas card that has a removable ornament on it is like getting twice what you paid for! I die-cut some purple-y watercolor pattern paper (and one white blank) with a HA Tag Frame Infinity die and glued them together for a little extra strength. I embossed the sentiment in the center of the Tag frame using HA Intense Black ink and Clear embossing powder, and glued those down to a White A2 card base. My favorite adhesive to use when attaching an ornament to a card is removable sticky dots – I like ZOTS Removable Clear Adhesive dots. One dot behind the hanging ribbon will hold the ornament securely to the card until removed! And since the sentiment is stamped on the card base, there’s no worry about a reverse sentiment on the acetate. Just the right size for a big Christmas tree!

Okay… I’ve shifted my mind set from ornaments to cards… I guess I truly am a creature of habit!! When I was die-cutting the stick wreath, I noticed the the negative die-cut made a perfect circle with some twiggy flourishes on the edges…

On a Kraft card base, I die-cut the stick wreath to give me an opening on the front of the card. I had some wild idea about building a scene on the front of a card going backwards…! I die-cut two of the snowbank dies from some White pearlescent card stock and glued those behind the bottom of the opening. I die-cut all three trees (just remove the star topper on the biggest tree) from plain white card stock, and the little house from scraps of brown. I did add some yellow in the windows for a “lived-in” look! I arranged the trees and the house on the hills, and die-cut the little fox and added some color to him with colored pencils.

I took a piece of watercolor card stock and cut it just under 4.25″ x 5.5″ to be the backing for my scene – I can just glue that to the back side of the card front! I ink blended HA Splash and Blue Hawaii Reactive ink onto that panel referencing the opening to be sure I got the sky in the right place. I added some snow to the sky using a SSS Falling Snow stencil, HA Embossing and Watermark ink, and HA Detail White embossing powder. I added small dots of White gel pen for a little more snow coverage.

I die-cut the three snowflake dies from Silver Holographic card stock and glued those to the top of the opening, and filled out that framing with some of the White Snowflake sequins glued to the back of the opening. I glued the sky panel to the back of the card front and embossed the sentiment and snowflake with HA Unicorn White ink and White Detail embossing powder. I added a little smoke coming from the chimney using a Micro-brush and HA Sea Salt reactive ink, and glued some of the small silver Snowflake Sequins in the sky for the final touch.

I started worrying that all of my cards would end up with 3.25″ circles as their focal point, so I decided to see what I could use in this kit to break me free from that template… maybe that circle die can be used for hills…

The background is a piece of watercolor pattern paper cut to 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″ and embossed with the same Falling Snow stencil as the last card. That background is glued to a White card base. I die-cut three half-circles from White pearlescent card stock, and two of the small-leaf swags from dark green card stock. The buildings and the tree are die-cut from plain White card stock and I die-cut an extra star from Holographic card stock for the top of the tree. I did back the windows and door with yellow card stock as well.

The arch is an extension of the small-leaf swag die. I cut one of the swags in half to add to the sides of the other one (they are seamed together behind the snowflake dies on the sides) making the sides more vertical and less curved. I glued everything to the card front using a little foam tape behind the church for a little dimension. The snowflakes are die-cut from more White pearlescent card stock and glued to the arch. The sentiment is stamped with Forest Moss Distress Oxide ink and embossed with Clear embossing powder and highlighted with more Holographic snowflakes. This kind of feels like a snow-globe scene to me!

I guess I might as well embrace the circle and see where that takes me… another ornament that’s NOT a wreath..?

I die-cut our circle from Hero Hues Nautical card stock and ink blended some HA Sea Salt Reactive ink along the edge of the snow bank that I cut from Pearlescent White card stock. The trees and holly leaves are die-cut from dark Green card stock and the deer are cut from dark brown card. I used the Tim Holtz Nostalgic Collection color core card stock for a lot of my die-cuts this month. I like using textured card stock with these small detailed dies. The sentiment is stamped in Unicorn White ink and embossed, and I used a white gel pen for the dots of snow as well as the snow on the tree and holly. I added a touch of shadow in the snow with a light grey alcohol marker and glued everything together.

The larger mistletoe die in this kit will work perfectly all on it’s own, and provides us with a nice pun as well!

I die-cut the mistletoe and bow from the White card stock in our kit and colored them up with my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. The sentiment is printed on the card base using my Silhouette Software with the Precious font, and a strip of green glitter tape runs down the left side. More white pearls are used for the mistletoe berries, the bow is glued to the mistletoe and all are attached to the card front with small tabs of foam tape. I really like these two dies together… and you know I love me some puns! This card is actually simple enough to mass produce!

I wanted to spend a little more time with the poinsettia die… I didn’t think the glitter card stock did much for that die…

I die-cut these flowers from some textured red card stock and did some shading with alcohol markers. Once again I added a little shape to the petals with a ball stylus, and simply used a White gel pen for the centers. I die cut two large-leaf swags and two small-leaf swags from some textured green card stock and added some alcohol marker shading to all of those as well. The small pinecones are die-cut from two colors of brown textured card stock and shaded too. This sentiment (from last month’s kit) is embossed on flat red card stock with Unicorn Ink and White embossing powder and die-cut with the matching die.

I glued the large-leaf swags to the two corners, cut the small-leaf swags in half and glued them on top, and then glued the flowers into position. I added the pinecones and another flower in the top right corner. I also added some highlights to the flower petals with a Micro-brush and Sea Salt reactive ink. I’m liking that ink more and more…! The sentiment is attached with foam tape, and a few red crystals add a little sparkle. This is a nice arrangement using the leafy swags that doesn’t feel like a wreath or a circle! Love the red and green on white… very Christmas-y!

I was fiddling around with the swag of stars die, trying to see if I could come up with a unique arrangement…

I like this one!! If you take two star swags and glue them together – the first star glues on top of the fifth star on the other die and visa-versa. That makes a very interesting eye-shaped galaxy swirl! I die-cut six of the star swags from Silver Holographic card stock, and glued them together in pairs, and then arranged those three pairs into this fun pinwheel of stars! I was especially pleased to see that I could get the whole arrangement on an A2 card! In this case I used an old White glitter card base and glued the pinwheel to the front.

I printed this sentiment on a scrap of white card stock using the Orbit-B BT font, trimmed that to size and added a Holographic mat. I die-cut the five-pointed star and two of the four-pointed stars from more Holographic card stock and glued those in position – really needed that extra star in the center! This would make a fun Birthday card as well!!

A wreath is certainly a perfectly fine focal point for a card… let’s ignore ornamentation and just make a card!

This wreath started with three twig wreath die cuts glued together – just for a little dimension. Then we have three sets made of the big-leaf branch, small-leaf branch and berry branch glued together, and two sets of the big and small branches glued together. One berry bunch is glued to the top of the wreath, then the plain branch bundles to the sides, and then the other two berry branch groups. I did die-cut the berries from some darker red card stock, fussy cut them out and added them to the top of the berry branches. I die-cut two of the Holly/berry dies (layering red berries on top) and two more holly leaves for the arrangements around the pinecones. The pine cones are die-cut from two colors of brown card stock and shaded with alcohol markers – this big pinecone die is terrific!! Some Sea Salt ink highlights on the berries and pinecones add just the right touch to this very autumnal wreath!

The wooden background is more pattern paper from my stash cut to 4″ x 5.25″, glued to a thin black mat and then down to a White card base. I stamped and embossed the sentiment on a scrap of that pattern paper, fussy-cut it out and attached it to the card front with thin foam tape. The wreath is finally glued to the card front, and I resisted the urge to add any sparkle or bling… a little more of an organic wreath for this card. Love it!

I was determined to make an ornament with this kit that wasn’t a wreath or a circle. The swag of stars might work!

I think this ornament will actually go on my own Christmas tree this year! I die-cut six star swags from 110# white card stock and glued them all together with a hanger of thin Silver Metallic thread glued in the middle behind the second star. I die-cut two more swags from Silver Holographic card stock – one cut from the back to use on the back of the ornament – and glued those to the two sides of the stacked swags. I really like the balance of the hanger on the second star – feels a little more active!

I positioned the swag on the circle and marked where the hanger fell, and cut a tiny slot on the side of the circle to slip the hanger into. I added the circle to an A2 card front with foam tape and hung the ornament using the small slit. Though this was a tiny bit fiddly, I think this is my favorite ornament this month!

I still haven’t used the snowman die in our kit – he did feel a little out of scale to me… he’s almost as tall as the church!

That’s when my mind shifts to featuring this snowman all by himself – well – with five other friends! I’m also always in the mood for more color! Six snowmen die-cut from 110# White card stock, and six hats die-cut from some rainbow card stock and fussy-cut to glue on the snowman heads. I drew in the hat bands, faces and accessories using black Pigma Micron pens and a Brown pen for the arms. A light touch of grey alcohol marker gives us a little shading on our balls of snow, as well as some orange marker for the tiny noses!

I printed this pun-y Christmas sentiment on a White card base using the Freehand 575 BT font. I cut a half-inch strip of black glitter paper and glued that above the sentiment. I attached all the snowmen with foam tape giving everyone a slightly jaunty pose. I did add the “Warm Wishes” sentiment on the inside of this card – perfectly appropriate! This card really satisfies my love of white space, and the size of these tiny snowmen are totally charming! Warm wishes indeed!

And that completes my 10 Cards inspired by the My Monthly Hero November 2022 kit! I stuck with cards this month but managed to included three ornaments, and a nice variety of styles and even some non-holiday ideas as well. I LOVE the pinecone dies, the bow, and poinsettia dies and all the foliage dies will come in handy all year long!

I did manage to use every single die in this kit – all 31! And though I didn’t use every stamp, I did use the most of the sentiments and we even got a pun or two as well! I didn’t make any tags this month… I am not really a fancy tag person… My family has a tendency to go a bit overboard at Christmas, and presents literally end up getting forcibly stuffed under the Christmas tree – which is not particularly good for tags! After many years of always having a few presents that lost their tags, I have fully embraced the peel-and-stick tags that promise to stay put on every package! Obviously this kit is perfect for you tag lovers out there.

However, this kit has already sold out! One of the fastest sell-outs this year! If you managed to snag a kit for yourself, I hope I was able to give you a few ideas about expanding its usefulness beyond just the ornaments and tags, and possibly even the holidays! Let me know which card(s) are your favorite this month, and I’d always like to see what creations of yours I might have inspired!

Of course, add-ons this month are still available with lots more ornament and tag making products! If you do go shopping at Hero Arts , please use my links… it help support this page and is always truly appreciated!

Hero Arts MMH November ’22: http://shrsl.com/3slpy

Please remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Friend me, Follow me, share me with all your crafty friends… Oh, my heavens, I can’t believe Thanksgiving is right around the corner! I am sending you and yours Love and Light, Peace and Joy, Warm Holiday Wishes, and, as always, Happy Crafting!!

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Hello Folks! Scott here with my 10 Cards 1 Kit post featuring the new My Monthly Hero October 2022 kit! Winter is right around the corner and this kit ushers in the holiday season and takes us right to the North Pole. The stamp set of solid silhouettes can be combined to create a myriad of scenes featuring Santa Clause (or not!), and the dies this month have (what may be a first in a MMH kit) dies for all four of the sentiment stamps! Love that!!

Since there are only four sentiments in this stamp set, I decided to poach some extra holiday sentiments from past MMH Christmas kits. (Oct. ’19, Nov. ’19, Nov. ’20, and Oct. ’21) There is also a Project Idea on the backer card for a tri-fold card with a unique card idea from Libby Hickson. That inspired my own tri-fold adventure.

I went with a more traditional side-to-side tri-fold card, starting on the side of a mountain with the train rounding the bend and the village in the background. All under the watchful eye of a reindeer…

Flip that right panel open and the village is fully revealed with railroad tracks and a someone waiting on the hillside…

One more flip to the left and we have our final scene… looks like someone finally made it home! Also, the moon has risen higher in the sky… I guess it took a little while for that train to come in..! I love it when a tri-fold card tells a story… and the stamps in this kit are perfectly suited for that task.

All of the stamping for this card is done on Neenah Solar White 80# card stock. For the first layer, I curved the train and track stamp to suggest a mountain curve, stamped those (and the reindeer) in Intense Black ink, and fussy-cut the mountain and the little bit on the front of the engine. (this layer was done on the back side of a folded A2 card base) I blended Blue Reactive ink on edges of the mountain and a couple other contours in the snow. Of course we can see the village and the sky and moon in the background… and I think the simple curve on the train gives a good suggestion of it going around the mountain.

The second layer started on a full A2 card base – I stamped the village and the train tracks in Intense Black ink and did a partial die-cut on the village leaving the bottom of the card base intact. A little ink blending on the village and tracks grounds them in the snow. I stamped our little fellow on another panel and used the die to partially cut him out and I finished the cut putting him on a snow covered hill. More Blue Reactive ink blending on the edges of the hill and I glued that panel flat down on that layer.

I wanted to use the Lapis card stock for the sky, so I quickly realized that I didn’t need the entire back half of the 2nd layer, so I trimmed that off leaving just a small flap to glue to the back of the first layer’s card base. THEN I’ll add the sky and another die cut hillside to the center layer (effectively covering the flap of layer 2). I ink blended Blue Reactive ink and Black Soot Distress ink in the sky and splattered some stars using some Holbein white gouache. I die-cut the moon from the Snow Glow paper, added that to the sky, and glued the sky to the back of the card (covering the layer two flap).

For the final scene, I stamped the house and the couple with Intense Black ink, did a partial die-cut on the house and finished it off with a bit of a hillside, and ink blended the edges and a little snowy contour for our couple with the Blue Reactive ink. The sentiment is from the MMH November 2019 kit, stamped with Blue Hawaii Reactive ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I glued that panel on top of the Lapis sky and the story is complete! This sentiment (and the prompt from Hero Arts) inspired this story-telling tri-fold card. And, I hadn’t seen any of our designers use the train stamp. I am totally in love with this card and how the story unfolds (pun intended!).

Of course silhouette stamps lend themselves to shaker cards as well…! Snow globe or Christmas ornament this month?

Since I don’t have a specific snow globe die, I decided to go for an ornament this month! Hero Arts Infinity Nesting Circle dies make a perfect ornament! I used the 3.5″ and the 3.25″ dies for this card. I die-cut some Lapis card stock with the 3.5″ die, stamped Santa in Soft Granite ink, the moon with Unicorn White ink, and the spray of stars with Embossing and Watermark ink, and embossed them with WOW! Cloud 9 embossing powder – though you can’t tell from the photo, the stars are VERY sparkly! I used a white gel pen to draw in some stars in the sky.

I taped the two circle dies together as evenly as possible and die-cut the Lapis frame and four more frames from thick white card stock. I glued the four white frames together and then down to the background. I filled the interior with some micro beads (love how those roll around in a shaker card) glued a 3.5″ die-cut acetate circle on top of the frame, and finished it off with the Lapis frame glued on top. I fussy-cut an ornament cap from some holographic card stock and added a double bow to the top of that.

I die-cut a piece of (way old) pattern paper to 4″ x 5.25″ and stamped the sentiment (from the Oct. 2020 kit) with Soft Granite ink, and glued that to a White A2 card base. I contemplated making this a removable ornament, but, since I didn’t actually make a hanging ring, I decided to just glue it to the card base. The simple sentiment adds a lot I think!

I really like the North Pole Sign stamp and die, but thought the pole should be taller for how large the sign was…

That feels a little bit better as far as the perspective of that sign goes! This is all done with partial die-cutting (on Neenah 80# card stock) like the tri-fold card, but with all the layers glued flat. The background is ink blended with Splash Reactive ink and then some Sea Salt Reactive ink coming down from the top. The cling stamp is stamped (sideways) with Unicorn White ink and embossed with White embossing powder.

The house layer is stamped with Soft Sky ink, with a partial die-cut and fussy-cut hillside. The sleigh layer is stamped with Reactive Early Dawn ink with a little of that ink blended on the edges of the hillside. Santa’s layer is stamped and ink blended with Splash Reactive ink. I did cut one more corner of snow for the North Pole sign to live in.

Since I wanted to extend the pole, I stamped the sign using TomBow markers direct to the stamp. I used a couple of browns that gave me a nice mottled wood tone on the sign, and left the sign detail itself to be finished with a stamping of Caramel Core ink. I extended the pole using the same TomBow markers, and partially die-cut the sign (without cutting the bottom) and finished out the length by hand. I admit to taking my craft knife and fussy-cutting the scrollwork detail around the sign… I can be a little anal-retentive that way…!

Everything is glued flat to an A2 card base with some foam tape behind the top half of the sign. I have to admit that when I first saw that deer stamp I thought the ‘footsteps’ were poop… and I realized that the partial die-cutting on this card put the “footprints” on top of the snow… unlike the tri-fold card where all the footprints are below the edge of the hills… these die-cuts tend to look a little more like poop than footprints…! Just be aware of that if you’re doing partial die-cutting on the characters in this set… Makes me laugh!

The large solid pine branches stamp caught my eye and the curve of the branches suggested an oval to me.

This is my Currier and Ives Christmas card! On a piece of Canson Mixed Media card stock, I lightly ink blended Soft Sky ink over the entire panel and did a light spattering of the same ink. I picked an Oval Infinity Nesting die that was 3 3/8″ wide on the narrow side, and cut my card panel to 3 1/2″ wide. I stamped the pine branches using Pine Core ink on the two edges of the panel, and centered those branches in the oval die for die cutting – the branches follow that oval quite nicely! I did ink blend a little Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink around the edges of the oval for a finishing touch.

I thought I’d try a little no-line coloring, so I stamped the house using Contour ink and colored it all using my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. I felt the need to have a super fine point on whatever medium I used for coloring in this tiny image! It was easy to color right over the candy canes, (love that!) and I did use my White Gouache watercolor and a small white gel pen to keep some of the snow nice and bright. Far from perfect, but I think it does have a nice hand-painted feel. I stamped the sentiment (from the MMH Nov. ’20 kit) with Root Beer Reactive ink and embossed that with Clear Embossing powder.

I cut another piece of that old pattern paper (snowflakes are so useful!) to 4″ x 5.25″ and glued that to an A2 White card base. I picked the next size larger Infinity Oval die and die cut a piece of Auburn Pearl card stock and three more blanks from white scraps and glued those all together for a little dimension. I glued the colored panel on top and then down to the card front. Those pine branches look much more detailed if you can avoid over-stamping them, and they read really well in this oval format. I did pick this sentiment before I stamped the house to make sure everything fit, and I am very thrilled at the nostalgic feel of this card. Not bad for a silhouette stamp!

I thought the large and small Christmas trees in our stamp set would be perfect partners for a more graphic layout.

I stamped the large tree (masking off the star) using Pine Core ink for the first pass and Lime Green for the second stamping… that gives a subtle variation in the greenery that isn’t particularly noticeable, but actually adds a lot to the tree. Then I masked off the tree and stamped the star with Embossing ink and embossed that with Gold embossing powder. I die-cut the tree and two blanks and glued them all together.

I cut a panel of White card stock to 2.5″ x 5.5″ and stamped the smaller trees in a line across the center. I knew the big tree was going in the center, so I stamped the trees from the right and left to the center – not worrying about the spacing between the center trees necessarily matching up. That’s Forever Green on the edges and Forest, Pine and then Lime Green in the center. The sentiment (from the MMH Oct. ’19 kit) is embossed in the same Gold as the star.

I cut a piece of old pattern paper to 3″ x 5.5″ and glued that to the center of a White card base, and glued the tree panel on top. I glued the big Christmas Tree in the center and adorned all the ornament openings with PinkFresh Studio Gold Metallic pearls. I also have these crystal tree gems in my stash and they fit perfectly between the lined up trees. A couple Gold Holographic peel off stickers outlining the stamped panel adds one last touch of bling to this very sparkly card! Just to note… this sentiment had already been divided in half… that also influenced my choice here!

I guess I should spend some time with the sentiments that are actually in this stamp set! And the cling stamp too!

WOOOOOOOOOSH! And he’s gone! I think this is a very fun visual! I stamped the cling stamp on a panel of the Lapis card stock (with a little Blue Hawaii Reactive ink blended in at the top) using Unicorn White Pigment ink. I tilted the stamp just a little bit to try to get a touch of movement from an otherwise straight up and down snowfall. Perfect! I die-cut the background with a (3.75″ x 5″) Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and centered a 2.5″ Nesting Circle die towards the top of my background and die-cut the “moon”. I cut a mat (4″ x 5.25″) of Hero Hues Nautical card stock, marked where the “moon” was, die-cut the circle through the mat and glued the two panels together. I spritzed these both with some Sheer Shimmer mist for some all-over sparkle. I marked the “moon” position on the front of a White card base, die-cut the circle and glued the matted panels in place.

I stamped Santa using Intense black ink and die cut him out along with two more blanks and glued them all together for a good, sturdy embellishment. I stamped the sentiment on Lapis card using Unicorn White ink, embossed that with White Embossing powder and die-cut it with the matching die. LOVE the sentiment dies in this kit!! I was afraid the sentiment might get a little lost on the Lapis background so I die-cut a blank sentiment from Nautical card stock and glued it to the back of the sentiment for a touch of a drop shadow. I glued Santa over the moon cut-out and glued the sentiment below.

It wasn’t until I put this together that I thought of adding the ‘star swoosh’ to the inside. It hides behind Sant and his sleigh perfectly. I stamped that on the inside with Embossing ink and used the WOW! Cloud 9 embossing powder for LOTS of sparkle.That’s another stamp you want to avoid over-stamping with! Take care not to lose the details and all those tiny stars read beautifully! WOOOSH! He’s gone!

When we were kids, after we put the Christmas tree up, (and before the presents came out) we would often decorate the bottom of the tree with a little Christmas village. I thought the train stamp and pine branches might replicate that!

I think I’m mostly thrilled with my tree stand here..!! The pine branches are stamped on Hero Hues Pesto card stock with Forever Green ink (darker) and Pine Core ink (lighter). I die-cut both boughs leaving extra room at the top of the darker layer. I used the Woodgrain Texture Fancy die to cut my trunk from some brown card stock and cut that to an inch wide. The tree stand is smallest Rounded Rectangle Infinity die cut from brushed silver and the black legs are cut from a double thick oval frame. I think that looks just like an old tree stand!

The train is masked and stamped in Red Reactive, Pine Core, Blue Reactive, Butter Bar and Tangerine inks. I stamped the village on a piece of Arctic card stock using the Blue Reactive ink, and did a partial die-cut across the top. I stamped the railroad tracks, the people and the sentiment with Blue Reactive ink and embossed the sentiment with clear embossing powder.

I took a thin piece of Grey card stock and embossed that with a striped embossing folder and glued that to the front of a White card base. I was a touch worried about thickness with this card so I pressed the embossed stripes flat – it still reads as a subtle wallpaper. I glued the dark pine branches to the top, then the trunk, then the lighter branches, and assembled the stand on the trunk. I glued the stamped panel flat to the bottom of the card and added the train with foam tape.

I thought a couple of ornaments dangling from the tree would really drive the point home, so I die-cut two circles from some metallic card stock, created a couple ornament caps and glued them into the branches of the tree. This is a really fun way to use that pine branches border stamp, and it could be infinitely variable depending on what you want to put under your tree! I really enjoyed putting this card together!

I was a little bit over the holidays at this point (it IS only October) and had an idea for a non-holiday card…

A colorful Birthday card using that star swoosh stamp! I used the Gina K. Wreath Builder Template to stamp this circular blaze of colorful stars. If you notice there are 16 strips so I did 8 strips to begin with, then repositioned the stamp for the second eight. These are stamped with the same inks as the train in the last card with the addition of Grape Juice ink for the purples. Once all was stamped, I trimmed the panel to 3.75″ x 5″ and misted a light Sheer Shimmer mist over the whole panel. I glued that to a holographic card stock mat and down to a White card base.

I thought of using the Merry Christmas stamp from this kit and looked at a couple of HBD stamps when I came across this small HBD stamp from an old freebie stamp set from Simon Says Stamp. I stamped that on a scrap of white card stock with Intense Black ink and embossed it with some clear embossing powder. I die-cut that with a 1.25″ circle die and die-cut more holographic card stock with a 1.5″ die. I glued those together and down to the card front. For a final touch of Birthday sparkle, I added little sequin stars between the colorful stripes. I LOVE this image… almost feels like fireworks going off…! I imagine you could get more of a curve out of that stamp as well if you so desired! Of course a MISTI (or any stamping platform) is most useful, and Gina K. designs Wreath Builder Templates are a must have in anyone’s stash!

That was a nice break from the impending holidays, but I did want to try and colorize the big village stamp…

Well, it took a little while, but I did manage to get a nice village colored with pencils. On a sheet of Stonehenge card stock, I stamped the village with Contour ink ( a few times) and colored all with my Prismacolor colored pencils. I had to keep the points really sharp, and went very lightly as I added layer after layer of color. Again, this is far from perfect but it is a very colorful rendition of that silhouette stamp. I did some light stump blending in the sky and added some White gel pen and Stardust Sparkle pen stars in the sky. I trimmed the colored panel down to 4″ x 5.25″, added a thin black mat and glued those to a White card base.

I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of White card stock with Blue Hawaii Reactive ink, embossed that with Clear Embossing powder and die-cut it out. I also stamped and embossed the star (Unicorn White ink and White embossing powder) on a scrap of Pitch Black card stock, and die-cut it out as well. I added a couple of die-cut blanks behind the sentiment and glued that and the star to the card front. I think the charm of this card comes from the simple fact of the miniature size of this village… there’s a lot going on in less than 1.5″ of stamping. Not recommended for multiples…!

The tri-fold suggestion from the backer card was still in the back of my mind when I created this dimensional scene.

First, I must mention that I broke down and joined the foiling revolution with the purchase of my own Spelbinders Glimmer machine. (I did manage to grab one on sale at Spellbinders for $90.00!!) Now that Hero Arts is getting into the hot foiling craze, I figured I should jump on the bandwagon too! The background snow is foiled on Pitch Black card stock using the Twinkle Lights hot foil plate and Opaque White foil. I have to play with that machine some more, but so far so good!! I may be hooked! I trimmed the background to 4.25″ x 5.5″ and added a moon die-cut from the Snow Glow paper and the stamped, embossed, and die-cut sentiment with some foam tape.

I stamped the village and people, and house and deer with Unicorn White ink on 5.5″ wide Pitch Black card stock and did more partial die-cutting finished off with fussy-cutting to add some hillsides. I used some micro brushes to add some Unicorn White ink to the edges of the hillsides and below the buildings. I also ink blended a light touch of Sea Salt Reactive ink on the background behind the village.

On the village piece, I scored a fold line at 1/4″ on the left side, and on the house piece I scored a fold line 1/4″ from the right side. I cut little 1/4″ wide tabs on the opposite sides of the folded tabs on both pieces being careful to hide the tab on the village panel behind the house panel. I glued the folded tab of the village piece to the left side of the background, curved it up a little and marked on the background where to cut the slot for the tab. The slot is 5/8″ from the right side of the background. Then I glued the folded tab on the house panel to the right side of the background, curved that up a little more, and marked on the village panel where to cut the slot for that tab. That slot is 3/4″ from the edge of the village panel. I did add an “A” and a “B” to the matching slots and tabs with a white gel pen… Un-slotted, this card will travel flat, and I think the matching “A”s and “B”s are enough of a prompt for assembly. And it stands up all on it’s own! I did add a White card panel on the back (careful not to glue the slot shut…!) which provides a perfect place for your personal message. I think the black/white scheme is very striking, and I totally love the curved dimension when assembled!

And just like that, we’ve covered all ten cards this month! I felt a strong pull towards blue this month (all that snow!), but tried to keep a good amount of color going for those of us unwilling to admit that the holidays are coming!

I really enjoyed using all these different holiday sentiments – not a single repeat here! And I think the Birthday card was a great surprise. I actually used all the stamps this month, and most of the dies, inks and papers… I couldn’t find a use for that Diamond Glitter paper (I tried die-cutting a moon from that but it looked like fish scales) I’m sure I’ll find some use for it someday! There really is no end to the scene-making possibilities with a kit like this. I hope you enjoyed my sometimes wacky take on this classic kit. I think I’m ready to start working on my own Christmas cards for this year!

This kit is still available at Hero Arts! If you see something you like, or if I’ve possibly inspired you to create some North Pole vibes of your own, you should grab a kit for yourself before they sell out. If you do go shopping at Hero Arts, please use my links below. It is greatly appreciated and helps support this page. Thank YOU!

My Monthly Hero October 2022: http://shrsl.com/3r0nv

Hero Arts October 2022 Release: http://shrsl.com/3r0o8

Thank you so much for sharing some time with me today. Let me know witch card(s) is your favorite! Remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Friend me, Follow me, and share me with all your card-making friends! Don’t run with scissors… and as always, I send you and yours Love and Light and Happy Crafting!!

Hello Folks!!! I’m featured on the Hero Arts Blog today for their monthly series CommUNITY – about embracing and honoring the creativity of individuals who are often underrepresented, and supporting and empowering individuals to be their authentic selves as they create and share. Look for a new CommUNITY guest artist on the Hero Arts Blog every month!

I’m using the Power to the People stamp set for my first card, and I noticed that the sign with all the hands didn’t have any hands on one side. AHA! I masked off the the top line of the sign and stamped with Intense Black Ink. I reversed the stamp, lined it up with the first stamping, masked off the top line of the sign again, and stamped with Intense Black Ink. That gave me a great big sign with twice as many participants! Since we are getting close to the midterm elections, I thought this was a timely sentiment, and stamped that in the middle.

I water-colored all the hands using the Skin-Tone Liquid Watercolor set – those three watercolors (Terracotta, Cocoa, Coffee) gave me a huge variety of skin tones – and since all the arms are different colors, you can hardly tell that the stamp has been doubled! I finished watercoloring this card with Dandelion Liquid Watercolor, and a watered down gray on the sign.

One of the most interesting things about the Power to the People stamp set is the plethora of sentiments – 17 in all – that cover a wide range from personal to political. I chose five of the sentiments to stamp on the left and right side of my card using Contour Ink. That provides a great background for this card and even though the sentiments are only partially complete, you can still make them out by reading right to left! 

The Color Layering Flower Power stamp set is perfect for sharing some love with the important people in your life. I stamped the hair outline with Butter Bar Ink, the filler layer with Lemon Drop, the detail layer with Creamsicle, and the accent flowers with Azalea Core Ink. I stamped the face with Sand Ink, the details with Cup O’ Joe, the shading with Sand again (with a light touch of Azalea on her lips) and her eyes with Paradise. I thought this stamp set was going to be a bear to line up, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the layers lined up quite easily (just keep an eye on the centers of the flowers)! 

I used the Flower Circle Stencil for the background using Butter Bar, Lemon Drop and Key Lime Fizz inks, and the sentiment is stamped with Cup O’ Joe (FUNNY GIRL is currently running on Broadway, and I couldn’t resist the Hello Gorgeous!). I die-cut the background with a Nesting Rectangle die and added a thin mat of Canary cardstock to the back. I die-cut my Flower Girl with a Circle Infinity die and and cut four more blanks to give that circle some dimension without having to use foam tape. 

BUT, before I glued all those pieces together, I got a wild idea to add a little touch of dimension to our Girl, so I stamped just her face one more time. Then I fussy-cut her face from the top of one ear to the top of the other and finished the cut about a half-inch above her hairline. Then I fussy-cut her hairline (from ear to ear) on the original stamping, and tucked her forehead under her bangs and glued both pieces together. Her bangs are now on top of her face, but from the ears down, her face is on top of her hair. Subtle but actually quite effective! I glued all the circle die cuts together and down to the background. Let your imagination go wild coming up with different color combinations for the “hair” – and it wasn’t until I stamped and fussy-cut her face alone when I realized you could give her ANY hairstyle you like! That’s an excellent face to have in your stash!

I’m thrilled to have been asked to share some of these great CommUNITY products with everyone here today! I hope I’ve inspired you to take another look at these unique stamp sets – and ALL the products in the Hero Arts CommUNITY line-up! Happy Crafting!