10 Cards 1 Kit • My Monthly Hero • April 2022

Hello Folks! Scott here with this month’s 10 cards featuring the My Monthly Hero April 2022 Kit! We are back from the museum and tending to the garden with this kit featuring springtime flowers just in time for Mother’s Day!  This kit features a big 6″ x 6″ cling background stamp with flowers and bees. Three layering stencils make the coloring process easy; simply pair them with the inks and blending brush included in the kit, and you’ll quickly have cards in fresh spring colors. Combine the “amazing” word die with the mix and match messages in the stamp set for expressing thanks, celebrating birthdays, sending Mother’s Day greetings, and more. There are also 3 dies for highlighting select images from the background, and a sheet of enamel embellishments that complement the ink colors perfectly.

Obviously this is all about that big cling stamp. I figured I’d try coloring that stamp using a variety of different mediums. I’d stencil one as recommended, try some no-line watercoloring with one, maybe colored pencil on Kraft card stock for another. I recently got some new TomBow Dual Brush watercolor markers so let’s try those out on some Bristol Smooth card stock, and, of course, some simple gold on black embossing should work well! That might cover 10 cards!

This card is stamped on some Neenah Solar White 110# card stock using HA Intense Black ink and colored using the three stencils with the included inks and blending brush. I colored in the bees with my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, die-cut the panel with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die, and glued that to a white card base. I did add just a touch of light blue to the background using my Pebbles Chalks – light enough to tint the background but not interfere with the inking. I stamped the sentiment with Intense black ink on a scrap of card stock, embossed that with some Clear embossing powder, trimmed it to size and mounted it with foam tape. A few of the enamel dots add a touch of shine!

That is a really nice background cling stamp! So many options to color it with the stencils or by hand or just emboss it!

Gold on black is always a classy combination! I stamped this on some Pitch Black card stock with Embossing and Watermark ink and embossed it with HA Gold embossing powder. I did add a little white colored pencil to the flowers to soften the black just a touch. I cut out a 2 7/8″ square and added a 3″ square mat behind that for our centerpiece. The vertical band is cut to 1 3/4″ x 5 1/2″ and I added a thin (1 7/8″) mat before gluing them down to a white card base. I added two 1/4″ strips of Gold card stock down the sides and mounted the square with foam tape.

I die-cut the “Amazing” from the same gold card stock and the shadow from more Pitch Black card stock and glued them together and then down to the square. I stamped and embossed the sentiment on a scrap of Pitch Black, trimmed it to size, and mounted it with some foam tape. I just might use this one for my Mother’s Day card this year! Amazing!

I stamped the cling stamp on some watercolor paper using HA Contour ink and tried a little no-line watercoloring using my Gouache watercolors… I kept vacillating between wanting a soft, watercolor-y feel and my inherent desire to color everything realistic… and then I went and added black to the bees… big mistake… Let’s try the die-cuts on this one!

Okay… I think this is a fairly decent example of no-line watercoloring… This card grows on me every time I look at it! The leftmost flower is die-cut from the panel with the matching frame die, and I just fussy cut the other two flowers (and one extra leaf) to complete my arrangement. I added the flower centers using a black Pigma pen and a White gel pen. I used a blending brush to add a little Cotton Candy ink to a white card base, stamped and embossed the sentiment, and mounted the flowers with foam tape. A few of the enamel heart embellishments tie everything together and we have a nice flower-y Valentine!

I think this was my favorite coloring adventure with this cling stamp. Intense Black ink on Kraft card stock colored with my Prismacolor colored pencils.

Though the coloring took me about an hour, this one makes me quite happy! I stamped the cling stamp on a white card base with Contour ink lining up the left edge of the stamp to the left edge of the card front. That made it easy to trim off the left half (2.5″) of the colored Kraft panel and match it to the pattern on the card base. I stamped and embossed the sentiments in gold and die-cut the “Amazing” four times from Kraft card stock and glued them all together. I added some of the new Tim Holtz Gilded Foundry Wax to the bottom of the stacked die cuts and applied some heat for a shine that almost matches the gold embossing (in a “distressed” sort of way!). I die-cut the shadow from some 40# vellum, glued the “Amazing” on top of that and glued those flat to the card front. I love my colored pencils more every day!

I still have the other half of the colored pencil stamping and I’m not going to let that go to waste!

There was just over 3″ left of the colored pencil cling stamp so I split that in half (close!) and glued both panels to a white card base with a half inch gap between them. I stamped the sentiment using Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink and embossed it with some Clear embossing powder. Some Love From Lizi Brown Mirror peel-offs edge the panels and add some terrific shine while a green enamel heart highlights the sentiment. If there can possibly be such a thing as a masculine card that features flowers, then I think this one just might foot the bill!

I also stamped a 4.5″ x 6″ piece of Bristol Smooth card stock with Intense black ink and used my new TomBow Dual Tip markers to do the coloring. The TomBow markers moved beautifully on the Bristol Smooth card stock and I was brave enough to go for some vibrant colors on this background.

Another Mother’s Day card with a bit of a riff on an eclipse card…! I die-cut the colored background with a 3.75″ x 5″ Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die making sure I could die-cut the “Amazing” in the center without any purple flowers. I die-cut the word right from the center of the background, and added a 4″ x 5.25″ black mat behind the panel and glued both to a white card base. I die-cut the word shadow from more Pitch Black card stock, glued that to the back of “Amazing” and glued those back in place taking care to match up the background pattern. I stamped and embossed the sentiments on some scrap white card stock, trimmed them to size and added them to the card front with foam tape. I did experiment with vellum for the shadow but the busy pattern made it hard to read so I went with the black. Now I can’t decide which card to sent to Mom this Mother’s Day!

One of the sentiment stamps inspired this card. I’ve never done a legit 4Bar (A1) card before… this is 3 1/2″ x 4 7/8″.

Just a little card…! Cut your card base to 7″ x 4 7/8″ and score at 3 1/2″ to make a 4Bar card. I cut a piece of mustard yellow linen textured card stock to 4 1/2″ x 3 1/8″ and added a thin mat (4 5/8″ x 3 1/4″) using some Black mirror card stock. This is Tim Holtz Metalliques card stock and the black color has a slight purple-ish tint when reflecting the light just right. I glued those to the card base, stamped and embossed the sentiment, and die-cut the “Amazing” twice from Pitch Black card stock and once from the Black mirror card stock. I glued those three layers together and down to the card front. A few clear enamel dots anchors the sentiment, and this becomes all about that Fancy Word Die! Amazing!

I still have some of the gold on black background, and some of the watercolor background, but I thought I’d try using the stencils one more time… but this time without the stamp!

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice this turned out! I did take care to do some detailed ink blending – taping off areas on the main stencil to get three colors of flowers and a little dark to light ink blending. The yellow flowers are HA Lemon Drop Reactive ink and Wild Honey Distress Oxide ink. The Blue flowers are HA Splash and Blue Hawaii Reactive inks, and the pink flowers are Cotton Candy with a touch of Rose Madder. The leaves are just a couple layers the Green Apple ink. This is definitely worth the extra time devoted to detailing these stencils. I cut a 2 3/4″ strip of the background, matted that on a 3″ strip of Hero Hues Kiwi card stock and glued those to a White card base.

I stamped the sentiment using Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide ink and embossed that with clear embossing powder. I die-cut this “special” die from my stash four times from some plain blue card stock, stacked and glued those together and added some light glitter to the top with a Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen. I guess I was getting a little tired of the “Amazing” die…! I glued the chunky “special” to the card front and I am completely taken by this soft spring-y card! I just might like this better without the stamping – especially those big flowers! They are really pretty like this!

I simply have to use the other half of that no-line stenciling – and there is enough left to do a Mini-Slimline card!

This is a standard 3 1/4″ x 6 1/4″ Slimline card. I cut the background to 2 3/4″ x 5 3/4″ and added a thin mat of Hero Hues Canary card stock and glued both to a White card base. I stamped the sentiment using Blue Hawaii Reactive ink and embossed that with some embossing powder. Who needs to be amazing when I am thankful that you simply exist?! This abbreviated sentiment really makes me giggle while also being slightly profound and a little bit thoughtful!

After all those busy backgrounds, I was starting to pine for some vast expanses of white space to let some air in!

I stamped the bees on scraps of Bristol Smooth card stock and colored them with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and die-cut them all with the matching frame die. I ink blended a little ombre on some White card stock using Lemon Drop Reactive ink and Wild Honey Distress ink and die-cut the “Amazing” from that. I glued that to the shadow die-cut from more Pitch Black card stock and glued that to a white card base. I bent up the bees’ wings a little bit and mounted them on the card front with foam tape… looks like they’re all buzzing around…!

And that wrap up my 10 cards using the My Monthly Hero April 2022 Kit. The cling stamp is lovely and quite versatile… you could emboss that stamp in multiple colors for simple backgrounds or the stencils make it a breeze to color!

We have a bright colorful assortment of cards this month – I only used the “Amazing” die on five cards… the cling stamp got quite a workout from me appearing on all but one of my cards, and I had a great time playing around with different ways to color those flowers. And we even managed to get a little bit of a pun this month!

I hope I’ve managed to pique your imagination or inspire some fun coloring from you with this post. This kit is still available at Hero Arts…! If you’d like to grab one for yourself, please use my links listed below… it is always appreciated!

My Monthly Hero April 2022: http://shrsl.com/3hm9s

Hero Arts April 2022 Collection: http://shrsl.com/3hmg3

It was a bit of a push to get 10 cards out of this kit, but I think I managed a good variety of looks and I only doubled-up on that cling stamp twice…! I suppose I should always expect some flowers in our MMH Kits this time of year, and it was nice to get back to some basics after a couple months of uncommonly “artistic” offerings!

On a personal note… we did install all the IKEA cabinets around the desk/bed in our Office/Guest Room/Craft Room this month! I will put together a quick tour of our cabinet install and a little look at the new organization in my craft room as soon as possible, so.. Stay Tuned!!

Thank you so very much for sharing your time with me here! Please remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Share me with all your crafty friends… and remember… don’t run with scissors! I send you and yours Spring Blessings, Warm Hugs, and Happy Crafting!

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