Hello Folks!! Scott here with my 10 Cards 1 Kit post featuring the My Monthly Hero December 2019 Kit. Sorry this is a little tardy this month… holidays, you know! Hero Arts is celebrating the diversity of our beloved (yet stressed) planet Earth this month with this lovely 6″ x 8″ stamp set with a stunning (and large) “Earth Goddess” stamp. I think this must be the largest image stamp I’ve seen in a MMH kit in the couple years I’ve been a subscriber. Really beautiful! She is complimented with an earth, a tree, a pair of fish, a peace sign and a few sentiments sized to fit in the crook of her arm. There’s also a pair of hands, some birds, flowers and clouds to round things out.

We do get 18 coordinating frame cuts to die-cut all the images, a new Earth Palette Reactive Ink pad (LOVE IT!) and a pack of Green Biodegradable Glitter. VERY interesting! I’m tempted to toss some in a glass of water and see what happens!! Finally we are treated to five little mini brushes – I find these most useful for super small glue or paste or more permanent media details since they aren’t much good after a single use or two. Though I’m not overly thrilled with all the sentiments here, I do think this is one of the most interesting and unique kit I’ve ever received from Hero Arts!

So, of course, I just couldn’t resist grabbing that big Goddess stamp and plunging right in!

 

I stamped this (and all the other cards this month) on Bristol smooth card stock using VersaFine Onyx Black ink and I embossed this stamp with clear embossing powder. I rarely emboss stamps I’m going to color, but for some reason I thought it was very appropriate for this stamp. WOW! I LOVE the shine that gives to this entire image! I don’t know why I don’t do that more often! I reached for my Stabilo pens to color this whole image and just worked my way around from the ‘water’ to the ‘fire’. I really like how vivid those Stabilo markers are, and, with a little water, they move on the Bristol smooth card stock super easily!

I wasn’t sure what image I wanted to put in her arms, so I went ahead and stamped, embossed and colored the earth, the fish, the tree, and the peace sign in the exact same way. Of course, the earth won out..! I cut out my stamped panel with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and  glued that to a white card base. I fussy cut the Earth (the die in the kit leaves a small border around that stamp), added a little Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen to the oceans, and mounted that in her arms with some foam tape.

Wow WOw WOW! LOVE this so very much! The shine from the embossing makes her feel very ethereal, and I love the buck and deep blue oceans on the earth..! I couldn’t bring myself to add a sentiment to the front of this card, and I was in a bit of a celebratory mood after making this, so I turned to my Silhouette Software to create the sentiment on the inside. “You GO Gaia” is printed on a scrap of card stock using the Typewriter Hand font and die-cut with my smallest LFSRD. In Greek mythology, Gaia, is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life: the primal Mother Earth goddess. This does echo the classic “you go girl!” which made it seem all the more appropriate for this card! I LOVE THIS!

Bit of a side-bar here… After much consternation and debate over prices, I treated myself to a ream of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110# card stock. I have experimented with MANY heavy-weight card stocks over the last few years, and ALL were much cheaper than the Neenah… but I have to admit you get what you pay for. This Neenah card stock is smooth as butter, bright white, scores and folds beautifully, goes through my printer with no problem and it is luxuriously thick. A ream of 250 sheets stands about 3.75″ tall! All my white card bases this month (and for the foreseeable future) are Neenah!

Though I kind of felt like I had “Mastered this Kit with a Single Card”, I do have a few other ideas, and I did have three more of the round images already colored…

One of my favorite “peace” quotes of all time! I printed this sentiment on a Neenah card base using my Silhouette Software and the Typewriter Hand font again. I was very pleased that the 110# Neenah would go through my printer using my ‘piggy-back’ printing method! You can review my technique for Printing Unique Sentiments for your  cards here: https://cardcutups.com/2017/07/18/printing-sentiments-for-cards/.

I fussy cut the (stamped, colored and embossed) peace sign (very carefully) with a craft knife, and mounted it to the card front with thin foam pieces. I thought this unique stamp was cool enough to hold it’s own on the front of a card – and is very appropriate with this quote that I do attribute on the inside of the card. Plain yet powerful!

The fish stamp seemed very “Yin/Yang” to me – whether it was intended to or not, so I did color that stamp as if it was a Yin/Yang symbol – basically just reversing the colors from one fish to the other. I added a touch of light blue in the background, and die-cut them using the circle die in the kit.

Now, I have seen LOTS of spinner cards and rotating cards and window cards using this set coming from a lot of the HA design team – obviously, this kit lends itself to those type of interactive cards, but I wanted to try something just a little bit different. I stamped the hands on a piece of Bristol smooth card stock cut to 3.5″ x 5.5″ and printed this sentiment using my Silhouette Software and the Smoothie Shoppe and Arial fonts. A simple hole punched in the middle to connect the spinning wheel to the fish. I used a stitched circle die to cut the spinner and stamped the arrows using the MFT Interactive Labels stamp set, and punched a finger-notch on the left side right in line with my center hole.

I ink blended the edges of that panel with Hero Arts Splash Reactive ink and a mini ink blending tool, and added a couple strips of pattern paper (from the Sizzix Geometrics 6″ x 12″ Cardstock Pad) down the two sides of my white card base. I attached the spinner to the fish with a brad through the center hole, and used foam tape to attach the panel to the card front leaving room for the spinner to rotate. I think these fish were just begging to ‘swim around’ (pun intended!) and this is a fairly surprising and unique interactive card with a poignant and useful sentiment!

I still have that tree stamp colored, embossed and die-cut that I haven’t used yet …

And here we break into that Biodegradable Glitter! I cut a frame from some adhesive backed card stock using two LFSRDs and covered the adhesive with glitter. I burnished it down quite vigorously, but this glitter is super fine and still sheds a little bit..! I also die cut a slightly larger circle than the tree and covered that with glitter before gluing it behind my tree die-cut for a matching mat. I did print this sentiment on a Neenah card base using the Typewriter hand font and glued the frame to the card front and added the matted tree with some foam tape. Of course there is more to this sentiment than just “Be a Tree”… I printed the rest of this sentiment on the inside of the card using my Silhouette software and the same font. Very good advice for most anybody at most anytime! And I think this is particularly appropriate with this stamp that shows the roots of the tree!

We also had nine little flower, leaf and stick stamps in this kit, and I kept thinking…

I really like the hand stamps in this kit – pretty versatile – and any plant that blooms with three different flowers is damn precious!! I stamped everything using only a mask for the hand – I simply stamped all the foliage as close together as possible. I colored these with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, stamped and clear embossed the sentiment (after I removed the “so take care!”) and die cut that panel with a LFSRD.

I swiped the Earth Palette reactive ink pad on a piece of Bristol smooth card stock and blended the colors together with a paintbrush and a little water – the brownish stripe behind the sentiment happened when the purple went over the light green – it matches the stick part of our ‘plant’ nicely so I let it be! I die cut the background with another LFSRD and glued it directly to a Neenah card base. I matted the image panel with a thin black mat and added that to the card front with foam tape.

Once this was all together, I felt it was still missing something, so I stamped the little bird on a scrap of Bristol smooth card stock, colored and die-cut it out. I did try to make the bird look like a Meadowlark. I like the sense of movement that comes from die-cutting the bird (when none of the other images are die cut) and I love the matching ombre background! Precious, indeed!

We also have dies for all those little incidental stamps (and hands!) in this month’s kit…

I stamped everything on Bristol smooth card stock, colored all with my Zig markers, and die cut everything with the matching dies. I stamped and clear embossed the sentiment on a Neenah card base and arranged all my die cuts on top. The foliage is glued directly to the card front and the hands and butterfly are mounted with foam tape. A thin strip cut from the scraps of my ombre background adds a final touch of color to our abundant cornucopia of nature being offered up. Fun and colorful, this is a great way to use all the little incidental stamps included with this kit. And those hands are really versatile!

Speaking of versatile, I had another interactive card idea to go along with a bit of a pun…

I stamped the hands together masking the right one before stamping the left, colored them with my Zig markers and die cut those with a plain circle die. I swiped the Earth Palette reactive ink pad on a scrap of watercolor paper and blended them out with more water – that gave me more of a ‘brush’ texture on the watercolor paper versus the smooth blending on the Bristol smooth card stock. I cut that down to a 3″ square and used my corner choppers to round the corners. Again, I poked a hole in the center of a Neenah card base, die cut a 4.25″ circle for the spinner, stamped the arrows and attached the spinner to the watercolor background through the center hole. I added the hands to the watercolor piece with foam tape, and took some thin heart washi tape from my stash to run across the top and bottom of this card front. I added a finger notch to the right side this time and attached the front panel to a Neenah card base using foam tape.

There’s the pun! (I couldn’t resist!) LOL! I printed the inside sentiment using my Silhouette software and the Henny Penny font. The Neenah card stock takes the print so well…  nice and clean and very sharp. I’m extra thrilled with this card stock knowing that I can print on it! And I really like that the whole ‘square’ rotates and I think that’s a little bit of a surprise. A great interactive congratulations card! Makes me laugh!

I can’t do 10 cards with this kit and NOT do one more Earth Goddess stamp…! Let’s try her on some Kraft card stock and break out the colored pencils!

I hadn’t used the large bird stamp or the clouds yet, so I added them to this card front using VersaFine Onyx Black ink and colored everything with my Prismacolor Colored Pencils. A little more subdued than the first card, but I think every bit as beautiful! I colored the bird in a bit of a parakeet motif and even added some of the twine along the spine tied in a simple bow. Again, no sentiment on the front, so you know I’m going to have something to say on the inside. I love this “Unleash your inner Goddess” sentiment! I printed that on a scrap of ivory card stock using the Brushgyo and Arial fonts, die cut that panel with a LFSRD and added it to the inside of the card. Another fun, colorful encouragement card for all the “Goddesses” in your life! I know there has to be a few! Though it does takes some time to color, I really love that stamp!

A lot of the ‘environmental’ sentiments in this kit didn’t particularly catch my eye – I had a hard time figuring out who I would send a card to that says “One world is enough for all of us” – a feuding neighbor? An estranged relative? A mortal enemy? Might as well try to laugh it up a little bit!

I stamped the four images and the sentiment on Bristol smooth card stock and colored them with my Zig markers and die-cut them all with the matching circle die. I did fussy-cut the earth and glued it to a thin velum mat. I used a 1″ and 1/2″ paper punch to punch out the blue and green dots using the HA Neon card stock from the October 2019 Kit. The punched dots are glued to a Neenah card base, the sentiment, tree, fish and bird are mounted with foam tape, and the earth is mounted with a double layer of foam tape. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, this was the perfect card to add some of the blue and green ‘droplet’ embellishments we got in our MMH March 2019 kit. Perfect match! But what’s the joke you may be asking? You have to open the card to see, silly! “Mulch this card” makes me giggle every time I say it! I printed this on the inside of the card base using the Marguaritas font and the Calibri font. I thought about “Recycle this card” but I think Mulch is a much funnier word! AND it also implies that we’re returning something to the Earth! Protect the Earth!

I have used all the image stamps in this kit (many of them twice!) but there is one more sentiment stamp that I wanted to use, and I’m going to go outside the stamp set (but staying with Hero Arts) for the image on my last card.

This is the Hero Arts From the Vault Earth stamp that I was so happy to receive for Christmas this year! That is one of my favorite “From the Vault” stamps that Hero Arts has re-released in honor of their 45th anniversary. (I asked Santa for this stamp long before I knew that this kit would have an earth stamp too!) I love the size of this stamp and the vintage dot patterns swirling through the oceans and land masses. This stamp is so detailed that it only needs a  little bit of color to bring it to life! I stamped that on some of my Neenah 110# card stock and colored it with my Spectrum Noir markers before fussy-cutting it out. I did trace the cut edges with my Memento Tuxedo Black Dual Marker and added some thick foam dots on the back. I stamped the sentiment on the same paper and die-cut it with the coordinating die, and inked the edges with a little Black Soot Distress Ink, and added thin foam dots behind that piece.

On watercolor paper, I created my “galaxy” using Brusho Black powdered pigments with some water, and let that dry thoroughly before ink blending in some Hero Arts Creamsicle, Blue Raspberry, and Taffy reactive inks. When that dried, I ink blended more of the Black Soot Distress ink all the way around the painted “galaxy”, and then spattered some Permanent White Gouache for the stars and then spattered some of my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen for a little touch of glitter. I die cut the galaxy with a LFSRD and glued that to a Neenah card base, and mounted the two circles with foam tape. Now there’s a truly useful sentiment from this kit! A Valentine for your favorite astronomer, maybe? I really like this card and I love that Earth stamp from the vaults at Hero Arts!

That’s my 10 cards using the My Monthly Hero December 2019 Kit. I was tempted to throw in the towel after just five cards, but I soldiered on and am very pleased with the nice variety of cards I achieved. A sweet batch of encouragement cards with a Valentine or two thrown in for good measure! I am still impressed with that Earth Goddess stamp, and am particularly pleased with how colorful all these cards came out.

This kit is still available at Hero Arts! http://shrsl.com/21ba3  If I have managed to ignite your imagination or inspire an idea or two from you, please use my links when you go shopping at Hero Arts. It is always greatly appreciated! Thank you so much for sharing your time with me here… your support and encouragement is what keeps me inspired!

I have now actually completed a full year of MMH kits! WOO-HOO! (PHEW!) I am still enjoying my subscription, and I really love getting feedback and hearing from all the Hero Arts fans out there! Please remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, share me with all your friends (and enemies!), and remember… Its not nice to fool Mother Nature! I am sending you and yours all my best for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year! Happy Crafting, and see you in 2020!

Hello Folks! Scott here unboxing the new Love From Lizi January 2020 Card Kit! This kit is  the “Hey Sweetie” card kit and is packed with tons of treats from cookies to donuts, cakes, pies, gems and some proper English biscuits!

I thought we were suppose to give our sweeties up for our New Years resolutions!? If we can’t eat ’em, then at least we can craft with them! Everything in this kit is curated to be totally coordinated – papers, stickers, die-cuts, – even an embossing folder!

As always, we get 5 sheets of 8.5″ x 11″ card stock in Green, alcohol marker-friendly White, Pale Blue, Pink, and Yellow. In addition to those, we get two sheets of specialty card stock in Gold and Silver matte mirror. I always love Lizi’s specialty card stocks! For a new and unique item this month we get two full-sized sheets of printed tissue paper – a large ‘sprinkles’ print in color, and an outline print of assorted sweets in a soft brown. Very interesting – and unique!

This month we get a sheet of Lemon Yellow Glitter Straight Peel-offs – a new color in the ‘Straight’ shape; and we get a die-cut Sentiment Sheet with 14 different sentiments ready to pop out and use. Sprinkled with Love, indeed!

And look at this pattern paper! Sweeties galore! 6″ x 6″ pattern papers that coordinate with our card stock sheets and come in small patterns, large patterns, subtle and bold patterns – I got 25 sheets in my kit! And they are all double-sided!

I think there may be a repeat in here… but if a pattern repeats in these papers, then it usually has a different background color. TONS of pattern paper! (plenty of pink as well!)

Thank brings us to the “Hey Sweetie” stamp set! This 4″ x 8″ clear stamp set features 9 difference treats and six accompanying sentiments – with a fun little pun! WOO-HOO! That’s a nice large gingerbread man stamp, and the cookies look scrumptious! We are also treated to an embossing folder this month! A 6″ x 6″ cascade of cakes and cupcakes raining down upon us all! Again… perfectly coordinating with this entire kit!

Another treasure trove of unique items in our embellishment bag this month! Four round printed tags in large and small circles, 10 rather larger stickers (2 each of 5 designs) of cakes, cookies, donuts, cupcakes and biscuits! Perfect for a scrapbook page! Then we have our sample pack of the “Hey Sweetie” sequin mix with a really pretty iridescent blue, and (of course) some shiny pink! We get another new bottle of Nuvo Glitter Drops this month in “Enchanting Pink” – lots of glitter there but I’m not necessarily ‘enchanted’..!!

We get four clothes-pins (short, yet wide) with cardboard treats attached on top, and twenty satin bows in yellow and white and pink and blue and purple… I do wish there was matching ribbon..! We are treated to four rolls of Washi Tape this month! A very thin pink, a blue background with colored treats, a wide “shaped” washi with all round treats and tarts, and a yellow background with sprinkles! Perfectly matching everything in this kit!  Last, but not least, we do get three dies this month! A Birthday cupcake with “Make a Wish” in the icing, a “Best Wishes” sentiment die and a Frosted Donut die with little sprinkle impressions..! A well appointed and coordinated batch of embellishments!!

Of course, Lizi has all sorts of add ons and new releases to go along with this card kit. I did manage to get the peel off bundle assembled to go with this kit. It includes sheets of Peach/Gold Sway peel offs, White/Gold Pin Stripe peel offs, Ice Blue Pin Stripe peel offs and a Clear Pink Irridescent Straight peel offs. These all go along with this kit very nicely.

 

At posting, This kit and most of the add-ons are still available at lovefromlizi.com – including an amazing Hey Sweetie Bumper Pack with pattern papers, vellum, die cuts, alphabet stickers and so much more…! If you DO go shopping with Lizi, please use my links… it helps support this page and my YouTube channel and is ALWAYS super-appreciated!

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me here, your encouragement and support means so much to me! I am sending you and yours all my best wishes for a Happy, Healthy, Hearty and Prosperous New Year!  Please remember to Like Me, List Me, Pin Me, Post Me, share me with all your friends and remember, Don’t be too sweet, or they’ll eat you!

 

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 another 10 Cards 1 Kit post using the new Love From Lizi December 2019 Card Kit. Lizi calls this the “Simple Pleasures” kit and it’s chock full of a spring-time array of pattern papers, stickers, ephemera and embellishments sporting lots of rose-gold foil highlights throughout. I think the holidays are behind us now..!

As usual, I started by making 10 card bases from the included card stock (I did swap out a plain White from my stash for the alcohol-marker friendly White in the kit). I was really drawn to the ephemera pieces, stickers and pattern papers this month, so I started this batch with a card that almost seemed like a no-brainer to me.

That great oval ephemera piece features that rose-gold foiling on the frame as well as on the sentiment. I loved that it matches the bottom half of this piece of pattern paper in a smaller scale. So I die-cut that panel with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and glued it to one of the Ivory card bases. I mounted the ephemera piece to the center with some thick foam squares and framed the panel with LFL Rose-Gold mirror pin stripe peel offs.

I didn’t think this was an ideal sentiment all by itself, so I borrowed one of my favorite sentiments from this kit and printed that on the inside writing surface using my Silhouette software and the Rockwell (italic) font. Now, “Take time to make your soul happy” is a lovely sentiment that I can think of many uses for… I think it finishes off the “replenish” sentiment on the front very nicely! What else needs be said?

You know I’m not a big butterfly fan, but this kit included some really great butterflies!

This is a BIG butterfly ephemera piece – nearly 3″ across – and I loved that fact that it didn’t have a white border..! I also loved this ephemera sentiment from Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie!). I matted that on a piece of the dark green side of our cut apart sheet, glued it to the Yellow card front, and made a frame using the Grass Green with Gold outline peel off stickers from the kit. I glued (just the body) of the butterfly to the card base and added three Dirty Bronze Nuvo Drops (I really like those!) for a little more dimension and shine. I think I like the “old-fashioned” theme of this sentiment and can think of various uses for a card like this. And that butterfly almost seems real!

We received two large sentiment dies in our kit this month – let’s try one next!

“Big Thanks” eclipse card! I die-cut another piece of the dark green cut apart sheet (LFSRD) and stamped a simple pattern on that with the “thank you”, “you are sweet”, and one of the flower buds using Peeled Paint Distress Oxide ink. I die cut the sentiment from the center of that background, and matted the background on a piece of the light green pattern paper before gluing it to one of the Green card bases. I added partial frames around the background on the top left and bottom right using the kit peel offs for a little sparkle. I die cut the sentiment four times from plain white card stock, and used my Multi Media Matte glue to stack them on top of each other with the die-cut pattern paper sentiment glued on top. Then it’s easy to glue that nice thick sentiment back into the die cut opening on the card front. Very pleased with how well that sentiment reads! I like the subtle, yet apparent background, and I love that this is a very masculine Thank You card!

Back to those ephemera pieces… I can’t seem to ignore them this month!

Another groovy oval ephemera piece – though (alas) this one doesn’t have any foiling. I cut a 2″ strip of that brownish-yellow pattern paper, and two strips of the “half-dandelion” pattern paper for the top and bottom, and glued them together for the background. I ink-blended some Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink on the top and bottom edges of a White card base, and glued the background down in the center. I used my thick foam squares to add the oval sentiment in the middle and my thin foam squares to mount the two flower stickers on the sides (I do neutralize the sticky on the back with my powder tool). Three of those cool wooden embellishment dots adds just the right accent on this card front.

Again, I thought the “Be Still” sentiment could use a little extra something, so I printed “the quieter you become, the more you can hear” sentiment on the inside writing surface using my Silhouette software and the plain Geneva font. I LOVE that addition – though patently obvious, I think it’s a nice thing to be reminded of from time to time! Once more, a very masculine card that seems quite useful to me (especially these days..)!

There was one sentiment panel on our cut apart sheet and a smaller version of the same on the pattern paper cut apart that had the rose-gold foiling – the small one wins out!

I cut out that panel and matted it on a piece of the foiled polka-dot pattern paper, and matted those to a plain white mat and then glued all three to a Burgundy card base. I neutralized the sticky on these two matching flower stickers and added them to the front with thin foam squares. With the foiled dots and sentiment, there’s plenty of sparkle here, and I think this is about as pink as I get with these 10 cards! I think this sentiment would work especially well for an anniversary or intimate valentine card!

Now I’m itching for something bolder, and that “Hello Sunshine” die is just the ticket!

Ahhhhh…  much better!  I began this card by tracing the “Hello Sunshine” die on a piece of masking paper and fussy cutting that out to mask out the ‘shadow’ of the die cut in the center of a piece of plain white card stock die-cut with a LFSRD.  I ink blended the background using the Hero Hues inks in Lemon Drop, Creamsicle, and Fruit Punch. Then I reached for the Concord and 9th Sunshine Turnabout stamp set and embossed the rays using VersaMark ink and white embossing powder. Before removing the masking, I sprayed the background with Sheer Shimmer Mist for some all-over sparkle. Then I removed the mask to reveal the crisp white ‘shadow’ in the center.

I matted the background to a thin dark green mat (from the cut apart sheet) and glued both to a white card base. I die-cut the sentiment three times from white card stock and once from the same dark green pattern paper. I inlaid the green die cuts in the speech bubble and glued all four layers together for this chunky sentiment. I did cover the ‘Sunshine’ part of the sentiment with a Spectrum Noir sparkle pen, and glued that in the center of the ‘shadow’ on the card front. Some silver and clear gems from my stash add even more sparkle to this card front. There just happened to be a complimentary sentiment stamp in that Sunshine Turnabout stamp set, so I added that to the inside of this card, making this useful for graduations, sweet 16s, and many different occasions. I have to admit it was a nice diversion to punch up the colors with this card.

I did have one simple pun I was eager to use this month.

I cut a piece of the hexagonal foil pattern paper to 1 7/8″ and matted that to a 2 1/4″ piece of the Burgundy pattern paper, and glued those to the Burgundy card base. I added strips of the LFL Rose Gold Mirror peel off stickers across the top and bottom. I mounted the potted plant ephemera piece – at almost 3.5″, that’s a big ephemera piece too – with my thick foam squares. I printed the sentiment on a scrap of white card stock using my Silhouette software and the Rockwell (italic) font, and die-cut that with a Spellbinder deckled edge rectangle die and ink blended a light touch of the Peeled Paint ink on the edges. The sentiment piece is mounted to the card front with thin foam squares and I added some sequins from our sequin mix and one tiny crystal gem from my stash for the final touch of bling. A fun pun and a great encouragement card! Pretty masculine too!

Now I get back to my favorite ‘take time to make your soul happy’ sentiment.

I fiddled around with this card a lot. I knew I wanted to pair this sticker sentiment with the foiled sentiment pattern paper, and I tried various combinations of flowers, plants, pattern papers and embellishments – but I wanted to see as many words as possible on the background pattern paper, so that finally dictated a simple approach. I die-cut the pattern paper with a LFSRD, glued it to a Green card base, and framed it with the kit peel off stickers. I die-cut a piece of 140# vellum with a stitched circle die, and glued the sentiment sticker to the that and mounted both to the card front with thin foam squares. This is my favorite sentiment in this whole kit! And that Rose-Gold foiling adds a lot of shine here – no sequins needed!

I played around with the Lotus flower stamps in our stamp set for a while and tried coloring those stamps with a couple different mediums… but finally settled on this.

I die-cut more of that Burgundy pattern paper with a smaller LF Stitched Rectangle die, and embossed this arrangement of flowers using masking paper, VersaMark ink and the Love From Lizi Copper Rose embossing powder. I matted that on a piece of white card stock and glued both down to an Ivory card base. On one of the ephemera ‘labels’ I stamped and embossed the “good luck” stamp using the Copper Rose embossing powder, and glued that to a fussy cut mat embossed with the same powder. I mounted the sentiment with thick foam squares, added a bunch of Dirty Bronze Nuvo Drops, and added another ‘partial’ frame with the Rose Gold peel off stickers. I am in love with that teeny tiny Nuvo drop above the ‘g’ – I didn’t think I could make one that small!! I love the texture and the subtle shine of the embossed flowers. Still sticking with a masculine theme here!

I think the little wooden embellishment dots are the most unique item in this kit!

They make perfectly nice very dimensional and graphic flowers for this card! I die-cut the floral pattern paper with a LFSRD, and glued that directly to my last Yellow card base. I fussy cut the notebook paper from one of the cut apart panels, and inked the edges with a little Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink. I stamped the “thank you” stamp on that using VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I colored one of each size of those wooden dots with a TN3 Spectrum Noir Alcohol Marker and assembled the three flowers on the stamped and inked paper. I die-cut the doily die from a scrap of that dark green pattern paper on the back of our cut apart sheet and used the cut outs for the leaves on the flowers. Kind of perfect! I attached the notebook paper to the card front with thin foam squares, added a sprinkling of Dirty Bronze Nuvo Drops ( I love saying Dirty Bronze..!! ) and another partial frame using the kit peel offs. Even with the flowers I think this Thank You card is actually pretty masculine, and I LOVE those wood dot flowers!

So that’s my 10 cards using the Love From Lizi December 2019 “Simple Pleasures” Card Kit. I don’t think I’ve ever made so many landscape cards with one kit!

Though I didn’t originally set out to avoid all the pink this month, it turns out that I did skip over most of the pinks featured in this kit. That ultimately gave me a nice collection of rather masculine cards with a good assortment of sentiments and plenty of shine!

I did use a lot of the pattern papers, stickers, and ephemera pieces from this kit, and a hefty sprinkling of the embellishments. I didn’t get to the wood-veneer hearts, the pearl flower buttons, the tiny keys, or the burlap flowers, but I think the wood dot flowers more than makes up for that! I used all the flower stamps in our stamp set but didn’t come close to using all the sentiments. I did use all three dies in the kit, and I really like those Dirty Bronze Nuvo Drops. As is always the case, I have plenty of left-over goodies to add to my stash this month!

As of posting, this kit is still available at LoveFrom Lizi.com. If you’re itching for a little bit of spring to brighten up your mid-winter blahs, or if I managed to ignite your imagination, Please use my links when you go shopping with Lizi. It is always greatly appreciated! LFL December 2019 Card Kit

Thanks so much for sharing your time with me here… It means more to me than you will every know! I wish you and yours a happy and hearty Holiday Season, and a healthy and prosperous New Year! God bless us everyone! 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 10 Cards 1 Kit post showcasing the My Monthly Hero November 2019 Kit. This month we’re going Home for the Holidays with a heartwarming stamp set and an amazing batch of fancy dies. Our 6″ x 8″ clear stamp set includes some holiday images and furniture with a few family pets and a very interesting staircase stamp. Of course we also get 13 coordinating frame cuts for all the stamped images. And here’s where the fun begins… we get a Doorway Fancy die and five more shaped fancy dies. That doorway die is very intricate, and is complimented perfectly with the wreath, topiary, letters and roof die. Since the Doorway Fancy die is a full 4.25″ x 5.5″ the rooftop fancy die is included to act as a handle for creating treat bags! Very interesting! If that wasn’t enough we also get two round plastic ornaments, 6 glassine (treat) bags, a Glitter Lacquer pen and six A10 envelopes – those are BIG (6″ x 9 1/2″ – fits cards 5 7/8″ x 9 1/4″)… Don’t know if I’ll be making any giant cards this month… but I’ll at least tackle an ornament and a treat bag!

Naturally, I had to start my cards this month using the Doorway Fancy die. I die cut the doorway, the wreath, the topiaries and letters from some alcohol-friendly white card stock and grabbed my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to color everything. These are the perfect dies to take advantage of my obsessive compulsive nature…  yes… I colored every last little brick on this card! I think I was most interested in creating a white house with a red door, and I’m very pleased with the dimension I got (especially the panels) on that door. Here’s a shot of the markers I used to color this card front.

I did stamp the welcome mat on another piece of alcohol card stock and fussy cut that and glued it to the corresponding space in front of the door. I colored the wreath and topiary with the same markers and added them to the card front using foam tape. I glued some orange-y glassine (kite-paper) behind the sconces and the skylight over the door (I like the glossy finish on that paper), tucked a couple of the letters in the mail slot, added a mini gold brad for the doorknob, and glued the whole card front to a white card base. I did stamp the “there’s no place like home for the holidays” sentiment on the inside to finish out this first card! (I recently got a new Gina K Designs Jet Black Amalgam Ink pad so I put it to the test and used it for all my black stamping on these cards)  I love this card a lot, but it took me a little too much time to think about making duplicates…!

What if I tried paper-piecing this doorway die? That shouldn’t take quite as much time…!

I die-cut the doorway die from Kraft card stock, and trimmed off the door at the hinge. I couldn’t resist my anal retentive nature and colored some highlights on all the bricks with a white colored pencil. Then I die cut the Doorway Fancy die from some 100# card stock and trimmed off the door, the door frame, the transom window and the mat and glued those on top of the Kraft base. I die cut the topiary and wreath from some green card stock along with four laurel branches using a die from the Love From Lizi October ’19 card kit. I used some dark red card stock from my stash to die cut the six bows (from the wreath) and the two pots, then trimmed them out and glued everything together.

I stamped the “Hello” sentiment on the mat, colored in the topiary trunks and the sconces with markers, and added a mini silver brad to be the doorknob. I glued yellow glassine (kite-paper) behind the sconces and some plain acetate behind the transom window. Using my masking paper to mask off the dog, I stamped the Christmas tree and the Cocker Spaniel / rug stamp on some more alcohol friendly white card stock, and colored them with the same Spectrum Noir markers I used on the door (adding GB1 and GB4 for the dog) I added some colorful confetti sequins and a star gem from my stash to the decorations on the  tree. I glued the stamped panel to the front of a white card base and added the house panel on top of that with some foam tape. I like that you can just see the top of the tree through the arched window! That Doorway die is really terrific, though I’m not really sure if this card didn’t take just as much time as the first one! Trust me… I truly contemplated wiring up those sconces with some Chibi lights! Love all of these Fancy Dies in our kit this month!!

But let’s get to stamping…!! You know I like trying to use all the stamps in my stamp set and we have seven distinct sentiments in this kit. Two down… five to go!!

I originally contemplated masking all of the stamps in this scene in order to color a one layer card, but decided that some die-cutting would add nice dimension without a lot of extra headache! I did cut a mask for the staircase stamp, and stamped that and the tree on a panel of Bristol Smooth Card stock and colored them with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. I did add the suggestion of some baseboard to the left of the tree, and I used some Xmas Red Stickles for all the ornaments. I stamped and colored the dog, the hat, the cat and the mouse using the same supplies, and die cut them all out.

I trimmed that staircase and tree panel down to 3.5″ x 4.75″, stamped the sentiment, and ink blended some Wilted Violet Distress Oxide ink around the edges. I matted that on a thin black mat, then a thin white mat, and then a thicker violet glitter mat, then glued down to a white card base. I trimmed the bottom white border off the Santa hat die-cut and glued that to the dog, then mounted all the animals to the front using foam tape. So stinkin’ cute! I actually stamped, colored and die-cut the bunting/bows for the staircase, but it’s a little short if you use the entire staircase stamp..!  Love the little mouse offering the candy to the cat… and I tried to make it look like she was watching him…! I like all the sparkle on this card and it’s really nice to have some characters (animals) to populate our scenes this month!

I do like the fact that we have some non-Christmas sentiments in this stamp set too!

This card makes me want to take a nap! Using the dog/rug mask I cut for card #2, I stamped these two images on some Bristol smooth card stock and colored them with my Zig markers. I stamped the sentiment and die cut that panel using the Therm-o-web/Gina K double stitched Oval die and matted that on a black mat cut with the Large single-stitched Oval die. I die-cut a piece of silver matte card stock with my Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die, and dry embossed that panel with the LFL knitted embossing folder (very cozy)! I matted that on some black card stock and glued that down to a white card base. I mounted the oval piece using foam tape and VIOLA! Our first non-holiday card using this kit. VERY COZY!

Let’s get back to that staircase and the bunting! And more masking!

I cut a mask for the armchair and the present and stamped all on Kraft card stock, and colored this scene using my Prismacolor Colored Pencils. It is easy to sketch in a baseboard to separate the floor from the wall, and I did stamp and color the bunting on a scrap of kraft card stock, and fussy cut that out before gluing it to the railing. I kept thinking of this as my ‘sepia-toned’ Christmas scene, and used white as a unifying highlight color. I stamped the sentiment using VersaMark ink and embossed that with white embossing powder. I glued the colored panel directly to a white card base, added a crystal star from my stash to the tree top and used the Glitter Lacquer pen included in our kit on top of the white ornaments. I think the mistletoe adds some nice height and balance to this scene, and encourages everyone using the stairs to share a kiss!

Here’s another non-holiday sentiment from our stamp set. I stamped the cat on Bristol smooth card stock, masked off  the cat, then stamped the dog and colored both with my Zig markers, and fussy cut them out. This is my attempt at a Siamese cat and a Golden Retriever…! I stamped the sentiment on plain white card stock, and die-cut that with another LFSRD. I dug around in my paper stash and found this purple plaid pattern paper (from the SSS April 2017 card kit (Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Rainbow pattern paper)) that I trimmed down using a larger LFSRD and some partial die-cutting. That piece is 5″ x 2″. I matted that with a thin white mat, and glued those to a Kraft card base. I added the sentiment panel to the card base with foam tape, and mounted our the animals to that panel with more foam tape. I really like this simple, heartfelt “special friend” card…  no holiday here!

I think this was my least favorite sentiment in our stamp set, It felt a little forced to me… but that won’t stop me from trying to use it! I also thought the grandfather clock stamp was so big, that it pulled a little focus from the cats…  I think “together” is more important than “second” with this sentiment!

I stamped the kitten/boot stamp on a scrap of Bristol smooth card stock, masked that off and stamped the big cat and colored them with my Zig markers – I’m shooting for Calico cats this time! I actually used their coordinating dies to cut them out – some partial die cutting was all that was needed on the left of the boot die and the right of the cat die. I simply connected the die cuts in the center with my craft knife.

I masked off the bottom of the grandfather clock with a post-it note and stamped the top on more Bristol smooth card stock and colored that with my Zig markers before using the coordinating die to cut that out. I masked the clock stamp off around the pendulum and weights (post-its!) and stamped those on a plain white card panel using Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink, and added to their length using a brown Pigma Micron Pen. I did color the pendulum and weights using the Gold Glimmer ink from the MMH August 2019 Kit. I stamped the sentiment with the Walnut Stain ink and embossed that with clear embossing powder, and die cut that panel with a LFSRD.

I used Vintage Photo and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink to blend a little bit of a floor and wall on the main panel (post-its to mask!) and glued that to a thin black mat, a thin white mat, and a thicker Kraft mat and then down to a white card base. The clock is mounted over the pendulum and weights using foam tape and the cats are mounted to the card front in the same way. Very cute! These two cats do look like they’re related!

This next card was an ‘early morning’ inspiration, and a stamp masking triumph!

That is 15 poinsettia stamps to form that tree! (did someone say I was anal-retentive?) I actually only had to fussy cut three poinsettia masks to stamp this tree! And yes… that is the present stamp underneath standing in for the base of the tree! This is stamped with the Gina K. Amalgam ink on Bristol Smooth card stock and colored with my Zig markers. I stamped the sentiment as well and added some clear embossing powder to add a little shine to that sentiment.

That Amalgam ink dries quicker than VersaFine Onyx Black ink so it doesn’t hold on to embossing powder quite as well as the VersaFine does. Otherwise that ink worked extremely well for coloring with alcohol markers and watercolor markers.

I die cut the colored panel with a LFSRD and added a simple red glitter mat before gluing all down to a white card base.

I did do a little research to see why poinsettias are considered a Christmas flower and came across this lovely legend I included on the inside of this card. The flowers are indigenous to Mexico, and I think this was endearing enough to include. Some little dots of white gel pen in the centers of the flowers for a final highlight and I have to say that I LOVE this card! 

I had an idea of how to use the whole grandfather clock for a birthday card…

The grandfather clock is stamped on Bristol smooth card stock (still using the Amalagam ink) and colored with Zig markers and the Hero Arts Gold glimmer ink, and die cut with the coordinating die. I found this background patter paper in my image files and printed that with the sentiment using my Silhouette software and the Brady Bunch Remastered font. I die-cut that panel with a LFSRD, added a mat of Black Tie glitter card stock and a mat of kraft card stock before gluing everything to a white card base. I mounted the clock to the front using foam tape and completed the sentiment on the inside of the card. This is one of my all time favorite birthday sentiments for “people of a certain age”!

The only stamp I haven’t used yet is the stocking. It seemed a little large compared with the other stamps in the set, so I felt like it deserved to be highlighted by itself!

I used my homemade wreath builder template to stamp this stocking wreath… same paper, ink and Zig markers used to color. Boy! Those designs get pretty tiny on these socks! I die cut the stockings with a Darice nesting circles die, and used my EK Success Circle Scissor to cut the black mat. I dug through my pattern paper stash and found this perfect background paper from the SSS December ’17 Kit (Doodlebug Milk and Cookies 6″ x 6″ paper pad), trimmed that to 3″ wide and glued it directly to the center of my white card base. I added some Love From Lizi Green and Red glitter Peel Offs to the sides of the pattern paper and mounted the matted circle with foam tape. I tied a little red satin bow and glued that to the card front for a final splash of color and texture. Of course, I can’t leave well enough alone, and though you might not consider this a pun, I do! I printed this sentiment on the inside of my card base using my Silhouette software and the Smoothie Shoppe font. Makes me giggle!!

One of our fancy dies this month is a ‘rooftop’ die – apparently for adding a ‘roof/handle’ to the Doorway Fancy die, and, along with the glassine bags included in the kit, make a sort of a gift/treat bag. That’s interesting… I’m game!

I dry embossed the Doorway die on two pieces of 4.25″ x 5.5″ kraft card stock and added a few definition lines to the front doorway with a BG4 Spectrum Noir marker. I die cut another paper-pieced wreath for the door, and stamped the ‘Welcome” on the mat with Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink. I die-cut two rooftops, added a definition line of marker and glued those to the top of the Doorway pieces. I cut a 2″ x 4.25″ piece of kraft card stock and scored the two long edges at 1/4″ to fold and attach to the doorways. I found that you want about an inch and a half of a base if you want the ‘bag’ to stand up on its own. I embossed the “merry Christmas” sentiment on a kraft tag from my stash using the HA Embossing & Watermark ink and the HA Red embossing powder. Nice pop of red to match the bow on the wreath! Very Cute! By avoiding actually die-cutting the Doorway die, this was a pretty quick and simple assembly! I’ll have to think hard about some other options for that roof die…!!

I turned my attention to the two round ornaments in the kit. I originally thought I’d be creating a little dog and cat scene inside these globes, but I was a little colored-out by this point, and I remembered I had a new die set I got last year but haven’t used yet. Here’s my Christmas ornament featuring the Altenew Layered Snowflakes die set. Those snowflake dies fit inside this ornament perfectly!! I dug around in my stash for some glitter card stock and found an old piece of sparsely glittered white card stock and some silver glitter card stock that I then colored with an alcohol marker (TB4) to get the blue glitter piece. I interspersed the glitter card with some 40# vellum die cuts and glued all the layers together (on both sides with a piece of invisible thread between the large center die cut. This ‘floating’ snowflake is actually 10 layers! I LOVE THAT SNOWFLAKE! It certainly deserves to be preserved behind glass (or plastic as the case may be!!). Of course you can see the snowflake from both sides of the ornament, and there is a little bit of movement in there as well.

This is a pic of my 10 layers all die-cut and ready to assemble. I did glue a piece of invisible thread between the two center white pieces and let that dry very well before assembling the other layers on both sides.

Once everything was good and dry, I added small strips of 1/8″ Scor-tape at the top and bottom of one of the ornament halves, and affixed the thread to the tape adding another piece of tape on top of the thread. I used my Multi Medium Matte to glue the two halves together, and the scor-tape helps as well!

Once dry, I covered the seam with 1/8″ white satin ribbon run through my zyron sticker maker and created a loop at the top for hanging. I tied a double bow with some white and silver ribbon from my stash and glued that to the top of the ornament with E6000 heavy duty glue. I liked that so much I decided to go ahead and make the second ornament. This time I eliminated the first (largest) white layer and just used the remaining four layers. That makes the snowflake just a touch smaller so the movement on this ornament is a little freer than the first, and I think a little bit more ethereal without the bold white center.

I never thought I’d get around to these ornaments in our kits, but inspiration took hold of me, and I am so pleased with both of these! I have a couple of people in mind who would really appreciate these ornaments as a gift this year! BONUS!

Thats my ten cards, two ornaments and one treat bag created with the My Monthly Hero November 2019 Kit. I used every stamp in this stamp set, all of the fancy dies and quite a few of the frame dies. The only thing in this month’s kit that I didn’t use, was any of the A10 envelopes. Truthfully, the thought of making a card that big gave me palpitations!

Six Christmas cards, a birthday card, and a few friendship cards makes for a nice attractive group of cards this  month. I think that Doorway Fancy die is truly something special… the staircase stamp is unique as is that grandfather clock stamp. I think all the animal stamps are pretty adorable and will prove handy in the years to come, and I do like the non-holiday sentiments as well! I had a great time creating these cards (and extras) with this kit – enough to forgive Hero Arts for giving us two Christmas themed kits in a row this year! LOL!

As of posting, this kit is still available at heroarts.com. If you do go shopping with Hero Arts, please use my links throughout this post and my link to the Hero Arts shop directly: http://shrsl.com/1f7qx THANK YOU SO MUCH! That truly helps support this page and is graciously appreciated!

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me here… I am sending you and yours best wishes for a happy, healthy, and hearty Thanksgiving Holiday! Please remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, Share me with all of your friends, Don’t forget to warm the dinner rolls… 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 the new Love From Lizi December 2019 Card Kit. It’s nice to get away from the holiday themes for a little bit, and this kit appears very useful for creating an assortment of cards appropriate for many different occasions!

I can almost feel the spring breeze and warmer weather coursing throughout this kit!

As always, we get five sheets of 8.5″ x 11″ card stock in our kit. I almost always use these for my card bases in my 10 Cards 1 Kit videos. We get a sheet of Lizi’s super smooth alcohol-marker friendly White (I will usually swap this out for a normal white card stock from my stash), along with a sheet of Yellow, Ivory, Green and Burgundy.

We get one 12″ x 12″ sheet of cut-aparts, featuring a few frames, some sentiments, and even a couple of border strips. Lizi cut this sheet apart just below the top two cut-aparts to make it fit in our box this month, and the back of this page is a simple distressed dark green color.

And we get a 12″ x 12″ sheet of stickers! These are nice, thick, card stock stickers featuring touches of Rose Gold foiling and a variety of icons, shapes and sentiments! I always like those small sentiment strips showing there on the bottom right. There’s a “Simple Pleasures” there as well as on the pencil! A PINK pencil of course!

That’ll bring us to this huge assortment of pattern papers in our kit this month! Eighteen 6″ x 8″ single-side pattern papers again sporting more of the rose gold foiling. There’s one mini cut-apart sheet, some flowers, background sentiment patterns, geometric patterns, watercolor washes and polka-dots, stripes and tiles. A GREAT bunch of pattern papers!

We get a new color for our peel-offs this month. Grass Green Mirror outlined with gold! That green and gold work perfectly together! And this is our Simple Pleasures Stamp set. Ten different sentiments and six flower images. Some interesting sentiments here – I really like the “Good Luck” and “Think Positive” ones, and the flower stamps give us an opportunity for some coloring this month! I’m pining for the spring already!

That brings us to Lizi’s Legendary Embellishments Bag!

You may think those are enamel dots, but, no…! They are wooden dot embellishments! I’ve never seen those before..! There must be lots of options for using/coloring/adapting those! We do get a new Nuvo Crystal Drops in Dirty Bronze – don’t think I’ve heard the word ‘dirty’ used as a color descriptive before…!! LOL!! We get three great dies this month, two large sentiment dies “BIG Thanks” and “HELLO Sunshine” (love the size of these!) and a small 2″ doily. I’m not a big doily person but I do like the small size of this die! That’s three metal keys to the right of the doily die, and 10 pearl flower buttons. Those are real buttons and yet not too awfully thick. On the bottom row we have two burlap ribbon flowers with a nice white embellishment in the center, and four LOVELY wood-veneer die cut hearts. The intricacy of those hearts is downright beautiful. WOW.

And if that weren’t enough, we also get a huge pack of ephemera pieces this month!

More rose gold foiling highlights a lot of these pieces, and everything matches the stickers, the cut-aparts and the pattern papers perfectly. There’s a bunch of different sentiments, panels, labels, tags, birds, butterflies, flowers and potted plants. Enough to make dozens upon dozens of cards! That is quite a treasure of supplies in this month’s embellishment bag! WOO-HOO!

I did manage to snag a few add-ons this month!

This is the Rose Gold Sentiments Thicker Sticker sheet with all those large shiny sentiments – a little thinner than fun foam I think. And I’m thrilled to get the Simple Pleasures Peel Off pack with Forest Green pinstripes, Soft Peach sway, Copper Mirror bubble, and Gold Moondust straight. All four peel off shapes in one bundle!

And to wrap up this kit, I got the Foam Sentiments Thicker Sticker pack – these are nice and thick and squishy…! Definitely as thick as fun foam! About half and half as far as the plain peach stickers and the rose gold foil stickers, but all are quite large and will take up a lot of real estate on a card! I do love that rose gold laurel on the left…!!

That’s the Love From Lizi December 2019 “Simple Pleasures” card kit. As usual, Lizi has given us huge amount of card-making supplies this month featuring a spring-y color palette with lots of unique products and beautiful accessories. My mind is already mulling over the possibilities!

This kit and add ons are available at lovefromlizi.com – please use my links when you go shopping with Lizi – it is always greatly appreciated! http://shrsl.com/1yyuw

Thanks for sharing a little time with me today! I’m sending you and your family best wishes for a happy, health, and hearty Thanksgiving!! GOBBLE!! GOBBLE!!  Please remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, share me with all of your friends, DON’T run with scissors… and as always, I wish you 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 10 Cards 1 Kit post featuring the Love From Lizi Card Kit for November 2019! Lizi is calling this the “Enchanted Lake” kit and it features a variety of swans, feathers, snowflakes and trees.

As usual, I do take the 8.5″ x 11″ card stock in the kit and cut them in half to create my 10 cards bases. We did get those two silver glitter card bases in the kit this month, so I simply set aside the sheet of super smooth alcohol-friendly white card stock from the kit. The glitter card bases are apparently cut from A4 paper so they are actually 4.125″ wide and 5.85″ long. In order to fit into an A2 card envelope, I trimmed the long side down to 5.5″ – that gives us some extra strips of that silver glitter card stock!

In my unboxing, I mentioned my puzzlement of swans on Christmas cards, and lots of folks responded reminding me of the Seven Swans a Swimming in The Twelve Days of Christmas. Okay… but I’ve never seen a Leaping Lords Christmas kit or a Milking Maids Christmas kit.. so I did do a little research, and it seems that in England, from the 12th century onward, swans were eaten as a special dish at feasts, served as a centerpiece in their skin and feathers with a lump of blazing incense in the beak. They were particularly associated with Christmas, when they would be served in large numbers at royal feasts; forty swans were ordered for Henry III’s Christmas celebrations in 1247. Swan remained a delicacy eaten as part of Christmas celebrations right up until the 18th century. During the Victorian period, swan fell out of fashion as a dish, and by the 20th century was rarely eaten. So… my crack about roasting a swan for Christmas wasn’t completely off the mark! Let’s dig in!!

I always adore Lizi’s decoupage die-cuts so let’s start this collection with one of those!

I used all of the different layers as indicated on the die-cut decoupage sheet (short of a few flower and star embellishments) and I layered them all together with the thinnest foam squares I have in my stash. I wasn’t quite sure where the small ‘wing’ piece belonged… so I ended up reversing it and mounting it to the side of the swan with a trimmed bit of a feather for some added texture.

I mounted the completed decoupage image to a 3 3/8″ x 3 3/4″ piece of black card stock sprayed with some Sheer Shimmer Mist,  and attached those to a thin mat of Pearlescent Mint card stock and glued everything down to one of the Silver Glitter card bases. I cut some short pieces of the Mint satin ribbon and tied them together to make a bit of a ‘spray’, and glued that to the card front with one of the decoupage flowers over the knot. A sprinkling of sequins from our sequin mix and one Copper gem (from the LFL March 2018 kit) in the center of the flower provide a finishing touch of sparkle. You have to love that decoupage “snow globe”! Very pretty!

That covers the winter season… let’s move on to some actual Christmas cards now!

I die cut this wreath from one of our “cut-apart” pattern papers using a 2 3/4″ Stitched Circle die and embossed the “Merry Christmas” sentiment using VersaMark ink and the Love From Lizi Very Vanilla embossing powder. I matted that on a piece of black card stock die cut with a 3 1/4″ Stitched Circle die and covered with some sparkle using my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen. I trimmed a piece of white card stock to 3 7/8″ x 5 1/8″ and embossed that with the snowflake embossing folder in our kit. I glued that piece to a soft Blue card base and outlined that panel using the peel off stickers in our kit. The wreath is mounted to the card front with foam squares and three of the wood-veneer snowflakes from our embellishment bag add the requisite sparkle to finish out this card. That’s a non-traditional color palette for a Christmas card, but I really like that delicate wreath!

We received two shaker tags in our kit and I couldn’t resist taking advantage of them!

I die-cut three snowflakes from some white glitter paper in my stash and arranged them on the Navy Blue card base. I did add the die cut pieces from the center of the snowflake for a couple of smaller “snowflake shapes” on the card front. I did cover the “Winter Wishes” sentiment on the bottom of this shaker tag with the “Christmas Wishes” sentiment from our die cut topper sheet. I used more foam squares on that for a little added dimension that more closely matches the thickness of the shaker tag. I replaced the gold cord with some silver cord from my stash and attached the shaker to the card front using some removable glue dots. Those allow the recipient to remove the shaker tag and use it as an ornament or as – dare I say… a TAG! I elaborate my ‘Christmas Wish’ inside the card with the ‘New Year’ sentiment stamped (VersaFine Onyx Black ink) on the writing surface. Some dark blue sequins from our sequin mix finish out this card nicely, and the Navy Blue card base almost completely neutralizes the pink shaker tag!

That glitter card stock inspired me, so I reached for the Let It Snow die for my next card.

I used some of Lizi’s Grey Pearlescent card stock to die-cut the base of this die. I added scraps of yellow card stock behind the windows and doors of the village, and also die-cut this from a piece of Twilight Glitter card stock (from the MMH October 2018 kit). I trimmed all of the snowflakes from the twilight piece and glued them to the top of the grey base snowflakes. The bottom snowflake and two stars are inlaid. I cut this die once more from a piece of Black Tie Glitter card stock and trimmed everything away except for the ‘frame’, and glued that to the top of my layered pieces. Lastly, I glued all the pieces on top of another piece of white glitter card stock and trimmed all the edges to match. I did cut off the hole at the top of this ‘tag’ as I was only using this as our focal image for this card.

I used another snowflake embossing folder from my stash to de-boss the front of this soft Grey card base, cut a piece of the grey snowflake pattern paper to 3 1/8″ x 5″ and matted that to more of the Black Tie Glitter card stock. That panel is glued to the card front at a jaunty angle, and the layered die cut is foam taped to the top of that. I thought the seasonal sentiment on this die lent itself to another sentiment stamp from this kit, so I stamped the “Sweet Season” sentiment on the inside of the card. I really like the soft muted colors here! The glitter and pearlescent pieces add a really nice sparkle.

I was fiddling around with pieces from our die-cut topper sheet and came up with this…

Another shaker card! Who can resist those pre-made shaker tags?? The “Deck the Halls” ornament from the die cut topper sheet went with this shaker tag perfectly and added a little more interest (and a sentiment) to the front of this card. I simply slipped the die-cut piece under the edge of the shaker front and glued it directly to the acetate. I like the extra pop of red as well! I die-cut a piece of the ornament pattern paper with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die, wrapped the cord from the shaker tag over the top, and matted that to a piece of Tim Holtz Kraft Core Metallic gold card stock. I glued those to a Mint card base and glued the shaker directly to the card front. You’d have to be very careful if you wanted to remove and save this shaker tag..! Since there’s a little bit of ‘magic’ in every shaker card I decided to add this sentiment from our stamp set to the inside of this card. I think it really completes the “Deck the Halls” sentiment on the front! More sequins scattered around for a final splash of sparkle and we have another interactive Christmas Card done up in a non-traditional color scheme!

One of our pattern papers featured a very large wreath with a swan in the middle…

No more swan! I die cut that pattern paper using the largest LFSRD (4.25″ x 5.5″) (that wreath JUST fit!!) and glued that to our second soft Grey card base. I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of white card stock using Forest Moss Distress Oxide ink, and embossed that with some clear embossing powder. I fussy cut that sentiment out and attached that over the swan using foam squares. I added the five-pointed stars from the Mint decoupage sheet to help hide the swan’s crown and finished embellishing this card with more sequins from our sequin mix. I REALLY liked this wreath but was getting a little tired of the swans at this point… and the glitter on that white bow makes me happy!

I haven’t used any of the five ephemera pieces yet, and I did like that Christmas tree…

I grabbed an old LDRS Fancy Rectangles and Layers die for the background shapes for this card. I cut the smaller rectangle from the grey snowflake pattern paper and the larger mat from some Tim Holtz Kraft Core Metallic silver card stock, and glued those pieces together – what a perfect ‘traditional’ shape for a Christmas Card! I added a bunch of kit peel offs to the soft Blue card base and glued the background directly to the card front. I added the “Merry Christmas” banner from the die-cut sheet over the “Winter Wishes” banner on the tree ephemera piece with some foam squares, and mounted that piece to the card front with more foam squares. I covered over the gold glitter on one of our wood veneer die-cut stars with silver glitter and glued that to the top of the tree, and added some small dots of our Steel Blue Jewel Drops for a little more shine and dimension. One more sentiment stamped on the inside of this card and we have another thoughtful holiday expression for loved ones or any one dear to you. And you hardly notice that tree is on a pink background..!!

I was thrilled to receive the Silent Night Stamp Set this month and was ready to color..!

I stamped the snowman snow globe using Onyx Black ink on some LFL super smooth alcohol friendly card stock and colored him with my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and fussy cut him out. I embossed this sentiment on a scrap of black card stock using VersaMark ink and some white embossing powder. This stamp had a bit of a typo on it – “If kisses were a snowflakes I’d send you a blizzard” – I simply trimmed the “a” away from the stamp to correct it. I die cut that sentiment with a Darice Nesting Square die and glued that to the bottom of the snow globe.

On the Navy Blue card base, I used the Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil and my Ranger Opaque Matte Texture Paste to add the snowfall background. I was going to add the snow powder to these dots but that paste dried so quickly, by the time I removed the stencil nothing would stick. Oh, well!! I mounted the snow globe and sentiment using foam squares, and embellished this card with a few white pearl dots from my stash (inside the snow globe) and a white glitter snowflake cut from the Let It Snow die with a heart gem (from the LFL October 2019 kit) on the bottom of the sentiment. I did wrap up this card with the “Merry Christmas” sentiment stamped on the inside writing surface. Very cute…!

By this time, I’m starting to get a little silly, so for something completely different…

It’s been a while since I did a rebus on a card! This one is so simple and made me laugh so hard, I couldn’t resist! Of course swan + knee = Swanee and on the inside…

No Christmas here, but a funny musical Valentine card! On my second Mint card base, I glued a piece of Tim Holtz Postal tissue paper over the top to add a little texture and interest to the card front. I die cut a panel from our second glitter card base with a LFSRD and matted that to a plain piece of black card stock before gluing that to our card front. I die cut the swan die 4 times and glued them all together adding a little detail on the top piece. I found this picture of a knee in my image stash, imported it into my Silhouette software, printed the knee and the ‘+’, and cut them both out 4 times and glued them all together. That makes all of these pieces nice and chunky and very dimensional!  I glued our images to the glitter card panel, and printed the inside sentiment using my Silhouette Software and the Henny Penny font. Nice and playful, and good for a laugh!

We did get two swan-shaped card bases in this kit. I though the most interesting thing about those pieces was the fact that the swan was printed on the front and the back of the card – thus giving us a pair of mirrored swan images!

For our last card this month, I have a big 5″ x 7″ card featuring the two swans with their necks intertwined! I fussy cut the front and back of one card base removing the area underneath their heads. Then I cut the top of the head away from the swans back on the left swan wrapped the two necks together and taped the left head back to its cut line. I did remove the gold crown from the right swan and added the small satin bow and 3 sprigs from one of our silver die cut snowflakes. I added more of those mini copper gems to the points of the golden crown and covered that crown with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen. For a final touch, I poked small hoes in the sides of the swans and fed two feathers through the holes and glued them down on the back.

I cut a piece of white card stock to 10″ x 7.5″, scored and folded it in half to make a 5″ x 7″ card base. I ink blended some Salty Ocean Distress Oxide ink on the bottom and Broken China Distress Oxide ink on the top. I mounted the swans to the card front using foam tape, trimmed off the back of their tails at the edges of the card base, and added the die cut topper sentiment in the middle with foam squares. I love this!  I don’t often make a card this size, and I think the feathers really make this card come to life! A beautiful, soft and fuzzy Valentine!

That wraps up my 10 Card 1 Kit post for the Love From Lizi November 2019 “Enchanted Lake” Card Kit.  A batch of very interesting holiday cards in a mostly non-traditional color palette, and I did manage to squeeze in a couple Valentines too!

I used all but two of the stamps from our stamp set, and I believe I used some of everything in this kit except for that snow powder and the acetate sheet… so close!! And I’m especially pleased that I managed to create 6 cards without a swan on them! LOL! Pass me a drumstick, please!

At posting, this kit is still available at lovefromlizi.com… a rarity among Lizi’s kits… If I’ve managed to capture your imagination or encouraged your interest in this unique holiday card kit, please use my link when you go shopping with Lizi! http://shrsl.com/1wqc7

Thank you so very much for your time, your encouragement and your support. It means more to me than you will ever know! Please remember to Like Me, List Me, Pin Me, Post Me, share me with all of your friends… don’t wait til the last minute this year, and as always, Happy Crafting and a warm Happy Holidays to you and yours!

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 10 Cards 1 Kit post featuring the My Monthly Hero October 2019 kit. Featuring a retro 1950’s Christmas theme, this kit is “ultra-modern”!

Our 6″ x 8″ clear stamp set features a terrific car stamp, a stone fireplace, two Christmas trees and assorted retro furnishings just begging to create some nostalgic holiday scenes. We get 19 coordinating frame dies, Two 5.5″ x 8.5″ sheets of Chrome card stock, Six 5.5″ x 8.5″ sheets of Neon card stock, a package of clay snowflake embellishments and a 0.5 oz. pot of Prisma Glitter. A terrific kit for a trip down memory lane and a fun holiday extravaganza for any baby boomer!

I am a little tardy with this post… I have had a very busy month that has kept me away from my craft desk, and I have to admit these ten cards did not come to me a quickly as one might expect.

I did stamp most of the images on some Bristol Smooth card stock using VersaFine Onyx Black ink, and, for a bit of a change, reached for my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to color them. It is a little difficult coloring these small images with those alcohol markers (they do not have as fine a point on them as Copics do) but I was pretty pleased with my first stab at coloring all these images. I did try to stick to a 50’s color palette – I was aching to color that car a nice turquoise green! After coloring, I die cut all the colored images and readied myself to start assembling some cards!

Now, I am not the world’s biggest pattern paper fan – I find that I have more opportunities to create and work on backgrounds when I’m not trying to use pattern papers – and that’s one of the reasons I like the MMH kits so much – we rarely get patterned paper! I always feel so obliged to use the pattern paper when we get it in a kit. BUT… there’s always an exception to the rule!

I did have a rather perfect paper pack to go along with this 1950’s themed kit. The Sizzix Geometrics 6″ x 12″ Cardstock Pad. I thought a lot of the patterns were very period appropriate and the colors were spot on as well! I really like the 6″ x 12″ size of this paper pad, and with 48 double-sided sheets you end up getting four sheets of each pattern – plenty to go around!

 

I had to use that great car stamp first, and Hero Arts practically commanded us to make this card in their on-line description of this kit!

On a white card base covered with that groovy blue pattern paper, I stamped the sentiment and the ‘sparkles’ and ‘star’ using VersaMark ink and embossed them with Ranger Gold embossing powder. I added a couple of white snowy hills using my Stitched Hillside dies and decorated them with a thin stripe of the Prisma Glitter on the top edge. The back hill is glued directly to the card front, and the front hill is attached with foam tape. I colored the ornaments on the tree with a Uniball Gold gel pen, glued it to the top of the car, and attached those to the card front with more foam tape. I added a bunch of the clay snowflake embellishments in the sky and I simply had to use another sentiment from the kit on the inside of the card.

Since the car suggests that we’re going somewhere, I figured the “see you soon” sentiment was a perfect match. The car is colored with the Green Turquoise Spectrum Noir markers (GT1, GT2, GT3) I really love that color, and it’s very period as well. I think having the car follow the curve of the hill adds a lot of movement, and overall, I’m very pleased with this first card. A Sakura white gel pen adds some light touches of highlighting on the car as well…. Very Sharp!

Other than the car, all the other stamps are kind of ‘interior living room’ oriented – AHA! the perfect way to use some of that pattern paper – as wallpaper!

Hmmm… looks like that chaise sofa matches the car!! On a white card base, that subtle blue pattern paper and some plain grey card stock from my stash glued together and die-cut with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die. A 1/8″ strip of white card stock provides a baseboard at the bottom of the ‘wall’ and I did fussy cut the inside of the fireplace for a little added dimension on that stone chimney! The sentiment is stamped with VersaFine Onyx Black ink and embossed with Ranger Clear embossing powder.

I placed the coffee table on the lower right corner so it would seem closer to us since it appears we’re decidedly looking down on the table top. Some odd perspectives and scales with these stamps..! Everything is glued down to the card front or attached with foam tape to complete this scene. There are light touches of the Prisma Glitter on the tree ornaments, and the wreath has some glitter highlights from my Sakura Stardust gel pen. This does feel like a retro 50’s living room… and surely this is what Hero Arts was envisioning with this kit, and that pattern paper makes for the perfect wallpaper!

Some folks over on the Hero Arts Kit Fanatics Facebook group suggested that I combine the dancers from the MMH February Kit with the “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree” sentiment in this kit. Those dancers are circa 1920’s but I think we can make this work!

Again on a white card base with pattern paper die-cut for the walls and the floor, and a 1/8″ strip of white card stock for the baseboard. (I did draw in the tile line on the floor with a Pigma Micron pen). The record player was from my original alcohol marker coloring, and I stamped another tree and colored that with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. The sentiment(s) are stamped with Onyx black ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. The tree and phonograph are attached with foam tape.

I stamped the dancers first using Twisted Citron Distress Oxide ink for the lady, and Broken China Distress Oxide ink for the gentleman. I masked off the ‘tail’ of the gentleman’s topcoat, and I actually wiped away the lady’s fringe skirt (and knees) and her hair ornament before stamping her. Then I simply traced the outlines of both stamps using my Pigma Micron pen before adding a little color for their skin. It wasn’t too hard to change those silhouette stamps into what appears to be outline stamps! Very pleased with that! I die-cut both using their matching dies and trimmed away any extras. I think the addition of these dancers really makes the music come alive on this card!

Hmmm. Card three and I’ve already used all the images in this stamp set… I can’t make seven more living room cards, so, I once again turn to showcasing individual stamps…

I really love that wreath stamp so I thought I’d highlight it on this card! On a white card base, I used some more pattern paper clear embossed with the “snowflake” stamps and glued to some plain chartreuse card stock and die cut with another LFSRD. That is matted on a thin red mat from the Neon card stock in the kit, and some Love From Lizi Purple peel off stickers finishing the seams. I created this sentiment using my Silhouette software and the Henny Penny font and printed it directly on the card front.

I stamped the wreath on Bristol Smooth card stock with Onyx black ink, colored it with my Zig markers, die-cut it out and added some Hero Arts Clear Lacquer on the top of the larger baubles. I attached that to the card front with foam tape and added some punched “sparkles” using the peel off border and an old star punch from my stash. I like this sentiment quite a bit – and though “cool” wasn’t coined in the 50’s it was widely used!

I must take a moment to pontificate about these “snowflake” stamps… Snowflakes do not have eight points. All snowflakes contain six sides or points owing to the way in which they form. The molecules in ice crystals join to one another in a hexagonal structure, an arrangement which allows water molecules – each with one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms – to form together in the most efficient way. Simple as that. It is a big pet peeve of mine to see snowflakes with eight points… trust me, Hero Arts is NOT the only company perpetrating this inaccuracy! Sigh…  That concludes this month’s lecture!

We have a “Thank You” sentiment in this stamp set… what would one be thankful for…?

I think that just about says it all! I stamped the three presents with Onyx black ink on Bristol smooth card stock, colored them with my Zig markers and die-cut them out. I die-cut two plain white card panels with my LFSRDies, stamped and clear embossed the sentiment on the front panel, matted that on the blue Neon card stock from the kit. I matted the larger white panel with a piece of the green Neon card stock and glued them all together and down to a white card base. A perfectly appropriate thank you card!

I cannot resist that terrific car stamp and thought it would make a fun birthday card!

I stamped the car using Onyx black ink on Bristol smooth card stock once again, but I wanted to go for a more red-violet color (complimentary to yellow-green), so I reached for my Stabilo watercolor markers instead of my Zig markers. I have many more red options in my Stabilo pack. These are the markers I used on this car.  I die-cut another pattern paper with a LFSRD, and added a thin silver mat using the chrome card stock from the kit, and glued that to a white card base.

I thought the die for the coffee table in this kit would make a perfect retro shape for this additional birthday sentiment. I created the “you’re a Classic!” sentiment using my Silhouette software and the Freehand 521 font for “you’re a” and the Henny Penny font for “Classic!” Though not a perfect match, I think that Henny Penny font captures the playful nature of the sentiments in this stamp set. I printed that on the Neon card stock from the kit, die-cut the table shape and trimmed off the legs. I did the same to a piece of the Chrome card stock and layered them together with a bit of an offset, and attached them to the card front using foam tape.

I cut the Chrome oval base for the car using my Silhouette Portrait – I just don’t have any oval dies this flat…! This makes me think of a car on display at a fancy car show..! I glued the oval to the card front, fussy cut the car and attached it on top of the oval with foam tape. I also added some Love From Lizi Silver peel off stickers to highlight the chrome strips on the car. The thin ones fit perfectly!! The sentiment is die cut from more of the Neon card stock using the Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday Border die, the two layers are offset and glued together then glued to the card front. I die-cut more of the Chrome card stock with the largest flourish die in the kit, mounted that with  foam tape to the top right and added a couple Simon Says Stamp Moonshine Confetti sequins to keep it company. LOVE THIS! A Total Classic! And NOT a Christmas Card! Happy Birthday indeed!!!

I really like that fireplace stamp, and wanted to see if I could make that stone wall taller…

Mission accomplished!! WOO HOO!! I LOVE THIS!! I arranged this fireplace stamp nice and straight on my stamp platform, and masked off the top edge before stamping it on Bristol Smooth card stock with VersaMark Onyx Black ink. Then I cleaned off the stamp, masked off the fireplace and the bottom of the stamp, and stamped that above the original stamp with a little gap in between. Then it was easy to ‘connect the dots’ and complete the stones in the gap using my Pigma Micron pen. The “seam” is actually just below the center of the clock. Really very hard to tell where it is!! I colored this using my Zig markers and actually managed to die-cut the wall as well. Just partial die cutting from the bottom and then the top and it looks completely seamless! I loved doing this! (and I like this Zig fire much more than the alcohol marker fire..!)

I die cut more of the Neon card stock with a LFSRD, and stamped the sentiment and the flourishes (jacks?) using Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide ink and embossed those with clear embossing powder. I die cut a frame from a real wood sheet, and glued both to a white card base. The ‘wall’ (and the clock) are attached with foam squares. A perfect sentiment for a fireplace! And that rock wall is pretty impressive! And it’s not necessarily a Christmas card either! I think that’s three for three!! Can you dig it??!!

I was eager to color a RED car and I also found some 50’s slang that inspired this card.

“Classy Chassis” is slang for “hot body” – a perfect pun for a Valentine card! I stamped and colored and die-cut the car using the same ink, paper and my Zig markers. I had fun adding some extra spiffy shadings on the side… I did trim off the trunk lid and added more Love From Lizi Silver peel off stickers for the chrome trim on the side. The die-cuts are from the Sizzix Atomic Elements die set and are cut from more of the Neon card stock. Another Chrome oval cut with my Silhouette Portrait for my car platform (I couldn’t resist!), more pattern paper matted with a thin black mat for the background and glued down to a another white card base. I did take a tiny hole punch from my stash and punched out a bunch of Chrome card stock dots for the accents on the die cuts. Finally, I did use foam tape to add the die-cut car.

I created this sentiment using my Silhouette software and the Henny Penny font, and printed it directly on my pattern paper. Of course there is more on the inside – that’s where this pun-y sentiment really pays off! I printed the “Wanna ride?” on the inside of the card base again using the Henny Penny font and my Silhouette software. Totally innocent, I’m telling you! This makes me laugh out loud… a very unique love card in perfect step with the retro theme of this kit!

I was having a hard time with the “from our Family to Yours” sentiment – there are no people or “family” stamps in this set… but we do have two very different Christmas trees!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Here we have a great tri-fold Christmas card. I stamped the “traditional” tree on Bristol card stock with Onyx Black ink and colored that with my Zig watercolor pens. I die cut the red and green ovals from the Neon card stock using my Thermo-web/Gina K. Oval die sets. I embossed the white card front using an old Darice snowflake embossing folder, glued the matted oval(s) to the card front and mounted the die cut tree with foam tape.

I stamped the “mod” tree on a scrap of black card stock using VersaMark ink and embossed that using the Love From Lizi Tutu Pink embossing powder. I colored the ornaments using a silver colored pencil, and die-cut the swoosh(s) from more Neon card stock using the Atomic Elements die set. I embossed this card front using the Darice Paisley embossing folder, glued the swooshes to the card front and mounted the die-cut tree with foam tape.

I did cut this sentiment stamp apart and stamped the two sections on some scrap white card stock using Onyx Black ink and embossed them with clear embossing powder. I die cut them with a couple of my stitched Oval dies and mounted them using foam tape. The “Merry Christmas” sentiment is stamped on the inside in the same fashion. I glued the card “backs” together to make this tri-fold, and I think this is a fun inter-generational Christmas Card – traditional vs. modern, old vs. young… (of course traditional always wins in the end!) I think the embossing folders add just the right touch with this card!

Needless to say, music was a big part of the 50’s, and I had one idea I couldn’t ignore.

Back to the living room for our final card this month. Everything is stamped on light blue and dark blue card stock from my stash and embossed with Silver embossing powder and (forsaking the fireplace and the “sparkles” stamped on the blue card panel) die-cut. I used some Broken China Distress oxide ink to stencil a little carpet pattern (Stampendous Dreamweaver Flourish metal stencil) and a little highlight on the wall around the fireplace. I added some shading details to all the images using my colored pencils, matted the panel with some of the Chrome card stock, glued it to a matching blue card base, and mounted all the die cuts using foam tape.

If you haven’t been singing it, then maybe you’re thinking it… Elvis Presley cemented the status of “Blue Christmas” as a rock-and-roll holiday classic by recording it for his 1957 LP Elvis’ Christmas Album. Perfect time frame for this scene, and  a little bit more than a simple Christmas card! Of course I do have to explain myself on the inside of the card. I printed the inside sentiment (Silhouette software and the Henny Penny font) on a piece of my light blue card stock, die cut that with a LFSRD and added that piece to the inside of this blue card base.

I debated adding the parenthetical sentiment at the bottom, but figured it was necessary just in case the card recipient had been living in a cave for the last 62 years…!!  Always good to explain yourself just in case…!

I think this card certainly qualifies as a non-traditional Christmas Card, and I think the single pair of boots and the solitary stocking suggest that someone is (unfortunately) spending the holidays alone this year. I really enjoyed creating this card, and what better way to wrap up my 10 cards this month than with a song from “the King”.

So that’s my 10 cards from the My Monthly Hero October 2019 card kit. Six Christmas cards, a thank you card, a birthday card, a warm wishes card and a bit of a steamy Valentine card! I used most every stamp in our set this month except for the “enjoy” sentiment and the little pom-pom stamp. I had a great time using that pattern paper pad with this kit, and adding in the dancers from the February MMH kit, and I’m actually surprised at how much of the Neon card stock I used. I really like this set – I think that car stamp and fireplace stamp will get plenty of use over the years!

As of posting, this kit is still available at Hero Arts! If I’ve managed to give you some ideas and you’d like to get a little retro Christmas in your stash, please use my link when shopping at Hero Arts! http://shrsl.com/1f7qx

Which brings us to our GIVEAWAY!!! I have a complete My Monthly Hero October 2019 kit to give away this month! To enter the drawing, email me at cardcutups@gmail.com with GIVEAWAY in the subject line, and tell me what your Christmas plans are for this year. Entries will be accepted through November 8th (first shipping date for the MMH November Kit). I will randomly select one winner to receive this kit, and will announce it no later than my 10C1K posting for the MMH November Kit. Please share this post and giveaway details with all your friends and acquaintances, and remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, and don’t clump the tinsel on the tree! Thank you so much for sharing your time with me here… It is always greatly appreciated! Happy Crafting!!

Hello Folks! Scott here with the new Love From Lizi November 2019 Card Kit.

Lizi is calling this the Enchanted Lake card kit, and it features a huge bunch of Swans and Christmas images and sentiments in a very contemporary color palette!

Let’s start with our card stock this month. As usual, Lizi gives us five sheets of 8.5″ x 11″ card stock, and our colors this month are a soft Gray, super smooth copic-friendly White, Mint, soft Blue, and Navy blue. I do make my 10 card bases from these card stocks – though I often swap out the alcohol marker White for a plain White card stock from my stash. We are also treated to an A2 sized sheet of clear acetate (far left) perfect for window cards and shaker cards! Very handy to have in your stash!

And now, for something completely different…! We have some card bases and envelopes in our kit this month! I think this is a first for a LFL kit! We get two, pre-scored silver glitter card bases, two swan cards and four envelopes! The swan card bases are hinged on the left and printed on both the front and the back. Very pretty, and just the beginning of this month’s parade of swans..!

We get some fun die-cut sheets this month!  The one on the left is die-cut topper sentiments featuring light glitter accents and an assortment of (mostly) seasonal sentiments. The two sheets on the right are decoupage sheets with more glitter accents!! We have gotten a nice assortment of Lizi’s decoupage sheets over the last couple of years and these two are the same concept – start with layer 1 then add numbered layers on top of that with foam tape spacers between the layers for a very three-dimensional effect on your cards! I love Lizi’s decoupage sheets!

That brings us to our pattern paper for this month. 18 sheets of 6″ x 6″ single-sided pattern papers. Many of these sport subtle glitter accents as well, and, as you can see, there’s lots of swans, snowflakes, wreaths and feathers in complimentary, contemporary colors. Not necessarily all about Christmas with these patterns, so these sheets seem like they should be pretty versatile!

We are also treated to a new embossing folder this month featuring a field of snowflakes. This is a nicely detailed, fairly intricate embossing folder from Hallmark Cards. Inc. and I am very happy to note that all of these snowflakes are six-pointed. One of my pet peeves is inaccurate snowflakes. All snowflakes contain six sides or points owing to the way in which they form. The molecules in ice crystals join to one another in a hexagonal structure, an arrangement which allows water molecules – each with one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms – to form together in the most efficient way.  Unfortunately, this embossing folder kind of ignores the dictate that every snowflake is unique… Part of the enduring appeal of snowflakes is their intricate appearance and near infinite variation, often leading to the assertion that all snowflakes are unique. While this is in some sense impossible to test, as a general rule it is entirely true. The number of possibilities of changes in temperature and humidity as the snowflake falls to the ground is limitless. If you look closely at a snowflake you will see countless individual features, all of which could have formed ever so slightly differently in direction or shape owing to the slightest change in the environment in which it formed.  Thus concludes my snowflake lecture (this year)!

And here’s our peel offs and stamp set for the month! The pin-stripe peel offs are a sky blue color outlined with silver pinstripes. Extra bang for your buck with some color and reflective shine all in one! The Enchanted Lake stamp set features nine seasonal sentiments in a lovely script font. Always nice to have more options for the holidays!

And that brings us to our big bag of embellishments!

From top to bottom, and left to right, we get five die-cut ephemera toppers featuring three swans, a tree and a feather ornament. We get our sample packet of the Enchanted Lake sequin mix with lots of iridescent sequins sprinkled with pink and navy blue accents. Another new item in our kit are these two shaker tags / ornaments with the feather motif on the blue one and a swan on the pink one, these shaker tags have more glitter accents and are filled with beads and snowflakes. One of our unique embellishments this month is a packet of snow – not glitter mind you, but fluffy, dimensional snow. Perfect for shaker cards or for creating some dimensional snow banks and snowy accents.

After a couple of months without getting any Nuvo Drops, this month we do get a new color of Jewel Drops – Steel Blue – these drops dry translucent with just a little hint of the color. Perfect wintry accents! We also get a packet of coated wood veneer die-cuts – five white textured swans, five gold glitter stars, and five silver glitter snowflakes (six-sided!). The backs of these are still plain wood, so you can use either side. We also have a packet containing five white feathers in assorted sizes, three pre-tied white satin bows and three silver snowflake die-cuts. I have a feeling those feathers are going to end up all over my office! Last (but not least) we get two dies this month – a swan and a snowflake – both nicely detailed with some cut feather accents on the swan.

That wraps up all the items included in the LFL November 2019 Card Kit. I was fortunate enough to receive a couple of the monthly add-ons and new release items as well!

First I got the Enchanted Lake Peel Off Selection Pack which includes a sheet of “straight” peel offs in a new color – Mauve Moondust; a sheet of “sway” Clear Irridescent peel offs; a sheet of “pin-stripe” Silver Glitter peel offs and a sheet of Gold Mirror “bubble” peel offs. A great collection to compliment the colors of this card kit. I am extra thrilled to get the Silent Night LFL Stamp Set add-on. Featuring six snow globes with a snowman, a Christmas tree, a house, a gingerbread man, some gifts and a deer, this is a lovely stamp set ready to color!! Both of these add-ons are still available at Love From Lizi!

Finally, I received all three variations of the LFL Christmas Essentials Peel Off packs!! These are red, green, silver and gold pin-stripe peel offs in Mirror, Glitter, and Holographic finishes. Perfect accents for the coming holidays! I also got the new Let It Snow die which creates this terrific tag with a distant village and lots of (six-sided) snowflakes and five-pointed stars! This is a big die – about 4.5″ tall – with lots of details and a clear easy-to-read sentiment. Unfortunately, this die has sold out already… BUT…

As of posting, the Love From Lizi November 2019 Card Kit is still available! If I’ve piqued your curiosity or whetted your appetite, please use the individual links included in this post, or if you want to browse, please use my general link when you go shopping at Love From Lizi: http://bit.ly/LFLlink.

That’s everything I received in my Love From Lizi box for November. There are many more add-ons and new product releases associated with this card kit – I encourage you to check them all out!  Thank you so much for sharing your time with me here… it is always genuinely appreciated! Please remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, make me write bad checks, and, as always, Happy Crafting!

DISCLOSURE: This site contains some affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Thank you!

Hello Folks! Scott here with my ten cards from the Love From Lizi September 2019 Card Kit! Lizi is calling this the Home Sweet Home kit and she has certainly given us some lovely and unique supplies in our kits this month!

At first, I thought this kit was more useful for scrap-booking and layouts rather than card-making, but after playing around with all these ingredients, and challenging myself to use every stamp in this stamp set, I discovered lots of useful cards to be had! I did take the five sheets of card stock in our kit and (after substituting the super-smooth alcohol-marker friendly card stock from the kit with a normal piece of white card stock from my stash) cut them in half to use as card bases.

The lamp stamp and “sending love and light” sentiment caught my eye first and I had to channel my inner Sandy Allnock to create this first card.

I cut a piece of Lizi’s super-smooth alcohol-friendly white card stock with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and broke out  my Spectrum Noir Alcohol markers to color this vignette. I stamped the lamp with VersaFine Onyx Black ink, and drew in the table with a Pigma Micron Pen. I used the Light Yellow (LY1,2,3) markers to color the ‘wallpaper’ and Burnt Orange (BO2,3,4) markers to color the lamp shade and Tan markers to color the table. Finally, I colored the lamp base and finial with Hero Arts Gold Glimmer ink. Coloring over the background three or four times allowed me to keep the “light” under the  lampshade. Once I was happy with the coloring, I did grab a white colored pencil and lightened up the lamplight with a soft layer of white pencil. Lovely!

I stamped the sentiment with Onyx Black ink and embossed that with some clear embossing powder. I matted that panel on a thin black mat, die cut some of the green pattern paper with a LFSRD and glued that to another thin black mat. All layers are glued flat to the Maize card base and I embellished this card with one of the pearl heart pin tops in yellow – I just snipped away the pin.  I’m very pleased with this little vignette! It’s always fun to play with my alcohol markers… constantly a new learning experience!

Let’s play with that row of houses stamp using my Spectrum Noir markers again!

I stamped the houses (two times) on more LFL white card stock and colored the houses with my Brown Grey (BRG) and Blue Grey (BG) alcohol markers. I trimmed the house panel down and glued that to a yellow pattern paper mat and then down to one of the mid-grey card bases. I stamped the sentiment (and the three small floral stamps) with VersaMark ink and embossed that with some white embossing powder. I neutralized the glue on the yellow house sticker with my powder tool and added that over the row houses with some foam tape. A few of the silver heart gems coming out of the chimney and a couple Lemon Glitter peel offs adds a nice touch of sparkle to this card front.

I did complete this (these) sentiment(s) on the inside of the card, stamping the “Home Sweet Home” sentiment on the white writing surface, and adding this small strip sentiment (glued to a thin black mat) from the add-on sticker pack. I think all four of these sentiments go really well together, and make for a very sweet “welcome to your new home” card! I was going to use one of the larger ephemera houses but when I saw the “home is where the story begins” on the bottom of this sticker, I knew this was the perfect house to use on this card. A little “Happily Ever After” to everyone!

Between our sticker sheet, ephemera pieces and the add-on sticker pack, there were a lot of hearts just begging to be gathered together and used on a card.

On one of the black card bases, I added the ‘box of hearts’ ephemera piece with some foam tape and added the other sticker and ephemera hearts with more foam tape. I printed the “Sending lots of Love” sentiment on this ephemera tag using my Silhouette software and the Smoothie Shoppe font. I realized that the envelope stamp was close to the same size as this tag, so I stamped that on a scrap of Bristol Smooth card stock and colored it with my Zig Clean Color real brush markers before fussy cutting it out and adding it to the bottom of the tag with more foam tape.

I added a bow to the tag using the twine from the kit, and added another crystal heart to the tag for a touch more sparkle. I used some white pan pastel for a little ‘grounding’ under the box, and couldn’t resist adding this little heart strip (from the add-on sticker pack) to the inside writing surface. Love all those colorful hearts on the stark black background!

I was eager to use those large ephemera houses and thought this would be a fun pun.

I die cut a piece of the blue pattern paper with a full-card-size LFSRD and did the same with a piece of the green pattern paper trimming that one down with a stitched hillside die. I glued those pieces together and to the front of a white card base. I glued the tree ephemera piece to the card front and added the two houses with foam tape. They felt a little ‘float-y’ to me, so I added the thin strips of yellow pattern paper at their bases, and finished up the scene with a little yellow sun die-cut with a stitched circle die.

I grabbed my square Darice die-cut quote bubbles die and did some partial die-cutting on the top and then the bottom to get this smaller rectangular speech bubble. I created the “House By You” sentiment using my Silhouette software and the Brady Bunch Remastered font. I was able to print that in the right place by attaching the negative of the bubble die to right place on the printer paper and taping in the die-cut piece before printing. The pun AND the double entendre make me smile, and I had to add the “it’s been too long” sentiment from our stamp set on the inside writing surface. A silly pun but a useful card!!

This kit included a lot of large sentiment stickers and ephemera pieces that were ‘split’ in two using contrasting colors (usually a wood-grain on the bottom of the letters).

I wanted to use this sticker sentiment just because it’s a song lyric! LOL! First I took one of the thin Rose Gold peel offs from our kit and ran that along the dividing line of this text. I think that makes these two-tone text pieces work quite well! A little shine on the dividing line…! I die-cut a piece of the dark grey pattern paper with a LFSRD, glued that to a white mat, and glued those to the Navy blue card base. I added a partial frame around that with the wide peel offs, mounted the sticker with foam tape and added the two bird wood-veneer die cuts for the final touch. I did find one more sticker in the add-on sticker pack that went with this card perfectly, so I added that to the writing surface on the inside of this card. Imagine me and you, I do I think about you day and night, it’s only right to think about the girl you love and hold her tight So Happy Together…!! I can’t see me lovin’ nobody but you for all my life! Great song by The Turtles and a terrific, masculine valentine card!

I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with the stack of luggage stamp… not really many travel related items in this kit…  but pair that stamp up with a globe and a luggage tag….

Here we have an encouragement card that plays on a couple different levels! I stamped the suitcases on a scrap of Bristol Smooth card stock and colored them with my Zig markers. I created the sentiment using my Silhouette software (Brady Bunch font) and printed that on the suitcase stamp card stock and fussy cut the suitcases and the sentiment together. I glued that to Kraft card stock and fussy cut that into a mat.

I had an old luggage tag pic in my stash, so I sized it to match the Kraft tags we got in the kit and printed on top of the Kraft tag for the light suggestion of a travel tag – I like the reddish hole reinforcement…! I tied a bow through the hole with our twine, and added the globe ephemera piece with foam tape.

I die-cut the yellow pattern paper with a LFSRD and added 5 peel offs across the middle. That is glued to a thin white mat which is glued to a thin Kraft mat and then down to the Maize card base. The tag with globe is glued directly to the card front, and the luggage piece is attached with foam tape. Three sequins from our sequin pack add a spot of shine and here’s a bright and cheerful card useful for many situations!

If you’ve followed me at all, you know I’m pretty symmetry when creating cards, so this was a surprise exercise in asymmetry as this card came together.

I couldn’t resist one more song lyric this month! And a retro phone like this would have definitely had a bell and a clapper as the ringer! I stamped the phone on Bristol Smooth card stock and painted it with my (incredibly inexpensive) Yasutomo Pearlescent Watercolors – I think this is the first time I’ve used these and I thought they gave me a really nice shine and an almost metallic feel!

Now… When I started working on this sentiment (Silhouette software, Brady Bunch font) I realized that the top and bottom of his phone are actually different in widths. The sentiment placement looked weird if the two lines were centered with each other – the bottom line would stick out beyond the bottom of the phone on the left side. After fiddling around for a bit, I decided to print each line centered over the top and bottom of the stamp itself. Because of the asymmetrical sentiment, the Gina K. designs oval die seemed wrong when it was straight up and down, so I tilted the die to the left so it matched the tilt of the sentiment. I stamped the laurel accents top and bottom after die-cutting the oval. I used the larger dies in the GK Ovals set to cut a piece of the triangle pattern paper and mats for both from the dark grey pattern paper.

On the black card base, I added a 1″ strip of the red pattern paper right down the center (can’t kill my love for symmetry that easily!) added two strips of peel-offs to the sides of that, and two 1/8″ strips of the pink pattern paper to the sides of those. I glued the large oval to the card base and (taking care to keep the sentiments and the phone straight) added the top oval with foam tape. Wacky! This almost feels like one of those retro atom ovals kicked off-kilter like this. Of course I had to use the “Let’s chat” and “it’s been too long” stamps on the inside writing surface. I think everyone in the world knows this song and wouldn’t be able to keep themselves from singing this sentiment on the front!

Now it’s time to tackle that chair stamp. Hmm… what does an empty chair say to you?

I stamped two of the chairs on some watercolor paper and reached for my Daniel Smith Watercolor dot card (thanks Pat!) to color this simple vignette. Cobalt Blue for the left chair and Organic Vermillion with a touch of Pyrol Orange for the chair on the right. Indian Yellow, Quinacridone Sienna, and Hansa Yellow Medium for the floor, baseboard and wall. I die cut the painting with a LFSRD, added a thin black mat and a larger die-cut mat of the red pattern paper before gluing all down to a white card base.

Cute vignette, but the empty chairs seem incredibly lonely to me! That’s when I decided to use this “miss you” sentiment for this card. This is from the Hero Arts Many Everyday Messages stamp set and is stamped on 40# vellum using VersaFine Onyx Black ink and clear embossing powder. I die-cut the vellum sentiment with a Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banner die, ran it through my Xyron Sticker maker and attached it to the front. I trimmed down the love picture from the add-on sticker pack, added a super thin black mat and ‘hung’ that on the wall between the chairs… but something was missing… chair doilies!! I cut a couple scallops away from our lace ribbon and fashioned ‘doilies’ to go over the tops of the chairs. That’s just the finishing touch this card needed! Love it!!

I haven’t played with any of our dies from this kit – again, I was at a bit of a loss on how to use some of the gardening images included in this kit on a card…

Just add a pun and anything will work!! I die-cut two boots and three flowers from Bristol Smooth card stock colored them with my Zig markers and pieced everything back  together just using tape on the back. I die cut a piece of grey card stock from my stash with a LFSRD, and printed the sentiment on that using the Typewriter Hand font. I glued a thin mat of the grey pattern paper to the back of the sentiment panel, die-cut a piece of the green pattern paper with a LFSRD, and added another thin mat of the yellow pattern paper.

I stamped the vine stamp on either side of the mid-Grey card base using Hero Arts Reactive Green Apple ink, and glued the two matted panels directly to the card front. The boot in the back with two flowers is glued to the card front and the front boot and flower are attached with foam tape. Great dimension here, and those blue and orange flowers (and those boots!) really pop on this neutral background! A fun Mother’s Day card!

I had this idea for my last card when I first saw this stamp set, but I prevaricated quite a bit thinking that the lamp stamp was just too small… but I’m always up for a challenge!

Just our lamp stamp outfitted with a vellum shade on a simple table with a “press here” button below…

So much fun, I simply could not resist! First, I stamped the lamp on some white card stock masking off the shade (don’t forget the finial!) and sketched an oval side table for our lamp to stand on. I colored everything with my Prismacolor colored pencils including the light suggestion of wallpaper. I matted the colored panel to a thin black mat and cut a small ‘light bulb’ hole through both layers in the middle of the shade opening. I die-cut the plaid pattern paper with a LFSRD, glued that to a thin black mat and glued that down to my last Navy Blue card base. I wired the Chibitronic light on top of the plaid pattern paper, making sure to line up the LED with the ‘light bulb’ hole on the front panel – very simple, fairly straight-forward wiring for this card!

I traced the shape of the shade on a piece of doubled up vellum, making the sides of the shade straight and the height of the shade the same as the stamp. I added about 1/32″ to both sides (to allow the shade to curve) and some tabs on the sides. Then I cut out the shade and folded the tabs forward. In order to disguise the tabs, I decided the easiest way to attach the shade was through a couple of slits cut in the card front. The slits are the same width apart as the original stamp shade. Sure enough, once the tabs went through the slits it gave us a perfectly curved lamp shade! SUCCESS! I attached the front panel to the card base using foam tape on the bottom (to allow room for the battery/switch) and glued the top half directly to the card base (so the LED would be at the same level as the card stock – so it would light up the shade as completely as possible). LOVE IT!

I printed the “You Turn Me On” sentiment on the inside writing surface using the Brady Bunch font and trimmed that piece down with a LFSRD before gluing it inside the card. Surprisingly, this turned out better than I expected! It actually looks like there is a light bulb under the shade, and the light not only illuminated the vellum shade, but actually spills out the bottom of the shade just like a real lamp! I couldn’t be more pleased!

That’s my 10 cards created from the Love From Lizi October 2019 Card Kit. I did manage to use all the stamps in our stamp set, I used all six of our pattern papers, some of the two cut-apart sheets, some of our stickers, a good amount of our peel-offs and ephemera pieces, and quite a bit of our embellishments. I think the only embellishments I didn’t use were the paper doilies, the metal springs and the glitter. Of course I have gobs of left-overs which will all find loving homes in my stash!

This is a really nice collection of truly useful cards – a few valentines and friendship cards, a new home card, a miss you card, an encouragement card and a couple of hello cards. I managed a few puns (and song lyrics!) this month and even a light-up interactive card. A great  variety of cards considering the scrapbook nature of this kit!

Naturally, this kit has sold out already, although there are a few add-ons and new releases still available. I think Lizi’s Kits manage to sell out every month… If you’d like to get in on the adventure of one of the most unique Card Kits on the market, I highly suggest subscribing so you never miss out! If you do go shopping at Love From Lizi, please use my link: http://bit.ly/LFLlink 

I truly appreciate you sharing your time with me here… please remember to Like Me, List Me, Pin Me, Post Me, share this post with all of your friends, don’t forget to turn out the lights when you leave the room, and, as always, Happy Crafting!

DISCLOSURE: This site contains some affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Thank you!

Hello Folks! Scott here with my 10 Cards 1 Kit post featuring the My Monthly Hero September 2019 Kit. This kit features a “Cabinet of Curiosities” stamp and peek-a-boo door die much like last years’ Advent Calendar November kit, and the Venetian Neighborhood stamp and peek-a-boo door die offered as an extra with the MMH April 2019 kit. 

Our 6″ x 8″ stamp set includes the cabinet stamp, 16 sentiments, 6 different handles and label pulls, and 30 small image stamps. A few Halloween images  and some Autumn images as well, but mostly  general collectible objects. We get the Peek-a-boo Drawers Fancy Die and three fancy text dies as well as six sheets of 5.5″ x 8.5″ Decorative Paper in Rich Copper, Wood Abachi Solid, and Urban Basilia Black. Hero Arts rounds out this kit with some Bronze Silk Ink and ten tiny Bee & Key Charms. Once again, I am faced with the challenge of creating 10 different cards using a kit that seems like a one trick pony..!

Unfortunately, my cabinet stamp had some manufacturing defects that I noticed right away, but after contacting Hero Arts’ amazing customer service, they promptly set to shipping me out a new stamp set. I had to make something while waiting, so I reached for my homemade wreath builder template and the oak leaf stamp.

Although I know they are popular, I don’t tend to send out Halloween or Autumn themed cards, but I did think it would be fun to start with some autumn leaves. I stamped this wreath of leaves using VersaFine Onyx Black ink on a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock and colored them with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. I thought the ring of leaves seemed a little sparse, so I added more leaves and the mushroom to the center… of course that kind of kills the ‘wreath’ idea, so I decided to die cut the arrangement with one of my Darice Circle nesting dies, and glued that to a thin black mat.

I cut a 3″ strip of the Basilia Black specialty paper from the kit and glued that to the center of a white card base. I trimmed the edges of that strip with some black pin-stripe peel-offs from Love From Lizi, and used foam tape to mount the ‘whirlwind’ of leaves on the card front. I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of white card stock with Onyx Black ink and embossed that with some clear embossing powder and then die-cut it with a Darice Leaves die and attached that to the card front with more foam tape. I really like the color journey that the leaf stamp takes here… green goes to yellow, to orange, to red, then back to green. I thought that was fun and made for a visually interesting ‘whirlwind’ of leaves on this card. I guess we can’t really call it a wreath anymore!

I felt a little lost without my cabinet stamp, so I decided to fussy cut a portion of the cabinet stamp that didn’t show any defects. Kind of like a Japanese Tansu Cabinet!

I stamped the handles and label drawer pulls in the same Onyx Black ink I had stamped the cabinet with (on some Bristol Smooth card stock), and I reached for my Zig markers to color the front of these drawers. (I did perform some stamp surgery and separated the two handle/label holder stamps so I could use the pieces independently from each other). I made the frame nice and dark to help hide stray connections to the rest of the stamp. I colored the handles and label frames using the Gold Glimmer ink from the August kit, and the cabinet connectors with the Bronze Silk ink and lastly, fussy cut three of the drawer fronts. I matted the cabinet on some of my standard Staples Ivory card stock, and stamped the keyhole, key and heart (using MMH Red Reactive ink) on that mat before gluing both together.

I was looking for some pattern paper for the background of this card when I ran across a card catalog image in my stash. Using my Silhouette Software, I sized that picture up and printed it at 25% opacity – that’s what makes it look like it’s covered with vellum! I die-cut the background using a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and matted that on more Ivory card stock. I outlined the background with LFL Gold Mirror peel-offs and glued the matted background to a brown card base.

I stamped the label drawer pulls on a scrap of parchment paper, and scribbled some text on the labels and fussy them to glue onto the drawer fronts… those are some TINY pieces!  I added the cabinet assembly to the card front with foam tape, and finally, I stamped the sentiment on the background and added one of the small key charms and a red heart brad from my stash. There’s a nice option to using the entire cabinet stamp… you could actually create many different cabinet shapes using just a portion of that stamp! I really like the wood-grain look my Zig markers afforded me, and I think this is a really nice masculine valentine or I love you card!

This is the first Happy Halloween die that I own, and I was pleased by how big it is!

I die-cut that sentiment from the Rich Copper specialty paper in our kit, and die-cut two more from some white card stock and glued all three layers together – there’s a nice shadow cast by that thick sentiment! I lightly traced a rectangle on the card front and arranged the stamps inside of that rectangle and stamped them with Onyx Black ink. I added a touch of color to the stamps with my Zig markers and did a double partial frame around the card using the LFL Copper Mirror peel-offs. This seems like a very grown-up Halloween card to me, but I couldn’t resist adding the little BOO! sentiment on the inside. Nothing too cutesy with this card but I think it would make an excellent invite to an adult Halloween Party!

I had this idea for a card, and decided that I could probably camouflage most of the errors on my cabinet stamp with some darker colors… my new stamp isn’t here yet…

On some Nina Classic Crest Solar White 110# card stock, I stamped the cabinet stamp and all the handles using Onyx Black ink and colored everything using my Ice Grey Spectrum Noir Markers. I have to be careful… I think my IG1 pen is starting to run low…!! YIKES! I colored all the handles with a Silver fine-point Sharpie for a little bit of a metallic shine on these cabinets. I really like the monochromatic color scheme here and I love the fact that you have no idea what this card is about until you open it to reveal “you can handle anything”. I printed this sentiment on the inside of a white card base using my Silhouette software and the Typewriter Hand font. Nice little pun! I LOVE THIS! This would be a great thank you card as well as a great encouragement card too!

We do have a pumpkin and a squash stamp in our stamp set, so I think I may have one more Halloween card in me for this month!

Using my stamp platform, I stamped the pumpkin stamp on some Nina Classic Crest Solar White 80# card stock using Hero Hues Creamsicle ink and added the shading using Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide Ink. I stamped the squash stamp using Hero Hues Lemon Drop ink and added that shading with Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink. Those two brands of inks worked really well together, and provided some very nice subtle shading on these solid shape stamps!

After stamping these six rows, I die-cut the card stock with another Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and did a little ink blending on the edges with Antique Linen Distress ink. Then, using my Silhouette software, I printed the “Oh my GOURD! it’s” sentiment in the appropriate place on the card front (Typewriter Hand font again), and matted that on a thin black mat. Another thicker mat of the Hero Hues Mustard card stock and a another thin black mat behind that. One more thick mat of Hero Hues Pumpkin card stock and all layers are glued to a white card base.

I die-cut the sentiment from more pumpkin card stock and two layers of black card stock, and trimmed the “happy’ away before gluing all three layers together and then gluing that chunky sentiment to the card front. There we go! Another pun! And another terrifically non-cutesy Halloween card!

I still haven’t received my replacement stamp yet so I thought I’d just use the Peek-a-boo Drawers Fancy Die all by itself.

I die cut that fancy die from white card stock five times and trimmed off the doors on each before gluing them all together. I die-cut one more frame from some Kraft card stock and trimmed away all of the doors except one, and I stamped a handle on that door. I used the Bronze Silk ink from this kit to color the inside edges of all the boxes.

I arranged all the image stamps on the front of a Kraft card base and stamped them with Onyx Black ink and reached for my Prismacolor colored pencils to color all the images. Our stamp set has that one stamp of three plants in vials, and I did cut those three bottles apart so they could be used separately. In this orientation, the die cut has more vertical windows than horizontal ones so that surgery offered more vertical options.

I stamped the friendship sentiment on a scrap of Ivory card stock and die-cut it using the coordinating drawer portion of our die, distressed  the edges with more Vintage Linen Distress ink, and just popped it into the appropriate drawer. I did punch a little notch in the top of that door in case the door gets stuck inside the die cuts – it’s not big enough for a finger, but I think it will help the recipient know that there is something behind that door! I did add two of the little bee charms for a pop of shine on this card front and added the “you are a rare find” sentiment on the inside writing surface.

I like the shadow-box feel of this card, and I think only having a single door heightens the expectation of what might be behind there. And of course I love colored pencil on Kraft card stock. These sentiments work really well together and give us a really nice friendship card! I do feel like I’m getting closer to the actual intent of this kit, and can’t wait to get my replacement stamp!

I got my new cabinet stamp and couldn’t wait to create a full-blown 24 door cabinet card!

My new stamp was clear of any defects, so I stamped it using Onyx Black ink on a piece of Nina 80# card stock. Josmary Gonzales from the Hero Arts Fanatics Facebook page, gave us a tip on using the Bronze silk ink without shaking up the sparkles in the bottle, so I painted this whole card front with that thinned down ink. I stamped all the handles, sentiments and label pulls in Onyx black ink, painted the labels with Holbein Permanent White Gouache (much easier than fussy cutting!) and colored the handles, pulls and cabinet with a dark brown Zig marker and polished up the joinery using my Uni Ball Signo Gold gel pen. Finally, I took great care to die cut my colored cabinet front.

I did use the die cut to create a template to help with the placement of all the image stamps on the inside of the cabinet. I stamped the images with Onyx Black ink on some Bristol Smooth card stock and colored everything using my Zig markers. I did make a feeble attempt at creating some dimension inside these drawers while still keeping the objects as bright and colorful as possible, but I don’t think that’s very necessary in this overall card design. Here I used 24 of the 32 image stamps (since I cut apart that 3-bottle stamp, I now have 32 image stamps) I didn’t use the solid silhouette stamps or the full spiderweb, the nautilus shell, or the moth stamp. I did take some time to color the back of the die cut piece with some Black Soot Distress ink (so the back of the doors are black) and glued the die cut piece to the background piece and then down to a Kraft card base.

I did add the “LOVE YOU” sentiment on the inside writing surface (Ivory card stock cut with a LFSRD) for a final compliment to the adoring sentiments on the front of the card. Finally, I have a card that exemplifies exactly what this interactive kit was created for. PHEW! That is a lot of work filling in all the drawer fronts and all the insides… truly this is a very cool card, but I can’t imagine creating more than one or two of these at a time! Of course, you don’t have to fill every space, and you can emboss the stamping and do less coloring, but I thought I would put this concept to the test and use as many of the stamps as realistically as possible. Again, we end up with a very masculine “LOVE YOU” card. Perfect for any collector or naturist or even your favorite hoarder!

I haven’t used the ‘treasure’ fancy die yet – and I couldn’t get this quote out of my head, and the “treasure you” sentiment stamp kept pulling my eye, so I fiddled around with those sentiments in my Silhouette software and came up with this.

This is the Typewriter Hand font printed on a piece of Ivory card stock and die-cut with a Spellbinders Deckled Rectangle die and the edges inked with Antique Linen and Walnut Stain Distress ink. I die-cut the ‘treasure’ die from black card stock three times and glued them all together. I was going to emboss the top of this die cut when I ran across a piece of gold vinyl in my stash… I adhered a piece of that vinyl to black card stock and die-cut it to become my final top piece. I really like how that looks – shiny and ’embossed’ but super smooth…! Very sharp! I glued the chunky sentiment in place and added a heart brad above the verse designation. You can also find this exact same Bible verse in the Book of Matthew from the Sermon on the Mount chapters.

I die cut a piece of our Wood Abachi Solid specialty paper with a LFSRD and glued that to a tan card front glued to a white card base. I added the Ivory piece to the card front using foam tape, and, in an effort to shift the focus of this sentiment a little bit, I stamped “I treasure you” on the inside of this card. I did steal that “I” from the “I treasure our friendship” stamp. I think that transforms this slightly preachy sentiment into a masculine declaration of love!

One of my favorite image stamps in this kit was the cluster of crystals – that stamp didn’t seem to lend itself to a wreath, but I thought I could get away with one more little pun…!

I printed this sentiment using my Silhouette software and the Typewriter Hand font on a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock die-cut with a LFSRD. I stamped the crystals three times above the sentiment (I did mask off the center crystals) and colored them with my Zig markers. I added a sprinkling of glitter drops around their tops with my Sakura Stardust glitter pen and a little sparkle to the crystals themselves with my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen. I matted the card front on a thin black mat and glued that down to a white card base. I LOVE the white space on this card – a great encouragement or congrats card!

That crystal card encouraged me to break free from the wood grain and autumnal color palette for this final card, and I went back to that fancy door die one more time.

When I die cut that fancy die out of some black card stock, and trimmed off all the doors, I couldn’t help but think of Piet Mondrian and his color block paintings. I cut away some of the drawer borders to make the center red and blue squares larger, and the second white rectangle on the left side is two ‘drawers’ combined.  Then it was a simple matter of cutting some red, blue and yellow card stock to size, printing the sentiment on the large red piece and then gluing everything to a white card base. These bright colors make my heart happy and I find this sentiment terrifically practical and lots of fun!

So that’s my 10 cards created using the My Monthly Hero September 2019 Kit. Though I didn’t use every single sentiment stamp in this set, I did manage to use every image stamp, a decent amount of the Bronze Silk ink, all three specialty papers, and 3 of the four fancy dies… I guess the question mark die just didn’t speak to me this month!

I’m very pleased with this wide assortment of cards and the variety of looks I was able to achieve using this kit. We managed to create a couple of Halloween cards, a friendship card, some valentine/ love cards and a few encouragement cards as well. A really nice collection of genuinely masculine cards with this kit! Many more option than I thought!

As of posting, this kit is still available at Hero Arts! If I’ve managed to pique your interest or inspire your imagination and you’d like to own your own Cabinet of Curiosities, please use my link when you go shopping at Hero Arts: MMH September 2019 for the kit and http://bit.ly/2sBmuMCHeroArts for the whole store. Your support means everything to me! Thank you so much for sharing your time with me here, please remember to follow me on Instagram at #cardcutups, please subscribe to CardCutups on YouTube, follow me and Pin me on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/cardcutups/cardcut-ups/, share this post with all your friends and any other interested parties. Remember, don’t run with scissors, and HAPPY CRAFTING!