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Hello Folks!  Scott here with my 10 cards featuring the My Monthly Hero March 2019 Kit! “Aquarium Dreams” is the theme coming at us from Hero Arts this month – featuring a full A2 card-sized aquarium die. If you’d like to follow along with my video click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGjverNsymQ

This month our 6″ x 8″ stamp set is full of all sorts of fish, plants and aquatic silhouette stamps – we even get some bubbles and a scuba diver as well as six sentiments..! A few puns there too!! 27 frame cuts are included to cut out most all of the stamped images, and 2 fancy dies! An A2 card-sized frame and inner aquarium stamp. Very intricate! Once again, we get some stamp cubes this month – all water reactive ink pads in Sea Salt, Blue Water and Sea Glass. Last but not least, we get a package of blue and green droplet embellishments in assorted sizes. I think these are my first ‘droplet’ embellishments to grace my stash… I really like them! Let’s go swimming!

I had a little free time the weekend before I received my kit, so I thought I would work on some watery backgrounds for my ‘aquarium’ cards. I can always use some practice working with my alcohol inks, so I grabbed some Yupo paper and a felt applicator and started playing around. I admit to having a hard time just letting go and allowing the inks do ‘do their own thing’, but I’m pretty pleased with the backgrounds I achieved!

In my efforts to add some nice watery effects, I thought a stencil would help, so I turned to my Silhouette Portrait and created this water ripple design which I then cut from some Silhouette Stencil material. I really like this stencil material because it has a nice light adhesive on the back which makes stenciling almost foolproof!

Here are a few examples of my background experiments – these two  are both alcohol inks (Stonewashed, Sailboat Blue, Stream) blended on yupo paper, and the bottom one is topped off with HA Unicorn White ink brushed through my stencil – it worked very well on the alcohol ink background.

This background is all Distress Oxide inks – Broken China, Cracked Pistachio and Faded Jeans. I used my life-changing cheapo brushes to blend the background and then added the stencil and more color on the top. Of course I am much too anal-retentive to simply sprinkle water on top and blot it away for some “bubble” texture so I reached for my falling snow stencil to create the bubbles – I just wiped away the ink through the stencil with a baby wipe. That completed satisfied all my control issues while giving us some great bubbles!

 I did channel my inner Sandy Alnock and used my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to create the top background here – very happy with that one! Of course you simply use a colorless blender to make the little bubble texture with alcohol markers.  The last background here is simply Unicorn White ink through the stencil on a piece of light teal card stock – no additional inks or colors – just the card stock and the stencil – almost looks like it could be an iced-over stream or a pond once the ice starts breaking up..! I am very pleased with that stencil, and will definitely keep it on hand for the next batch of cards calling for a watery background!

You know I always try to use all the stamps in a stamp set, so I figured I would start this kit with cards featuring each of the sentiments. And, naturally, I want to play with the fancy aquarium die for my first card!

I first cut the aquarium die from some black card stock but I didn’t care for the solid silhouettes of the plants, so I reached for some of my green glassine paper. I tried to die-cut a single sheet of that, but the paper was much too flimsy to hold up, so, using my Xyron Sticker Maker, I stuck two sheets of green glassine (aka kite paper) together and then die-cut that combination. That worked! I trimmed the black botanicals away from the aquarium outline and glued the green die-cut behind the black card stock frame.

The green kite paper matched my alcohol marker background very nicely, and the translucent quality of the plants lets my background images read quite well even along the edges. I stamped the school of fish stamp twice with VersaMark ink and embossed the fish with silver embossing powder – reminds me of the moon fish in Finding Nemo! I stamped a few more fish in the background using Hero Arts Soft Granite ink and I white embossed the sentiment under the arc of the moon fish school. I added thin strips of foam tape behind the aquarium frame before mounting to the card front – that dimension adds a lot to the overall effect!! A few blue and green droplets complete the scene and I couldn’t resist adding to this sentiment with a nice “tank you!” on the inside of the card. I printed that on the writing surface using the Raustila font. Seems perfectly appropriate to me!! In fact, I kind of wondered why this sentiment wasn’t included in this stamp set. At least Tank You is a good pun and is perfect for ‘Aquarium Dreams’!

I spent way too much time fiddling with that fancy die on my first card, so I wanted to try a different idea with the “I would swim the seven seas…” sentiment.

Seven circles to represent the seven seas…!! I die-cut and punched my plain stenciled background into seven different sized circles, stamped the 7 images with VersaFine Onyx Black ink and clear embossed them all. (That tiny fish is cut away from the fish school stamp!)  I added thin, dark blue mats around each of our ‘bubbles’ and arranged them on a matching light teal card base. The sentiment is identically embossed on the card front, and the ‘bubble’ images are glued directly to the card or mounted with foam squares. I did round the corners of this card with my corner-chompers and I added more of the droplets for a little accent of color and shine. Once again, I wasn’t satisfied with this sentiment all on it’s own, so I added “if there weren’t sharks!” on the inside of the card and highlighted that sentiment with an embossed shark stamp! LOL!  I think that’s funny! The block letters are the Arial font and the Rustila font is used to replicate the handwriting font in the Stamp set. I like this idea a great deal even if nobody ever notices that there are seven ‘bubbles’… LOL!!

Let’s get back to our fancy aquarium dies…! This time I cut the die from some super smooth alcohol marker friendly white card stock – let’s try coloring all those plants!

I used my alcohol markers to color all the plants (and coral) on the white die cut and then added another black card stock aquarium frame on the top – though it is a bit fiddly, I like trimming away the plants from a black die-cut and gluing the black ‘frame’ on top of the plants – In fact, I would have rather had an aquarium frame die (without plants) than the simple 4.25″ x 5.5″ open frame die included with the kit. That would have given us LOTS of options! I do think this is a terrific die and probably the most intricate die I have yet received from MMH!

I took my Distress Oxide background and stamped some of the plants and bubbles around the edges with the HA Soft Granite ink, and attached the aquarium die-cut with thin strips of foam tape. That adds a surprising amount of depth to our aquarium! I stamped the two angel fish using watercolor markers on a scrap of white card stock. This is my first attempt at adding some extra color and detail to these silhouette stamps. That worked very nicely! I die cut the fish and white embossed the sentiment to match the white borders of the fish die-cuts. There’s a bona-fide pun there! A few more of the green and blue droplets adds a nice touch of shine, and here we have a lovely friendship card!

Three sentiments down…  Good thing I can always use more birthday cards!

I do tend to take things literally, so I figured why not try a birthday cake decorated with fish! Okay, so the conch shell is actually a mollusk but I think you get what I mean! LOL!! I did create a little cake template to assist with my stamping, and used Distress Oxide inks to stamp all the fishes. I used Walnut Stain, Spiced Marmalade, Salty Ocean, Candied Apple, Wild Honey, Abandoned Coral, Peacock Feathers and a Wild Honey castle on top. I taped my template to the front of a plain white card base and stamped rows through the template. Once the stamping was done I realized things were a little stark so I took the negative part of my template and attached that to the cake and used my life changing cheapo brushes to add a nice halo of the Wild Honey around the ‘cake’. Then the cake looked too white, so I replaced the cake template and did a light blend of Peacock Feathers on the cake itself. That adds a bit of dimension and shading to the otherwise flat cake, but I thought I still needed some extra definition so I outlined the cake with a blue Pigma Micron pen. There we go! No mistaking this for anything but a cake!

I stamped the sentiment with the Blue Water ink from the kit and clear embossed that as well. I was looking for a little more sparkle on the cake so I used some translucent Candy Floss Glitter peel-offs on the base of each layer – a nice subtle touch of sparkle! A bunch of ‘confetti’ droplets completes the party theme, and we have a unique birthday card for any fish lover..!  I really like the castle ‘candles’ as the cake topper, and this is basically a One Layer Wonder card – Lots of Fun!

I think my favorite stamp from this set is the ‘school of fish’ stamp and I played around with that stamp a lot to see what kind of patterns could be achieved with those fishes!

Since I had already snipped the last fish away from the ‘school of fish’ stamp, I went ahead and  snipped the second trailing fish away from the pack as well. Without those pesky stragglers, I was able to get this great pattern! Almost a double helix or a rough take on the infinity symbol. LOL! I LOVE IT!

I did blend this background using the Sea Glass and Blue Water inks from the kit, and used my stencil with the Sea Salt ink for the ripples. The fish are stamped with the Blue Water ink, and I added touches of the bubbles stamp on the edges with Soft Granite. I did add little highlights to the bubbles with a white gel pen, trimmed the panel down to 2.25″ and glued it down to a dark blue card base.

I embossed the sentiment in white and added more droplets for some shine. I really like how they read on this dark card stock! I edged the water panel with a couple of Love From Lizi White Peel Offs, and rounded the right corners with my chomper. I think this groovy pattern of fish and this terrific sentiment work really well together!

I shared this pic with my Instagram followers showing my attempt to add some detail to our stamps. I stamped all of these multiple times in a combo of Sea Salt and Unicorn White on black card stock. I let that dry thoroughly and it’s a perfect foundation to color!

Colored pencils worked great on top of the ink and I am totally thrilled with the results! I did use an 02 Micron pen for the black details, and I think the lionfish is kind of amazing! So I die-cut that lionfish for my next card using the last sentiment from the stamp set.

I die-cut one of my alcohol ink backgrounds with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Die (I know… I know..!) and stamped the plants and all the silhouettes looking towards the center with StazOn Jet Black ink. I did find it difficult to get a smooth stamp on the alcohol ink even using StazOn, but I figured that was fine since they’re only silhouettes and we are underwater! I embossed the sentiment in white and added my colored, die-cut lionfish above the sentiment with some foam squares. A little sparkle pen on the lionfish and more droplets add the finishing touches – to the outside! Of course I have more to say here too!!!  LOL! A GREAT pun is all set to be had – I couldn’t stop myself! “you’re a reel catch!” seems almost too perfect! LOL! I love the fact that I’ve got one of the ugliest fish imaginable as the ‘chosen one’… LOL!! Makes me giggle!

That covers all six sentiments from the stamp set. I was pleased to be able to add some fun puns and other commentary to some these stamps! These last four are all mine! LOL!

I happened to stumble across some “silver carp” while doing some research for this kit and knew this card was a necessity! LOL! On a plain blue card base, I lightly stenciled some Sea Salt ink for a touch of texture and silver embossed the ‘school of fish’ stamp four times. I did use my homemade Wreath Builder Template to help position the carp in exactly the right place. I printed and cut four copies of the “Carp Diem” sentiment with my Silhouette Portrait, glued all four layers together and then down to the card base. The teal ribbon from this kit wouldn’t cut it, but the Blue Ribbon from the MMH July 2018 kit matches perfectly. Of course I can’t stop myself, and have more for the inside of this card! “Seas the Day!” really drives it home, huh?  LOLOL! I don’t know… maybe I have some kind of a pun disease… do I need a punectomy?? I think this card is terrific fun! Fairly simple, yet highly effective!

When I colored all the fish silhouette stamps I did have plans for the two turtles…

I trimmed my stenciled alcohol ink background to a 2″ X 4.25″ strip for this card. I turned to my Silhouette Software to create and print this pun-y sentiment on a plain white card base. I was die-cutting some thin scallop strips from black card stock with my SSS Frames die to line the water panel, when I realized that the negative of  that scallop would work much better! I glued the background and ‘negative’ scallop trim to the card front, added the die-cut turtles with some foam squares, and a few more droplets for the finishing touch. If your say “you’re turtle-y awesome” in a heavy valley girl accent it’s way funny! Maybe there IS something wrong with me!  LOL!!!

Beyond the school of fishes stamp, I think I am in major love with that jellyfish stamp!

This is an alcohol ink background where I set my control issues aside, threw caution to the wind and just played… adding more and more layers of ink till I was happy – I do think this is one of my favorite alcohol ink backgrounds I have ever done. I LOVE IT! I trimmed the background to size with a LFSRD, added a spritz of my Sheer Shimmer Mist for a little sparkle, and glued it to a black card base.

I embossed the jellyfish stamp with some Pastel Purple Party and Powder Pink Party embossing powder on some black card stock and used the included die to cut it out, and some thin foam tape to attach it to the card base. Love that glitter in those embossing powders – perfect for a jellyfish! LOVE this jellyfish stamp!

I printed and cut this sentiment using my Silhouette Portrait, cut four copies and glued them all together for a nice chunky chipboard-like sentiment, and glued that to the card front. The ellipsis indicates more to come, and of course I have to finish this off with “I would totally pee on you!” on the inside. That’s a totally unique friendship / love card if I do say so myself!! LOL! I MUST HAVE A PROBLEM! LOLOLOL!! Oh, my goodness!

I must note a big DISCLAIMER here to stem the tide of folks telling me that this is wrong. Despite what Monica and Joey did in that infamous FRIENDS episode, you ARE NOT supposed to pee on a jellyfish sting. Although urine contains urea which DOES neutralize the sting, it is in such low concentration that it really doesn’t help. BUT, I still think this card is pretty hilarious, and I hope it makes you giggle too!

Now you may be asking yourself, “What happened to the rest of the colored fish stamps that Scott showed us in the middle of this post? He’s only used the lionfish and turtles!” That brings us to my last card with this kit.

On a black card base, I brushed across the front with some Salty Ocean and Unicorn White inks for some watery texture and stamped a bunch of the fish and coral using ‘second generation’ Salty Ocean ink. That is, I stamped off once before taking the stamp to the card base. I wanted the crowded feel in the background, but didn’t want competition with the colored fish. I actually stamped the rock formation stamp in the bottom right corner but it got overrun with the anemones!

I stamped the anemone stamp 9 times with Distress Oxide inks (Abandoned Coral, Candied Apple, Spiced Marmalade and Wild Honey) on black card stock, die cut them all and bundled them together in the bottom right corner. Some are glued directly to the card front and others are attached with foam tape. I trimmed their edges back to card size and added the rest of the colored fish with more foam squares. The angelfish, sting ray and crab all went beyond the edges of the card so they got trimmed down as well.

I did stamp, color and die-cut two more clownfish. Those are so easy to color – stamp the stamp in white, color the orange stripes and outline them with black – Nemo! – I attached them in a little group to the card front with small foam squares. I printed this sentiment using my Silhouette software and mounted it to the card front with more foam tape. “keep your friends close” And the final pièce de résistance comes at you on the inside of the card: “anemones closer!” OH BABY! Now THAT makes me laugh out loud! Now the three clownfish looking at all the rest of the fish makes perfect sense! I think this is a terrific pun, and so very appropriate! Another unique friendship card! I think I may have broken the all-time pun record with these cards! I guess I do need some professional help! LOL!

I had so much fun coming up with all these aquatic cards this month! I won’t ever let silhouette stamps intimidate me again! I hope I was able to share some unique approaches to this kit with you and illustrated that you needn’t feel boxed in to your aquarium die (pun!) when playing with this kit!

So, we have a lot of friendship / love cards, a birthday card, a thank you card, some encouragement cards… a really nice variety of useful and fun cards with this kit. I grew to really like this stamp set – love that jellyfish – and the aquarium die is so intricate and unique. Heck, I even love those blue and green droplets! I got in some great practice with my alcohol inks and markers with this kit, and we ended up with a very handsome set of cards! Anyone know of a Marine Biologist who’s birthday is coming up! LOL!

This kit is still available at Hero Arts in case I’ve sparked your interest or your courage! Please use my link when you go shopping at Hero Arts: http://bit.ly/2sBmuMCHeroArts

Thank you so much for joining me here and sharing your time with me! I hope I was able to provide some inspiration for you as well as some grins and giggles! Please let me know if you have any questions, which card(s) you like best, and remember to Like Me, List Me, Pin, Me Post Me, Share me with all of your friends, (I promise I’ll seek professional help) and, as always, Happy Crafting!!

 

 

DISCLAIMER:  This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Hello folks! Scott here with the unboxing of my new Love From Lizi April 2019 Card Kit! Lizi is calling this the Bon Voyage Card Kit and we are treated to a smorgasbord of travel related stamps, cut-aparts, stickers, pattern papers and embellishments.

If you’ve been looking for products of a more masculine nature for your card-making, then this is the kit for you!  If you’d like to follow along with the video post click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExjozzGQhSw

As is standard, we get five sheets of letter-sized card stock – 8.5″ x 11″ in (from right to left) Peach, Ivory, Soft Grey, Aqua, and Lizi’s super smooth alcohol-friendly White. Our specialty card stock this month is also full 8.5″ x 11″ sheets of brushed satin Gold and Silver. That’s some BIG specialty card stock this month!

We get three sheets of double-sided 12″ x 12″ cut-apart sheets this month. Tons of pics, patterns and sentiments.

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The first sheet sports nine 4″ x 4″ cut apart panels featuring seven travel-themed sentiments and a couple of plain travel images and the reverse is this two toned text of travel related dictionary entries.

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Our second cut-apart sheet features twelve 3″ x 4″ panels with only a few sentiments and some great patterns and pictures – a mixture of real photos and retro art images – I like these a lot! The back of this sheet has a great pattern of colorful travel tickets. Tickest?  Tickets?  Show me your tickets please!

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On our last cut-apart sheet we get 36 2″ x 2″ panels with lots of sentiments, lots of images and an interesting mix of photos and artwork. The reverse side of this sheet has a nice colorful pattern of polka dots on a darker green background. So many options!!

When cut-apart sheets are in a LFL kit, it usually means we get a sticker sheet too!

A big 12″ x 12″ sticker sheet! These are very thick, sturdy stickers featuring some over-sized banners perfect for scrap-booking, a couple of patterned words, tickets, stamps, balloons and, again, mixing up some photos with some great retro artwork. And look at those 12 sentiment strips on the bottom! A GREAT set of stickers!

And that brings us to our pattern papers – we get 12 double-sided 6″ x 8″ pattern papers!

I love this larger format! This side of the pattern papers feature images and patterns and some large sentiments and even a couple more cut-apart sheets. The stripes on the top left have repeating sentiments on each stripe, we have some hot air balloon patterns, airplane patterns, stamps, maps and some actual photo images as well.

The reverse sides of the pattern papers lean more towards subtle backgrounds not necessarily travel related with stripes and polka dots in matching and contrasting colors along with a few patterns repeated from our cut-apart sheets…  Looks like there’s one pattern that is just a little bit pink… (third from left on the bottom) but it’s more of a salmon pink than a girly pink..!  LOL!! So many more options with larger pattern papers!

That’s a LOT of card stocks included in this kit! Before we get to the embellishments we do have our stamp set and our peel-offs!  Can’t forget those!

Clear Iridescent Mint peel-offs… need I say more..??  LOL! Though tinted a light minty green, these peel-offs let whatever is behind them shine through and highlight the glitter accents. Lovely! And our Bon Voyage Stamp Set features a large antique-looking map stamp with three ‘islands’ surrounded by seas and charted with routes and demarcation lines. There’s a tiny ship between the small islands and we get an assortment of landmark stamps of mountains, mountain ranges, trees, a church, a couple of compass roses and 4 sentiments. I can’t wait to stamp that map!!

Finally, we get to dig into our embellishments bag!

We start with our full size bottle of Crystal Nuvo Drops in Bottle Green and, continuing counter-clockwise, we get seven strands of bakers twine, each a meter long, with four thick twines in Gold/Ivory, Silver/White, Tan/White and a glossy Grey/White, and three thin twines in Brown/White, Orange/White, and Dark Blue/Light Blue/White. Phew! That’s a hefty ball of twine! We get nine wood-veneer die-cuts this month with an arrow, geo-tag, globe, stamp frame, camera, compass, airplane, suitcase and a hot air balloon. Look at the detail on that balloon basket! We also get more metal accents this month with the addition of these two metal keys in a kind of bronze color.

I don’t believe we’ve ever received brads in a LFL kit before, but this month we get 30 brads in six colors: Pale Blue, Peach, Pale Grey, Mint Green, Stone Grey, and Tan – that’s five brads in each color, complimented with 6 mini-clothespins. (I’m  getting an awful lot of those clothespins building up in my stash…!) As befits a Bon Voyage Card Kit, we get some tags this month – Two large white tags with brown twine, and a large and small Kraft tags with a thin white twine. As always we get a sample size pack of the Bon Voyage Sequin Mix that features assorted sizes of sequins in Graphite, Copper, Brown, Peach and Ivory.

Last, but by no means least, we get some truly special dies this month! A large (card-sized) car, airplane, cloud, scooter and a sailboat die that all feature interesting curly-cue cut outs in specific portions of the die – can’t wait to see what these look like cut out!

I did get some add-on products this month including 9 new embossing powders…!

I did little sample squares of these new embossing powders for you – lots more sparkle and glitz with these! I’m especially fond of the two Copper colors, the Lemon Zest Party powder, The Oh, Holla Graphic powder and the Atlantis Green which is a combo of green and gold – very ‘underwater’ feeling!! I also got this new storage box from Lizi that not only holds 17 embossing powder pots, but is also sized to hold peel-offs! Oh, my heavens! Even though I did order 20 peel-off sheets during the free shipping sale last month (who could resist??!), I don’t think my stash of peel-offs would come close to filling this box!! I guess I’ll be filling it up with all my groovy new colors of embossing powders!

That covers the plethora of supplies included in the Love From Lizi April 2019 “Bon Voyage” Card Kit. As of posting, there are still a few kits available at lovefromlizi.com and if you are a subscriber, you have through the 25th of this month to add extras to your kit for no additional shipping charges. If you do go shopping with Lizi, please use my link: http://bit.ly/LFLlink !!

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me today, please share this post with anyone who may be interested, and if you or your crafting buds have a difficult time creating cards for the men in your life, then this kit just might be able to inspire some great masculine cards from all of us! Stay tuned for my 10C1K video featuring this kit, and HAPPY CRAFTING!

DISCLAIMER:  This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Hello Folks! Scott here with my 10 cards featuring the Love from Lizi March 2019 Card Kit! This is the “Fairy Garden” card kit featuring 8 more sheets of Lizi’s fun European Decoupage with lots of butterflies and plenty of pink! If you’d like to follow along with the video, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JVxPejJ43Q      Let’s play!

Of course, I turned to the decoupage sheets to begin with. I think this is my third set of decoupage from Lizi, and I always think these are fun to assemble and they look terrific!

I didn’t much care for the giant butterfly background on this decoupage sheet, so I created my own background with my LDRS Fancy Squares & Little Things dies – I cut a scrap of white card stock with the largest die, covered the edges of that die cut with VersaMark ink and embossed it with the new LFL Powder Pink Party embossing powder. Lots of sparkle and it matches the decoupage colors perfectly. I cut the smaller square from the pink text pattern paper and glued both of those together.

I grabbed a piece of Darice glitter pearl white card stock from my stash for my card base and used the half die from the LDRS set to die cut the bottom edge of the card front.  I glued the background in place and added layers 3, 4, and 5 from the decoupage sheet using the foam squares included in the kit – that’s plenty of dimension for this card! I ran a piece of 1/4″ scor-tape across the bottom of the card base and embossed that with more Powder Pink Party powder before foam taping the sentiment from the decoupage sheet over the pink stripe. A couple of flower stickers from the kit on the top corners adds a finishing touch and I love being able to see the sentiment on the inside of the card! I did add the matching sticker on the inside as well, so the sentiment wouldn’t feel lonely when the card is opened! LOL! Okay, now, that’s pretty darn pink, but I think it makes for a very attractive card! This is a good example of how versatile those decoupage sheets actually are – you can use all the layers or some of the layers – however you would like!

The ‘Magical Day Butterfly’ decoupage sheet has seven (count em’ 7!!) layers so I thought I could make two extremely similar cards from just one decoupage sheet.

I thought a lot of our pattern papers in this kit were a little too busy, and I didn’t want to distract from the decoupage elements, so I grabbed my homemade sunburst stencil and some Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide ink to create this background on the Cream card base. I did fall victim to the new “Life Changing Blender Brushes” set that seems to be all the rage these days. HOWEVER, I opted for the $15.00 set from Amazon instead of shelling out big bucks for the Picket Fence Studios set. These are really nice blending brushes… especially if you’re going for a very light touch or want your colors to fade away. I haven’t tried the Picket Fence Studios brush set but I can’t imagine them working any better than this inexpensive set! Now here’s a background that really focuses on that great decoupage layering. This first card is layers 1, 3, 5, and 7 from the sheet and this second card is done on a piece of my Staples ivory card stock with layers 2, 4, and 6.

The “Just For You” decoupage sheet has the “extra” butterfly to top off the layering on this second card. I used foam squares between all the layers on both cards but simply folded the final butterfly wings up so I could glue the body right to the top layer. I used the original sentiment on the first card and the extra sentiment from the “With Love” decoupage sheet for this second card – both attached with more foam squares. I added a sprinkling of Sweet Lilac Nuvo Drops on the fronts and a couple butterfly stickers on the insides for my final touches, and VOILA! Two cards with three layers of decoupage on both! I can only image how thick a card would be if it was made with all seven layers included on this sheet! I’m sure that card would require a box for mailing!!  We are still working with a lot of pink here… and I can’t seem to get away from those butterflies, but these are both very handsome (and very pink) cards!

When I start playing with those decoupage sheets it’s hard to put them down! I think the purples on the “Just For You” decoupage sheet would match the new LFL Pastel Purple Party embossing powder so let’s do one more!! I’ll count the last two as just one! LOL!!

I wanted to use the embossing powder for the background, so I die-cut a a 3.5″ circle from a scrap of white card stock, added VersaMark ink around the edges and embossed that with the Pastel Purple powder. I glued that to a thin mat of the Gold Pearlescent specialty paper and attached both to the second Cream card base. I used foam squares to attach layers 2, 3, and the extra sentiment to my embossed background, and again folded layer 4 (the ‘extra’ butterfly) and glued that directly to the top. I ran a piece of our purple “With Love” ribbon through my Zyron Sticker maker and glued it down to the bottom of the card front – “Just For You” is not one of my favorite sentiments, but I thought adding the “With Love” ribbon completed the thought with just the right touch. I added some Gold Moondust peel offs (from the LFL 11/18 kit) above and below the ribbon (matched that specialty paper perfectly!), a couple of sequins from our mix, and some Wisteria Purple Nuvo Drops (from the LFL 9/18 kit) for some last touches and splurged on the inside of the card using the matching sticker on the top. You know I’m not a big fan of pink, much less a fan of butterflies, but I think these four cards are truly lovely – that decoupage dimension is fascinating – and no fussy cutting!! I would be perfectly happy to make 10 decoupage cards, but there’s a lot more to this kit!

The stamp set in this kit has a nice dandelion stamp with five seed ‘parachutes’ that were just begging for me to use them. And lets try some more blending with my new brushes!

On a piece of plain white card stock I blended this background using Distress Oxide inks in Broken China and Faded Jeans. One of the most interesting things about those new brushes is the variety of sizes they come in – that made it pretty easy to create these ‘eddies in the wind’ on the background – I LOVE IT! I used Hero Arts Soft Granite ink to stamp (most of) the dandelion and the seeds as if they were all blowing away in the wind…! I did color the dandelion stem and a couple of the seeds with a grey watercolor marker and you can’t tell from the picture, but I did trace the ‘fluff’ on all the stamps with my Sakura Stardust pen so they do catch the light and glitter nicely – the little dots you see between the sequins (from the kit) are the Stardust pen too. I trimmed my panel down to 4″ x 5.25″ and glued it down to the Dark Grey card base. When I was a kid, blowing the seeds off of a dandelion was an occasion for making a wish, so I grabbed this sentiment from the sticker sheets and glued it to a mat of the silver pearlescent specialty paper. I did darken that mat with an alcohol marker to bring it closer in shade to the card base, and I added that to the card front with some foam squares. Some sequins in graduated sizes for a little more sparkle on the front, and a simple flower sticker on the inside adds just the right finishing touch. I really like this card! Putting it together was actually quite peaceful and calming… especially after all that pink and all those butterflies…!!  LOL!

I was very interested in the fairy die included in our kit. It doesn’t match any stamps or other images but I really loved the cut-out detail on her wings. Let’s play with that!

I turned to the silver specialty card stock to die-cut this fairy, and, realizing that the silver card stock was the same on both sides, die-cut another fairy so I could have a pair of fairies for this card! Of course the nature of a die-cut does produce slightly different results front to back, but it’s not really noticeable unless you look very closely!! I die cut a circle from the soft olive damask pattern paper and used my Silhouette software to print this sentiment using the Avenir font. I matted that with more of the silver specialty card stock and used foam squares to attach that down to a Dark Blue card base. I wanted to fill in the wing openings but didn’t want to do inlays, so I took some of my yellow glassine paper (vellum (colored?) would work too!) and glued that to the back of the fairies’ wings and trimmed away the excess… I really like that touch of transparent color!

I die-cut more of the same pattern paper with a Darice Border die and also cut some plain white card stock to match, glued them together, dry embossed the die and sponged some light touches of Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide ink for a little dimension and definition to these two leafy borders! Those are both glued down to the top and bottom of the Dark Blue card base, and I mounted the two fairies with more foam squares. A sprinkling of sequins on the two leafy borders and a crystal heart  between the fairy wands brings this card to magical life! I did add more of the song lyric on the inside of this card and originally thought of this as a birthday card, but realized it could be used for other occasions as well, so I didn’t add a ‘happy birthday’ on the inside. I did add a ‘fairy dust’ sticker for the final accent on the writing surface and I really like this fairy die. Although there isn’t much detail to the fairy body, the cut-out wings look great – especially with some translucent details!

Now lets turn to the “garden’ part of this kit and see what we get with the flower stamps.

I stamped this Japanese Lantern plant using Acorn Archival Ink on a card base of Lizi’s super smooth alcohol friendly white card stock, and broke out my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to color this stamp. That took a little time… this is a very detailed stamp! If you are interested, I actually grabbed a picture of the markers I used coloring this stamp. Red Brown (RB), Coral (CR) Alpine Green (AG) and Green Grey (GG) I used the light grey to give a touch of shadowing under all the vines and flowers. Though not immediately noticeable, I think it adds a lot of dimension to this colored stamp! And I only used the blender marker to fix a few “outside of the line” mistakes… OOPS! LOL!

I masked out the “thanks” stencil on the card front and ran some DecoFoil transfer gel over the stencil with a palette knife and let that dry before covering it with some Silver Deco Foil and running it through my laminating machine. GORGEOUS! I love using Deco Foil on stencils – especially word stencils – and the “thanks” and “love” stencils in this kit are large enough to command attention on a card front – especially when foiled! I used my Sakura Stardust pen on all the stamped ‘dots’ to add a touch more sparkle and lined the top edge of the card with with a single Mint Moonstone peel off. Lastly, I defined the writing area inside the card with two of those nice vine stickers from the sticker sheets. Now, this is truly a “One Layer Wonder” card although I did cover the alcohol marker bleed-thru on the back of the card front with a piece of scrap white card stock. So sue me!! LOL!

That takes care of one of our ‘plant stamps’. The second ‘plant stamp’ in our set seems especially large to me… that gave me the idea to do a large format card!

I stamped this plant stamp using Archival Emerald Green ink in the two corners of a 9.25″ x 4″ panel of plain white card stock – YUP! That’s the dimensions of this card! It actually fits in a #10 business envelope! I was going to try to color this with my Zigg markers when I realized I hadn’t used Bristol smooth card stock, so I opted for some “palette painting” using my Stabilo markers. I scribbled some marker on my glass media mat, grabbed my Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen to pick up the watercolor, and painted all the leaves with a light sparkly green. It doesn’t register in this picture but this whole card is super sparkly! I colored the buds in the same way with a light blue marker. After coloring the stamps I used a Life Changing Cheap blender brush to add some Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide ink around the edges of the panel and behind the foliage. Very soft and very verdant! I printed “And though she be but little, she is fierce.” on the card panel using my Silhouette software and the Mona Lisa Solid font.

That’s a quote from Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and I do credit that on the inside of this card. This is a great encouragement sentiment and it seems very appropriate with our little fairy stamp..!

I do have to admit that I performed some stamp surgery on this fairy stamp before using her – that’s right! – I gave her a butterfly-ectomy!! It was killing the patient – ME! LOL!! I stamped her using VersaFine Onyx Black ink and colored her the same way I colored the plants… more glittery shine! I again used my Stardust pen to sparkle up all the stamped dots and continued those dots around the fairy – effectively, pulling her and the plants into the same picture. I was adding a few sequins among the plantings when I realized that our fairy seemed a little odd with her hands reaching out for nothing, so I grabbed a Moonshine Confetti sequin from Simon Says Stamp and gave her a little orb to play with – perfect!! I trimmed the front panel down a quarter inch and glued it to my card base (8″ x 9.25″ scored at 4″). For a final spot of green, I outlined the panel with more Mint Moonstone peel offs. I really like this tall card and thought this plant stamp lent itself to a larger format! A2 cards are still my preferred canvas but it’s fun to break out of the box on occasion!!

Putting that little moonshine orb in the fairy’s hands gave me an idea! Additionally, I was recently the happy recipient of another large batch of Chibi Lights sent to me by someone who didn’t think she would use them – A BIG SHOUT OUT GOES TO ANDREA!  WOO-HOO! I am so blessed!! That’s what inspired this next card!

Talk about MAGIC!  LOL!!! I cut a piece of my Staples Ivory card stock with my SSS Frames die and started digging around in my library to see if I had a font that matched the partial sentiments in this set. I do!! So the “SENDING YOU” is stamped, The “love” is Deco foiled again (in Gold), “AND MAGIC” is printed using the Avenir font (15pt.). I laid this all out using my Silhouette software, printed the magic part first, deco foiled the love stencil second, and stamped the sentiment last. Then I could get on with our fairy stamp!

Our fairy is stamped in Onyx Black ink and colored with my colored pencils – I gave her red hair and a red dress since the orb was going to glow red. I poked a tiny hole through the card front above the palm of her hand, then centered the front panel on the card base to mark through the hole for the location of the Chibi light. I wired the light directly on the card base making sure it lined up correctly. (there are TONS of wiring how-tos on YouTube!) Then I die-cut some gold card stock from my stash for the scalloped frame, taped that together with the Ivory panel, stamped the “press here” (MFT Interactive Labels stamps) in the correct location, and then mounted the front panel to the Dark Grey card base with a double layer of foam tape. A few golden sequins from our mix highlights the sentiment and I did go ahead and designate this as a birthday card. I stamped the Happy Birthday from the add-on stamp set on the inside accompanied by the matching fairy sticker. I do believe this will be my niece’s next birthday card!! (though it’s 10 months away) I hope the battery lasts!! LOL! I love this card so very much!!! I think my niece will love it too. She’ll be turning 5!

I know all of you are patiently waiting for me to use the “Thank You, Fairy Much” sentiment from the decoupage sheet but, goodness, that is one terrifically big, pink sentiment! I thought everyone might be interested in something a little different from me… Sometimes I just can’t help myself!!

It’s never too early to start making your Christmas cards!! LOL!! The pun-ier the better!  I think this is a hoot! This is the toadstool-sitting fairy from the “For A Special Friend” decoupage sheet. I thought I could give her something else to sit upon! I used my Silhouette Portrait to cut this ornament from the White and Gold pearlescent specialty card stocks. I glued the cut pieces together and added stripes of the Fairy Dust Party embossing powder to the ornament using my VersaMarker pen.

I used layers 4 and 5 of the fairy decoupage, and slipped a bit of her bottom wing behind the ornament as well for the illusion of more dimension. A bit of silver cord glued to the hanger and the ornament is ready to go! I printed and cut this sentiment using my Silhouette Portrait again, and the Smoothie Shoppe font. I embossed the cut sentiment shadow with more of the Fairy Dust Party Powder. I die-cut another scalloped frame from our white specialty card stock and glued that directly to the Navy Blue card base, mounted the ornament, fairy and sentiment using foam squares, and glued the cord to the top edge of the card. For a touch of bling, I trimmed the ring off the handle of the magic wand and glued that right under the sentiment. With all the sparkle on the fairy and the embossing powder, I didn’t think any extra sequins were needed, but I did add the green fairy sticker on the inside writing surface! Fairy Christmas!! I hope this card tickles you as much as it tickles me!  Makes me giggle every time I say it!

That’s ten cards now, but we’re counting cards 2 and 3 as one card, so that means I have one more to go. I took Lizi’s theme of this kit “Fairy Garden” literally for our final card!

This card thrills me to no end! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a spinning shaker element on a card! This idea began when I was fiddling around with our fairy shaped sequins, and I glued their feet to a die-cut circle that was really close to the diameter of our round mini-shaker embellishment. That gave me the idea to do this spinning wheel card with a never-ending chorus line of fairies. A real “Fairy Follies” if you wish!!  LOL!! The flowers stamp is from the add-on stamp set, and I stamped that twice (right next to each other) with Onyx Black ink on Bristol smooth card stock. I used my new blender brushes to add some soft Cracked Pistachio ink over the stamped images and colored the flowers with my Stabilo Markers. Then I took my craft knife and fussy cut the colored flowers and set them aside.

I thought I was going to get through all of these cards without using my Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies… but NO..!  I used the largest LFSRD to cut an extra card front from one of the Warm Blue card bases. I stenciled some very light clouds on the panel using a MFT cloud stencil and some HA Unicorn White ink. That dried a little lighter than I expected, so I used the Stardust pen to give the clouds a little silver lining..!

My spinning wheel is a 4″ diameter circle that I lined up to the right side and the bottom edge of our card front to mark where the center spin hole belongs. Then it was a simple matter of aligning the space between the 2 stamps with the ‘spin hole’ and trimming the colored flowers down to size. The spinning wheel and the Fairy chorus line attach together through the hole marked on the card front. You need to make sure that both pieces are glued tightly to your brad – scor-tape and an extra paper patch will help with that. Ultimately, when you turn the spinning wheel you want the fairy chorus line to spin right along with it. I used a 1″ punch for the finger notch on the right side of the card, glued the round mini-shaker to the top of the fairy chorus line and mounted the card front to the Warm Blue card base with enough space so the wheel turns freely, and then added the flowers with foam squares to the top – taking care to leave room for the chorus line to spin around. Interestingly enough, the dome on the mini shaker helps to lift the flowers up enough that you don’t have to worry about your fairy sequins running into the fussy cut flowers. An added bonus with that mini-shaker!

I love this sentiment – “Leave room in your Garden for the Fairies to Dance” – you can take it quite literally, or it can speak to you figuratively! I printed the sentiment using the Avenir font in italics and trimmed that down with the LFSRD before adding that at the bottom of the card – remember to leave room for the spinning chorus line…! I finished off the inside writing surface with a couple of the flower sprays from the sticker sheets and my new interactive card is ready for any occasion you deem worthy!!  I think this perfectly embodies the theme of this kit and it’s just plain fun as well! Busby Berkeley eat your heart out!

That’s my 10 cards (+1) for the Love From Lizi March ’19 Card Kit. I did manage to use all of the image stamps in the kit, and three from the add-on stamp set, but I only used a few of the partial sentiment stamps. I used both of the stencils, pieces from 5 different decoupage sheets and quite a number of stickers as well as three of Lizi’s new embossing powders! I did only use 2 of the pattern papers on these cards – I was much more interested in the stamps here, and I have no problems hording all those lovely papers!

I used a little bit of most all of the embellishments with the exception of the buttons – I guess they just didn’t call to me! LOL!! Again, Lizi’s kits are so chock full of supplies that it sometimes feels like I hardly make a dent in these kits even after my 10 cards are finished! That seems like a huge value to me!

As usual, this kit sold out in almost record time! If you want to get in on the fun I heartily recommend becoming a subscriber! If you do go shopping at lovefromlizi.com, or want to become a subscriber, please use my link: http://bit.ly/LFLlink !

I actually had much more fun with this kit that I initially though I would! I do think it’s interesting that after the first 4 decoupage cards, you don’t see any more butterflies and hardly any pink!! LOL!  That’s a very telling little tidbit right there! LOL!! I hope you enjoyed these cards as much as I do. I am so very appreciative of the time you spend with me here! Let me know if you have any questions and which card(s) you like best!  Remember to Like me, List me, Pin me, Post me, share me with all your friends, don’t frolic with fairies, and HAPPY CRAFTING!!

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Hello Folks!  Scott here with my 10 cards featuring the My Monthly Hero February 2019 Kit! More Art Deco from Hero Arts this month inspired by the swinging jazz of the 1920’s. If you’d like to follow along with the video click here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OE7mLUCV9c

This kit comes with our standard 6″ x 8″ Clear Stamp Set featuring 32 different stamps of period images, and people dancing and quite a number of sentiments, along with 7 coordinating frame cuts and a 4.25″ x 5.5″ fancy die in a stunning art deco pattern. We are also treated to a 4.5″ x 5.75″ Stencil in another very retro art deco design. To round out this kit we get a package of Art Deco Mirror Confetti in gold and black, and 2 sheets of 8.5″ x 5.5″ reflective card stock in gold and silver. Perfect to use with that fancy die!

My last 10C1K post was an art deco inspired kit that featured peacocks, and I used that collection of cards to do some exploration of water color markers. So I decided to challenge myself to only using my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to color the cards I create from this kit, and, of course, I always challenge myself to use all the stamps in the stamp set as well!

I know most folks will play with that fancy die to start with, but I was very intrigued by the man and woman stamps that don’t have complete heads… I kind of expected there to be some hats in this stamp kit to “finish off” the top of their heads… but no hats here… hmmmmmm… what were they thinking when they designed these stamps? thinking…

I contemplated putting one of the sentiments from the kit in their ‘minds’, but realized that this dancing couple stamp was a close enough match to these folks that they could both be ‘thinking’ about dancing with the other!

I stamped the deco corner stamp in the four corners of my card panel using Delicata Golden Glitz ink, and stamped all the people with VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I did a second-generation stamp for the dancing couple so they would appear more ephemeral. I colored everyone using my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and tried to keep the dancing couple’s color lighter and more ‘dream-like’. I did sketch the ‘thought bubble’ by hand using an extra fine point metallic gold Sharpie – a good match to the Delicata gold ink – and finished off the card front with some of the gold mirror confetti in all three sizes. No more room on the front of this card, so, I turned to the inside of the card for the sentiment – “You’re the Cat’s Meow” is stamped in Onyx Black ink and the two flourishes are stamped in the Delicata gold again –  coordinates very nicely with the card front! Both the front panel and the inside writing surface are glued down to a black card base, and though I wasn’t planning on it, I ended up using 8 different stamps on this one card! That’s a good start to fulfilling my obsession with using all of the stamps on my 10 cards! LOL!!

OK… even I can’t wait anymore and am dying to start playing with that fancy die, but instead of going right to the reflective card stock included in the kit I reached for some glitter card stock from my stash – you know how much I like my red…!!

I did a little research on colors associated with the roaring 20’s and red was certainly used quite a bit, so that inspired this card using red and black glitter paper! I die cut the red glitter paper and layered that on top of two more plain black die-cuts before adding it on top of the black glitter card front. That makes the red die-cut pattern really pop off the front of this card! Great texture as well! I did cut that center window from a scrap of my standard grey card stock and stamped and embossed the double-sentiment with some clear embossing powder before gluing that place to the card front. I stamped and embossed the gent on a scrap of white card stock, used the frame die to cut him out, and mounted him to the card front with some foam squares. A few pieces of the black mirror confetti for a little extra bling, and I once again add a sentiment on the inside of the card. “It’s Your Birthday! is printed on more of my grey card stock using my Silhouette software and the Phosphate font, die cut with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die, and glued to the inside. “Kick Up Your Heels Daddy-O It’s Your Birthday” makes this a useful birthday card and uses that ‘Daddy-O’ stamp! And by the way, I have to admit… I LOVE that die!!

Let’s die cut that gold reflective card stock from the kit, and pair that with more black!

The ‘window’ in this die cut isn’t really very large… you can stamp an image in the window or you can stamp a sentiment in the window, but it’s a little tight to get both – my Daddy-O card was the only combo I found that actually fit an image and a sentiment in the window together. That’s what prompted this card from me and inspired me to cut through the black card front to make this a true ‘window’ card! I did cut the “You’re The” stamp in half so I could stack the words, and stamped that and the lady using Onyx Black ink. I colored her using my alcohol markers and added a lot of the mirror confetti tracing the shape of the window so you still get that art deco feeling when you open the card to see this sentiment completed with “Bee’s Knees”! I like cutting that window through the card front – I think it opens up the possibilities of what you can do with this terrific die.

Let’s do that window through the card front again… but let’s reverse the black and red!

I glued a dark red card front to a white card base and die-cut the fancy die from my black glitter card stock and cut the window through the red and white layers to expose the inside of the card. I really liked this ‘Jukebox’ stamp but I thought it was a little diminutive compared to the people stamps, so I decided to feature it on this card all by itself! I stamped the jukebox and all the extra music notes in Onyx Black ink on the inside of the card and embossed the extra music notes with clear embossing powder.

Before I colored the jukebox, I decided to add a little dimension to it, so I stamped that on another scrap of white card stock, colored it with my alcohol markers, fussy cut it out (without the included music notes) and topped that off with some of the Hero Arts Clear Lacquer pen for some added shine and dimension. A little Sakura Stardust gel pen for the ‘grill’ on the jukebox and you can almost see the records turning! LOL! I had to take extra care coloring these smaller stamps with  my alcohol markers but I LOVE how this came out! I didn’t find any sentiments in this stamp set that really spoke to me in combo with this image, so I turned to my Silhouette software again to create my own sentiment revealed when you open the card. “They’re Playing our Song” is printed using another great art deco font called Andes, and I think this card would be a perfect anniversary card, or even a simple friendship greeting! I really like having the ‘artwork’ from the front of the card on the inside as well on these last two cards . That fancy die is certainly capable of carrying it’s own weight as a card front while still giving us a peek at what’s inside. Surprise!

There was one more technique I wanted to try with this fancy die before moving on, and this card is the result of some experiments using that die to do some dry embossing.

After a few attempts with different weights of card stock, I came up with this embossed background using 80# Nina Classic Crest Solar White card stock. I misted both sides lightly with water, and embossed the back side of the die on the damp card stock. I trimmed the card stock down very close to the edge of the embossing, and glued it to a black bard base. I stamped the sentiment and flourishes using VersaMark ink and embossed those with Ranger gold embossing powder. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the super thin lines in the middle of the letters to register when using embossing powder, but the effect still works well! This sentiment felt a little incomplete to me, so, I added “I’m Savin’ My Love For You” (which happens to be the next lyric in the song) on the inside writing surface. (that’s the Phosphate font again) Now that gives some real purpose to this card as a valentine or as any kind of an “I Love You” card! Clean and simple is always elegant!

I think four cards using that die is quite enough… let’s get back to those dancing peeps!

My big challenge on this card was stamping the deco frame under the sentiment. This is much shorter than the actual stamp is, and I was only able to accomplish this using  a stamp platform and taking care to get that stamp as perfectly straight as possible… phew! I managed to get that stamped correctly and embossed that, along with the sentiment, with some clear embossing powder. I stamped a pattern of the martini glasses using Simon Says Stamp Barely Beige ink and colored the olives with very light alcohol markers (I love the light pop of color those olives add to this otherwise monochromatic card!). I did add some Spectrum Noir sparkle pen to the liquid in the glasses, though you can’t really see that on this picture. I stamped, embossed and die cut the two dancers and added them to the card front using foam squares, and added a row of the black mirror confetti to the bottom of the card. I glued the front panel to a piece of the silver reflective card stock included in the kit, added a thin white mat around that and mounted everything to another black card base.

Somehow, I got things way off center when assembling this card and I ended up slicing things up a bit to correct my mistakes… If you look closely, you can see an extra seam on the left side of the card front. I did add some Black Glitter peel offs to try to camouflage that seam and that helped a little, but you can still see the fix. It’s really not noticeable at first glance…  and I must remember… perfect is something Hallmark strives for! LOL!

Time to start working with that stencil – I believe this is the first stencil I’ve received with a MMH kit since I became a subscriber. Another great art deco pattern!

This stencil is 4.5″ x 5.75″ so it is actually larger than a card front. I taped the stencil down to a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock, masked off the center cross with some painter’s tape and used my finger daubers and Distress Oxide ink in Wild Honey and Abandoned Coral to add color to the four corners. Then I moved the center masking to the four corners and ink blended the center cross with Peacock Feathers and Seedless Preserves Oxide ink. LOVE IT! I die cut the stenciled card front with the largest LFSRD (which just happens to be the exact size of an A2 card) and glued it down to a white card base. I couldn’t bear to cover up much of this fun ink blending so I die cut this Lawn Fawn Scripty Congrats die from the gold reflective card stock in the kit. I though that sentiment needed some more gold accompaniment so I grabbed my Love From Lizi Gold Mirror peel offs to outline the edges and add some gold around the center of the card front. Some tiny foam tape pieces give the sentiment some dimension and it fits perfectly in the center without compromising any of our stenciling! I love the big color on this card and those gold accents go perfectly with the yellows! Wowza!

One of my favorite things to do with a full size stencil is to use it as a stamp – particularly, to use it as a stamp to do some combo heat/dry embossing.

I use my powder tool to wipe down and ‘anti-static’ some white card stock, covered the stencil with VersaMark ink and ran that through my Cuttlebug layered in an embossing sandwich. Added Ranger Gold embossing powder and heat set the background pattern before I die cut the card front with a LFSRD and glued it down to a warm grey card base. I stamped the sentiment and the cosmopolitan lady with Onyx Black ink, lightly embossed the sentiment with some clear embossing powder and colored the Miss with alcohol markers. I die cut the stamped piece with a Spellbinders Deckled Rectangle die and added more gold embossing on the edges of that. I found some gold pyramid brads in my stash that I added to the corners of the stamped piece and I mounted that to the card front with foam squares. Here again we have a sentiment that feels a little incomplete to me, so I added this fun “the Power of Pretty” on the inside writing surface. I used my Silhouette Software to lay out the inner sentiment and used Courier and Phosphate fonts. I guess that might make this card a little “look-ist”, but I though it was a cute way to complete the “Dollface” sentiment and a terrific encouragement card for any young lady on your list! This stencil works great for embossing – either dry or heat embossing! Or both!

Since this kit is all about the ‘sophisticated glamour’ of the 20’s, I thought heat embossing through the stencil would be another way to add some metallic shine to a card.

I taped the stencil to a piece of (anti-static’d) black card stock and used VersaMark ink right through the stencil and embossed that with Ranger Silver embossing powder. I trimmed that embossed piece down to be my card front and glued it down to a plain white card base. I stamped the automobile stamp in VersaFine Onyx Black ink and colored it with my alcohol markers before die-cutting it out. I embossed the sentiment on a strip of black card stock, added that to a strip of matching alcohol colored card stock and then to another strip of white card stock before gluing that all down to the card front and adding a few black mirror confetti pieces. The auto is mounted with foam squares above the sentiment – I love the pop of the green turquoise with the red upholstery on the silver and black card front.

I did think that the automobile was the one image in this stamp set that really illustrated the time period and compliments the sentiment thoroughly. Of course I made this a birthday card with the addition of a die cut sentiment on the inside of the card cut from some shimmer silver card stock from my stash. Of course you would be 97 years old now if you were born in 1922 but I think this would be a fun card to give anyone who was into this time period or was throwing a themed birthday party!

I only have 2 stamps left from this stamp set, and I’ve been saving them for this card!

I thought this diamond shaped accent stamp went really well with this old gramophone image! I stamped the diamond in a pattern and colored the verticals rows with Green Turquoise, Aqua Blue and Vintage Blue alcohol markers – I have certainly enjoyed using my Spectrum Noir markers on this kit – it’s always good to keep me practicing, and I’m very pleased with the results. Maybe now I won’t be so hesitant to use my markers on smaller images like this phonograph…! I cut out the image with a Darice Nesting Squares die (in a diamond format, of course!) and matted that on some black glitter card stock, die cut the background with a LFSRD and added a black glitter mat to that as well.

This stamp set had seven sentiments included, so I only have three cards sporting my own sentiments this month, and I really like this playful, slightly snarky birthday card. I created this sentiment using the Courier font and sized it to fit my smallest Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die. I matted that on more black glitter card stock, glued the matted background to another warm grey card base, and added the phonograph and sentiment with thick foam squares. Love the browns and greens together on this card, and I did add a Happy Birthday (Phosphate font) to the writing surface on the inside. I really enjoy this sentiment inferring that you’re old but still cool! That applies to lots of people! At least lots of people I know! Yup… we’re all getting older every year! There’s no denying it!! LOLOL!

There we have my 10 cards created using the My Monthly Hero February ’19 Kit. I had quite a good time with this kit and I am proud to say that I did manage to use every single stamp in this stamp set! WOO-HOO! I hope I was able to share some unique ideas with you, and a little inspiration and maybe a smile or two!

This is a nice variety of cards all together (though it would be easy to just use that fancy die for everything) and we’ve got some great colors on these cards as well! I think I managed to live up to the “sophisticated glamour and swinging jazz of the era” that Hero Arts uses to describe this month’s kit.

This kit is still available at Hero Arts (believe it or not!) and if you’d like to get one for yourself (I think that die and stencil alone are worth the cost!) please use my link: http://bit.l2-18y/2WUoUUzMMH.

There are also other terrific deco items included with the Hero Arts February release. You can shop for those as well using this link: http://bit.ly/2tcO9niHA2-18release.

And this is my general Hero Arts link: http://bit.ly/2sBmuMCHeroArts

Thank you dearly for sharing your time with me here! I always appreciate any questions or comments you my have!  Please remember to Like Me, List Me, Pin Me, Post Me, share me with all your friends… don’t run with die cuts… and HAPPY CRAFTING!

 

 

 

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Hello Folks!  Scott here with my unboxing of the Love From Lizi March 2019 Card Kit! If you’d like to follow along with the video post click here: https://youtu.be/c_DtTnzm0OE

Lizi is referring to this as the “Fairy Garden” card kit and, as usual, this is chock-a-block full of all sorts of fun, fanciful, colorful and unique items all curated into another lovely card kit.

We do begin this kit with the standard five sheets of 8.5″ x 11″ card stock in Dark Gray, Navy Blue, a sheet of White super-smooth alcohol-marker card, Cream and a really nice Warm Blue. These are complimented with four sheets of 8.5″ x 5.5″ Specialty Pearlescent Card Stock in Dark Green (with golden pearl), White, Silver, and Gold. Always love Lizi’s Specialty Card Stocks!

From our 12 sheets of 6″ x 6″ pattern papers, you can see the “Fairy Garden” theme emerge… lots of butterflies, foliage, and Fairies! These are all single-sided pattern papers with some glitter accents on two of them (#9+#11), and a pearlescent  finish on another two (#10+#12). Back to pink this month!!  LOL!

And it’s decoupage time again! I love it when Lizi treats us to these! Here you can see we get 8 different sheets of die-cut decoupage designs. These are all glittered up and ready for layering on a card. All of these sheets sport sentiments and some have so many layers that it would be easy to make a couple of cards from a single sheet! LOVE THESE!

There’s a NEW peel off color this month! Mint Moonstone peel offs! Great color and shine with out being completely reflective. AND we get four sheets of stickers! Lots of glitter on these stickers, and they all coordinate perfectly with the pattern papers and decoupage sheets! You may know that I’m not a huge fan of butterflies, but I think those butterfly wreaths are very interesting!

That brings us to the largest stamp set I have ever received in a LFL kit – a 6″ x 8″ stamp set with large foliage stamps and sentiments that coordinate with the Love and Thanks stencil! Looks like that top stamp is those interesting Japanese Lantern plants, and the bottom stamp is a leafy climbing vine. Those are complimented with a dandelion stamp and little dandelion seeds in assorted sizes. Looks like another great opportunity to practice our coloring skills!

That’s all of the goodies in our large zip-lock bag – on to the embellishment bag!!

From the top… left to right… right to left… we get two sheets of foam squares – Lizi most always includes foam squares with her decoupage sheets. Nuvo Sweet Lilac Crystal glossy drops, Five meter length ribbons on a nice cardboard spool – all around 3/8″ wide with glitter or printed accents. Three silver metal ‘wands’ that have an embossed stripe pattern on one side and a smooth mirror finish on the other. Eight buttons in two sizes printed with images that match our pattern papers, and a sample size batch of the Fairy Garden sequin mix – brushed gold, mint green and soft lilac… yum!

Bottom row… left to right… Three mini shaker stickers! Two jar shapes and a circular shape with decorated backgrounds, already filled with silver stars and ready to mount. Very cool! We DO get another stamp in our embellishment bag this month – a nicely sized fairy with a butterfly stamp – just more opportunity to color! Our die this month is this fairy die with detailed cut-outs in her wings, and a batch of holographic shaped and embossed fairy sequins – there’s about three times as many in our packs as I show here.

I did get some add-ons this month as well – sometimes you just can’t resist!

Here we have another large stamp set (4″ x 8″) featuring two more garden clusters – the top cluster appears to be rather daisy-like flowers and the bottom stamp seems to be poppies! It appears I’m going to be coloring a lot this month! This stamp set also features more sentiment options in another font style… Looks like we could reconstruct Luxembourg Gardens with all these foliage stamps this month!

Lizi is introducing new embossing powders this month – some of which were inspired by customers and subscribers requests. Lots of sparkle and holographic dots in some of these powders, along with some new colors! I got all eight pots of the new LFL Embossing Powders.

I went ahead and swatched out all these new colors to give you a better idea of what they look like. The Sparkling Snow is like a clear embossing powder with lots of silver glitter, the Tutu Pink is too, too pink (LOL) with some additional sparkles, the Forest Green and Meadow Green are standard glossy embossing colors in beautiful, very useful colors, and then we get to the “Party” line of embossing powders! The Fairy Dust, Baby Blue, Pastel Purple, and Powder Pink Party powders have lots of shine, lots of glitter and holographic mylar dot sprinkled throughout. I haven’t had a lot of luck with glitter embossing powders, but these four Party powders melted very easily and are really something delightful to behold! Perfectly unique and very well suited to this Fairy Garden Kit.

As of posting, this kit is still available at lovefrom lizi.com. Remember, subscribers can add items to their kit boxes for no additional shipping charges through February 25th (midnight BST – 7:00pm EST). If you do go shopping at Lizi’s please use my link:  http://bit.ly/LFLlink

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me here today! I hope you’ll join me for my 10 Card 1 Kit video featuring this kit. I appreciate all of your continued comments encouragement and support! Please share this post with others you think would be interested, and HAPPY CRAFTING!

Hello Folks!  Scott here with my ten cards featuring the Love From Lizi February 2019 Card Kit. This is an Art Deco themed kit featuring peacocks, peacock feathers and all the lovely blues and greens associated with them. If you’d like to see my 10C1K video now, just click this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94ngoBC18fg

This kit sold out extremely quickly this month and I can see why…! From the intricately detailed stamps and dies to the lovely pattern papers, cut-aparts, stickers and unique embellishments, this month promises some unique design possibilities for everyone!

I did cut and fold all the included card stock into A2 card bases, and, as is often the case, I began playing with this kit by stamping that gorgeous peacock stamp with VersaFine Onyx Black ink on some Bristol smooth card stock. I was reaching for my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers when I realized I should try out some new watercolor mediums I received for my birthday (in December) and Christmas.

My sister-in-law got me this Kingart set of 48 dual tip brush pens for Christmas this year. These are just like Tombow Art Markers – a felted brush tip on one end and a fine tip on the other. I used these to color this first peacock. These markers did provide some movement on the Bristol smooth card stock but not quite as much movement as I have become accustomed to with the Zig markers. The inks are vibrant and there is a nice variety of colors and shades, and the markers certainly seem nice and juicy! The fine tip is not quite as fine as I would like but, overall, I was very impressed with these markers! Pretty as a peacock!

For my birthday, I was thrilled to get this Stabilo set of 40 fineliner pens from my oldest and dearest of friends. I used to have a small set of these markers but I passed them along to my mom when she started getting into adult coloring books. These pens are water-based but only have a 1mm felt tip – very sturdy nibs and fairly fine. Just as I remembered, these Stabilo pens are super vibrant and colored up my second peacock very nicely. I was VERY impressed with how well they moved on the Bristol card stock  and there’s a great variety of colors! I think I think I got little too much color at the top center of the tail feathers where those 10 feathers get very thin… even the 1mm nib on these markers had a hard time giving me a truly fine line… Quite lovely!

Now I can reach for my Zig brush markers! I have only ever had the 32 set of these markers so I have the fewest color choices with these markers but I have the most experience using them!

Of course, these markers move very easily on Bristol smooth card stock, and while I may not have quite the same color selection as the other two sets, you can easily combine colors to get most any color you want! This peacock is a little lighter overall than the other two, but the colors are every bit as vibrant and the shading a little more subtle… this isn’t the best picture of this peacock, but you’ll see how nicely this works on a card. BTW… I did outline the ‘eye’ of the tail feathers on all three of these peacocks with a dark blue glaze pen to add some color and shine to what amounts to be a simple black portion of the stamp. Now to figure out how to use these on my cards! I guess I am going to have to fussy cut these… ! Yikes!

After working so much with this peacock stamp (I’m in NO hurry to start fussy cutting!) I began to wonder how this super detailed stamp would work with some heat embossing.

Here we go! Nice and simple – very straightforward – and quite stunning! If you take some care, and get a good impression without smashing your stamp into the paper, you can capture a lot of detail with most any ‘ultra fine’ embossing powder.  I did try the Love From Lizi Emerald City and Golden Crown embossing powders but I thought my plain gold powder had a bit more ‘presence’ on this black card base. The peacock, the corner embellishment and the sentiment were stamped directly on the black card with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Gold embossing powder. A simple strip of Lizi’s Gold Mirror peel off (from the May 2018 LFL kit) down the left side completes our easy introduction to this kit. With those stamped corners, this almost looks Oriental! Nice and shiny and very art deco!!

There is one cut-apart that really caught my eye – you can probably guess which one!

Love this sentiment! I don’t think I have ever heard this proverb before! Since the ‘framing’ on this piece was in teal, I chose to add some of the Teal Mirror peel offs to the outside frame and added little extra touches among the corner flourishes. I also added some Glossy Accents to the ‘LAUGHING’ text for some added dimension and shine. Instead of using pattern paper with this, I decided to use the embossing folder to dry emboss the front of one of the Cream card bases. I did (very lightly) sponge some Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide ink over the embossing to highlight the pattern a little bit and, since embossing will warp most any card stock. I glued an additional panel of white card stock behind the embossed cover. I ran a couple more peel offs down the edges of the embossing and added the cut apart panel to the card front with foam tape. This card needed a little more something-something, so I reached for the small Champagne Gold gems and used them at the tip of each embossed ‘leaf’ spray. That’s the trick! The gems really highlight the embossed pattern and add some terrific bling!

I did consider how I could use this card, so I turned to my Silhouette Software to add a “Wishing you a Joyous Birthday” sentiment on the inside writing surface. This is using the Perpetua Titling MT Light font which I thought came very close to matching the smaller block text on the cut apart. That works! Now we have a very sharp Birthday card for anyone who enjoys laughing – or anyone who enjoys making others laugh! LOL!!

I did think one of the ladies on the 3″x 4″ panel cut apart sheet seemed very proud of herself and perfect to pair up with the ATTAGIRL! stamp.

I fussy cut that lady panel following along the lines of the printed deco frame for a little extra interest, and foam taped that to a 3″x 4″piece of the Mint Green specialty paper from the kit. On the Navy card base, I glued down a 4″x 4″ piece of the dark graphic pattern paper and glued the matted piece directly to the pattern paper. Now, how about the dies in this kit…! I had the perfect space to add a couple of the straight flourish die-cuts.

I did take some StickIt double-sided adhesive and applied some to a piece of the Mint glimmer card stock in preparation for die-cutting these intricate dies. I also used a piece of wax paper between the die and the card stock to help remove the piece when it’s cut (didn’t help much..!) but with some care and patience these incredibly skinny die cuts came free of the die very nicely. Thank heavens for that StickIt on the backs!

I embossed the frame and “ATTAGIRL!” sentiment stamp using Simon Says Stamp Steel Navy Embossing Powder (I don’t have any LFL Warm Navy) on a double piece of vellum – two vellum pieces glued together using the Xyron Sticker Maker. I fussy cut the vellum frame and was able to add two foam strips right behind the busy vertical bars on the left and right sides, and, since the doubled vellum is stiff enough to hold it’s own, I was able to add some extra depth with the framed sentiment foam taped to the card front. I think this lady and this sentiment were meant for each other!!

I actually have the same font used for the sentiments in this stamp set in my own font files so I did create a “Congratulation” sentiment on the inside writing surface to finish out the ‘AttaGirl’ on the front. I used my Silhouette Software and the Andes font for all my extra printings this month. I was so thrilled when I recognized this font! That doesn’t happen very often but I LOVE it when it does!

I was SO pleased to have an “ATTABOY” sentiment in our stamp set so now, at last, we get some equal time!! LOL! There aren’t any images of particularly proud men anywhere in this card kit so I decided to just go with the art deco theme! Those LFL Gold Mirror peel-offs were still on my desk too, so I just couldn’t resist!

Inspired by the corner stamps in the kit, I grabbed the Black Glimmer specialty card stock and taped it down to my TH media mat. I skipped the outer frame to begin with (1/4″ left and right and 1/8″ top and bottom and laid down three rectangles of peel offs in thin, medium, and thin again every 1/4″ with the peel offs running off the edges of the card. It was fairly easy to miter the corners on the two thin rectangles. To make the corner squares on the medium peel off rectangle that’s between the thin frames, I added shorter pieces of medium peel offs to make the outside edges of the corner squares and mitered the three corners on those squares as well.

I stamped and embossed (VersaMark ink and Ranger Gold embossing powder) the corner stamp four times matching up their edges to make this open stamped frame in the middle of the peel off frames. “ATTABOY” fit in that stamped frame perfectly! After everything was embossed and cooled, I added the thick peel off frame around the outside and attached the black glimmer card front to a white card base. A couple of the kit gems to camouflage the fact that the outside strip of the matched stamps didn’t quite meet up,  and we’ve got a truly masculine Art Deco congrats card! Nothing on the inside of this one… I was just basking in the joyful reality of an actual GUY sentiment! I LOVE THIS!

That’s three of the five sentiments in this stamp set – let’s go back to the ladies and the “GIRLS NIGHT OUT!” stamp for the next card.

It’s sticker time! I fussy cut these ladies from the long strip of “Femme Fatals” on the sticker sheet and removed their stickiness so I could add some foam tape on their back. I arranged four of the small sentiment stickers on the right and left sides of the center line of the black card base and used more gold peel offs on their top and bottom edges. (I know, I know, I just can’t help myself!!) I die cut two of the corner dies from the gold textured specialty card stock and trimmed a piece of the yellow damask pattern paper to 3″ wide by 2 and 5/8″ tall. I stamped and embossed the sentiment using VersaMark ink and that same SSS Steel Navy powder. Then I glued the little squares on the inside corner of the die cuts to the corners of the pattern paper before spray-gluing everything directly to the card base. I foam taped the ladies coming off the edges of the pattern paper, added three crystals to the top right and bottom left, and added a small swag of the pearl spray underneath the sentiment. Feels like a little pearl necklace! Hmmmm… SWANKY!!

This sentiment sounds like an invitation to me, and I was kind of itching for at least a little pun somewhere in this kit, so I turned to my Silhouette Software to create the inside of this card. On a piece of Staples ivory card stock from my stash, die cut with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Die, I paired up these wine glasses from my image stash with the fun “WHINE NOT JOIN US?” sentiment using the Andes font and the Perpetua font for the party details. There’s a bit of a pun for us this month! I’m finding (mixed company) puns a little hard to come by this month! You know I seem to be a little obsessed with actually finding a purpose for my cards, and this makes a pretty classy invitation that’s not too complicated to make more than a few!

I have yet to tackle the feather stamp from this kit and if anything, it seems even more detailed than the peacock stamp. If such a thing is even possible!! While I was doing some peacock research prior to receiving my kit, I came across an Aesop Fable – The Jay and the Peacock and that inspired this card!

Now, I’ve been using my homemade wreath builder template fairly frequently lately, and I thought I could use the template and the feather stamp to create more of an oval shape on the front of this card. The feather stamp is large enough to cover the short ends of a card with just a couple of impressions. I designed this sentiment using my Silhouette software and the Andes and Perpetua fonts and printed that right in the center of a white card base. I turned to my wreath builder template and stamped the feathers using Stampin’Up Emerald Envy ink.

I laid my card base in portrait orientation in the template and positioned and stamped the feather in the top left corner. I turned the card counterclockwise 90 degrees to stamp the second feather. Then I turned the card another 90 degrees CCW with the opposite side at the top of the template for the third stamp and 90 degrees more for the fourth impression. That turned the feather stamp into a lovely oval shaped frame for this fun sentiment! A few of the Nuvo Glitter drops from the kit on the top and bottom and some Wedgewood Blue Nuvo Crystal drops (from the LFL Nov.’18 kit) added to the ‘eye’ of the feathers. That’s all the sparkle this card needs! I can’t think of a more interesting way to convey the message that “you’re perfect just the way you are”! This is a very nice ‘one-layer wonder’ card that features that lovingly detailed feather stamp!

Working with that feather stamp made me think of the special birthday present that LFL subscribers received in our Sept.’18 LFL Super Card Kit – the LFL peacock feather die! I haven’t had a chance to use that die yet, so I thought this kit was the perfect opportunity to try it out. AND I have that add-on Atta Girl A4 satin card pack – perfect!

I die-cut the peacock feather twice from each of the 5 sheets of blue and green satin card stock, and filled in the ‘eye hearts’ with the brushed gold vinyl included with the kit. I was determined to tame that Black Deco Mesh ribbon we received, so I die cut the gold mirror specialty card stock piece with a LFSRD and, using a good amount of scor-tape on the back and the edges, wrapped the deco mesh around the gold die cut. Great texture and some really nice shine from that mesh as well! I glued the gold panel to the damask pattern paper die-cut with another LFSRD, and mounted both directly to the Aqua card base before outlining that with more gold peel-offs. (so arrest me already!!  LOL!)

I arranged the ten die cuts in a fan (hopefully reminiscent of a peacock’s tail) and attached to the card front with a combination of foam tape and Multi Medium Matte glue. A little double bow using the Royal Blue ribbon from the kit adds a touch of dimension to the base of our fan and all that’s left is a sentiment for the inside. Again, using my Silhouette software and the Andes font, I printed this sentiment on a scrap of white card stock die cut with a LFSRD and mounted to the inside of our card. This is actually printed a very dark blue color with a bit of a drop shadow! I think this sentiment goes perfectly with the shiny colored feathers on the front of the card and all these encouragements go right along with the AttaGirl! theme of this card kit.

Ok… I have made you wait long enough… now let’s use those colored peacocks! I did take the time to fussy cut all three peacocks leaving a small white border around two of them.

On the Aqua card base I attached two strips of the blue squares pattern paper that I fussy cut along the edges of the squares, and outlined the inner saw-tooth edges with the medium Teal peel offs. I cut a strip of the peacock feather stripes pattern paper and in order to mute it just a little so it didn’t compete with the peacock, covered it with a piece of vellum – again using my Xyron sticker maker to glue the vellum to the pattern paper. I stamped the sentiment in Onyx Black ink (matches the stamped peacock) and added some clear embossing powder to it for a little shine. I glued that strip down to the center of the card front and added more peel offs to the sides. This is the peacock colored with my new kingart dual tip markers and fussy cut using my x-acto craft knife.  I mounted that to the card front using 1/16″ thick foam squares and, never one to leave well enough alone, I did add a little extra sentiment on the writing surface inside the card. “Just Because … I Love You” turns this into a very-non-traditional yet quite beautiful valentine!

I did cut the Zig clean color real brush peacock out without a white border simply so I could use one of the feathers included in our embellishment bag!

First, I printed this sentiment directly on the Cream card base using my Silhouette software and the Andes font. I used another strip of the peacock feather pattern paper down the left side and edged that with more of the Teal peel offs. I cut some of the pearl sprays into single pearl sprigs and glued those to the tips of all the tail feathers. I then trimmed off a tip of one of the black feathers and glued that behind the peacocks tail and added a tiny tuft of feather to the crest on his head. Foam tape attached the peacock to the card front, and we have a bona fide pun with this card!! HOORAY!!!   LOL!  I love this card and how much texture the feather and pearls bring to the table! And here you thought that peacock couldn’t get any fancier! This one is definitely the flamboyant one!

I still have a few items in the kit that I haven’t used yet, but I have an idea…!!

I die cut that intricate frame die from the brushed gold vinyl sheet quite early in my process and took great care to lay that right in the center of the pearlescent white specialty card stock. The dies cut that vinyl very nicely and if you lick your fingers (keep them just a little bit wet) it will help you handle the vinyl without it constantly trying to stick itself to you. That piece floated around on my desk for quite a while as I considered what exactly I should put inside that frame. I kept thinking it needed a sentiment in the center until I cut out this peacock (colored with the Stabilo pens) and held it in front of that deco frame. EUREKA!!

I only have a Navy card base left and I wanted to see that color on the card front but wanted something a little more striking than just a thin trim or an outline. That white glimmer specialty card stock is 4.25″ x 5.5″ – exactly the size of our card. That gave me the idea to do a kind of ‘reverse frame’ to highlight that great Navy card base! I taped two of my LFSRDies together and centered them on the white glimmer card stock and sent that through my die cutting machine. I simply glued the ‘leftover’ outer frame and the inner rectangle to the card base and TADA! That Navy card stock features quite prominently on our card front. I did reach for my thicker 1/8″ foam squares to attach the peacock to the card front with a little extra dimension, and I am totally in love with this gorgeous card!

I’m generally not one to leave a card without a sentiment so I turned to my computer one last time to do the “Be Proud” sentiment on the inside writing surface. Another lovely encouragement card to wrap us up this month! I think these last three cards really demonstrate that coloring and cutting that peacock stamp was worth every moment devoted to them!

So that’s my ten cards featuring the Love From Lizi February ’19 Card Kit. For some reason, this kit really inspired my anal retentive, ultra detailed, nerdy perfectionism that took up a little more time at my craft desk than usual, but, in the end, produced some truly stunning results and some downright gorgeous cards!

Naturally, I have gobs and gobs of extras left over from my kit, I only used 5 of the 12 pattern papers, I didn’t use any of the sequins, glitter or the wood veneer feathers, but I did manage to use all of the stamps and all of the dies – and that brushed gold vinyl as well! I used a little bit of everything else but not a lot of any one thing – unless you’re counting that peacock stamp!  LOL!!! Lizi continues to spark my imagination with her kits and the unique themes and embellishments she includes that practically beg you to think outside the box! As mentioned at the beginning, this kit sold out super quickly but there are still some add-ons available at Lizi’s shop. If you do go shopping at Love From Lizi or want to get in on the fun and subscribe, please use my link: http://bit.ly/LFLlink.

I am truly blessed and so grateful that you choose to spend your time with me here – I am constantly amazed at the generosity of spirit and heartfelt encouragement that all of you share with me! Let me know which card(s) you liked the best, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask, and remember to Like Me, List Me, Pin Me, Post Me, share me with all your friends, don’t run with peacocks, and HAPPY CRAFTING!!

Hello Folks! Scott here with my unboxing of the February 2019 Love From Lizi Card Kit! I must beg your pardon for my absence – I took some time off and did a lot of traveling over the holidays so I skipped the LFL January kit. I had a wonderful time with so many friends and family, but it’s good to be back at the craft desk again!

This is a very Art Deco card kit featuring peacocks and teals and greens and some great deco patterns… I don’t think I see a hint of pink anywhere! LOL! However… this kit has already sold out – one of Lizi’s fastest sellers I believe…! If you’d like to check out the video of this unboxing on YouTube, just click here: https://youtu.be/WNVHO93z9cw

We get started with five sheets of letter size (8.5″ x 11″) card stock in Navy, Black, alcohol-marker-friendly White, Cream and Aqua. I often save Lizi’s white card stock for coloring, and substitute a plain card stock from my stash.

We get five sheets of specialty card stock in our kit this month! A full letter size sheet of Mint Green Pearlescent, and 4.24″ x 5.5″ pieces of Black Pearlescent, Gold mirror, White Pearlescent, and a Gold embossed – a nice, graphic linen texture. Very nice.

We get 12 sheets of 6×6 pattern papers this month. A few peacock feather patterns, some retro catalogue images and some damask patterns as well as some standard stripes and polka dots in this great color palette. I’m glad Lizi likes peacocks!

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We are treated this month to Three 12″x12″ double-sided cut-apart sheets! This first sheet has 3″x4″ panels on one side with a number of sentiments and some great retro graphics, and the reverse features a large peacock feather pattern in an off-white tone-on-tone.

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Our second sheet features 2″ tiles with lots of phrases, some retro images, and a few plain tiles as well. The reverse revisits the peacock feather pattern in color this time – that would be great for a scrapbook background..!

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Our third cut-apart is a conglomeration of all sorts of “retro” phrases on the front and that terrific very masculine striped pattern on the back side. I’ve going to have to look some of these phrases up! LOL!

We also get a 12″ x 12″ sheet of stickers!! Such a big variety here – from the long strip of ladies in the middle to frames and icons and small phrases. A great selection here!

This picture doesn’t show them off to their best advantage, but our peel offs this month are Teal Mirror. Really lovely! Lizi also included this 6×6 inch piece of matte gold vinyl in our kit this month. I imagine that it should cut with dies and that you don’t have to have an electronic cutting machine to use this… we’ll have to experiment a little with this!!

Which brings us to our stamps, dies and an embossing folder!! This embossing folder is a full card sized classic deco pattern. Looks like the lobby wall paper at the Tropicana!! We get a set of three Art Deco dies that are intricate and versatile and this terrific stamp set featuring one complete beautiful peacock and a single peacock feather. Can’t wait to color these stamps!! (and cut those dies and emboss that folder..!!)

And now we have our embellishment bag! We get 4, meter length 1/8″ ribbons in Royal Blue, Black, Pale Blue and Teal as well as a 1′ length of Black Deco Mesh. Ive seen that mesh used on bows and wreaths and larger dimensional crafts… it will be interesting to figure out how to use that on a card! Our Nuvo drop this month are Sunlit Meadow Glitter Drops. We get a Pistachio Green Maribou feather and two Black Maribou feathers, and three pearl sprays – I believe each spray has three strands – very cool dimension with these! We also get a strip of small Gold Champagne gems, two wood veneer feather die cuts, a small pack of Gold Champagne glitter (seems ultra-fine!) and our sample pack of the “Attagirl sequin mix” with gold, navy, teal and oyster white sequins in assorted sizes.

I did get a couple of the add-on paper packs this month – The Atta Girl Satin Card Pack with 6 A4 sheets in satin shine with a nice blue, a teal, three greens in light medium and dark tones and a gold. This picture does not do them justice! Perfect colors for this kit!

I also got the Atta Girl Pearlescent Cardstock Bundle. Eight letter size sheets in a peach, green, gold, antique gold, bronze, grey, dark blue (LOVE THAT ONE!!!) and another mint green. I love the glimmer on these heavy card stock sheets. I think I’m lookin’ for some shine this month!

I’m looking forward to digging in and exploring some art deco designs and lovely colors with this kit! I believe shipping begins this weekend so if subscribers want add-ons or extra items please use my link when shopping at Live From Lizi: http://bit.ly/LFLlink

Thanks for sharing your time with me here and keep an eye out for my 10 Card 1 Kit video featuring the Love From Lizi February 2019 Card Kit.

 

 

Hello Folks!  Scott here with my 10 cards from the January 2019 My Monthly Hero Kit.  Happy New Years to all! Please excuse my recent absence – I had a very busy holiday season with lots of traveling and lots of family and friends, so I actually skipped the MMH December Kit just to preserve a little bit of my own sanity! I had a blast seeing everybody, and the time off was truly rewarding! Now… back to the craft desk!! Here’s a link to my video on YouTube if you want to watch now: MMH1-19video

This month, we have a flower shop theme featuring a windowed store front and all the accouterments! As usual, we get a 6″ x 8″ clear stamp set (with a stylish bicycle as well),  21 coordinating frame cuts (including the store front and window), and a fancy Easel Die with an inner board die. We also get 10 vellum envelopes and 20 envelope seals in two patterns, a tube of Pink Glimmer lacquer, and 10 sheets of 5.5″ x 8.5″ card stock in red and pink. We don’t often get card stock in our MMH kits… looks like we’re going to be making some valentines this month! Now, you know I’m not a big fan of pink, but at least valentine cards are the perfect place to indulge in a little bit of blush! This kit reminds me of the MMH August coffee kit that had that fancy cafe die. However, the storefront in this kit has a die AND a stamp!

As I often do with a new stamp set, I did start by stamping all of the images with some VersaFine Onyx Black ink on Bristol Smooth card stock and colored them all with my Zig watercolor markers. Hero Arts always gives us high quality stamps and this set is no different. I really love that bicycle, and the store front is supremely versatile!

Next I turned to all the dies in the kit and die-cut all of my colored stamps. Most of these dies were extremely easy to line up, but I did make a die-cut template for the bicycle and the watering can… there is something so satisfying about getting a nice even border around your images when they are die-cut. Especially with intricate dies like the bicycle. If you look closely, you can see that I also stamped, colored, and fussy cut another shop awning for a little added dimension during assembly. Let’s see how all these pieces come together on a card!

I was really itching to put together this storefront, and was a little surprised at how large it actually is! Perfect focal point!  As I did with the cafe fancy die in August, I found a ‘plant shop interior’ picture on-line, and sized it to scale with the shop before printing it out on plain paper. I glued a piece of acetate behind the window cut out, and added the second awning by gluing the top edge directly to the die cut and then adding foam squares to the bottom scallops. That gives us some great dimension on that awning as well a a place to ‘attach’ the hanging plants.

I die cut a piece of white card stock with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die, and using the MFT Mini Cloud Edges Stencil, ink blended some clouds on the background using Broken China Distress Oxide ink and my blender brushes. I reached for my coffee stirrers once again and glued a bunch of them together to make a bit of a ‘boardwalk’ as a base for my shop. I glued the stitched rectangle with clouds to a pink card base and added the coffee stirrer ‘boardwalk’ at the bottom.

I did cover the printed picture of the interior shop with a piece of vellum that had Zyron sticker adhesive on its back in order to tone down the picture a little and make it appear more ‘in the distance’. I glued that pic down flat to the background and mounted the shop on top using foam tape strips (the bottom of the shop is glued directly to the ‘boardwalk’).

I experimented with some shop names (see “Power Plant” in the picture of the die-cuts) and finally decided to go with “Plant one on me!” which I printed and cut using my Silhouette Portrait and the Bradly Hand font. I cut that shape three times and stacked the layers together for a touch of dimension before gluing them on top of the acetate window. That’s a nice valentine pun that actually could be a shop name! I did also stamp “happy valentine’s day” from the stamp set on the inside writing surface to round out the sentiment on the front!

Finally, I added (most) all the plants and containers on the front of the shop using foam squares and multi medium matte. Looks like a pretty busy establishment here…! This kind of reminds me of little shops on the shore in New England — places like the Cape and Block Island. That is a really great storefront stamp and die – totally versatile for creating any shop you like! I’m sure that stamp and die will get a lot of use over the years! Love it!

Now, I’m not sure what morbid sense of humor possessed me, but I noticed the little ‘bird in a cage’ stamp (and die) when I realized that I hadn’t used the heart balloons yet…

This card makes me giggle…! I used Broken China and Wilted Violet Distress Oxide inks to sponge through a Simon Says Stamp Falling Hearts Stencil on a piece of plain white card stock. After stenciling, I die cut that with an old LDRS Fancy Rectangles and Layers die. On a red card base, I traced around the metal die with an Emboss It pen and embossed that with white embossing powder. That makes a perfect mat without having to have another die..! I stamped the “be mine” sentiment and the music notes on the background with Onyx Black ink and then mounted the white panel to the card base using some fun foam cut to size. I  glued the birdcage to the balloons, and attached them to the front of the card with foam squares. A little HA Crystal Clear Lacquer on one of the balloon hearts for shine, and we have a “deceptively simple” yet “fraught with complexity” Valentine card! Makes me giggle!!

The easel die included this month is 5 and 3/8″ tall so, of course, it’s just begging to be made into a shaped card. I’m sure everyone is thinking the same thing!

I wanted this to look as much like a chalkboard sign as possible so I die cut the easel from a piece of the red card stock from the kit and did a partial die-cut on some 100# black card stock from my stash. I thought I’d get a little more stability to this shaped card if I didn’t cut out the curly-q’s on the top of the back panel. I simply fussy cut the top outline on the back piece, scored a folding line and glued the front and back together at the hinge. I die cut the front “board” from the same black card stock and cut the same “board” from some plain white card stock for the inside writing surface.

I couldn’t decide which kind of a day I would be wishing for someone, so I decided to use ALL the adjectives in the stamp set and decide later! I stamped everything using HA Unicorn White Pigment ink, colored the tulips and the crate with colored pencils, and drew on the check-boxes with a white colored pencil. A little white chalk for distressing around the edges and this feels very much like a sandwich-board you would find on a sidewalk outside a cafe or bar! The check-boxes makes this sign feel very active and hand-drawn – I’ll probably check ALL of them when I use this card!! GREAT die for a uniquely shaped sign card any time of the year!

I started thinking that all the small flower stamps included in this kit would work to do another wreath card, but then I realized that I should do a heart wreath instead!

I did practice this pattern to begin with! I traced a heart die from my stash on a piece of plain paper and, starting at the bottom point, alternated between the roses stamp, then the small daisy stamp on both sides, the roses on both sides, then the small ‘ivy’ stamp twice, two more roses again followed by two more small daisies, then two more roses and ended with the ‘ivy’ stamp at the center indent. So that’s 7 roses, 4 daisies, and 3 ‘ivy’ stamps. Perfect!

I reached for a pink card base and decided to stamp this wreath directly on the card base. I used my MISTI stamp platform and simply lined up the stamps with my paper practice piece and then stamped on the card front. I did make slight adjustments here and there but got a pretty good replication of my original trial-run. I did go in with my 01 Pigma Micron pen and added some matching shapes to fill in areas that I thought were a little thin. Very pleased with this arrangement! Fills up the card nicely!

I was afraid that trying to color all the flowers on this wreath would drive me to drink, so I decided to only color the leaves on the roses and ‘ivy’ and add some white gel pen to the dots on the daisy stamp. Just enough color to add a little interest while still preserving  the ‘retro’ feel of the image. I added some dots of the Pink Glimmer lacquer along with a few pink crystals and one sequin for a little sparkle and dimension.  I did add another valentine sentiment on the inside writing surface of this card and I am over-the-moon thrilled with this shaped wreath!  I am going to have to try stamping this again on white card stock and actually try coloring ALL of the flower images… There’s a challenge for ya!

I do still have my bicycle cut-out from my original stamping and coloring – let’s use that!

I stamped (Onyx Black ink) and colored (Zig watercolor markers) the balloons stamp five times and fussy cut them all out to make my overflowing stacks of hearts for this Valentine. I used Broken China Distress Oxide ink and my blending brushes to create the background on some white card stock die cut with a LFSRD. I matted that on a piece of red card stock from my stash and glued those down to a pink card base.

I stamped, colored and fussy cut another wooden crate to go on the back of the bicycle, and filled that and the basket with the colored hearts. Using my Lawn Fawn Grassy Border die, I cut two colors of green card stock and sized those to fit the background with the LFSRD. The lighter green is glued flat to the background and the darker green is mounted with some foam tape.

I stamped the 3 hearts on the background using the 2 heart stamps from the kit with Onyx Black ink and HA Red Reactive ink, and added this sentiment from the HA Many Everyday Messages stamp set.  I wanted some kind of active verb to go along with the notion of a bicycle – deliver, bring, distribute, transport, etc…. and when I found this “sending love” sentiment, I though it was just right.  The bicycle and hearts are mounted to the card front with foam squares, and, with the addition of some Spectrum Noir Clear sparkle pen on top of the hearts, we have a fairly simple yet very attractive card! The red and green really pop without looking anything like Christmas!! LOL!

For some reason, I thought sending some bouquets soaring would make a nice Valentine.

I stamped and colored three of the rose bouquets and three of the balloon stamps in pinks, reds and purples and die cut them all before gluing them together, I grabbed some lilac card stock from my stash, distressed the edges with some Wilted Violet Distress Oxide ink, stamped the “i love you” sentiment from the stamp set using Deep Purple Archival Ink and embossed that with some clear embossing powder. I matted that to the other half of the red card stock from the easel card (cut with a LFSRD) added another mat of my lilac card stock and glued those three pieces to a red card base.

The balloons and bouquets are mounted with some foam squares, and for a little shine, I added the HA clear lacquer to the whole balloons in front. I think it’s a very nice touch that this bouquet stamp actually has 12 roses in it. That great attention to detail is something I’ve come to expect from Hero Arts! I did add a “happy valentine’s day” stamp on the inside writing surface, and I really love the whole purple and red palette on this card! Now I don’t believe 3 dozen roses are in my budget, but this is a lovely substitute!

I promised myself I would do a straightforward valentine with the “happy valentine’s day” sentiment on the front of a card, and that storefront stamp is a good excuse to practice my red Spectrum Noir alcohol marker blending. Practice makes perfect!

I stamped the shop using VersaFine Onyx Black ink on some smooth alcohol marker card stock, and used my Bright Pink, Dark Red, and Coral markers to color the shop. It’s no coincidence that Living Coral is the Pantone Color of the Year!! I really like the awning (there’s that coral color right there) and the shadow under the awning seems right on the money too. I channeled my inner Sandy Allnock and colored the sky, clouds, grass and gravel with my alcohol markers as well, and cut that piece down with a LFSRD. I fussy cut the window opening and stamped the sentiment directly on the card front and did some light ink blending around the sentiment with Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide ink.

I mounted the shop to the card front with some foam tape and turned to the bicycle and balloons once again. I fussy cut a single balloon from the double balloon stamp and used white gel pens to camouflage the stray black outlines from the white borders of the single balloon. I die cut the green bike (using my die template again) and added the “ivy” plant in the basket, glued the balloon string to the back of the bike and mounted all with foam squares. Some more clear lacquer on the balloon for some shine, and this valentine is ready for a cyclist who really likes pink!! LOL!!! I am certainly no expert with alcohol markers, so I appreciate this large shop stamp that affords me a chance to practice!

I have now used every sentiment stamp in this kit – let’s break out some more PUNS!!

LOL! LOVE THIS!! About as much as I love YOU!!! This is my Single Layer Card for this month. Just stamping and masking on Bristol Smooth card stock and Zig marker coloring. I added the ‘frozen pond’ stamp from the MMH October kit to provide the puddle underneath the plants which really drives this sentiment home…! LOL! I printed this sentiment directly on the card stock using my Silhouette Software (it’s free!) and the Typewriter Hand and Brady Bunch fonts. I die cut the card front with a LFSRD, matted that on a thin black mat and glued those down to a red card base. I did take the time to add the “happy valentine’s day” stamp in a landscape arrangement on the inside of this card. I love this pun so much! That watering can stamp provided the perfect opportunity! This card never fails to makes me laugh out loud!

I was also interested in trying that easel die on a card front to see how that would work, and it provided me with another opportunity for a darn near close-to-perfect pun!

I die cut the easel with the inner board die out of some wood veneer sheets from my stash, and attached black card stock behind the easel frame. I was thrilled with how much dimension that conveyed! To continue the ‘real wood’ theme, I stamped the crates on more wood veneer sheets as well. I did fussy cut the wooden crates, attached them to some scrap white card stock and fussy cut them again with a thin white border to match the die cut flowers. I did do a tiny bit of shading on the easel with my alcohol markers, but left the crates as is.

The sentiment is die cut from thick white card stock with a die-versions “Gatsby” font die. I think this is the first time I’ve actually used this die – fits perfectly on this easel!  I distressed the edges of my last pink card base with some Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide ink and glued the completed sign directly to the card base. I used foam squares to ‘stack’ the crates at the base of the easel, stamped, colored and die-cut another batch of the flowers to fill up the crates, and added some white chalk blending around the edges of the sign for a little bit of distressing. Love this pun!! Definitely a theme appropriate pun!

For my last card this month I couldn’t resist this terrific, musical, pertinent pun!

Finally, I used the die-cut watering can! On Bristol Smooth card stock, I stamped these plants using Onyx Black ink and used the plant mask I made for card #8 to make the center plant taller. I colored those with my Zig markers and turned to my Silhouette Software for this sentiment. Again, I used Typewriter Hand and Brady Bunch fonts for this oh-so-perfect valentine sentiment!

I began to reach for my LFSRDies when I remembered that I had gotten the Simon Says Stamp Frames dies during the holiday sales… the large scalloped frame is just the right size! I die cut the card front and a piece of purple card stock from my stash, and mounted those together on the last red card base. That scalloped frame goes well with the purple flowers!

I reached for my DMC light silver metallic thread to make the ‘water’ streaming out of the can – I coated the thread with multi medium matte, to help hold it’s shape, and glued the ends to the spout and, after mounting the watering can to the card front with some foam squares, I glued the other ends of the threads to the plants.

I did add another “happy valentine’s day” stamp on the inside writing surface, and that wraps up this fun valentine! I love the dimension that the thread gives us here, and I think it provides just the right touch of sparkle on this card! And, of course, I LOVE the little  double-entendre in this perfectly relevant pun!

I originally though it might be difficult to create a bunch of valentines featuring flowers and a storefront, but I embraced the challenge and ended up with 8 valentines and only 2 ‘encouragement’ cards. I did use all of the card stock included in the kit and you can bet that all these cards will go in the vellum envelopes for distribution!

I really strive to make all of my cards little works of art that tell a story or suggest a situation – I think this is a handsome set of cards that aren’t too frilly and feminine but still convey heartfelt sentiments and lots of love…! Happy Valentine’s Day, indeed!!

This kit has sold out (very quickly) but I am thrilled to announce that Hero Arts invited me to become an affiliate over the holidays! Of course I said yes, so now, when you go shopping at Hero Arts, please use my affiliate link: bit.ly/2sBmuMCHeroArts

I cannot thank you enough for making it all the way through this post – the time you share with me here is truly a blessing! Please let me know if you enjoyed my take on this kit and which card(s) you like best! Feel free to share this post with everyone you know, and remember to Like Me, List Me, Pin Me, Post me – don’t run with scissors – and, as always, Happy Crafting!!!

Hello Folks!  Scott here with my 10 cards featuring the Love From Lizi December 2018 Card Kit. We have blown past the holidays and into an early dream of spring with this kit featuring butterflies and flowers in a soft palette. This kit HAS SOLD OUT at lovefromlizi.  If you want to guarantee you don’t miss out on any of the fun, become a subscriber and enjoy some terrific perks! If you go shopping at LFL please use my link: http://bit.ly/LFLlink ! As usual, I did cut all the card stock included in the kit down to A4 card bases, (4.25″ x 5.5″) substituting my own 110# white card stock for the smooth white alcohol-marker-friendly card stock included in the kit.

For some reason, as I sat down to work with this kit, my eyes went to the two puffy bird stickers on the top of the sticker sheet. Looks like a (brightly colored) male and a (drab colored) female – and that “thinking of you” sticker is right there too! I thought this would be a smooth and easy introduction to this kit.

On the Smoky Grey card base, I added a 2.25″ strip of that interestingly striped pattern paper, and glued two strips of the ivory lace ribbon to the top and bottom. I used my Multi Media Matte to glue the trim down – paying extra attention to the ends to prevent fraying at the edges of the card. Then it was a simple matter of powdering the back of the puffy stickers and mounting them to the card front with foam tape. They are kind of ‘perched’ on the stripes of the pattern paper, and appear to be looking at each other! I added one of the purple heart buttons and some Nuvo Drops on the right for a little shine and a touch more dimension. Needless to say, that lace trim adds a ton of texture to this card and everything matches up quite nicely. Easy enough!

I still feel like I’m just starting to get familiar with this kit and remember seeing Lizi stamp and emboss directly on one of her doilies with her 10 cards, so I wanted to see what that would happen if I used the Wilted Violet Distress Oxide ink to stamp a doily.

I thought that color went with well with the heart buttons and I really like how the stamping highlights the texture of the doily. I glued two doilies together for a little added stiffness, and foam taped them to a 3.5″ circle die cut from one of the pink pattern papers, and them foam taped that assembly to the front of the Vanilla Ivory card base. The “Have a beautiful day” sentiment inspired me here,  so I used the small bunting banners and a variety of the heart buttons to create the suggestion of a sunburst. That added some texture and a lot of shine to the front of this card! For a final touch, I added some Nuvo Drops on the doily itself to bring everything together. More purple than pink, I think the vanilla card base mellows everything out, and these sentiments are lovely!  

Now, most everybody knows I’m not a big fan of pink… and Lizi likes to tease me about it as much as possible. Since this kit had a fair amount of pink, I thought I should pay tribute to that fact, throw caution to the wind, and do an all out “YES, this is PINK” card!

I was a little bit enamored with this spot gloss pattern paper but thought that I could tone down the pink just a little bit. So I trimmed the dark pink panels off and used only the light pink panels for this card. I also reached for the pattern paper that has the identical chevron trim in more of a brownish / burgundy color and trimmed a few strips away to use in place of the pink chevron strips. I think this worked very nicely! It looks like a normal piece of pattern paper and it still boasts its pink-ness without screaming about it out loud! I matted that assembled pattern paper to a piece of the plain pink pattern paper and then to a thin mat of the brownish / burgundy pattern paper to match the chevron trim. I colored a piece of the white lace trim with a PL1 Spectrum Noir alcohol marker to match the sentiment sticker, and glued that to the top and bottom edges of the card front before attaching it all down to a white card base. Again, I powdered the puffy stickers to remove the adhesive and attached them to the card front with foam tape. Finally, I used three of the paper flowers from our embellishment pack for a small arrangement on the top right of the sentiment, and here we have a VERY pink card that I actually enjoy a lot! I think finding the PL1 alcohol marker that matched the sentiment was the shining moment that actually brought this whole card together! And isn’t that a butterfly on there too!!  LOL!!

It’s not that I don’t like butterflies. Of course I like butterflies! I just happen to think that they are a tad over-used as a decorative element. Truly, I think I have been lucky that this is the first stamp set I have received in a kit that features a butterfly stamp set. I believe I finished my ‘Year with Simon Says Stamp” just before they featured a butterfly stamp set in their kit! I was pleased to find that the butterfly stamps in this kit are quite nice!

This is my “No, it’s NOT pink, it’s BLUE” card!  LOL!!  I started by using the stencil included in our kit to do some light ink blending on the three large butterflies with Hero Arts Soft Sky ink on some plain white card stock. That Soft Sky ink is a good match to the soft blues in this kit! I then completed the butterflies using the stamps and VersaFine Onyx Black ink and then fussy cut all three. On the other Vanilla Ivory card base, I attached a background panel of the glittery blue flower pattern paper and outlined that with the thin Sky Blue Mirror peel offs. I added a 1.5″ strip of the blue textured pattern paper to the left and edged that with the medium peel offs.

I decided to try stamping this sentiment directly on the pattern paper background, using Onyx Black ink. That worked well, but I did have to go in with a permanent black marker to fill in the ink over the glitter portions. Maybe StazOn black ink would cover the glitter better but I just reached for a sharpie to fill in the glitter sections. That worked very well and I like the sentiment stamped directly on the pattern paper. That gives these three butterflies the chance to really shine by giving their wings a slight fold and gluing their bodies to the card front. I did stamp the antennae from the butterfly body stamps on the blue pattern paper so I didn’t have to try and fussy cut their antennae! There is a little Spectrum Noir glitter pen on the butterflies and I added three of the pearl embellishments to the top right for some balance and texture. No pink at all here, and I really like these three large butterfly stamps. Nicely detailed and perfectly sized to work with the stencil included in the kit as well. Not a lot of room for ink blending with these stamps, but I am looking forward to coloring some of these butterflies!

Pinks and purples, blues and butterflies, let’s see about a masculine card from this kit…

A plaid pattern paper almost always feels pretty macho, even when there is pink in the plaid! Using a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die, I cut out a piece of the plaid spot gloss pattern paper with the plaid pattern carefully centered. I decide to camouflage the very pink stripes with thin 1/8″ strips of the gold satin mirror specialty card stock, and added a eighth-inch mat of the gold behind the plaid before attaching the background to the Forest Green card base. I stamped and embossed the sentiment on a scrap of my Staples Ivory card stock using Iced Spruce Distress Oxide ink and some Ranger clear embossing powder. That’s a pretty good match to the grey-greens on the pattern paper. I cut the sentiment out with one of my Darice Square Nesting dies, did some light ink blending around the edges with some Antique Linen Distress Ink, and then added a 1/8″ mat around the sentiment before foam taping that piece to the card front. I think we can call this a resounding success in my effort to butch-up this card kit a little bit! Fairly simple, but enough satin shine and spot gloss to make it a little special without adding any frills!

OKAY! Enough with obsessing over the themes in this set – let’s just have some fun!

Now this feels like a Scott Card! LOL!! I stamped five of the butterfly stamps using Onyx Black ink on some Bristol smooth card stock and colored them using my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. YAY! These are really nice stamps and, as far as I’m concerned, are kind of begging to be colored! I die cut the stamped card with a LFSRD and added a Silver Satin Mirror mat behind that, and attached all to a Forest Green card base. I colored a scrap of card with the same Cobalt Blue brush marker and die cut the “thank you” sentiment from that and from another piece of plain white card. I glued them both together for a touch of dimension, and then directly to the card front. A few sequins from the sequin mix add a little sparkle and what a nice Thank You card! This card makes me happy, and I am quite sure that “thank you” die will come in very handy over the years!

Now I have effectively used all the stamps in this stamp set. Okay, I didn’t use every little butterfly body but I’ve used all three sentiments and all six butterflies. Now for more!!

For this next card, I fussy cut the edges on the butterfly (or are those moths? LOL!)  pattern paper creating a 2.125″ center panel with cut edges. I glued a 4″ x 5.5″ panel of the grey-blue polka-dot pattern paper to a white card base and added the butterfly panel to the center with some foam tape. I turned to my Silhouette Software to print this sentiment on a piece of the same polka-dot pattern paper using the Noteworthy font and the Sign Painter font and then die cut that with my Spellbinders Deckled rectangle die. I did cut two more of deckled rectangles from white card to glue together with the sentiment for a chip board feel and then mounted that to the card front with foam tape. The small pearl embellishments highlight the center polka-dots on both sides of the background and add a little bit of shine. I think this sentiment is perfectly in line with the theme of this kit and I love that it alludes to the metamorphosis of butterflies (or moths!) or US! LOL!

I’ve got a couple more sentiments up my sleeve, and we haven’t played with the embossing powder included in our kit yet, so let’s have at it!

I know Lizi calls this her Ivory Pearl embossing powder, but on this Smoky Grey card base it looks like a wonderfully soft, almost translucent gold. I stamped the two largest butterfly stamps in an easy arc over the top of this card base using VersaMark ink and embossed them with the Ivory Pearl powder. Following along with the ‘encouragement’ theme in this kit, I again went to my Silhouette Software to print this sentiment on a piece of the grey-blue pattern paper in the Rockwell font and the Ballerina Script font. I die-cut that piece with a stitched circle die and traced around the die with my EmbossIt pen to add that same embossing around the sentiment. I glued the sentiment directly to the card base – that gives us a one-layer card with a perfect sentiment for many occasions. I did take the time to do one more embossed butterfly on the inside writing surface of this card. The embossing powder is a little more Ivory-ish on a lighter card stock but still has lovely hints of soft gold…! So very pretty!  I have to see what that looks like on some black card stock!

On my last 10 card video I did a little playing around with deco-foil Transfer Gel and rainbow foil, and I thought these butterflies gave me the perfect excuse to try that again!

Success! I used my deco-foil Transfer Gel with the stencil in the kit, and was pleased to get a pretty darn smooth application on this white card base. After pulling this out of the laminator and jumping for joy, I just couldn’t bring myself to add anything else to these butterfly wings… I just knew I would screw this up if I tried to stamp anything on top! I decided on this simple sentiment and used my Silhouette software to print this on a black background using the BlackJack font. That sentiment banner is trimmed down to 1″ wide, sprayed with some Sheer Shimmer Spritz spray and mounted to the card front with foam tape. Enough said!  I LOVE this card! That stencil should work well with all kinds of embellishment mousses and glitter pastes… endless possibilities!

Which brings us to our last card of the month! A huge shout out goes out to one of my subscribers (HELLO, KATE!) who, after seeing my two light-up cards using the ChibiTronic LEDs sent me a huge batch of multi-colored LED’s that work with a 3v button battery. A bit thicker than the Chibi lights, they work just as well and are MILES cheaper!

I took a 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of the green textured card stock and traced the stencil of this butterfly on the center top and used my craft knife to cut it out. I did the same with a piece of black card stock matching the opening and edges. I stamped the butterfly on a piece of vellum (two or three times) using StazOn ink to get as dark a stamping as possible (I don’t have any black embossing powder). I did stamp and clear emboss one of the butterfly bodies on the pattern paper between the wings and made the body a little longer so the antennae would really show up. I used my Silhouette software again to print “light up my life” in the Bradley Hand font on the pattern paper to go along with the “you” die cut from a Lawn Fawn Scripty Borders thank you die (2 pieces glued together) in white.

Once the stamping was dry, I glued the stamped vellum behind the opening on the pattern paper and glued a piece of transparent yellow glassine on top of the black card stock. Then I glued both of those pieces together making sure to line up the openings and the edges. I trimmed that double piece down to 4″ x 5.25″ to leave a little bit of the card base exposed around the edges. I also stamped the “press here” from the MFT Interactive Labels stamp set and white embossed that at the appropriate location on the front.

These normal LEDs wire up the same way as the Chibi stickers – you just have to make sure you match the polarity and make the contact between your copper tape and the LED leads on TOP of the tape because the adhesive side of the tape does not conduct current well enough. I did do a little practice run on a scrap of card stock to make sure these little lights would work and sure enough… seems every bit as good as those Chibi lights! After wiring the card base, I attached the card front using a double thickness of foam tape. 

Well..!!!  I think that works great!! This simple card is extremely nice, clean, sharp and understated until you ‘press here’ and reveal the light! Really a bit of a surprise! I LOVE IT!  Beware…! I have stocked up on some 3v button batteries and with all the LEDs Kate treated me to, I see a long series of light-up cards in my future..!!  LOL!!

That wraps up my 10 assorted cards with the Love From Lizi December ’18 Card Kit.

I grew to really like the stamps and stencil in this kit as I worked with them, and am quite pleased with the variety of cards I managed to pull together. I did use all of the stamps in the stamp set (minus a couple bodies) and I believe I used a little bit of everything in our embellishments bag. I think the ‘with love” die was the only item I didn’t use on these 10 cards! Of course I have bunches of everything left over – five full sheets of the specialty pattern papers but only two full sheets of the double-sided pattern papers – that means I used pieces from 9 different pattern papers. It’s always the best feeling to finish up a batch of cards and then realize that you have enough left over to make a whole new batch! Of course, I file everything away in my stash for use whenever and wherever the spirit strikes me!

This kit HAS SOLD OUT at lovefromlizi.com.  If you want to guarantee you don’t miss out on any of the fun, become a subscriber and enjoy some terrific perks! If you go shopping at LFL please use my link: http://bit.ly/LFLlink !

Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your time with me here! I want to wish you and yours and everyone you care for a happy, healthy and safe holiday season. Please share this post with all who might be interested, list me, like me, pin me, post me, share me with all of your friends – don’t run with scissors! – and – HAPPY CRAFTING!!!

 

Hello Folks!  Scott here with my 10 Cards from the My Monthly Hero November 2018 Kit. This month we received a very unique kit that featured an A2-card sized Advent Calendar stamp and die collection. I never would have thought you could get 24 little windows on the front of an A-2 card!

The 4.25″ x  5.5″ background cling stamp is the centerpiece of this collection and features 3 removable ornament stamps for a little added versatility. To go along with that cling stamp we got a 4.25″ x 5.5″ Ornament Flap Fancy Die that cuts out all the background ornaments while leaving a scored fold line at the top of each. To complete your Advent Calendar, we get a 4″ x 6″ clear stamp set with 41 small holiday icons and sentiments and a complete set of number stamps from 0 to 9. Finally, we are treated to two .5 oz. pots of Hero Arts embossing powder in Gold and Green-gold. At first glance, it seems like the options with this kit may be pretty limited, but after spending some time playing with these supplies, I discovered some interesting ways to create with this kit!

Since we received embossing powders with this kit, I started experimenting with embossing the background stamp on different card stocks. Top row, L to R: LFL Silver Dollar embossing powder on Blue card stock, LFL Emerald City embossing powder on a red card stock, and the HA Green-gold powder on Kraft card stock. It seems that HA embossing powder gets very dark on colored paper. Then I have some WOW! Cloud 9 glitter embossing powder on Black card stock. That embossing powder sheds glitter very easily – no matter how much you melt it. I though I could stop the shedding by spraying a fixative over the top but, seeing as how the fixative was matte, it pretty much destroyed that whole piece! Live and Learn!!

Second row, L to R: Ranger White embossing powder on blue card stock, the Hero Arts Gold embossing powder on a dark green card stock, the HA Green-gold embossing powder on white – the green-gold color works best on white I think – and the same powder on red card stock – very dark again.  Finally, I stamped the center Bristol smooth card stock with VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I really think that background stamp is quite beautiful and enjoyed trying out different embossing colors and card stocks. Before I knew it, I had 9 different backgrounds ready to play with!

So… let’s try an Advent Calendar card to start out with!

This card front is the Love From Lizi Emerald City embossing powder on red card stock die cut with the ornament fancy die. I was a little concerned with getting an accurate stamping of the numbers on top of the embossing powder, so I reached for my old “Marker Micro” Alphabet die to cut out all the numbers from white card stock. These are 3/8″ tall numbers so they were sized perfectly for these ornaments.

I did use the icon stamps on the front of a white card base for the images under the windows. I first cut out a blank of the ornament fancy die from a scrap of card stock and removed all the ornaments flaps to give me a template for stamping the images in the correct spaces. (You could use the windows in the die, but they are actually a little smaller than the cut windows) We could have used a few smaller icon stamps – I found it a little challenging to fill all 24 windows with properly sized unique images. I was able to use my watercolor markers to ‘color’ some of the solid stamps like the candlestick here, so all the images weren’t just flat stamps. I did add a Merry Christmas on the inside of this card using a die from the November 2017 Love From Lizi kit cut from dark green card stock.

I LOVE this concept, but whichever way you choose to put these Advent Calendars together, it will take a firm commitment and a good amount of time –  I would only spend this much time on a card for someone very special!

However, that background stamp is a lovely foundation for a variety of holiday cards!

This is the LFL Silver Dollar embossing powder on blue card stock – I really like this, and it’s not quite so Hanukkah-ish as the blue and white is! LOL! For the sentiment on this card, I reached for the Sending You Sentiments stamps and dies from Honey Bee. I die-cut the “Special delivery” from some silver card stock, the shadow from the same blue card stock,  and embossed the “holiday” stamp in silver on a scrap of the blue. I also cut from some of the shadow dies out of white card as well, and glued a few layers together for a little chunky dimension. All the pieces are foam taped on top of that great background, and complimented on the inside with another Merry Christmas die cut from the silver card stock used on the front.

Well, I like that! Really a great background image for holiday cards! Lets do more!

I used the included gold embossing powder on dark green card stock for this background. I wanted to use this Lawn Fawn Scripty Joy die on this card and was contemplating putting it on a circle or square die cut when I realized it should go on an ornament! I turned to my Silhouette Portrait to create this large ornament cut from the same green card stock and topped with a gold mirror card stock hanger. I cut two of the ornament shapes and glued them together for some added stiffness, and die cut the “joy” from more of the gold mirror card stock and three layers of white card and glued them together for a thick sentiment. I did stamp the snowflake stamps from the kit in VersaMark ink for a little tone on tone pattern before I glued the sentiment on the front. I ran the edges of the ornament on a Delicata Gold ink pad and mounted that to the card front with foam tape. I did finish this card on the inside with this lovely (though small) stamp from the 12/16 My Paper Pumpkin kit. I like the variety of looks you can get using that background stamp with assorted embossing powders on various card colors.

You can also use only a portion of that cling stamp for your backgrounds.

This is the Green-gold embossing powder on some Kraft card stock and I simply fussy- cut the right edge of the stamp and foam taped it to a Kraft card base for an interesting edge. The card base is covered with a Spectrum Noir clear sparkle pen and the sentiment I pulled out of my own image stash and cut three layers of that on my Silhouette Portrait to make a nice thick sentiment. A little sparkle pen on the sentiment and we get a whole different look using that same background stamp! And that Green-gold embossing powder is rather interesting!

You can also think about these stamps and fancy die as giving you 24 different (small) Christmas ornaments that you can use in a variety of ways.

For this card I embossed the background stamp in Silver Dollar on a piece of card stock colored with the Hero Arts Sea Foam Shimmer spray that we received in our MMH June ’18 kit. I used the die cut to cut the whole panel and chose these seven ornaments to use on this card. I simply cut them off of the background at their score lines and attached silver thread to the back of each ornament. I created the frame using two Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies from another piece of Sea Foam card stock and attached the ornament threads to the back of the frame with some scor-tape. On a white glitter card base (old David Tuterra card base) I foam taped the frame to the card front and mounted all the ornaments with little pieces of foam tape as well – taking care to keep the hanging threads straight. I then added little silver bows to the top of each ornament with some Multi Media Matte glue.  I die-cut the Merry Christmas from the same sea foam shimmer card to use as the sentiment. I really like the threads floating above the card base and between the embossing, the shimmer spray, the silver thread and the glitter card base, there is lots of sparkle to this card!

If you follow me on Instagram or FaceBook, I shared this colored background on social media and was eager to use it on a card. This is the cling stamp

stamped with VersaFine Onyx Black ink on Bristol smooth card stock and colored with my Zigg Clean Color Real Brush Markers. A fun coloring challenge to make 24 ornaments look different, but I really like how this came out. I liked it so much, I simply added this panel to a white card base and embossed the Merry Christmas Sentiment (from the Simon Says Stamp Christmas Squad stamp set) using Onyx Black ink and clear embossing powder. I trimmed that down to a simple rectangle and mounted it to the card front with some foam tape. This background stamp is lovely all by itself and is perfect for holiday cards.

Now I turned my attention to the 4″ x 6″ clear stamp set with all those little icon images.

You know I just have to make a wreath! I stamped this wreath using my home-made wreath-builder template on plain white card stock and used my watercolor markers to stamp with. I stamped the “be merry” sentiment from the stamp set using the same markers and embossed that with VersaMark ink and embossed it with some clear embossing powder. I die cut the panel with a LFSRD and attached that to red and green card stock mats. I found this holiday ribbon in my stash and ran it through my Xyron sticker maker to cover the back with adhesive, and glued that to the card front and wrapped the edges around the mats before gluing all down to a plain white card base. I added a double bow using the green ribbon from the kit, and attached some gold gems from my stash for a little extra bling. I like this ‘wreath’ a lot – perfect for Christmas!

There has to be more ways we can use these little icon stamps! This idea was prompted by another sentiment stamp from the “Squad Goals” stamp set.

Who could resist all these gingerbread men lined up in a row? The cookie and candy stamps worked perfectly too. I used my Tim Holtz stamp platform to do all of the repetitive stamping using a variety of inks from my stash, and embossed the sentiment in the center using Onyx Black ink and clear embossing powder. I finished out the edges with a striped stamp from the Simon Says Stamp Crafty Friend Stamp set, and trimmed the panel down to mount on a Kraft card base. A couple of tree jewels from my stash help compliment the Christmas theme and add a little touch of sparkle! YUMMM!

I had one more interesting idea on how to use these little icon stamps on their own…

Looks like a Christmas tree to me!!! I used every image stamp from the stamp set on this tree except for the 3 snowflakes and the ‘kiss’ mistletoe. 26 stamps including the “Bring Cheer” stump!! I also limited myself to using only Distress Oxide inks (the first release) for this image and I really like the slightly subtler color palette of this card. Colorful but a big contrast to the Zig marker colored background! Some small white pearl embellishments from my stash add just the right shine and a little dimension to our tree. A simple thin black mat glued behind the front panel, then to a white card base and we’ve got another interesting way to use this stamp set! I didn’t want the ‘kiss’ stamp to feel left out, so I used it along with the SSS “Merry Christmas” stamp (both still in the Distress Oxide inks) for our sentiment on the inside of the card. I adore this card! Feels like I can forgive the narrow focus of this kit after making this!

I still had one technique that I wanted to try with this background cling stamp and die.

Yup! I wanted to try to foil these ornaments. I recently got some of this rainbow deco foil and I thought it would make these ornaments look like those old mercury glass ornaments. My grandmother had a few of these ornaments and I remember how colorful and shiny they were. It did take me a few tries to get this to work – I thought that the die might work as a stencil, so I tried using some deco-foil transfer gel through the die and foiling the gel but I could never get a solid smooth application of the foil.

Ultimately, I stamped the ornament cling stamp using Hero Arts Unicorn White ink on a piece of black card stock and cut it out with the fancy die. I turned to my deco-foil adhesive toner sheets and foiled a 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of toner paper, die cut it with the fancy ornament die, cut away all the ornaments along their score lines, and stuck them to the top of the original black die cut ornaments. This Worked Great!!! So Very Pretty!

I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the ‘image behind the window’ concept so I came up with something a little different to go behind the window on our Advent Calendar Card. How about activities with a holiday theme! Like this one… “Make ornaments for the tree” – a perfect activity attuned to the holidays. I didn’t want to use any numbers on the ornament windows – you can open them in any order you choose – and who wants to cover up any of that lovely rainbow foil! But I did add that pretty Paper Pumpkin “Merry Christmas stamp on the inside of the card.

Here’s the rest of the ‘activities’ that appear behind the windows on this card. I used my Silhouette Software to create this printable file with little suggestions for fun holiday activities that show up behind all of the windows instead of simple images. After all, most Advent Calendars have a reward or a treat behind each ‘door’ and it felt like a simple image wasn’t enough to build up some anticipation for the coming of Christmas! Some of these ‘activity’ suggestions are crafty, some are charitable, and some are just plain fun! Not only is this encouraging participants into more than just ‘getting a present’, but being able to print this as a backing for the ornaments certainly beats having to stamp 24 different images! I think this idea make these stamps and dies much more useful to the average card maker. In fact, If you would like a copy of this Silhouette file for your own use, just go to the contact page and send me an email requesting the file and I’ll send it to you asap!

I did find that stamping the background cling stamp on a larger than A2 card stock to begin with, makes die cutting the image a lot siompler, and, since the die cuts the outline anyway, go ahead and make it easier on yourself!

Well, I did it! 10 different cards from this kit! I feel quite accomplished and very excited for the holidays after working on these cards. I’m sorry this post is a little delayed… we took a little extra time off over the Thanksgiving holiday to spend with family and friends! I do think this is a pretty good variety of Holiday cards this month – I did manage to use 32 of the 41 stamps (no numbers either) and I honestly believe that the ornament cling stamp and fancy die are worth every penny and should get lots of use over the years!

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me here. I hope I was able to provide you with a little inspiration and some unique ideas on how to use this My Monthly Hero November 2018 kit. Please share this post with anyone you think might be interested, please link me and post me, and pin me and share me with all your friends… don’t run with scissors… and Happy Crafting!