My Monthly Hero Kit October 2016

I am so honored to be hopping along with some crazy talented card makers today sharing the latest kit from Hero Arts! My Monthly Hero is a kit packed with goodies to make amazing cards and this month, its packed with shaker card awesomeness! This is a limited edition kit, so when its gone, its gone! You can purchase the kit by clicking here: My Monthly Hero October 2016.

The kit contains:

► A 4"x6" clear stamp set
► Dies for creating a snowglobe, snowdrifts and other background elements
► Seven coordinating Frame Cuts dies to match the stamp set
► Three pigment ink cubes in White, Silver and Baby Blue
► Eight White Cards and Envelopes
► Polar White Flower Soft
► Buttons Galore Shaker Mix
► Acetate Sheets in 4"x4.5" (7) and 4"x6" (1) for creating a shaker card
► Light Blue Gemstones

The kit includes dies to create snow globes. How perfect for Christmas cards! I began by cutting my light blue card stock with the globe top. To create the starry background, I used an add-on die to create a stencil by die cutting card stock with Star Confetti Fancy Die. Once the paper was cut, I was able to ink through it with a mini ink blending tool. Its a great way to stretch the use of your dies!

Behind the globe, on my card base, I inked a dark blue background, to create a night sky. The snow falling was created by stamping white pigment ink with the snow image from the My Monthly Hero stamp set.

I backed the entire panel with acetate then added foam adhesive around the opening and along the sides, knowing that I would be making a shaker card. (The foam adhesive around the opening is to create a well for the shaker items to move freely, and to stay inside the card. Its also added to the sides of the panel, to keep the top layer of card stock propped up without bending.)

To create the landscape, I used Snowdrifts Fancy Dies. This set of three dies is another add-on that can be purchased to coordinate with the kit. I love the layers of trees, trees and a house, and trees, a house and a little snowman! (Look very closely to find him.) I cut each of the die images from a piece of card stock. Keep in mind that these dies are unique in that they only cut the top of the image. Reason being that they allow you to control the length of the image. You could use these as the top of a card stock panel on your card, without the globe! So clever. (and wait, off to make a card with just that...)

I colored the tops of the scenery with Distress Markers and staggered the layers. Once I was happy with the placement, I adhered those layers to the card base. I poured some of the sequin seed bead mix onto my scenery. The top layer of the card was fastened over the top. To finish off the card, I added the base of the snow globe, colored with Copics and stamped with a sentiment. A bow was added also. And my absolute favorite part of the card is the Santa and his reindeer image! What is more magical than that?!

For this card, I went much simpler. This card would be easy to mass produce for your Christmas cards this season! To start off, I embossed a panel of white card stock with Circle Confetti Fancy Die. Yep, you read that correctly, I embossed with a die! I placed my card stock onto the die (cut edges up), topped that with an embossing pad, then passed it through my manual die cutting machine. How cool is that?! Then I die cut the same globe circle from the panel. Acetate and foam were added to the back of this panel, to make another shaker card.

For the inside layers, I used the scenery dies from the My Monthly Hero kit. They work the same as the add-on dies, but simpler in look. I cut the trees from a green card stock and a snowbank from light blue card stock. Those layers were trimmed to size and adhered to the dark blue card base. A sentiment was heat embossed in white on the card base. The sequin and bead mix were poured over the scene and finally, the top layer was adhered.

Using the third snowbank in the set of dies from the kit, piece of card stock that had double-sided adhesive on it was die cut. Once I cut it, I removed the backing, exposed the adhesive, and then poured glitter over the entire surface. It makes for a beautiful, snowy, and sparkly addition! It was adhered in front of the globe opening, along with a few more sequins.

Check out what these amazing ladies did with the kit:

  The Hero Arts Blog

Alice Wertz

Amy Tsuruta

Clare Prezzia

Debby Hughes

Heather Ruwe

Jennifer McGuire

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Kathy Racoosin

Kimberly Crawford

Laura Bassen

Lydia Fiedler

Mariana Grigsby

May Park

Virginia Lu

Yana Smakula

Libby Hickson

What is a blog hop without a chance to win?! Here is your chance to win the My Monthly Hero Kit for October 2016! Leave a comment on my blog and all the others. One lucky commenter will win! Good luck!

thanks for stopping by!

kimberly

MFT Stamps July Release Countdown Begins!

Welcome to the start of the MFT Stamps Release Countdown! For the next 5 days we will be sharing projects featuring the new stamps, dies, and stencils that will be releasing this month. You will be able to purchase any of the products you see over the next few days on 

Tuesday, July 5 at 9 pm Central. 

This is a HUGE celebration! MFT Stamps is celebrating its 10th year! 10 years! 10 years of fantastic products, innovative designs, great customer service, and so much more! It has been an honor to be a part of this team for over 2 and a half years! Each month it gets better and better, wait until you see this month's release! 

I am starting things off with a birthday card. Fitting, don't you think? Stencil Big Balloons helped  create this background. Stencil Big Balloons has 5 different balloons on it, along with the awesome "shiny spots." I used one balloon with different color inks on my background. 

When I ink through a stencil, I make sure that I use a different foam pad on my Mini Ink Blending Tool for each color. Less ink was applied to the top right corner, to add some depth and to create a great place to land those shiny spots. To accent the shiny spots, after inking the balloon image, I pressed a damp paper towel through the opening, removing the ink. The shiny spots were then highlighted with a white paint pen.

At the bottom, I added a sentiment from Big Birthday Sentiments. This set of sentiments will be a must-have in your collection of stamps! Perfect for all birthday occasions and for anyone you will be making a card for!

Continuing with balloons, I used Big Birthday Balloons Die-namics. To make these bright balloons, I used the dies to cut Colored Acetate Sheets. Using the acetate made the die cut images look more life-like and realistic. I think its pretty neat looking! The sheets come in several colors in one package, allowing you to create balloons for everyone!

I placed the balloons onto a cloud background and added a sentiment from Celebrate With Cake. To finish things off, I stamped a few stars from the same set and used star sequins.

Visit the MFT Stamps blog for all the information you will need about the upcoming release. That includes product images, product videos, links to the design team projects, and more! Plus, there always seems to be a chance to win!

thanks for stopping by!

kimberly

Supplies for Balloon Birthday card, available July 5:

InLinkz.com

Supplies for Happy Birthday Balloons card, available July 5:

InLinkz.com

Celebrating Cath Edvalson and Technique Tuesday! blog hop + prizes

The first time I met Cath Edvalson I was star struck. Having been a long time fan of Paper Crafts Magazine and recently having been published a few times, meeting her was truly an honor. Cath was genuine, warm, and sincere. Traits that truly define her, as I have learned having the privilege of spending so much time getting to know her since all those years ago. Cath has an eye for impeccable design. She finds the trendy, yet classy and timeless pieces. As Cath took a break from the paper crafting world, I found myself waiting for the day she would upload a new pin to Pinterest and fill my need for aesthetically beautiful things. Cath found a new hobby, which is a funny word because she always does things to the utmost of her ability, with paper cutting. Her intricate designs reflected her personality and left you in awe. 

As luck would have it, her designs did not go unnoticed. And luckily for us, her designs are now available as stamps and die templates from Technique Tuesday! Welcome to the blog hop celebrating this new collaboration and wait until you see the depth of thought that went into developing each of these stamp sets and die template sets. Your creativity will blossom!

When I first opened Garden Flowers DIY Die Set, my die-cutting loving heart skipped a beat or two. The flower is in a beautiful set with four images. It includes the detailed flower you see here, a solid outline of the flower and two words, which you will see later in this post.

I cut the intricate flower from solid patterned paper. When I first assembled this card, I did not keep the drop outs, but once I placed the flower on my card, it needed a little something more. So, I added back the inside petals. Brilliance of design by Cath. Think of the possibilities...you could replace all those insides with different colors...oooohhhh...

The sentiment is from Garden of Life clear stamps. I found the sentiments perfectly nestle up against the flowers and the leaves. The leaves were stamped onto card stock and then trimmed out by hand, but there is a gorgeous set of dies featuring the leaves only called, Garden Leaves.

I had to continue die cutting this gorgeous flower. Thinking about the paper cutting that inspired this image, I wanted to highlight the delicate look, so using a clear card base seemed like a great option.

On the inside of the acetate base, I added a panel of subtly patterned paper, stamped with the sentiment from Garden of Life. On the panel, I layered a die cut solid flower and a die cut detailed flower, in the same color. When you open the card, you want the inside to look as nice, so by adding that extra flower layer on the inside, I achieved that goal. A set of stamped and hand cut leaves from Garden of Life was also added.

On the front of the acetate base, I added a die cut white detailed flower. I love the look! Glue from a Fine Line bottle was how the flower was adhered to the card.

On this card, staying with the same idea of using an acetate base, I die cut a solid flower image from a trimmed panel of patterned paper. Then the panel was adhered to the base front.

More stamped and hand cut leaves were added, along with die cut words. Garden Flowers DIY Die set has the words "my" and "friend" in the set. These words also nestle around the flowers and leaves precisely.

And to the open space on the front, a die cut detailed flower was added. I think it looks so cool! These couple of cards is only a small look at these fantastic sets of stamps and dies. I knew I would be impressed, but I should have known I would be blown away when Cath was behind the inventiveness!

ETA: This contest is now closed. Thank you for your participation!

Now on to the PRIZES! Oh yes, there are prizes! There are three prizes up for grabs, one person will win all 5 of Cath's new designs, and two lucky winners will receive $25 gift certificates to Technique Tuesday! To be entered, leave a comment at any of the stops in this blog hop. The winners will be chosen from all the comments, so the more you leave, the better your chance. You have until midnight PST on September 16th to leave your comment. Winners will be announced on September 18th on the Technique Tuesday blog.

You should have arrived here from the amazing Daniela Dobson's blog. After you leave here, head to  the uber creative Jocelyn Olson's blog. If you get lost along the way, never fear! Visit the 

Technique Tuesday blog for all the details you need!

thanks for stopping by!

~kimberly

InLinkz.com