Materials List:
- Hero Arts Make Yourself at Home November 2022 Card Kit
- XPress IT Blending Card Paper
- Copic Markers: R59, R37, R21, G28, G24, YR14, E99
- Picket Fence Studios Paper Glaze – Winter Snowfall
- My Favorite Things Essential Stitched Sentiment Strips
- Simon Says Stamp! Acetate Sheet
- Detail White Embossing Powder
- Tim Holtz-Ranger Distress Mica Stain – Tart Cranberry
- Scrapbook.com Pops of Color – White Satin
- Sakura Glaze Pen
This card kit is a collab between Hero Arts and Joann (yes, the fabric/craft/everything store) and let me just say that I’m pretty certain that anything these two do together is going to be amazing. And I’m not wrong here. This kit is LOADED with crafting goodies – two ink cubes, twine, embossing ink, coordinating colored cardstock, A2 notecards, envelopes, stamps, dies AND a stencil. For $30. Seriously??? Wait, I forgot the gold embossing powder….. It’s almost unreal.
I was so impressed with this kit that I decided to create a video, so I spent the better part of last Sunday playing around with all the glorious cardmaking goodies to see what I could create. I think the photo above says everything. I made four cards and I was so happy with each of them, like, would mass produce any of the four as my Christmas card for 2022. (Okay, maybe not the Copic version because that card took a minute to produce but wow, that stamp is a perfect holiday floral.)
Card 1: This card was the quickest and I love the clean and simple look. I used only elements in the kit for the card, some quick stamping and I tied on the twine with a few loops and a cute bow. I glued a white panel inside the card (also from another notecard in the kit) to hide the twine on the inside and card #1 was complete.
Card 2: This card was my absolute favorite for its classic red and white color scheme and the stunning texture glaze background. I used the stencil in the kit and Picket Fence Studios Velvet Paper Glaze in Winter Snowfall to create the snowflakes on the front of this card. I’m in love with this look and I’ll be using more of the paper glazes in upcoming cards. I stamped and embossed the Peace, Love, & Joy greetings on the cranberry cardstock, applied white embossing powder and heat set. A quick die cut with a MFT sentiment strip die and I was ready to place all these goodies on a cranberry card base. So easy, yet so pretty. My favorite card combo!
Card 3: This card was the most time-intensive but how beautiful is that floral stamp? It begged for Copic coloring. I love choosing Copics and experimenting with blending for florals. I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to Copic coloring. I’m still new to this and rely heaving on the expert and some of these people are truly visionary when it comes to Copic markers. After stamping the entire stamp and one extra poinsettia; coloring and die cutting, I created a fun and sparkly background using Tim Holtz-Ranger Distress Mica Stain in Tart Cranberry. It’s a perfect mica stain for holiday cards and the shimmer really ups the Wow! factor in this card. I adhered the floral die cut on the panel with some strong adhesive, adhered the panel on the card with Gina K tape runner and then added some pizazz with Pops of Color on the larger berries and Sakura Glaze pen on the smaller berries. That bold “Merry Christmas” stamp really pops with the gold embossing against the Pine cardstock in the greeting strip. The same Pine cardstock serves as the card base and this helps to pull the whole look together in this festive, floral holiday card.
Card 4: For the final card I used a sheet of acetate from Simon Says Stamp! that is heat-resistant, which makes it perfect for heat embossing. I really love the look of an embossed acetate overlay and the green card base and cranberry-red poinsettias behind the overlay shout “Holidays” like no greeting strip ever could. But what about that cranberry and gold-embossed greeting strip that takes center stage on this card? I love everything about this card and it will definitely be in the first string line up of cards I’m sending this season.
Tomorrow I’m enjoying a much needed and long overdue spa day (yay me!) and then on Wednesday I’ll post some holiday gift tags I created from this same Hero Arts kit. Check back here for that post and as always, thanks for stopping by!
Cheers!
Cynthia
prettypaperblackbirds.com 