I am having a lot of fun with the My Monthly Hero Kit from January 2021. This large floral image is such a lot of fun to color. I used Prismas: 956 Lilac, 952 Violet, 1005 Limepeel, 1006 Kelly Green, 1082 Chocolate. I used the matching die to cut the colored image and cut three more from junque white to add dimension. I embossed a white panel using a 5×7 Honeycomb EF by Cuttlebug, then lightly swiped my Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink pad to add color. The sentiment is from Mini Tag Sentiments by Divinity Designs and fit perfectly in the honeycomb. I added a foam square to the bee’s wings for dimension. The card panel is a deep purple from my stash Here are a couple of other cards I made with this kit.

I’ve been in something of a creative slump lately. I was trying to come up with an idea for a Valentine for my husband. I thought maybe cleaning off my work table would help. I came across the honeypot die that was one of the add-ons with the January 2021 My Monthly Hero Kit that I had already cut and colored. I had some conversation hearts cut from a die by Pawsitively Pawsome that I had cut for another project. I tucked the hearts into the slits in the honeypot and popped up the tops with foam squares cut in half. I chose Sea Glass as my cardbase for a non-traditional color. I have a lot of “from” stamps but couldn’t find anything that said “for my”. The I remembered that the Men of Faith set by Melanie Muenchinger for GKD had a LOT of words, and there it was”from” and “my” I lined them up with my MISTI and stamped them in Dark Chocolate. I die cut “honey” from the honeypot die set three times and stacked them for dimension. Since one of the hearts says “Love” and another says “Love You” I thought it would work for the Mod Squad Challenge,

This My Monthly Hero Kit from June 2019 is new to me. I got it in the resale section of my local stamp store. I embossed the background by running the Palm Frond Stencil by Honeybee through my Platinum 6 along with a baby wipe. The baby wipe gave the right amount of moisture to help emboss the stencil. I stamped the monkey and branch then colored with Copics E23, E31, E33, E35, E57, G21, G46, YR65 and YR68, then cut using the matching dies. The tall grass was stamped in Fresh Asparagus ink on Grass Green cardstock and cut with the matching die. Before putting the monkey on the branch I fussy cut the monkey and cut off his tail so I could attach it behind the branch. I matted the focal panel with Dark Chocolate, then placed on a Kraft card base. The sentiment from Wild About You by GinaK Designs was stamped in Dark Chocolate on Kraft ink and matted with Dark Chocolate. The sentiment on the inside was computer generated “Don’t monkey around, just have a Happy Birthday.

I’m entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge to use something new.

I’ve been playing with One Sheet Wonder patterns lately for inspiration. I need to replenish my Thinking of You and Birthday stash, and this is a quick and easy way to do it. I got 11 cards, plus a bonus card using scraps. The pattern paper is from Graphic 45’s Secret Garden collection. The mats are Edible Eggplant and Lovely Lavendar from Gina K designs. The sentiment is by Hero Arts. I used black sequins to dot the i’s for a little bling. I’m entering this in The Sisterhood of Crafters

This started out as an experiment. I saw an interesting gatefold card in my Pinterest feed. It led to a Stampin’ Up demontrator’s blog where she did a video.  This starts out as a regular gatefold card, but then you attach a horizontal flap to the top part of the left flap and another horizontal flap the lower right flap – this keeps the card closed without a belly band.  Begin with a 5 x 8 ½ card base, scored at 2 1/8” at each end on the long side. The solid layers for the flaps are 2 x 5 3/8; the pattern paper layer is 1 7/8 x 5 1/4. The horizontal flaps are 2 1/2 x 3 7/8 for the solid layer and 2 1/8 x 3 3/4 for the pattern paper layer. I added an additional layer for the sentiment, cut at 2 1/8 x 3 1/2. I had to play with the layers a little bit because not only am I terrible at fractions, I’m also challenged when it comes to putting my cardstock on the right line on my cutting board. The sample card only had a sentiment on the lower flap and some lovely flowered paper at the top. The pp I chose was a small pattern from a pad by In My Mind’s Eye and needed something at the top. I had separated the Birthday Wishes stamp from Massive Message a long time ago, so stamped that on each word on one of the solid panels in Passionate Pink. The flower is from the Autumn Wreath Builder and the leaves are from the Mini Wreath Builder. I added a bit of bling from Pawsitvely Awersome in the center of the flowers.  Since the card is mostly pink, I decided to enter it in Just Add Ink #516 Challenge, which this week has an inspiration photo with lots of pink. The pp also kind of picks up the turquoise in the picture.  This was fun to do and I’m really pleased how it turned out.

I have been having a blast creating patriotic cards. There are some great new sets out there. I’ve had a lot of fun coloring the USA/Flag design from Stamp Simply’s Old Glory set. I had cut the USA die using red CS to create a mat for an image that I had fussy cut. I was about to toss it when I realized it would work for the Scraps Challenge at Double D. I found an irregular shaped scrap from a patriotic pack by Authentic that just fit behind the aperture. Although most of the sentiments in the PP are right side up, the flag images are upside down – a sign of distress. But I guess that’s appropriate since our country is in distress right now. I embossed the sentiment from Patriotic Sentiments, also by Stamp Simply in gold EP. The mat is Blue Denim and the card base is Kraft.

A fifth Saturday at  Just Us Girls means it’s Wild Card Week. The Wild Card is to use two or more different pattern papers. The two patterns are from a patriotic pack by Authentique that’s been in my stash for a long time. I put the fireworks pattern on the top and the stars and stripes on the bottom.  I found the shiny red textured strip in my stash. The die used to cut the Kraft USA map is from the die set that matches the Old Glory stamp set from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store. The sentiment is from the same set, stamped in Blue Denim.  The card base is also Kraft.