Sixth Street Sundries

Hi there! Today is the first Monday of the month, which means we have a new My Monthly Hero kit and coordinating add-on products for you! You should have arrived here from Daniel West, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. You can also start at the beginning at the Hero Arts Blog! This month’s kit features a ton of fabulous scene building holiday silhouettes, perfect for creating a pristine North Pole scene, forest scene, or a simple winter scene. So much versatility. Here’s a peek at this month’s kit:

The October 2022 kit features: Clear Stamp Set, 6″ x 8″, • 19 Coordinating Frame Cuts, Snow Dots Cling Stamp, 4.625″ x 5.875″, 2 Ink Cubes (White Reactive & Unicorn Pigment), 2 Sheets of Diamond Glitter Paper, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 2 Sheets of Snow Glow Cardstock, 5.5″ x 8.5″, and 2 Sheets of Lapis Cardstock 5.5″ x 8.5″. The kit’s contents retail for $79 individually, but the entire kit is yours for $34.99! If you love these limited edition kits, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to be guaranteed to receive your own My Monthly Hero kit each month.

I have a super easily-mailed Christmas card for you today, using some masking paper, light ink blending, the Snow and Froth technique kit, and the fabulous winter scene stamps from the October 2022 My Monthly Hero kit. Let’s get started with the details!

I wanted to create some snowy drifts to make a scene using several of the different stamps included in the My Monthly Hero kit. I began by cutting a piece of masking paper, vaguely shaped like a hill. I applied the hill mask to a panel of white cardstock, then used Blending Brushes to very lightly blend Granite and Dusty Blue inks to create a hazy background “behind” the snow drifts. I removed the mask, placed it at a different angle up a bit higher on the card front, and blended again. I repeated the process once more, creating three different snow drifts on which to stamp my silhouette images!

I stamped several different images from the My Monthly Hero kit using Intens-ified Black ink, using my MISTI to make sure that I got super clean and crisp stamped images. I also used the Snow and Froth technique kit to add some super realistic-looking snowy texture to the drifts. This kit is great for your wintry cards; you simply apply the clear lacquer wherever you want to add the snowy texture, then sprinkle the white puff embossing powder over the top and heat it up. After I’d heated up the Snow and Froth textures, I splattered some silver Glimmer Ink over the whole card front to add some snowflakes.

After my silver paint splatter “snowflakes” had dried, I added some Silver Hero Pearls to the Christmas tree, creating even more texture and shine on this one-layer-but-super-textured card front. I stamped one of the beautiful calligraphy greetings from the My Monthly Hero kit using Intens-ified Black ink, then cut the sentiment out using the coordinating dies, included in the kit. I popped the greeting up using some foam tape. Other than the greeting, this card is entirely one layer, making it perfect for mailing!!

My second project features the darling new North Pole Express, paired with the new Snow Globe Window Fancy Die. Because I don’t do “cute” very well, I enjoy taking sweet, whimsical illustrations like those in the North Pole Express set and trying to give them a storybook feel. I used Contour Ink to stamp the train and present car from North Pole Express on some Arches Cold Press watercolor paper, then used Daniel Smith watercolors to do some no line watercoloring. I die cut the finished images with the coordinating dies.

I knew that I wanted the sweet penguin and festive holiday train to be encased in a shaker card, so I die cut the Snow Globe Window Fancy Die from some white glitter paper cut the window itself from some Shamrock cardstock, then I traced around the edge of the die cut window onto my card base. I backed the window with some clear acetate to create my shaker window. I used Blending Brushes to very lightly blend Dusty Blue ink around the edge of the traced snowglobe on my white card base. I arranged the Snowflake Stencil so that the snowflakes were dipping over the edge of the traced snowglobe, and used White Pearl Hero Paste and Palette Knife to add some subtle, pearlescent snowflakes around the edge of the snowglobe.

I adhered the train die cuts to the blended, stenciled background using some thin foam tape, then filled my shaker with some glitter and sequins. (I used super fine glitter, which unfortunately stuck to the acetate a bit more than I would have liked, creating a bit more “frosty” look than I intended, but I kind of like the frosted, wintry look. If you want your shaker to be a bit clearer, avoid using superfine glitter!) I added a red foil greeting from the Season Words Fancy Die set, as well as a sentiment strip using the new Holiday Sentiment Strips, heat embossed in white on some more Shamrock cardstock.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I think the designers at Hero Arts knocked the holiday releases out of the park this year… so many awesome projects that work beautifully together. Now for some fun giveaway information:

Hero Arts will give away a $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, October 9th at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Your next stop on the hop is Ilina Crouse. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!