June My Monthly Hero Countdown: Idea #2 + Giveaway!

We are back for another countdown post, leading up to the release of the June My Monthly Hero kit!. Release day is Monday, June 4th at 1pm Eastern/10 am Pacific. We'll be sharing ideas for using both the main kit, as well as new optional add-on products that will be available on Monday. And don't forget to leave a comment on this and every post as we will be giving away a kit on Monday. Now let's join Emily who is sharing another look at this fabulous kit...

Hi there! Emily Midgett here with some inspiration using the new June My Monthly Hero kit and one of the add-ons to create a pair of cards, one simple and one a bit more complicated. This release has SO many fantastic products that I couldn't stop myself! Let's get started with the simpler of the two projects.

To start, I die cut one of the new Fancy Frame dies, one of the add-ons for this month's beach theme. I die cut it from an A2 panel of Radiant White card stock. It's a super intricate die, but I was able to get several really clean die cuts without much (if any) fuss. I wanted the beautiful die to be the focus of my card, so I created a simple, beachy backdrop on my A2 card base. I started by blending some Soft Sky ink towards the top of my white card base, then used the Sand embossing powder (included in the kit) to create a sandy beach by pressing my Versamark pad directly to the card base, then sprinkling the Sand embossing powder over the top and heating. I stamped the greeting (from the main kit) using Intense Black, then layered the fancy beach frame die cut over the top with liquid adhesive. Nice and flat and easy to mail. My favorite kind of card!

For my second project today, I wanted to do something a little bit more intricate using the products from the main kit. I started by die cutting an oval frame from a Radiant White A2 panel using one of the Oval Infinity dies so that I would know where to do my stamping on my card base. I used that frame to approximate where to stamp the beautiful layered ocean from the kit using Aegean, Tide Pool, and Aquatic inks. (Reminds me of the Caribbean!) For the sky, I lightly blended some Soft Sky ink at the top, gradually fading as it got closer to the water. Then, I heat embossed the top layer of the clouds using white embossing powder and added the bottom layer using Unicorn ink. I did this backwards because I wanted to keep the white embossing powder from sticking to the white pigment ink. I wanted to have bright white, super fluffy clouds. Love the layering stamps in this kit!

After I had the background all finished, I worked on the silhouette die cuts. I stamped the Adirondack beach chair and a couple of palm trees using Intense Black ink and die cut them with the coordinating dies, which are included in the main kit. I also stamped the greeting from the main kit on the bottom corner of the oval frame. I layered the oval frame over the top of the card base with dimensional foam adhesive, then added my chair and palm tree die cuts. The final touch was to add a tiny sailboat floating on the water using Soft Granite ink.

Well, that's all for me today! This kit and all of the add-ons are seriously fantastic... you're going to want it all, I promise! Have a marvelous day!

Win a kit before you can buy it! Just leave a comment on this (and every) Countdown to Creativity post! We'll randomly draw one lucky winner from all the comments left across all the countdown posts, and announce the winner first thing Monday morning, June 4th, before the kit launches at 1pm Eastern. The more you comment, the more chances to win! Good luck!