The Inherent Cheeriness of Folk Art + Giveaway

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Y'all know I love folk art and Scandinavian design style to the moon and back. It's always so clean, and in my opinion, innately cheerful, which is what I think appeals to me about it.

It celebrates simple, natural things and patterns which have inherent cheer - plants, animals, beautiful and simple forms and patterns. 100% the opposite of everything online right now :).

I always thought of this type of design as both an escape (from what I imagine are long dark winters) and the satisfying imposition of orderliness. So much appeal in all of that. 

So imagine my delight when a kit with insane potential for pattern building appeared before me this month. Behold - this month's My Monthly Hero Kit in all its orderly, folk art glory. 

I decided to make a set of cards with symmetrical trees out of the kit - so, so easy with the MISTI. You'll see some shortcuts in my video - but the coolest thing about this kit is that it comes with mirrored images for just this type of design. So fun. I drew the lines for the trunks of the trees with my alcohol fineliners (coupon code in the footer).

I kept mine super clean in crisp, holiday colors - Red Royal, Intense Black and Green Apple. I popped up the sentiments from the kit on little strips with foam dots. 

Here's what the full kit looks like. AND there's a contest right now. Vote here on your favorite classic kits and you might win free kits for A YEAR! WHEE!

I LOVE the nativity add-on. I'm a bit picky about my nativities. I need the animals to be amazing, and I need enough room to color Mary's beautiful blue garments. So this sweet image has it all - the same folk art design as the kit, but a sweet and happy feel. I colored her with my alcohol fineliners, cut her with the coordinating dies and added a little glitter paper circle behind her (cut with my infinity dies) to make her look like a Russian icon. Then I used the same infinity dies to cut this amazing paper - I wanted it to look like a big blue moon was looming over her and her baby - it just has a celestial feel. The sentiment is from the same set.

I'd be willing to bet you I've made the most Dala horse cards of any stamper! I LOVE THEM!

So the little Dala horse stamp was a must for today. I colored it with the fineliners and cut it out with the matching dies. The background is a beautiful new cover die over kraft cardstock. When you have a Dala horse, you don't need a sentiment!

Next up - Christmas Folks! I LOVE these little guys and I feel like they would make such cute ornaments! But for my card, I wanted a bokeh look, like my little Santa was standing in front of twinkling lights. So I did direct to paper with red ink, and then dropped bleach onto it, being sure to make some bigger puddles so I'd have room to stamp a sentiment in one. He is colored with the fineliners and cut with the matching dies.

Oh how I love a die that does all the work for me. I cut this amazing swan die out of black cardstock, added a strip of this paper, and the sentiment from the main kit and BOOM - 1 minute Christmas card!

Another one minute card - the background is this paper, I used this gorgeous die and this sentiment and some sequins - so quick and beautiful. 

As usual, you can get all of the addons at a discount here.

I'll be back in a few days with a cool card with that October word die!

Here are all the supplies I used today - stay tuned below for more inspiration!

Hero Arts October 2020 My Monthly... [ HA ] Graphit — Marker Universe [ MRK ] Copic Multiliner SP Pens | BLICK Art... [ BLIC ] Get Them All October Add-Ons [ HA ] AF344 Green Apple Bold Ink - Hero Arts [ HA ] AF345 Intense Black - Hero Arts [ HA ] AF225 Red Royal Mid-Tone Shadow Ink -... [ HA ] Floral Nativity [ HA ] Floral Nativity Frame Cuts [ HA ] Paper Rose ULTRA VIOLET Paper Pack... [ SSS ] Neutrals Glitter Paper Pack - Concord... [ C&9 ] DI199 Nesting Circle Infinity Dies... [ HA ] CM484 Dala Horse [ HA ] https://heroarts.com/products/di825-d... [ HA ] DI820 Northern Winter Cover Plate (F) [ HA ] Christmas Folks [ HA ] DI824 Christmas Folks Frame Cuts (D) [ HA ] Crowned Swan Fancy Die [ HA ] GKD Patterned Paper Pack- Petite... [ GNK ] Floral Holiday Tree Fancy Die [ HA ] Lavinia Stamps Scene Scapes SEA... [ SSS ] Five Point Stars Infinity Dies [ HA ] October Word Fancy Die [ HA ] Classic Kits - Hero Arts [ HA ] Reactive - Hero Arts [ HA ] MMH 2020 VOTE - Hero Arts [ HA ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Holiday Graphic Pattern Bold Prints [ HA ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ HA ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets... [ CHC ] XL Stamp Storage Pockets [ ELH ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]

Hero Arts
Channin Pelletier
Dana Joy
Daniel West
Debi Adams
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Libby Hickson
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Pocono Pam
Seeka
Amy Kolling
Jennifer McGuire
Julee Tilman
Laurie Willison
Mariana Grigsby
Nichol Spohr

Loveyameanitbye.

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