Monday, October 5, 2020

The Inherent Cheeriness of Folk Art + Giveaway

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

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. 


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 ]





Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

40 comments:

  1. The quick cards are the best. The tree on the watercolor background is my favorite.

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  2. I love all of your cards! But the one with Mary and Jesus is totally my favorite.

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  3. wow! Lydia, I can't decide which of these I love the most--but they are all fantastic! Gosh I love that Swedish look!

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  4. Your Joy to the World is beautiful and the color of blue is amazing. Thank you for the great ideas and love your design layouts.

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  5. Thanks for sharing these wonderful inspiration projects, I especially like the first one!!

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  6. The more I hop, the more I want!

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  7. I love how the kit includes mirror images and dies, genius!! This months release has to be one of my all time favorites. Your cards are fantastic!

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  8. Your tree creations are wonderful with multi-stamping of many small stamps to shape the tree.
    Melissa
    "Sunshine HoneyBee"

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  9. Oh My Goodness!!! Such unique and cool designs. Love them all!!!

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  10. I love these folksy Christmas cards!!! Great designs!

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  11. What fabulous projects. I love how you've created your trees. And the Folk Art Santa is darling.

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  12. As always, your designs are outstanding. Love all of your cards.

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  13. I like the crisp look on many of your cards! It's fresh!

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  14. Love all your amazing designs, fabulous inspiration!

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  15. Love all the cards! Such creativity and wonderful colors! Thanks for sharing!

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  16. All are so beautifully created, lots of inspiration using many pieces of the kit and the add ons!!

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  17. Gorgeous cards! A wonderful kit!

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  18. Lots of fabulous inspiration posted here - thanks for sharing your lovely art and unique cards! Blessings

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  19. What beautiful cards! And I love how quick and easy they are.

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  20. beautiful designs - thanks for the eye candy

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  21. Beautiful cards, love the Scandinavian tree design, my fave!

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  22. Very nice, I especially like the black and white swan card. Very clean and crisp.

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  23. The Santa card is amazing!

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  24. Love your cards but the trees are by far my favorites

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  25. Really big fan of the Swan card I love the monochromatic look, it is simple but also very elegant. The Horse is another of my favorites the colors are gorgeous for him, he is a very happy looking card.

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  26. Wow, wow, wow, you were busy!! They are all fabulous! I think I would have to say that the tree of trio cards at the beginning is my favorite; such a fun and simple design.

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  27. Beautiful! I love all the blue! It's such a peaceful color and I think we could all you a whole lot more peace! Thanks so much for sharing!

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  28. Someone else said it - the more I hop the more I want. You made some fabulous cards.

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  29. Your cards are all amazing as usual, I can't pick a fav, love them all!

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  30. Love your image building with your first cards!! All perfectly aligned!! And your many other inspiring cards are just as beautiful!! I love them ALL!!

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    Replies
    1. The Nativity is stunning and a beautiful story! I've not heard of this Dali horse and will research it. Now wait what? bleach, outstanding background for wintery image. As always... Love your cards and thoughts!

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  31. A wonderful array of cards with this kit and its add ons. I'm so happy I've ordered it!

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  32. All these cards are STUNNING! I especially love the nativity card.

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  33. Wonderful cards. Love the folk art designs and the Joy to the World card.

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  34. Great set of shares. I like the trees.

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  35. Awesome creations! Love the folkart designs!

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  36. Lydia, your cards are amazing! I especially loved your nativity card. On a different note, I just ordered one of Carl Sandburg's books because of you. I can't wait to read it.

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