VIDEO: Drop Shadowing with Layering Die Cuts + Falliday Fest

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It's Falliday Fest time at Splitcoast! We kicked off our two weeks of challenges and tutorials today, so I hope you join us. It's going to be a creative two weeks!

Today, you're getting a sneak peek of the final challenge of the event on the 9th - but there's a twist. And I'm going to torture you by not telling you anything about the challenge - just showing you the card. I'm mean like that! 

Thanksgiving was very quiet, as it's been for a few years. We did a small prime rib roast with a few favorite sides. The best part was - no leftovers! I know that sounds like heresy, but I hate the fridge we bought a few years ago - the configuration is stupid and it doesn't leave a ton of room outside of condiments and staples for leftovers. So if I do have leftovers, they go straight into the freezer. I still have a bit of leftover fried rice, some wings from the weekend and stuff to eat for several days without cooking. 

Speaking of wings, which I LOVE as an upstate NY native - it's basically the only thing I ate in college - I have a recipe for you at the end that is SO VERY GOOD. 

I wanted to show how I like to create drop shadows easily with simple ink blended layering die cuts. This card features my wavy dotted cover plate, these poppy dies and a sentiment from this beachy set.

The background uses Sea Glass ink, and the inks I used for the poppy are: Red Hot, Wild Dandelion, Fresh Asparagus, Licorice and Rocky Slope. I finished with these iridescent rainbow gems.

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Here's the video!

Now I posted the recipe for some BBQ Korean wings at this post, but the real star of that recipe is the Kimchi ranch! This weekend we made classic Buffalo wings (with the extra-hot Franks) and this ranch is SO good with them too! You MUST make it. Now I'm very fish-averse, so I get the vegan kimchi - if you're in Austin, I love the locally made Casper Fermentables vegan kimchi. If not, I also use WildBrine vegan kimchi - so yummy.

It's super easy - just blend up the following.

Kimchi Ranch:

• 1/2 cup kimchi

• 1/2 cup Kewpie mayo

• 1/2 cup sour cream I used Kite Hill vegan sour cream

• 1/4 cup tbsp green onion, minced

I hope you have a great week and come join us for our challenges!

Loveyameanitbye.

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VIDEO: Maine style Northern Lights + Discount Code + Date "Snickers" Recipe

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I have an EASY northern lights technique for you today, inspired by the one and only time I saw them in Maine, where I lived for the summer after my undergrad.

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Before I get started, please note a NEW bigger discount code for Glassboard Studio for you this week - UNDERSTANDBLUE25 will get you 25% off from today until 11/29 at midnight mountain! I ordered scads of new magnets. So don't forget that this week - a glassboard would be a nice Christmas present. Just sayin'. 

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Trust what I say about ink layering when you watch the video! It may not look like it, but there are four inks used to create this card: Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks. 

I used this stamp set and dies, just coloring the little penguin. I splattered the background with white acrylic paint.

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Here's the video:

I had forgotten about one of my fave dairy-free desserts until my BIL made them! Most vegan sites refer to them as "Snickers" and they are so freaking delicious! Just stuff fresh dates - please do not use the Sun Maid dates - get real fresh dates - with unsweetened peanut butter and salted roasted chopped peanuts, and coat in dairy free melted chocolate (I use Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips) and more chopped peanuts. Absolutely decadent, despite being a very clean, non-factory food :)

Here they are before coating

Here they are before popping in the fridge to set the chocolate:

I used to make these for holiday parties and they disappear in SECONDS.

Dates are very underrated.

What are you cooking next week?

Loveyameanitbye.

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A Few Thoughts on Rules + Winter Squash Card & Recipe!

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Something very strange is happening to people's brains.

This probably isn't news to you, if you consume media of any kind. There's some feral-ness about. But in particular, something odd is happening around rules and how they apply. 

I belong to a LOT of groups. One of my favorite groups is a squirrel group. My next favorite groups are centered around cooking and true crime. 

I think there's a perception out there that the true crime community is somehow more difficult than other communities and I'm here to tell you it is NOT. 

No matter what the interest group, people are very, very strange about rules. 

I am the youngest child, and a Virgo, and so rules are a big deal to me - especially in other people's spaces. For example, if you go to someone's house and are asked to take off your shoes - I would never DREAM of saying no to that request. I'd sooner leave than break someone else's rule in their space, and I'm CERTAINLY built with the boundaries and sass to leave if a rule makes me uncomfortable. That's just as important. Because if you go to someone's house and they ask you to take off your UNDERWEAR, obviously, that rule would lead to a hasty exit. 

But it sure seems like all that has gone out the window lately. People come into groups that are not their own, agree to the rules, break them, and then make a HUGE scene, often threatening the admins or calling them terrible names before getting kicked out. I've seen this in squirrel groups - one vegan cheese group that gave me PTSD, and in groups centered around appliances like the Instant Pot and Foodie air fryer. I'm not kidding. It's weird. 

So what has changed? What makes people feel comfortable breaking basic rules that hold communities together and keep things civil and comfortable for other humans? I'm someone who believes you are the same person online that you are in real life. I do not believe social media makes people bad. I do think it enables bad people to do more bad in bad places, but that's not what I'm seeing. To me it feels like some social contract has been broken, and I'm trying to figure out the why, when and where of that. 

For all these reasons, art is very important. Art is a place where there are no rules. It's just you and your tools. I have wondered if maybe not enough people have a space where no rules apply and they can have all the freedom they can stand to create, and because they don't have that, they feel the need to yell at people in vegan cheese groups. I guess that's one of the reasons I feel like it's important to teach art, and to teach it early in life. So people have somewhere to go when they have intense feelings about cheese. 

Anyway - you know what's great? Winter squash. Of ALL kinds. Not only is it one of my fave foods, it's one of my fave art subjects. Pumpkins are beautiful shapes to paint, draw and practice shading with. So today I have an art pumpkin and a soup recipe!

First up - the pumpkin fairy house dies, which I colored simply with OLO Markers and put together on an ink blended background with this sentiment. I added a bit of Posca pen. It's hard to see in this pic - but the spots on the pumpkin are embossed with the die. I added some dark shadows before putting the die cuts down - it gives it such a nighttime feel! LOVE. Makes me want to work on a real fairy house. 

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Here's a quick stop motion of the process. There was nothing complicated about the coloring, so I thought just a quick video would be fun. 

One of the BEST soups I've eaten in a long time is creamy, vegan butternut squash soup with warming spices. The trick of using cashews to replace dairy has been so life-changing for me. It's depressing sometimes not being able to just have cheese and crackers, but little tricks like this for things I LOVE to cook like soup makes up for all that! Here's how beautiful it looks in my blue Staub pot I recently bought in a HUGE sale. It has a glass lid, so it's great for soups. This was a recent purchase, and I feel like all the pandemic cooking taught me just how important it is to INVEST in great cookware. I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff I thought was a bargain at the time, only to realize I should have just spent that money once and well, rather than over and over. 

I'm a subscriber to New York Times cooking, and it's worth every penny. But this was one of their free recipes, and you can find it and my modifications here. 

Try that cashew trick any time a dish calls for cream. You won't be sorry. 

Loveyameanitfollowtheruleswithoutcomplainingbye.

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Be a Light!

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I have SUCH a fun lightup gift card holder for you today! You can't just go making fun dies and not expect me to do something weird with them though - I think we all know that. My brain just isn't right.

I looked at this beautiful set of lantern dies, and immediately put this together in my mind - the shapes are so harmonious and pretty AND because they form a lantern when you cut two of them - with that tab - the tab works perfectly to seal  the holder! SQUEE!

The beautiful stained glass die for the front panel - I ink blended two panels and cut with the die twice from those, and pieced it together. The little lamb and stars I cut with glitter paper and pieced all but the light up star that I put an EZ Light behind. I popped that up with clear dimensional tape so the light would escape - you can see the video of that below.

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Here's how it lights up! (and how it looks closed)

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Want to see more with these beautiful lanterns?

There's a blog hop today with lots of inspo!

You can win a $25 gift card to Scrappy Tails or Pear Blossom Press by leaving a comment at each stop. 

Scrappy Tails Blog

Cassie Trask 

Bethany Grace 

Daniel West

Estelle Palumbo 

Lydia Fiedler

Brenda Noelke

Koren Wiskman

Kari VanNoy
Sharon Luska

Lauren Taylor 

Desiree Kuemmerle 

Pear Blossom Press

Loveyameanitbye.

VIDEO: Faux Patina with 3D Embossing Folders

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Hello friends! I'm digging out an old favorite today - a faux patina tile look, but in like the fifth different way that I've tried for this look. It seems like there are an endless number of ways to get this done, so I just keep trying. 

The original version, which is an older Splitcoast tutorial you can see here, has you ink the embossing folder on one side, which leaves you beautiful highlights to add color to. But I was using this awesome, large 3D embossing folder that really looks like tile, and I wanted a more blended look, and I also wanted to do a little scientific experiment with both the embossed and debossed sides using the same technique. You'll see the whole thing in the video, but the inks are: Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers, Vintage Photo and Juicy Embossing Ink. I used two dies to finish - the layered sentiments die and this awesome layering die - I actually left the dies on the packaging just as they came to get perfect layering! Yes, it works! The cardstock is my pre-cut and scored white base, Pitch Black and gold glitter paper. 

Stay tuned below the video for a PHENOMENAL new recipe.

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Here's the video!

Okay so this week - y'all know I don't know how to use the TV. Everything I look at is on my computer, and the Other is in charge of the TV. So we watch a lot of cooking videos, and one was suggested (almost never works out for us) that we decided to try and HOLY COW was it good! Oh my word. The guy is from Romania, and I have to tell you - which you already know from reading my recipe notes, it's VERY rare for me to find a recipe that doesn't need tweaking. Some are poorly written, some have obvious problems with seasonings or measurements - it really is a skill to write an excellent restaurant. 

He did not give a name to this recipe so I don't know if this is a dish that is a cultural icon in Romania, but if not, it should be. One big disclaimer - I do not like pork except for bacon. I gave this a try because I always like to try a recipe before changing it, but I will make it next time with chuck roast instead because I just prefer beef. But that being said - everything about this was phenomenal - and the pork was tender and the sauce was stellar. If you like pork, you'll just fall over. So yummy. TRUST THE INGREDIENTS. If you don't eat any meat at all, I think this sauce would be incredible with portabellos, over mashed potatoes or on anything, really. I served this with mashed cauliflower, which I sub for potatoes a lot. SO yummy. Here it is with my notes. I hope you try it. I transcribed it from his video because it's not on his site yet - there's a link to his video as well - I recommend watching it first.

Loveyameanitbye.

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BOCK, BOCK, OINK!

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I think one of the first full stamp sets I bought was a farm-themed set. I've never had my own farm, but if I had won the Powerball, I would definitely have a farm FULL of animals. My grandfather's family had chickens, and other members of his family farm in North Dakota. My dad's best friend had a farm as well. It's just something I love, so I snap up farm animal sets.

Today I have two cards with the same farm set. This first card was so much fun. I like using dye inks on watercolor paper, because if you smoosh the ink pad on glass instead of a craft mat, it goes onto the paper a little differently, and you can really see the texture of the paper itself. I used Wild Lilac, Key Lime and Blue Raspberry. Then I colored the rooster and chick with OLO markers, and created shadows. When I was done, I looked at it and thought I had made it look like the rooster was saying to the chick - "are you really my son?" :D 

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I LOVE the pigs in this set too - there's a pair of them - I love it when companies do that so that characters can face each other, etc. I love the modular fence too - just stamp it multiple times to extend the length!

I used that as the basis of my scene, and drew in Charlotte, her web and her "some pig" message. 

Then I colored the grass, pig and shadows with OLO Markers, after ink blending the sky with Sea Glass. SUCH a cute scene.

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I hope you are having a good Tuesday. I'll have a new video for you tomorrow! :)

Loveyameanitbye.

Winter Black + Giveaway

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I spent the weekend, as did many of you, at the Hero Arts Holiday Stamp-Along, and I was SO excited that the first and last cards were black holiday cards. It’s just oh so elegant! I think black isn’t used enough for Christmas. So I decided to start out today with a black tag with the new kit! The kit is FULL of tag dies for little scenic tag dies, and all of them can be mixed and matched, so that’s what I did. I focused on the critters in the kit because they are so tiny and beautiful, so for the tag, I used the base tag shape in black. There’s a little die that cuts a snowdrift, so I used that and the stars with holographic paper - IT IS SO SHINY AND COLORFUL! I arranged the little shooting star part to be centered over the ribbon hole so that I could slide the ribbon under it. The deer I originally also cut from holographic cardstock, but they needed more contrast, so I re-cut them in white and I love the way this looks. It looks like a super professional high end tag for a fancy present. You know - like a powerball ticket. :)

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Here's what the full kit looks like! Look at all the separate dies!

The rest of the release has more tag dies or tag friendly dies that you can also use on cards. This die set has both a tree and a stocking, so I created a little watercolor forest by cutting the tree from this mixed media paper three times, and smooshing it into three colors of Hero Hues reactive ink. When they were dry, I made little ornament with gold Pearls. I like that you can control the size since it’s a squeeze bottle.

Finally, my little heat map card from my sneak peek yesterday. This is going to be my main Christmas card, so I will make multiples of this to send out - it’s so easy and fun and just uses simple masked ink blending and two of the tiny tag dies - the sweet little fox and a tree. Heat maps are a graphical way to show lots of things - you’re probably most used to seeing them in relation to weather, and particularly hurricanes. But in my job, we use them to analyze what people are looking at and interacting with on a website or an email. Red = high activity and blue = low activity. But I’m always distracted by how beautiful they are with all the mixing of primaries. The sentiment is from the main kit. 

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Here are all the add-ons - see the little string of lights that goes with the tree die I used?

Of course we have giveaways today! Just leave me a comment to be entered to win a $50 gift card!

The winner will be announced HERE the week of the 21st.

And PS - this weekend they announced a Valentine Stamp-Along! Sign up for that here for early bird pricing.

Hero Arts
Hero Arts Creative Team 

Channin Pelletier
Dana Joy
Daniel West
Emily Midgett
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Kelly Taylor
Libby Hickson
 💙Lydia Fiedler💙
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Pocono Pam
Seeka
Hero Arts Global Team: 

Anna Mahtani
Jen Kray
Michelle Lupton
Special Guests: 

Jennifer Kotas
Kelly Lunceford
Meg Brooks
Nichol Spohr
Rebecca Keppel

Loveyameanitbye.

Christmas in 3... 2... 1!

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Okay - is it just me, or was this October the LONGEST month ever? I swear it feels like it's been three months since the last My Monthly Hero Kit! 

I'm super excited about this one that's coming Monday because it has tiny scenic dies, which is pretty much my favorite. Throw in a FOX on top of that, and I'm sold. 

So today I have a sneaky peeky that I did in a heatmap style - just masking and ink blending and then adding the adorable little die cuts. 

If you like tags, this month is going to be your jam as you will see in the other peeks here. 

So fun. I'll be back with tags on Monday. In the meantime, enjoy this delicious soup I made tonight! This recipe with notes was shared by my friend Bev - link to original in title - my notes as always are in red.

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See you Monday! Check out the rest here or by clicking the photo!

Loveyameanitbye.

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VIDEO: Creating Perspective With Layering Dies + Clean Craft Room

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I did not make ANYTHING this weekend because I spent all day Saturday cleaning my office and I wanted it to stay that way for a day! Do you ever do that? It's usually pretty short lived, so I thought it was worth a day of a pristine desk. 

I'm trying to get back to the Marie Kondo mode I was in before 2020 hit. There are two closets I need to do, and then get rid of some furniture we don't use. I have a GORGEOUS dining room table from Ethan Allen that has maybe been used three times? SO impractical. Why do we buy thing you "have" to have even though you don't invite twelve people over for dinner? So dumb. So if you live in Austin and want to buy a stunning dining room table and chairs and you DO have twelve people over for dinner, let me know!

So everything I'm showing you today I made a few weeks ago when our first cold snap hit. 

You'll see me me make this whole card in the video, so I won't go over every detail, but what I loved about it is the beautiful cardinal and foliage dies gave me the ability to create background and foreground perspective with layering dies. It's REALLY fun. And it's watercolor, so that always makes me happy. I'll teach you how to make the clouds as well. 

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I also love a good Christmas angel! For this one, you will not believe this, but when I used this background die that debosses and cuts, and rubbed it with this new gold ink, I then used a WHOLE QUARTER sheet of this disco ball paper I've been hoarding! A WHOLE QUARTER SHEET. I feel like I should get an award. It's sooo sparkly. I used it for the halo of the angel as well. I stamped the angel in gold ink on gold foil, embossed it with gold embossing powder and then cut it with the matching dies. Such a subdued card.

The last one - I had to use the Nordic looking layering stencil in blue and pink - overlapping the inks a bit to get a blue violet. Such a fun winter pattern! Then I stamped this bear and his little friend, coloring him with OLO markers and even reflecting the chick color onto his face.

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So here's the watercolor video and be sure & check out the giveaway on my channel.

Loveyameanitbye.