Hero Arts Blog Hop │ My Monthly Hero Kit featuring Kelly Purkey

EDIT: Hi everyone, when this post and this kit went up for sale yesterday the Hero Arts website was blown up with eager customers. Because of that the site went down for a bit. The kits are still available and because of the issues yesterday Hero Arts is going to give away 3 of the My Monthly Hero Kits with the winners being selected from all of the blog hop comments. So make sure you leave comments below and on the other blogs for a chance to win. The contest closes Sunday, December 13th at 11:59 EST. You can read more on this post here.

Hello Everyone! I'm so excited to be participating in a blog hop today in celebration of the latest My Monthly Hero kit from Hero Arts. This kit was designed by Kelly Purkey and its a great kit for starting the coming New Year off right.

The full kit contains two 2.5" x 6" stamp sets, 3 mini neon ink daubers in pink, yellow & orange, 4 badges designed by Kelly, all packaged in Kelly's 4" x 6" wallet insert. The kit costs $29.99 and it is available right now today Monday, December 7th at Noon EST time on the Hero Arts site. You can find the kit right here and its only available for a short time and once they are gone, they are gone. I will tell you that they usually sell out very quickly so make sure you act fast. Here is a detailed shot of the main My Monthly Hero kit this month, I mean how cute are those little mini ink daubers! 

There is also an add-on 3" x 3" stamp set to purchase separately for $5.99 which is perfect for creating your monthly budget.

Because I love to set goals for myself, especially in the new year I made myself a little tracking sheet that I can insert in my planner or keep out on my desk so I see it every day. 

I started with a blank piece of 5.5" x 8.5" white paper, I like to use 32# paper when I make inserts for my planner. Its a lot thicker than standard copy paper and it holds up really well to daily use inside a planner. Because its a bit thicker ink doesn't bleed thru to the back side so you can easily make this double sided and still be fine.

One thing I like to do when I'm making something like this is adhere it down to my work surface so it doesn't move around. My work table has a mat on it that has measured 1/4" grid lines and I can use the grid lines to line everything up as I stamp. Keeping it secured down really makes sure everything stays true and square.

Once I had done that I just started at the top and worked my way down adding the stamps in as I went. I used the two stamps sets that come in the My Monthly Hero kit for this and only added in one other stamp set, Kelly's outline alpha stamp that was released awhile back. I used this to stamp the year. I added in a strip of washi tape to help separate the section and got to work stamping my check off circles.

I love this stamp and I love that the tiny days of the week fit inside perfectly. I used two shades of grey ink so that the circles were faint but the days of the week were a bit darker. When the time comes my plan is to use the ink daubers to mark off the days that I actually accomplished my goals. To eat healthy, to exercise, to craft and to have fun!

I added in the labels for each section and then had fun dressing up each section with some of the cute phrases. I loved that there are some really cute ones to compliment the goals. I think the Eat More Donuts is my fave.

At the bottom I added one last strip of washi tape stamped in one last sentiment and a few stamped stars. I can't wait to see all the circles fill in as the weeks progress and when its full I can just make another one and continue on my journey to meet my goals. 

I hope this gives you and idea of what you can do with these stamps, I for one cannot wait to see what the other amazing ladies have made so make sure you continue on the blog hop and see all of the other projects. Here is a list of all the blogs so you can check them out.

Hero Arts

Kelly Purkey

Krista Wells

Yana Smakula

Barbara Picinich ← this is me 

Suzanne Dahlberg

Libby Hickson

Remember that once these kits are gone, they are gone and will not be restocked so make sure you act quickly!

I'd like to thank the folks at Hero Arts for asking me to participate in another blog hop, it's always super fun to get to create something like this and working with this kit was no exception.

Thanks for stopping by!

December Daily® 2015 │ The Beginning

Its that time of year, December Daily® time! I'm a little late getting started this year because I was busy on a really big project that I'll share more about next week. That being said I didn't start any work on my album until December 3rd. I'm okay with that because for the last few years I haven't done any foundation pages in advance so I knew I would be okay but it just didn't feel right watching the days tick away and not working on this project. I sat down this past Thursday afternoon and made myself start. Its always super hard to start but by the time I had the second day done I was feeling the groove come back.

My plan this year is that I have no plan. How's that for a plan! I decided at the 11th hour to change albums. Not because I didn't love the sequin Kelly Purkey album that I had picked out but because I found a Gold Studio Calico album that I really loved too. I decided to save the sequin album for another project and went with the gold. I couldn't wait to get started decorating the cover, like I love to do but man did it prove to be difficult. The metallic gold is super metallic and nothing I put on the front looked right. In fact what I'm about to share as my title page was originally on the cover but it just didn't seem right. It seemed like too much and this year I wasn't feeling like 'too much' was the right path to take. So I think that this years album just might be my first where the cover remains plain. As the month progresses I might come up with an idea and if things change I'll be sure to share it.

Enter the title page, that really does look that much better on a white background than a shiny gold one.

The cut file is from the Silhouette store, you can find it here. It comes with two layers, one to bend up and one to lay flat. I did enlarge the outer edge of the file so that the branch would be a bit thicker, I felt it would need more stability. I opted to glitter the edges of the top leaves and just a few of the bottom leaves. I used Glossy Accents to apply the glue and the skinny applicator tip made it super easy to get a precise fine line. The glitter I used is Champagne from Recollections at Michaels. The banner is also a cut file from Silhouette, it comes in this set. I scanned an old alpha set that I have because I loved the font and then re-cut it on my cameo in the size I wanted from red paper from my stash. The rubber December Daily Banner came with Ali's main kit. The woodgrain cardstock that I used for the back and the wreath is one of my favorites. Studio Calico used to sell it and you can find it here and there but this is the exact paper if you are curious.

Here it is full size front facing as it looks in the album. I LOVE it!

I then set out to make Day 1 and let me tell you, total and utter creative block. It happens every time I work on this project. Its numbing sometimes coming up with just the right way to start. I guess I feel like whatever I do on day one is going to set the tone for the whole project and I really want to make sure its something that I love. I know that is me 100% over thinking it but it is what it is and I can't change it so I just embrace it and know that day one is going to take awhile. 

Day one has historically been about her Advent Calendar and it typically always includes some sort of letter from me to her. I kept the rest of the spread super simple, just two photos, a number, the letter and a filler card from In A Creative Bubble. The gold alpha is from my stash and its a Thicker but I don't know which one. The red stars are from last years main kit. I decided to make myself a set of numbers this year because I like a uniform number set in this album and I didn't really get one from the kits that was what I wanted. I used this cut file from Silhouette. I cut them from a gold foil cardstock from Michael's and added a backing of vellum cut a bit larger because I wanted them to be see thru but not totally transparent. They are about 2" in diameter and so far I love how they are looking.

Day 2 was all about getting our tree which actually happened in November. Like I've said over and over in these posts I don't care that it didn't happen on the 2nd its part of the story and that's all that matters to me.

It was a beautiful day when we went to get our tree and the minute we walked in to the lot Simone wanted to take some jumping pictures. They turned out super cute and paired with the Be Joyful rubber banner from Ali's Main Kit it was perfect. I kept the rest super simple adding in a journaling card that I made using a digital stamp from Studio Calico Wink Wink kits and two photos.

Day three is super simple, the last day of my Mom's visit and the picture I took of them turned out too cute not to use. I typed my journaling right on top of the photo before printing which is always my favorite thing to do. I loved the song lyric paper from Ali's main kit and while it references friends it still holds true for family so in it went. I loved how this sheet of paper from the Ashley Goldberg mini kit paired with it. I added a few simple stars and a stamp from an old Kelly Purkey set and called it done.

Day four was one that I was really looking forward to working on. I'm a huge fan so when I heard this Christmas Special was happening my calendar was marked for the release.

I opted to make it a single page but wanted to include lots of photos so I decided to just clip them all together and make it more interactive. The giant gold clip is from Pebbles and the photos are all still shots I found online for the special and one I took of my hot cocoa. I added a simple bow with some red and white twine to add some color and typed my journaling and printed it right on to a sheet from Ali's main kit. I forgot to leave room for the hole punches so one word got punched over. If I end up buying the digital version of the papers and cards I will probably redo this but if I don't it will stay as is. I cut down the transparency sheet mainly because the hole punches don't line up with the album I'm using and because I liked the look of it a bit more narrow.

In order to keep the clip in place when the photos are removed for flipping thru I cut a little slit in the paper to slip the back of the paper clip into. I then adhered this sheet of paper to the back side of the previous day making sure not to to put adhesive in this spot. Now the clip stays put and I just need to slip the photos back in.

Here are all of the images clipped into the clip. The one of the mug is mine the rest are from the show that I found online, printed for my personal use only and I don't claim at all that they are mine. But I love them and I loved the show so I wanted to include them.

So that brings me up to date, such a relief! I'll post more as I make them sometimes daily if I have time and sometimes in batches like this.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season!

Featuring Kelly Purkey │ November Release

Hello everyone, its been a super crazy month and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Kelly Purkey's latest release is live today! She has moved her shop to a new home you can find it right here. This is her first release in the new shop and I think you are going to love the shopping experience there. Plus because its Cyber Monday everything is on sale!

I've made two things so far with the new release and I want to share them with you. This first layout is something I always love to do at the end of each year and while going thru my photo stream looking for the best of the best photo wise I decided to focus on my favorite selfies.

I combined two new items for this layout, the Best of 2015 mini kit and the Greenpoint Alpha. I'm a huge fan of grid layouts and for this one I wasn't quite sure what size to make the photos so I just went with 1.25" square. I printed out about 60 photos and ended up using 40 of them. I also added in a few squares cut from the mini kit cards and added in as many stamps as I could. The title was made using the Greenpoint alpha and I just opted to leave it black. I love the graphic quality of this font and its so simple it will be a favorite for sure.

I raised up the squares I cut from the cards so it added a bit of dimension and just like that it was done. I hope you try making a layout like this. Its so much fun to look back at all the crazy selfies that you take and its super fun to get them all laid out on a layout.

My second project also featured a card and stamps from the Best of 2015 set and the Greenpoint Alpha

This was a super simple and relatively quick layout to put together. The most time consuming part was cropping and editing the photos so they would fit inside the stamped boxes on the card. I love how this looks and it gave me a chance to add in a few more photos to this layout.

Adding in more of the Greenpoint Alpha for the title work and a few pattern paper accents and it was done. This layout will slip right into my Project Life® album and it can even be paired with a pocket page for the last week of the season. I still haven't completed that yet but I love that this is already done for me.

There was one last stamp set this month, the Hot Mess set that I haven't had a chance to use yet but its so funny and so sassy that I cannot wait to use it with just the right photos.

Kelly has also added in some fun new washi tapes and travelers notebooks to the shop so make sure you check those out too. This one is my favorite.

I hope you enjoy these new releases and don't forget to update your bookmarks to Kelly's new shop address at kellypurkeyshop.com.

See you soon,

Course Contributor │ Elle's Studio

I'm so happy to share that I was asked to be a course contributor for Elle's Studio this month. Each Month Elle's Studio launches a special kit and there is an accompanying course sharing inspiration from three different ladies. This month Emily Spahn is sharing a scrapbook layout, Jennifer Ingle is sharing cards and I am sharing a Pocket Page spread.

Included with the course are 9 pages full of tips, techniques, and fun ideas using the November kit and coordinating extras, with projects highlighting concepts that can easily be transformed to fit any type of project you are working on! This class comes as a downloadable PDF file and will only be available until November 30th, 2015, so don’t miss it! 

I just loved working on this spread and as you can see below the kit is super, super cute and covers not just Christmas but Thanksgiving memories too.

There are some cute extra items as well

And some super cute printables and digital files that I used on my spread.

I can't share the spread that I made but I can share this little sneak peek of it. I will say that this spread is definitely at the top of my list of favorites that I have made this year.

I hope you check out the Course and thanks again to Elle's Studio for having me as a contributor. Working on these types of projects is always super fun for me and getting a chance to work with new and different products always gets my inspiration flowing.

See you soon,