A Christmas Scene for Stay Crafty with Hero

Not quite Christmas in July but, hey, I need to build that stash of Christmas cards! Hero Arts posted its latest Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge to build a scene - I love it!

Here's my card:

Supplies: Paper - DCWV A2 card; Neenah white and black

Stamps: Hero Arts CM119 Holiday Cheer, CL541 Snowman Christmas, 

CL800 Frosty Wishes, & DI36 Thank You Messages Frame cuts (all retired),

and CM379 Hero Greetings Christmas Messages

Other - Copic Markers; Stickles; Joy ultra thin foam tape

Hero Arts black gems and Intense Black ink

I really got a chuckle from Daniel's post on the HA blog for this challenge. He used an oodle of sets on his card - hey, maybe that should be the challenge - use at least 5 or more sets! While I have a lot of Hero Arts stamps perfect for scene-building, I started with a fun snowman set without any scene elements. I liked it so much when HA released it in 2013, I bought two sets of the dies just so I could cut two twig arms at the same time! Funny thing, this time I used no dies and the big snowman has no arms!!

When I opened my stamp set, a bunch of little masks fell out. I remembered doing a crowd scene with snowmen for a Merry Monday challenge back in 2017 (see it here if desired). I decided a trio of snowmen with a little house behind might be fun. Luckily I had saved a sample panel for arrangement of the snowmen, making it very easy to set up on the MISTI. I stamped the scarf, masked it, then stamped the two smaller snowmen. Added masks to the two snowmen and stamped the big one. Stamped the house, masked it and stamped the trees. It was a bit rough over the stitched rectangle I'd already cut so I filled it as needed with pen & pencils. Stamped the hills and removed masks. Ugh - didn't like the lower hill so I carefully trimmed around the bottom of the snowmen, hand cutting hills on either side. Die cut a second white panel, traced the cut hills on the back and carefully trimmed them. Added black line to the main piece and glued to a black mat, then added the new trimmed piece onto it. Boo-boo fixed!! Colored everything and added stickles to the snow lines. Had stamped and die cut a hat for big snowman - didn't like it. Spotted a birdy in the set with the two smaller snowmen & decided he would look cute atop big snowman's head! Colored him &, since his beak was open like he was speaking, he got a speech bubble with the sentiment. Woo hoo - used 5 sets, even though that wasn't my goal....

Thanks to Daniel for the scene inspiration (really amazing!) and to Hero Arts for the challenge!! You can play along until Thursday June 25th at 5pm PT for a random chance to win a prize - I'd love to see your scenes! Thanks for stopping and I'll see you in blogland!