Hello crafty friends! It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I took a small break to spend some much needed time with my husband, who has been on the road for work while I care for our new(ish) puppy at home. Also, I got to spend time with family I hadn’t seen for months, and some, even years since we moved to Georgia from Minnesota a few years ago. After this little break from the craft room, it seems that now I’m bursting at the seams with not only creativity but with new product as well. I started with this amazing August My Monthly Hero kit form Hero Arts. I’ll be sharing four cards using the products included in this kit, starting with these two mountain scenes. Both cards feature the included landscape dies using colored cardstock with either a pop-up or unique fold feature. I used a traditional color palette for one and a monochromatic blue palette for the other. These were so much fun to make and I think I played with the elements in this kit for at least a week! I hope you like these scenes as much as I do. You can find all the details below, thanks for stopping by my happy, happy place!

STEPS

1.) This first card features the pop-up element. I used two accordion-folded pieces for the dimensional feature so that the trees and grassy field really pop off the background. I modified this full-frame version recently shared by Jennifer McGuire. I cut my light blue background piece (the sky), 6 1/4 x (H) 5 1/2 inches. So, two inches wider than a portrait A2 card. Then, from both width sides, I scored it at 1/4″, 1/2″ and 1″. After folding on the scored lines with a bone folder, I snipped just the accordion-folded sides at about 2″ from the bottom, trimming the rest from the length of the panel. I didn’t need them running the entire length of the card since the trees and grassy field were the only areas I wanted to pop-up from the background.

2.) So, now I have my background panel with short accordion-folded pieces just at the bottom on both sides. Next, I die cut all the landscape pieces I was planning on using from some scrap paper. I used these to get a rough idea of where my pieces would lay in the scene. This is when I decided I wanted to add an additional layer, the water. I die cut the mountains from brown and ivory cardstock. I fussy cut some snowy caps from the ivory piece and glued it to the brown mountain die cut before attaching the whole piece to my background. Then, using a curvy hillside border die, I die cut blue cardstock for the water and attached that to the bottom of the mountains, ensuring the piece was cut to fit the rest of the panel. You can see this gives the card a more finished look if you peek inside to the pop-up mechanics.

3.) Next, I die cut the trees from green cardstock and cut the bottom long enough to fit the rest of the card, similar to what I did for the water. Then, from a bright chartreuse cardstock, I die cut the grassy field. Before attaching this piece to the bottom of the trees, I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment with black ink.

4.) Now, it was time to attach the trees/grassy field to the accordion-folded pieces. Applying glue to just the first 1/4″ scored fold on both accordion pieces, I lined up the back edges of the trees/grassy fields to attach this final piece and placed a few stamp blocks on top for some weight while the glue dried. By applying the glue to just this first 1/4″ fold really helps with how the card sits. There is no bowing or curving of your panels. Jennifer explains this in her YouTube video for this technique(link above). I’ve tried quite a few pop-up techniques and without using specialty dies, this is by far the easiest and, I think, gives the best results. Plus the card will lay flat for easier mailing.

5.) The last steps were to attach everything to a black side-fold card base that I lined with a white panel inside for writing a personal message. This card base is slightly bigger than A2 so I will use an A6 envelope when mailing. Then, I added an orange sun and a little red heart for the final touches.

PRODUCTS AND SUPPLIES

I used a variety of different cardstocks from multiple companies
Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Premium August 2023
Hero Arts Happy Birthday Sentiment from Apron Stamp & Cut
Hero Arts Nesting Circle Infinity Dies
Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders
Hero Arts Intense Black Ink
Spellbinders Platinum Die Cutting And Embossing Machine
We R Makers Quickstik Precision Pickup and Placement Tool
Sizzix Curved Fine-Tip Tweezers
Waffle Flower 6.5×8.5 Grip Mat
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue
Lawn Fawn Bone Folder
Trinity Stamps Candy Apple Heart Sprinkle Embellishment

STEPS

1.) This card features a unique front-fold in addition to being a traditional top-fold card. I started with 8 1/2 x (H) 5 1/2 inch piece of my lightest blue cardstock, which will be the background sky and the front grassy field. I made one score line in the middle at 4 1/2″ and folded it with a bone folder. Using the grassy field landscape die, I die cut to the left of the scored fold line, being sure that the very edge of the die by the fold line wasn’t under the cutting plate. That way the grassy field ends at the fold line instead of cutting through it.

2.) Next, I die cut the mountains in a medium blue and twice in white cardstock. I used one of the white die cuts to fussy cut a snowy cap for the mountains like the previous card, attached it to the blue mountain die cut, and set the other white die cut aside for now. Then, I die cut the tree line twice, once in the darkest blue cardstock and once in white. I also die cut the grassy field again, this time in white. The reason I die cut everything in white as well is so that I could attach them to the backs of each one, slightly offset, to provide a subtle white highlight to the landscape pieces.

3.) The next step was to heat emboss the sentiments in white, one on the front grassy field and one on the inside tree layer. I then attached all the pieces to the background panel, starting with the mountains then adding the trees. I glued the white grassy field die cut to the back of the front fold piece, offsetting it a bit. And because it is offset, I had to trim it a bit to fit. After attaching everything to the background panel, there was some added bulk to the fold line so the front grassy flap wasn’t quite reaching the other edge of the card. To fix this, I just trimmed the right side of the card a bit. There were a lot of layers to cut through but I finally got through them with a really sharp scissors!

4.) Finally, after attaching everything to a medium blue top-fold card base, I added a moon to the background and a little white heart to the front panel.

PRODUCTS AND TOOLS

I used a variety of different cardstocks from multiple companies
Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Premium August 2023
Hero Arts Nesting Circle Infinity Dies
Hero Arts White Detail Embossing Powder
Versamark Clear Embossing and Watermark Ink
Spellbinders Platinum Die Cutting And Embossing Machine
We R Makers Quickstik Precision Pickup and Placement Tool
Sizzix Curved Fine-Tip Tweezers
Tim Holtz Tonic Craft Shears
Tim Holtz Tonic Craft Mini Snips
Waffle Flower 6.5×8.5 Grip Mat
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue
Lawn Fawn Bone Folder