April Christmas card: Home for the holidays

I'm finally starting to get back a hint of crafty mojo. So when I sat down to make cards today, I figured I'd better take care of my April Christmas cards before it disappeared again.

I wanted to use the November 2019 My Monthly Hero kit from Hero Arts, which is still available on the Hero Arts site (as of April 16, 2020). I didn't have a chance to use the kit last Christmas because my cards were already done at that point, but I did use it to create a cute non-holiday card (see the card with the sleeping cat and dog near the middle of my 1,000th blog post.) I love all the stamps in the kit, but for this month's Christmas card design I decided to focus on a few of the dies:

Supplies:
Stamps: My Monthly Hero November 2019 kit (Hero Arts)
Paper: Whisper White, thick Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Shaded Spruce card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Crushed Curry (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Blending brush (Picket Fence Studios), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!), Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal)

The kit includes a large die that cuts out this front door scene, which is sized perfectly for an A2 card. I've seen many beautiful cards that added color to the door die cut, but I knew starting out that I wanted to leave it white. I wasn't in the mood to do a lot of coloring, especially not when I was planning to make multiples of the cards. So I did a quick online search for some inspiration and found a gorgeous card by designer Emily Midgett. I loved Emily's card, and it was very similar to what I had in mind, so I used that as my starting point.

I cut the door panel and topiaries out of white card stock, the tiny envelopes out of Cherry Cobbler, and the wreath out of Shaded Spruce. I punched out a few pieces on the door panel, tucked two envelopes in the mail slot (I secured them with a tiny drop of glue), and then applied Scor-Tape across the back of the door panel. (The door die is designed so the door opens for more creative options.) I blended Crushed Curry ink on a thick white card base behind the openings in the door panel and then adhered the panel to the card base. I stamped "Welcome" on the doormat using Cherry Cobbler ink and used Dimensionals to attach a wreath and two topiaries to each card.

I hope you are staying safe and healthy during this pandemic. I'm starting to wonder when things will go back to "normal" -- and what "normal" will even look like. Thanks so much for stopping by today!