Crafted by Nicole LeBlanc

Spreading happiness... one card at a time.

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Archives for May 2021

Ombre Paper Piecing a slimline card with scrapbook.com exclusive products

Hi Crafty friends! Today, I am going to show you how I made this fun ombre, leaf background using some scrapbook.com exclusive products. This project is in collaboration with scrapbook.com. Thank you so much to scrapbook.com for generously providing me the stamps, dies, slimline paper pad, and pops of color that you will see in action in this post.

slimline love you card made with scrapbook.com exclusive products

If you would like to see a video on how this project was made, click here:

I began this project by stamping my leaf image from the spring springs stamp set in black ink on a piece of cardstock trimmed to 3.5×8.5 inches. Once I was happy with my pattern, I stamped out a couple of the same images from each of the colors of paper in the slimline warm paper pad. My next step was to fussy cut out all of the colored leaves. For the sentiment, I used the tall skinny alphabet dies to cut out the sentiment “love you” from the darkest cardstock in the paper pad and some white cardstock.

I adhered the leaves to the white panel in rainbow order starting with the yellow leaves on one end of the panel using some scrapbook.com mini smart craft glue. This paper pad made it easy to ensure that all my colors would look good together and it also made it easy for me to keep the colors in rainbow order, as I just followed the pattern on the cover of the paper pad. Once all my leaves were adhered, I trimmed out the panel using a die from the slimline nested rounded rectangles. I also die cut a slightly larger rectangle from the darkest cardstock in the pack.

For my card base, I used a slimline neenah solar white card base also from scrapbook.com. I adhered the card panels together using a mix of foam tape and scrapbook.com permanent adhesive roller.

To embellish my card, I added a mix of some orange sherbet pops of color to my white panel and clear shimmer glitter brush marker to the sentiment.

slimline “love you” card featuring scrapbook.com excludive products

Disclaimer: This post features affiliate links. They are at no cost to you and they help to support this site. Thank you so much for scrapbook.com for generously providing the dies, slimline paper pack, pops of color and stamp set used for this card project.

Stamping with minc toner ink to make beautiful foiled cards

Lately I have been dreaming of all the beautiful new hot foil products on the market. At this time, I don’t have a hot foil machine, so I thought it would be fun to pull out my Heidi Swapp Minc Machine and play with some toner ink to get a similar beautiful foiled looks.

If you would like to see a video on how I made this project, please click here

I began my card project by starting my floral images using the Choose Hope stencils. Floral images were colored using a combination of Catherine Pooler Blender brushes and some Pinkfresh Studio mini ink cubes in the colors Mint, Meadow, Ballet Slipper, Sparkling Rose, Bubble Gum, Peach Fuzz, Apricot and Clementine. I used my new Wendy Vecchi Stay-tion to hold my stencils in place (and I have to say, I loved it!) Once my images were colored, I stamped the outline image from the coordinating stamp set using some Heidi Swapp minc toner ink using the Ranger mini ink brayer method. If you have never stamped with this toner ink, I would highly recommend you check out my video. I learned how to use this technique by watching an Instagram live on Heidi Swapp’s IG page where she and Tim Holtz played with toner ink. After stamping the images, I die cut them out using the coordinating dies. For easy cleanup, I like to use my brayer and toner ink on some glad press and seal wrap.


For my background, I used the stitches background die from Pinkfresh Studio (Probably my favorite cover plate die that I have ever used) to cut a beautiful background from some white cardstock. I then trimmed the panel down using the Waffle Flower A2 layers die. While my A2 layers dies were out, I also took a rectangle of the next size up and cut a second rectangle from some gold foil cardstock.

For the sentiments, I stamped the phrases “wish big” and “celebrate” from the Pinkfresh studio Happy Birthday Sentiments stamp set also using some minc toner ink. I then cut out the sentiments using the coordinating die.

I ran the floral images and the sentiments through my Minc machine with some gold foil from Heidi Swapp. It was then time to start assembling my card.

For my assembly, I prepped some A2 card bases using some white 110lb cardstock trimmed to 5.5″x8.5″ and scored it at 4.25″. I adhered the larger rectangle of foil cardstock using some foam tape and the stitched rectangle on top of that (also with foam tape). I then stacked up some floral die cuts from white paper using some Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue and topped them with the foiled image. I adhered the whole stack to the card panel using liquid glue. For the sentiment, I also stacked up some white die cuts and then adhered the sentiments using liquid glue.

For this card, I opted not to add any embellishments, because I didn’t want to compete with the beautiful foil shine. I have to say, I think this card is a stunner! It is one of my favorites for sure and was really fun to make.

Comment below if you want to see more projects using foil! This will help me know what kinds of projects to share in the future.

Disclaimer: This post features affiliate links when possible. All products used in this project were purchased by me for my own personal use. Affiliate links are at no additional cost to you and they help support this channel. Thank you!

Giveaway! Win a Hero Arts April 2021 Card Kit

Celebrating 500 followers on Instagram!

Happy Friday! Today is very exciting because I am celebrating 500 followers on Instagram with a giveaway of the April 2021 Hero Arts Card Kit. This is the card kit that I used in my last project where I made some mini slimline graphic critter cards!

To see this card kit in action, please check out this video:

To enter the giveaway:

Come and visit me on Instagram and check out my post dated 2021-05-21. There you will find the full contest rules and instructions on how to enter. Contest will close on Monday, May 24th, 2021.

Thank you so much to everyone that visits me on Instagram and takes the time to like and comment. Your encouragement means a lot to me.

DIY Easy Mini slimline cards with layering stencils from the My Monthly Hero April 2021 card kit

Getting crafty with the April 2021 My Monthly Hero, Hero Arts Card Kit

In this project I had fun playing with stencils, distress inks, and Nuvo glimmer paste to layer up some fun backgrounds as the focus of the card. For a review of this kit, scroll down below.

If you would like to see a video on this project, please click here:

I started this project by inking up one of the background stencils from the April 2021 Hero Arts Monthly Hero Kit. I used all three of the stencils in the kit and I used three different distress oxide inks: spun sugar, kitsch flamingo and hickory smoke. All ink was applied using Catherine Pooler Blender brushes. I used a silicone craft mat from scrapbook.com to protect my worksurface. Once the inking was done, I also applied a layer of Nuvo glimmer paste right on top of the hickory smoke inked stencil using a Tonic Media Spatula.

For the critters, I loaded the stamps from the stamp set that comes in the kit. I chose some of the critter stamps and inked them up using black soot distress oxide ink. I stamped them using my MISTI tool so that I could double stamp and get a nice solid, crisp impression. Once the stamping was completed, I cut the images out using my Gemini Die Cutting Machine. and the coordinating dies that came in the card kit. I also used some Spellbinders circle dies to cut out a circle from some vellum.

I prepared my sentiment by stamping out the Happy Birthday using some versamark clear ink onto some black cardstock. I then heat embossed some white embossing powder on top. 


These mini slimline cards that I made were 3″ by 6″. I used my Tim Holtz guillotine trimmer to trim down by background panels and my sentiments.  I adhered all of the elements together using a combination of foam tape and some tombow mono muliti liquid glue. And, voila! This card is done!

Mini Slimline cards using the April 2021 Hero Arts card kit

Monthly Hero Kit Review

I did want to add in a few things in regards to this Hero Arts Card Kit. First of all, this is my first time purchasing one of these kits. I was very impressed with the large number of products in this kit. This kit in particular came with three stencils, a 6″x8″ stamp set, the coordinating dies, mini ink cubes and a blending brush. I thought that it was an incredible value. I really like the layering stencils as they are so versatile. You could use just one or any combination of the stencils to create a ton of different looks. Not to mention, varying the colors of ink and paste used will also give a variety of looks. I feel like this project barely used the kit, and I will definitely be using it again to make some more projects.

Disclaimer: This post features affiliate links when possible. All products used in this project were purchased by me for my own personal use. Affiliate links are at no additional cost to you and they help support this channel. Thank you!