Tone-On-Tone Holiday Mass Production

Hi there! Emily Midgett here with you today, and I've got a trio of quick and easy holiday cards using one of my favorite color combinations: tone on tone with a pop of white! I absolutely adore the intense, rich shades in the Hero Hues cardstock line, and with so many beautiful ink choices available in the Hero Arts ink lineup, it's easy to create beautiful monochromatic projects using just a few supplies. Let's get started with the details! 

For my cards today, I kept things fairly simple, using the same Mod Pattern Bold Prints background stamp on each card, then adding some simple greetings using new sentiment stamps and dies from the October My Monthly Hero release. I stamped the Mod Pattern Bold Prints background stamp on Plum cardstock using Grape Juice ink, on Palm cardstock using Forever Green ink, and on Adriatic cardstock using Navy ink. I then used blender brushes to blend the same inks on each A2 card base, which gives a spot of nice, solid color to help the sentiments stand out even more from the patterned background. 

For this first project, I blended the Grape Juice ink in the bottom corner of the patterned card front. I then used the new Merry Christmas Script Stamp & Cut to die cut a bright white sentiment from Dove White cardstock. I also using white embossing powder with the Embossing and Watermark ink to emboss a sentiment strip on a strip of Plum cardstock. I adhered all of these sentiment pieces onto the patterned card base. Next, I stamped the small stars included in the Merry Christmas Script Stamp & Cut using Unicorn White ink, keeping everything oriented to the right side of the card front. Finally, I used a white gel pen to add a few dots to fill in some of the empty spaces and fill out the visual cluster. Finally, I trimmed a small strip from the opposite side and slipped a strip of white glitter cardstock behind to add a bit of sparkle. 

For this second card, I used the same basic principle, this time orienting things in the center of the patterned card front. I began with a card front created from Adriatic cardstock using Navy ink, then blended some more Navy ink in the center. I heat embossed and die cut a greeting from the new Happy Holidays Script Stamp & Cut from some more Dove White and Adriatic cardstock and added some more white stamped stars and white dots in a visual cascade down the front of the card. 

The final card uses the same idea, but turned on its side just for a bit of interest! I used Palm cardstock with Forever Green ink, blending a large-ish oval in the center of the card front with some more Forever Green ink. The sentiment, from Retro Christmas Messages, was heat embossed on some more Palm cardstock, then die cut using the coordinating Frame Cuts. I stamped some more white snowflakes and added a few snowy dots with my white gel pen. A bit more sparkly white cardstock at the top and bottom finished it off!  

I just adore the way the bright white pops on those beautiful monochromatic backgrounds! These cards would be super easy to mass-produce for the holidays, and they're mostly flat, so yay for not paying extra postage!! I hope you enjoyed my projects today. Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day! 


  • Melissa

    Good reminder that simple cards are really beautiful. Don’t need too many bells and whistles to get a point across. Thanks for sharing your idea!

  • Henriëtte

    Gorgeous cardsEmily. I love to see that you use tone on tone technique, it’s always beautiful but I often forget how easy it is to create something beautiful on coloured cardstock. Thank you so much for your inspiration and have a great day.

  • Shirley Wallen

    I really like the shading you do. Even though basically the same card, they look entirely different.

  • Cindy C.

    Wow these are awesome!!!

  • Helen

    Thanks for sharing this great way to use this background stamp with a variety of die cuts…always appreciate a simply way to make a variety of cards.