CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #207- Mint & Neutral

Welcome to a new CAS-ual Fridays Challenge!  This time around we're playing with Mint and Neutral inspiration!  Create your project using this color scheme and link up for your chance to win some free stuff!  Here's how I was inspired:

Have you seen this month's New Release??? Some pretty awesome stuff!  I was inspired by the new Be A Unicorn Stamp Set and Fri-Dies to create a small canvas... I thought this might be the perfect gift for one of my nieces.

Whenever canvases of various sizes are on sale, I pick them up to have them on hand so I pulled this one out when I decided what I wanted to do.  This one is about 5x7".

I had these colors out to work on another canvas and they were perfect for this challenge, so it was fun to have two projects going at the same time... while one was drying I could work on the other.  I painted the canvas by almost dry brushing the mint/metallic blue/green paints until the canvas was covered.  Then I added some gold and finally I used a star stencil and some gold embossing paste to add a little bit of texture.

***Added***: For Janice Wolf and anyone else who wants to know, the paints I used are Acrylic Paints, Americana Bahama Blue, FolkArt Metallic 653 Emerald Green, and Folk Art 4033 Gold Enamel-for some reason I'm unable to reply to my comments.

While waiting for things to dry, I painted a chipboard star from my stash using the gold paint.  Then I stamped that gorgeous unicorn in Versamark Ink onto Copic friendly paper and embossed it in white.  I cut it out using the coordinating Fri-Die and colored him in with some BG000 and BG11.  Since my lines were white, it was important to shade in all the right places... I think I did ok!  Then I used a gold Wink of Stella fine tipped marker to color in his main, ears, hooves, and wonderful magical horn.  I used some black Nuvo drops for his eye and colored in his nostrils with some silver Wink of Stella.  Then I set him aside to dry.

My biggest struggle was the best way to add the sentiment and keep it magical!  Then I remembered this acetate that is specifically made to be able to be heated.  I got mine from The Cutting Cafe.  I used one of my favorite go to dies, the Bubble Box Fri-Dies, to cute out the acetate piece and heat embossed that awesome sentiment from the Be A Unicorn stamp set onto it.  This acetate works well if you don't heat it too closely or too hot... just enough to get the embossing powder to melt... it will warp and/or melt if you heat it too much.  Also, I used my antistatic pad before I embossed because the powder will definitely stick all over.  I knew I wouldn't mind a little stray powder so I brushed some off but didn't worry too much about what was left.  Then I swiped some Versamark on the edges of the sentiment piece and sprinkled some Shabby White Embossing Powder and heated that (another fave in my craft room!)

To finish it off I added some more faves in my stash... some pretty paper and velvet flowers, gold gems, gold star sequins. Just love all of the shimmer!

One more peek!

So... now I just have to have someone pry it out of my hands so I can mail it...lol!

I'm linking this up to the Twisted Thursday Challenge over at the Outlawz which has an "Anything Goes" twist  (My favorite!!) and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which is also Anything Goes this week!

That's it for me today!  Hope you  enjoyed your visit!

Hope I've inspired you!  What are you playing for? 10 winning entries will be highlighted on the CAS-ual Fridays Blog the Thursday before a new challenge goes live!  We call it the Happy Hour!  In addition a $25 gift certificate goes to the overall winner.  AND if the chosen winner uses CAS-ual Fridays stamps and/or dies as the main focus for the card, the gift certificate increases to $50!

So what are you waiting for!  Nothing to lose and $25 to $50 of awesome stuff to gain!  Hope to see you over there

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to checkout this challenge... I can't wait to see what you create!  And don't forget to check out the inspiration from the team!  Some pretty awesome stuff going on there!