CAS-ual Fridays Full On Floral Eclipse

I'm up on the CAS-ual Fridays Blog today and sharing a card using an Eclipse technique.  If you're not familiar, the Hello in my card is what we're talking about.  It's a raised area that could be a Word like in today's card or a shape or anything really that almost seems to raise out of the background... visible, but you can sometimes almost miss it... almost ghost-like.

Here's how I made mine:

I started by stamping the Full On Floral background stamp onto some mixed media paper in Versamark and heat embossed it in gold.

Next I used Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxides and blended them over the embossed image.  When I was done blending the inks, I wiped over the top of the image with a dry paper towel to remove the ink from the top of the gold to let the shine through again.

 I splattered some water and Gold Color Shine over the top and when it was dry, I die cut the Hello die from the Sweet Friend Dies from the center of the embossed panel (you would want to cut this from whatever area you wanted to add your eclipse to because the negative space will be where you place it.  (Note: Be sure to save those little pieces from the middle of your O's, E's, L's.. you get the idea... because you'll need to place those inside their negative spaces so you don't have white showing through your eclipsed word or shape).

I added all of the layers to my card including the embossed panel with the Hello cut out of the center.  Next I die cut three more of the Hello words from white cardstock.  I glued and stacked all of my Hello words together with the embossed piece on top.  Sometimes I like to offset the top piece just a bit so that there is a tiny bit of the color from the bottom layers that shows around the outside in some places to help the word stand out just a bit.  Then I glued the stacked word into the negative space and added the little center bits that I saved (center of the O, etc).  I also added a thin layer of Glossy Accents to the top of the word... again so that it would stand out just a little bit more.

I included a simple sentiment from the Bushy Tailed stamp set and a few sequins to finish it off.

And there you have it!  A simple Eclipse design with a big impact!  I think it's cool anyway!

I hope you enjoyed your stop!  If I've inspired you and there is something you need to have, you can head on over to the shop here and use this code for a discount on your order!

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps New Release - Trellis Cover Fri-Die!

Welcome to Day 4 of Inspiration for the CAS-ual Fridays New Release!  Today we're sharing with you some makes using the new Trellis Cover Fri-Die!  And you don't have to wait to pick up any of the new items you want... they're available in the shop here right now!  Here's how I was inspired for today:

This cover die is SO beautiful!  I used it on my first card in white on white for a beautiful decorative background that still looks clean... 

Isn't it pretty??  I used my favorite glue... a little Art Glitter dry clear glue with the most awesome metal tip for fine applications... it really is the best glue I've found for adhering delicate die cuts like this to my cards.

I used the Bubble Box in kraft for a backdrop for my sentiment... another die from the Sweet Friend Fri-Die set that we showed off yesterday and the Happy Birthday Sentiment from the Bushy Tailed stamp set.

I added a few of the flowers and leaves cut from the Garden Fri-Dies.

For this one, I used a very thick piece of kraft cardstock and only ran the die through once hoping it wouldn't cut all of the way through so I could have an embossed look and it worked!  I love how this looks as an embossed background too!

I made sure to add adhesive to the entire back so that none of the pieces would come loose and attached it to a kraft base... again, going for that clean look.  This time I used the Scallop Tag Fri-Die for the sentiment backdrop.

I layered the heart from the Heart Board Fri-Dies over the tag and then added my Hope sentiment over the top.  I used the 4 Petals Fri-Dies for my flowers and some more leaves from the Garden Fri-Dies!

I'm playing along over at Die Cuttin' Divas Favorite Color Combination Challenge!  Pink, Gold, Green... this makes my eyes happy for sure!

So thanks for stopping again and hope you enjoyed it!  Be sure to head on over to the CAS-ual Fridays blog to find out how you could win some of the awesome new stuff!  And if you just must have it now, I have this for you:

Be sure to come back tomorrow for some more Release inspiration!

Casual Fridays-An Old Technique With A Twist

So glad you are here!  Today I'm up on the Cas-ual Fridays Blog and I'm showing you how I made this cool shaving cream background!  And after we'll talk about that tag!

Some of you may already be familiar with this type of background and it may be new to some of you.  I just learned it last year and it's quick and easy and just a little bit messy!  You'll need some shaving cream (dollar store is just fine), some water based re-inkers (I just used my old CTMH ones), a paper plate (or a plastic one like I have here which would be re-usable), an old credit card, some paper (a bunch of white 5 1/2 x 4 1/4" sized pieces are just right), and also a plastic knife which isn't in the picture.  You'll want to have some paper underneath you too because as I said... little bit messy!

First you just spray a big blob of shaving cream onto your plate.  Then drop some of the reinker around into the blob... I had two different shades of blue so I made sure to make my drops in kind of a random pattern, interspersing the two shades.

Then you will use the knife to move the shaving cream around... "fold" in the inks.  You don't want to mix them together too much unless of course you want less contrast and swirl... but you'll see you can make multiples from this and as you go there is less and less contrast so you get a fun and varied set of backgrounds.

Next, lay your piece of paper on top of the shaving cream blob and make sure it gets covered with the mixture.. you can move it across the top, push it down into it more than once... lift it up and smoosh it back down if you've got more open spaces than you want.  When you lift it up and it's covered, you'll need to flip it over onto your protective surface:

You'll notice here I have some blank spaces, but everything turned out ok.. you just take the credit card and holding the card firmly against the paper scrape across the paper:

And as you scrape it across to remove the shaving cream, your piece of art is revealed!  Cool right?  

I made four backgrounds with this one plate of shaving cream and probably could have made a few more!  Notice the difference between the top and bottom ones... as you work with the shaving cream, the ink will blend together more and you'll have a little less white and a little more of whatever color you've used.  Then once they're dry you can use them as they are or I gave it a twist and I smooshed Versamark over the entire top.. sprinkled some Wow Sparkling Snow Glitter Embossing Powder over the top... just a little because the stuff will pretty much cover the swirlies (ask me how I know).. and then covered the rest with some Clear Embossing Powder and heated it.  And you don't have to use these as just backgrounds... I have a bunch that I use with diecuts... like the leaves I used on my Autumn Shaker here!

And that's how I got that pretty sparkly swirly blue background for my card!  And you may have visited me for the CAS-Fridays day over at 25 Days of Christmas Tags when I told you I made a 2nd tag inspired by Jane Taylor's beautiful tag because I wasn't able to use the snow mounds I'd created on my tag for that day... so here it is!  I used the Scalloped Tag Fri-Dies (to cover the scallops on the tag) and the Bubble Box Fri-Dies (to create my snow mounds).

I colored up these sweet fox from the Bushy Tail stamp set and did some no line coloring... but decided to make him a gray fox this time... such a cutie!  And this time he's holding a snowflake.

And left my sentiment short and sweet.  I used the Merry word from the Merry Christmas Fri-Dies and decorated with a few snowflakes from the Funky Flakes Fri-Dies!

Originally I was going to keep this just as a tag... but I loved it so much I decided to make a card out of it and it was a great way to use that shaving cream background!

And I'm playing along with the Sparkles/Christmas challenge over at the Wow Embossing Powder Fans Group.  You must join the group to play along but you'll love it... there is lots of inspiration over there!  I'm also playing along over at Color My Heart Color Dare where they have a Monochromatic Blue challenge going on and you should check that out too!

Hope you enjoyed your visit and thanks for sticking around until the end!  See you again soon!

Don't forget about the special that is going on right now too!

So here are the details regarding this stamp set!  It will be available for purchase for $6.50 or you can get it free with a qualifying order of $50 placed November 20-26th!  Your order must total at least $50 after discounts and shipping.  No code is needed-it will automatically be added to your order when it ships!  On the 27th, the set will be offered in the shop for $7.99!  You can find this set here!  And you can check out the tag I made using this set here if you'd like!  I have a giveaway for this stamp set going on at my blog here and all of my DT sisters are doing a giveaway too!  Find links in the main 25 Days of Tags post at CAS-ual Fridays here!

Woo hoo there is a sale going on here too!  With deep discounts on retiring items and all items in the Christmas/Hanukkah section are on sale through the 26th!

And if you feel like shopping here's this for you:

CAS-ual Fridays-Stretching Your Stamps and Dies

Welcome back!  I'm up on the Cas-ual Fridays blog today I'm sharing with you a card I made using some themed dies but used them in maybe an unexpected way.  Here's what I made:

So I was chatting with a friend and she was talking about her decision to buy the Ornament Tag Fri-Dies over the Acorn Fri-Dies... of course she wanted both, but sometimes you have to choose and I thought .. yeah... because it will soon be time to switch from autumn themed cards to Christmas so it made sense... and then I thought about the ornament die and thought... why not use it for an autumn themed card?!  Ornaments aren't just for Christmas!

I had planned on making a Thanksgiving card already and colored this little fox from the Bushy Tailed stamp set because I knew I was going to use him along with the Acorn Fri-Dies.   I colored him with Copics and texturized him using some terrycloth and blending solution (a quick photo tutorial regarding this is here if you missed it). 

Then when I decided on the ornament, I pulled out some pretty autumn colored papers from Pink & Main and cut out my pieces to create a shaker.  This is my favorite way to use the Ornament Tag Fri-Dies, but you don't have to make a shaker with it!  It's very versatile!  

And when I thought about what I'd fill my shaker with I decided on these pretty sequins from Paper Sweeties and thought a few acorns would be cute!  So I stamped some of the tiny acorns from the Autumn Blessings set in a sand colored ink and did a little no line coloring... cut them out and added them to my mix... I'll be honest.  I was a little worried about them possibly flipping over so I glued them in place.  I didn't want them to look glued in place or get covered so a couple I glued on top of a sequin and stuck one under my popup tape and glued that in place.  I love the way they look!

Then I die cut some leaves using the Acorn Fri-Dies out of some paper that was previously created using the Shaving Cream Technique (I'll think I'll share this oldie but goodie with you next post!) and some flowers from the Garden Fri-Dies were cut out of some previously watercolored paper).

And!  In the spirit of stretching your products, I used the Happy word die from the newly released Happy Hanukkah Fri-Dies and stamped and embossed the Thanksgiving from the Autumn Blessings stamp set to build my sentiment.

And as a side note... she did end up getting both...lol!

One more look:

I'm playing along with the Wednesday Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp which is Thanks/Thanksgiving this week!

Hope you've enjoyed your stop today!  And hope I've inspired you to look at some of your stash in a different way!  Should you decide to shop, here's this for you:

And be sure to stay connected with Cas-ual Fridays on social media!