Double Trouble Challenge # 73 - Die-lirious Part II

Welcome back!  I have another one for this month's Double Trouble Challenge!  I'm the Crazy Cousin for December!

Use your favorite cutting tool and play along!  I used some dies AND my Cricut for this one.  Those flowers are from an SVG file from The Cutting Cafe and I love to cut bunches of them at once to have on hand for projects!

I have a whole 12x12 sheet setup in my Design Space so I can cut more from any color I want.  I used white ones for these and wet them, crinkled them up and sprayed them with some Gold Color Shine.  I added them to those great scalloped tags from CAS-ual Fridays and that fun Santa I've had forever in my stash.  A quick sentiment from Miss Ink and some ribbon and I was done!

If you haven't played along yet, hop on over to the Double Trouble Blog to check out all of the details and link up for your chance to win a prize!

Check me out as Crazy Cousin:

 

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Release - Jacks!

Welcome to Day 2 of CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Release Inspiration!  Today we're playing with the Jacks Stencil and Jacks Chipboard!

I used the stencil to apply some Deco Foil Transfer Gel and when it was dry, covered the panel with some Neon Flock and ran it through my Minc.  You can see in this pic a little that the Jacks background is ...well... Neon...lol... but also fuzzy to the touch... SO fun!

I stamped the Happy Birthday from the previous release with Versamark and heat embossed it in blue and then fussy cut it out.  Then I used a Versamark dabber to apply the ink to some of the Jacks chipboard and using the fine tweezers from the shop to hold them, added some of the same embossing powder that I used on the sentiment and heated them up.  I popped a Scallop Tag onto the front and then added the sentiment and Jacks.  I lined up the jacks that hang over the edge with the flock ones because I thought it was more pleasing to look at that way.

I just added a few sequins and I was done!  This one is bright for sure, but I love the blue with the Neon orange... it's fun!

Thanks so much for stopping and be sure to hop on over to the CAS-ual Fridays blog to see what everyone else has created with these new products and should you see something you need, I have this for you:

Be sure to come back tomorrow for more release inspiration!

A Special Freebie for a Happy Thanksgiving with CAS-ual Fridays Stamps!

Welcome back and Happy Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you are having a chance to spend time with friends and family and to reflect on all the good that is in your lives right now.  I am very grateful today for so many things including that I get to be here sharing with you today!  We've got some really great things going on here starting now!

First... a sale!!!

Awesome sale, right??  And bonus!  If you spend $55 and will get the beautiful and adorable new stamp set Snow Angel for free!

Beautiful isn't she?  I've used this set today on a tag to play along with the 25 Days of Christmas Tags challenge!

I was inspired by Mindy Eggen's tag on Day 18!  That beautiful gold embossed sentiment background got me started!  I used my favorite Scallop Tag Fri-Dies as my base.

I'll be honest... It took me three times to get the tag right...lol!  I love imperfection as much as the next guy, but I learned some things along the way.  Patience for one...lol!  For me the easiest way to do this was to stamp each line separately with Versamark, powder, and emboss and then go on to the next.  Otherwise, these eyes could not keep track of where I was stamping.  And then I would just line the next set up so that the peace was lined up approximately the same distance on each line ... so for instance... I'd place the "P" of the 2nd line somewhere around the "C" and "E" on the one above it.  Don't check... I said approximately...lol!  AND!  Don't forget to swipe over the tag before you start with an antistatic pad... I only did it once the first time and that seemed to do the trick... although I never mind a little stray powder here and there.

I'm also playing along with the Wow Embossing Powder December Challenge on Facebook to use Gold!  I think I've done that here!  I used the Gold Metallic Embossing Powder.

I just love this sweet angel stamp and the oh so sweet sentiments included in it.  You can get her free with an order of $55 or you can buy her separately... or both during the sale!

AND even better there is a brand new Coffee sentiment set available!  Meet Stay Strong:

I used one of the sentiments on this card over this cool background I made using the Tin Roof Stencil, some embossing paste and some embossing powder!  Have you ever used embossing powder over embossing paste?  I love the extra dimension it gives to the embossed parts!  Here's how I do it:

When I use this technique, I like to start with Mixed Media paper because it's a little heavier and the combo of the paste with the heat embossing can really curl regular cardstock... plus sometimes I like to add other medium as well, so (if I remember) I usually start with this kind of paper.

I die cut my panel with a rectangle die from my stash.  Then I place it on a scrap paper because I tend to make quite the mess!  It's also easiest for me if I place some masking tape around the stencil to help keep it in place.  If I'm covering the entire panel, I keep the tape off the edge of where the paper is, but the tape still helps to hold it in place.  Then  I used my spatula to apply the embossing paste to the panel through the stencil.  And finally my new best friend when using any kind of paste with stencils is the Stencil Pal with it's long straight edge for smoothing out the past and it floats over the entire panel.

When you remove the stencil you're left with this...so pretty all by itself, right?  But while it's wet, you can if you wish sprinkle some embossing powder over it....

I used the Wow Vintage Peacock and it's sooooo pretty!  I thought it would be perfect for my Emotional Support Beverage sentiment.  My favorite part I couldn't capture, but when you heat this it's so fun to watch it change.  It bubbles just a bit as it sets and then you can watch the magic happen as more of your colors come out of that beautiful powder.

So not only do you have that cool sparkly embossing, but it's raised a bit too because of the paste.  I love it!!  To finish my card, I die cut my Coffee Cup and hearts from the Heart Board Fri-Dies out of Copic friendly paper and colored them using some colors that coordinated with the background.  I love the kind of tie-dyed look!

My coffee really does understand and love me.

I'm playing along over at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes!

So that's me for today!  I hope you enjoyed your stop and if you're inspired and ready to shop the sale I have something extra for you!

You can use my code or any of the Girl Fridays' codes for an extra 15% off these already fantastic sale prices!!  And don't forget if you spend $55 before shipping and tax you will receive Snow Angel for free!  That sweet angel needs to come to your house.

Happy Holidays and take whatever chance you have to relax and reflect (and maybe shop a little...lol... I know I will be)!  Come back again soon!

An Autumn Hello With CAS-ual Fridays

Welcome to some CAS-ual Fridays inspiration!  Today I'm sharing a card I made using all Die Cuts... not a stamp to be seen!  And CAS-ual Fridays has some of the best in town!

I started with a neutral but beautiful background layering a base of Kraft with a Kraft layer of the Trellis Cover Die.  When it came time to cut the pieces of the Acorn Fri-Dies I thought I'd use some pretty design papers, but they were too distracting... cardstock was too flat... so I pulled out a 6X9 piece of white cardstock and a bunch of autumn colors in Distress Oxides and decided to make my own:

I started with some Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy that I applied to the whole sheet.

Then I added some Fossilized Amber to the entire sheet except for one corner that I wanted to leave very light for the bottom part of my acorns and I wanted an area with some green for some of the leaves, so I added the bundled sage just to one corner.

I added Rusty Hinge and Vintage photo (for some leaves) to all of the areas except where the Sage and Antique Linen areas were.  And for my acorn tops and leaf veins I darkened up an area with the Ground Espresso.  So I had all of the colors I needed on one sheet and slowly started taping down the dies to the colors I wanted and ran them through my Gemini.

And I ended up with all of these!  And my favorites are the ones that overlapped the various color "blocks"

I cut a large Scallop Tag from some cool "graph paper" patterned design paper.  Added my leaves and acorns and splattered some gold, bronze and white glitter watercolors over the whole thing.  Then I added and a gold Hello using a die from the Sweet Friend Fri-Dies across them, using popup tape, cut very thin in the middle to support it.

I also cut a couple of the Casual Tree die cuts from some darker kraft and added those to my foliage clusters.

And I still have lots of die cuts left over for another project!  You'll be seeing that soon!

I'm playing along over at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes!

In the meantime, if you've seen something you must have today, I have this for you:

And there are lots of awesome things on sale here!

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: