CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #208...

Welcome back to another challenge for CAS-ual Fridays Stamps!!  This is a sparkly, fun one as it's all about Using Those Sequins!!

I don't have any shortage of sequins in my craft room. Sequins of all shapes, sizes and colours! Although, I tend to use mostly clear on my projects, I must start giving love to all!!  For my card today, I blinged up some die cuts with sequins.

I stamped the large Happy B-Day from the Celebrate Stamp Set with two shades of pink ink to get an ombre look and added some clear shimmer pen to it.  These words are two different stamps which is nice because it gives a lot of options for sentiment placement.

I used the super cool Jumping Jacks Fri-Dies numerous times out of white cardstock and used the same inks to give them some colour.  I used Majestic Confetti from Studio Katia.  Most of my sequin collection has come from there.

I thought it would be cool to add different sizes to each of the jumping jacks. I think it turned out super cool!!

Before mounting my focal panel to the card base, I used my scoring board to add some embossed lines across the front, again, super cool and so easy to do!!

I hope you have a chance to play along with us and use up some of your sequin stash!! Here are all the details on how to enter:

Link up your creation on the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge Blog.  10 winning entries will be featured on the blog the Thursday before the new challenge goes live.  The overall winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to the CAS-ual Friday store. BUT, if the winning entry features CAS-Fridays stamps and dies, the amount will increase to $50!!! Wow!

I cannot wait to see what you create with sequins! Good luck!

Laurie

Ink Lifting Technique with Distress Oxide Inks and Studio Katia Stamps

Hi everyone and happy Monday!!  Today I thought I'd show you a technique!!!  Exciting, right?  Actually, this is far from new but really fun and easy.  It's the "ink lifting" or "ink bleaching" technique.  Let's get started!

I started by heat embossing the large floral image from the You're So Ranunculus set in white onto some watercolour paper.  I stamped only the top of the image on both the bottom and the top of the panel.  The Original Misti and the Misti Creative Corners make this really easy.  All you have to do is rotate your paper 180 degrees and you get the perfect mirror image!

I picked two colours of Distress Oxide Inks, Picked Raspberry and Worn Lipstick.  One of the keys to this technique is to use LOTS OF INK.  Really saturate your paper.  You can take the ink pad directly to the paper if you want but because I wanted a bit of a blended look, I used my blending tools.

Now, all you have to do is apply a liberal amount of water to the inside of the embossed image.  Because these inks are reactive with water, the ink will start to "lift" or "bleach", giving the image a whiter look!  I would let the water sit for a few seconds before dabbing it with a paper towel.

I probably could have added more water for a brighter white but I was happy with this.  I also took my wet paint brush and flicked some clean water across the background, because I totally couldn't resist.

I took the "lovely" word die, also in the You're So Ranunculus bundle and die cut that directly out of the panel.  My original idea was to do some inlay die cutting but after I layered this piece onto black cardstock, I changed my mind!

I used the positive die cut to help with placing the bits and pieces of the letters.  To finish off, I stamped the You're So above the Lovely in Versafine Black Onyx ink.  Now, I'm going to show you what happened next....

Yup!  I adhered that beautiful panel onto the wrong side of the card base, with my ATG adhesive, no less!  I just sat there, so annoyed with myself.  I could have just trimmed around the card base but this is quite a heavy layer already, so I didn't want to have THREE pieces of cardstock on top of a cardbase.  So, I took my bone folder and carefully lifted the panel off and adhered it the RIGHT WAY!!

To add a bit of sparkle, I used sequins from the Crystal Clear Sequin Fusion and a little Shimmer Pen over the flowers.

Thanks for joining me today!!  Have a great week and see you soon!!

Laurie

Mandala Flower Thank You Card

Hello everyone!! I have this card up on the Studio Katia Blog today!!  Hope you have a chance to check it out!!

Thank for stopping by :)

Laurie

Christmas in July with Studio Katia!!

HO, HO, HO!!!  This week at Studio Katia we've been celebrating Christmas early!!  On one hand, it's nice to mix things up in the middle of the year by taking out your winter stamps and having a play.  On the other hand,  it's too soon to think about snow and winter (we get about 6-7 months of winter here, so I plan on enjoying summer while I can!).

To bring some summer into my winter card,  I used non-traditional Christmas colours.  I started by stamping a few of the images from the Origami Winter stamp set using Versamark Ink and then embossed them using Ranger Fine Detail white embossing powder.  I decided I wanted to colour on kraft with pencils crayons.  Seems like ages ago that I used my pencils!!

I chose two shades of each colour:  pink, turquoise, purple and blue.

I use the Lyra Rembrandt PolyColor pencils and love them!

After I had all the images coloured, I decided that the one bow was way too dark in comparison to my other colours.

To remedy this little problem, I restamped the present and heat embossed like before, chose a couple of lighter colours then fussy cut around the bow portion only.  I used a bit of TomBow liquid glue to adhere it right over the dark bow.

I cut down the kraft panel using the rectangle die from the Dotted Patterns Set 1 and adhered directly onto an A2 white card base.

The sentiment also come from the Origami Winter set.  I white heat embossed it onto the sentiment strip from the Darling Ribbon and Dotted Frames creative dies set.  To give it a bit of dimension, I added two layers of foam adhesive to the middle of the strip and used liquid glue to adhere the ends.

With a few touches of Clear Wink of Stella, the card was almost done...

I went through my stash of SK sequins and picked out a few that matched my colour scheme.  I used the 8mm sequins from the Crystal Clear Fusion,  a few 4mm Luminous Lavender and picked out a couple light blue sequins from the Winter Wonderland Fusion.

I hope you enjoyed today's "Christmas in July" card!  Thanks for stopping by and see you soon!!

Laurie

Hello Friend Shaker

Happy Monday!!  I'm back to share a sweet shaker card with you today!  I really don't make a lot of shaker cards so this was a fun project!

I started by cutting down a piece of white cardstock using the rectangle die from the new Dotted Patterns Set 1.  I then embossed it using a Polka Dot embossing folder to give it a bit of texture.  To create the frame for my shaker, I took the second and third (from the middle) dies from the Dotted Ovals, taped them together and ran it through my Big shot with some grey cardstock.  I love the dotted detail you get on both the positive and negative die cuts!!

Before I filled the shaker, I stamped the word, friend, onto the embossed panel.  This comes from the And the Fox Says Stamp set.  I used a few Fruit Punch Sequins, Pink Lemonade Sequins and some Space Silver Sequins for my shaker bits.  I then adhered my frame (with acetate) over top.

I had a scrap of watercolored paper so I took the "hello" die from the new You're so Ranunculus Bundle and die cut it out.  This is the perfect size to adhere over the frame!!  At this point, I thought I was done, but decided it needed a cute, little critter.  So, I stamped, coloured and cut one of the cute lions from the Birthday Lions stamp set.  I foam mounted her just under the shaker element.

And, of course, I added a few more Space Silver and Fruit Punch sequins on the panel as well!!  I foam mounted the panel onto an A2 cardbase and voila!! Done!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a fabulous week!!

Laurie

Studio Katia's FIRST BIRTHDAY Blog Hop!!!!

Hi All!!!  Welcome to this special blog hop in honour of Studio Katia's First Birthday!!  I am so thrilled and honoured to be a part of this amazing design team.  I have the utmost respect for Katia who does this all by herself.  She has accomplished so much in so little time with much more to come!!!

So let's get this party started, shall we??  The theme for this hop is SHAKER CARDS!!!  Shaker cards are so much fun but to be honest with you, I rarely make them.  So they are actually a challenge for me.  It takes a lot of planning on my part and I usually end up throwing the first one away :)

I started by going through my SK dies, I knew I wanted to make a shaped card.  So I picked one of my favourite sets, Stitched Creative Squares.  I die cut two of the largest square, scored one of them 3/4 inch from the top, applied Scor-Tape and adhered the two pieces together.  Next, I took the two smaller squares, nested them together on top of another piece of cardstock and ran them through my Big Shot.  This created a frame.

I immediately added my acetate to the back of the frame, applied two layers of foam tape and filled 'er up!  For my bits and bobs, I used the crazy beautiful Crystal Rainbow Fusion, Silver Stars Confetti, and Silver Foil Seed Beads.  I placed another die cut piece of cardstock (using the medium die) and cover the back of my shaker.

After adhering the shaker portion to my cardbase, it was time for the sentiment.  Insert mistake here:  I wanted to stamp INSIDE the shaker part.  And because everything was already put together, I knew stamping/heat embossing on the acetate was not going to work.  Plan B:  I took a "happy" die from an older My Favorite Things set and die cut it from white cardstock.  To co-ordinate with the sequins, I sponged some Jelly Bean ink from Simon Says Stamp on the sentiment.

This die is an "on the edge" die so it doesn't cut the letter right off.  I left a wide enough strip on the bottom so I could stamp the word "birthday".  Then, to get all matchy-matchy, I ran it through using the medium square die so I could get the stitching detail.  The tiny flower comes from Sunny Studio Stamps.  I sponged some Doll Pink Ink (Simon Says) onto some cardstock and cut that out and also cut it out using some teal glitter paper for the centre.  I adhered both the sentiment and flower using Multi Medium Matte adhesive.  And here it is:

This card was totally fun to make!!  You know what else is fun?? Giveaways and Discounts!!!!! 

Here are all the details...

GIVEAWAY INFO:

- You can win a $20 GC to Studio Katia at every stop on the hop! Make sure to leave a comment by Sunday, May 7^th for your chance to win! The more blogs you visit, the greater your chances of winning.

- You can also win (1) Simon Says Stamp goody bag and (1) Kuretake ZIG Clean Color Real Watercolor Brush Pens, 80 Color Set. The winners will be chosen from all the comments along the hop.

- Studio Katia is offering 15% off all purchases to their online shop (link http://www.studiokatia.com) using the code "SKTURNS1" through Sunday, May 7th at midnight EST.

*Comments must be left before 11:59 PM EST on Sunday, May 7th and winners will be announced on May 10th.

The next stop on the hop is the super talented, super amazing:  Amy Kolling

Thank You Card with Studio Katia!

Hello and Happy Monday!!  I'm back to share a very simple card using mostly die cutting.  Studio Katia has amazing dies, from stitched dies to my favourite, the dotted detail dies!

I started by using the largest frame die from the The Darling Ribbon and Dotted Frames Die Set to cut a panel of white cardstock. I then took the middle die from the Elongated Dotted Hexagons to cut a "window" in the centre of this panel.  To create a frame for my window, I nested the middle and the largest of those same dies, taped them together and ran them through my die cutting machine with some light grey cardstock.

I traced the opening with pencil onto my cardbase so I knew where to stamp the sentiment.  The "thank you" comes from the newly released Thank You So Much Stamp Set.  Using my Mini Misti, I lined up the sentiment and stamped in black ink.

To show the recipient a lot of love, I plastered the front of the card with die cut hearts using the stitched heart die from the Stitched Notebook Die Set.  This helped me use up some of my scraps!

And to make this sparkle, I used a combination of the Majestic Sequin Fusion and Space Silver Fusion Sequins.  

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!!  Have a fabulous week and see you soon!!

Studio Katia with Hero Arts!!

Hello and Happy Thursday!!!  I'm so excited because all this month we are collaborating with A Blog Named Hero!!!  What that means is the design teams for Studio Katia and A Blog Named Hero are coming together and using products from both Studio Katia and Hero Arts to create some amazing projects!!

And this month it's all about EMBELLISHMENTS!!!  Now, when it comes to embellishments, no one beats Studio Katia!  There is so much bling in that shop, it would make Tiffany's jealous!!

I created two cards for this collab.  Here is the first one..

I used the Sparkle Borders stamp set from Hero Arts to stamp my background.  I coloured in all the "bulbs" with a purple, green, and turquoise marker.  Then added some sparkle with a Sakura Stardust Pen.  Next, of course, came the Glossy Accents!!  While waiting for that to dry I stamped 3 presents from the Birthday Lions stamp set from Studio Katia and coloured them with the same 3 shades.  I also added some sparkle pen and Glossy Accents to the bow of the presents.  For the embellishments, I used the Crystal Clear Sequins Fusion and some Silver Stars Confetti. ( Just a note on the Silver Stars, this is a discontinued item so it is ON SALE for $1.00!!!!).  I then added a drop of Crystal Stickles to the centre of each sequin.

For my next card, I had to go with a shaker!! Now the products I used for this card were made for each other!!  I started by stamping out the flamingo from the Layering Flamingo stamp set with May's Shades of Pink ink cubes from HA.  I use these A LOT!! They are my "go-to" pinks!! I then die-cut the flamingo with its co-ordinating die.

For the shaker window, I used the Darling Ribbon and Dotted Frames Dies from SK to cut the centre of a white cardstock panel.  Now here is where it gets really fun!!  The sentiment is a combination of stamps from SK.  The sweet "wishing you a pink" come from the Pink Winter set (which also features a flamingo) and the rest comes from the Duo Talk set, including the stars and hearts that are stamped!  For the goodies inside, I used Fruit Punch, Pink Lemonade Fusion, Pink Winter Mix (minus the snowflakes) and Gold Foil Seed Beads.

I had so much fun making these cards!!  I hope you have a chance to play along with this super fun, sparkly challenge!!  And I should mention that Studio Katia is giving away a gift certificate to the lucky winner of this challenge!! Good luck and have fun!!!

Laurie

Flamingo Love

Welcome back!!  Today's card for Studio Katia features one of my favourite sets...Pink Winter!!!  I also used a stamp set from the latest release which is so adorable, Sweet Heart Candy.

I started by stamping the flamingo in Intense Black ink from Simon Says Stamp (it's my new favourite black ink!).  I then stamped a mirror image of the flamingo by using the backside of a large clear stamp.  I used my Mini Misti for this.  I placed the large stamp, face down onto the door of the Misti, then stamped the image (I found I had to use Versafine Onyx Black for this) directly on top.  I then closed the door and gave firm pressure.  As you can see, it took me a couple of tries to get a decent image.

Before colouring the flamingos in with my Stabilo markers, I traced around both of them with a waterproof pen to darken and thicken the lines.  For my second layer of color, I decided to use a Clear Wink of Stella pen to blend out the color on the wings only. Then it was time to fussy cut!!

And yes, I had to cut in between their legs...slight OCD :)

I used the Stitched Creative Window Die Set and cut that twice, once in white cardstock, the other in grey.  I wasn't sure which color I wanted to use.  I used the white cardstock inner pieces and used a few shades of teals to do some ink blending on each.

I decided to stack the two frames together for slight dimension, placing the white on top.  My cardbase started off the standard size with rounded corners and a strip of patterned paper at the bottom.

I didn't like it, the pinks were WAY off! So I simply trimmed off a quarter of an inch on each end.  The end size is 3 3/4 X 5 1/2 inches.  I adhered the frame to the base with liquid glue as well as the inner die cuts.  I adhered the flamingos with a combination of foam adhesive and liquid glue.

For the sentiment, I die cut the stitched heart from the Stitched Notebook Set and stamped "love you" from the Sweetheart Candy stamps.  I brushed some light pink ink around the edges.  I adhered that to the centre panel with foam adhesive.  And lastly, it was time for some sequins!!  I, of course, used the Pink Winter Sequins Fusion!!  And here's the final product!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Have a great day!!

Laurie

You're A Good Apple

Hello everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  I'm back to share a fun little encouragement card for Studio Katia!!

 I started by stamping the apple image from the Teachers Apple set onto a piece of masking paper.  For this I use the full sticky Post-It Notes from 3M.  They work awesome and they're cheap!!

I stamped three but really only needed two, actually one.  I stamped an apple in the centre of a white 4.25 X 5.5 panel.  After masking off that first image, I stamped apples beside it and then moving my mask each time, I continued until I had a row of apples.

I decided to use my alcohol markers to color these sweet apples.  I was originally going to go for a rainbow theme (which totally would have looked cute) but ended up using greens and reds.  After the apples were coloured, I used the new Darling Ribbon and Dotted Frames Creative Dies to add the dotted detail around the entire card panel and then to cut out the centre of the panel.  These are my new favourite dies!!  I absolutely love the dot detail you get on both the positive and the negative cuts!

I decided to use the banner die as well for my sentiment.  I adhered the panel directly to my cardbase then foam mounted the fancy frame back into its negative place.  I stamped "you're a good" directly onto the banner die using black ink then stamped the word "apple" with red ink onto a scrap of white cardstock.  I then fussy cut around the word so I was able to pop it up on the banner.

As you can see, I added some Clear Wink of Stella to the green apples and the sentiment.  I added some white detail with my gel pen and Glossy Accents to the leaves.  And look at those eyes!!! These are the Googly Eyes in the 5mm size. So cute!!  

And of course some Lipstick Red Fusion sequins!!

Thank you so much for stopping by!  See you again real soon!!

Laurie