CFS and Imagine Crafts Blog Hop - New Product!

Hi Folks! CASual Fridays Stamps is partnering up with Imagine Crafts for one heck of a blog hop today! If you are hopping along, you should have arrived here from Jennifer Vanderbeek. If you'd like to start from the beginning, please head to the Imagine Crafts blog.

  

 

The nice folks from Imagine Crafts allowed us to select some products from their store, and I was happy to try out the new-to-me Radiant Neon Amplify! liquid on this friendship card.

I stamped and embossed the Tin Roof border stamp twice to cover the card base.

Then gently squeezed some of the Amplify! liquid in the center of each flower.

Now here's the fun and surprising part! It will turn from these liquid drops ...

... to these puffy balls when the liquid drops are heated with an embossing gun. They start to GROW. Right before your eyes!

   

Here's a better view of of the puffy dots after they've been embossed. They feel like foam : )

 

   

If you purchase the white Amplify! you have a lot more options. Now you can either leave it white, or change the color with markers/ink once it's been heated. In this case, I colored the centers of the flowers yellow with a Copic marker.

 
The sentiment is from the Friend Fri-Die, adhered to a navy banner. I ended up adding washi tape and a ribbon to the left side. 

  
I had so much fun with this liquid Amplify that I made another project. Here's a layered tag from Tag Buddies Fri-Dies that features the flower from Friendly Flowers Fri-Die. I added a couple drops of Amplify! to the center of the flower and heat embossed them to get a nicely textured center. The "Love" is from the Love Ya Fri-Die.

 

 
Here's a closer view of the puffy Amplify! product. So neat! Under the smaller aqua tag, there's a second large tag cut from fabric with gold sparkly stars on it to give it a lot of shine. The third tag is cut from lined green paper.

 
 

Your next stop on the hop is Nadine Carlier 

Please continue on the hop, and comment along the way, as there are 2 wonderful prizes from each company up for grabs!

 

  

Feel free to use my code "KELLY2016" which will save you 15% off any purchases at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

W&W Share the Love Challenge: Mood Board

Hi Folks! We're coming on the close of Winnie & Walter's Share the Love Week with Ellen Hutson, and have one more challenge for you:

Gorgeous images, all of them! Any one could spark a few different cards. I was drawn to the black and white stripes in the two bottom photos and created a card.

Then yesterday, I happened to discover something that made me change gears at the very last minute! All the bird accessories (hats, glasses, mustache, ties) from Winnie & Walter's So Tweet with Evelin T Designs:
   

 
perfectly fit the bear from Ellen Hutson's All Inside:
  

  
How cool is that?!?

Can you picture it? Check it out ...

Hahaha, adorable! Totally changes his look! Can you picture him with the cowboy hat, or the mustache? These all would make great masculine cards. Just makes me giggle : )



The stripes are, of course, directly from the inspiration photos. The green/blue tone of the speech bubble is taken from the model's sweater in the inspiration photo. The speech bubble is from Duo: Bubble Talk Creative Screening stencil ... inside the stencil I've stamped "ABSOLUTELY" from Totally Awesome in multiple blue and green colors to fill in the stencil. The remainder of the sentiment, "amazing," is stamped on a strip of black cardstock and layered on top of all the "absolutely's." I like the idea of layering sentiments, and really could have used this idea for the Sentimental Challenge from earlier this week.

Hopefully you'll get a chance to play along with this Mood Board Challenge at Winnie & Walter. If you can't, you know there's always prizes for commenting there, and there's also a 10% off  sale on all the Winnie & Walter AND Essentials by Ellen products at Ellen Hutson now through the 26th.

Thanks so much for looking!
-Kelly

W&W Share the Love Challenge: Sentimental

Hi Folks! Welcome to Winnie and Walter's Share the Love Week! We are sharing our love with Ellen Hutson, and their wonderful Essentials by Ellen line of stamps.

Today we are hosting a challenge to use products from both companies to make something wonderful. The theme is "Sentimental: Putting the Focus on the Sentiment."
 

 
 To put the focus on the sentiment, the sentiment is incorporated in the actual design of the card. I cut four "celebrate" cutaways from Winnie & Walter's The Big, the Bold and Party and linked them together by adhering the tail of the "e" to the curve of the "c." This forms a square frame. I cut one  "celebrate" out of pink polkadot paper so it would be read as part of the overall sentiment "Celebrate and Up the Happy." The arrows are from and oldie but goodie The Write Stuff: Love Story. On top of the arrow is an "and" from The Big, the Bold and the Happy to join the two sentiments. 

 
 
In the center we have the rest of the sentiment (balloon, clouds and sentiment all from the Essentials by Ellen Up the Happy stamp set.) I stamped "Up the Happy" once on the center panel, and then another time on a scrap piece of paper so I could also stamp two balloons on top. After smooshing some ink onto the balloons and fussy cutting them out, they are layered onto the sentiment in the center panel with some foam tape. I also taped some baker's twine to the back of the balloons for actual balloon strings. Both strings are threaded loosely through the "b" in "celebrate" to hold them together. I decided to leave the balloon strings long and extend off the card in a casual way.

If you're so inclined, I'd encourage you to enter any one of the FIVE Share the Love Challenges hosted at Winnie & Walter this week. There are $25 gift certificates to EACH store up for grabs! Even if you can't play along in a challenge, leave a comment on one of the posts to win some Essentials by Ellen stamp sets.

Thanks so much for looking!
-Kelly

Winner! Winner!

Hi Folks! I'm happy to announce the winner of the huge $50 gift certificate to the
Ellen Hutson store!

Without further ado, the winner is....

Diane Jaquay!! 

Diane JaquayJune 15, 2016 at 9:27 AM

Came here from the EH newsletter, so excited for you, Kelly! I can't wait to pop over to the classroom to see what you've made with 2 of my favorite product lines, Essentials by Ellen and Winnie & Walter!!!

You are going to have a blast filling your cart with everything you've had your eye on!

Please send me an email at griglion@ameritech.net and I'll get you all set up. 

And thanks again to the wonderfully generous Ellen Hutson for being such a gracious hostess and for giving everyone a chance to win this amazing prize!! : )

 

Calling All Sistahs Hop

Hi Folks! Did you remember? It's the 17th of the month ... time to check yourself! And to have fun hopping on the CAS-ual Fridays Calling All Sistahs blog hop : )
  

You may have come Susan White's blog. If you'd like to start at the beginning of the hop, please head on over to the CAS-ual Fridays blog.

This card uses the ribbon die from CASual Fridays Ruffled Ribbon Fri-Die as a stencil. I've stamped the word "hope" from the Hope Ribbon set through the stencil several times in different shades of pink, taking care to make sure the edges of the stencil have some part of the word so it's not all white space and the ribbon shape is visible. The purple word "hope" is die cut with the Hope Fri-Die and layered slightly offset from one of the stamped words. Pink ink is sponged on the masked edges of the panel.

I hope you're enjoying the hop so far; you're about halfway through. Should you be interested in purchasing anything from the Calling All Sistahs line, 50% of the profits  are donated to National Breast Cancer Foundation. If you'd like, you are welcome to hop along with us in next month's blog hop. Check out all the details at CAS-ual Fridays, along with information on prizes.

   

 
Your next stop is Alanna Moses who has a fun and sassy card waiting for you!
  

Thanks for stopping by!

-Kelly

Join Me In the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom!! + GIVEAWAY

 
 Hi folks! It's such an honor for me to post an article in the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom today! We're kicking off Share the Love Week, featuring projects made with products from Essentials by Ellen and Winnie & Walter. Two insanely awesome companies : )

I would really love it if you'd join me in the CLASSroom, as I'm sharing five different ideas on using large-scale stamps (in particular the Essentials by Ellen Mondo Hydrangea set)!

Also, I'm happy to announce a giveaway!!

One random commenter from this post will receive a FIFTY DOLLAR gift certificate to the Ellen Hutson store (thanks Ellen)! I will announce the winner on Saturday morning!!

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Affiliate Links:

Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps, Mondo Hydrangea

Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies, Mondo Hydrangea by Julie Ebersole

Winnie & Walter Clear Stamps, The Big The Bold and Friends

Winnie & Walter Clear Stamps, The Big The Bold and The Happy

Neenah Cardstock, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, 250 Sheet Ream

Memento Ink Pad, Tuxedo Black

My Sweet Petunia MISTI Stamping Tool

VersaMark Ink Pad

Hanging Sentiment

  

Hi Folks! Winnie & Walter is hosting a fun feature called "rerun" where a previously released set is selected, and you have the opportunity to win a prize by creating a project using that set.

  

This month the True stamp set is featured. It's got several faceted shapes, including this long border stamp. For this card I stamped the border several times on the base of the card, and colored them in with a mix of ink sponging and alcohol markers.



The sentiment, which is also from the True set, is stamped on a strip of paper. To attach it to the card, I used an exacto knife to make cuts on either side of the light blue border and then threaded the strip behind the border. It's not adhered to the card at all, which I think makes it a little more fun and casual.

Feel free to head on over to the Winnie & Walter blog to see other projects with this set. And, if you own the True set and want to join in on the fun, we'd love to see you link up your project.

As always, thanks for stopping by!
-Kelly