CAS-ual Fridays July Release Day 1

Hello and welcome to the July Release for CAS-ual Fridays!  Hold on to your seats folks, because this is going to be one fantastic ride filled with beautiful holiday stamps and dies that I know you're going to love as much as I do!  Today we're featuring 2 new stamp sets and 1 new die set, Bring on the Snowflakes, Snowy Sayings, and Funky Flakes Fri-Dies.

 I have 3 cards to share with you today!  My first card uses Bring on the Snowflakes and Snowy Sayings.

To make this card I stamped the various snowflakes using Shaded Lilac, Cracked Pistachio, and Tattered Rose distress inks.  I used the technique where you ink up your stamp and then spray lightly with water and then stamp.  I added some PTI Smokey Shadow ink splatters to the card, and stamped the sentiment from Snowy Sayings on Smokey Shadow card stock and embossed with white embossing powder.  I added some clear sequins to the card to finish it.  I love these non-traditional holiday colors, don't you?

This next card uses the Funky Flakes Fri-Dies and Snowy Sayings stamp set.

To make this card I started with a piece of 4 1/4 X 5 1/2" white card stock.  I removed the Funky Flakes Fri-Dies from their package but didn't cut them apart.  I placed the dies on the white card stock and cut, then moved them to another position and cut again.  I did this until I had cut snowflakes from the entire sheet.  Next I used the snowflake cut piece as a stencil.  I placed it on another piece of 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 white card stock and started coloring in the snowflakes with various distress inks and my ink blending tool.  The colors I used are Scattered Straw, Shaded Lilac, Cracked Pistachio, and Tattered Rose.  I used some post-it masking tape as I was ink blending, being careful to keep the colors separate.  For the next step I cut some more white snow flakes and placed them over the stenciled snowflakes, but askew so as not to cover up all that wonderful color.  At this point I decided to add some Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor over top of everything.  I used #95, silver, although to me it looks more like a sparkly white, or pearlescent color.  After that was completely dry I added some white snowflakes over some of the pearlescent snowflakes, but not all of them as you can see.  I finished the card with a sentiment from Snowy Sayings, stamped with VersaMark ink and embossed with liquid platinum embossing powder.

I hope those instructions are clear, and if not the next card might help you visualize things a bit better.  I really loved the way the stencil that I used for the above card looked with all of the pretty colors on it, so I decided I need to make a card with it!  It's bright and funky, but I really love it!

Yep, that is what the snowflake stencil looked like after I was done applying color to my second card.  The straight lines throughout are a result of the post-it tape that I used to protect the snowflakes as I was coloring.  To make this card I simply trimmed the "stencil" and placed it on a white card base.  I added some gold sequin trim, and stamped the sentiment from Snowy Sayings on some striped vellum and embossed in gold.  Funny how this was just a leftover scrap but it's my favorite card from today!

Be sure to stop back tomorrow for more fabulous holiday inspiration!