CAS-ual Fridays with Laura's Loft.

Today I am helping celebrate the release of some wonderful dies from Cas-ual Fridays, available from Laura's Loft. 

I will be using the two sets Tag Buddies and and Friendly Flowers Fri-dies which are so much fun!

For this release I decided to experiment with some mixed media for a change. Start by die cutting your tags and flowers multiple times from white card stock (I used Michaels' Recollections). You'll need lots of the flowers especially!

Use some of Tim Holtz's tissue tape on the tags. Then smear some Distress Paints onto a craft sheet (I use Teflon cooking sheet). Mist very lightly with water, then smear your tag through it. I used Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves. Mist slightly again. Let dry, or if you are impatient use a hairdryer or embossing tool to carefully dry it.  Use Ranger Transparent Medium applied with a spatula through Studio 490's Polka Dotty stencil across the bottom left corner and let dry. This will take a while, so move onto the flowers while they dry. Colour the white card using the Ranger Round Mini Ink Blending Foam and Distress ink pads to match the paint colours you used. Spritz with water, blot and dry. Over stamp with lettering from Tim Holtz's Urban Grunge set using a Grape Jelly Memento pad and Ink Splodges from MFT's Abstract Art set using a Rose Bud Memento ink pad. The construct the flowers. Some of them I bent sharply along the centre of each petal to give a more star like shape. Others I used embossing tools or Heartfelt Creations flower shaping set to make the petals curl and become a rounder shape. Experiment and see how many combinations you can make!

I picked out some details using Ranger's enamel accents in white. Let dry and assemble flowers using your adhesive of choice.  Using Distress ink pads in Dusty Concord, Vintage Photo and/or Walnut Stain, ink the corners of your tags to darken them and increase the contrast with the flowers.

Use the Dusty Concord to stamp butterflies from Close to my Heart (Find Your Style) and Clearly Besotted stamps on the tags. Assemble and let dry. Meanwhile cut some ivory cardstock 0.25" shorter than a base purple card. Ink the edges with Antique Linen Distress Inks and adhere the panel to your base card. Arrange the tags in a pleasing manner and stick them on. Voila, pretty floral mixed media tags. You can buy some of my favourite Distress Ink pads from Laura's Loft. I warn you they are addictive though!