Crafty Rewind Series: Vortex Masking With Circle Dies

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

Happy Friday! This week was three years long, so I'm happy to have made it this far. 

Some weekend plans include a new cookie recipe, and this fabulous gourmet Salisbury Steak recipe I've shared before. 

Because this week was such a mess, I've been just eating nothing, so last night I made my favorite egg salad recipe and I had it on a pretzel bun that was PHENOMENAL. At some point this year I bought these pretzel buns as well as just some pretzels from Eastern Provisions and I had popped them in the freezer. So I thawed one out yesterday and man, was it great. I have another one in the fridge. I stumbled across that site somehow, and it gave me a happy memory of touring the Aneheuser Busch facility in St. Louis when I was in elementary school. At the end of the tour we got a hot pretzel with mustard and a little glass of Budweiser - yes, even the kids. I've loved hot pretzels since - I really identified with the pretzel day episode of The Office!

PS - Breweries smell like bakeries! I remember Hershey, PA smelling terrible, but St. Louis around the breweries smelled great.

Anyway, I'm back with my Crafty Rewind series today - revisiting stamps from a year or so ago to give you new ideas, and today's video will give you a fun new way to use any basic nesting shape die set - I used my Circle Infinity Dies and this cute critter set. I also used the dies to cut an opening so the owl is on the front of the card, and the vortex style moon is on the inside. 

Here's the video!

DI199 Nesting Circle Infinity Dies... [ HA ] SB263 Fawn and Friends Combo - Hero Arts [ HA ] Floral Glass Craft Mat — Glassboard... [ GLS ] Hero Arts Butter Bar Shadow Ink [ HA ] AF331 Dandelion Bold Ink - Hero Arts [ HA ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #1... [ CTC ] Amazon.com : Avery 6465 Removable... [ AMZUS ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #3... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #2... [ CTC ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | SSS | ELH ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Storage Envelopes, Medium 25pk,... [ ELH ] CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear... [ CHC ] Extra Large -50 pk, Avery Elle Stamp... [ ELH ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] The Ink Stand White MINI is354 at... [ SSS ] The Ink Stand White RECTANGLE... [ SSS ]

I'll be back with a new video Monday!

Loveyameanitbye.

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10% off at Sweet Sentiment with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5

20% off at Glassboard Studios with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

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Background Beauty & Nut Butter Idea

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

I've been on a giant background kick lately on my lives. It's been fun to try different techniques for backgrounds that play well with different types of stamps. 

One background that I taught in my online Gel Press workshop (you can still enroll) was a super fun technique for creating distressed brick walls with my brick wall stencil. But when I got this stunning image of this woman, I thought I could make her into a mural on my brick wall background! I used these brush pigment markers (coupon in the footer - I will have a class on these in November) to color her, and I left it slightly transparent to give the look of spray paint - like a glamorous Banksy! And I absolutely love the sentiment in the set. So beautiful and classic.

Then in my woodgrain class I experimented with a similar color scheme and a few different mediums and got this beachy looking result, that I thought would be pretty to tie in with this etched style floral image. I used Graphit Markers in a matching color, cut it with the matching die and added the Iridescent Moonshine sequins. The sentiment is from this set. I love that they have dies. Especially for larger images where I need to overlap the focal image with the sentiment.

For this little winter scenic stamp, I wanted a grey color scheme that gave a vintage feel. So I ink blended it with Rocky Slope, and then splattered the whole thing with white ink for snow. I cut that with the stitched slimline die and put it on one of my pre-cut mini slim card bases. The sentiment is from this set, and the sequins are Iridescent Moonshine again.

For this cover plate die, I decided it had been too long since I watercolored, so I cut it out of watercolor paper and painted it all with Daniel Smith watercolor. Super duper simple and quick card. To start with I sprayed the watercolor paper to the paint would mix - that makes it even quicker.

Speaking of quick & simple, this last one is super fun. The Bob & Betty dies I cut from kraft, and then brushed on Warm Cocoa Ink for that roasty toasty look around the edges. I just let the white of the card base be the frosting, and added this friendship sentiment - you know how naughty those gingerbread people can be!

Two more exciting things today! First - my AWESOME new glass craft mat for filming - it's so beautiful, and it has brightened up my videos immensely! They have all sorts of fun designs - different sizes, and the best part - they are MAGNETIC and have cool chess piece style magnets that are SO easy to grab - no fighting with them. I'm in love. I'm buying a second one! They gave me a coupon code when I ordered my first one, so you can use it for 20% off if you would like one. It's awesome for Gel Press work because I can actually clean it. The cutting mat I was using before stains really badly and was starting to look bad in my videos. The first one I got had this stunning floral. But the succulents are calling me. The discount code is UNDERSTANDBLUE.

Second, the new slimline storage pouches - YAY! I have struggled with storage for these.

Floral Glass Craft Mat — Glassboard... [ GLS ] Iconic Beauty Sara [ PFS ] English Brick Wall 6x6 Stencil –... [ PFS ] Karin Pigment DecoBrush MASTER 84pc Set [ MRK ] Watercolor Roses [ PFS ] Watercolor Roses Die [ PFS ] Graphit — Marker Universe [ MRK ] Sequin Mix - Iridescent Moonshine –... [ PFS ] You Make This World Better [ PFS ] For the Holidays [ PFS ] Stitched & Scalloped Mini Slim [ PFS ] Fancy Christmas Sentiments – Picket... [ PFS ] Fancy Christmas Sentiments... [ PFS ] Daler-Rowney FW Acrylic... [ BLIC ] Premium Dye ink Pad : Rocky slope –... [ PNK ] Gingerbread Bob [ PFS ] Gingerbread Betty [ PFS ] Fancy Friendship Sentiments [ PFS ] Fancy Friendship Sentiments Dies [ PFS ] Slimline Storage Pouches [ PFS ] Understand Blue MINI Slimline Folded... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Slimline Folded... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #3... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #1... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #2... [ CTC ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | SSS | ELH ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Storage Envelopes, Medium 25pk,... [ ELH ] CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear... [ CHC ] Extra Large -50 pk, Avery Elle Stamp... [ ELH ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] The Ink Stand White MINI is354 at... [ SSS ] The Ink Stand White RECTANGLE... [ SSS ]

Now I kind of want a gingerbread cookie.

Speaking of cookies - I'm going to make a riff on a peanut butter cookie this week. We made a homemade nut butter by roasting macadamia nuts, and then putting those in the food processor with a small amount of Santa Cruz Organics peanut butter and HOLY MOLY is it great!

This may or may not have been preceded by SOMEONE - not me - dropping the glass jar of the almond butter we made on the tile floor. Necessity is the mother of invention, right?

What are you cooking this week?

Loveyameanitbye.

Like this post? Never miss a post by following me!

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off at Sweet Sentiment with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE