Inspired by Save the Crafty You-Tuber Videos- Still Time to Hop and Win!

I was part of the Save the Crafty YouTuber video hop last week and hopped along with many of you getting inspired by the variety of techniques and commenting to maybe win one of the prizes. (The link in this paragraph goes to a complete list of the video hoppers and all the prizes if you scroll down.)

**There are just a couple more days to hop and comment to maybe win one of over 120 prizes donated by the generous sponsors! The winners are going to be drawn on February 26th so if you haven't hopped, make sure to take some time this weekend to do so! You can start at my video here or go to the beginning here.**

My favorite video and technique was from Laurel Beard's stop and I just loved the card she shows here on her blog and in her video. I was so inspired I made three cards with a marble background stamp similar to the one she used (mine is from Stampin' Up) and gold Deco Foil and Deco Foil Transfer Gel. Laurel showed how to stamp the large marble background stamp using a stamp platform, then added the Deco Foil Transfer Gel directly on the stamp and stamped the image with the transfer gel. When the transfer gel had dried clear she layered gold foil on top and ran the piece through a hot laminator. I tried that but was not happy with my results and also was a little concerned about trying to get the transfer gel off the stamp as I was making several cards. So I tried using several sizes of brushes to add the transfer gel directly on the stamped cardstock and the cards here are the result. Even if I can see the brush marks, I liked the results but I ended up happiest with a smaller brush I could turn to do thinner or thicker lines. The contrast of the foiled gold against the grey marbled backgrounds is very pretty. Here are the other two cards I created: 

Here are the products I used in each card:

On all:  Deco Foil Gold Foil, Deco Foil Transfer Gel, Stampin' Up Marbled Background, Nuvo Metro Grey Ink

#1 Great Love die by Penny Black

#2 HB To You die by Simon Says Stamp, musical Happy Birthday unknown source

#3 (made for local stamp club challenge to use a doily, star, sketch and pennant in our cards) Flower and pennant die as well as the "let's celebrate" stamp all from Tonic Studios (I die cut the flower and leaves from another grey foiled marble background, sponged on purple and green ink and created the flower with dies from the Tonic Craft Kit #5 which is available yet in the U.S. Send me a message via the Contact Form on the side on the blog if you want to know how to get it.)

I am entering the first card in the Make Your own Background challlenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday and the Anything Goes challenge at Scrapy Land (used a Penny Black die.)