Grand 2013

Did you see the new Black Friday die release from Die-Versions?  If not, you need to go check them out (after you finish reading my post of course :-P).

This is the new Grand 2013 die and boy, is it grand!  I thought it would be fun to create a birthday calendar using this die.  I'm planning on writing my friends and family's name on the corresponding line for the date and month.  Now there won't be any excuse for me not sending out happy birthday wishes.  I created my own glitter papers (see my post using the Ornament Trio die on 11/20, for details on how to make your own) in both red and silver.  As you can see, I die cut the silver and used the red for the background.

The digital image calendar is by Clear Dollar Stamps and it's so versatile and I printed one for each month, although I'm only showing a couple so you get the idea.   I added stickers that I've had in my stash for ages to the centers of each month.

I also think this die would be great on a layout - maybe celebrating the beginning of the New Year, or the Fourth of July perhaps.  This is for the upcoming New Year and I incorporated the Die-Versions' New Years Collage die with my design.

When I first saw this die, I knew I wanted to try something totally different and I'm SO happy that it worked out!  I created my own stencil with chipboard so I could use embossing paste.  It works the same way as a metal stencil and embossing paste does.  (Except that I couldn't re-use it again.  If I had been a bit neater, then it probably could have been reused after everything was dry).

You can really see the dimension the embossing paste gave the layout and how crisp everything turned out.  Originally, I was planning on adding some color to this after it dried, but I liked it so much in white, that I left it as is and then worked up the layout using white accents.  I did spritz it with Perfect Pearls for a bit of shimmer though (that's what the small splotches are - not embossing paste).  Sometimes I can spritz and get a nice fine mist and other times I get splotches - I prefer the fine mist!

Now you need to visit the Die-Versions store and the Die-Versions Blog to see all the Black Friday dies and projects.