Neat and Tangled Chalkboards

Good Morning crafters!

How has your weekend been? I hope you are enjoying yourselves. Here in Ohio you can tell summer is fading and fall is creeping in. It was 48 degrees on my way home from this morning :(

Speaking of fall Back to School challenges are everywhere! Over at Neat and Tangled they have a unique take on the theme: Chalkboard technique.   This technique has been taking the crafting world by storm but I've never tried it. Ahem. Now that I've had my little confession let's move on shall we? Quickly. Quickly!

While this technique looks very cool  on everyone else's cards I was worried it may not fit into my CAS world very well :( Fortunately, with a little playing around I think I made it work pretty okay. (yes, that's a very specific term, pretty okay. Feel free to take it home and make it your own) 

I started with a strip of black card stock, the My Heart Sings stamp set by Neat and Tangled and some frost white ink by colorbox. 

I stamped the bars and music notes like usual but before I heat set it I used my finger to smudge just the edges. I know some people make there's a little messier but I just couldn't bring myself to do it! This is as smudgy (?)(again we are all about rad descriptors) as I could get :) 

I stamped the wood strip from Neat and Tangled's On the Strip 2 on kraft and heat embossed it in clear. I then rubbed Vintage Photo distress ink over it heavily. I buffed away the extra. I love how it came out. It looks like real stained wood. yay!

For the sentiment I stamped in Jet black archival ink. I stamped the heart, trimmed it out and colored it with festive berries, fired brick, and aged mahogany distress ink. I then coated it in stardust stickles, of course  :) I popped up the sentiment on dimensional adhesive to adhere it.  That panel is actual a Hero Arts Frame Cut. I just trimmed off the top to the size I wanted. Yay for using what's already laying around your mess, er desk. 

So I do like the way the card turned out and I always love trying new techniques but I think I may need to embrace the messy a little more. What do you think? Any CAS chalkboard tips would be appreciate :)

Thanks for visiting! I love hearing from you guys <3 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!