SPARKLE N SPRINKLE'S FEBRUARY 1ST REVEAL

Hi there and welcome to the Sparkle N Sprinkle February 1st Reveal!

I noticed on backing out of the garage at 6.30am yesterday morning, to take my youngest to the bus stop, that I could see the bottom of the driveway!  This means that the mornings are getting lighter, earlier!!! Spring is on it's way! Well OK, that may be a wee bit of an exaggeration, but I'm optimistic!

I normally enjoy January and February, although cold, they are my catch up and organization months. I like being organized, but somehow January fled by too quickly, and I'm not there yet with either catching up OR the organization! Good news though - I still have February! 

For my Reveal card this month I chose to use the Iris Garden Set 687. It's so appropriate for this reveal being the birth flower for February! This month FOUR new rubber stamp sets and two new digi-only sets are being introduced.   These sets are 20% off their regular price, until Feb. 3rd.  All the new reveal sets are available on Cling Mounted Rubber and as a digital image.  Iris Garden #687 is also the stamp set featured in  This Month's Technique Video.

The sets are:

Seasonal Trees #680   (digi version DIGI680)

Sleep Over #686   (digi version DIGI686)

Iris Garden #687  (digi version DIGI687)

Berry Sundae #688   (digi version DIGI688)
Wild About You #DIGI692 (digi only)
Stanley Valentine #DIGI693 (digi only)

On Feb 3rd,  one Grand Prize Winner will be selected from the comments left on the designers' blogs listed below.  The Grand Prize Winner will receive

all FOUR of the new rubber stamp sets (or digi sets, if you prefer)

The new SNS Creative Challenges also begins today, with lots of prizes and recognition badges. 

The winner of the blog hop will be announced on February 3rd on Facebook, the SNS blog, and on our blogs.  This month's Blog Hop order is:

Belinda Shupe
Anita Scroggins
April Williams
Shona Erlenborn (you are here)
Eret Pank
Anne Temple
Marie Berquist

(Tip: if you have a problem with a particular link, try clicking on the person's blog title to send you to their Home page.)

Don't forget to leave a comment with each Designer to be eligible for the Grand Prize.  We love reading your comments and hope we have inspired you as well.  If you absolutely can not leave a comment for some reason, please email icinganne@yahoo.com with your comment and the name of the blog or Designer you are commenting about.

We hope you enjoy the new reveals as much as we do!

Last month the winner came from Anne's Blog. I wonder which Designer has the Grand Prize winner this month?

I had been thinking about trying a coloring technique that I hadn't used in a while and that was Perfect Pearls on top of dark cardstock. After I stamped my Irises in Versamark and heat embossed them with Belgian Cream, I used a black Perfect Medium Brush to apply Interference Green and Interference Violet Perfect Pearls to the leaves and flowers. It gave a lovely shimmery shine to the image.

So now my little flowers needed a frame. Oh, I know - I have just the thing! I had received a Die-sire Create-A-Card Christmas Present Die from a dear friend, Donna, when I had visited Florida last month. I was excited to use it and I although it was a "Christmas" die, it didn't need to be used just for Christmas cards. You know me - always trying to repurpose! So I cut and embossed the die from black cardstock and decided it needed highlighting on the raised areas. I took a Brilliance Moonlight White Pigment ink pad and swiped it lightly over the embossed cardstock. Clear Detail embossing powder was then applied and heated to achieve a rather distressed chalkboard look.

I covered a white 6" x 6" card base with Super Adhesive Sheet, removed the protective backing and centered the framed Irises piece on top before applying Peruvian Lily Velvet Glitter to the exposed adhesive. This is how it looked at that stage:

I liked the texture I had achieved but felt that it needed some more depth, so I decided to make another frame and pop it up on top with Dimensional Dots. I liked this much more:

The little single iris from the set was prepared the same way as the group of Iris and then I fussy cut it, to be tucked behind the sentiment tag. The sentiment, from Religious Sympathy Set 383,  was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Belgian White. I used one of the Spellbinders Fancy Tags to cut and emboss and then "scuffed" it up with a little more of the Moonlight White ink with some Clear Detail embossing powder. 

The white organdy ribbon was tied in a bow around the popped up frame - but it looked too new! So I took the heat gun to it and crinkled it to age it a little! Little self adhesive pearls were then added to the centers of the Irises and below the sentiment to complete my card.

I hope you've enjoyed my share today. Here is a sneak preview of some of the cards I've done with one of the other sets we are revealing this month,  Seasonal Trees; Hope you'll stop by again soon to check them out.

Remember to leave a comment for me and the rest of the Designers to be in the running to win all these sets that we've shared with you today! Next stop is the talented Eret.

Hugs,

Shona