SPARKLE N SPRINKLE'S SEPTEMBER 1ST REVEAL

Hi there, and welcome to the Sparkle N Sprinkle September Reveal!

I'm the last Designer for the hop this month. To be eligible for the awesome prizes you should have arrived here by way of Belinda.   This month we are doing something a little different.  Instead of releasing new stamp sets, we decided to do a themed reveal.  Our theme is "Beach/Water" related, so you will see lots of different stamp sets used by our Designers.   Any "beach themed" set will be 20% off until Sept 3.  So once you finish the blog hop, head on over to the store and start shopping.  All of the sets are available on cling mounted rubber or as a digital image.  

Big Day 749 is the stamp set featured with this month's Technique Video Kit. For my card today, I decided to use the Silhouette Set 493 along with a painted background using several embossing powders.

Here are a few other Beach themed sets being used this month:

Tropical 158 (digi version DIGI158)

Ocean Treasures 560 (digi version DIGI560jj)

Sea Lady 735 (digi version DIGI735)

Mermaid Kisses 529 (rubber only)

Surf's Up 455  (digi version DIGI455)

Beach Babes 473 (digi version DIGI473m)

On Sept 3, one GRAND PRIZE WINNER will be selected from the comments left on the Designers' blogs.  Please leave a comment with each Designer in order to be eligible for the Grand Prize.  You never know who the Mystery Designer will be that has the winning comment.  

The winner will get to choose FOUR beach/water themed stamp sets of his/her choice (or the digi version, if preferred).

The Grand Prize Winner will be announced on Sept 3 on the SNS Facebook page, the Designer's blogs, and here on the SNS Blog.  

In addition to our regular Designers, two of our 2015 Guest Designers this month, Ani and Chris are with us again this month.

The Blog Hop order this month is:

Eret

Chris

Anne

Ani

Marie

Belinda

Shona

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

We love reading your comments and hope that we have inspired you as well.  If you can not leave a comment for some reason, please email icinganne@yahoo.com with your comment and the name of the blog or the Designer you are commenting about.

The Sparkle N Sprinkle Creative Challenge also begins today.  There are lots of prizes and recognition badges.  Come check out how you can become a SNS Featured Artist as well.  The theme is always Anything Goes using Loose Glitter, Embossing Powder, and/or Flock.

I love any silhouette stamps and this one is no exception. I thought it would be fun to create a dreamy beach, waves and sky as the backdrop for this pretty stamp. To do this, I took a piece of white cardstock and covered the entire piece with Versamark ink. Starting at the top of the piece of card, I applied the embossing powders one at a time, pouring the excess back in their jars between applications.

Ice Rink was first, followed by Arctic. I left little patches of open spaces, so that I could put in a little Belgian Cream for the clouds! Moving down, I continued with Skylight, before reaching the sand with Hit the Beach. Once all the embossing powders are on, then you heat set.

Next, you need to apply the anti static bag liberally to the background before inking up the main stamp with Versamark. I only inked inside the lines of the stamp as I didn't want the frame to show. I also stamped the two other little grass stamps from the set. Teddy Brown was applied to the Versamark and heat set. The birds were done the same way.

The sentiment is from the Ocean Treasures set 560 and is stamped on to Kraft cardstock in Versamark and heat embossed with Black Detail. It was cut and embossed with Spellbinders Labels Nine with a little Memento Desert Sand ink sponged on top before removing the die.

Peruvian Lily velvet glitter was applied on top of the sand with Dimensional Glue, as were the five little shells.

The sentiment was attached with Dimensional Foam after wrapping the thread around the card front. I layered this on to two pieces of kraft and then to the light blue card base.

I hope the team and I have inspired you this month. I'm the last of the blog hop, so remember to leave me a comment below to be in the running for four of the beach sets.

Thanks for joining our September blog hop and good luck!

Shona

LIVING AND COPING WITH CANCER

Hi there,

I have to say this month has been a bit of an eye opener for me.  The whole team brought so many different cancers to light (most of which I didn't know existed). Instead of using pink, which I did three times already, I decided to look for something a little different. I found the Silver and Blue Ribbon, which signifies living and coping with Cancer.

So to begin with, I made my background paper by spraying the Perfect Pearl, a Perfect Pearls Mist, over a piece of white cardstock. I then applied Color Burst Ultramarine Blue, which "erupted" and resulted in a pretty silvery blue mottled look - the perfect stage for my silver and blue combination.  I ran the background through the Darice "Cross with Words" embossing folder and sanded the raised words - removing the ink and leaving the white words. You can see the embossed words more clearly here.

The sentiment, from the Survivor Set 713, was stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with Mediterranean (one of the Tuscany embossing powders). I hand cut the banner and daubed the piece with a little Memento Teal Zeal ink. It was then layered to a slightly larger piece of Silver Metallic cardstock.

On to the ribbons!  I die cut the Survivor Ribbon (from the Die-Versions Awareness Ribbon Words die set) out of the background piece on the bottom right. I then die cut two Cancer ribbons, from the Silver Metallic cardstock.  I covered the cancer wording of one of them with a strip of the silver cardstock before layering the Survivor ribbon offset on top.  The background was layered to a silver metallic frame, so that the glossy white card base would show through the Survivor ribbon.  I re-inserted the Survivor ribbon in the space where it came from, so that the words from the cross still matched up and then attached the sentiment and the Cancer ribbon with Dimensional Foam.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs,

Shona

ONE STEP FURTHER!

So after my last post, I thought .... "I wonder how a background die would work using a die and some double-sided adhesive?" Well, I was pretty pleased with how it came out! I just added a simple sentiment from the Happy Birthday Set 416 and some ribbon and my card was complete!

I looked through my background dies and found this Spellbinder's one (Butterfly Magic).  As the die is large, I decided to make a 5" x 7" card this time. I cut a piece of Super Adhesive Sheet 4" x 6" (as the 2 1/2" Tear-ific Tape was not wide enough) and stuck it down to a piece of white cardstock. I then put the die face down on top of the tape and ran it through my machine. This is how it should look:

Next you start to pick off pieces where you want the first color of glitter to go. For this I use an exacto knife. 

Now you are ready to start coloring! Burnish the glitters in well with your finger tool! I like to use the Velvet Glitters for this technique as they are microfine and cover the adhesive thoroughly. I put some Ballerina down first, flipped the card over to remove the excess off the piece and then poured Orchid Rose over the piece and burnished it in well with my finger. It adhered to the remaining sticky surface to give this result:

I then picked out some more of the "image" and applied Purple Rain:

The remainder of the protective backing was removed, and I applied Cloud Nine. Dump it on and burnish it in. It will not get contaminated from the other darker glitters, as the darker glitters are truly stuck to the adhesive - they will not move!

Put the excess glitter back in the jar!

A sentiment and a purple ribbon were all I felt it needed to be complete. I stamped the sentiment in Versamark on glossy white cardstock and heat embossed with Mulberry Star. This embossing powder is one of the Tuscany EPs. They are detailed embossing powders, which makes them awesome for sentiments, when black just won't do! The sentiment was die cut and embossed with Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio. A little Memento Lulu Lavender was daubed on before removing the die. The card front was layered to purple before tying the bow and attaching the tag. Dimensional Foam was added behind for dimension.

I hope I've inspired you to give this technique a try. Let me leave you with a quick look at another card I made using the same idea, but using five dies, instead of one to make a background.

Hugs,

Shona

GLITTERED POPPIES

Hi there,

Hope you're enjoying the last few weeks of the summer. I just can't believe how quickly it has gone! Three more weeks and Calum will be back to school. I've got a week right now to catch up with all my stamping obligations before I go to Ottawa next Tuesday for a Roman reunion! A group of people that I used to work with in Rome, circa 30 years ago, are getting together next week - I'm so looking forward to seeing them all. Some I have kept in contact with, but others not - it'll be fun to see if we recognize each other! Then I come back for the last week of school vacation and get ready for Margaret, of Sparkle N Sprinkle, coming up for the Somerset Stamping Convention. Busy, but fun times!

In the meantime, here is a card that I made today for the sister of the lady who lost her husband back in February. She moved down to Florida yesterday and the sisters will now live together down in St. Augustine. This was a fun card to make. These Memory Box dies are great for "coloring with glitter". I'm using one called "Perky Poppy" today.

To begin with, stick a piece of 2 1/2" Tear-ific Tape down on to a piece of white cardstock. Place the die face down on the shiny protective layer. Run through the embossing machine and it should only cut through the shiny protective layer. If it does go all the way through the cardstock too, then put a piece of cardstock shim between the tape and the die. This should prevent it cutting all the way through. All machines are calibrated differently.

This is how it should look:

Take an exacto knife, as shown, and carefully lift up the protective layer of the section that you want to "color". I started with Purple Rain, then did the outline of the petals and stamen in Pixie Violet.

                        

Dogwood Rose was used for the main petals and then instead of using a stem-like green, I decided to go with Celebration which has some purple and green hues to it. I thought it would go better with my color palette. 

After the stems are colored, carefully peel back the entire protective backing and apply your background color - I decided to use Lavender Iris for my project, again thinking to keeping my card in the purple family.

Here is a close up of the background.

I used the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Innies & Outies Set 727. I cut it between the Happy and the Birthday and arranged it on an acrylic block, so that there would be room for the 60th silver sticker. I stamped it on the glossy white card base in Versamark and heat embossed with Silver Detail. The glittered piece was layered to black and then I used Dimensional Foam to attach it to the card base. Some Silver cord was tied around the left hand side to finish the card off.

Hope you've enjoyed my share today and that you're inspired to give this "coloring with glitter" technique a try. It really is a fun way of using the dies in a different manner. 

Hugs,

Shona

CANCER SURVIVOR EQUATION

Hi there, 

Today I'd like to share with you another card I created with the Die-Versions Awareness Ribbon Words (DV-485) for our August joint reveal.

First, I made the mottled pink cardstock from which to cut the dies. I took a piece of glossy white card and sprayed it first with Perfect Pearl, a Perfect Pearls Mist. I then applied Alizarin Crimson, one of the Color Bursts that Sparkle N Sprinkle now carries. It gave a lovely mottled, metallic look to the cardstock.

I placed the dies on the prepared cardstock at the same time and ran it through my embossing machine.  The equal and plus signs were punched from the same piece of cardstock. I cut a piece of Super Adhesive Sheet, removed the protective backing and placed the die cuts on to the sticky surface.

Cloud Nine and the new Ballerina Velvet Glitters were then sprinkled, one at a time, over the remaining sticky surface. This was layered to a piece of card which had been edged with Versamark and heat embossed with Raspberry Tart. This was then layered to the white card base.

The sentiment was stamped on glossy white cardstock in Versamark and heat embossed with Raspberry Tart. It was die cut with Spellbinders Ribbon Banner die and I sponged over the sentiment with Memento Angel Pink ink, before removing the die. The sentiment was attached with dimensional foam.

Hope you've enjoyed my share with you today.

Shona

COLOR BY GLITTERS!

Hello everyone,

It's been so hectic around here lately - I haven't even had a chance to get to comment on my usual blogs, let alone get a blog written! Bear with me - I will catch up. I'm writing this before my celebrating 21 year old (today) comes home for dessert. I had made this card a couple of weeks ago for my Sister-in-Law's birthday, but didn't want to post it last week (on her birthday) in case she hadn't received it (in Scotland) yet!!!

I picked up some Heidi Swapp cardstock die cuts on sale the other day and thought hmmmm?????????? How can I use these? So I took the flower patterned one, applied Versamark and heat embossed it with Belgian Cream. Now what?

So I took a piece of Super Adhesive Sheet and attached it to white cardstock. Then I peeled off the second protective backing, and placed the embossed die cut down on top of the exposed adhesive. I then started to "color in" (one color at a time) using Bubblegum, Mauvelous, and Raspberry Soda to the flowers. Then Misty Isles and Aqua Marine were applied for the leaves. It's OK to go outside the lines (at least that was what I was taught in school!!)

After the flowers and leaves were colored I then burnished Crystal Ice into the remaining sticky surface. This piece was then layered on to a thin black frame. The sentiment from the Happy Birthday Set 416 was stamped on glossy white cardstock in Versamark and heat embossed with Belgian Cream. It was die cut and embossed with Spellbinder's Romantic Rectangles, which was sponged with a little Memento Rose Bud before removing the die.

The sentiment was attached with four pink rhinestone brads and then the card front was layered to black before being layered to the white card base. A pretty white lace bow finished off my project.

Hope you've enjoyed this quick post. Off to finish the Pavlova!

Oh, almost forgot. For those that saw my "Geared Up for a Great Birthday blog" and were interested in seeing the finished pieces of art by my brother-in-law, Paul Erlenborn, you can now view them here!

Hugs,

Shona