CELEBRATE DANCE - YUPO STYLE!

Hi there, 

Hope you're having a wonderful week? We certainly are - temperatures are soaring - maybe even to 80 degrees today! I've been out in the yard starting some Spring clean-up. Feels good out there! Today I'd like to share a card I made for a dear friend using one of our three new SNS sets this month - Donna's Stylish Sayings Set.  This friend is an avid dancer, and so this little set along with the dancing couple die worked out perfectly.

I had been playing around with some Yupo paper and some old Adirondack Alcohol Inks. It is cool to watch the drops of colors collide in to one another and create other colors. I chose some yellows and red hues and put in a little Pearl Mixative at the end for my background.

I kept on adding drops of the inks until the white was gone!

As they are alcohol inks they dry fairly quickly, but I made quite a few that day, waiting on this one to dry!! When it was dry, I ran my anti-static bag over the surface, then inked up the line stamp with Versamark  and heat embossed with Gold Detail. "Celebrate" was then stamped in black StazOn several times and then I went back over each print with Versamark and heat embossed again in the Gold Detail. With the black behind it gave the illusion of a shadow giving the words a little more dimension.

I die cut the dancers (Die-Versions Sweet Petites - Dancers DVP-102) out of a piece of chipboard. This was then applied with Versamark and  heat embossed with Gold Detail. Another coating of Versamark and then Fleur de Lis was heat embossed on top. I find that if you cover the die cuts, or chipboard first with a base coat of embossing powder, there is no need to heat from the bottom, the new covering of embossing powder melts nicely in to the base layer.

Look at the lovely swirly effect from the Fleur de Lis embossing powder!

To finish off the card, I made a bow from sheer black ribbon, using my Craft-Dee BowZ tool and wrapped it to the back of the card base. This was then layered to a black, then red, before the final black card base. The dancers were then attached with dimensionals.  To me, it looks like they are dancing on a roof top in the city!

I'd like to play along in the following Challenges:

Our Crafty Corner Challenge 7: Anything Goes

Sweet Stamps Challenge: March - Anything Goes

Chocolate Baroque Challenge 20: Color Challenge

Hope you've enjoyed my share today?

Till next time,

Shona

.... AND A PEACOCK IN A CHERRY TREE!

Hi there, 

I'm back to share with you some more goodies we got in our SNS surprise package last month. I got some Gold Mirror Cardstock which I thought I would highlight this time round - making a gold and black card. Difficult to photograph always, but here goes!

I took the stencil that I had also received (Dreamweaver Cherry Blossom) and taped it down to mustard cardstock - remember to tape in order that when you remove the tape you are left with the top "hinge".  Apply Matte Black Embossing Paste over the stencil. Remove the stencil and let the paste dry for 30 mins at least. Clean off the stencil.  I worked on the peacock in the meantime.

Stick a piece of 2 1/2" Tear-ific Tape down on white cardstock and run the Peacock Stencil (Sizzix Thinlits Peacock #659070) through your embossing machine, both to cut and then to emboss. You can see how the pattern of the peacock's tail eyes are raised. Remove the protective backing and apply Fleur De Lis embossing powder and then heat set.

Apply the anti static bag to the piece before proceeding to the next step.  Replace the stencil over heat embossed peacock. Using a Versamarker pen trace the tail eyes and the wing of the peacock and "color in" with the ink pen. Remove the stencil and then apply Black Detail embossing powder and heat emboss.

Back to the background! Replace the clean stencil and apply glue (using the Essentials Glue Pad) and then using a small stencil brush, apply Dreamweaver Metallic F/X Gold Dust. Again remove stencil and clean. Below you can see the dimension that the paste and the Pearl Ex provide.

On to the embellishment! I took three flowers (not sure of the source - but they had music on them!) I took my Versamark pad and just swiped here and there on each of the three flower layers, as I didn't want to completely cover the music design, but wanted to tie in the gold. This time I heat set with Gold Detail embossing powder. The brad was also "blinged" with Fleur De Lis to tie everything together.

So then to put everything together. I cut an oval (using Spellbinders Grand Ovals) from the Gold Mirror Cardstock (which was slightly smaller than the mustard piece) to make a frame for the background. The "blinged" flower was attached to the corner of the frame, before being layered to the black cardstock base.

The peacock was then attached with Dimensional Foam as shown to complete the card. I deliberately kept the embellishments to the bottom of the card so as not to cover the entire background.

I left off a sentiment on  the card, but it really could be used for anything - Christmas, Sympathy, Birthday .... endless possibilities! Love Gold and Black! ... and Fleur De Lis is just that!!

Thanks for stopping by today,

Hugs,

Shona

SPARKLE N SPRINKLE'S DECEMBER 1ST REVEAL

Hi everyone - hope your Thanksgiving (if you are in the US) was amazing and that you are well on your way to a beautiful holiday season and recovered from Part One of over-eating!

Welcome to the December 1st Reveal! Yikes December already (I haven't even started my Christmas cards yet!)

This month the Designers were given a Surprise Package full of products found at the SNS Shoppe and were asked to create projects with these products.  So sit back, enjoy the Hop and get ready to have those creative juices flowing! Here are two of the products that were in my package that I chose to create with:

On Dec 3rd, ONE GRAND PRIZE WINNER will be selected from the comments left on the Designers' blogs listed below. 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 Grand Prize Winner, which will be announced on the SNS Facebook page and on the SNS Blog, will receive a $20 gift certificate to go shopping at the SNS Shoppe.

The Blog Hop order this month is:

Anne

Shona

Jess

Belinda

Marie

Eret

Irit

(*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 would also like to thank all the Guest Designers who joined us this year: Diane, Ashley, Ani, Chris, Irit, and Jess.  It was a pleasure having each of you on the team as Guest Designers!

We hope you enjoy the Surprise Package Blog Hop as much as we enjoyed creating projects for it.  Thanks for joining us and remember to comment on each of the Designers' blogs to be eligible for the Grand Prize.  

 Wonder who the Mystery Host will be this month????

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.


Have you checked out the SNS YouTube Channel featuring Demo Donna?  If not, then you are in for a real treat.  Subscribe today to get all the latest Demo Donna tips and techniques!

In Thanksgiving mode I envisaged my birds - one in the nest waiting on the other to fly home! First I created the background. I took the Cherry Blossom Dreamweaver Stencil and taped it down on top of the mustard cardstock. Start taping at the top, then bottom and then the two sides. Once you have applied your preferred medium, remove the tape in reverse order so that you are left with a "hinge" effect at the top edge so that the die comes up cleanly and doesn't smudge the wet paste. Put the stencil into warm soapy water and clean off any excess paste at this point.

I used Dreamweaver's Matte Black Embossing Paste. Leave it to dry, this should take 30 mins at least. When dry, replace the stencil on top of the dry embossed image and using a dauber apply glue (I used the Essential Glue Pad) through the stencil to the flowers. Then using a stencil brush apply the Pearl Ex powders. I used Dreamweaver Metallic F/X: Kiwi Mica and Purple Satin.

Undo the tape again in the reverse order and remove the stencil - putting it back in the soapy water. 

I made my frame using the Spellbinders Lattice Rectangles. I cut out the die from white cardstock and then covered the piece with Versamark and applied Gold Detail embossing powder, before applying more Versamark and then the Fleur de Lis enamel powder. These chunky powders should be heated from below to prevent "fly aways". 

Cut the background to fit the inside of the frame and attach with 1/8" Tear-ific Tape. We are now ready for the birds! These were from Want to Scrap, I again applied Versamark and Gold Detail powder first and then reapplied Versamark and heat from underneath with Super Thick Gold. I heated them up again with the heat gun and while the embossing powder was still hot I sprinkled a little Fleur de Lis on their bellies and on the "tail" and then heat set..

I made a little ribbon for the "nest" with my Craft-Dee BowZ, and wrapped it around the frame before attaching to black cardstock which was then layered to a Gold Mirror cardstock base. The birds were attached with Dimensional Foam Squares, one nestled in the nest and the other flying home!

That completes my share for today! Hope you've enjoyed your visit? The next stop on our blog is Jess. Remember to leave a comment on each of our blogs in order to be eligible for the Grand Prize - 1 $20 gift certificate to the store!

Good Luck!

Shona