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

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

BIRD SONG

Hope you've enjoyed a good weekend.  We're winding down here with a stop at one more graduation party to go.  School's done for the kids and that means I don't have to get up at 5.30am tomorrow - that's a wonderful thing!  Even the cicadas are winding down.  I got landed on only once today!

Things have been really hectic for the last two weeks, with all the end-of-school activities, so I was unable to get my usual publication submissions done in time. However, I did get published in the June edition of Vamp Stamp News.  This month the article covers different techniques using pigment powders.  I had forgotten how to use these, as it's been such a while since I've played with them.  Anyway, I'd like to share one that I made, using the new Sparkle N Sprinkle set Bird Song:

I love the look that is achieved using the Perfect Pearls on the dark cardstock - and the way it shimmers as you turn it and the light hits.  I stamped the small feathers in Versamark and added Interference Perfect Pearls in Green, Violet, Red and Blue to make the background and then applied all four colors on the big feathers.  

Well that's my quick share for today.

'Till next time,

Shona