HAI Holiday Greetings

 Hi there and welcome back to my blog. Dark-eyed Junko waiting his turn for the window feeder is my header this month! We got yet another dumping of snow at the weekend! Looking forward to Spring!

My card today is for the Holly and Ivy Challenge, where as always, it is anything Christmas goes!

I chose this stencil (Holiday Greetings and Holly) from Dreamweaver and used the watercolor paints with a paintbrush to color it in.

I scored around the edges of the focal panel and then layered it to an olive green card base.

I added five gold self-adhesive gems to the card to finish off.

Hope I've inspired you to join in the challenge! 

Till next time,

Shona

HAI Merry Merry Merry

 Hi there, and welcome back to my blog. Today I have a card for the Holly and Ivy Challenge, where it is always an anything goes challenge. I hope you'll find some inspiration here and join along in the challenge.

I took a shot at getting messy for this card. My hands were a mess!

I used masking tape to stick the Sweet Poppy stencil down on top of a piece of watercolor card, on top of the wipeable mat.

I then sprinkled the Color Burst powders on top of the stencil. This was then sprayed with water.

The sentiment was stamped in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and heat embossed with Sparkle embossing powder.

I daubed the clear embossing ink on top of the baubles, then heat embossed also with Sparkle EP.

This panel was layered to black cardstock before a white card base.

 I hope I've inspired you to join in the challenge?

Till next time,

Shona

Turner Syndrome Awareness

 Today I am sharing a card I made specifically for a Challenge that promotes Turner Syndrome Awareness. I first became aware of  Turner Syndrome two years ago when the stamping community, headed up by Lori Kobular, started the Turner Syndrome Awareness Blog Hop. 

Turner Syndrome is a genetic disorder where a female is born missing all or part of her second X chromosome leaving her with life-long medical issues and learning disabilities. This condition occurs one in 2,000 female births worldwide, but is more common among pregnancies that do not survive to full term. That is why Turner Syndrome Females are considered MIRACLES! I hope you will go to Lori's site to learn more!

Here is the mood board for the Challenge:

I started this card a couple of weeks ago and it changed directions several times before it was finished. I had this never before used Stampendous Hydrangea Garden stamp, stencil and die set that I recently came across during a clean-up in my stamping room. Since the Butterfly is also a symbol of TSF, I thought this set was the perfect choice!

I began with stamping the hydrangea bloom in my stamping platform with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink. The outline part of the stencil was placed around the bloom and I colored using inkers and some Distress Oxide inks.

This was returned to the stamping positioner and was reinked with Nocturne and then heat embossed with sparkle. The mask part of the stencil was then placed on top of the bloom in the stamping positioner and the leaves were positioned and stamped with the Nocturne ink.

I then placed the leaf mask over the first set of leaves and stamped a second set over to the left.

This was the result, once the masks were removed.

The leaves were then colored using inkers and different green inks, with the bloom and leaf stencils being put in place of areas not to be inked.

The butterfly was then stamped, colored with Copics and die cut.

I covered the butterfly with Versamark ink and then heat embossed with Clear Detail and then again with Super Thick Clear. This gave the butterfly a beautiful shiny coat!

Back to the hydrangea, Broken China was applied to the background and then misted with water.

I found this a little darker than I had wanted, so I'll deal with that later!!

I covered a piece of pink cardstock with double sided adhesive and cut out a frame with the Tonic Topnote Trellis Layering die.

Lavender Iris glitter was then applied to the sticky surface of the frame when I took of the protective backing.

To tone down main image I decided to cover it with vellum. I attached it with a little Pixie Spray to hold it in place temporarily. I attached the glittered frame to the piece using a flower and brad in each of the four corners.

I placed the finished panel back in the stamp positioner and positioned the butterfly stamp on top of the vellum.

Just the body of the butterfly was then inked:

The glazed butterfly was then placed on top of the body of the butterfly. Now she has legs and antennae again! The card front was layered to pale purple and then on to a white card base.

I searched high and low for a sentiment. As luck would have it another dear stamping friend, Donna Ellis, had recently gifted us a sentiment that we could use on our personal projects and I thought it would be perfect for my card. However I did have to change the size to fit where I wanted it to go. So after adjusting the dimensions on my computer, I printed it out on the same pink cardstock that I had used for the frame. I then die cut the sentiment using the inside die cut of the Tonic die set. 

The sentiment was attached with some mounting foam. Some pink baker's twine was knotted around the spine of the card to finish off my project.

I hope you have enjoyed stopping over today? I also hope that you take the time to go back and check out the Turner Syndrome Awareness Blog Hop. Not are there many fun prizes to be won, but you can also learn much more about these miracle girls!

Below you will find a complete list of all the products that I used in my project today:

Donna Ellis’s sentiment

Stampendous Fran’s Hydrangea Garden Stamp and Stencil Set

Stampendous Fran’s Hydrangea Garden Die Cut Set

Versafine Clair Nocturne ink

Sparkle embossing powder

Distress Oxide Inks:

Worn Lipstick, Wilted Violet, Peeled Paint, Fossilized Amber, Broken China

Versafine Clair inks: Cheerful, Verdant, Shady Lane

Blending Brushes

Vellum

Copics markers: RV02, Y13, YG256, YG13, W-3

Versamark ink

Clear Embossing powder

Super Thick Clear embossing powder

Tonic Topnote Trellis Layering Die Set

Double sided adhesive sheet

Lavender Iris glitter

Flowers

Brads

Pink Baker’s twine

Foam mounting tape

Along with the Turner Syndrome Awareness Challenge I would also like to take part in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge Blog Week 613: Feminine

Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C573: Flowers

Cute Card Thursday Challenge 675: Feminine

Crafty Creations Challenges February #418: Anything Goes

Creations in Pink Challenge #31: Anything Goes: Mainly Pink

Creative Sketchy Girls Challenge #57: Girls Only

Take care, until next time!

Shona

Sparkle N Sprinkle June 1st Reveal

Hi and Welcome to the Sparkle N Sprinkle

 June Reveal Blog Hop!

So excited to be the first on the blog hop today! Hope you enjoy what we have for you this month? I decided to do a little mixed media on my project. You'll hear a little about that later, but first let me give you the details on the blog hop!

We are now revealing our new stamp sets on the 15th of each month.  On the first of the month, a new video kit club will be revealed.

We are continuing to add new product lines, so be on the look out for them.  The newest addition is Hampton Arts.

We have four new rubber stamp sets plus one huge digi bundle being revealed this month.  

The sets are:

Umbrella Friends 851  

(Digital Version DIGI851BG - additional sentiment)

Tropical Mermaid Alana 854

  (Digital Version DIGI854LS - additional sentiments)

Swallowtail Butterflies 856

(Digital Version DIGI856FS - see below)

Baby, Oh Baby 857

(Digital Version DIGI857SG - additional sentiments)

DIGI856FS - Swallowtail Butterflies (includes lots of additional colored images, additional sentiments, and digi paper)

When you purchase the digi versions of any of the SNS rubber sets, you are getting lots of extras that aren't available otherwise.  These extras include additional images and/or sentiments not available with the rubber version, digi papers (in some cases), and a cut file to use with your electronic cutting machines will also be included with all digi images purchased!

You're definitely going to want both the rubber versions as well as the digi versions of all our new releases.

The new sets are 20% off until June 20, 2017.  So once you finish the blog hop, head on over to the New Store and start shopping.

On June 18th, 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 the SNS Blog, will receive ALL of the new rubber stamp sets revealed this month.

The Blog Hop Order this month is:

Shona

Diane

Donna

Chris

Jess

Anne

Belinda

Eret

(*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 hope you enjoy the New Reveal Blog Hop as much as we do.  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????

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!

We are also happy to announce the new and improved SNS Creative Challenge.  It will now be held on Facebook. 

 Search for the Sparkle N Sprinkle Creative Challenge group and ask to join today.  This is a closed group, but we want anyone who wants to participate to join (just trying to keep out spammers 😀).  You can join today!

 The new challenge will begin July 1 and will run from the 1st - 25th of each month.  A SNS image (either rubber or digi) needs to be used.  If you don't have any yet, no worries, there are some Freebies located on the new website.  They are located on the Home page, just scroll down a bit to see them:

https://sparklensprinkle.net/

The Winner and Top Three will be posted on the last day of each month.  The Winner will receive a $15 Gift Certificate to the new on-line store.  Please review all the Challenge Rules before submitting your photo.

We hope to see you soon in our new Facebook Group!

Hope you're excited to get this Blog Hop on the Road? This set of stamps is just so versatile that I couldn't help but use the Swallowtail Butterfly set #856. Let's face it - who doesn't like butterflies? 

To begin with I made a fun background with the Nuance Powders - sprinkling on a little color here and there, on top on the Watercolor Cardstock then sprinkling with water and adding the different Nuance powders until I was happy with the result.

So then I thought to take a stencil and play with a little mouse Here I am using the Tim Holtz Stencil Speckles stencil with Nuvo Embellishment Mousse Cornflower Blue.

Just applied a little to the top corner with a spatula. 

Using the Misti Stamp Positioner, I stamped on top of the Embossable Acetate to get a good impression and heat embossed with Cerulean. These butterflies and the little butterflies from the same set were all done the same way and fussy cut.

The sentiment from the same set was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Cerulean EP421.

It was sponged with Summer Sky and then removed from the die before being applied with Dandelion.

Nuvo Crystal Drops were added different points of all the little butterflies. 

The background was edged with Versamark and heat embossed with Robin's Egg as was the card base. 

I found these little flowers in my stash. After they were situated on the card I then added the Crystal drops to the centers of the flowers.

The butterflies were attached from the back with mounting tape.

Here is a close up of the flower elements, with the Crystal Drops on top!

Hope you've enjoyed my share today? A little mixed media too! 

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Crafty Girls Creations: Challenge 37: Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp: Emboss it!

Love to Create: Challenge 12: Anything Creative/Mixed Media

Classic Design Team Open Challenge Blog: Challenge 15: Anything Goes

World Wide Open Design Team Challenge: #23 Anything Goes

The next stop on our blog hop is our talented Diane.

Till next time,

Shona

ONE FOR THE GUYS!

Hi there and welcome to yet another "SNOW DAY"!!!!!

OK - I am so done with this "white nonsense", along with so many other folks in the North East. I'm dog-sitting for my bowling buddy for a couple of weeks, while she visits her Mom in South Africa. The poor little dog can't even find grass to pee on! ...and to make it worse I forgot to put her jacket on for this photo shoot! The photo's blurred because she was shaking.

The grass is a foot under her! I should have made a spot for her and left a tarp over it when it was snowing - but I didn't think that far ahead!! Oh well, we'll just muddle through, right? It could be worse - I could be living in Boston!

Well at least it gives me an excuse to just stamp. My share today is for a dear neighbor - Chet. He is the neighborhood fix-it angel! I was still in my stencil and embossing paste mode when I made this. So I had a masculine background to use.

I had made the background using the TCW Mini Gears stencil, white embossing paste and Sparkle N Sprinkle Pebbled Copper embossing powder. The background is chipboard which had first been sponged with Memento Rhubarb Stalk. The cogs and arrow are all from Blue Fern (Widget works and Industrial Gears). The brads were heat embossed with the Pebbled Copper and Blackened Bronze. 

The big cog was covered with Pebbled Copper and then I added a little Versamark ink and heat embossed again with a little Magic Speckle. This is an awesome embossing powder. - it gives a mosaic effect, and with the metallic colors it becomes, well let's just say, "well worn".

The other chipboard pieces were embossed with various metallic powders: Copper, Copper Dreams and Antiquities.

The Birthday Cut Out is from Die-Versions - yes I know I've been using it a lot - hoping they come out with a "Happy"! I cut it from a 5" x 5" piece of black cardstock. I applied a strip of 3/4" Tear-ific Tape behind the sentiment and then applied Embers Glitter to the front.

The sentiment was stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with Black Detail. A little Desert Sand was sponged over the sentiment before I encased it with the hardware, which was from an old batch of Stampin' Up Hardware.

Well you know you have to use ribbon or lace for a girl card, right? What do you do for a guy?  I found some copper wire and wrapped it around the card front before adding it to the rust card base. Thought that it just finished off my card nicely. Happy Birthday Chet, dear friend!

Hope you've enjoyed my share with you today. 

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Stamping Sensations - One for the Guys!
Scrapy Land - Use a die cut that Scrapy Land sells

Hopefully next time I post it will be more Spring-like!

Hugs,

Shona