CraftEMarie: February 2015

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Sparkle N Sprinkle March 1st Reveal

Welcome to Sparkle N Sprinkle's

March 1, 2015 Reveal.

This month SEVEN new rubber stamp sets are being introduced. These sets are 20% off their regular price, until March 3rd. All the new reveal sets are available on Cling Mounted Rubber and as a digital image. Glasses #698 is the stamp set featured in This Month's Technique Video.

The sets are:

Coffee Time #694 (digi version DIGI694)

Coffee Shoppe #695 (digi version DIGI695)

Best Friends Forever #696 (digi version DIGI696)

Mustache #697 (digi version DIGI697)
Glasses #698 (digi version DIGI698)
Expresso Yourself #699 (digi version DIGI699)
Coffee Talks #700 (digi version DIGI700)

On March 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 SEVEN of the new rubber stamp sets

(or digi sets, if you prefer)

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

April Williams
Shona Erlenborn
Eret Pank
Anne Temple
Marie Berquist
Belinda Shupe

(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.)

This month it was very hard for me to decide which new set to use so I used three different ones. Anyone that knows me will tell you that I love a good cup of coffee. My favorite thing to do on the weekend is to curl up in my recliner first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee. Even my little kindergarteners are always saying, “Mrs. B, you smell like coffee”. I was thrilled to see all of these new coffee themed sets.

For the front of my card I used the main images from the Coffee Shoppe and Coffee Talks sets. Both were colored with Copic markers and fussy cut. I used a white pen on the chair backs in the Coffee Shoppe image and added touches of sparkle to both images with a Versamarker and Velvet Sparkle Embossing Powder. These were popped up on the card front of an easel card.

When the card is opened it reveals the sentiment. This was heat embossed with Log Cabin EP and die cut with Spellbinders’ D-Lites Fancy Label Tags One. I sponged this with Tea Dye Distress Ink before removing it from the die. The little coffee cup popped up on the sentiment is from the Espresso Yourself set.

The background of the card front and inside was created with rust cardstock and a “brick” layer. I embossed white cardstock with Tim Holtz’s Texture Fades Bricked Embossing Folder and then sponged, swiped, fingered, and splattered it with seven different Distress inks. A little hint here – when splattering, remove anything important from the area. Especially other finished cards that do not need a touch of splatter on them!

Pour yourself a cup of coffee, or tea if you prefer, and enjoy what my fellow designers have to share. 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 cannot 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.

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The new SNS Creative Challenges also begins today, with lots of prizes and recognition badges. The theme is always Anything Goes using Loose Glitter, Embossing Powder, and or Flock.

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Main Street Shop Hop

If you live anywhere in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, Sparkle N Sprinkle is participating in the Main Street Shop Hop, along with other local crafting stores. The Shop Hop begins March 21st.

You can purchase a tote for $10 to participate. Included in the tote are lots of goodies, plus your shopping passport. Spend $5 at each participating store to get your passport stamped. Once you have all of your stamps, turn in your passport for a chance to win HUGE prizes! In addition to receiving 10% off your purchases, each store will be offering Make N Takes so you can fill your scrapbook with treasured memories.

For more information about this event, please visit the SNS Events Calendar. When you hover your mouse over the event, detailed information about that specific event pops up.

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We hope you enjoy the New Reveals as much as we do! Last month the winner came from Anita's blog. Wonder which Designer contains the Grand Prize winner this month?

E. Marie

I entered this card in the following challenges:

Scrapy Land challenge #12 - Splat! PLUS using any brand of die Scrapy Land sells. (Use spray mists, inks, paint, etc)

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes

Crafty Calendar February Challenge - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge: No Rules

Crafts 4 Eternity Challenge R#215 – Emboss It!

Craft Your Passion Challenge 250 ~ Always Anything Goes

Jo’s Scrap Shack Challenge FFC #77 "Anything Goes"

Love To Scrap Challenge LTSCB #48 - Anything Goes!

Party Time Tuesday Challenge #195 - Anything Goes Theme

The Pink Elephant Challenge TPE287 - "Anything Goes"

Suzy Bee's Bloomin Challenge #69 - Anything Goes With A Twist... Embossing Wet or Dry

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #172 - Anything Goes

I "Carrot" Bout You!

Made this cute little card and almost forgot to post!! Must be all the stress from two snow days and two days with a two hour delay from school this week. In other words, too much free time!!

House Mouse and Friends challenge this week is “Friends”. These two little guys sharing a carrot is what friendship is all about. No, not eating (though my friends and I do a lot of that). It is all about time together and sharing. My friends and I do even more of that.

The image is colored with Tombow markers and I just couldn’t resist using my favorite “carrot” die from Spellbinders. I sponged it with Orange Marmalade Distress Ink, distressed the edges, and added some Tea Dye Distress Ink on the edges. Then I die cut some greenery, added a little variation of color with Distress Inks, and tucked them behind the “carrot”.

The little tag came with the background cardstock from DCWV. I trimmed it down and tucked a little more greenery behind it. The background layers are distressed and a little faux stitching added.

Love these little guys.

E. Marie

I entered this card in the following challenges:

HM&F Challenge HMFMC188 - Friends

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes

Gruffies and Guest Challenge #14 – Love is All Around/Anything Goes

Crafty Catz Challenge 268 – Use Your Dies/Punches

Party Time Tuesday Challenge #195 - Anything Goes Theme

Deep Ocean Challenge #98: "Our Furry Friends"

Incy Wincy Designs Challenge – Distressing

Ooh La La Challenge #174 - Add Something Green

We Do Doobadoo UK Craft Challenge 4 - Spring/Green

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Happy 30th Birthday

This summer I gained a wonderful son when my daughter got married. Today is his 30^th birthday so I wanted to make him a very special card. He is a wine connoisseur but also has recently opened and manages a new Gus’ Spicy Fried Chicken restaurant so I debated to go with a wine theme or a funny chicken theme. In the end I decided to stay with the wine theme and knew the Sparkle N Sprinkle’s Wine Tableau stamp set would be perfect.

I found some unique glossy kraft cardstock in my stash and used this for the card base and also for all images. This provided a unique challenge for the coloring. I used Copic markers but they colored differently on the glossy coating. I did a basic coloring and then added streaks of the same color to get some shading and texture. I loved how this worked on the wood grain.

The image was heat embossed with Log Cabin embossing powder, fussy cut, and popped up on distressed layers of wine and green cardstock. I used a Versamarker to add Velvet Sparkle embossing powder to various areas. The sentiment was heat embossed with Pear Star embossing powder.

For the inside of the card, I created the look of the wooden table top by running a piece of this glossy cardstock through an embossing folder and then used the “streak” technique again with a copic marker. Then I did a little splattering with some diluted Distress ink, though this seemed to just blend in.

I stamped, colored, and fussy cut the wine glass from the Chianti stamp set. This was intertwined in a die cut using the Memory Box Happy Birthday Extravaganza die. This was actually die cut from the same green cardstock from the layer on the front, covered with Versamark ink and Velvet Sparkle EP, and heat set. The picture just doesn’t show the green coloring for some reason.