SNS "It's A Cultural Thing" Blog Hop

Welcome to my page on the hop! If you've arrived here from April's blog; you're in the right place.  If you've happened on my blog from somewhere else; you'll want to hop on back to the SNS Home blog.  (There you'll find all the details for this hop & the great prizes too!) Now on to my card, "Plum Dreams Oriental".....

As you can see, I took the blog hop theme quite literally & decided to explore one of the many ethnic essences that make up our great country.  Sparkle N Sprinkle has so many beautiful oriental stamps; I couldn't resist working with one of those.  And I just love the whole collection of fans that they have.  The one on this card comes from Asian Fans - Set 126.  (And of course it's on sale this month!)

I do hope you can get a better feel for this card from my description.  I've been having some problems getting"true to life" pics recently; so I hope you can combine the pic & description to get a better "view" in your mind! 

The fan stamp coordinated so well with my printed paper that I decided to mimic the look of the tan fans in the print by stamping on black paper & bleaching out the main stamp section.  The color I achieved is a bit more pale than the photo shows but really matched well.  Plus, bleaching out the black paper made it come out a really muted tone like the rest card (which also didn't come out very well in the photo - I told you this card was giving the camera issues - lol!)  In any case, the embossing powder I used for the fan was a really fun choice too.  While Oriental Fire may seem like an obvious choice for this card; perhaps not as much if you realize it's a red embossing powder!  Don't forget to experiment, this deep red powder appears to be an interesting shade of black when used on the black paper.  How's that for something surprising? - always experiement!!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed my design today.  Full instructions for this card can be found here.  Let's keep you hopping right along to see all the other great projects the designers have for you.  So hop on over to Eleanor's blog to continue on your journey.  Don't forget to leave a comment before you hop on by & thanks for joining us today!  Have fun on the rest of the hop!!

"No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive."  Mahatma Gandhi

Until next time,

***Julie***

Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Hi Everybody! Sparkle N Sprinkle has been continuing to release some great new fun & beautiful stamps and I wanted share one of the new releases with you!  As soon as I saw the Christian Angels - Set 448, I fell in love with this lovely lady & knew I had to make a card with her.  Whether you see her as an angel or a bride; she is just lovely as the centerpiece on a card.

For my "Something Borrrowed, Something Blue" card, she's done up with beautiful, soft blues and lots of sparkle!  Capturing all the sparkle in a photo is always a challenge & unfortunately this one had me beat.  Try as I may, I could not get the sparkle to show up as well as I wanted.  It's one of those cards that you're just going to have to take my word that it is so much more sparkly & pretty in person than it is in the photo.  (You can click on the photo to get a slightly better view). 

While you can probably see the glitter in her flowers & headpiece; it's her sparkling gown and veil that really make her so beautiful!  Since her dress & veil are white, all the lines are accented with shimmering, translucent Sparkling Snow glitter.  Sparkling Snow is one of those "must have" glitters that looks perfect on so many projects.  After "glittering", she's layered onto a rich navy to make the white pop out even more crisply & then accented with some great Spellbinders borders in both white & navy.  The entire piece is then pop dotted to add more dimension.


I hope you'v enjoyed my "blushing bride" as much as I did.  I know she would look great in lots of other color combinations & I hope to be able to try some of those out in the future too!

Don't forget the SNS "It's A Cultural Thing" blog hop coming up on Thursday!  We've got a really wide variety of projects to share with you; so this is going to be lots of fun....and of course they'll be prizes too; so don't miss it!  Well, in honor of my bridal card, I like to close with:

"Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue"

Traditional Bridal Blessing - Author Unknown

Until next time,

***Julie***

Supplies Used:

Stamp - Sparkle N Sprinkle

Glitter - Sparkle N Sprinkle

Rectangle Die & Accent Pieces - Spellbinders

Scallop Card Die - Sizzix

Markers - Copic Sketch

Card Base Paper - Bazzill Swiss Dot

Other: Sakura Quickie Glue Pen