Sparkle N Sprinkle Winter Wonderland Blog Hop

Welcome to your first stop on the hop!  We're so glad you are joining us!!  

Since this is the first stop on our hop; you're definitely in the right place!  But if you haven't read all the details about how to participate in this hop or checked out what great prizes will be given away; you might want to hop back to the Sparkle N Sprinkle home blog and read all the details first.  If you're ready to hop on, grab nice cup of hot chocolate or perhaps some eggnog and nestle in for an enjoyable trip through our Winter Wonderland!

Today I have another great Michelle Perkett digital image for you!  Meet Buddy the Christmas Pup!  Isn't he adorable?!  Buddy makes such a great holiday card, but would work just as well for a thinking of you or even a winter birthday card.  He's just so cute and versatile in his cute little sweater!

click any photo for "closer" view

I decided on a holiday card.  So for my card, I did Buddy up in some beautiful blues; taking my cue from the fun SNS saying Cool Yule from the Gothic Snow Set 347.  I thought the saying felt very wintery & well.....blue lol.


Recently, I've really been into making a lot of my main images dimensional so I printed out Buddy three times.  His sweater was colored and cut out separately.  And even though I attached it right on top of him with Tearific tape; you still get some added dimension by placing it on top of him instead of just coloring it right on the main image.  On the third image I printed, I colored and cut out Buddy's head and this time I did pop it up off the main image for lots of dimension!  Then I fussy cut my whole Buddy image and layered it onto a Spellbinder Floral Motif circle.  Again, I could have just cut out the Spellbinder circle with Buddy on it; but I thought it just gave the image more definition to cut him out first and then layer it onto the circle.


For extra holiday sparkle, the Cool Yule saying was embossed with the super sparkly Tinsel Embossing Powder onto beautiful SNS Adriatric Blue Color Coordinates cardstock.  And our awesome new velvet glitters in Reflection (sparkling silver) were used to jazz up the snowflakes on his sweater!

The card was finished off with a pretty textile print background paper, a couple paper accent dots, and a beautiful white and silver bow to tie in all the sparkle.  I wish you could see all the sparkle in person!  Full instructions can be found in my section of the SNS Art Gallery Here.



One more quick project for you today.  Don't forget all the simple pleasures - SNS glitters make the most beautiful glittered pine cones.  So simple and so beautiful.  Roll the pine cone in Brushable glue and then sprinkle on the glitter to resemble the beautiful look of snow tipped pine cones you'd find outside .  I used a 50/50 mix of Sparkling Snow (extra sparkly,semi-transparent) and Bridal (opaque white) glitter on mine.  They're perfect for ornaments, package decorations, or just home decor.  Even the kids can help with this one - they're fun for everyone!


I really hope you enjoyed today's projects.  Don't forget to leave a comment - I always love to hear what you think (and leaving comments also qualifies you for the prizes too!)  Then hop on over to Shanna's blog to see what she has in store for you.  Have a great time on the rest of your walk (hop) through our Winter Wonderland!!  And Thanks again for stopping by!

Until next time,

***Julie***

Joyful Heart Angel

Hello there!  I thought I'd share a project with you quick today and also remind you about SNS's big Winter Wonderland Blog Hop coming up on Thursday.  Remember, this is a BIG one.....ALL our designers this time & lots of days so you can get through all the great projects we have to show you.  So make sure you join us on the 15th! (Lots of great prizes too!!)

Today's project is a very soft & sweet card featuring one of our great new digital designs from Michelle Perkett!  This sweet image is the Christian Angel Proverb. 



This adorable little angel can be printed out any size you desire and better yet; you can even print it on any paper you want too.  That's exactly what I did for this card, printing it twice on Solar White cardstock to color with Copics - once for the main body & then once for the heart/hands which were colored, cut out, & popped up for some dimension.  Then I also printed her onto the purple dotted paper so I could paper piece her skirt.  Printing on different papers takes some extra time but really gives you a little something extra in your digital images.




When printing digital images on specialty or designer papers; you may need to do a little prep work......
-is you paper sized to fit your printer?  (I had to cut my 12x12 paper down to 8 1/2x 11 - you could even consider cutting it down to 4x6 if you have a photo paper tray)
-will the ink print & dry properly on your paper choice? (I chose a very lightly textured paper to make sure it wouldn't have too much texture for printing and went with a somewhat matte paper with the hope that it would dry properly - I had also considered heat setting my image if needed, but it dried fine on it's own.)
-also, double check your printer settings if there's anything you need to change there as well - paper thickness, paper type, etc.  (I didn't need to change any of my settings)
-and if you can spare the paper; do a test print on your paper to see if you need to adjust anything (I had more than one sheet of my purple print paper; so I was covered if my test print didn't work - but everything worked great on the first try; so my test print became my final copy! Yeah!)

It may seem like a bit of work to use specialty papers or prints with your digital images, but again, it's worth it.  And keep in mind; the more you get to know your printer, the easier it is too!

My card was finished of with some great Sparkling Snow glitter accents on her wings, halo, and skirt.  I also outlined the entire oval with this glitter for some extra sparkle! Then it was layered onto a Spellbinder frame backed with a pretty floral paper and accented with a sparkly sheer ribbon woven through the outer edges.  The entire framed piece was then popped up on top of  pretty Vintage Pink Color Coordinate cardstock.

Full instructions for this card can be found in my gallery here in the Sparkle N Sprinkle Art Gallery.

Don't forget to join us for the Winter Wonderland Blog Hop on the 15th!  See you then!!

Until next time,

***Julie***

Sparkle N Sprinkle Sketch Challenge

Well, hello again!  

Today is the first day of the November Sketch Challenge for Sparkle N Sprinkle.  It's easy and fun to participate and we sure hope you'll join in on the fun too!  And don't forget, there will be a great prize for one lucky participant!  Full instructions for how to join in can be found on the SNS Challenge Blog here!  Here's what I came up with:
:



And here's this month's sketch challenge that I designed this from:

 



 I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to have a vertical take on the sketch.  And then I made the focus of the card SNS's new and amazing Velvet Glitters.  This stuff is SO cool!  When new products come out, you always hear various things (hype) about a product.  Well, I'm here to tell you that all the "hype" about this stuff is true.  There's so many things you can do with this glitter and the look & feel is really like velvet.  But you really need to try this glitter out yourself.  I can go onl & on about it, but that just won't compare to trying it out.  So check out all the great Velvet Glitters Sparkle N Sprinkle has to offer - you'll really be glad you did!

The red stripes on my card were actually done with Gypsy Red Velvet Glitter and it does really look a lot like strips of velvet! Plus, one of the really neat things you can do with Velvet Glitters is emboss on top of them!  So that's what I did with my saying.  I added pearl flourishes and flowers (both by Recollections/Michaels) above and below to frame my saying and add even more glitz and glam. (They look so much prettier in person because the pearl's adhesive doesn't show up so much.) I finished off the card with a bright & fun braid made using sticker paper, a border die, and beautiful sparkling Gypsy Red and Luau Green Velvet Glitters.


I have to say, this card is so festive and even more sparkly in person.  If you'd like to see the full instructions for this card; they can be found in the SNS Art Gallery here.  Want even more inspiration for the Sketch Challenge?....See what some of the other design team members came up with on the new SNS Challenge Blog.  Once you check out the other designs; we sure hope you'll join us for this month's challenge!

And don't forget, if this card is putting you in the mood for the holidays......we have a whole lot more coming up in the next blog hop.  Nov 8th - 11th we'll be showcasing our Winter Wonderland; so be sure to mark it on your calendar!

Until next time,

***Julie***