For A Special Birthday Boy

Today was a special birthday at our house and I thought I'd share the card I made for it.  My son turned 10 today - the big jump to double digits!  It almost feels wrong calling him a "boy" (or little); but as any mom knows; they will always be your little boy ;-)!  In any case, I made this special card just for him - he's my "little" engineer and resident Lego-maniac!  

He's been totally engrossed in Lego's since he was wee little and is quite the engineer with them, creating all kinds of amazing creations.  Over the years, he has moved up to more and more complicated designs incorporating all kinds of moving parts and creating many different types of gadgets.  For this birthday, he got one of the most technical sets they make - it includes all kinds of sensors and can be computer controlled.  He's ecstatic and can't wait to build even more.  So of course, he loved this card!



I picked up the paper by Creative Imaginations at two different places and even two completely different times (some of the red and blue I got more than a year ago and don't even remember where I got it).  Recently though, I picked up some more at Archivers when we were on a road trip (unfortunately there isn't an Archivers near us).  Archivers is now carrying it in yellow, green, and blue and I couldn't resist having the other colors!  Don't they look so great all together?!






The saying "hope your birthday Rocks" is Sparkle N Sprinkle and can be purchased individually or as part of the Set 428 - Rock N Roll.  It was embossed with white detail embossing powder and cut out with a Spellbinder Petite Oval Nestability.  The coordinating white oval underneath was edged with a black Copic marker to give the illusion of another layer and even more depth.

Since it was a special birthday, I decided to add his age to the card and glittered the numbers to make them really POP.  I love using dark glitters for "guy" cards - it really gives that extra something without being "girly".  I used one of my favorites for this one - Black Ice.  It's a great true deep black with just the right amount of sparkle!  Love it!  (Click any of the pictures to see all that sparkle!)

Hope you enjoyed this card as much as much son did.  And Thanks so much for stopping by!

Until next time,

***Julie***

Recovering and Father's Day

Hello friends.  I've really been missing spending time crafting and online; but I still have a little bit of recovering to do.  Recovery was going really well at first and then it seemed to stall a bit.  Probably I was expecting too much too soon.  It will get there though.  Strangely, I've continued to have some problems with my vision though (& those should have cleared up by now); so that has been a bit bothersome and has also kept me from both crafting and being online too much.  I miss both and am trying to work it out so I can slowly get back to both while I finish healing.  I decided to try and tackle a project first and hope to be back visiting each of you on your wonderful blogs very soon too!

So....while I've been out; you've probably seen some of the great new sets that Sparkle N Sprinkle has recently released.  If you haven't, you can find them here (towards the bottom) and here.  I couldn't wait to try out something with the new Fishin with Dad set and here's what I came up with:
 


This is such a great stamp set and I had so much fun creating this card.  This is the card my husband will be getting for Father's Day - he requested it lol!  Actually, he frequently serves as a "consultant" as I design cards and he liked this one so much; he said he wanted one for his Father's Day card!  Too funny & such a nice complement too!




The fish and saying are both from the new Fishin' with Dad- Set 501.  The words were done in Moss embossing powder - one of my favorites - from the Tuscany embossing powder line.  The fishing tackle and wood grain papers are both from Momenta.  The fishing pole is from my yard and the fish hook is from the sporting goods department lol ;-)









This is a really fun design for a Father's Day card, but would work just as great for a birthday or other occasion by just switching out the words.  Something any fisherman or outdoors person would be sure to love!

A full supply list and instructions (as well as a few tips!) can be found in my Sparkle N Sprinkle gallery. 


Hope you enjoyed today's card and thanks so much for stopping by.  I really appreciate your continued support while I haven't been able to visit each of you and really look forward to visiting each of you on your blogs very soon!

Until next time,

***Julie***

SNS Creative Challenge - Don't Forget!

Hi blogging friends! So sorry for the extended absence from my blog, but this past month has been pretty busy for me.  Much to my dismay, I had to have some surgery a couple weeks back.  Part of my month was spent getting the house and farm ready for my recovery time and the past couple weeks have been the ups and downs of recovery.  The good news - surgery went well and hopefully all will be well soon.  I'm still going through some ups and downs of recovery; but it's only been a couple weeks; so I need to give it a little more time.

In the meantime, I wanted to remind you that there's still a week left to get in on the Sparkle N Sprinkle Creative Challenge for this month.  This month is a fun color challenge.  Before my surgery, I did this colorful card using one of the great new SNS sets - Bicycles.

I love this color combo and knew exactly what I wanted to do when I saw this combo.  I had recently got a new set of Prismacolor Inktense pencils and this was the perfect chance to try them out.  I love how this background turned out.




 

Color Swatch courtesy of Design Seeds

I really struggled with leaving this card so simple, but I also really wanted the background and that great saying to take center stage.  And I think leaving the card simple does that quite well.

Actually, I almost forgot that this was one of the most time consuming simple cards I've done in quite awhile.  I'm just now remembering that this card took me about two weeks to finish - crazy, I know!  But after doing the background, I left it sitting around on my workspace for awhile and I kept staring at and playing with it trying to decide how best to add the images/sayings (I even did a completely different layout, but didn't think it worked quite as well).  Finally I added the images and left it sit around again while I contemplated how to "finish" it.  Again, I tried a couple different finishing options before I decided it needed to be left simple.  In the end, sometimes simplicity can make the most powerful statement.  (Even if it takes a lot of trials to get to simple LOL!)

I do love the end result though.  Full instructions for this card can be found in the Sparkle N Sprinkle art gallery here.

I hope you'll decide to try out something yourself with this warm and beautiful color collection for this month's challenge.  Full details for this Creative Challenge can be found on the Challenge blog here.

Ok, I need to sign off for now.  Need to get some rest.  I'm finding that I've been a lot more tired than I expected while I'm healing.  But your body knows what it needs; so I best pay attention.  Hopefully if I do that I'll be back to more of my regular self and schedule real soon!

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!  

Until next time,

***Julie***

Heart Wings from New SNS Stamps

Hi there!!  Today I wanted to share a card using one of the two new Sparkle N Sprinkle stamp sets by Beccy Muir that were just released this week - Bird Song and Bicycles.  You can see the full sets by just clicking on their names. 

I have to say I'm in LOVE with these two sets! So pretty, fun, and versatile - good for cards of all occasions & scrapbook pages too!  Be sure to check them out, I think you're going to love them as much as I do!



I haven't had as much time as I'd like to play with them yet; but I have SO many ideas tossing around in my head! So, until I can put all those ideas to paper; here's the first card I got to create using the Bird Song set.  (click photo for closer view)


There's three different styles of feathers on this set and they are all gorgeous!  So I decided that I wanted one of them to be the focus of this card.  Isn't that feather gorgeous?!


The set also has some beautiful sayings as well.  But for this card, I wanted to show how well this set works with some of our other sets too!  I think it's great when you have sets that you can mix and match.  So much versatility!







And to show you even more versatility.....this great saying is actually from one of our Valentine themed sets!  Stampette Set 454 - Heart Wings  So, Don't forget to keep a really open mind when you look at all your stamps!

Used this way, the saying works so well for something other than Valentines day.....anniversary? mother's day? best friend? maybe even a birthday?  There's probably lots more great ways to use it!  And I just loved the way the "heart wings" saying worked with the feathers!



What do you think?  Be sure to let me know you stopped by!  I always love and appreciate your comments!  Hope you'll stop back again!

Until next time,

***Julie***

Sparkle N Sprinkle Anything But a Card Blog Hop

Welcome! Today us ladies from SNS are hosting an "Anything But a Card" Blog Hop.  Hopefully you've just arrived here from Barbara's Blog and have been enjoying all the interesting projects the girls have come up with.    (If you just happened upon this post, why not go to the SNS Home Blog to check out the details for joining us on this hop.  There's some great prizes to be won too!)

I knew exactly what I wanted to do when this hop was planned.  I've been wanting to do one of these for a long time and this was the perfect time to make it happen!  And I happened to have one of the great new sets that was recently released that would work perfectly for this too; so I was really excited to try this out!

My non-card project features the new Sweet Strawberries Set 484.  And I decided to make this adorable basket to hold a delicious treat!  I had the strawberries on hand the whole time I worked on this; even when I was doing the coloring to get it just right.  And boy did they smell yummy!!  Are you hungry for a little sweet taste of summer yet?!

My neck of the woods just last week.... I'm so ready for summer!

We're still quite cold here in my part of the US (even had snow flurries the last couple days!); so I'm definitely ready for any warm thoughts!!  So this summery project is just what I needed!










The basket is made using a Spellbinder Grand Label die cut that is cut in half and has a strip inserted between the two halves to form the sides and bottom of the basket.  Add a decorative strip for the handle and Viola - adorable little basket to fill with any treat!  Full instructions for how to make the basket can be found in the SNS Art Gallery here. 

 
The image was stamped with Memento ink and colored with Copic markers.  The sentiment is embossed with Teddy Brown embossing powder (one of my favorites) to match the brown basket.  


There's so many different things you could make one of these baskets for - change the paper color, the Spellbinder die, and/or the image and you could create lots of different types of treats.  Whether it's a just little treat for a special person or perhaps something more formal like a shower favor; the ideas are endless!



We're getting close to the end of the hop, but there's a couple more stops and some great projects left for you to check out! So leave a comment (I love to hear what you think!) and then hop on over to Marie's Blog to see what fun idea she has for you!

Hope you enjoy the rest of the hop!  And do stop back again!  

Until next time,

***Julie***

Sparkle N Sprinkle April Creative Challenge

Happy April 1st!  Today us gals at Sparkle N Sprinkle have a new Creative Challenge for you (no April foolin')!  This month the Creative Challenge at SNS is to use a digit image in your project.  So if you love working with digital images; be sure to jump in and join us!  And if you're new to digital images; this is the perfect reason to take the plunge and give it a try! 

Here's what I came up with for this months challenge:


I chose to use the use the adorable "Rose" by Michelle Perkett.  Now I know she has some pretty roses on her dress and her name is in fact "Rose".  But for whatever reason, I just didn't see her in pink lol.  When I saw Rose, I really wanted to see her in a pretty purple dress and I have always loved yellow roses.


I think she looks adorable in her purple & yellow!  A little bit of leaf green accents on the card and in the ombre bow pull out the tiny bit of green on her dress and adds a little extra pop of color too.

I often love to combine digital images with rubber images.  In this case, I added the saying from the Sweet Treats - Set 374; which is perfect for this image and also makes the card so versatile.  You could use this card for so many different occasions.






The tiny rose I added is from Set 382 - Sympathy.  It's probably not the first set you'd think to go to for accent pieces.  But if you're not familiar with the set; be sure to click the set name to check it out.  Not only does it have lovely sayings for those tough times when you need to make a sympathy card.  But it also has some very pretty accents like this tiny rose and several swirls/scrolls that make perfect accents for lots of sayings and cards of all types. 

I loved how well the tiny rose fit with the saying and tied in the saying piece with the flowers on Rose's dress.

A little bit of sparkling snow glitter was added around the image (of course!) for just the right amount of sparkle!

**************

I hope you like my project for this month's challenge to use Digital image(s).  And I really hope you'll decide to play along with us!!  So grab a favorite digital image & join in on the fun!  We look forward to seeing what you create!

Don't forget to stop back on Thursday - we're having another blog hop and it's a little earlier in the month than some of our other hops; so we don't want you to miss it (more prizes to be won)!  We'll be featuring "Anything But a Card"; so we hope you'll join us then too!

 Until next time,

***Julie***

Simply Pattern Play

Hello there!  Today was the last day for the "interactive" part of the Pattern Play class I had signed up for.  I only had the time to post one card during the class and I wanted to post at least one more card today.  Still fighting my cold and super busy with other projects this week; so I didn't get to do as much with Jennifer and Kristina's class as I wanted to.  But I really enjoyed everything I did get to do - so many great ideas from the instructors and even more from the other participants!  I'm really looking forward to checking out more from the class later.


So in any case, since today was the last interactive day; I was hoping to add a few projects related to the lessons / ideas presented.  This was the only one I had time to work up unfortunately.  I have at least three more on the "drawing board" that I really wanted to work up too.  But alas, there's only so many hours in a day!  Perhaps another time for those cards!


This card idea is based on taking a bold or busy patterned paper and breaking it up (or softening it up) by cutting it into strips and allowing stripes of the card base show through.  And it's quite effective at toning down the pattern just enough!  There's so many patterns out there that are really interesting; but can be "too much" and this really does the trick to make it much less overwhelming.  The idea is also to keep the card relatively simple when using a busy pattern.  So generally you only add one main sentiment or other element.  The sentiment I used is from Sparkle N Sprinkle's Nature - Set 467 .   I lightly shaded it with Old Paper Distress ink to soften it a bit & then it's framed with a Spellbinder Label Ten.


I took my card one more step further yet still maintained the simplicity of it by adding a strip of bakers twine between each panel. I really liked the little extra touch of interest that it added without being too much.  A very simple card, but it gave me a chance to actually test out some of the ideas discussed in the class.  I really like the overall effect.  You certainly get to appreciate a beautiful paper.  Sometimes simple really does give the best effect!  Hopefully I'll get a chance to try out some of the other ideas sometime soon!  Hope you enjoyed my take on the technique!

Until next time,

***Julie***