Welcome to Sparkle N Sprinkle: Its a Cultural Thing Blog Hop!

From sunny Florida!! We are finally experiencing some cooler weather. I cannot say how happy I am about that. If you hopped here by way of Sandy Meier, then you are in the right place! You may want to start at the SNS Home Blog to become eligible for four great prizes.

I am so excited and have been looking forward to this blog hop for a long time. I love working with these stamps as you will be able to tell from my cards. You can change the look of the card just by changing the color of embossing powder and paints. These stamps are as diverse as we are.

 I used the Elements stamp set #316 to create my card. I rubbed the black cardstock with an anti-static bag and then stamped with VersaMark ink. I covered the image with embossing powder (the first card has Silver Detail and the second has Gold Detail) then shook off the excess over a coffee filter then used a heat gun. Use Smooch ink or metallic paints to color rest of the image and set aside to dry. Use scissors to cut out images and attach to card front.

Believe it or not the backgrounds are created using napkins. I love this technique and use it often. Once you try this technique you will see napkins in a new light!

1. First start by unfolding your napkin and if it is a multi-ply napkin, carefully pull the layers apart so that you only have the top decorative layer for your project.
2. Cut a piece of freezer paper a little larger than your napkin (about 1/2 to 3/4")
3. Heat your iron while you first lay your freezer paper, shiny side up, on your ironing board. Next, lay your decorative napkin (pretty side up) onto your freezer paper, and then lay your copy paper on top of your napkin.
4. Heat with your iron (set on medium - no steam) for about 15 to 30 seconds, moving your iron over the copy paper, applying gentle pressure until your napkin is adhered to your freezer paper.
5. Now just apply your pretty napkin to your cardstock, (just like you would if you were using patterned paper) and complete your project as desired.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you decide to try this technique in the future. It is an easy way to create beautiful patterned background.

These are a few other cards I have created using the same stamps. As you can see, just by changing the colors or the background changes the way the stamp looks.

Please leave a comment to become eligible for a prize. Your next stop on the blog hop is Donna Ellis where I know she has something wonderful planned.

These are stops in the "Its A Cultural Thing Blog Hop"

SNS Home Blog

Linda Loew

Amanda Reed

Shona Erlenborn

Angie Blasingame

Barbara Bruder

April Williams

Julie Zippel

Eleanor Jenkins

Karin Martin

Gerline Townsley

Marie Berquist

Patti White

Sandy Meier

Dawn Thomas (You are here!)

Donna Ellis

Then return to the home blog page SNS Home Blog

Svartalheim (Day of Adventure)

November 9^th: Today is another beautiful day with low humidity. I tried to move a caterpillar walking across the sidewalk but he wasn’t interested. There was a smaller caterpillar walking up the wall near the other two chrysalises. There was this awesome but very scary looking spider on the soffit.

When I reached into my bag to pull a rune, I was drawn to three runes. I pulled them out and turned them over. The runes were: Berkana (birch, new beginnings), Fehu (cattle, prosperity), and Eihwaz (yew tree, protection). These are great runes and when pulled in combination are even better.

I had calculus today and got test #3 back. I got a 74. Considering there were several word problems. I have a difficult time trying to figure out where to begin. I am happy with my grade and my average is an 81.6. After I add the 5% for attendance I have an 86% average for the class. Today we started the topic of Implicit Differentiation. It just makes my head spin!

Muspelheim (Day of Vision)

Today I spent most of the day working on assignments for the Exploring Sensory Perception course. I continued my work transferring caterpillars to Milkweed plants. I went out tonight to take advantage of the sale at a local store. I spent way more than I should but that’s what shopping sales is all about. I bought four Nestabilties and two border/corner punch sets.

My rune today was Nauthiz (needfire, survival). This could be my work with the Monarch caterpillars. I have been working to transfer them to healthy plants when they have eaten all the ones near them. It is getting late in the season and I want as many as possible to survive.

Alfheim (Day of Openness)

  

Kenaz (torch, to know). I took my third test today in Calculus. I think I did okay. I will find out on Wednesday. I spent time outside with the Monarch caterpillars today. There are so many this late in the year. It worries me they won’t have enough time to turn into butterflies before it gets too cold.

Vanaheim (Day of Nurturing)

November 5^th: Vanaheim (Day of Generating) I found out this morning that my grade adjustment for test #2 gave me a total of 101%. That bumps my average to 85.5%

I pulled Wunjo (joy) today. This is appropriate considering I am over the moon about my grade!

Asgard (Day of Understanding)

I taught class today. We made faux canvas cards. This is a wonderful technique and gives soft results. This is a sample of one of the cards. We watercolored then embossed. The rectangle was cut using a Nestabilities after the card stock was embossed.

My rune today was Thurisaz (thorn in the side). I see this as the challenge I face every day with my studying. I feel guilty when I am not studying but my eyes feel like they are going to fall out when I study too much.