April Showers

Front panel

Today's card uses April Showers, one of the new stamp sets released by Sparkle N Sprinkle this month.  I have to admit this card came together very slowly.  I had no idea I was going to try and make a reversible card when I started out.

Front panel - Flipped 

I began by stamping the image onto vellum with VersaMark and heat setting it with Clear embossing powder.  I wanted to try my hand at the "no lines" coloring that I've seen.  I colored the image with Copic markers and them backed the vellum with a soft shade of peach thin weight cardstock.

Then I decided this might look good on an acetate card, so I go out my SNS Clear Embossable Acetate and stamped the sentiment on the front cover with Distress Ink (Black Soot) and heat set it with Clear embossing powder.  It didn't show up as well as I wanted, so I die cut the stitched sentiment flag from Lil' Inkers Designs and adhered it to the inside front panel behind the sentiment.  I also adhered the image to the inside front panel.

Inside (normal view)

The back panel is the Scribbles cutting plate from Taylored Expressions, which I covered with VersaMark and heat set using Holiday Blue embossing powder.  It reminded me of swirling rain.  I didn't want the backside to be plain white cardstock, so I embossed it with Sapphire embossing powder and heat set it.  That's when the idea of a reversible card popped into my brain.

Inside with color panel behind it

Since the sentiment mentions rain and sunshine, I added a sun and a cloud (both from MFT) to the backside of the colored image.  These were die cut from a piece of Super Adhesive Sheet and covered with Cloud Nine Velvet glitter.  I then colored the pieces with Distress Markers and a water brush because I wanted to blend a couple different colors together.

Inside when Flipped (with color panel behind it)

Now when you open the card, you see the sun.  When you flip the card upside down, you see the sunshine peeking through the swirls of rain.

Front Flipped (with color panel behind it)

This was hard to explain, but looks pretty cool in person.  Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them for you.

Easter Egg Hunt

This is one of the new rubber stamp sets from Sparkle N Sprinkle, called Hippity Hoppity Easter.   This is a quick and easy card to put together.  I heat embossed the sentiment and the eggs with Cerulean embossing powder and then covered the entire thing with 2 1/2" Tear-ific tape and Cloud Nine velvet glitter.  Using Distress Markers, I colored the eggs and highlighted certain words.  Love coloring with markers on this velvet glitter.  It gives you an amazing look and is oh-so-easy.  You can read more about this technique here, in the SNS Tips and Techniques section.

Here is a close up so you can see the glittery goodness better.  For more details on how this was put together, you can view my SNS Art Gallery, here.  You can also check

Luck o'the Irish

I created a gift/treat bag (Sizzix) to fill with yummy goodies for St. Patrick's Day, using several different techniques, for the iCopic challenge (anything but a card).  The first technique I wanted to try is called Glittered Copics, where you use your Copic markers to tint glitter.  (You can find the video tutorial here.)  I began by taping the umbrella stencil from Dreamweavers to white cardstock and using a glue pad to apply glue to the exposed area.  I didn't want to glitter the entire card as was done in the tutorial; just the umbrella.  Next I liberally applied PK Glitz glitter (white pearl) to the glue, burnished it in with my fingertip, and then colored with my Copics.  This was a really fun technique and I definitely want to try it again.

I decided to add a black mat so the glittered umbrella would pop better.  The background for the umbrella was created by using several layers of the Canadian Kaleidoscope and the Canadian Kaleidoscope Angel Wings dies from Cheery Lynn.  The sentiment is cut with Spellbinders and for the background, I used a technique called Chalk Attraction (you can find out more about it here) with a shamrock rubber stamp.  I also used this same rubber stamp to create coordinating tissue paper. 

Once I had written my sentiment, I wanted it to be 

shiner, so I applied Versamark over the entire die cut and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  Lastly, I added some shamrock ribbon to complete the project.

I think I bake some shamrock cookies to fill this cute treat bag.

In addition to the iCopic challenge, I'm entering this in the Dreamweavers (go green or go Bragh) challenge, the Cheery Lynn (lots of layers) challenge, and Sweet Stamps (St. Patrick's Day) challenge.

Copics used: YG05, YG09, YG67. G17