Sparkle N Sprinkle Anniversary

Happy afternoon and hope that all had a good weekend. Ours was quiet, but very pleasant. Had a few little rain storms. Today's card will be for Mr. and our anniversary which is coming up soon. (52 if you're interested! And they said it would NEVER last!) It's a lovely stamp purchased from Sparkle N Sprinkle while we were in South Florida at Christmas. I must say that every stamp purchased from SnS has always stamped out just splendidly for me - and I'm not the greatest stamper on the planet. The rubber is etched quite deeply and gives a sharp crisp image. (and no, I'm not paid to say this LOL)

But first let me give a warm welcome to 2 lovely new followers. I hope you'll take time to pop over for a little visit and let these ladies know I sent you over to say Hey.

Brenda of Stamping as Fast as I Can

Carol of Inky Fingers

Here goes for today's card:

 

- SnS Just a Note Tulips (also available in digi format). Recently received the Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush watercolor markers - thanks to some great enabling by Friend Lynn. Was waffling about whether to yet buy another product, when Lynn told me how pleased she was with these markers. Had them in a cart at Amazon, and yikes, the price had gone up slightly from when I was first considering. After hearing from Lynn how easy these were to use, placed the order. Took a few weeks to arrive as these shipped from Japan. Now I'm not very good with watercolors, but I keep trying. These markers were the easiest of any water color product I've tried to use so far.

 

Image was stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black on Strathmore 140# watercolor paper, and then clear EP to heat emboss so the ink didn't smear. No fancy shading was done. Wet each tulip first, then put down a bit of marker color at the base of each bloom. Used a regular dampened brush (not the aqua brushes) - to draw the color upwards. Touched the marker again at the base to add some deeper shading, pulled upwards. My next effort will be better (!), but I'm pretty happy with this one.

 

- S/B Divine Eloquence cut the panel and a 2nd layer was cut for the card backing using a top hinge method. While the image was in the die, used Memento Danube Blue & a finger dauber to add some highlights around the edges. Tiny pearls were colored with a dark blue copic marker to complement the inking.

 

- SU sentiment stamped with Danube Blue, die cut with an MFT Xstitch rectangle, and that's it. I would enter this in the SnS Monthly challenge, but didn't add any glitter or sparkle so the card is not eligible {sigh}. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

Had shared earlier that we were doing some 'fixits' round the house. So here's a couple pictures of what Mr. did on the front of the house (the front door and shutters were previously a pretty deep forest green & now I'm wondering why I didn't pick the current colors in the beginning!). Also a few pictures of what it looked like around here last evening when we were sitting in the swing, enjoying some nice breezes.

 

Thanks for joining me this afternoon, and hope you enjoy the pictures. I always love to see those shared by all the other bloggers that I visit. Blessings & Hugs.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Lighted flag hanging on an old house mailbox that we found at a New England flea market

 



Lighted garden flag that is on the inside of the front window by the door. Has batteries in it, so we didn't want to hang it where it would get in the rain.

 

Easter Lily that survived being left on the back deck, over the winter. Was meant to be dumped, and in the spring, we noticed the sticks had buds. It has the most wonderful fragrance, but the yellow stamens can certainly stain clothing.