It's a Birthday Blog Hop!

In celebration of the Stampin' Addicts second birthday, we're doing a blog hop where each stop on the hop features a different stampin' technique.  With 20 stops on this hop, you are sure to see some interesting and fun to try techniques, I'm sure!

You might have arrived here via Kandice's blog.  Weren't her ribbon techniques great?  I am going to have to try some of those when I can find some spare time!

For my stop on the blog hop, I'm featuring the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique for my projects.  To do this technique, you'll need a VersaMark pad, some Iridescent Ice embossing powder, and a heat gun.  Simply stamp over your image with the VersaMark pad, sprinkle on some Iridescent Ice EP and heat set!  I'd recommend letting your heat gun warm up a little before setting the EP, and when heat setting, keep the heat gun at an angle to the image and keep the heat gun moving.  This way, you are less likely to scorch your image.

My first project is a simple card.  It features three Sale-A-Bration products:  the Punch Bunch and So Happy for You stamp sets, along with the Ice Cream Parlor Designer Series Paper and Quick Accents Pack.  I love the bright colors in this DSP!

My second project is a cute treat box made with the Two Tags die.  I followed a tutorial written by Julie Davison, but she credits Lisa Curcio with the original concept.  I started with Pacific Point card stock and accented it with some designer series paper from the cute Ice Cream Parlor DSP and Quick Accents Pack available now through March 31 as part of Stampin' Up!'s Sale-A-Bration promotion where you get free product for every $50 (pretax) that you spend.  You can always use the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique on a stamped image, but I wanted to showcase another use for it - by jazzing up some of your DSP!  The cupcake image and sentiment comes from the cute Create a Cupcake stamp set.  These would make really cute favors for a birthday part, don't you think?

I was looking for an idea for a card when I found one of my upline's 2009 Card of the Month cards that, sadly, I hadn't made yet.  I took the main image idea from her card to create mine.  I started with a piece of Glossy White card stock and brayered on some Daffodil Delight ink.  To make the sun, I punched out a circle through two layers of Post-It notes placed the circle where I wanted the sun to be.  I then used the brayer to apply some Tangerine Tango ink.  The last ink layer was laid down with the brayer using Cajun Craze ink.  After I removed the Post-It, I lightly sponged on some Tangerine Tango and Cajun Craze ink over the sun to tone down the yellow.  I then inked up the Upsy Daisy stamp with Basic Black Craft ink before embossing with black embossing powder.  I should have let the ink from the brayer dry a little more before this step, as if you look closely, you'll see some black EP speckles around the daisies - but my daughter didn't even notice it until I mentioned it... did you?  Then it was time to make it sparkle - and sparkle, it does!  The sentiment stamp I chose is from Curly Cute - I love this set!  It was also embossed.  I really like how this card turned out, and my stampers will see it next month for stamp camp!

Well, that's it for my stop on the hop.  I hope you enjoyed this fun technique.  Next up is Holly's stop on the hop.  She is featuring ways to use SU! Smooch Spritz, and I'm sure she's got some amazing things to share with you!