Thursday, November 13, 2014

it all started with "sparkle"

It is not a secret that i love sparkles.
Everything is better with sparkles.
I love things that sparkle.
Everything could use some sparkle.
Except maybe greeting cards.
GASP
How could I -owner of more glitter than Michael's, wearer of vintage rhinestones, wrangler of sparkle ponies, for Pete's sake- possibly say such a thing?
Well, i don't mean actual sparkles, but the word sparkle.

Suzanne and i were working in her studio late one night: me on cards for the store and her on a class design. 
Good Greetings by Stampin' Up!


Having just earned a new limited edition stamp set of fun words in a loopy script she was trying to use it on the cards for her Christmas class. 
Every single design, prototype or idea ended with her asking me,
  How about sparkle? Could we use sparkle on this? 
It quickly dissolved into fits of cackling. 
I mean, all the other words are useful, but sparkle?
We realized there was no card that was appropriate as she branched out and started suggesting the sparkle stamp for every card i was working on: 
-birthday card? SPARKLE
-thank you card? SPARKLE
-sympathy card? SPARKLE
Just stop yourself.

Though sparkles are fantastic, the word isn't particularly useful as a sentiment. In fact, I told Suzanne that i wasn't sure that any card could ever be made that suitably used the sparkle stamp.
Fast forward a week to the class she had been designing. 
Sitting in on it, but not doing the projects, i decided to make Suzanne a sparkle card. 
I freaking love sparkles; certainly i could figure out something.
I wanted something simple that really highlighted the sparkle so i went with only one color, a stylized star and some actual sparkles:



Then i did a second version that didn't have the glitter,



but had sparkle lightly water marked all over the background.

BOO-YAH... SPARKLE!
From that night sprung the studio challenges. Suzanne would pick random items -often non-matching items- that I would have to use in a card design. 
Look for more posts featuring the results of these challenges. 
As with many things in the Nikiverse, the challenges started with sparkle.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's really pretty! When I close my eyes and think sparkle...I see ice light blue with silver and white sparkling stars and snow covered trees. Very pale and shiny 😀