Nothing gets me in a sparkley mood (or should I say *sparkler* mood?) more than the Fourth of July.  It's our tradition to spend this holiday in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  The kids make tie-dyed t-shirts, decorate and participate in a bike parade and we enjoy the beach and fireworks.   What's not to love?  For the creative spirit, just this one image brings such happy thoughts to mind…

  
And so before we embark upon this year's trip, I decided to make a layout for last year's trip.  I hadn't made it yet – boy! that is a sign of being too busy these days, huh?  I've signed up for TWO crops in the coming months because I know the pictures and memories will be plentiful this Summer as well. 

For this layout, I used some really fun products.  I used two new colors of Glimmer Mist, from the Fall palette:

• Autumn Nights (that glorious blue!)
• Granite (a light coat of silver-grey)

as well as one of my favorite deep reds, Brick.

I used two colors of Glimmer Glam:

• Blue Suede Shoes
• Chandelier

As well as a beach Bingo Boards/Calling cards set, and the postage stamp alphabet framed fonts set, and one Traveler alpha frame.

And the background papers, and transparencies are from Sultane Emotions by Nathalie Kalbach and Pink Paislee, papers and sticker letters.

You can click on each picture for a closer look.

Glimmer Glam was used two ways on this accent.  First, I dry brushed it diagonally across the Bingo Board with Chandelier Glimmer Glam to create stripes, and highlight the letters.  Second, I painted in the waves along the top of the design so that they would stay true to that color.   That is my favorite part about Glam, it resists Glimmer Mist, so you can highlight or paint to maintain an accent so that it doesn't blend when I spray Glimmer Mist over the top.  Plus the chunky glitter sparkle is so fun texturally.

On the transparencies, I used Copic Markers to fill in red and blue on the stars and stripes.  You can see these in the upper right and lower left, as well as across the bingo card.

You can see the rest of the Bingo Board here, with the Traveler Pocket Watch frame highlighting the FREE SPACE on the board.  What is so goofy is that I was sitting there looking for a '4' on the board and then KABLAM I see 'FREE' and how perfect was that?  I love creative serendipity…  these letter stickers were just the right scale too.

On the journaling card, I did the watercolor slide technique, but pulling from the center out.  I did NOT want purple, so I sprayed Granite between the two colors and pulled into the red and blue from the center to blend them.  A good black journaling pen like a Copic Multiliner shows up nicely against the background colors. 

Well, I'm off to do some housework, laundry and car maintenance.  Such an exciting day!  :)  But the vacation is on the horizon…

Have a great day!