New Cuttlebug folder, lots of Stickles & another Design Studio/Gypsy update!

I received my Cuttlebug folders from the special HSN promotion - they came very quickly!  I have started to try them out and here is a simple card I made with the "Flurries" folder.  Here is a LINK if you want to see images of all of the folders.

I embossed the design on a piece of watercolor paper - I love the results when you use this heavy weight paper.  Then I used two kinds of Stickles to accentuate the embossing and give a frosty feel to the card front.

I thought I would share my thoughts about the various kinds of "clear" Stickles.  The five varieties are Stardust, Crystal, Frosted Lace, Diamond and Icicle.  At first I thought it was silly that there were so many but I have come to realize that they actually are different and I prefer certain colors for certain projects...

I used two varieties on this card - the Diamond and Icicle.  If you look at this photo you can see that the fatter swirls have thicker glitter - this is the Icicle Stickles (try to say that five times fast!).  They look bluer than in real life -  probably due to the background paper I used for the photo.

The Icicle and the Diamond colors are nearly the same - a sort of pinky gold look - but the Icicle particles are much larger.  You can see how much larger the bottle tip is in this photo - the big particles need a larger opening to get out of the bottle!

The Frosted Lace Stickles are not very sparkly - they have a much more subtle shine and look almost gray.

The Crystal Stickles have a green cast to the color - it definitely makes a difference to some projects.

Finally, the Star Dust are more of a multicolor effect with pink, blue, green and purple glints of color.  Star Dust and Diamond are the ones I reach for most often.

I added a stamped sentiment with another swirl - heat embossed in dark blue (sorry about the photo - it makes the embossing look black).

My original plan was to simply adhere the embossed, stamped and Stickled topper to a dark blue card but this looked too plain to me once the Stickles had dried.

I decided to add an additional bright blue mat layer to give the card more dimension and add some definition to the edges.  The embossed layer was cut at 4 x 5 1/4 inches and the blue matting layer was cut at 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 inches.

The final card is simple but very pretty with the swirls and sparkles (which are so hard to capture in a still photo).   Using the two different types of Stickles gives it more dimension and contrast in the light.

Here is one more shopping tip - I got these stamps at Joann's - reduced to $3.97.  I also have a "VIP" card for Joann's (I got it through my quilting guild) which gives me an extra 10% off regular and sale price items, so I saved even more.  I will be making some more Thanksgiving cards using these.

Finally - there is a new update for Design Studio and the Gypsy.  Here is a LINK to the message board post with more information.  I haven't had a chance to try everything out yet but this is a BIG and very much wanted update and it looks like there are many improvements - so be sure to update CDS and run the Gypsy Sync for all the new improvements.