Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Sparkle Berries

Stickles is one of my favorite products for adding touches of sparkle to images. Take, for instance, these festive sparkle berries on a pretty wreath.



This card uses the exact same layout as the last card I posted; the only changes are the wreath image, colors, embellishment, and sentiment. Hmmm. That's quite a lot to change. But the layout is identical. It's always fun when you find a great design and can riff off it like a cool jazz musician.




The Stickles adds lovely shine, texture, and variety to the berries, saving the card from flatness. Nobody wants to be flat. Right?

Let's switch gears.

Frann asked for a definition of comma splice. A comma splice is a flagrant abuse of the comma. You see, commas signal weak pauses in sentences while semicolons and periods signal complete stops. Commas do a lot of important work in sentences, but they simply aren't strong enough to hold together two independent clauses (complete sentences) all by their lonesomes.

Commas can't hold together sentences without the help of a conjunction, semicolons and periods can. 

That right there is a comma splice. Two sentences are stuck together improperly. (Don't they look embarrassed?) And yes, I found it difficult to type that incorrect sentence. Ugh. Comma splice.

To correct a comma splice, you may change the comma to a semicolon or period, add a conjunction after the comma, or subordinate one of the two independent clauses to the other.

While commas can't hold together sentences without the help of a conjunction, semicolons and periods can.

The corrected sentence has "while" before the first independent clause, turning it into a fragment. The comma after the newly dependent clause is perfectly appropriate and proudly does its job.

Frann, perhaps that's more explanation than you wanted, but my students got an earful today. Teaching grammar is so much fun!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey A Wreath for All Seasons, Keep It Simple Christmas
paper: Papertrey white
ink: Hero Arts charcoal, red royal
accessories: red Stickles, craft foam


4 comments:

  1. Stickles! I loved the Ranger mystery box in June...or July. Twenty different stickles colors for about $10 plus shipping. I've never used so much sparkle.

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  2. Love the grammar explanation and so interesting to hear you're teaching grammar at the college level. We all look back on favorite teachers and mine was Mrs. Wilson in the sixth grade. We spent a solid year on learning grammar & diagramming sentences (a lost art). So everything I know about grammar, I learned in sixth grade...and it was a lot. Unfortunately, I can be hyper sensitive to grammatical errors now, which causes me to bite my tongue way too often! #1 on my list: the word "me" NEVER starts a sentence! My granddaughter is learning...LOL.

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  3. Love the cards. Seeing yours makes me want to get out the stamps and dies and get to work. Glad you are enjoying that new job! You are definitely great at what you do!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!