Nature's Beauty

 It's such a dreary day - overcast, damp and cool.  After the rain of the last few days most of the colourful autumn leaves are on the ground, creating a curtain on sidewarlks and road ways, and clogging up storm drains  With each breeze more leaves rain down, movements that fascinate my 2 kittens watching through the back door.

You can just feel that winter is coming and in this part of the country that means snow. 

Which brings us to Christmas......

Today I pulled out "Nature's Beauty" stamp set focusing on the little bunny.  Sometimes I will do that ie. focus on one stamp and make as many different cards as I can with it. Today it was the bunny's turn.

For the first card I also pulled out the "Touch of Frost" DSP which has been carried over from last year.  One nice thing about this DSP is that there is plenty of open space in the bottom to stamp directly onto it. 

The bunny and the twigs of grass were stamped using Black Memento ink and then coloured with Watercolour pencils and a blender pen. The DSP was then added to a Seaside Spray card stock base.

To make the card look more 'wintery' I added some Dazzling Diamonds to the trees and to the shadows in the snow.

Sentiment is from Itty Bitty Christmas which is added to some Scallop Edged Purple Posy ribbon.

Supplies Used:

Stamps:  Nature's Beauty, Itty Bitty Christmas

Inks:  Black Memento, Watercolor Pencils

Papers:  Seaside Spray, Whisper White, Touch of Frost DSP

Accessories:  Dazzling Diamonds, Blender Pen, 1/2" Scallop Purple Posy ribbon, dimensionals

 

Snow Front Christmas Wishes - Try Stampin' on Tuesday #431

One of my favourite stamp sets of the Holiday catalogue is the Snow Front stamp set.  The versatility in creating winter scenes is absolutely amazing and used it exclusively to make swap cards for On Stage November 19, 2019
So, for the sketch challenge with Try Stampin' on Tuesday #431 (with the optional theme of stripes) I used this stamp set again

The focal image is a winter scene created on a 4 by 2" Whisper White tag made using the Angled tag punch.

I started by using a sponge brayer to apply Balmy Blue and Blueberry Bushel ink to create the sky.  The trees were then stamped with Shaded Spruce ink in first and second generation stamping.  After adding the two deer some puff paint and glitter was added to mimic snow.

A tooth pick and white acrylic paint was used to create the stars in the sky and whisper white polka dot ribbon inserted through the tag top.

The tag was matted with Blueberry Bushel card stock and a sentiment, from Itty Bitty Christmas punched with the Classic Label punch was added at the top right.

This tag was added to the right side of the Blueberry striped card front.  This background was made using the Diagonal Stripe Background stamp.  The striped layer was adhered to a Whisper White layer and then to a Blueberry Bushel card base.

On the inside, I stamped the image of the deer standing beside a tree.

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Snow Front, Itty Bitty Christmas, Diagonal Stripe Background
Inks:  Blueberry Bushel, Balmy Blue, Early Espresso, Dark Seaside Spray Stampin' Blend, Shaded Spruce
Papers:  Blueberry Bushel, Whisper White
Accessories: 5/8" White Polka Dot Tulle ribbon, Angle topper tag punch, Classic Label Punch, Dimensionals, Puff Paint, SU Glitter

Penguins Playing in the Northern Lights

I seem to be on a roll, really enjoying making wonderful, colourful Northern lights in the sky.  I always thought it was so hard, so never really attempted it.  But as I mentioned in my first post with the technique, any one can do this.

See my other two posts here and here

This time I used the Playful Penguins.

Before I started my sponging, I stamped the Penguins on the art piece where I wanted them,  and masked them with a stamped and cut out post it note.  I also masked the 'snowy' foreground with some copy paper.

I used the same colour combinations as in the other two cards, but this time the Northern Lights were made to look more like a shimmery curtain.  I can almost hear the crackle the lights make as they sparkle and glow!

After the sky was finished, the masks were removed from the Penguins, and they were coloured with Stampin' Blends - light and dark Smokey Slate, with the beak and feet in Pumpkin Pie.  A little bit of yellow was placed on the front of one of the Penguins, although I could have done this with both of them.  Apparently there is virtually no difference in the physical appearance of the male and female penguins.  The only difference is in their behaviour.

Again, I created snow in the sky, snow drifts in the snow, and glitter, glitter wherever I could - dazzling diamonds in the snow and the entire piece spritzed with my home made spray.

The base card is Basic Black, layered with a Sparkle Shimmer Paper die cut into a frame using 2 sizes of the Stitched Rectangle die.  The art piece, also die cut with the Stitched Rectangle die, was adhered so that the edges overlapped the Sparkle Shimmer Paper frame.

The sentiment, from Itty Bitty Christmas, was cut into two words after it was stamped.  They were cut out conforming with the shape of each work, the edges were sponged and then adhered below the Penguins.

Because of the rectangle shape of the die cuts, a strip of Basic Black card front remained, so that was trimmed off, making the front 1/2" shorter.  To compensate for that, a strip of Sparkle Shimmer Paper remnant left over from die cutting the frame was adhered to the bottom edge of inside of the card.

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Playful Penguins, Itty Bitty Christmas
Inks:  Black Memento, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Rich Razzelberry, Night of Navy, and the following Stampin' Blends (both light and dark) Smokey Slate, Pumpkin Pie, Seaside Spray, Daffodil Delight
Papers:  Basic Black, Whisper White, Sparkle Shimmer Paper
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangle Dies, Dazzling Diamonds, White acrylic paint, Shimmer spray

Snowman Christmas - another Holiday catalogue sneak peak

This card is made using the Snowman Christmas stamp set with its  coordinating DSP "Let it Snow".  Both of these are not available for order yet, but will be available on Sept. 4

 

On a  Coastal Cabana card stock card base a 2" strip of "Let it Snow" DSP is added.  Don't you just love those little snowmen?

The snowman is stamped on a separate piece of Whisper White  card stock, and coloured with Stampin' blends (Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Soft Suede, and Light Smoky Slate) .  A Coastal Cabana water colour pencil was used to colour the background around the snowman. A new product, Puff Paint, was applied to the snowflakes and on the snow on the ground.  When heated with a heat tool, the paint "puffs" up.  I added some dazzling diamonds to the paint before applying heat and that makes the resultant snow really glisten.

The image was die cut with the Layering Oval die and adhered to a piece of Whisper White card stock embossed with the Dot to Dot embossing folder using dimensionals.

The sentiment is from "Itty Bitty Christmas"

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Snowman Christmas, Itty Bitty Christmas
Inks:  Black Memento, Stampin' Blends, Watercolour pencils
Papers:  Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Let it Snow DSP
Accessories:  Dot to Dot embossing folder, Layering oval dies, Puff Paint, Blender pen, Dimensionals, Dazzling Diamonds,