Let it Snow!

We weren't looking for snow!  We were looking for rain! And lo and behold, while I was down in the craft room we had a bit of a thunderstorm.  Not much rain with it, but at least I don't have to go out and water the planters.

Today I made a Christmas card using the Serene Scenic DSP stack and the Sheltering Tree stamp set.  I am so enjoying working with this DSP!

The image of the tree was stamped with Early Espresso ink on Whisper White card stock, and was then die cut with the layering ovals framelits.  The edges of this oval were sponged with Crumb Cake, with some Soft Suede near the bottom to "ground" the tree.

Two die cut cardinals from "Thoughtful Branches" were added to the tree branches.  Cardinals are always such a splash of colour in the winter time.

This oval was adhered to the card front using dimensionals.

The card base is Crumb Cake card stock, layered with Whisper White, and then a piece of Serene Scenic DSP that looks like snow falling from the sky.

The sentiment (from Snow Home) is stamped first with Crumb Cake ink, and then Soft Suede, with the works offsetting each other.  This was matted with Crumb Cake, both ends notched, and adhered to the lower part of the oval using dimensionals.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Sheltering Tree, Snow Place, Thoughtful Branches
Inks: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Real Red
Papers: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Serene Scenic DSP stack
Accessories: Layering Ovals framelits, Beautiful Branches framelits, dimensionals

Playing in the Snow - The Paper Players #270

I must admit this was a most unusual card for me to make.  The challenge with The Paper Players 
was a colour one:  Black, plus white, plus silver or gold, plus a colour of my choice.

The colours I used:  black, white, silver and Marina Mist, with the stamp set "Snow Place"

• The base cardstock is basic black layered with silver foil paper (it looks red in the picture because I am wearing a red sweater and it picked up the red colour).  On top of the silver foil layer is a layer of Whisper White.
• On a separate piece of Whisper White, the image of the both snowmen, their arms, the hat and the penquin were stamped with Black Memento ink.  These were all die cut using the Snow Friends framelits.  I positioned the arms so that it looked like they were throwing snowballs.
• Both snowmen and the penquin were either surrounded or on top of snow - which was silver glimmer paper.  Their bodies were coloured lightly with Marina Mist marker.
• Before attaching these fun friends to the front of the card, the sky was coloured using Silver encore ink and a couple of scallop circles adhered together to create the clouds.  Then, using the Silver Encore ink again, snowflakes were stamped onto the sky.  To bring a little colour to the sky, I coloured some dazzling detail glimmer paper with a Marina Mist marker and punched out 3 snowflakes (non SU punch) and added them to the sky using a glue dot.
• The figures were then adhered to the front on top of the snow.  The second layer of snow was adhered over them.  A little bit of liquid applique marked the outline of the snow.

Supplies Used:
Stamp:  Snow Place
Inks: Black Memento, Silver Encore ink, Black marker, Marina Mist marker
Papers:  Basic Black, Silver Foil, Silver glimmer paper, Dazzling diamond glimmer paper, Whisper White
Accessories: Snow friends framelits, Snowflake punch (non SU), Blender pen, liquid applique (non SU)

Let it Snow - The Friday Mashup #191

Instead of starting to focus on Spring, and spring related cards and crafts - flowers, birds, spring colours and I must admit I am guilty of that.  But we're only at the beginning of January, and there's a lot of winter left yet.  So, we might as well celebrate January.

The challenge with The Friday Mashup this week here is to celebrate January with a winter-themed project, perhaps ever a few snowflakes.   So, I could create a project with a "winter theme", a project with "snowflakes", or create a "winter project with Snowflakes"

I decided to create a winter project with snowflakes.  But in order to do so, I had to dig into my non stamping up stash, as all my winter/Christmas stamps have been packed away where I can't easily reach them.

But I did create the background using Stampin' Up reinkers, alcohol and Silver alcohol ink.

 A close up of the alcohol ink background

The background was created using 3 shades of blue reinkers (Soft Sky, Marina Mist, and Baja breeze) with a drop of silver alcohol ink.  A few drops of each colour was applied to a cotton ball which was wet with rubbing alcohol.  This inked up cotton ball was applied to a piece of photo paper in a swirling motion.  I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Each tree was stamped on Marina Mist cardstock with Versa Mark, and first embossed with white embossing powder and then Iridescent Ice.  They were cut out, a bit of a labour intensive process, but the result is worth it.  I put the trees aside for now while I prepared the rest of the card.

Since all my winter related framelits are packed away as well, I resorted to some retired snowflake sizzlets, die cutting 3 of them - 2 for the front of the card, and one for the inside.  I made a side panel of Marina Mist cardstock, embossed it with the Starburst embossing folder, and matted it with Diamond glimmer paper.  Tombo glue was used to adhere the snowflakes to this side bar.

The sentiment is from another stamp set, matted with Marina Mist cardstock and added to the panel between the 2 snowflakes.

This panel was adhered to the alcohol ink background using tombo glue.

I tore dazzling diamond glimmer paper  so that there were 3 layers of snowbanks.  The edges of each layer was daubed with Marina Mist with a sponge daubler.  These layers were built up and adhered using tombo glue.

The larger tree was adhered with dimensionals to the left side of the card; the next 2 beside and above the large tree using tombo.

The alcohol ink layer was matted with Whisper White cardstock and then Marina Mist.  This was added to a Pacific Point basic card.

Stamps: Trees from Frogs and Whiskers

Inks: Marina Mist, Soft Sky and Baja Breeze reinkers, basic black marker, Versa Mark ink, Marina Mist ink.

Papers: Photo paper, Whisper White, Marina Mist, Pacific Point, Dazzling Diamond glimmer paper

Accessories: Rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, retired snowflake sizzlets, starburst embossing folder, white embossing powder, iridescent ice embossing powder, dimensionals, tombo glue