Christmas Card Club - Challenge 22

Good afternoon and welcome. I'm a bit late with my CCC post. Today Christine selected the theme as Winter Wonderland for our group of card makers who share Christmas cards every 2 weeks all throughout the year. One member decides what the theme will be for that week, but we have the option of "anything goes" if we don't have the necessary supplies, or want to take a different approach, as long as it's a Christmas theme.

My card was the usual last minute decision scramble as to what to make. After looking at Pinterest, Youtube and other time wasting places I enjoy...I searched through lots of stamp sets and decided on a 'look'. Combined 2 Penny Black clear sets to create today's card. I hope Christine will like it.

Penny Black Prancers Transparent set (trees)
Penny Black Nature's Silhouettes set(stag)
Sizzix Word Set

Created the sky using DI Shaded Lilac and Stormy Sky. At first created the snow drifts - which I thought looked pretty good (I rather struggle with creating snow drifts and it shouldn't be _that_ hard! Watched a couple of youtubes on that technique). Found I had trouble placing the trees well, even  using post-it mask. I did see one video that suggested starting from the top, and doing the sky first, and that was helpful. First effort not great with the tree placement & snow drifts, so flipped the Bristol Smooth Vellum c/s over, and started again. After creating the sky, this time I put the trees around first. Used different greens for depth, and Memento Gray Fog to create the background trees. Once I had the forest created, then used the torn hill/sky mask to brush some Shaded Lilac around to create the snowy drifts. Found that using a Inkylicious dual ended brush to swipe the 'snow' around, I was able to achieve a lighter touch than with using a dauber/blending tool.

Inked the stag with Black Versafine, stamped & used a black copic marker to touch up. A piece of double stick Sookwang was laid over the finished effort; added Cool Diamond Ritz Glitter & burnished well. Hope this finished look evokes a snowy forest wonderland. The sentiment was from a Sizzix words set, cut from some hologram glitter c/s.

Hope you have time to visit my fellow team members, whose blogs are listed on the left side bar.

The wedding came off nicely, although it was held outside (the actual ceremony part). While it was sunny, the skies had some dark clouds rolling up, and it was quite windy. The bride looked beautiful in a gorgeous dress. Lots of our extended family showed up, and the groom had an even bigger family. Food was delicious (southern bbq fare, with all the fixin's). Don't know any scan results yet; hopefully tomorrow will have a report from the GP. Appreciate all the good wishes on that.

Thanks for joining me today, and God Bless. Hugs too.

DeeDee's Digis - Happy Brrrr Day

HiYa! Hope this evening finds all my sweet friends doing swell. I am happy to say I have a new follower, the number of faces went to 298. However, I can't determine just who it is, & I would be so happy if whomever just signed on, would leave a comment as to your name & blog link - if you have a blog. I try to add all the 'faces' to my spreadsheet to be counted when doing Blog Candy - which is getting closer, folks!

Today is a card I enjoyed making and it has NBUS & snippets - YAY! I've been trying so hard to get a chance to play at Darnell's first NBUS challenge for 2015. Additionally there was a really cute DeeDee's Digi image that I wanted to use for a specific birthday card (it will be going to New England - where the temps have certainly been Brrrrr!). Here goes:

 

 

Fussy cut Happy Brrr-Day (non European version), did a bit of shading, some WoS on the metal of the skates.

 

NBUS items: S/B Decagon die cut out the 140# water color paper. Spritzed the die with some pearlized spray, a scant spray of water and {gulp} sprinkled 2 colors of my Brusho crystals that I got last October. Today I had a nice email from my friend Pixie {Miss, or Diane--she has a lot of aliases!} with a tip about using the Brusho-s. I confess I've been quite intimidated by them, have watched lots of videos. Pixie's email was just the spur I needed to get brave, thinking this could be my NBUS, & would make a nice background for this sweet little girl skater. It did, and I was fascinated watching the bits of color spread on the wet background. I wasn't certain at first if I had used too much water to wet the paper. Used Cobalt & Prussian blue to sprinkle one at a time. Had the Purple out, but decided to not use it.

 

- NBUS - Avery Elle Custom Panels Die - curved hill (this set has some angle dies in it too). Used a white snippet to die cut, covered the snippet with SnS brushable glue, and sprinkled some SnS Twinkling Clouds over & let it dry. Adhered to the decagon shape, tucking the snippets of glittering trees in behind this snowy layer. (IO Treescape - DIE027-P - which I think is also a NBUS, as I can't remember using it before)

 

Then realized the scene would look better if some more snow was added at the bottom (gosh, I hated to cover up the Brusho background though!), so tore another white snippet, got the Decagon back out, and cut that to fit what I wanted to cover up. Repeated the glue & Twinkling Clouds. Let me just say this product makes THE best snow! For a couple places where I didn't have good glue coverage, I added in some Crystal Stickles.

 

- Sentiment is from the Happy Brr Day set, printed & changed the font color to blue, smooshed the handcut fishtail through some blue ink, added some more stickles over the letters using my finger.

 

- the mesh texture silver card front was embossed with a Snowflake die. Another sentiment from the digi set will be used inside.

  

This one will be linked to Darnell's 2015 NBUS Challenge and also over at the Snippet's Playground Week 159. It also is a part of my DeeDee's Digis Design Team commitment, and was a fun card to make. The final result was not what I planned, it sort of evolved, with the plan to use this particular digi, and experiment with the Brusho products. It was fun!

 

Hope you'll check DeeDee's Digis Shop and perhaps join in the current challenge that is open until February 1. There is a delightful free digi this month called Ice Fishing. This cute set could be used for many different occasions..so don't miss out.

 

Ya'll stay warm, and come again when you have time. Big Hugs. God Bless.

 

Lawn Fawn Tweet Tweet Birds

Good evening. This post was intended to be done earlier this morning, but we had errands, came home, had to go back out again. Finally convinced DH that he needs to get this recurring back problem seen to, so that was our afternoon errand. It started misting rain on our first outing, temps started to drop as well. By the time we did the late afternoon doctor apt, it felt quite raw. Now we're back inside, where it's cozy & warm; shouldn't have to leave the house tomorrow. Oh happy day!

Let me say welcome to Rhonda at Bumblebee Creations for becoming my latest follower.  Hope you'll find time to zip over for a visit & say Hello and enjoy some pretty cards.

Here's a card to share this evening:

- image is a tiny clear set by Lawn Fawn (and this is my first LF stamp). I saw this somewhere and the bitty birds just made me laugh, so I bought it. It's really a very tiny stamp set, like what you'd see in Michael's or some such place, but this one came from a stamp store, so it didn't have a Mike's price tag either!! I thought a bit before I purchased it, but it just made me smile, so I succumbed to temptation. Stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black on Xpress paper, colored with copics (of course!).
Got some 3D Crystal Lacquer at the past Saturday stamp adventure. Applied with a very tiny tip onto the ear muffs, some of the yellow hat and a bit on the green scarf & leaves. I added some extra leaves for dimension. This stuff gives a very nice hard shine. Easier to work with than the Glossy Accents, as it is better controlled with the tiny metal tip.

- Fiskar small size cloud punch for the clouds, which were embossed with one of the C/B dotty folders, then edged with Colorbox Fluid Chalk Azurite (blue). The background had been sponged with Memento Sky blue, corners edged with the Danube Blue.

- Amuse bird die cut (a snippet), edged around with the Danube Blue; perched red cardinal is part of a new Taylored Expression set I ordered (Birch Tree Accessories). This site had super fast shipping too - Just sayin'. Used a tiny snippet of the red velvet paper - I mean it was tin-EE! Both birds are on pop dots.

- Navy blue textured Bazzill card base (also from the snippet box), different Washi tape stripes. Taylored Expressions die Pockets & Pages - January script using another red velvet snippet to cut winter.  Red mat was also a snippet, diecut with the S/B Superelipse.

EK Success border punch on snippet of red paper to hide the uneven washi tape edges that I didn't get very straight when I was placing them on the card.

Here's a picture of the way this card was photographed using Cornelia's idea of a lightbox. It was a very gray day but think the picture turned out ok, even allowing for my poor photo skills.

The white posterboard weight card pieces are just leaned against the box. May do a more accurate trimming & then paste into place. I've just been experimenting to see if this idea would work for me. I think it has!!

Thanks for your visit, and hope if you are in the path of these storms that are moving across the country, that you can be cozy & warm, your power stays on, and that you don't have to go out in any of the bad stuff. Hugs.

Birches on Blue

Good afternoon, and welcome! I'm still 3 followers away from Goal, so Candy is in countdown mode & I'm trying to watch closely for the 200th follower to show up in the followers' list.

I'm working on some cards that are in various stages of completion. Tomorrow my day will start with a mammogram & bone  density test..early. As I've told you - I don't DO early! And you know how much fun it is to get a mammogram...oh yeah!

So here's the card for today:

- Image is a Hampton Art wood block stamp, using Memento Paris Dusk on white paper (snippet). Cardinals colored with copics. Partial second stamping to get the cardinals, colored again, punched with a small circle punch and popped up for emphasis. I saw this done on another card, but don't remember where it was, so I'll have to give credit to "unknown".  Used DI Chipped Sapphire on the outer edges to create light more towards the center & the birds.

- Matted with Red, then Navy blue papers, which were free-hand cut to fit the image shape.

- Sizzix Flourish EF embossing on card base.

Sentiment from a Flourishes Wreaths of All Seasons clear set, using Paris Dusk, punched with an oval punch on white snippet.

- American Crafts glitter ribbon.

That's it! This was an easy one to make, other than trying to get the ink distributed evenly on the stamp for a good sharp image. I finally really rubbed the pad over the stamp very hard rather than just 'pat-pat', and then used the Bonnie's Best stamp press I have. This resulted in a much better image.

A couple of snippets used here, so that's my ticket to jump over to the Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground, Week 107. I'm sure you probably have a lot of scraps & bits  (aka snippets!) so why not whip up a card & join in. There's been tales of fireworks, poor Parsnip getting a fish bowl on his little head, and gosh, sounds exciting. Check it out! There's a nifty prize available too.

Thanks for joining me today. I hope whatever you are working on today is going great & that you have a pleasant afternoon in store. Come again when you have time, and as always - thanks for joining me. Hugs.

Christmas Club Get Your Skates On

Good afternoon, and after Saturday's constant rain throughout the day, we have sunshine again today. So very welcome to see. I worked on a card last night using PB Hedgies...I think these are among the most delightful of the Penny Black images. Here's my card:

- Used a Sizzix rectangle die to cut out the copic colored image, then used a stylus to emboss around the edges. The scarves have Spica pen & Wink of Stella glitz over the colors. The metal on the skates was done with a Gelly Roll Clear Star Silver pen and Glossy Accents on the ice.

- Memory Box snowflake corner trim, glammed up with some icy blue rhinestones. Background paper is from the stash, but probably is a Paper Studio brand.

This can be a Christmas card with an added sentiment, but could also serve for a winter birthday card, which I have need of 2 for January.

Hope you're having a pleasant Sunday afternoon, and if it's ice & snow where you may be, that you can stay cozy & warm inside. Thanks for joining me this afternoon, and as always, Hugs from me to you.

Friday Fun Day Challenge #30

Good afternoon & big welcome. Since it's Friday (Errgh - the 13th!), you know that's it Friday Fun Day at Jo's Scrap Shack . So pull up a chair by the fire, have a cup of something hot, and let's visit for a little while, if you've got time.

Our theme for this Friday was selected by fellow DT member Amanda who chose the theme Winter. Our sponsor was Stamp Art Design by Kathryne and I chose this little guy (Snow Mail). Isn't he adorable? Colored up very easily too, after printing on Copic Xpress paper, and I used copic markers with some spica glitter pens.

Here he is:

- Outlined one Snowmail image with a Sakura silver star gel pen after airbrushing the sky with B0000. Colored a second copy with copics, fussy cut Snowy & Mailbird, which were popped over the silvery outline. The little touch of silver that shows underneath the arms, adds to the frosty feel.  Sparkle n Sprinkle Cloud 9 added along the ground for some snowy texture. S/B Deckled Rectangle die cut the focal image, and thin black mat cut with Perfect Layers Rulers, which I'm trying to learn to use properly.

-  Dylusions Blues created the background on 90# water color paper. Some sprays were pure color, some diluted, some mixed with white linen. I spritzed the paper first so that the sprays would run. Added some pearly spray & a spritz of gold after the colors had started to 'set', but not yet dried, so that I could tilt the paper & get some color spreading. Sometimes I blot with a paper towel - which I did on this one - sometimes just allow to air dry. Air drying gives a more marble look I think. Thought this piece created the illusion of falling snow.

- Impression Obsession die cut trees (DIE084-V) out of a white textured snippet, popped up with tape, added stickles on the branches for glittering snow.

- MS drippy goo border punch using a glossy paper snippet which made great icycles, added some stickles just cause I was in the stickles mood! :-). This border is for Halloween I think, but it made some good icycles too.

- Winter sentiment is from the 3 Twenty Crafts Winter Wonderland set, stamped on a white snippet inked with Memento Bahama Blue ink.

We'd love to see what you create using the Winter theme, so please pop over to Jo's Scrap Shack for the simple rules, link up and play along with us for FFC 30 this week. Do check out what the fellow DT members have created for your inspiration today.

In the meantime, have a wonderful Friday, get ready to enjoy the weekend. As always, thanks for visiting & come again when you have time to chat! Hugs

Winter Wonderland - 3 Twenty Crafts Tuesday Blog Hop

Hello & Happy Tuesday.  Welcome to day 2 of Jo’s Scrap Shack’s Surprise Blog Hop!

Today’s hop is day 2 of a 4 day hop and the launch and release of a brand new company called “3 Twenty Crafts”!

For those of you who missed the news yesterday, Jo has decided to launch her very own company & stamp line!!! It's very exciting, yes?? Each day we will show you a brand new stamp set from 3 Twenty Crafts and truly, you don’t want to miss this! 

The stamp set that we feature each day will be given away to one lucky winner, but in order to win the set you must hop along and visit each design team member’s blog, leave a comment and then comment on Jo’s blog and let her know that you have completed the hop. The winner will be randomly chosen and we have no idea which blog the winner will be chosen from. So make sure to visit each blog and leave some bloggy love!

Today we are showing you the new and awesome stamp set “Winter Wonderland”

 

  

This is what I created on my first card using Winter Wonderland.

 

I wanted to try out as many of these differently designed trees as I could so went for a winter forest scene, using different colors of green ink for each tree. It's hard to see in the photo, but then I used pan pastels in light blues to create snow drifts and a sky. I used a mylar stencil with some Popcorn Color Box Chalk & a sponge to do the clouds (as with all my photos, it looks better IRL!). Added some twiggy Impression Obsession die twigs(glitter snippets) along the side for the grazing deer(snippets from a small piece of Dylusions spray background), and I hope their footprints show up in the photo. Also added some coloring with Inktense pencils on the trees, some stickles for some sparkle. Shaded the deer just a bit with a dark brown copic marker.

 

Since there were more trees in the set that I had not stamped, I did another fast card (and I'm not fast making cards either!). Stamped this little darling with Versamark, embossed with Queen's Gold, on green patterned paper. Colored in the baubles with a Viva Décor pen after I had everything finished, added a punched glitter paper star. (Did you know punches do NOT like the regular weight glitter paper? No they do not!) Mounted the tree on a S/B circle die cut from a Kringle & Co. 6x6 (American Crafts); glued that to a larger circle from 6x6 DCWV Metallic pack. Used a green from Paper Company's Farm House 6x6 pack to emboss the card front with a Crafts Too Pine Tree Scene EF after I had die cut the circle in the position I needed. Apiece of the red pattern paper behind the tree circles covered the gap between the gold circle & green front. The sentiment is gold embossed on the same red paper & punched with SU oval; Delicata Gold sponged lightly over the embossed trees. Credit for the tree design goes to this card. Thanks Lynn, because when I saw your card, I knew one of the trees from Winter Wonderland would be perfect in this raised design.

Friends, that is my project for today.

 

In order to win Winter Wonderland, visit each blog along the hop and leave a comment! Also, all four sets that will be released this week will be available for purchasing on Thursday, November 21st at 3pm and will ship out on Monday, November 25th!

Soooo are you ready for some Blog Hoppin Fun???

I'm the last stop on the hop  so remember if you get lost along the way, just start at Jo's Scrap Shack at the beginning! Don't forget to stop by Jo's blog to leave a comment that you have visited all the Team blogs in order to be eligible to win this so very versatile Winter Wonderland stamp set.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hopping with us today and make sure to join us tomorrow for another sneak peak at another great stamp set by 3 Twenty Crafts!



Winter Village

Hello and welcome; it's hectic at our house. The window installers didn't make it Monday, but they did show up on time Tuesday (and they did call Monday to reschedule. So although I was irritated, I got over it, and was grateful at least they didn't leave us sitting home waiting for them to show up!). Good progress is being made.

I've been seeing so many beautiful white on white scenes around Blogland lately, so I thought I'd try one. I also like the torn white layers used on many of these cards, so tried that effect on the one shared today.

- first layer was an Impression Obsession tree die that is the very small background trees. This die goes with a stamp (which I didn't see when I bought the die). Adhered the die cut to a torn strip, then used dimensional tape to pop up from the card base.

- Next layer is Memory Box Winter Village - house & bare branched trees. Glued this piece to torn strip, then popped it over the first tree layer.

- torn layers of white textured paper; used Ranger Star Dust Stickles over the torn edge, then sprinkled coarse MS glitter. Each layer was popped up on the card, stickles & glitter being added to the layer, then dried before adding additional layers.

Once I had all assembled decided to die cut the taller tree, and was able to slide it behind the very first layer so that it hopefully appears at more of a distance! This is my very first all white card, and you can see some of my inspiration cards here, here and here. So please do give yourself a huge treat and check out these lovely cards.

Thanks for joining me today. I will try to edit this scheduled post later for 2 challenges I'd like to submit it to, but as this is a scheduled post, I'll have to do the linking when the post goes live. Hugs to you from me. Have a wonderful day.

Edit: As promised back I am to link this card with Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge 150, where the Christmas theme is "outdoors'. and also submitting to Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra. This one is not strictly a Christmas card (yet!), but it could be, with a silver Merry Christmas sentiment sticker added at the bottom;,  it IS an outdoor theme, so I hope it will qualify. I can see there are already lots of entries, so if you have time, pop on over to Hazel's to enjoy some of these delectable cards.

*******
And yes it's been a very busy day here at our house. It's supposed to be 25F tonight. The guys working in our attic, turned off our heat. We didn't realize this until about 5:30 this evening, as folks were coming in & out all day with the windows, attic stuff going on. So when I felt cold, I just thought it was because they kept leaving doors open. Right about dark I felt cold enough to go bump up the thermostat and realized it was OFF! We've never had to do anything to turn on our heat, except turn on the thermostat. So DH had to go upstairs to the attic where the furnace part of our system is, and find the switch to turn on the thermostat. He thought he had done it, but then nothing was happening. Thought we'd have to call the heat/cooling system guy out here on a night call - think very expensive house call! - because we didn't want to have frozen pipes over night with no heat in the house. I was perturbed that the guys didn't tell us, or if they didn't realize they'd turned something off, that's even more unsettling. When we do this kind of thing, we always encounter Murphy's Law. On the other hand, the window guys have done a really nice job, worked efficiently, and would have been finished this afternoon, except they had a late arrival. One of the crew had frozen pipes! And oh yes, the door that was delivered, was not what we had ordered, so we refused to accept it. But that wasn't the installers fault! Oh happy day. And yep, we've built 2 houses, so we know this is part of the routine. We did some total kitchen remodeling in our first house, and yes, that kind of thing happened with that deal. You survive it and laugh about it - much later!!! Hugs & stay warm if it's cold where you are.

Winter Cardinals

Hello and thanks for visiting today. Today's card was created with a certain blogger in mind, and I hope she'll enjoy these pretty cardinals. She's had a bad fall, is recovering, and I hope these bright birdies will bring a bit of cheer.

- Sweet Stamps Cardinal Pair stamped on Xpress paper, colored with Copics, with a little Spica pen added for some glitter on the pine needles. Sakura Clear Star on the ornament. Airbrushed BG0000 background.

- S/Binder Adorning Square die cut, smudged with DI Iced Spruce around edges of the die.
Red matting made by tracing outer edge of the die on a sprayed Dylusions background.

- Card base Dylusions background created using Postbox Red, London Blue, Cut Grass, Tattered Angels Moonbeam and a gold spray. I spray the Dylusions, let the colors marble, then add some glitter spray. I have found it works better for me, if I tilt the Canson #90 water color cardstock, let the colors run to marble. While drying, I spray some glitter sprays, let the drying continue. I've used a heat tool to dry, but I like the effects better with the natural drying.

- edged the clear sentiment (snippet) with the Iced Spruce while still in the die, added some red rhinestones, the red gauze bow, a pearl, and it's done.

DH just informed me that this looks like a Christmas card. I was so focused on the cardinals, I forgot about the ornament! We're still gonna call this a Winter card!!! Give yourself a big hug from me!

Winter

 Hello, and thanks for stopping to visit. I've decided to label this cardshare Winter, as it's not strictly a Christmas card. The stamp is by Impression Obsession, cling rubber C2891. When I saw him in a sample, he just made me smile. So cute. He's colored with copics, diecut with Spellbinder Ovals, sponged with Memento Sky blue, which gave a sort of 'icy' feel to the look. The scalloped S/B oval mat is from a 6x6 of Cosmo Cricket, Mitten Weather - oldy from a couple years ago. I used the same paper snippet to mat the oval sentiment. The sentiment was stamped with a tiny little stamp (on another snippet)using the Memento Sky Blue - handy - and I used Judikins Aegean Silver to heat emboss. IRL it looks brrrr... swiped the edges with the Sky blue. The cardbase is a burgundy lightweight textured Bazzill, diecut with the smallest of the Grand Big Scalloped Ovals. *To diecut for a card, place top die edge just outside the fold for a hinged card.* There is a snippet of a regular scalloped oval inside for the sentiment. Was trying to clean up some of my snippet mess on the desk, and Voila, there's a piece I can use for this card! Used some silver mirror paper and S/B Build-a-Snowflake 3 to cut the flakes, and a small handpunch for the one on Snowy's left. The silver was also a snippet left from cutting the Memory Box ornament a few posts back. I had some sparkly glass beads that I adhered with Glossy Acents, for a bit of Bling. (been waiting to say that! LOL).  Now I'm going to grab up some 'nog & scurry over to Pixie's Playground, where there's rumors of lots of fun going on, (and I won't say nuffin bout what's goin' in the 'nog, but the chickens are standing by. Remember I'm from the South, and you know what gets brewed back in the Mountain Hills). I've heard talk about tree lights, mulled wine, concerts, so if you come - AND I HOPE YOU WILL! - bring yer own cup! Have a wonderful afternoon. Hugs.

Winter

Thanks for visiting this Monday afternoon, and a BIG Southern welcome to 3 new followers. Glad to have you coming in to see Carolina Cards, and hope you'll enjoy what you see here. As promised here is another effort at sponging ala Heather Telford of bits & pieces. I did the sky sponging first, using Memento Summer Sky, Bahama Blue, and Angel Pink. The snow landscape was Summer Sky only. Using post-it notes at the bottom, I covered some of the snow, in order to stamp the new SU Evergreen pine tree which I just received. I used Memento Northern Pine to stamp the trees. I stamped the center tree, reinked the stamp and stamped off before stamping each of the other 2 trees. I cleaned the stamp, then stamped versamark, to try to get a 'snowy' effect on the 2 distant trees. I used some Zing white EP, and I'm not happy with this EP. It gives much too thick a coverage for my taste. I'm too accustomed to the Ranger, I guess. But keeping to my personal challenge, to show my progress at this technique, I posted the card. Used the silvery holograph paper to diecut the I.O. smallest snowflake. The image was matted on some green paper (snippet!) that was handy. Made the cardbase with some dark blue- a snippet also from where I'd cut an 12x12 c/s for something else. I decided to use an I.O. Cover A Card snowflake stamp on the cardbase, then added some Ranger Silver Pearl EP. I like the look IRL but doesn't show up too well here. So I think I'll check to see if anybody is at Pixie's Playground this afternoon...those girls are ALWAYS so much fun. See you later..and have a Blessed afternoon.

Winter

Good evening, and welcome to Carolina Cards. It's been a lovely afternoon...bit coolish, but the sun was warm. Perfect Fall weather. Now about the card: There is a wonderful blog called Bits & Pieces by Heather Telford http://cardz.wordpress.com/. She's a designer for Penny Black, and does the most gorgeous sponging techniques. If you haven't seen this blog, I encourage you to do so...you won't be disappointed. So..bearing in mind I've been seeing these marvelous sponged pieces, once again I tried to capture just a tiny bit of that look.

I've tried this technique before, and results were terrible! This one is my best effort to date, and I'm not real happy with it. This one is going to be my benchmark!. I used a die template from My Favorite Things to sponge Summer Blue Memento ink along the template(recently realized I've been mispelling that ink brand..sorry) . Heather has some excellent tutorials plus Youtube videos. She's a good teacher, I'm just not as good at following her directions! But I'll improve. Moved the die along at different places to get the snowdrift look. This was a snippet of white paper, by the way. LOL. Just sayin'. I sponged the sky with Summer Blue & Teal Memento using daubers. Diecut the Memory Box birch tree - used copic gray along the trees, to get a look of the white birch trees I see up in New England. Once the trees were placed along the snowdrifts, that didn't look just right, so I used another snippet of white, a little more sponging. Then tore this paper, used the glue pen along the torn edge, and put some Hero Arts Sparkly glitter on the glue. Adhered this to cover the base of the trees so that it looks as though they were deep in the snowdrift.  Used a S/B die for the sentiment, which is an older stamp, that came 3 to a set. Stamped with versamark, heatset with Judikens Aegean Silver EP. Decided it needed a bit more glitter at the top of the sentiment...not sure I liked that after I did it. The snowflake at the top is a MS snowflake punch in the holograph paper. This punch didn't like this thicker paper, so next time will use the I.O. snowflake die with this paper.  I adhered the card to a light blue moire paper, then onto a white cardbase.You will be seeing more (maybe!) of my sponging attempts because I think this is a really neat look & I want to improve with the technique.

So thanks to Heather for her great tutorials, and I hope one of these days, I'll be able to do them justice. Truly, if you have time, take a look at some of her cards on Bits & Pieces. They are simply wonderful. As always, thanks for visiting. Have a Blessed weekend. 

Retirement card

Here is a card that I made for a friend who plans to retire at the end of March. Hope you will enjoy it as much as I did in making it. The image is from Mark's Finest Papers, and I used a stamp press from Bonnie's Best Tools to get a good sharp image. The scene was colored with Copics (sorry don't remember what colors...I'm new at this!) and I used mirror paper from Marcos Papers (I think), glitter paper (H/Lobby) and some dark blue paper that had been embossed with the Cuttlebug twigs embossing folder.

Retirement scheduled for 3/31/12