Thoughts of snow

Thinking of snow has been a help over these past few very hot days. Thankfully it's been a little fresher here this afternoon, with a subtle breeze wafting through the open doors and cooling things down a little.

Anyway, back to the snow. I have a couple of snowmen cards to share today though they are two quite different characters. This first one is from my Doo Lally Pip Steampunk Snowmen set and I've used a decorative aperture card for a change.

 I distress inked the sky using a scrap of paper to mask off the snow line, then stamped a few simple trees from my Winter Silhouettes set. A couple more layers of scrap card edged with a touch of Tumbled Glass ink created a bit more depth to the scene.

I stamped, coloured and cut out the snowman before coating him with Rock Candy distress glitter - it's much less glitzy than everyday glitter, more of a vintage look.

I stuck him down quite loosely so that his stove pipe hat was slightly above the background.

The second card features a completely different style of snowman, one with a very friendly face! This one is from my Snowtime Snowmen set. I've teamed him with a great Sizzix die, one of Tim's Bigz dies called Holiday Lamp Post, which I cut from black Kraft Core card so I could sand it back for a slightly worn look.

 To give the lamp post a more rounded out appearance, I used a black pen to draw lines where the shadows would be. I also cut a piece of white card to fit behind the lamp which I inked to match the background sky before streaking some oranges and reds into the centre. I stuck a piece of acetate behind the lamp followed by the inked card to give a nice glowing light.

I've also added some white Gesso and I may well add some to the holly...not quite decided yet!

Due to those twiggy arms, I've stamped the snowman directly onto the card using Coffee Archival ink and then again onto white card ready for colouring. The hat and scarf were stamped onto decorative paper which I shaded a little before assembling everything. The robin and little nest were also coloured and cut out a second time before sticking down.

Well, hope you like my little touch of Winter on another very warm day! The eagle eyed among you may also spot some of my ubiquitous bleached out fir trees in the background too....well, it's got to be done!

Hope everyone's having a great weekend.

 

Not gone, just resting!

Hello all, and apologies for my absence this past week and to anyone who I still owe an email reply to. It's been a week or so of meeting some deadlines, combined with both David and myself having a nasty bug...well, he is very generous, so, of course, he had to pass the bugs to me! So, thank you to everyone who put up with my sniffly nose and croaky voice at this weekend's demonstrations! Last weekend I was away in Carlisle and it rained...quite a lot! I had a wander around the city centre for a few hours then back to my hotel room for a good night's sleep before my day at Houghton Hall Garden Centre. I had visitors from north of the border as well as the local area, and must say a special hello to Helen...good luck with your new venture and hope it all goes well. On Sunday, well, you may recall that the rain was even heavier, to say the least. We set off driving to Northwich in Cheshire and the roads were more like canals. Thankfully, almost everyone was being sensible and driving carefully. When we pulled onto the Garden Centre entrance it was like a massive log flume! Needless to say, it was a fairly quiet morning as everyone waited to see if the rain would ease up. So, I busied myself making some extra cards and tags. I have really been enjoying making tags just lately, as you can see....The day did brighten up I'm happy to say, so I got to meet plenty of ladies who were keen to be inspired!

So, this week I had a Crafts Beautiful project to complete which took some time as there were problems getting some of the products that I needed. The yucky bugs took hold of me too, so I really felt like just doing nothing at all, but deadlines have to be met! Thankfully I got everything done and after feeling awful all week I began to feel more human again on Friday night. So, yesterday I was at Crabapple Crafts (Rosemary Merry's shop)in Frodsham. There was a clue that I was going to be there due to the giant sized posters that had been displayed, and I do mean giant sized! I'd hardly set up when everyone began arriving and it was the start of a really enjoyable day that just flew by. I saw friends old and new and hope everyone has been trying out the white card with Distress inks? Let me know how you get on with the trees and the faux bleaching. Thank you to all the Crabapple staff for keeping me supplied with fruit tea all day - it was most appreciated!

Today was a demonstration at the Garden Centre at High Legh in Knutsford, not too far away, so not much travelling today. Hello to Chris and Hazel and the lovely lady from Congleton whose name I don't know, but who I was tempting with punches and papers....sorry! Talking of which, take a look at this sweet snowman.... .....he is made using the MS DIY snowman punch and is so easy to create from just a few colours of card and a little shading. The punch has the elements for the main body, hat, scarf, buttons and twiggy arms. I drew the face in but, guess what, the confetti from the punch that I've used on the mat (PATP Deco fan) are just right for the carroty nose if you punch them from orange paper! Anyway, I used the reverse of a sheet of Best Creations Frosty Christmas paper (Snowscene) to partly cover the card blank and then punched a 5" x 3 1/4" panel of white card with the Deco Fan which I softly blended Stormy Sky Distress Ink over. I then added a panel from the fronts of the Snowscene paper to the centre of the punched mat, having rounded the corners first as I think this looks better. My little snowman is wearing a scarf punched from my Lilac Snowballs cardstock which I also used for his hatband. The greeting is from the matching greeting toppers. I then cut a 3 cms wide strip of white card and punched each side with the Deco Fan before wrapping an alcohol inked length of ribbon around it and fixing to the card to complete. This was a deceptively quick and easy card to make but I like it....mainly because of that so cute snowman! I have it in mind to make a card featuring a whole row of them, all posed differently and facing in both directions....I'll post a picture when I get round to making it!

Well, I just wanted to sign in and show that I'm still in the land of the living, so am off now to enjoy dinner that David is cooking as I type. I am feeling much better but poor David is now suffering from a Neuralgic after effect. Think we need a holiday, hmmm, some chance! Lindsay