a new discovery

I just love Stampin' Up's stamp set, Snow Much Fun! I adore snowmen in all their forms. The ones the kids and my husband build in the backyard, the resin ones I place in my windows every Christmas season, those melting ones I see atop cookies on Pinterest. They all capture my imagination. I think that it stems from the classic Christmas movie and song, Frosty the Snowman. And from a recurring dream that my childhood snowmen DID come to life and frolicked on my childhood front lawn. I really did think that they had snow ball fights and decorated the pines across the street while my family slept, unaware.

In any case, snowmen make me smile. And so does this card. Particularly because I discovered a "new" technique. I've been using Classic ink and Aqua Painters for years. Beautiful watercolored flowers, sweet watercolored woodland animals, stunning watercolored landscapes. But lately I've been drawn to white snowmen on craft colored paper and pondered how in the world one would go about making them. Clearly the snowmen I was seeing were watercolored. But the white color had me stumped. I'm not sure why I was being so dense, because the answer was so simple. Craft ink! White craft ink and my Aqua Painter was the simple solution. Using craft ink works exactly like using classic ink. It just takes a bit more cleaning up.

 I will be making a ton of these cards this season. I love the homespun look of the sponged Crumb Cake paper with the white snowman popping out from it! Paper piercing lends a touch of texture, as does the Chocolate Chip ribbon. Sponging Chocolate Chip ink onto the edges of the patterned paper ages things a bit. I think that this is my favorite Christmas card I have ever made. Yup. It really is.

Happy stamping!

Winter memories

Snow Much Fun is one of my favorite Christmas stamp sets! It really is just so cute. It lends itself to water coloring, and to using markers with a blender pen. I chose the former with this card featuring a non-traditional color palette. Crumb Cake, Tempting Turquoise, and Soft Sky with a pop of Real Red! 

Normally I shadow white elements with gray ink. But I remembered my girls making snowmen when they were little. They were so excited about snow falling to the ground! They just couldn't wait to get out there and make a snowman! Often, there really wasn't enough snow for a proper snowman. So what they ended up with was a small, dirty, muddy snowman. So I used Crumb Cake for the shadowing. I love the results!

Now, when I look at this card, I get to reminiscing about winter fun when the kids were small. It puts a smile on my face!

Happy stamping!