Snowflake Net Christmas

 

The Color Hues Challenge colors of magenta and blue were the perfect colors to inaugurate my new stencil, Snowflake Net, by A Colorful Life Designs. Such a crazy nontraditional snowflake stencil calls for bright, nontraditional colors, don't you think?  I used Picked Raspberry and Salty Ocean Distress Inks which are more vibrant than the Oxides and a blender brush to build up the color.  As I blended I got various hues of violet as a bonus.  For the sentiment I cut the word "merry" three times in white and once in black using a die from Birch Press Designs, stacked them, and backed it with some velum because the background was so busy.  Then I white heat embossed the word Christmas from the Simon Says Stamp Stained Glass Greetings set on black and attached it with foam tape.  I backed the panel with black cardstock before attaching it to a white card base.  By the way, if you are looking for an intensely black heavy cardstock, I recommend Hero Arts Pitch Black Premium 111 pound cardstock. I finished off my card with some black sparkles.

I also plan to enter this card in the Winter Wonderland "Anything Christmas"  and Inkspirational "Snow" challenges.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Non Traditional Snowflake Card

 

I love snowflakes!  As a design element, that is.  As some of y'all know, I grew up where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream passes close enough to warm the air just enough that we didn't get snow that often, and when we did, it usually didn't stick.  I now live a hundred miles up river where we can count on getting some snow every winter and, being on the fall line, we are on the border of a little and a lot, so I like many Richmonders, rush to Publix when there is the mere possibility of snow flurries.  I prefer snow when I don't have to drive in it and it melts within a day or two.  On the other hand, I love snowflakes as a design element and believe you can never have too many snowflake stamps, stencils, and embossing folders.  This card uses snowflake stamps from three different set, but I am getting ahead of myself.  First, the layout of this card was based on this Freshly Made Sketch:

I started by making a mask and, using blender brushes, created a background with Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean, and Blueprint Sketch Distress Inks which are more vibrant than the Oxides.  I then created some texture in the lower right corner with the Gina K Designs Festive stencil and Milled Lavender ink fading it out as I moved upward and toward the center.  I stamped the snowflakes with Versafine Black Onyx ink using stamps from the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Mini Swirly Snowflakes, Gina K Designs Sparkle and Shine, and Close to My Heart Snow Flurries sets.  The sentiment from the Stampin' Up Snowflake Wishes set is popped up.  Of course I had to had a few clear sparkles to the centers of the snowflakes.

Thank you for stopping by!   Until next time, Hansi