Birch in snow

I wish I could tell you the beauty of yesterday’s snowfall inspired this little snowscape but the reality is having this photo edited and ready inspired this little post! I made this card months back but misplaced it somewhere in my spotless workroom!

The ‘nature’s silhouettes’ transparent set includes two long birch trunk stamps. One is a little slimmer than the other so when stamping them you can shape them, turn them upside down, ink them partially and add branches to get a range of different ‘birchy’ looks. I also discovered a little trick you might like. The wider of the two trees just happens to be the same width as narrow painter’s tape which makes masking a snap.

I inked the birch trunks in versafine onyx black for this panel as I didn’t want the watercolour painting to blur the trees at all. Before stamping I splattered some masking fluid and positioned some hill shaped post-it masks at the base of the panel. I stamped the trunks so the base overlapped the post-its. I used the narrow masking tape to mask two of the trunks and cut a narrower mask for the other trunk. I removed the masks from the base of the trees but kept the trunks masked while I painted snow banks and sky with a couple of blue brusho paints. To get the shadow of the snow banks I paint a curved line then soften it with water above but keep it fairly sharp and unblended below. Once the paint was complete I removed the masks from the trunks and add a line of grey down one side of the trunks with a marker.

Even though this particular card wasn’t inspired by my backyard, the beauty of a fresh snowfall is what keeps me creating these snowy scenes.

Supplies:

Stamps:   Nature’s Silhouettes, Hello Winter, Into the sky (PB)
Paints:   Brusho powders (Colourcraft)
Inks:  Versafine onyx black ink, London fog memento marker (Tsukineko)
Cardstock:  hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: masking fluid