Those snow scenes I love to do…

A couple of posts ago I featured a snow scene I did for the Less is More snow challenge. I love creating snow scenes but that one I entered in the challenge was not the first one I did that day. It was the fourth.  The first three are featured in this post. All of them are ok, but they were not quite what I was after. Snow scenes can be a little tricky at times.  In the one above you will see I managed a strange yellowy tinge in the sky; wrong sponge I think.

In the one below the tiny words in the sentiment are a little hard to read and the shadow on that tree? Well, it is hardly a shadow; I could have planned that a little better.

The card below suffered from a restamping of the foreground tree which didn’t really match up; I must have moved the positioning tool. To salvage it I used an embossing pen to draw snow on the branches but it is still a bit messy.

All that to say: sometimes it takes a few attempts before I come up with the scene I am after, but those attempts can often be used, as is, or with a little creative alteration.

Enjoy your day, still no snow here, but now we have plenty of ice!

Supplies:

Stamps: Many Merry Messages,  Branch out,
Inks:  Versafine Onyx Black, Taken with Teal, Bashful Blue, Versamark, Basic Black
Cardstock: MFP  Snow Storm Smooth Heavy
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid, white e.p.

Snow Storm

I came home and created this card last Sunday after walking my son down to the park to play hockey on the rink with his buddies.  The snow was coming down very steadily and it was beautiful.  I decided to try and recreate the scene on a card. I know spring might be showing its face in some places but I think we have a bit of winter to live through yet.

I started with two masks and then flicked masking fluid all over the panel.  When the masking fluid was dry I removed a few very large blobs and positioned my horizon mask.  Instead of sponging I used my new soft brayer to create the sky.  I started at the left and moved toward the right as the ink ran out so I would have the impression of light and darkness.  After the sky was done I moved the mask a couple of times adding trees and sponged snow drifts.

It really does look a bit like this during a snow storm; even after 10 years here in Canada, I still think it is a beautiful sight

Supplies:

Stamps: Branch Out, Ageless Adornment & a little tree stamp of unknown origin which really comes in handy at times
Inks:  Brocade Blue, Going Gray
Cardstock: Flourishes classic white
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid

OLW 38 Let’s get sketchy

I guess they’re called challenges for a reason!  This week’s One Layer Wednesday challenge was to use a design sketch.  I tried several pretty flower themed cards before I settled back into the comfort of my sponged winter scenes.  I will post one of the flower cards later this week.  After cropping, matting and layering it was no longer anywhere near the brief for this challenge.

Several times lately I have noticed that an overcast day can look quite pretty particularly when the trees are still laden with snow.  The colour scheme tends to be very monochromatic though.  I tried to recreate that here with the sun weakly shining through the cloud.  It is not a particularly “pretty” card, but I thought it might be appropriate to send, with encouraging words inside, to someone going through a difficult “season”.

To see a much prettier card using this technique check out the beautiful one by Sarah at Criminal Grace

Supplies:

Stamps: Branch Out, Season of Friendship
Inks:  Basic black, Going Gray
Cardstock: Flourishes classic white
Also: White e.p.

OLW36 Barely There

Yesterday I had a chance to create something for the One Layer Wednesday Challenge, hosted this week by Jennifer.  The challenge is to use a bare tree, bare branch or other vegetation just as long as it is bare.  That is not a hard ask for me as I have been happily stamping bare trees in snow for a month or so now.  When I looked back through my recent posts I realized the tree from “Branch Out has been appearing often.  I really think I need a few new trees stamps don’t you?

I decided to try a reflection in my scene this time; a winter tree, but one by an unfrozen pond or stream.  Any still water round here would have frozen solid last night as the temperature was down to 25 degrees below zero!   My girls went skating on the canal yesterday, something they ordinarily love to do, but the bitter cold took most of the enjoyment out and they spent the rest of the day trying to warm up again!

The edges of the image panel were masked with post-it notes as were the horizon and water’s edge.  To create the reflected tree I stamped it on the plastic square that came with the stamp-a-ma-jig and pressed that onto the sponged water.  (I am sorry about the smudges on the photo, they are on the lens of my daughter’s camera)

If you haven’t already browsed through the OLW36 submissions check them out on Jennifer’s blog, there is plenty of inspiration to be found there.

Supplies:

Stamps: Branch Out, Hugs & Wishes
Inks:  Basic black, Brocade Blue, Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa
Cardstock: Flourishes classic white

Moon on the horizon

The Clean and Simple challenge at Splitcoast this week is A Day in the Snow.  It may be stretching it a little but here is my scene at the end of a day in the snow or perhaps the beginning, before all the fresh snow has been played in!

I used post-it notes to mask my moon and horizon first then sponged my sky in Amethyst and Navy.  After removing the moon mask I added a little bit of grey sponging across the moon.  I stamped the large tree after removing the horizon mask and then sponged the snowy hills in grey one at a time by moving the mask down and over a little each time.

When I was in the CAS101 gallery looking at the cards already posted I noticed an “enough already” card!  I can understand the thought but here in Ottawa our snow disappeared and we had to start again so I am looking forward to more this weekend!

Supplies:

Stamps: Branch Out, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks: Night of Navy, Going Gray, Basic black, Almost Amethyst
Cardstock: Flourishes classic white

Feed the birds

Our family enjoys watching the birds feeding outside our kitchen window.  In winter the seeds scatter on the snow and the cardinals, if they come, stand out: red against white.  I added a little scattering of seeds in this scene with a brown marker.

I know I owe you a sponging tutorial; you have been very patient.  I am hoping to do one over the Christmas break.  I agree that it helps to see the steps rather than have me try and describe them.  That being said, I will not go into detail about how I did this card.  Of course there were post-it notes, sponges and embossing powder involved!

I have just a few more Christmas cards to make, and then I might need to whip up a few tags.  But I had better get onto the gifts or I won’t be needing tags!

Supplies:

Stamps: Branch Out, Everyday Flexible Phrases
Inks: Bordering Blue, Basic black, Not quite Navy, Real Red, Close to Cocoa, Versamark
Cardstock: Flourishes classic white
Also: Clear e.p.

OLW Inspired by Nature challenge

Susan’s One Layer Wednesday challenge is to make a card inspired by nature.  She has combined OLW with her Inspiration Week, where she is chatting about what inspires her in her cardmaking and giving away some treats as well.

It seems like all my cards are “Inspired by Nature” at present.  If it isn’t trees, it’s leaves and if it isn’t leaves it’s flowers.  So I was only too happy to participate again in the OLW challenge.  The card I have created is the latest in my masked and sponged scenes.  I have done so many lately I went back and made sure they were labeled Stamped Landscapes which makes it easier to scan through them.  I have created a scene similar to this one before, but I will always be inspired by snow covered trees.

I placed post-it masks at the top and bottom and then used a stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp  the tree once in versamark.  I shifted the stamp-a-ma-jig ever so slightly down and stamped the tree in black before embossing in clear.  This created my snow laden tree which showed up once I sponged the sky in.  The hill shaped mask was just cut out of paper and I used it for the sky and for the little snow indents.  To create the tree’s shadow I sponged directly on the stamp and stamped upside down.

I haven’t added a sentiment yet as I’m not quite sure what to use it for.  I’ll add something when the need arises.  Make sure you check out the other beautiful cards in the challenge which were ” inspired by nature”.

Supplies:

Stamps: Branch Out
Inks:  Versamark, Basic Black, Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue,  Pretty in Pink
Cardstock:   Flourishes Classic White
Also:  Clear e.p.