Winter In Paris

Hello there, 

Before I start, I'd just like to welcome my new followers and say thank you for joining me on my crafting journey.  I really appreciate the time that all of my followers so kindly spend leaving such lovely comments on my blog, it really means a lot :)

The card that I'm sharing with you is one that I've made for this month's 'Fashionable Stamping Challenges' and their theme this month is 'Winter In Paris.'

I don't really have many Parisian stamps so I decided to use one that I've had for many years by Stampendous. When I think of winter colours, it's the cool colours such as blues and purple that come to mind and so I chose to use Distress blueprint Sketch and Memento Lulu Lavender as the background colours.
I started the card by stamping the main image in the center of the card using Versafine Black Onyx.  I then masked off the word Summer and stamped in the word winter to make the sentiment appropriate for the challenge. I  decided that instead of just blending the colours for my background as I usually would, that I would try something a little different to give the card more of an 'Arty' feel.  I tend to stick to making cards that are in my comfort zone but I feel that it's definitely time to try some new techniques so I used a stencil by Stamposaurus which I bought at the Doncaster show a few weeks back. I'm wishing now that I'd bought a snowflake stencil as that would have worked perfectly on this occasion but the one that I've used sort of gives the feel of looking through a leaded  glass window and I quite like the end result. I had originally planned to colour the flowers in blue but I felt that it needed some contrast from the background so I water coloured them with Distress Fire Brick and used a Marvy marker pen to darken the centers.  Using a Twiggy Branch stamp by Inkylicious, I stamped some black branches and then used a Crystal embossing powder to give them a frosty look.  I then used the same branch and used a white embossing powder to look like snow on the branches.  I finished the card by tearing some strips of white card and adding them to the bottom of the card to give the effect of fallen snow.

I'd just like to say thank you to those who asked about and sent good wishes for my Granddaughter.  I'm pleased to say that she's on the mend, still looking a little washed out but she's back to her happy little self which is a great relief to us all. x