Walking in a Winter Wonderland

There's something about this card I find joyful - it makes me smile when I see it. I think it's the pop of red against the white and grey. The image is by Crafty Individuals, I've had my eye on it since it was launched so when I saw it for sale on eBay I decided to bid for it. I stamped it with Versafine Smokey Grey rather than harsh black - it adds to the faded vintage feel of the image. I made a batch of 12 of these stage by stage with the help of a stamping platform and some exact measuring (for a change). I cut out the card first (8 x 9.5cm) and with a few trial pieces positioned the stamp on the platform so that it fit on the card exactly. After that it was very fast to stamp each image out accurately.

I then used barn door DI with a waterbrush to paint the umbrellas. I wanted to replace the snow on the umbrella but neither a white gel pen nor a white Posca pen managed to give a pure white - both seemed to soak up the red ink and dried pink. Finally I achieved the result I wanted with white enamel accents. When dry I matted the stamped image with some red paper. The base card was embossed with the Sizzix falling snow embossing folder. The sentiment is a well-used stamp that I had made years ago. I debated stamping it in red but I didn't want it to detract from the focal red of the umbrella. I hope the card gives you Joy.