North Pole

It’s been a bit chilly and wintery here lately. At least, half the time it is. The weather seems to be yoyoing between being above freezing and raining, and below freezing and snowy. Actually it is a bit frustrating, because it means we’ve been getting a lot of slush and ice. It’d be nice if it could settle on being properly snowy, which is why I decided to make a simple snowy scene card.

I knew I wanted to use the Poochie Xmas from The Cat’s Pajamas, and the little North Pole sign that comes in it for my wintery card. I just had to work out what else I wanted to do with it!

After some contemplation I decided to start with some ink blending over my card base. I picked Crached Pistachio Distress Oxide as that’s the most suitable colour I have for a snowy scene. A very pale blue or maybe grey would have been perfect, but the only other Oxide I have is pink, and the regular Distress Inks I have are orange, a couple of purples, and a pink. So the Cracked Pistachio was the best choice.

I used a piece of die cut scrap paper as a mask and blended over it to create the lines of my snowy slopes. I did one hill at a time, then moved the mask down and offset slightly to add interest by making each hill different.

After I had finished the ink blending I placed the card base in my MISTI and positioned my stamps onto the scene. All three stamps are from the Poochie Xmas set. I could have stamped the images first and masked them off to avoid getting the Oxide ink within the images. I decided not to partly because I wanted to make the card quickly, and I knew the ink blending would be fairly light so not too difficult to colour over.

I used my Spectrum Noir Illustrator markers to colour Poochie’s jumper green. I don’t have red SN’s so I used Yosoo alcohol markers for the trim of the jumper. I then used some light brown SN’s for the sign and my lightest grey Yosoo marker to shade the pole.

Having finished all my colouring I grabbed my ink blending tool again and added a little extra shading beneath the sign and Poochie.

This is a fairly simple card and at first I was concerned it was a bit too simplistic, but it has grown on me and I am pleased with it. I think it would have been nice to make a bit more of the scene though. For example, line of trees along the back slope might have been a nice addition. Also if I had a suitably coloured pen I would have added a more defined shadow being cast from the sign.

Love,

Lady Joyful

Challenges included:

CAS Colour & Sketches – Pick A Sketch and Make It Seasonal (I chose sketch #249) (edit – where it was a weekly winner!)

HLS Christmas Challenge – Anything Goes

Muse: ChristmasVisions – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Christmas/Winter Holidays