Let It Snow!

Today I have two cards, both of which start with this cute little snowman (a "small stamp" from Hot Off the Press).  I'll talk more about coloring the snowman when I talk about the 2nd card.  First, I'll just point out a couple of quick things with this card.

The snowman itself was stamped on a pre-cut piece of white card stock (die from Spellbinder's Splendid Circles).  I took a post-it note and cut it to protect the border because the stamp would have covered a bit of that lovely lacy look.  I placed this on another piece I had cut from a lightly patterned purple paper (the papers were all from a set of Christmas papers from Hot Off the Press).  Both this piece and the one with the sentiment were cut using a Spellbinders die set (Fancy Ribbon Threader).  The rest is pretty evident. If I remember correctly, the background is actually one piece of patterned paper, even though it looks like it would have been two.

A quick word about the bow.  I wanted to be able to mail this card and knew that if I tied a regular bow, the knot would be pretty bulky - so I simply formed a loop and ran a piece of ribbon around it, securing it with adhesive.

For this second card, I used my M-bossabilities folder (2 different embossing possibilities) to emboss the background.  The dark blue was embossed in one design, and the glimmer vellum in the other.  Together they make a striking background for the focal.  The focal itself is matted on a blue glimmer mat cut with one of my Marvelous Squares dies (Spellbinders).

To color the snowmen on both cards, I used a mix of glittery gel pens and pearlescent chalks.  I love using the Dove Blender pen with my gel pens to soften the effects.  For instance, the scarf was done that way.  The darker stripes are my gel pen, and the lighter stripes are color pulled from the darker stripes with my blender pen. I love the glimmer from the pens and chalks!

For this second card, the sentiment was stamped on a piece of white card stock that had been shaped by drawing around the smallest die (in the Marvelous Squares set) and then cutting it out with scissors.  A lovely silver-edged ribbon finishes it off.