Mr Cardmaker Joins 12 Kits Again!!

I am SO happy to once again be joining my dear friend Jeanne Jachna as a guest designer at 12 Kits of Occasions! This year, Jeanne has January, and even though all the Christmas snow has flown, there's a whole winter to get through. Snow Days is the theme this month!

Jeanne's kit was full of the most wonderful, beautiful and fun elements to use for all sorts and styles of winter card. I was so thrilled to get it, and so glad I have plenty of materials left over, too! More cards, please...

Now, this year the DH and I moved to FLORIDA, so snow days are a thing of the past for me. We DID have some nights in the low 30s, which is dastardly cold for south Florida, but nary a flake.

After many years in northern climes, I believe my memory holds, for the moment, anyway. I think (hope!) that I have risen to the occasion.

I made this--

This beautiful die cut background piece layered just beautifully over some of the gorgeous papers in the kit. I had to go nutty and embellish it with some glitter, as I have been known to do...
I Copic colored the figures, using colors I found in the papers,and popped them up onto the scene with foam tape. I then added some stickles to my "pond" to add to all the iciness.
The sentiment is matted with some black cardstock scraps to make the pieces stand out. I used Glossy Accents to glue wads of clear sequins to the frame.

Next up--

I love this BIG stamped sentiment panel. I inked the edges, and combined it with the mittens from the kit. A couple of paper panels, a couple of snowflakes, and some pearl embellishments, and this one was done! I love letting the sentiment do all the work for you!

NEXT--

I was so lucky to get TWO of these skate die cuts in my kit. I'm not sure I was supposed to, but I'm NOT giving it back! Isn't it just gorgeous??

I gently ink blended some blue on, just for a bit of depth, and colored the laces with a Copic marker. I really wanted to just look at these skates, so a bit of a spotlight, via the yellow circle diecut, was in order.

When I went to assemble this 4"x4"card, I really wanted to carry the idea of the laces forward, so I used the same Copic I used to color the diecut to color a bit of white hemp string. I just kept running the tip over the string until it was all covered, and the right shade. 

I finished it all off with some snowflake diecuts coated with clear Wink of Stella, and the "brrrr" diecut which I coated with some Glossy Accents. 

Next-

Talk about gorgeous diecuts! These trees are just amazing. I stuck a big piece of post-it paper over the back and separated the trees from the background, and then VERY carefully inked the background pieces with Distress Inks. I spritzed it all with some water and set it aside to dry while I added just a touch of ink and some sparkle to the trees and hill.
I originally had reassembled all the pieces and was going to leave it as that, but then I found the little deer diecut, and HAD to add it.I think I would have been a little more BLEAK without it, and who wants a card that reads BLEAK?
I'm SO happy with how the inking worked out.

And finally--

That polar bear really spoke to me, as did the beautiful snowy frame diecut. I used a bit of glitter paper to create a snowy hill, and I did some VERY soft inking with minty green to set him off from the snow (Sorry that doesn't seem to show in the photos). The layered "Winter" diecuts are so lovely, and I was really glad I went with deeper shades there. I actually like the darkness of winter, in the right setting, as well of the play of light on things. ( I don't necessarily love it getting dark at 4pm, but you know what I mean...)
I gave him a bit of snowy forest to wander through, and added some big wooden snowflakes to the storm. A few grey and teal embellishments add some interest, and finish things off!

A HUGE thanks to the wonderful and super-talented Jeanne Jachna for asking me to play with these amazing crafters and to enjoy this fabulous kit!

Please head over to the 12 Kits Blog to see SO MANY more wonderful things to do with all these supplies!

Thank you so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard