After a few flicks through my Stampscapes stamps, I picked out the ones I wanted to use, then had a long think about how to create a wintry look, without just adding a load of snow. ( Which just so happens to be falling outside right now!).
I was still struggling with how to look wintry, but decided to get started on the stamping, and hope for inspiration. This image very, very almost went into the bin- I had a complete disaster part way through- and the funny thing is, it was in the rescuing that I got my winter look.
I have quite a stack of brayered backgrounds, from when I was practising to get the hang of it, so I selected one that I thought could end up with the right look. It is a piece of Matt card, from Lavinia Stamps, brayered from the bottom with Stonewashed, Sailboat Blue & Denim Adirondack dye inks, and from the top down with Cool Peri, Purple Twilight, and a little Eggplant right at the top. Before brayering I added a circle punched from a post-it note to the upper half of the cardstock.
I used Versafine Onyx Black to stamp the images. Most of the elements of this picture come from Nature Sheet #6. I started with the Lakeside Cabin (147F) on the right, then stamped Lakeside Island (from Nature Sheet #4, The Lost Scapes) next to it, using a Stamp Positioner to marry them up. I placed them about 2/3 of the way down the card,just where the blue started to fade out. In the foreground I stamped Ledge (054F) twice, varying the angle slightly, then added Reeds Lge (068D) randomly. I used Water Pattern sm (231C) in the water area. Final stamp was Spooky Branch (273G) stamped reaching in to the picture on the left and upright on the right. You can see on the design sheet that the Ledge stamp is much larger than in my scene- I just used a small portion of it to give me a river/ lake bank. Equally, you can layer & stack it to give you a larger rocky area.
Having taken the design sheet out of my folder to scan & show you, I could see similarities in my scene to the image on the sheet.
So all was well up till now, when I decided I ought to have a reflected moon in the water. Considered a few options, and decided to try 'stamping' a moon shape in Brilliance Moonlight White, using a round foam brush. My instant reaction was that it looked awful- it didn't work at all. And that I had ruined what was a promising picture to boot.I tried wiping the white ink off- that smudged and looked even worse. Next I tried cleaning that area with a baby wipe- now I had a patch with a different colour ink to the rest of the image. So, as a last resort, and as I had given up any hope of this image being usable anymore, I wiped over the whole image with the baby wipe- I had black ink coming off the image, as well as the white! Panic!!!! So now, completely stressed by everything going wrong, I folded a piece of plain white copy paper in half, put the image between the two layers, put a book on top of it (oh yes, it was curling up too!), put it to one side and went to cook tea.
When I went back to it the following evening, I had no expectations of it being any use, and fully expected to be throwing it away. However, as you can see, what the baby wipe did was take enough ink away to give me a misty, ghostly look- perfect for mist/fog falling over a lake in winter. Trust me folks, nobody was more surprised at this than me. I had gone from scrap to perfect by sheer fluke.
The Lost Scapes #4 |
For the base card, I folded an A4 piece of Gold card in half. The embossed background was made with a Cuttlebug folder, Snowflake. I cut two strips of white card the width of the folder, and almost twice as long, embossed the image once, then turned the white card around and embossed the other end. The two lengths were then joined together with sellotape on the back, and cut down to fit the front of the card. A strip of pale blue ribbon covers the join. Mounted the image to the front, and breathed a sigh of relief, lol.
I suppose this could be a Christmas card, which means I have actually managed to start them in January- so I only broke my New Years Resolution by a half (I wanted to do two Christmas cards a month).
I hope you will join us over at Craft a Scene, I am looking forward to seeing the other DT's take on the brief, and what you all come up with.
11 comments:
Snow is still there, Shaz. I love the way you managed to get that soft misty look, just right. I now have a tidy desk (and almost tidy room) so I now need to thing about what stamps to use to do a winter scene of my own. Speak to you soon x Maggie
Shaz
This is absolutely gorgeous. I love the winter feel to it; so realistic.
Myrna
Okay... You are the Master! I LOVE this piece Shaz! What an incredible scene to post for your first time as a DT Member at Craft A Scene!! You rock girl!
Hugs,
Sheree
Shaz,
I love this one! I love the fact that you gave us a breakdown on your creative process. As so often I too think things are doomed and keep working on them anyway. Sometimes I save them and sometimes not. :) LOL
ah did chuckle and smile my way throguh this post, Shaz, as felt for you each time things went awry. I have found myself how the best discoveries are made by a boo boo! fine line between complete mess and great creation! and a fantastic job dear longtime blogging friend and absolutely delighted you are on the the DT! well done for your first effort! knew you could do it. Shaz in oz.x
This card turned out great!!! I think you should have a name for the technique you used, you made me smile and wow, here you are showing us this beautiful card!
beautiful
I love stampscapes stamps - but haven't played for awhile. You're inspiring me - and I so relate to what you said about something going wrong and then fixing it makes it right. Love that feeling!
Gorgeous-gorgeous card!
Hugs,
Deb M
Shaz, I really enjoyed reading how you completed this scene. It has such an amazing frosty look to it. I look forward to working with you at Craft a Scene.
Shaz, thank you for making such a nice tutorial. It is so good to be able to read how we make our cards. There are a lot of people out there who are looking to us to provide some instructions and assistance. Nice Job! NancyD
Saw this on Pinterest. Stunning. Incredible depth and mood.
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