Mondo Magnolia

Today's card was created partly at the request of a follower on my blog and partly from my need for a card that follows a neutral color theme.  My follower wanted to see one of my florals done in cream color which is no small task when it comes to me and watercolor.  I have a hard time leaving enough "white" space all of the time, but I know this about myself so I started in with that fact in mind.

I have a few thank you cards to make now that the holidays are over. I stamped the Mondo Magnolia, designed by Julie Ebersole for Ellen Hutson, using Versamark and Simon Says Stamp Ultra Fine Gold Embossing Powder and heat set it.

This particular card stock is the Canson XL 140# Water Color Paper.  I don't have much of this left and I probably won't buy it again simply because I prefer the soft white of the Canson Bristol Water Color Paper that I buy from Amazon or Hobby Lobby with a coupon.  I also have some Fabriano Water Color Paper for my upcoming Watercolor Class that I will be taking at the end of January and it is also more cream colored than white.  I really love the soft white of the Bristol Paper that I have been buying.  I can actually buy it from Amazon.com for less than I pay with a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby.  You can see it here: Canson Bristol 96# 11 x 14 - 25 Sheets.  I know enough about what I am doing most of the time not to need the 140# version which will take a great deal more water than the Bristol does.  With practice, you just learn to work in one area at a time and do your painting in multiple layers so the paper will not pill. There are a few places that make brighter white water color paper, but for card making, I'm good with what I'm currently using.  If I ever get to a point where I'm trying to do fine art prints, I'll invest in better paper (*smile*).

Using a water brush with a Tim Holtz Distress Marker in the color Antique Linen I colored the flower.  I tried to keep the left side of the petals slightly darker by putting no color at all on the right side and trying to keep a bit more of the super sheer cream.  Antique Linen is just the palest hint of a color.  I tried a couple of other colors, but they just weren't the correct color family.  I have a beautiful Magnolia Tree in my yard that we got a couple of years ago.  We had so much rain last spring that even though we had lots of blooms, they didn't last long.  Sometimes they didn't even last a half a day before they got pelted by the rain and knocked off.   I did get to study and enjoy the blooms for those few hours that the sun was shining.  I feel like my color is a very accurate representation of the color of my magnolia.  I would like to have a Tulip Magnolia with its lovely pink blooms, but I think we'll see if we can keep the one we have alive first.

Once I was finished water coloring the bloom, I went over it all with my Wink of Stella Clear Shimmer Pen.  Once that was done, I cut the panel with the Sunshine Layers Scalloped Rectangle from WPLUS9 Design Studios.  I applied that to an A2 Top Folding Card Base that I made from SU! Crumb Cake card stock.  I die cut the Mama Elephant "thanks" sentiment and attached it to my scalloped panel using Ranger Multi Medium Matte which finished this card.

I'm anxious to try to color the Altenew "Magnolias for Her" image using a similar technique (you know--a light touch) and that will most likely be my next project as I need a few more thank you cards.

I try to make cards that are appealing but not overly fussy; Classic and Elegant is my goal.  I hope you enjoyed this super simple card and if you did, please feel free to leave me a comment.  Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you again soon.

It's a Winter Wonderland

On the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog the theme for this week is "Let it Snow".  With this in mind, I wanted to create a snowy tree for my card. Where I live, when the snow falls, there's not many creatures stirring about and I get to enjoy the beauty of watching it snow.  There is nothing so silent and peaceful than a full-on snowfall.  That probably sounds goofy, but every thing is so still and quiet when it snows. Our next door neighbors have a whole lot more trees in their actual yard so they get all the beautiful cardinals.  They always have food out for them also, but I still get to enjoy looking at them.

For my card, I wanted to portray that stillness I feel when I see a heavy snowfall starting.  So I chose to create a lone tree to symbolize that stillness.  I started by stamping the base tree from the Stampin' Up Sheltering Tree set in Onyx Black Versafine and heat setting it with Simon Says Stamp Fine Detail Clear Embossing Powder on a Simon Says Stamp Surf Blue Paper using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Dies.  Like Jennifer McGuire, I find black embossing powder to be a pain to keep from contaminating other projects, scraps, etc.  So I use black ink and clear powder.  I have black fine detail embossing powder if I need it, but I haven't come across an occasion so far that has required that.  Once I had heat set that, I came back in with the same tree stamp and some Delicata Silver Shimmer Ink slightly offset to give the impression of snow sticking to it and heat set that with clear embossing powder as well.

Next I used a white pigment ink (from SU!) and stamped the leaves of the tree with that to make them appear full of snow.  In real life, that doesn't happen too often, but Live Oak Trees don't lose their leaves, so that is the memory I am referencing in this particular case, *wink*.  I used the same leaves to stamp my background snow, not re-inking and using 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation stamps. My White Pigment Ink is really juicy right now because I just re-inked it not long ago so it was very easy to get multiple generations out of it.  Once I had all of that stamped in white Pigment ink, I added some Judikins Iridescent Sparkle Embossing Powder to it to make it sparkle like real snow does.  I cut the snowy slopes using the Mama Elephant Landscape Trio Dies and also stamped that a bit with the same leaves stamp to add a bit of white ink to them with more of the Iridescent Sparkle Embossing Powder.  For the greeting, I cut some of the Surf Blue Paper with a label die, cut that in half and used one of the sentiments from Mama Elephant's Jingle Greetings, heat embossing Ranger Liquid Platinum Embossing Powder.  The Liquid Platinum is a warmer color than silver.  Lastly, I assembled my card using a top folding card base.  

that using Versamark and

I made this card yesterday along with the one from my previous blog post, but I couldn't seem to think through writing the post because my "puppies" (as I call them) were demanding attention.  I snuck out of bed this morning while everyone else was still sleeping so that I could get this post written without interruption.

While I do plan to take some time this weekend to get some of my Christmas Cards ready to mail, I received my Double Scoop Gelatos this week that I had ordered on a phenomenal Black Friday Deal and my goal is to have time to play with them this weekend.  Therefore, I'll be back as soon as I can with another project.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Merry & Bright

This tag will be entered into the 25 Days of Christmas Tags which is an annual event hosted by Tracey McNeely over at her blog "In My Creative Opinion".  Whenever I am in a class, I have several of those "parts & pieces" laying around from attempts at a certain technique or style.  This post is all about one of those but my attempt to reclaim this particular part was inspired by Tracey herself and her tag from Day 9.

I really messed this panel up the other day when I ran it through my die cutting machine after heat embossing the silver snowflakes and attaching them to my card front which today became my tag.  I put it in to cut the edges off of the snowflakes in alignment with the scalloped rectangle. So all of the silver embossing had lines and creases in it from all the lines and creases in my cutting pads.  I should have had a thin sheet of printer paper in there to prevent this from happening, but I don't normally cut after the fact, so I had forgotten this one little detail.

This panel was laying at the top of my trash can when I had a sudden thought that maybe, just maybe, I could use my heat tool to re-melt the embossing powder and salvage this panel that I liked so much.  BINGO!

The card stock was inked up with a Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool using a bit of Thistle in the very center and Audrey Blue all over the rest of the tag.  I then stamped several of the Stamps from the Simon Says Stamp Lots of Snowflakes Stamp Set in Versamark and heat set them using Simon Says Stamp Ultra Fine Detail White Embossing Powder.  There are 17 stamps in this set. Next I cut the Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Snowflakes Eliza, Abby, Alexis and Kate in heavy white cardstock.  I inked up each of the snowflakes using Versamark and then put Fine Detail Silver Embossing Powder and heat set them and repeated that. This gives your die cuts so much dimension; it's really beautiful!  I attached them all to the Scalloped Stitched Rectangle from the Sunshine Layers Die.  Then I popped it back into the die and ran it through to cut off the overhanging edges. That is when I saw all the creases in the silver embossing.  So I tossed it in the trash and went on to the next card front.

I don't know what made me think to try reheating the embossing powder to see if it would melt again, but I had nothing to lose.  It worked like a charm and after seeing Tracey's cute tag from day 9, I had to make it into a tag even though I don't seem to have a cute little snowman like she does.  Ya'll know I love my snowflakes!

Since it wasn't in the shape of a tag and I don't have a tag this large, I slipped a My Favorite Things Stitched Oval over the top portion only and cut it to get the arch. I could have used a circle die but I came to the ovals in my binder first. Then I reheated it to smooth out all of the silver embossing.  I cut and stamped my greeting using the Mama Elephant "Merry" die with Silver Glitter Paper and two stamps from the Papertrey Ink Sparkle & Shine Stamp Set for the "& Bright" that are heat embossed in the same Simon brand Silver Embossing Powder on a strip of paper inked up with the same Audrey Blue Ink that I love and adore so much! It is such a beautiful color. I have a banner punch that I used to make the swallowtail end on the banner strip and adhered it to my tag with foam squares. A few silver sequins and Voila!   I used ribbon from my stash.

It's not captured very well but I'm really happy with all the texture and sparkle on this tag and will be uploading it over at the 25 Days of Christmas Tags on Tracey's Blog. Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Pretty Purple Poinsettias

Today's post is not really a new technique, but I don't think I've shared it on here before.  And even if I have, a refresher is always a good thing.  I'm actually combining a few techniques from my class this week.

I started by masking off the top two thirds of my card with the same strip of Post-It Tape that I used for my homework for Monday's class. Using a Tim Holtz Mini Ink Blending Tool, I started inking up the bottom portion of my front panel using Simon Says Stamp Thistle Ink.  I really love that color a lot. It's a cross between pink and violet and it makes me happy to just see it.  It did take several layers to get the intensity and depth I wanted and honestly, I could have started with a darker colored ink but it's okay.  I had plenty of time and I was not in a rush.  Once I had my ink blended on the bottom portion, I sprayed a solution of Tsukineko Sheer Shimmer Spray just on the ink blended portion then set it aside and moved on to my die cutting.

I used the Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia Die and cut all of the layers plus one leaf using my 100# Bazzill Marshmallow Card Stock.  I used my metal shim so that I would not need to emboss in a separate step.  I took the same ink blending tool and started by putting it down in the very center of each layer of the flower and turned back and forth right on the center very gently so I wouldn't bend up the layer.  For this I used SU! Blackberry Bliss Ink. It is a much deeper color and took seconds to do.  This left my flower layers still white on about the outer half so I came in with Simon Says Stamp Hollyhock Ink to finish up the ink blending. I did get out my already inked "pink" foam for this to keep the color pretty pure. I finished inking the outer half of the layers then took the purple blending tool and inked the edges of each petal. This gave me great shadow and depth.  Since the embossing makes hills and valleys on the paper and the hills are the highest points, it deposits more ink on those areas than on the valleys.  I set those aside to dry.  I've learned the hard way that even though the ink may feel dry to the touch, it really needs time to become completely dry.  With the dye based inks, the color smooths out while it is drying even though it may seem blotchy when you first stamp it. That's just the nature of the dye ink vs. a pigment ink that will stay pretty true to however it looks when you stamp it.  I started with Simon Says Stamp Beanstalk Green Ink for the leaf but eventually moved to SU! Garden Green to get the deeper shade.

I had recently (in the last 6 months or so) taken two Stampin' Around Wheels off their round little wheels and remounted them on some cling foam. The one I used here has always been a favorite.  It's 7 inches long all stretched out so it could also be used on larger cards  I have a  2 x 12 inch acrylic block that I got several years ago from Close To My Heart but Lawn Fawn has one here that is 2 x 8 inches.  Using Versamark Ink, I stamped that just beneath my line where the ink blending is and heat embossed it using Simon Says Stamp Silver Embossing Powder.

For the sentiment, I die cut that in Bazzill Marshmallow Card Stock then inked it up with Versamark.  I sprinkled the same Silver Embossing Powder all over it and heat set it then repeated that same process to get a double layer of the silver powder melted onto my die cut.  It gives the die cuts so much dimension.  I hadn't done that in so long I had forgotten how much I like it!  *Ü*

Using Ranger Multi Medium Matte I adhered the die cut sentiment along the diagonal line on the front panel.  Then I assembled the poinsettia layers just in the center with Multi Medium Matte and topped it with a Silver Sequin using a mix from Stampin' Up that I got a few years ago.  I attached that to the card front with one foam square in the center of the flower and one under the leaf.   I used the same SU! sequin mix for the small and large silver sequins and a Sparkling Clear Sequin in the 10mm size from Pretty Pink Posh for the embellishment on the right hand side of the front panel.

I tucked in the leaf, then trimmed the left side of the panel to fit on my 4.25 by 5.5 inch top folding Blackberry Bliss card base with a border of color on each side and none on the top or bottom. I cut a piece of fun foam slightly smaller than the card base, adhered that to the panel and used Multi Medium Matte to attach the finished panel to the card base.

The Share Handmade Kindness Campaign continues for the whole month of November in addition to my Online Card Class so I'll be back soon.  Please leave a comment for me if you stop by and thanks for visiting!

Birthday Greetings

I worked on a few card things today in my studio including trying to get my design together for my best friend, Gloria's, birthday which is coming up in about 8 days.  Even though we live 260 miles apart now, we do our best to stay connected

That's harder than it might seem in this day and age of social media, but she is pretty much my only friend, acquaintance or relative other than my in-laws who does not have a Facebook, Instagram or other kind of account.  She does have e-mail but she doesn't check it very often; and I have to remind her to check her actual snail mail box so she can get the cards I make and send to her.  At the time we became friends, I worked outside the home but she didn't.  Now our roles are reversed and she is the busied, harried working mom trying to juggle her kids activities and work a more than full time job.  The expectation from her employer is to work at least 45 hours a week and it is often 50 or more.  I know, because I worked for the same company before she went to work there.  

Gloria likes to make cards, too, and that is what we do when she comes for the weekend a couple of times a year.  Therefore, my goal is always to make something for her in a style or manner that she wouldn't think to do, so that it is different from anything she would make for herself.   This year I wanted to do something special since I started making cards this year.  For my birthday in June, she sent me a card that played a song, really loudly!  I had to take the battery out before I could read it because it was so loud.  Ha!  Shhhhh--don't tell her.  

The design I came up with is really simple.  I wanted to have something she could take with her to her office or her bathroom mirror or anywhere she might have a notion to as a reminder of our sisterhood.  I always say, "Whether we're near or far apart, we will always be sisters of the heart." So I wanted her to see that heart and have it remind her that I'm always there in spirit.  I'm planning to put a note in the card about how to remove the heart and take off the removable adhesive on the back side.

For such a simple card, this was quite the learning experience.  I haven't done a whole lot of embossing and hadn't really tried to until August of this year.  I initially tried to use some Cherry Cobbler Card Stock and no matter how much Powder Tool I used, I was getting bits of Gold Powder scattered all over the card stock and I wasn't getting the smoothness I wanted.  So I opted to try it out on this Garnet Shimmer Paper and that was a winner.  I'm learning that the smoothness of the paper has a lot to do with your results.

I stamped 2 - 4.25 x 5.5 pieces of the Garnet Shimmer Paper using an older Stampin' Up set called "Baroque Motifs" with Versamark and heat set the Ranger Fine Detail Gold Embossing Powder.   I really don't use the rest of this set, but I love that one particular stamp a whole bunch.  Then I cut one of the panels using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Dies in the largest one.  I used my Memory Box Stitched Hearts Dies to cut the other embossed panel in the largest heart.  Next I put an eyelet through a hole near the top of the heart so that I could feed a narrow ribbon through it to make it hang like an ornament.

I cannot even count the number of eyelets I have.  I bought several packages years ago at the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington, Texas.  I lived in Dallas then so it was not too far of a drive and I went with one of my scrappy friends and we met up with other scrappy friends there.  What fun that was; it makes me smile just thinking about it!  But most of the eyelets I have can be set using a ball point pen.  I happen to have a Silent Setter so I did use that since it also puts the correct size hole first.  But these eyelets are easy to set.  I had the ribbon (trust me when I tell you that I have ribbon) and since it was so narrow I knew it would fit through.  I cut the Penny Black Happy Birthday die in gold metallic paper and made sure to place it on the removable heart.  Then I tucked the ribbon behind my front panel and adhered that to my card base.  I used a narrow strip of Removable Adhesive to hold the heart in place in alignment with the background panel.  There's nothing fancy here, but she will love it.

The Garnet Shimmer Paper I have came from Create for Less several years ago. Sometimes Hobby Lobby will have some Shimmer Vellum in a nearly identical color called Lava.  

I may have another project later as I will be continuing participation in the Share Handmade Kindness Campaign that you can read about on Jennifer McGuire's blog (link on the right hand side).  If you stop by, please leave a comment for me; I love reading them!  

Share Handmade Kindness

I'm participating in a month long event that was developed by and started yesterday over at the Jennifer McGuire, Ink blog.  I've mentioned before that she is my absolute favorite paper crafter to follow.  There are several bloggers that I like and follow, but Jennifer's style more closely matches my own and I also relate to her because, like me, she doesn't come from an art background.  Also like me, she started when she was making scrapbooks for her family.

The challenge is to make something (anything) by hand with love.  It could be dinner, dessert, cookies, taking photos, creating a scrapbook page or a card or just a handwritten note.  People just love to get "real" mail and for some of us, the joy is in creating those things.  I know I groan every time I see how much junk is in the mailbox and what a delight it is anytime I get something besides a bill or junk.

I have someone special that I want to reach out to for this challenge.  This person makes an impact on so many lives but she has no idea just how much!  I'm sending a card that I made to say thanks and to try and tell her how much she has impacted my life in a positive way.

I made this card with the same technique that I used to make the Audrey Blue Ornament Card. Using a piece of chipboard that came in a package of paper, I cut the heart out for my mask this time.  First I used a Mini Ink Blending Tool and Simon Says Stamp Thistle Ink to color in the heart.  I stamped the flourish in the heart and heat embossed it using WOW! White Pearl Embossing Powder. Since my ink was already down, it gave the flourish a tone on tone look.  I applied Versamark using a Mini Sponge Dauber all over the heart, then I used Interference Red Perfect Pearls over that.  A very light misting of water helps to set the Perfect Pearls. As you blend in the Perfect Pearls, the color looks different depending on what light is shining on it.  The Interference Red gets a beautiful kind of rose colored shimmer in the right light and I like that it changes as the light does. I wanted to make the heart seem like an ornament, so I used the ornament topper die from another set.  I wasn't sure it would work, but it was perfect.  I ran the rose colored ribbon through that ornament topper to make it look like it was hanging.

I used the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles in the largest size to cut the background panel and then the next largest for the card front panel and tucked the ribbon behind the background panel with a couple of glue dots.  Then I cut and added my sentiment.  This is my favorite "thanks" die from Mama Elephant cut from the same Bazzill Marshmallow as the front panel for a perfect match.  I cut all the little hearts in some Creative Memories Thistle colored paper that I had also added the Interference Red Perfect Pearls to using the Simon Says Stamp Holiday Shapes Hearts and Stars die and the Simon Says Stamp Large Holiday Shapes Hearts and Stars die.  Those two die sets give you 8 different sizes of each shape and are something I use frequently.   Once I had everything assembled I added the hearts to my card front using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  For my final touch I gave all of the hearts a coat of Ranger Glossy Accents to give the hearts a little dimension, then set it aside to dry for a couple of hours.

I hope some of you who are reading this will go check out Jennifer McGuire Ink (link on the right hand side) and join in the Share Handmade Kindness Challenge.

Sometimes Less Really is More

The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog theme this week is "Anything Goes".  Today's card is very quick!  Last night I set out to create another Christmas Card using some stamps and dies from Altenew along with another of my sentiments that came from the Papertrey Ink set that I used a few days ago.

I stamped several images on a larger piece of Canson XL 140# Watercolor Card Stock and heat set them using Simon Says Stamp Ultra Fine Clear Embossing Powder.  I opened my set of Gansai Tambi Watercolors because I knew I would want varying shades of red, green and even some brown.  After I had watercolored all of the images, I started trying to pull my card together.  I had Poinsettias, Pine Branches, Pine Cones, and some Mistletoe.

In the end, I saved all of the pieces, but I only used one lone little sprig of Mistletoe.  The greeting is simple and elegant in Gold Foil Card Stock.  I used a Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels Kiwi to color the front panel.  I don't have any card stock that is that light and I wanted a soft green this time.  It somehow feels very gentle with the soft color, the clean and simple design and the sheer white bow.  You can make your own shimmer spray with Perfect Pearls Pigment Powder, a few drops of reinker and some water in a little spray or spritzer bottle or you can mix a little of the Tsukineko Sparkle Sheer Shimmer Spritz with a few drops of color as well.  It's all personal preference.

I used my Versamark Pen to make the three little white berries with some Pearl Embossing Powder from WOW!.  I did that twice for the added dimension but if I could have found my little white pearl embellishments, I would have used those.  Of course, I found them afterward-- LOL!

I used a Micro Glue Dot to attach the bow to the mistletoe sprig and then again to attach that to my card front.  The pale green panel was cut with the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles Die in the largest size.

Lately I've been liking only a very narrow frame around my front panels so that means I have to cut my card base down a little bit.  No big deal, I just use a T-Ruler to mark one end with a pencil and then I cut just inside the pencil line to remove it.

Have a great weekend everyone.  I always enjoy reading them if you would like to leave a comment.

Tie It Up

The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog has a "Tie it Up" challenge for this week.  One of their vendors, May Arts, makes twine and threads for use in cards & scrap booking.  I'll just confess to you all right now that I don't particularly care for the "messy thread on a card look", but I sucked it up and managed to get a tiny bit of iridescent thread on this card along with some pale blue sheer ribbon for this challenge.  It probably won't ever be my first choice, but I'm okay with what I have today.

I always like pale blues and purples for winter cards.  Just the very nature of the color makes it seem colder somehow.  You know-- they are "cool" vs "warm" colors.  I have been wanting a chance to play with some of my stamps and dies while I'm still trying to figure out my Christmas Card for this year and today was as good a day as any.  I've finally decided that I may have a large variety of different cards instead of mass producing just one card.  I don't have a MISTI, so that will suit my needs and my personality better.  I have trouble copying even one card so I really can't imagine doing 50 of them.

I had previously experimented with some paint spatters on card stock and I repeated that today using a soft blue card stock with some Copic White which is an opaque white paint that you can use with markers of the same brand, but I was trying to mimic snow.  That was okay, but still really wasn't the look I was going for.  In hindsight, I needed a smaller paint brush with longer bristles.  I'm going to have to go back later and try that now that I've thought of it.  I also tried several different embossing powders as well and this card uses Opaque White Embossing Powder from Judikins.  I used my the May 2015 Card Kit Stamp Set, "Congratulations", to make my snow.  One of the stamps in that kit is for confetti or champagne bubbles (I think) so I tried that for my snow.  I didn't have anything that was smaller for the background, so I went with what I had.

I was really wanting a bit of shimmer or sparkle to my snow, but none of the embossing powders I tried gave me the correct look, so I used the white in the end.  I'm actually thinking that I will mix a bit of clear embossing powder with some white and try that but I have no idea if that will actually work.  I've been saving an empty embossing powder jar to check, so I'll let you know in a future post. *Ü*

I always kind of agonize over the backgrounds for my cards, but once I get something that I like pretty well, then it's full speed ahead.  I have several snowflake dies and punches in a large variety of sizes that I have planned to use for winter or holiday cards.  There's Rylynn, Eliza, Alexis, & Kate which are all Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Dies. There's also three different Martha Stewart Snowflake Punches.  I figured I would have all the sizes and variety that I might need.  Two of the punches are Arctic and Alpine, but I have no idea what the third one is called.  I only used four total on this card and two of them are the small punch sized snowflakes.

I stamped the sentiment from Big Scripty Greetings - Holiday, in Versamark on 40# vellum and heat embossed it.  I also put Versamark all around the edge of the vellum and heat embossed it with Iridescent Sparkle Embossing Powder from Judikins.  I had already tried Diamond Sparkle, and Ranger Holographic Embossing Powders.  I attached the greeting and the snowflakes using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  The Multi Medium dries to a matte finish and doesn't show under vellum although I do try to place it behind other elements.  I dotted that adhesive all up and down the top, bottom and sides of the greeting panel and it doesn't show anywhere.  For the very last snowflake I put on the card front, I tucked a bit of iridescent thread under the center and attached it to the upper left corner of my front panel.  After that I tied the small sheer blue bow and put that on with a glue dot.  Multi Medium Matte would have worked fine, but I didn't have to babysit a glue dot.

Once I achieved the snowy background I wanted, the rest of the card went very fast.  I die cut the background using the Scalloped Stitched Rectangle from the Sunshine Layers Dies by WPLUS9 Design Studio. The snowflakes are all cut from White Shimmer Card Stock.  I have a few variations on this theme that I'll be trying over the next couple of weeks and I'll post those as I complete them.

Thanks so much for looking.  I hope you have a great day!

PS:  I just went back and tried the Copic White Paint with a small scoop of Perfect Pearls in it, making spatters with a #2 Script Brush.  This works very well. You can control the size of your spatters by how near or far the tip of the brush is to your paper.  I actually did my spatters onto my paper over my trash can to try to keep the mess contained.  You could use a box or some old newspapers as well.  The blue card stock is two different colors, but I like the effect in both cases.