A Winter Scene Tutorial with Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps

 

It's time for a tutorial using Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps!  I've been wanting to create a basic winter background for cards now that colder weather is appearing in the forecast!  I'm sure there are many ways to create such a background, but I'm always looking for the simplest, least time consuming method!  (*wink*)  This is what I came up with:

Basic Supplies:

• Prickley Pear Cardinals Clear Set
• Memento Inks (Tuxedo Black, Bahama Blue, London Fog)
• a piece of paper to use for masking
• ink sponges
• white cardstock
• shimmer spray (I used white Heidi Swapp Color Shine)
• simple embellishments (gemstones, etc.)
• foam dots

1.  Begin by cutting a white card base to 5.5 inches x 8.5 inches and folding it in half.  Then, cut a piece of the same cardstock to 3.25 inches x 4.5 inches to use as your main panel.

2.  After tearing your piece of paper to easily fit the 4.5 inch horizontal length of the main panel, sponge blue ink over the sky portion.

3.  Keeping the paper mask in the same place, sponge grey ink over the blue.

4.  Next, spray the sponged area with a white, shimmery spray until the area is fairly evenly covered.

5.  Remove the mask and, after the ink has dried completely, stamp your main image/s & sentiment and add any desired embellishments.

6.  Attach the main panel to the cardbase using foam dots.

Just think of all the holiday & winter themed cards you can use this kind of background for!  I was going through some of the images in the store and these would be perfect as main images:

FF0148 Snowflake Tree

GG0089 Retro Trees

JJ0029 Snowglobe Snowman

BB0053 Happy Snowman

HH0066 Sled

EE0145 Small Nativity

EE0124 Santa and Reindeer

JJ0062 Horse Drawn Sleigh

That's just naming a few!  You'll want to go take a look at all the wonderful holiday images in the store!

Enjoy your weekend & happy stamping!

The Making of a Snowflake

I thought I'd share a little tutorial I made recently using two of Prickley Pear's wonderful dies.  I am finally ready to think about winter now!  Here's a very simple way to make a 3-D snowflake:

1.  Round up your basic supplies:

Prickley Pear's Scalloped Circle and Victorian Ornament 2 dies

two shades of glitter paper (I used silver and white)

adhesive tape

foam squares or dots

1.75-in. circle punch

embellishments (if desired)

2.  Start by cutting out six (6) Victorian Ornaments & one (1) Scalloped Circle.  Create one (1) 1.75-inch circle using the punch.

3.  Punch out one (1) 1.75-inch circle from a piece of cardstock to use as a base.  Apply a line of adhesive across the center of the circle.

4.  Begin assembling your snowflake by attaching two of the Ornaments to the base on top of the adhesive.

5.  Add more adhesive and adhere two more Ornaments, overlapping the first two and spacing evenly on the circle.  Repeat with the remaining two Ornaments.

 

6.  Apply a line of adhesive to the back of the Scalloped Circle shape (I used a stronger adhesive, Sticky Strip, for this) and adhere to the center of the snowflake.

7.  Apply foam squares or dots to the back of the 1.75-inch circle shape and attach to the center of the Scalloped Circle.

 You have a snowflake!

Embellish it as you'd like or leave it as it is and use it to make a card or on a scrapbook page!  You could also hang it up using silver or gold colored cord/thread.  If doing this, you would want to cut out double the number of die shapes and circles, adhering the Ornament shapes back to back before assembling the snowflake.  This will ensure that the back of the snowflake is a mirror image of the front!

Here is a card I made using the snowflake: