Frosty Morn

Hello and good NON-frosty morning.

Actually we were pretty darn close to having a light frost the last couple of mornings and we had wonderfully cold, damp, dreary days where the inside lamps stayed on  and I wore a sweater and socks and long warm house pants all day.  Not very glamorous, but I LOVED it.  When the summers get as hot as they do here, we relish the first few days of fall-like weather.  But tomorrow we'll be back in the 80's for a few days, and that's ok too.  Beats temps in the triple digits....

Today's card is wishful thinking for me, and that is, I wish for snow every year.  No, not the light dusting or couple of inches we get most years but snow - REAL snow.  The kind that weighs down the branches of trees and piles up on the side of the road when the snowplows rumble by.  The kind that turns the world into a marshmallow-coated wonderland.  I lived high in the Colorado mountains for a few years back in the mid-90's and experienced winters like I'd never imagined.  The 10-ft. drifts re-landscaped the supermarket parking lot for the entire winter, turning the mundane task of parking into an all-out obstacle course.  Snowplows were as common as the sparrows in my yard, and leaves didn't attempt to peek out until June.  April was "mud month," and the first snows started flying on Halloween.  Those were long winters, but there was nothing like that blue light at night when snow covered everything, and that wonderful hush in the air as the snow absorbed sound.  I loved winter then, and I love it now.  Which brings me to my card...

OK, I don't recall ever seeing a sunrise quite so....yellow as this one, but I wanted to play with the technique.  Plus, one of the challenges for which I made this card was over at Alota Rubber Stamps in which the theme was to "brighten up your life."  (All challenges will be listed below.)  So I figured the sun ray technique qualified.  It would brighten up MY life if I saw it this way.  I ran across this technique here and I must say I will use this one a LOT.  It's so dramatic.  

BTW, the tree stamps are from Alota Rubber Stamps, too.  They come individually in four sizes and are so very useful.

I wanted to use some frosty paper but had none in my stash, so I made my own.  I used the emboss resist method and embossed the snowflakes on Whisper White using clear embossing powder then sponged over them with Tempting Turquoise, Marina Mist and Night of Navy.  The base card is Night of Navy, the first mat is Pacific Point, the next mat is Basic Black, on top of which I added my embossed layer.  The small pale blue layer is Annalee (Prima).  The main image is on Whisper White with Dazzling Diamonds accents here and there, both on the snow drifts and the tree in the foreground.  To get the appearance of depth, I used two sizes of tree stamps and stamped off once or twice for the more distant trees.  Of course, not all trees are straight.  I guess one was blown askew by the wind.  Hmmm...

The two Dienamics doily die cuts are Night of Navy and Whisper White.  I added Dazzling Diamonds to the tips of the navy doily and coated the white one in white (Pearl) Perfect Pearls for a frosty/metallic look.  The snowflakes are Whisper White, die cut with Dienamics snowflake dies, with Dazzling Diamonds and rhinestones added.  The greeting was stamped in Night of Navy then punched with Word Window and applied to a Modern Labels background, and like almost everything else, popped up on dimensionals.  SCS's challenge was to add dimension, after all.  And after all that, the result is wishful thinking on paper!  Bring on the snow!!

Hey. . . do you think there's enough sparkle and shine? 

This card is entered in the following challenges:

SCS - Add Dimension - TLC398
Alota Rubber Stamps - Brighten Up Your Life - ALOTA92
Charisma Cardz Challenges - Challenge #39
The Sweet Stop - SSS179

  

Well, that's it for today.  Thanks for looking and here's to snowy winters!

Happy Crafting!!