Oh, Baby, It's COLD Outside!!

Hello everyone! I just crawled out of my hole and discovered there's a Winter Wonderland challenge  going on over at DecoArt Mixed Media Blog. Well now, that's right up my alley! I hope those of you who have snow are enjoying it's beauty!  You may have read we had a recent dump of all 100 snowflake flurries here in the coastal south! You had to squint real hard to actually see the flakes.  So here I am, again, walking in my own hand made winter wonderland!

I'm afraid I took no in process photos, nor did I take notes on what I did.  I often take notes, so I'll know how to reproduce a look.   I'll share what I can remember, and hopefully I'm accurate. I did pile up my products as I used them, so I know that's right, anyway.  You can skip through the how-to, if you wish.  It's basically there for my knowledge and for anyone else that cares.

I actually started off with the top metallic panel, as an experiment.  (I think you are supposed to take notes when you experiment, so you remember what the heck you did!) I applied my new metal repair tape to a panel of manila file folder and embossed with a Tim Holtz Texture Fade. I applied a coat of DecoArt Media gesso in black and let that dry. I only have a few fluid acrylics, so I used what I had to get a stormy sky type of look--my colors will be listed below.  I mixed my colors with Matte Medium and painted them on. Before the wash was completely dry, I took a paper towel and laid it over the panel, pressed it onto the surface, and then pulled it off quickly and then wiped with a damp baby wipe.

I added little dots of Liquid Glass to some of the berries and let dry. I sponged on Titanium White to highlight the raised areas.  When dry, I gave another coat of Matte Medium and a light dusting of Glamour Dust. Love that frosty glimmer, but you may just have to imagine how shimmery it is.  No matter how I try, I can't photograph the shimmery beauty with my phone camera. And you can see by the number of photos, I tried a lot both in my "studio" light and in natural sunlight!

The back panel was made from cardstock embossed with another Tim Holtz Texture Fade.  Again, I covered with black gesso and let dry. Next I applied white gesso to the edge of a piece of scrap cereal box, and scraped it over the raised areas. I put a dot of  each of my fluid acrylics on my craft mat, and one by one, I layered on the color using my palette knife, sometimes scraping, sometimes patting and other times applying with the side edge of the knife.

I gave it several spritzes of white Shimmer Mister and then spritzed lightly with water.  I dried with a heat tool. I applied some of the mister at  the bottom using the inside tube of the spritzer mechanism, spritzed with water to let it drip down, and once again dried. I spritzed the reverse side one more time with water and ran it through the Big Kick with the Texture Fade again to get some real crisp embossing. By the way, I embossed once at the top of the card, and then again at the bottom to cover the entire 5 x 9 ish piece of card. I layered on some more of the blues, grey, and white paints using a make up sponge ever so lightly tapping to high light the raised snowflakes. While wet, I gave a dusting of Glamour Dust.  A final flick with some watered down Titanium white for blizzard like conditions. The simple quote is from Tim Holtz Small Talk, and I edged it with a mixture of Fluid acrylics in Titan Buff and Titanium White. I used Matte medium to adhere, and added a little extra at the top edge and sprinkled with Glamour Dust.

I felt like my artwork was a little busy with the two panels, so I decided to give the eye a little snowy place to rest.  I slathered some Crackle Paste on the edges and around the sides of a piece of foam core and while wet, I sprinkled on more Glamour Dust.  I'm telling you this baby shimmers like freshly fallen snow in sunlight! When it dried I swiped a little Medium Grey Antiquing Cream to the peaks (drifts!) I layered my metallic panel with foam tape to the snowy panel.  I cut a piece of chip board to the size of my bottom panel and adhered it and the snowy panel.

There you have it...my own Winter Wonderland, and I don't have to shovel! But then, I can't build a snowman or make snow angels with it either!

DecoArt Media Products: Fluid Acrylics-Titanium White, Titan Buff, Cobalt Teal Hue, Prussian Blue Hue, Medium Grey Value 6; Gesso-white and black., Matte Medium, Liquid Glass, Crackle Paste, Medium Grey Antiquing Cream, White Shimmer Mister  Other DecoArt Products: Glamour Dust Other: chip board, card stock, manila file folder,  3M Metal Repair tape, foam core, Tim Holtz Texture Fades Snowflurries and Winter Berries, Small Talk Occasions stickers.

I would like to enter my project into the following inspiring challenges:

DecoArt Media Winter Wonderland Challenge

Card and Scrap Challenge # 110 White and Blue

Southern Ridge Trading Co. January Winter Challenge-Anything Winter

Emerald Creek Dares Valentine's Is Not In the Air Heart's Undone My heart was broken when the temperature rose as soon as we started to get snow, and all we got is a few flurries and LOTS of cold rain. This led me to make this wall hanging. (I know, it's a stretch, but the absolute truth!)

Word Art Wednesdays Challenge #218 Anything Goes

Double "D" Challenges "Brrrr" Winter Time Theme I was inspired by the snow and the branches.

Paper Sweeties Inspiration # 39 January 2016

Mixed Media Place Creative Gym # 16 "New Beginnings" For me, my new beginning is entering into this challenge.  I've been watching the Creative Gym exercises for about a year, and now finally joining in as I think my Mixed Media skills have improved enough. ALSO: Fresh fallen snow reminds me of "new", like some people think of green grass in the spring.  ALSO: using my new DecoArt Fluid Acrylics.

Crafting By Designs Winter, Glitter, Sparkles

Dutch Card Lovers challenge #246 Let It Snow  I checked the rules and didn't see that a project had to be a CARD, although your title suggests it...I'm taking my chances!

Thank you for stopping by today and for all your wonderful comments!  I read and appreciate each and every one!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily
UPDATE: thank you for choosing my artwork!