That's Life: Little Deer...

Hello friends and Happy Monday...

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and you're enjoying the magic of the festive season!

As always, it's the start of a brand new week, and that means there's a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. This week our theme is called COLD AS ICE and the DT are excited to see what how you will interpret this wintery theme.

For my project, I created a Christmas card which features a combination of Sizzix dies together with Stampers Anonymous stamps and masks, all from Tim Holtz. I thought these dies worked perfectly together to bring to life my woodland theme Christmas card to life, a make that was inspired by Walt Disney's Bambi, which is one of my favourite films, mainly because I have a soft spot for Thumper!

So let's get started and here's how I created my card...

To begin with I cut a white card blank, and matted a layer of white card onto the front which had Christmas Design Tape from my stash, ( I think this tape was from about two years ago) but you can use patterned paper or any design of tape you think works. I adhered around all four of the edges to create a border for my finished card.

BACKGROUND

I then started creating the background for the scene and placed the medium size of the set of 3 Stampers Anonymous Moon Masks on the left hand side of a panel of White Heavystock card, 12.5 x 17cm.

With the moon mask in place, I used Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks and a blending tool, I inked the top 2/3rds of my card panel, leaving the remaining section white.

I then applied Villainous Potion Distress Ink over the top, gradually working from the outside towards the moon, so that it would be a slightly darker shade around the edge.

Now my sky is complete, I removed the moon mask, replaced it with the second mask and used Hickory Smoke to ink the second layer onto the inside of the moon to form the craters. I also added shading around the edge of the moon with the same ink.

After flicking water over the top and dabbing away the drips with a paper towel, I heat dried the inked surface to set the inks and then applied Grit Paste through the Speckles Layering Stencil to add the snowy effect.

On the white section I added some shading to give the look of snow drifts using Speckled Egg Distress Ink and then completed the panel with some machine stitching around the outside.

I then stamped the sentiment, "Best Wishes for the Holiday Season" onto the bottom section of the panel in Black Soot Archival Ink. This is one of my all time favourites from Tim ~ I just love that font so much, it's perfect for capturing some vintage magic.

I matted the finished panel onto a piece of navy blue card, followed by silver metallic kraft card and then, using foam pads I mounted it onto the card blank.

TALL PINE TREES

For the trees, I spritzed some Distress watercolour card with a light mist of water before spritzing a combination of Rustic Wilderness and Iced Spruce Spray Stains with a touch of Frosted Juniper Mica Spray Stain thrown into the mix.

Once dry, I cut two separate die cuts of the trees using the Tall Pines Thinlits Die.

I then cut into the trees to separate them into smaller sections. I used three separate pieces to create the depth and width of the trees that I placed across my card.

With the edges inked in a little Peeled Paint Distress Ink, I blended a small amount of Micro Distress Glaze over the surface. This will act as a resist and stop any bleeding from the inks when you apply the white snow or the glitter.

With the glaze over the surface of the trees, I used a palette knife to apply some more of the grit Paste through the Speckles Layering Stencil to add some snowflakes to the trees and set them to one side to dry.

DARLING DEER

I used one of the deers in the set of four for my card and cut this majestic figure twice from Mixed Media Heavystock card. I then layered the two dies over the top of one another to form a substantial die cut and inked the deer with a combination of Gathered Twigs, Frayed Burlap and Antique Linen to add the shading to my die cut.

I added white pen details and a tiny eye to bring him to life.

Now we can put the card together and I arranged my Tall Pines across the card, attaching some directly onto the background, adhering them with Matte Collage Medium, and then taking the remaining tress and layering these over the top using foam pads to add height and dimension.

I attached the trees so they had an opening in the middle and that's where the deer will be placed.

I then attached the deer to the centre of the trees, again using foam pads for dimension.

To add the icy touch to the trees, I smeared them with a little Matte Collage Medium and then sprinkled Rock Candy Glitter over the top, tapping away the excess.

I then added some Mica Flakes for an added touch of frost. I always attach my flakes with Glossy Accents, this helps to keep the sparkle and not dull the flakes.

To add even more frosty magic and to also ground the trees, so they aren't floating in mid air, I added some more flakes together with some Grit Paste and applied this with a palette knife along the baseline of the trees...

I also added some Grit Paste, building it up to form little snowy mounds, underneath the little deer's hooves.

Allowing for the paste to dry, I then added some Glossy Accents over the top and sprinkled with more of those gorgeous Mica Flakes. Let the flakes just cling where they fall, and once dry and securely in place, tap away any excess little flakes.

To complete the card, I used die cut stars which I cut from silver metallic kraft card using the Falling Stars die and attached them to them in the sky, and placed three around the sentiment.

I finished with some silver Metallic Droplets, that I placed in the centres of the stars...

...and that is the final detail for my icy winter wonderland card!

As always, I hope you love the card I've made and the techniques I've used and if you make anything, or if you've been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until next Monday at 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....