Hi crafty friends! I am so excited to be apart of the ACOT (A Cherry On Top) YouTube Hop! For this months theme, we are focused on holiday/winter theme. Today, I chose a winter theme which went perfectly with one of Altenew's latest dies, the Winter Ice Skate Die! I love this die so much, check out the full process video below to see how I created this card, and don't forget to Hop along for your chance to win an ACOT gift card!
This card features a couple of fun techniques. First, I started with the ice skates. I had some awesome silver reflective paper that I knew would look perfect for the blade of the skate! What I love about this die set is that the images are featured on the packaging, making it easy to assemble. This can also guide you to what colors to use, which is how I chose some of the colors I used as well.
A neat trick I used for the blade of the skate and the other tiny elements of the blade was to back my cardstock with some Cherry Tape before die cutting out my elements. This creates a sticker and allows easy sticking and no mess with glue. I felt this was especially important with the reflective paper because I didn't want any leftover glue on my pretty reflective paper.
Once I assembled the bigger pieces of the skate, I moved onto the smaller flower embellishments. I decided to make my skates a white color, because when I was a kid, my grandparents gifted me some white ice skates. Side note, I was horrible at ice skating, but at least they were pretty. ha!
Next, I decided I wanted to watercolor my flower embellishments! If you know me, you know I love a good flower die cut. Not only does this die have this awesome skate, it has a couple different sets of flowers and leaves, which I really liked, because you could even omit the skate and use the flowers for a spring or summer card.
To watercolor the flowers, I grabbed some of my prima watercolor paper, and my Catherine Pooler Inks. I used my Wendy Vecchi Make Art Stay-tion (magnetic platform) to put my inks onto and then used my wet paintbrush to mix them with water. I then painted directly onto the watercolor paper using different shades to get different colors and looks. You could also die cut out your watercolor paper first, and then paint them as well. I decided to do it this way, it seemed a bit quicker!
I then assembled my flowers together with some glue, and put them onto the skates, just as the image on the cover of the die set shows. I decided to stamp the sentiment "warm winter wishes" from Photoplay's Winter Memories stamp set, I loved the "warm" part of it with the ice skates. I also appreciated that this card isn't necessarily "Merry Christmas". I then used Emily Moore Designs Card Sentiment Dies, the ribbon, to cut out this saying.
From there, I knew I wanted to add a little something more to my background. I used the Card Sentiment Dies A2 Liner Die to cut out some more of my white shimmer cardstock. I then decided to use the leaf die cuts in the set to cut out some white shimmer leaves to give the background a little something extra. I just did this technique on a snowflake card that turned out wonderfully. It ends up looking like an embossed background!
I put my sentiment on with a little bit of Cherry Foam and the skates onto the white card cover with some Cherry Dots. I then adhered the whole card cover onto the olive green A2 card base from the Emily Moore Designs 'With Heart' collection. I love how the green made the florals stand out a bit more. As for the inside, I paired with one of my FREE printable sayings and die cut that out, and used some leftover flowers I had to decorate the inside. I also cut out another A2 Liner from the Card Sentiments Dies for the right side of the card, allowing people to write their sentiments on this side.
I love the way this card turned out! What do you think about a winter themed card? Have you ever used your inks to watercolor your embellishments? Let me know! Don't forgot to hop along all the YouTube stops & comment for your chance to win A Cherry On Top gift card!
Thanks for stopping by!
With Heart,
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