Baby It's Cold Ouside!!!!!

Okay, so not so COLD here in California, in fact unseasonably warm and dry.  But it is January and it should be cold SOMEWHERE!  Over at the Critter Sketch blog this was the challenge, snowmen or snow women.  You can check it out at
http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/baby-its-cold-outside-challenge-97.html
I decided on an A10 size card, had some already cut and folded for Christmas and then headed in a different direction.  Everything is stamped direct to paper, except the snowflake embellishments.  Years ago I did this technique and forgotten all about it.  It does take some time and a lot of masking. First I stamped the snowman onto the card then made a mask to cover it.  Then the fun begins.........using a straight edge of a piece of tracing paper ( you'll need about 4 really) I laid it at an angle and shaded it with light blue pearlecene ink, always pushing away from the paper. I repeated this many times all at different angles.  Once the ink was all dry,  re masked the straight edges all around an area.  Using different sizes and shapes of snowflakes I stamped each masked area, one at a time, overlapping the snowflakes on the tracing paper. Once I had my background finished I removed the mask form the snowman and colored in the different areas.  The sentiments were added over the cracked ice background.  I added some plastic snowflakes and some dimensional white paint to make snow mounds under the word outside.
The snowflake images are all Inkadinkado.  The snowman and letters I have had so long I don't know who they are from.  This technique is fun and a little time consuming but gives a very different effect to backgrounds.  Hope you enjoyed it and thank you for stopping.