Simon Says...Icy Inspiration

Hi Everyone...welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog...thank you for joining us for last week's challenge...we hope you can join us this week too because...

This week the design team are showcasing products from PaperArtsy, if you have some of their products we would love to see what you make with them but it isn't necessary to join in the challenge.

And as it's the first week of a new month, we are welcoming the lovely and super talented Valerie-Jael aka Bastelmania into the Designer Spotlight. If you haven’t visited her blog before then you should head on over there for a browse! her blog is fabulous!

The theme this week is

ICY INSPIRATION

and our lovely teamie Maura has created a fabulous mood board to use as inspiration.

I made an Art Journal page to christen my new 8" x 8" Dylusions Black Journal

I started off by trimming Distress Watercolor card down to 7.5" x 7.5" and used a brayer to apply a patchy coat of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Ice Blue paint...

I lightly sprinkled on PaperArtsy Royal Blood Infusions, spritzed it with water and brushed it out towards the bottom of the panel with a damp brush...

I applied Studio 490 White Embossing Paste through the PaperArtsy Snowflake Stencil but at this point I wasn't sure if the moisture from the Embossing Paste would reactivate the Infusions powder and the snowflakes would soak up some of the blue colour.

So I'm sharing a little tip...if you want to make sure that your embossing paste stays pure white, sprinkle on white embossing powder while the paste is wet but do not heat set the embossing powder until you are sure the embossing paste is dry, otherwise it will bubble up and distort.

Woohoo...hip hip hooray, I am so happy that the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Ice Skates BigZ die, one of my all time favourites, which was retired, has been re-released again this year. I die cut the skates from the textured side of Distress Watercolor card, used Silver Metallic Kraftstock for the blades and the reverse side of the Kraftstock for the heel of the boot. I applied a coat of Distress Collage Medium to the skates to prepare the surface for some shading...

with Gathered Twigs and Black Soot Distress Crayons. I threaded a needle with Eclectic Elements thread to create the lacing on the boots...

I used scraps of acetate to create snowbanks because I wanted a see through kind of a look, painted on a coat of Ranger Multi Medium Matte and once it was dry, a coat of Ranger Opague Crackle Texture Paste, waited for it to crackle and then fixed to the bottom of the page with Multi Medium Matte.

I then applied Distress Collage Medium Matte on top to seal the crackle on this unorthodox choice of surface, shaded the snowbanks with the Gathered Twigs Distress Crayon and to balance out the layout added more Embossing Paste/Powder stencilled snowflakes...

I coloured White cardstock with PaperArtsy Royal Blood Infusions and a scrap of card with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and die cut the foliage from Tim Holtz/Sizzix Festive Greens.

fixed the skates and foliage in place with Multi Medium Matte and 3D foam pads to create dimension

added Christmas Clipping Stickers...

a Christmas Typed Token painted with Picket Fence Distress Paint and a Metallic Holiday Talk Sticker.

You can find all the products I used over at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp online store...just click on the links below...

Why don't you pop over to the Monday Challenge Blog and check out the amazing creations from my very talented Design Team mates and as always you all have the chance to win a $50 gift voucher to spend at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time...1pm UK time...2 pm CET to join in...

You can also follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram

and if you use Instagram...

please add #sssmchallenge to your entry uploads so we can see them on there too

I look forward to seeing what you create this week...

Have Fun and Happy Crafting

Hugs Kath xxx

* Please note: the above links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.