I have to say that this year I was really sad to see Halloween come. That is, I had so much fun creating Halloween cards, it was sad to know that I had to move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas. It made me feel a little better to know that I had some super cute stamps from Stacey Yacula at Purple Onion Designs with which I could start holiday cards.<\/p>\n

I decided to use Icicle<\/a><\/span>, Puddles<\/a><\/span> and Birch<\/a><\/span> to start getting into the holiday spirit. I inked them up with MFT Black Licorice Hybrid Ink because I knew I wanted to color them up with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and practice a little watercoloring (I’m still a beginner and figuring things out, but I share my limited experience in the video below–hope it’s helpful to you). These are the colors I used:<\/p>\n

<\/a>Icicle<\/span>: Light Grey (091); Turquoise Green (042); Geranium Red (029) with light pink in the ears and on his cheeks using a Tim Holtz Distress Spun Sugar (I couldn’t find my Light Pink (026), which I think would have worked similarly)
\nPuddles<\/span>: Light Grey (091); Beige (072); Turquoise Green (042); Geranium Red (029) with light pink on his cheeks using a Tim Holtz Distress Spun Sugar
\nBirch: Light Brown (061); Brown (060); Florescent Pink (003); Turquoise Green (042); Geranium Red (029); and\u00a0 Light Carmine (021) for blush
\nGround: Light Grey (091) and Light Blue (036)<\/p>\n

Next I ran a white card stock card base through my Big Shot with a Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder to create a kind of wintery frame. I used 4th largest\u00a0of the Diemond Dies Nesting Oval Die Set<\/a><\/span> to cut out an opening on the card front. \u00a0Then I used double sided foam adhesive to position the critters in the opening, recessed back just a tad from the card front.<\/p>\n

Lastly, to add some\u00a0wintery embellishments, I used\u00a0the two smaller snowflakes from the Diemond Dies Winter Snowflake Die Set<\/a><\/span> to die cut six snowflakes to cluster in the upper right and lower left of the frame. I heavily coated all the snowflakes with some Plaid Folk Art Extreme Glitter Acrylic Paint in Hologram to give them all a shimmery sparkly look to them. I also added a 1\/4″ trim of hologram-painted card stock at the bottom edge of the card front to add a more finished, coordinated look.<\/p>\n

Special Sale<\/span>: My readers can get 15% off and free worldwide shipping at Diemond Dies<\/a><\/span> through November 12, 2016 by using the coupon code: kristina15. \u00a0After November 12, 2016, for orders of $35 or more, you can get 10% off and free worldwide shipping by using the coupon code: thankskristina<\/em><\/p>\n

The following is a watercoloring process video:<\/p>\n