Mrs. Mouse has seen that the snow is really picking up and she steps outside and beckons the family to come inside where it is cosy and warm. The kids want a little longer outside in the heavy snow. Some are practicing their Christmas caroling and the other two are playing in the snow. Mr. Mouse has gone to collect the mail from the mailbox, maybe it is a greeting from his cousin!?
A slimline card has a finished size of 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches. From a sheet of white cardstock I prepared a sturdy base and set it to one side. I also prepared a matching sized panel from the same sheet of cardstock. I ink blended this panel with Distress Oxides in Tumbled Glass and Broken China to a fade in the centre where I imagined my future horizon.
I created another panel of cardstock trimmed to size. Using the Hill and Dale die I prepared two long strips of cardstock that I'd layered over with Scor-Pal 5" tape.
These sticky strips were thoroughly covered in Distress Glitter, the excess tapped off and returned to the pot. A sheet of cardstock was placed over the strips that were lying glitter side up ad using the side of a blunt implement I burnished the glitter but rubbing up and down which forcefully adheres the glitter and very successfully stops glitter loss. The upper hill was applied directly to the background panel and the bottom hill was applied popped up on foam tape to build dimension.
I then die cut the Treehouse Scene Die from smooth cardstock. I ink blended all the parts and assembled the tree back together again and using foam tape applied it to the scene with a little warm glow behind the windows to make it look cosy and welcoming. The wreath handing from the upper window is from the Treehouse Holiday Add-On set. I chose to keep it white since I didn't want to introduce another colour to a limited colour palette card.
I had previously stamped all the elements from Merry Mice on to Copic friendly cardstock. I coloured everything with Copic colours, die cut them and highlighted points with a Uni-ball Signo white gel pen. I applied them to the scene, popped up on one or two layers of foam tape to tell the story.
The pretty sentiment is from Christmas Is Coming, was stamped on a strip of white cardstock and backed with foam tape to match the dimension of the other elements.
The final touch was time consuming and takes a little nerve because it can feel like sabotage to add white dots all over your perfectly good 'finished' card. You will doubt yourself as you go, but persist and stay with it and the pay-off will come. I work from top to bottom and make different sized dots with a white gel pen. It is vitally important in my opinion to dot the hard lines of your elements, to blur the edges otherwise it doesn't look real. I double checked at the end that everything got the coverage I wanted to give the illusion of heavy snow and when I was satisfied I adhered the decorative panel to the already prepared base and the card was completed.
Hope you give this technique a try. Happy crafting!
Nicky x
