Let It Snow

In the last few weeks, I've added to my distress ink collection and bought several of the mini distress ink pad sets to practice ink blending (yes now, but it's better late than never, right, LOL).  I say collection because I've had the several of the larger ink pads for quite a while but barely used.  But with all the new colors, I really want to get crafty and try out the different techniques I've seen in various videos.  Well, I was inspired recently especially because I purchased a new stamp set several months ago and this video by Ashley Tucker gave me the mojo to create a blended background for this card.

I used the same distress ink colors, spun sugar, abandoned coral and seedless preserves, and sponged/blended onto Strathmore mixed media paper to be used as the backdrop for the stamped images.  I then used Spellbinders circle dies to cut out the circle panels.  The penguin and snowflake images are from the Art Impressions Snow Much Fun stamp set.  I colored the penguin with Bic Mark-It markers colors tuxedo black, cloud nine grey and moonstone yellow and added shimmery chalk for the cheeks.  For the hat and bow tie, I added some spun sugar to an acrylic block and picked up the ink with a water brush for coloring.  For embellishment, I added rhinestones to the snowflake centers and added sparkle to the penguin's hat and bow tie with a Wink of Stella glitter brush and shimmer to it's body with a black glitter brush by Art-C. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions' Home Sweet Home stamp set.