End of winter? - FESTIVE FRIDAY FAVORITE!

 Die cutting shaped cards for the end of winter...

Hi all!

Is it truly almost the end of winter?  Did Puxatawny Phil really predict that spring will come early?  It seems that way here in Northwest Ohio...40-60's predicted all week long!  It was a little hard to create this winter themed card with the gorgeous weather here today!  Usually we're bundled up until the end of March, just hoping for sun in an otherwise grey season. 

 

The challenges for Triple B and Four Seasons inspired the winter theme of this card, but the Festive Friday challenge had me add a few elements I wouldn't have normally tried.  For example...

A shaped card is NOT in my wheel house at all!  That is the point of challenges...to push you to create something that is yours but in a way that is completely different.  Creating a card not in a rectangle shape was simple enough using the Spellbinders Essential Four Petals Label die, and I may end up doing them more often...we shall see where the mood takes me.

To keep with the winter theme, and the 'white' & 'embossing' elements for the Festive Friday challenge, the inside die cut panel was embossed with Altenew's Starry Pattern embossing folder which has a subtle snowflake pattern.  The bird as a nod to the Triple B challenge, was stamped using Altenew's Birds of the Season stamp and die set.  The main body of the bird was inked using Morning Frost Crisp Dye ink and a blending brush to give it a touch of color so it still looked like a white bird.  The next two layers were stamped with Crimson and Permanent Black inks, then the bird was die cut.

During the holidays, I did a fair bit of die cutting and found the ginko leaves by The Greetery in my floral scrap bin.  The sentiment from Altenew's Sweet Sentiments was also in my sentiment scrap bin...yes, I organize my scraps, I'm kind of crazy about that...  Inspired by the Four Seasons photo the card is finished off with a few red enamel dots from Pink Fresh.   Adding some gold metallic splatters, as well as a little bit of sparkle using Icicle Stickles, for the 'glimmer' element with Festive Friday.

Whew!  That was a ton of information!  I hope you too are having unseasonably lovely weather to finish off your winter season, have a colorful, sun filled day!