I can hardly believe that we are on the 140th week of the SCS color challenges.  Time is flying by so quickly.  If you aren’t familiar with the weekly challenges on Splitcoaststampers you should definitely check them out.  Here is a link to this weeks color challenge to use Pomegranate, Kraft and Whisper White.

You know…I was not wild about the new pomegranate in this year’s new In Color collection. But after using it several times it has become a favorite of mine. I thought the cardinal from the retired set Christmas Cardinal would look wonderful painted with pomegranate on the kraft paper.  I think I was right.  I stamped the image with black Stazon and then used re inkers to watercolor. I cannot even imagine doing a card at this time of year that isn’t a Christmas card and there is just no way to do one for me without some color of green. So I cheated a tiny little bit on the challenge but I will chalk that up to creative license.  When the coloring was complete, I sponged the whole scene with Ranger Distress Ink-Old Paper.  I just love that ink and I sponged on enough to add some depth to the craft paper.  When I was through I dried my whole scene with my heat gun to make sure all ink was absolutely dry for embossing.  I took a very fine brush and dipped into some versa squeezed out of the pad to paint on the fine little windy lines.  I wanted to create the look of snow flying in the wind.  I brushed on a little versa at a time and heat embossed with white detail powder.  I didn’t want to let the snow get out of control by trying to paint everything at once.  I really couldn’t see where the versa was being painted since I was using such a small amount.  When I was completely through I painted on Crystal Effects with a brush to draw the color up on the images.  One problem with watercoloring on paper other than watercolor paper is that the color seems to fade back into the paper.  It is hard to layer color for shading and texture. It looks great when it is wet but then as it dries…it just dies.  I added some glitter glue to make it sparkle but I’m not sure if it will show in the photo.  I used two different Nestabilities dies to make the matted frame and popped the whole thing up on mounting tape.  I ran white ribbon across the Old Paper ink to match the kraft color.  If I had it to do over again I would not have added the white knot. Live and learn.

Stamps:  SU Christmas Cardinal-retired, Flannel Plaid Background

Paper: Kraft, Pomegranate, Papertrey White

Ink: Black Stazon, Pomegranate, Artichoke, White Craft, Ranger Distress Ink-Old Paper

Accessories: Nestabilities, White Embossing Powder, Grosgrain, Crystal Effects, Glitter Glue, Mounting Tape, Watercolor Brushes, Versa