Christmas Nature, A Peaceful Night and a Tutorial

The Splitcoaststampers Saturday Inspiration Challenge provided a wonderful British online department store site called John Lewis.  There was tons of wonderful departments in the store but I went directly to the Christmas Collections and found more inspiration than you could hope for.  What a fun site it was to visit and I was able to create two fun projects for the challenge.

One of my projects was inspired by a Christmas Tankard Mug. I love the bird on the sprig of mistletoe.  I pulled out my new Stampin’ Up! bird and twig punch as well as my Martha Stewart evergreen/fern punch to create a simple, nature inspired Christmas card.

The only stamp used for this sweet card was a pinecone from a retired Stampin’ Up set called Wee Watercolors. 

My second project was inspired by two night time scene Christmas cards.  I was especially intrigued with the moonlight in the scenes and the wonderful light and shadows that were created around the trees and buildings.  I decided to create a peaceful night time scene with a big full moon, rolling hills and evergreen trees.  I loved the beautiful blue night sky in the Christmas cards and it lead to me doing my whole card in nothing but blue and white. 

After my upload to the challenge gallery several of my Splitcoaststampers friends requested that I do a tutorial on how I created my scene.

Supply List:

-Some type of circle punch to create the moon mask

-Post it or other masking paper with adhesive to hold moon in place

-Sponges- I use Inkssentials Blending Tools and Color Box Stylus and Foam Tip.  They work the best of anything I have ever used for sponging on color and blending.

-Hot pressed watercolor or glossy paper ( I used watercolor)

-Paper cut into curvy shape for a ground mask. You want this to be much wider than your watercolor paper to give you extra room to move your mask around and not running off one side or the other.  This will make sense….I promise. 

-Ink and stamps

1.  Attach circle to upper sky area making sure it will stay in place white you sponge on color.  Place ground mask at your desired starting point.  This will be the highest ground area and where you will start sponging in your sky.  I used a hot pressed watercolor paper because it is very smooth and allows the ink to be blended so there are no sponge lines.  Glossy paper will give the same basic effect.  Regular cardstock or cold pressed watercolor paper does not work nearly as well for blending…at least it doesn’t for me.

2.  Holding your mask securely in place sponge in the sky area and make sure you have created a definite ground line.  Move your sponge around to blend and work the color in to a smooth layer.

3.  Move you ground mask down to create your second ground line making sure to move it so you are not perfectly lining up with the top ground line. Sponge in your next layer of color and move on down the page until you have filled your whole ground area. I have a few pictures below showing the process.

Remove your masks and you are ready to stamp your trees.

4.  Stamp the trees.  I used three different sizes of trees from my Kittie Kits The Moose is Loose set. Don’t worry!  You can create a gorgeous project with only one size tree if that is what you have.

5.  Apply shading to the base of your trees to create the shadows from the moonlight.  You will want to apply the shadow on each individual tree section by determining how the moon light is in regards to direction of the tree. The trees on the far left are directly in front of the moon so their shadow should be pretty straight in front of the tree. As you move further right your shadow lines will move a little to the right as well. 

The finished project.  I added a few more trees to the tutorial project than I did to the original. Isn’t it peaceful?

Project 1.  Stamps:  Wee Watercolors    Paper:  Red, Olive, White    Ink:  Chocolate Chip Craft, Vintage Photo,   Accessories:  SU Bird Punch, Martha Stewart Evergreen/Fern Punch, Taffeta, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Nesties

Project 2:  Stamps:  Rubbernecker Kittie Kits The Moose is Loose   Ink:  Stormy Night    Paper:  Watercolor, Not Quite Navy    Accessories:  Sponges, Ribbon, Masks, Circle Punch