Softly fell the Silent Snow

The title of the Country View Crafts challenge Sparkle and Shine inspired me to enter my first ever challenge.

I began with a shabby picture (by design, though frankly I prefer my efforts! and at least now the picture hooks on this one are at the top and not the bottom - obviously a Friday afternoon job!)  which I found in a local Supermarket reduced from £12.00 to the princely sum of £1.20, a price that offended me so much I bought the remaining 2 on the shelf.

I started by covering the board with white Gesso to hide what was previously on there.

I then used my distress spray stains in Faded Jeans, picket fence and silver to create a background, and let the stains run wherever they wanted.
 
I started off a little conservatively







Then I got braver !

To add texture, I used a spotty mask and heavy modelling paste.

Using the back of some paper pads I cut some snowflakes in a variety of different shapes and sizes and painted them white with gesso and stuck different embossing powders (from frantage to crystal, kaleidoscope, glitter) on whilst wet. I then heat embossed, I liked the fact in this instance that the heat would cause the paint to puff a little giving more of a snowy texture.

Santa and his reindeer were made from a precut tando shape covered in white fire treasure gold.

At this point the bottom of the picture need something, so, using a build a scene die I cut some houses out of white card and coloured these using a makeup sponge and faded jeans distress spray stain. I then added some black soot to this for depth. I also used a puffy snow pen on these, a gold glitter and a black sparkle embossing powder on the small sign and windows.The centre foreground then looked bare so using foil I cut out (by hand) a christmas tree shape and then ran that through an embossing folder and using the black tinsel embossing powder and an embossing pen added a trunk. I made a tag using a kraft tag, white gesso and crystal embossing powder, then stamped "Softly fell the silent snow" and used black sparkle embossing powder.

Then my friend Brenda rang and told me something she had done in a recent class she had taught - so I tried it and love the result. Brenda, you will know which bit it is ;).

Then my favourite bit, the assembly and finishing touches, although it is always tough knowing when to stop! I glued all my elements on, added a few star stickers, a couple of brads, my snowflakes and my tag, and some mini baubles.

I then added a heat activated snow pen to the ground and the houses with glitter ,and dotted bits of it on my board and on the elements and heated with my heat gun. This caused the snow effect to puff up and some of the gesso underneath, Now, most people would engage brain first and heat gun second - but not me. So please remember, heat guns cause plastic baubles to melt!!!! Having said that, I actually love the end result - a crafters happy accident!

I do hope you like my first entry as much as I enjoyed making it!

Sharon xx