fun and festive at simon says stamp

There's a new release over at Simon Says Stamp today and if you're looking for new Christmas goodies or picture book animals you definitely need to check it out! Personally, they had me at "string of Christmas lights!"

I got the lovely set Winter Scene to play with and the first thing that came to my mind was "northern lights". So this is what I made. If you want the comedy of errors story behind it, keep reading.

 SSS Winter Scene stamp

Distress inks

white embossing powder

chunky glitter

Here's a close-up. Texture. Sparkle. Glitter. A peaceful night, right?

Here's how it came together. When inking the frame I got excess black ink on the recessed part and when I stamped it the black was right there in the middle of the "sky". Being too cheap to throw it away, I kept going since I was making a dark sky anyhoo. Thus the little black patch beneath the moon.

Stamped a mask and cut the sky area out with an exacto knife. Applied the distress inks (Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry, Twisted Citron, Black Soot) through the mask and spritzed with water droplets. Which of course leaked through the inky edges of the mask and left a blob outside the frame in the upper left corner. Thus the sentiment solution. And some water also landed on the snow hill and when I went to dab it away, the paper rubbed away too. Thus the deer placement and the chunky glitter.

In between those two faux pas... even though I used my embossing buddy on the sky before heat embossing the moon... you know the rest of the story. Thus the snowfall effect on the sky.

Just keeping it real, folks! Be sure to check out the blog hop with all the new products on Thursday and Friday over at Simon Says Stamp. I'm happy I got to have some "fun" with this new set.

I'm playing at:
Addicted to Stamps and More - Holiday

Winnie and Walter - Ink Blending challenge
SSS Flickr challenge - Add Dimension (yep, my sentiment solution!)