This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!
Hi friends! As 2024 comes to a close, I wanted to share one final card with you featuring these sweet chickadees from the new To Love release, which is Simon’s final release for the year. I am still solidly in winter and holiday mode, as we have only had a few weeks of wintry weather these last months, and so I’m not quite ready to look towards springtime yet. I thought I would adapt these sweet birdies to winter with some snowflakes and sparkling snow. Let’s get started with the details!
*I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*
To start, I ran an A2 panel of Arches Cold Press watercolor paper through my die cutting machine with the new Chickadee Gathering 3D embossing folder. This embossing folder comes equipped with coordinating dies for the birds, so that you can create even more dimension with the addition of some foam adhesive, but I wanted to do some watercoloring on the panel, so I didn’t use them for this project. I taped the panel down to my watercolor board with some painter’s tape and used my Daniel Smith watercolors to add some beautiful, saturated neutral blues and greens to the background and foliage, of course using some creamy neutrals and black for the chickadees themselves. In order to minimize warping on my heavily-saturated watercolor panel, I allowed the piece to dry while still taped to my board.
After I had finished watercoloring the image and allowed it to dry completely, I used undiluted white gouache to add some snow to the leaves, then used some water to dilute the remainder of the gouache and splattered that diluted white paint on my background, creating the look of snow softly falling around the chickadees. I also used the fine tip of my paintbrush to paint a few tiny snowflakes here and there on the background. Once I had finished painting the snow, I removed the panel from my watercolor board and trimmed the long sides down by 1/8″. I tucked some thin strips of Midnight Navy glitter cardstock from Pinkfresh Studio on either side of the watercolored panel to add a bit of shimmer and sparkle to the card.
For the greeting, I used the beautiful sentiments from Making Spirits Bright, stamping each component onto some deep navy cardstock using Simon Says Stamp’s white pigment ink, then adding Iridescent Blue embossing powder from Hero Arts over the top to create a lovely iridescent sheen on the deep navy cardstock. I used the super detailed coordinating dies to cut out the “love & peace” sentiments, trimming the strip down with my guillotine trimmer, then popping all of the pieces up with some thin foam adhesive squares. The deep blue looks lovely on the watercolored blue background, creating contrast for visibility while still being slightly muted and not overpowering the bird focal point. Finally, I added some Fresh Snowfall glitter accents over the white gouache on the leaves and a few Gunmetal Pawsitively Dazzling Gems to the birds’ eyes, adding the tiniest hint of sparkle to this card!
Well, that’s all for my projects today. I am in disbelief that it 2025 is already upon us; in some ways, I am still processing 2019!! I am so grateful for all of the good things that have happened this year, including the incredibly kind and supportive friends and followers here on my blog. I truly could not do this without your support, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here. I can’t wait to see what creativity 2025 will bring! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and Happy New Year!
