Postcard Winter

Hi everyone I was shopping from my stash and am pleased the way this card turned out. I did discover that I need to buy reinkers for my archival black inkpad and my Stazon Jet Black.

Talking about shopping from the stash this card will be entered in the Shopping Our Stash challenge. Details for this week challenge can be found here:
http://shoppingourstash.blogspot.ca/2016/11/sos276-home-sweet-home.html

Go grab yourself a cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate and sit a spell.

When I saw the challenge theme this week is Home Sweet Home I was disappointed because I thought I wouldn't be able to enter. Then while checking to see what was in a box in my playroom this postcard stamp literally jumped out when I opened the lid. I knew I had to use it and then it was a question of how am I going to use it. Literally dozen of ideas popped into my head. Then when I was looking through past posts to feature a post on the blog I saw a post where I had used a printed image on photo paper and gelatos to color.

I know I have old fashioned photo corners somewhere but where is anyone's guess and since the challenge is shopping from my stash I couldn't justify going out and buying some. Then I remembered I have a couple of punches which allows photos to slip in a frame. Oh the shame the punches have been gathering dust for three or more years. Using my go to card stock 110 lb. Georgian Pacific white I punched the corners. After coloring my stamped image I decided I didn't want to leave the card stock white so used a bronze Sharpie in my eBrush. Did I mention the eBrush was one of my best investments. It has paid for itself just by not having to buy card in different colors. :-)

The stamp is Snowy Postcard (Christmas) by Stampendous. A friend surprised me with the stamp three years ago. My image is stamped on photo paper bought at a dollar store years ago. It is water and smudge resistant. Needless to say when I saw the photo paper I bought up all in stock.

I had stamped with Jet Black Stazon ink only to get a faint image. I had forgotten that the pad needs to be reinked along with the Ranger Archival black pad. The Timber Brown Stazon ink picked up the black ink that was still on the stamp while giving me a better image. I wasn't sure how the Stazon ink was going to work on the photo paper since it is glossy.

I had so much fun coloring the image using a red gelato with a water brush for the buildings and yellow for lights and the one window. A green gelato was used to color the holly leaves. Gel pens were used to color the berries, frame and to accent the smoke coming from the chimney. Metallic pan watercolor paints were used for the stamp and the smoke.

Tip: When painting with gelatos or watercolor paints make sure your brush is almost dry. I would swipe it on scrap paper before painting on the photo paper. Also you can add more color after the layer has a chance to dry some. Better to start lighter color than to get the color darker than you want.

It was so much fun to use DecoArt Snow Writer. I did decide to cover the foreground completely with snow. As far as I know there is no rule about modifying stamped images. Or if there is I break it often. ;-)

If you have craft supplies which have been gathering dust I suggest you check out  http://shoppingourstash.blogspot.ca/. While at it why don't you join in a challenge. The challenges run Tuesday through Monday until 11:55 p.m EDT which will probably change to EST.

Do you use photo paper in your creations? How have you used gelatos?

Thank you for stopping by and do come back. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!