Greeting Card: Dimensional White Winter

Hello Everyone!   I'm in my craft room happily blogging away and right outside the window there is snow on the ground and believe it or not it's pouring rain. It sounds like a waterfall is hitting the side of the house. The weather has seriously gone mad, but on the bright side that means it warmed up.    The greatest part about crafting today is while the sky has been falling outside, I've been busy soothing my soul inside. I'm so happy that I stumbled upon all those YouTube craft videos a year and one month ago. The television has barely been on since and it's kind of nice to listen to the rain :)   
Tonight is a near-by town's Christmas light-up night, with a parade and refreshments. My daughter loves to go and it is quite the experience to see the entire town suddenly glow from end to end. Let's hope the rain let's up and the temperature stays where it's at.
Does your town have a light-up night?   Today I'm sharing my first ever all white card. Well, almost all white. Every time I see one on Pinterest or someone's blog, I always think they look so pretty, but no matter how many times I've tried to limit myself to just white paper, my card never quite came together for me like it did today.

This time instead of sitting in front of a stack of white cardstock wondering where to start, I got the cutting dies out for some ideas and inspiration. It worked!

 

My favorite part of my card is the window scene. I also love the little fence as this is the first time I used it and it's just adorable. I will definitely be pulling out the dies again for inspiration.

If you are interested in making this card or using part of it with your own ideas, I broke up the instructions below to make them a little easier to reference.

How to make the bird and branch
1. I wanted something a little heavier weight to make my bird stand out so I used chipboard and cut it with my Sizzix, Caged Bird, die.
2. I colored the leafless branch and the bird's feet with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo then coated the entire bird in clear embossing powder that has a little sparkle. The embossing powder is an important step because it seals the ink from bleeding into the paint you'll use in the next step. 

3. I used silver acrylic paint for the birds body and then while it was still wet I mixed in white dimensional paint to add texture.

4. For the pine branch I used an Impression Obsessions die and then painted the branch with dark green acrylic paint.  

5. To make the snow effects, I continued to use the white dimensional paint.

 

How to make the main section of the card

1. Cut one piece of white cardstock 10"w x 7"h.

2. Score at 5" and then fold in half.

3. Cut one piece of white cardstock 5"w x7"h. This is a mat that will make your card a bit more sturdy for all that is going on the front of it.

Step 4 is optional
4. Cut a 4 3/4"w x 6 3/4"h piece of white cardstock and use the EK Success Scroll border punch to make a scroll design on the edges of it. Once I was done I adhered it to my mat. I made step 3 optional because honestly it was a real pain in the neck. You would be much better off using a rectangular Card Creator die for the background if you want more details or you can embossing it. Once you've finished adhere this to your mat.

 

How to make the window

1. Use the largest die from the Spellbinders Card Creator, Reflective Moments die pack. This will be the base of your design.
2. Cut a piece of cardstock that measures 3 1/4" wide x 4 1/2" long. Then emboss with the Darice Snowflake embossing folder and tape into place. This will sit right in the center of your Reflective Moments die cut, over the plain rectangular area.

 3. Cut out your front design using the largest die from the Spellbinders Card Creator, Valiant Honor die pack and place the third largest die from the Spellbinders Standard Circles die pack where you want your window to be, (pictured on left). I taped mine into place with a couple of small pieces of Washi tape to keep the die from moving.

4. Turn your Valiant Honor die-cut over to the back and adhere a rough-cut piece of transparency (bigger than the opening to leave plenty of room for tape or glue) to cover your opening.

5. Once your transparency is taped into position add your bird and pine branch to the back of your window by adhering them just to the outside edges of your circle. I taped my pine branch into place and used a dab of hot glue for the bird since I cut it from chipboard. Make sure you don't have any tape or glue showing through your transparency.

6. Once you have your scene in place, adhere the bird scene portion of your card right over top of your snowflake background and then attach it to your folded card base.
7. Use the Spellbinders Wrought Iron die to make the fence.
To give the card a more dimensional look I just hooked each end of the fence to the sides of the Reflective Moments die-cut. You may choose to glue or tape the fence into place, but I found by just leaving it loose it will flatten out to place in an envelope and can easily be popped back into position when taken out.
8. To finish my card I added ribbon to the edges and some bows.

Walla! You have a card with a window scene :)

  
Supplies

Any clear transparencies will work for the window.

 Thank you for stopping by. If you decide to try making this card, as always I would love to see it. You're welcome to share your link to your project in the comment section :)

Happy Crafting!