oh (blendy watercolory) christmas tree(s)

we're still trimming the tree ...or trees, plural... at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ for the second week of our "oh christmas tree" prompt. why not get a jump on your holiday card production with us this year? it'll be fun, i promise! this week i've used scraps of watercolor paper i've painted with colorburst pigment powders and a brand new tiny tree die to make a little winter scene:

snowy transparency: hambly (OOP, obviously...sigh...); patterned paper: rhonna farrer/autumn leaves (also no longer available, sorry); tape: october afternoon; sentiment: SRM stickers; glossy white cardstock (for faux-laroid): paper accents; glitter paper: american crafts POW (which is BY FAR the best glitter paper ever, especially for diecutting... even with uber-thin dies!); trees, sky and sentiment flag are strathmore watercolor paper scraps painted with ken oliver's colorburst powders, then die cut or trimmed into shape; tree die: echo park; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i've also used one of my few remaining holiday hambly (ohhhhhh how i miss you!) transparencies to make a clear card base, and the current sketch saturday layout (#395), which is particularly fab, imo:

my favorite way to use colorburst is to put a little bit of each color powder into a deeply welled palette, add a few drops of water, and then use them like ordinary watercolor paints. (except, of course, that they ARE NOT ordinary; they mix soooooo beautifully, they leave no residue of binder, and you can make them darker or lighter just by changing the amount of water you add!) but this means that when i'm done painting whatever i was painting, there's usually a little bit of one or two colors left, which you can't store, but it'd be a pity to toss out. so generally, i grab one of the offcuts of watercolor paper i keep with my kit, and paint the excess onto it. sometimes i blend the colors, sometimes i make shapes, or swooshes, sometimes i just paint it on randomly. and then i save all the little panels to be backgrounds or diecuts or... well, whatever... :)

in this case i've used one panel of stripey green on which i tried to make as many color variations as possible to diecut my tiny trees; and part of a panel with a blend of blues and purples, onto which i sprinkled a bit of kosher salt whilst it was wet, to get that cool crystalline effect... which is what makes my background "sky" and the little flag with the sentiment.

need a little more inspiration? there's plenty of it over at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ in the form of a brand new card from stephanie as well as our glorious readers' gallery of "oh christmas tree" cards! it's worth the trip, darlings, honestly! ♥