Hero Arts Pine Cone Christmas Card

There are some stamps in my stamp stash that I have had for years and rarely tire of.  This Pine Cone stamp - F31690 by Hero Arts is one of those.

Although I've had it for ages, I have not used it very often.  I fell in love with the image, but wasn't really sure how I could use it to get the different colours.  Scroll on more years than I care to remember and I now know how to achieve the look I was after!

The stamp is wood mounted, to achieve the look I was after, I removed it from the wooden block so that I could use it in my Misti.  I used Distress Ink Pens to colour and then stamp the actual image.  I then coated the stamp in Versamark and stamped the clear coat on top of the coloured image, sprinkled with clear embossing powder and then heated till set.

I used a moist brush and water colour pencils to colour the background of the cone and the actual pale blue background.  I then stamped the sentiment, which is part of a Papertrey Ink set. Finally using a fan shaped paint brush and white Gesso, I tapped some dots onto the surface to replicate snowflakes.  I also added a few frosty shimmer areas to the cone using a Sakura Gelly Roll pen.