Snowy Chirstmas?

I've told you this before, but it bears repeating. All my cards do not turn out the way I plan them! Sometimes even the best stampers work several times on a card, so don't be discouraged! This post is about that trial and error and a final card that I am finally happy with. Many have requested that I design a Christmas card using the Paper Roses "Men on Fence" die. So here is my trial and error!

First the background and this is my 2 trials that did not work out. I did a background sky with some Distress Oxide inks like I usually do and stamped pine trees over-top with black ink. It was a dye ink and you can see that dye ink does not show up black. Also, I tried the Stampin' Up white puff paint on the branches, which I will tell you I am not happy with. The opening in the bottle is too large and large drops came out and also even after I shook it well, I still had a clear gel come out first. I think this would work if you wanted large amounts of snow, but for what I wanted, it wasn't detailed enough for that. Also on this photo you can see I used this as a test to see how another ink would work over the oxides. Still not black enough!

I also tried using a white brush to brush over the clear gel areas before I trashed this!

Next trial, somehow I forgot I was making a "winter scene" and wanted snow on the ground, and even though I was happy with the blending, it just didn't scream "winter!" Why? The white gel pen just didn't do the green ground any favors.

So tiral #2 is trashed:

 Finally, I changed the colors of blending a bit to make the scene more "wintery." Here's the final card and if you want directions for exactly how it was made, you can download the PDF file HERE.
I hope you enjoy it.