MidWinter With Artistic Outpost

Welcome to the July Artistic Outpost July release blog hop.  Here's our designer line up - hope you will visit all their blogs and see the fabulous samples for this release.

• Gerrie Johnnic
• Lisa Somerville
• Suzanne Czosek
• Tracy Evans

Baby, it's cold outside! (We wish!)

Artistic Outpost is experiencing the same record heat as the rest of the U.S., 100 degrees in the shade. What we wouldn't give for one day of snow - just one!

Well, if we can't get the snow in real life, we can just stamp it. "MidWinter" is our newest release featuring scenic snow drifts and seasonal flora and fauna. This collection was inspired by one of our favorite Christmas hymns,"In the Bleak Midwinter", however, the stamps have been designed to be versatile beyond the holiday season.

Images in the collection include: a frozen creek scene, a cabin in the woods, a strong reindeer, a forest hare, a royal cardinal, and appropriate sentiments. We hope you love them as much as we do.

For my MidWinter sample, I made two holiday cards using library cards and pockets.  The pockets are manila and to color them, I used a puddle of Picket Fence and Barn Door distress stains.  The stamping was done with Coffee archival ink plus a bit of Iced Spruce for the pine branches.  For the main image panels, two different UTEE techniques were used.  The one on the left had just one layer of UTEE applied and then aggressively flicked off.  After heating it on, I sponged it with Gathered Twigs distress inks.  The one on the left was treated with the cracked glass technique - two nice thick coats of UTEE, then put into the freezer for 10 minutes or so, when frozen cracked multiple times.  The white doilies were sponged with Gathered Twigs DI also.  Crinoline was cut to create the mini flowers with the Tattered Flowers decorative strip die.  The red ones were died with Barn Door distress stain.  The holly leaves were cut with Festive Greenery decorative strip die, colored with Iced Spruce DI and then covered with Clear Rock Candy distress crackle paint, the edges were also sponged with Gathered Twigs DI.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Hope you enjoyed seeing the new MidWinter plate and all the great samples from our design team!

You can purchase all these products used on these cards from The Funkie Junkie boutique:

Library Cards and Pockets - set of 25	Tattered Flowers Decorative Strip Die	Festive Greenery Decorative Strip Die	Coffee Archival Ink
Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE)	Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Barn Door	Picket Fence Distress Stain
Rusty Metals	Burlap String 10 Colors

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