Swag

I am a Floridian, born and raised, but I spent 8 years in Colorado.  This is inspired by one of those super heavy snows that makes everything magical....if you aren't walking around in it. 

I took two photos: The first one shows some of the sparkle elements but no depth, and the second, the opposite.  The background paper is from a Recollections paper pack.  I made the pine boughs from a Silhouette file and the branches from the Martha Stewart branch punch.  The colors weren't contrasting enough so I grabbed random green markers from my Spectrum Noirs to try and alter the greens.  I still didn't the contrast I wanted, but it is better.  The sentiment is also from a Silhouette file and the snowflake from another Martha Stewart punch.  I have a three size bow die I got from Ali express a few years ago and used the middle size for the bow here.  As far as the snow, I have a stipple bruch I've had for over 20 years.  I have seen plenty of people do the snow technique but all with tiny brushes so I figured this would be....interesting to say the least.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I tried it out on a scratch paper and found when I tapped the brush handle against my hand, I got very fine drops but when I brushed the paint right off the block, I got the larger drops.  I liked both effects, so I used both techniques on this card. For the very final touch, I thought it needed just a hint of sparkle so I used a jar of tiny silver stars and scattered a few within the branches, one to dot the i and one in the center of the snowflake.  Not impressive in a photo, but in person there's just a hint of sparkle.