A sign that Christmas is on its way.....

I have been playing with my sizzix dies again and I discovered that with a little bit of imagination and fussy cutting I could turn these:

into this:

isn't it cute! also see what I did with my blog post title there too?  tee hee.  Obviously feeling very inspired this morning!  After a few more hours play I got this:

I used T!ms snowflake stamps from the mini Holidays 2 stamp set and inked them up with versamark, covered them with clear embossing powder and then inked over the whole card with Stormy Sky distress ink.  The sleigh I had prepared beforehand by cutting up the above sign pieces, covering the black cardstock with orange inka paint (I do have gold but the orange just looked a lot better), inked it gently around the edges with Vintage Photo and then filled it with lots of sizzix presents from their Gifts sizzlets strip die.  The reindeer is from T!ms Reindeer Flight die set and he is cut from kraft card and inked with Vintage Photo, finished with bling for his eye and nose, some cut down tinsel and red/white striped twine for his ropes. 

The houses are just cut from black card and covered with paint and glitter to look like snow.

Here is a quick tutorial on how I get my snowy effects on dark cardstock:

Get your black diecut:

Load a paintbrush with a white paint or gesso and then drag it from front to back over the areas you want to have snow on:

(sorry its a bit blurred - bit early in the morning for my OH!)

Then sprinkle it liberally with glitter and leave for a few minutes:

Then give it a good shake and you should get this:

the dark cardstock will be covered up nicely with no greyness.  If you want to add more snow use stickles and then more glitter over the top.

Hope you have enjoyed my Sunday morning inspiration card - sorry the pictures aren't the best but it's a dark overcast morning here in England and there is only so much my daylight bulbs can do!

Thanks for looking - Showing the Signs from Solihull

edited to add - I have just seen that this post has been selected as one of T!ms blogworthy holiday links - whoo hoo - how cool is that!  If you want instructions of how to make the sleigh using T!ms sign die please email me or leave a comment (please ensure that I can reply to you via email) and I will send you a pdf. Thanks and Happy Christmas!