Merry Monday #277-Do you wanna build a snowman?

Happy Monday! If you're looking for my SugarPea Designs release post, please scroll down! Whew! It has been a whirlwind of creating, cleaning, and catching up! I am so glad that I kept up on things design-wise before I got sick or I would have really been in trouble. That being said, I almost completely forgot to make my card for today's Merry Monday Challenge, but as you can see, I got it done! I din't want to miss out on this one, because it is super fun!

Deanne has challenged us to use a stencil on our cards this week and I have so many fun ones, it was hard to pick. In the end, I decided on this polka dot stencil from American Crafts. I got it on clearance at Target quite a few years ago, but I just love using it. I used it in a similar way back in the summer on a few of my mermaid cards that you can see HERE and HERE. For today's card, I just taped it over a piece of Aqua Mist cardstock and blended on some Broken China Distress Oxide ink. While the stencil was still in place, I spritzed some Frost Shimmer Spray over the top. I quickly removed the stencil at that point so that I could clean it.

While that was drying, I needed to decide what direction my card would be headed in! LOL! 99.9 percent of the time, my mind's eye has already created a plan of where I am headed, but not this time. I rummaged around through my die cuts and thought that THIS die cut would look nice to frame something...LOL! So, I die cut it from gray cardstock. I really liked how these two cool colors looked together, so I decided to go down a snowy path. I know that I JUST used In the Meadow, but it is so cute, I thought it would work perfectly for today's card as well. I used the coordinating DIES and then heat embossed the snowman using Wow Puff embossing powder. I just love the effect that it gives the snowman!

I wanted to create a piece for the center to anchor the snowman onto, but I didn't want to hide any of the stencil work I did. I decided that a vellum tag from Papertrey Ink would be perfect! It is just the right size and fits the scale of the card nicely. It is called Tag Sale #5. I have used it so much for many of my cards and of course to make tags for the holidays! I stamped a trio of snowflakes that are included in the In the Meadow set using Fresh Snow ink.

I also added some white Nuvo drops all over the die cut frame for some added detail and dimension. The sentiment is heat embossed in silver to keep with the cool, snowy feel, but I like the warmth that the Simply Chartreuse cardstock gives the card. I would most generally think of this combination for spring or summer, but I really like how it looks for this card! It reminded me of another Merry Monday Challenge from last year when I made THIS card! It ended up by being one of my favorites! The sentiment strip is just a strip of cardstock that I trimmed from a piece of cardstock that I had made for a project that I didn't end up by using, but I created it by using the Mix and Mat Scallops die. I toyed around with leaving the hole of the tag bare, which I actually really liked, but in the end decided on a double bow of silver cord. I adhered it with a mini glue dot for security! Thanks for fluttering by!