Autumn Snowman

So, I have an SCS friend whose birthday is coming up at the beginning of November. I know she loves snowmen so I wanted to make her a snowman birthday card. But because her birthday is smackdab in the middle of autumn, I couldn't bring myself to make a card that is too winter-y (or worse, Christmas-y). The new Color Throwdown colors for this week are dusty durango, perfect plum, and so saffron, so I thought I'd give them a whirl for a snowman card. Here is the result of my big experiment! It's certainly not something you see everyday.
Having no actual dusty durango or perfect plum, I had to substitute colors, but I think these are reasonably close. I stamped the snowman in burnt umber and colored him using a blender pen with Stampin' Pastels and SU inks. The sky and snow are sponged in with some strategic masking. My original thought was to stamp two snow people (and make one a woman) and have them hold a little birthday banner strung between them, but the sketch didn't really allow for two. So that's when I thought of making a little message flag instead. I'm sure you can see that my flag pole is a colored party toothpick!

I just received my very first Smooch (Gold Lame) from Mark's Finest Papers. I wasn't sure how best to use it, so I tried it out for the first time by "gilding" the edges of some of my shapes. I still have to get used to applying it evenly (try really hard not to look at the gloppy boo-boo at the bottom of the oval--HEY, I said don't look!), but I like the overall result. Next time it should go more smoothly. Fingers crossed! Then I need to look into other Smooch applications.

Here are the challenges that went into the making of this card:

• SCS sketch challenge 303:
• Color Throwdown 115:
• Caardvarks: create a new stamped card that is decorated inside and out! Here is a peek at the inside of my card:

Well, thanks for stopping by to check out my little slice of bliss!! Have a super weekend. :)

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers Snowman Country, Mark's Finest Papers Owl Be Here (flourish), SU Lots of Thoughts (sentiment)
Paper: SU so saffron CS, SU tangerine tango CS, DCWV textured CS, MFP natural CS, DCWV Indian Summer Stack DP
Ink: Palette burnt umber & violette, SU so saffron, Versamark
Accessories: CM oval cutting system, sponge, Gold Lame Smooch (from Mark's Finest Papers), Stampin' Pastels, blender pen, dimensionals, toothpick, American Crafts felt flowers, brads
Techniques: sponging