Christmas in July with Rubbernecker Stamps

It's Christmas in July over at Rubbernecker Stamps and we are getting a head start on our Christmas cards!  I absolutely love snowmen stamps and this one by Rubbernecker is no exception!  It's a single red rubber stamp (don't you love the crisp lines from this type?!) and also has a coordinating die.  I decided to color this adorable image with my Copic markers in some non-traditional Christmas time colors.

The steps for this card are fairly simple.  I have some photos of my coloring progression for you below.

• Stamp the image in Copic safe ink.  I always use Neenah Solar White 80# card stock.
• I stamped it at the bottom of the card stock piece, thinking I would use the coordinating die.  As I progressed into my coloring, I decided I wanted a scene.
• I'm not a Copic coloring expert, however, I have learned that when an object is white, don't leave it totally white!  Even white objects have shadows and shading.  Here is a collage of my shading progress.  I hope these show you what a difference the shadows make.

Also, I colored the tree and rabbit in darker colors.  I think that helps to highlight the adorable snowmen even more!

• After I finished the coloring, I used the fourth largest Nested Rectangle Small Stitch Die to cut the image out.  Then I masked the edges with some removable tape.  I colored in the background with dark blue Copic markers to create a night time scene.  I used B69, B28, B18 and FB2.
• Next I added shadows under the snowmen.  I used BV20, C1, and B0000 adding 0 colorless blender along the edges.
• Next I pulled away the masking tape.  I love the white edge!
• However, there was some bleeding of the darkest blue around the edges.  Normally I would use a white gel pen.  I have found that, especially with dark Copic colors, the color will bleed up through the gel pen when I try to cover those bleeds.  The pen I used, and love, is a Posca white pen (I found mine at my local Michael's).  I went around the edges and cleaned them up.  I also used this pen on the pink striped scarf and yellow scarf to add in the white stripes and dots.
• Next I used the white pen to add in dots for the snow.

• Next I added the snowman panel to a black card stock layer.  Then I added foam tape to the back.
• I used the largest Nested Rectangle Small Stitched die and dry embossed the front of my card base.  I just used the embossing sandwich for my die cutting machine.
• Then I adhered the matted panel to the card front.
• I used a sentiment from the Snowmen with Presents stamp set and stamped it in black ink.  I trimmed it into a strip, matted it with black card stock and adhered it to the card.
• Of course, a Christmas card needs all the sparkle (at least I think so!)  So I added sparkle with a clear glitter pen to the snowmen and the snow on the ground.  In real life, it's so pretty and sparkly!

I hope I've inspired you to get out your holiday sets and get started on the cards before the rush of Christmas comes!  Thank you for stopping by!

Product links for items used in my card: