Winter at the Gazebo by Barb

Yes, I'm one of those. Halloween is done, so bring on the twinkly lights and snow and sparkly stuff! And no skimping on the hot cocoa and cookies! I'm ready. So ready that, with the help of Gina's Designs, I conjured up a magical little snowy park I can go to.

I wanted to give my piece the feeling of a chilly evening after a good snowfall. So I began by using ModPodge to adhere mulberry paper to my canvas board. I slathered on some iridized purple paint to give it that late evening shimmer. To mimic snow that had been trampled while building Mr. Snowman, I spread gesso over the lower portion of the mulberry paper and added clear glitter while it was wet.

I set all that aside to work on the gazebo. To this, I sponged on plenty of gesso. I didn't worry about making it smooth and pretty because I wanted it to have that "just snowed" look. While the gesso was wet, I sprinkled clear glitter on it as well.

I wanted the lights to really shine against all that glittery, shimmery snowy stuff. I coated the strand and sockets first with green irRESISTibles. I let it dry for a few minutes and then coated the bulbs with various colors of irRESISTibles.

Finally, it was time to turn my attention to Mr. Snowman. I coated everything but the hat with gesso and this time, instead of sprinkling on glitter, I smashed glitter into the wet paint. I painted his hat with black acrylic paint - I accidentally got some of the wet white gesso on it, but I kind of like the mottled effect.

Once the paint had dried, I tied a red ribbon around the hat. I also dabbed on Liquid Pearls for the eyes and mouth and added rhinestones for buttons. As for the carrot? Here's why you never ever ever throw away scraps from Gina's. You guessed it - that nose is a punch out scrap from a different project. I don't even remember what set it might have been from - I have a baggie full of little scrap bits that I've saved and find all kinds of uses for.

I made the arms from branches that I snipped off of the tree that came in the Winter Shape Set. I gave them a light coat of brown craft ink.

All I had to do was glue everything where I wanted it. Now I have a sweet little Winter Wonderland all my own!

Gina's Designs Products Used

Winter Shape Set

Gazebo

Light String Border

Other Products Used

Gesso

Mulberry paper

Clear glitter

Acrylic Paint

ModPodge

ColourArte Silk Acrylics

Liquid Pearl

Craft Ink

Imagine Crafts irRESISTibles

Imagine Crafts Creative Medium (Silver)