Bring on da'snow!

I love snow! 

Now that Halloween is over I can begin my snow mantra...let it snow, let it snow! I live in North Carolina and we don't get much of the white stuff here and when we do it's usually gone in a couple of days so I cherish the little bit that we get. 

I also love making paper casts; I think it's because the molds are re-usable and like stamps, ( Susan K. Weckessers Love Ya Whole Bunches) they just keep on being a viable source for years. I would rather make my own embellishments than to keep buying things. In this day and age of a throw away society it's so much better for the earth to shred and re-cycle papers and to make something new from them!

I used the Three Trees and Frosty molds to create the embellishments for this card. Shredding your own paper and making a paper cast is snow easy, just follow these steps.

A couple of tips:

When coloring anything on handmade paper don't go overboard, it's better to tap the color in rather than stroke the color on, because handmade paper is very porous and the colors bleed out. Also, anytime I have an uneven surface and most likely you will on the backside of your mold, use a self-leveling glue like Helmars Liquid Scrapdots which will fill in any uneven gaps, so your paper cast will fit securely and lay perfectly flat. It's also great at supporting soft paper cast edges like his scarf that otherwise would break off when mailed.

You can also find interesting items to use as a mold around the house. I found that my ceramic coasters made a great snowflake mold, and combined that with the Holly Sprig mold...

...to create this card that is currently in the news stand with the winter edition of the CardMaker Magazine. (p. 54) You can find all the steps in making this easy card there.

I'm off to go make some more paper casts....addicting and snow much fun!