Decorating a Gnome Home for Christmas

I decided the Gnome Home from Odd Bird Planet needed a little sprucing up for the Holidays.  I was in a bit of a goofy mood and my decorating went a little over the top, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

Here is my finished product.  I used a bunch of different Odd Bird Planet stamps in my little creation.  In case inquiring minds want to know - here's what I did.

 

 

 

First I stamped the Gnome Home in Tuxedo Memento ink.  Then I masked it with eclipse paper.  I inked around the image with Broken China Distress ink using a duster brush.  I did the top "sky" area darker than the bottom "snow" area.  (the green on the mask is from the last time I used it - I save them and reuse them so I don't have to cut stuff out again... can you say "l-a-z-y"...)

 

 

I colored my Gnome Home with Copic markers.  The mushroom cap is pretty big.  To avoid marker streaks, you need a well inked marker.  The trick is to color slowly enough to saturate the paper, but quickly enough to keep a wet edge on the ink.  Sometimes you need to move around a bit when you color to keep all the edges wet.  In large areas, I use the wedge tip of the marker because it delivers more ink.

Then I stamped all my "pieces", cut out around them and colored them.  The stamps I used were Cathrine's Gnome Home,  Cathrine's Sapling, Cathrine's Sapling Branch, Kelly's Stiched Gnome, and Simple Gift.  The long garland is just Sapling Branch stamped side by side 3 times.

Generally, I don't try to cut right on the line of something.  (Its just too hard for me! LOL  there is that l-a-z-y thing again!).  I usually leave an edge around it.  You can see it on the gnome.  Before I cut him out, I outlined around him with W-1 gray so he wouldn't have a stark white border.  It makes cutting out so much easier and I think it makes cut out images stand out from the background.

BTW - for the gift, I created the dots by coloring the present green and then holding the tip of my blender pen where I wanted a dot after the green ink dried.  The blender fluid will push the green ink out and create a dot.

So then I just assembled.  And added those heaps of embellishments. 

I added red crystals on the tree and garland.  I also added some snow to the windows and ground using the puffy velvet marker.  On top of the velvet I added glitter!  I know - its a bit extreme - but it was fun!

And yes- we do have those gaudy multicolor lights on our tree - not the elegant white ones.  We have a mis-match of homemade and"historical" ornaments.  I mostly let the kids decorate it - so there are some branches with 3 ornaments hung on top of each other.  Martha Stewart would NOT approve - but it works for us.  Sometimes you just need to embrace imperfection.

Thanks for looking!  Happy Stamping.