Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial

Hello friends! It is time for one of my favorite posts every year. I really like Ali Edwards' concept of a December Daily and this will be my eight year of documenting our month of December. I do something of a mini version, focusing more on words than on photos. This is partly since I don't print photos at home, so having new photos daily becomes impractical. Instead, I write daily, and add some photos later.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

For the past seven years, I have done my December Daily in one of Tim Holtz's Worn Binders. It's a great format and all my journals look nice standing together in a book shelf. But even though I use the same base, the journals look very different from each other. Last years journal was a birch forest, and the year before that I did a Narnia theme. This year, we are going to the peaceful winter mountains. I used fairly light colors, to increase the feeling of peace and tranquility, and of spaces filled only with nature. The mountains and trees were die cut with Tim Holtz's Alpine set.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Apply gesso to the cover.

I used the Tattered Worn Binder. Start by coating the cover with gesso. This requires some patience since you need to add quite mainly layers to cover up the background, since the gesso soaks into the cover. Let dry in between.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Die cut mountains with Tim Holtz Alpine die.

Die cut pieces for two mountains from watercolor paper and glue them to the background with matte medium.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Tim Holtz Crochet die.

I also die cut some Crochet borders, to look like snowy hills, and for their great texture.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

Continue by gluing trees to the background, overlapping some of them.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

Now, add thick layers of white texture paste at the front and a bit further into the scene. Cover up some of the crochet pieces and the bases of some of the trees. Let dry.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Paint with acrylic paint.

Now you can start painting the scene. I used Distress Paints. Don't worry about getting it perfect.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

The sky was painted with Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, and then Dina Wakley's white paint at the bottom. I also painted the snow areas with Dina's white paint, to make them even whiter.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

Add some white dry-brushing to the trees and the mountain sides.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Add shading.

Shade the snow with Pumice Stone and the trees and mountains with Hickory Smoke and Black Soot. This step adds dimension, and if you want a piece with darker colors, you can add even more shadows. You can also make the top of the sky darker to turn it into a dusk setting (check out my Narnia book for an example of this).

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Splatter white paint.

Splatter white paint pretty heavily on the sky and all over the scene.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

Here's a close up of the white splatters, creating snowfall. White paint was rubbed into the three metallic pieces.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

By gluing the die cuts to the background before coloring, you make them more a part of the background. It doesn't look like they were glued on top of the background. If you want to, you can add some paste to the top of the mountains too.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

The trees were painted with Pine Tree and Peeled Paint, and I like how these two green shades mix on the trees.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

You could add even more trees to make a denser forest, but I only wanted a sprinkling.

 Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Add sentiments, found poetry.

I picked some sentiments from Tim's Christmas Sticker Book for my cover. They form something like a found poem.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson. Texture paste snow.

And the words are continued at the bottom of the scene. Here you can also see the texture of the paste and crochet snow better.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

For the spine, I painted a piece of watercolor paper with the two green colors used on the tree, splattered with white paint and die cut the year with Tim's Letterboard die.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

Last year, I continued my winter scene on the back cover, but this year, I decided to keep it plain.

Layers of ink - Snowy Mountains December Daily Tutorial by Anna-Karin Evaldsson.

I am now looking forward to filling my journal with memories, even though I can't believe that December starts so soon. In a couple of days, I will be back with a post showing you the process of making the inside pages. They are drying all over my floor as I am typing this up.

If you want more inspiration, check out my previous December Daily journals:  

 




Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy Christmas crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.



4 comments:

  1. This is stunning, what a gorgeous winter scene!
    Tammy x

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  2. What fabulous winter scenery for your December daily album. I love the shading on the mountains and such a clever idea to use the lace to add detail and dimension to the snow dunes.
    Alison x

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  3. This project is so magical! Love the all the little details so special. Also went back & looked at some of your other Dec. Daily and just love the collection you have created!

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  4. Wow! This is truly a keepsake. I'm looking forward to seeing your pages! xo

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Thank you so much for leaving a comment! Happy Crafting!