The other day I saw a pretty nifty idea on Pinterest that involved using an evergreen twig to stamp ‘snowflakes’ onto wrapping paper. Here is the original post about that, but I thought I’d use that technique in the background of a winter-themed painting! AND furthermooorrrre, I think I will be giving this painting away to one of my lucky Facebook Fans!!! So, if you haven’t already, make sure you like my FB page here.

Cute lookin huh? Let me show ya how easy this is- I’ll walk you thru my whole painting too- It’s a different kind of background and it is super-simple!

Ahhhh, a blank canvas 🙂 I love! This one happens to be a 16×20″ number.

I started with a mix of white and blue, and painted looong strokes over the top half of the canvas. Just keep adding color, or taking it away with more white, and blend it until you wind up with something you like to look at.

I like looking at this.

Next, mix together a darker variety of colors, which will match your sky or whatever theme you are working on. I started with silvery-grey…

But it was gross-looking. So when it was still wet, I quickly added some purple into the equation:

I started painting 3 different hills in 3 different shades. It’s easiest to start with the back hill and finish with the front hill.

Now, you have to wait for the paint to dry… which is like watching paint dry.

Occupy yourself with a midnight pregnancy craving of brussels sprouts.

All those brussels sprouts left me feeling a lil sparkly (?), so I busted out the sparkle paint.

I started to swirl that happiness in the sky, like little wisps of wintery air! Oh golly, I’m sounding like Bob Ross!

After a few more wisps, I was ready to go hunting outside for the tool I was going to be using in the next step of this painting!

I was prepared! I had my scissors, slippers, and my plasma cutter, which doubles as a flash light.

My hunting trip was very successful!! Who knew that plasma cutter would come in so handy?

Now, on to the snow flakes! I mixed some white paint on my sparkle-laden plate with some thick gel medium. I wanted these to have some texture, but you could definitely just use plain old white paint.

I found a perfect lil twig to use as my ‘stamp’, and I dipped it thoroughly into the paint. I practiced on a scrap piece of paper to make sure I got a nice- looking snowflake. This twig standing in the paint reminded me of Christmas 🙂

So I did this.

And then I got back to my painting.

I wanted a variety of different sized snowflakes, so I trimmed a couple more twigs to get that result.

Well, I was going for ‘winter wonderland’ and I think I got it! But it definitely needed a tree!

For a detailed tutorial and tips on how I paint my trees, check out my blending tutorial here.

I know trees are nekked in the winter, but that couldn’t stop me from adding some buttons!

That’s a lot of white buttons. Does this picture make anyone else extremely excited? I hope you’ve seen the rest of my button collection… it is a thing of beauty!!!

These white buttons were pretty good, but they needed a bit of help from their friends…

So I dug up a few light purple and blue buttons- and I even dipped into my antique collection to find some pretty metal and glass buttons that would suit this painting perfectly!

So lovely! Notice that a lot of the metal buttons have a nub on the end rather than holes- there is a specific technique I used to affix them to the canvas- and you can see that (along with a bunch of really cool vintage buttons) here. 

Finally, my painting was complete!

I know I said I would give this painting away, but It looks so good in my bathroom!!! Okay, fine, I’ll make myself another one. I love how the sparkles sparkle and the snowflakes snow! This painting got me really excited for winter and the Christmas season! I have so many great tutorials and ideas up my sleeves for December!!!

I’m getting ahead of myself…

Well, happy Monday, people! Try to turn something a lil snowier with this fun idea!!

Happy snowflake-stamping!

~Dot