Deck the Igloo

Deck the Igloo for the season, with Cottage Cutz. What a great gift for someone that does not have or know about Cottage Cutz Dies. These cute little guys are on the Cottage Cutz Penguin Die, you get both style Penguins. . along with clear stamps of both style faces.

This card has the general background of an igloo with the doorway. I cut ice blocks from Bazzill Bling card stock (Shinny) about 1/2" x 1" blocks , Randomly clipped the corners (all not even) than shaded the ice blocks with Versamagic Chalk Ink (Turg Gem) on the bottom edge and right side. Notice I also used the same turq ink to highlight the penguins. The Penguins are trying to untwist the Christmas lights (o' ya who put them away last year?) The lights are made with large seed beads glued onto 22 gauge wire. I start with a straight piece of wire, put a dab of glossy accents on the wire (in the center) and feed a bead onto the wire. Just as I touch the bead to the dab of glue. . twist the bead, it will draw the glue to the center of the bead and move the glue around the wire and into the center of the bead. This way you are not pushing the bead into the glue and globbing up the wire or bead trying to get the glue inside of the bead. Just feed from each side and work the rest of the beads onto the wire, let dry for a fair amount of time before twisting and looping. The igloo arch doorway is on foam dots to add dimension, and the middle penguin is on three layers of foam to really bring him out. I knew I needed a few ornaments of some sort and remembered a really old, CHEAP punch that I had bought of a fish skeleton . . . so the fish skeletons worked out well. . . .An added note, if you want the lights to be multi colored on your string of lights, and want specific colors that you may not have the beads for. . .use all clear beads and highlight the beads with the Copic markers, if you are ever stuck with clear or white beads or rhinestones. . Copic markers are great to highlight with. If you have added to much color or the wrong color. . just use your blender to change or lighten the color.