Sparkle & Shine Challenge #22

I have a card to share that I made this morning for the Sparkle & Shine Challenge #22,

which was to be inspired by this wonderful photo: 

I love that sweet cardinal!

I immediately knew that I would use my PTI Winter Woods set to make my card,

but I hadn't quite decided how I would create my background.

Then, this morning, I saw this card by the incredibly talented Kay Miller

and was totally inspired to create a similar background of watercolored snowflakes!

Here's my card:

I started by stamping the snowflakes from MFT's Snowflake Flurry stamp set onto 

a piece of watercolour paper in stormy sea.

Then, I pressed some stormy sea ink onto my acrylic block, added some water and with a paint brush

applied the ink to each snowflake.

The watercolour paper looked a little too creamy with my white Winter Woods cover plate,

so I added more water to the ink and did a light wash over the whole panel. 

Once this was dry, I stamped the sentiment (from Phrases and Praises) onto my

watercolour background and onto the diecut coverplate, separately.

I adhered the trees over top and added my stamped cardinal.

I matted everything on a piece of stormy seas cardstock.

A few Pretty Pink Posh Clear Droplets finish it off.

I'm also linking this up to this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge:  Create with Critters.

A bird is a critter, right?

Thanks for looking!