It seems that snow is generally created using procedurals. In cycles, a completely node base system is much too complex for a beginner like me. My basic node setup looks like this:
and my scene is lighted with 3 lamps like this:
(a plane is used just behing suzanne to light the translucency), but my render looks as dull as this:
How can I make more of snow and less ice looking texture for suzanne?
Perhaps Andrew Price could help you out here. He did a snow scene tutorial, available on his site. It's long, but it's a step-by-step look at how to get soft, slushy and glittery snow using both procedural techniques and texture-based techniques.
He starts talking about shading around 58:00, but the whole video is worth listening to because he talks about textures, displacements and lighting that can add some much-needed chaos into the scene.
Suzanne, on the other hand, might need some adjustment from his shader setup. You might need to increase the subsurface scattering (SSS) influence because you're trying to get light through the object, not just glitter on the surface. Just remember that SSS will increase your render times significantly, so use it sparingly.
