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Friday 28 October 2016

Sparkle snowflakes




Having missed last week's 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge, as I was away for a few days, I'm back this week for the technique challenge. They've given us embossing to work with.


Lots of ways to play with this one!

I started with a frame. I blended distress ink onto a sheet of Clarity stencil card. The colours used are tumbled glass, peacock feathers and salty ocean.


I then cut out my frame with my new square stitched dies.


I've got the outside aperture and inside square left over for use elsewhere.

To emboss the frame, I used the Clarity snowflake stencils. I covered them in gold pigment ink (it's more visible than versamark, so you can tell when the stencil is covered), and positioned them onto the frame.


I ran this through the grand calibur, which gives the first emboss (or deboss really)...


...then added platinum embossing powder and heated, for the second emboss. I repeated until the whole frame had been covered with snowflakes.


I also tried a darker blue card, with gold powder.


I like both, so will make another card, but have used the lighter one for the moment.

Time to make something to go in the middle! I tried stamping and embossing various baubles, and die-cutting some too.


But I wasn't that taken with any of them. The frame is quite strong, so needs something that won't be overwhelmed, and none had that wow factor. More bits to go into the stash pile for another card.

After a bit of mulling, I was writing up another blog post on some favours I made recently (see below this post) and realised that one of the techniques I'd used for that might be just the thing.

I started with some co-ordinating blue holographic paper from my stash, and stuck an adhesive sheet to the back of it.


I then turned over and peeled off the other backing sheet, and started adding to the sticky surface. Firstly I used gilding flakes, picking out the gold and blue colours from my mixed pot. Next I added blue glitter, then pale gold mica, and a bit of blue, although I didn't like that as much. Finally, I covered the sheet in platinum embossing powder to fill in the gaps.

I heated the sheet to "develop" the powder, and this was the result.


A lovely textured, shiny, glittery sheet to work with. I'm not sure if this counts as embossing, although it does use embossing powder.

I then die cut it with snowflake dies. You need a good die to go through the plastic adhesive sheet - my tattered lace dies did okay, but a cheaper one I had struggled a bit, and isn't such a clean cut.


Very pretty, you don't really get the sparkle and shine in the photo.

The last piece of the puzzle is a dry embossed background. I tried a few different folders, but chose one of my staples, a dotty pattern from tattered lace. I cut the card to size and edged it with the gold pigment ink before embossing.

This went onto the 6x6 card base first, then the frame. I used thick foam tape all round the frame; it had curled a little through being embossed, so the tape holds it nice and flat.

I used three of the snowflakes, mounted in the centre of the aperture using clear foam pads between the layers for lots of dimension. And finally a pearl in the middle - it really stands out in the photos, it's not quite so dominant in real life!



The end result is quite a delicate card.

Unfortunately, the 3 D snowflake doesn't photograph very well, but the mixture of colours and textures really catches the light.




Another blue card, I seem to be in a blue mood this month! I think this would look lovely in purple and silver as well, or in richer colours, maybe burgundy with copper. When I get some free time to play!

7 comments:

  1. Wow! This is fantastic! I love the way you used the stencils to emboss the frame. But I think the way you created the embossed paper for your snowflakes is wonderful. Great work. Thanks so much for playing along with 52CCT this week! Deborah, DT. BTW - super photos too!

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    1. Thanks Deborah. I like the fact that as I practise and learn more, I'm starting to have these great techniques up my sleeve to draw on. These embossed papers are so bling, they're perfect for Christmas, and for a few people I know!

      Glad the photos look okay x

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  2. A really gorgeous card and beautifully made. Thanks for showing all the steps. It's very dangerous blog hopping, now I want those snowflake stencils!

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    1. Thanks Alison. They are very nice snowflake dies, really useful. They're not new, so you may find a deal on them! That's the trouble with crafting, there are always more gorgeous things to add to the collection. Before he met me, my husband had this crazy idea that making your own cards was a way to save money!!! He now knows better!

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  3. elle est très jolie Lucinda, chic et élégante, merci de jouer avec nous chez 52CCT, biz

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    1. Merci Fabiola. Je ne pensais pas que cela tournerait cette délicate, mais je l'aime qu'il a.

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  4. A really gorgeous card and beautifully made. Thanks for showing all the steps. It's very dangerous blog hopping, now I want those snowflake stencils!

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Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I really appreciate hearing from you, and try to respond to every one.

Lucinda