Welcome to the first Creative Card Making post of 2020! It's Sara Emily here, and I'm sharing a pair of simple cards that are suitable for winter birthdays/just because or they may be added to my 2020 Christmas card stash. Because they are in the vintage style, I think they fit in nicely with Alison's challenge theme,
We're All Getting Older!.
First, I'll share some close-ups, and then I'll finish up with my tutorial. To see the holographic effect of this snowflake, one has to turn the card in the light.
The colors look a little different in my craft room light, but this blurry photo shows off the textures of the flakes.
Here's how the cards came together; it wasn't a clear path, but I've tried to simplify my process. I have just a few process photos, but you should be able to get the idea as I talk my way through.
Not at all feeling creative, but having a couple hours to play, I started by having a go with one of my yet unopened Oxide sprays. I made a bunch of backgrounds on water color paper using Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire Distress Spray stain. I die cut Icy Flake from one of the backgrounds.
I applied Crackle paint from a brand new jar to the flake, but didn't get the best crackle. I later read the directions, which calls for a shake, which I didn't do. Could that be the reason? It's so thick, I don't think it could be shaken; perhaps stirred.
When dry, I scribbled with Distress Crayon to help accentuate what little crackle there was.
I cut a second flake from white card, and heat embossed with Holographic powder. Initially, I planned to reinsert this into the deep blue background over a background from my stash (pictured below).
But I wasn't feeling it, so I stamped a piece of white card I cut into a suitably sized card blank with Distress ink and one of Tim Holtz Flurry & Pine stamps. I wanted to leave a white border, so I used washi tape to mask the edges before stamping. I used the remaining ink on the stamp after each impression by stamping on the stash background I ended up not using.
I removed the tape, and a bit of the card tore. To cover my boo-boo and to make the card more vintage, I decided to blend with Frayed Burlap and splash with a little water.
I decided I liked the snowy background for my crackled snowflake, so I stamped another white card blank.
This time I used Tim Holtz Design tape, thinking it might not pull at the card. Wrong! Two of the strips really stuck onto the card, even with gentle application. You can see the devastation in the close-up photo below. Perhaps I need to use a better quality of card.
Not one to give up easily, I tried several scenarios to rescue the beautiful snowy card, including the ink and splash distressing used above, but ended up applying more of the Design tape back over the torn up edges. This is a trick I picked up from
Zoe Hillman who makes the best vintage cards. I used foam adhesive to give dimension to the layers.
To finish the card, I used this heat embossed snowflake from the Snowflake & Wreath die set by Tim Holtz and a gum drop I colored with Alcohol Pearls and ink. The chippie is from my stash. I decided not to use the glittery snowflake on this card; it just didn't go with the design tape edge.
Using the original snow flurry stamped card, I ended up layering the two snowflake die cuts, offsetting them and topping with a gum drop for a second card. You can see in the close-up below, to age the snowflake a bit, I tapped it with Distress ink.
So now I have two cards for my stash, ready to send out if I need them or a good start on my Christmas card stash for 2020!
Thank you for taking this tortuous creative journey with me today; I hope you didn't get lost along the way! Perhaps I've given you some ideas to try when things don't go the right way right away! There's still plenty of time to join in with our current challenge,
We're All Getting Older! Please come and join us on this first leg of our 2020 Creative journey. Happy crafting! Sara Emily
