Beautiful Snowflakes

This was the title of the second class with Pinkfresh Studios recent holiday virtual event. This class was taught by Carissa Wiley. I love Carissa's work which is typically pink with glitter.

Well she shocked all of us with her mint, tidal pond and stargazer blend but there was glitter and there was so much die-cutting!! The cards are amazing - unfortunately my photos aren't, now I try to blog but the cards are in the post yesterday, so ca la vie. 

The first card had a layer of die-cut snowflakes (double stacked) on the base card and I loved this look.  Then we die cut from a snowflake coverplate card panel the smallest art deco frame and then ink blended with the 3 inks. She recommended doing the lightest ink colour all over then doing the darkest, then filling in the middle with the mid tone and then blending any lines with the light and dark blending brushes. 

To be honest I may have preferred to ink blend; then use the coverplate die; then cut out the frame, as I obviously have too heavy a hand and ended up with a heavier amount of ink at the cut out pieces. 

It was then matted onto gold glitter paper and the sentiment was gold embossed onto vellum - this was actually the hardest thing - even Carissa had to repeat hers. You needed to be able to repeat stamp in your MISTI or stamp positioner so you got very clean letters. I think I failed. I tried Vellum paper and my Vellum card from SU! The card weight was better, the diecuts when cut out from the vellum paper curled too much - Carissa says she uses a 40lb weight Vellum but she didn't mention the brand. Even so this card is WOWTASTIC and we have sent it to Pete's mum, as we wanted to give her the best card from the series of fabulous cards I have made from the Pinkfresh event. It has layers of foam but I crushed everything really hard and flattened it a bit and it still fitted through the small letter opening in my NZ Post letter guide.

The second card was much easier and had a card within a card. Instead of a layer of double stacked snowflakes, we used the snowflake cover plate die to give dimension and texture. We added a coverplate die to the front and the inside of the card (the inside piece was trimmed 1/8" off the LHS). We then cut off 1-1/8" from the RHS of a standard A2 card. Then attached the smaller card  (6" x 4" - scored at 3") underneath . When we attached the smaller card it is blended with the 3 colours.

Again a shocking photo but I hope it is self explanatory. 

We used Vellum snowflakes to make it a bit more ethereal and some gold metallic pearls. It is important to note that no vellum snowflakes should go beyond the RHS of the card, otherwise the dendrites will get damaged when the smaller card is open and closed. See below to how I decorated the front small card. By the way the arms of a snowflake are "dendrites" as a piece of useless information to save up for an episode of The Chase.

Success at last finally a photo that is in focus and again this is a rather special card.

Supply List (all PFS unless stated otherwise):
Stamps: Christmas Sentiments
Ink: Mint, Tidal Pond, Stargazer, Versamark
Dies: Christmas Sentiments, Art Deco frame, Snowflakes coverplate, Large Snowflakes
Paper: Neenah White #80 for blending etc, #110 for card base (I tried blending on Hammermill and Lavinia smooth and multifarious but I liked the Neenah best which was extremely interesting), gold glitter (SU!), Vellum Card (SU!)
Other: Gold metallic pearls, Gilded embossing powder (BM), various stamping foam from my stash, blending brushes (TE),  Bearly Art glue, MISTI.

Well I am weeks behind finishing of this event I think this was "where I was at" when I came down with my cold/flu and disappeared. I had done all my die cutting before I got sick but there was a lot of work in the first card especially. I may try her pink version with white glitter paper next year for a special person or two. 

I only have Laura Bassen's make n' take to do for this class and then I will be finished which is sad and I will be counting down the days to their next virtual event late February 2023!

#pfcreateandconnect
✿ Karen ✿