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Saturday 8 October 2016

Negative Snowflake Card

Hello! My goodness it does seem like a long time since I did a normal post doesn't it?

I've been so busy with work, getting ready for the Whimsy Stamps Craft Retreat in Orlando, my Dad being in hospital and then spending the last week over in the States teaching at the retreat, my poor blog has been a bit neglected. I did have a wonderful time at the craft retreat and I will be making a proper post about it later, but for now I thought I would share one of the extra projects I did for the retreat.

This wasn't part of the class I actually taught, but I wanted to give the girls plenty of stuff to make both at the retreat and at home, so as well as the 2 stamped and coloured cards I did kits and lessons for, I put together an extra kit of 3 different snowflake cards using just card, paper, snowflake dies, a sentiment stamp, ink and some enamel dots. These were VERY clean and simple indeed and mostly white on white with a little pop of colour.

The one I'm sharing with you today is a negative snowflake card using the latest Snowflake Dies from the September release along with the Winter Wishes papers and enamel dots. These beautiful and delicate snowflakes look lovely on a card, but after cutting 30 or so (I cut 176 snowflakes for the retreat!), they were not the easiest thing to release from the die. Well you know what they say about adversity, I really had to think hard about how to solve my problem as the air was turning fairly blue by this point. I'd tried the dryer sheet method previously and had next to no success with that one and I didn't have any wax paper, (plus I'd heard mixed reviews of that method too), so what could I do?



I got an old toothbrush (make sure you use an old one and not your other half's ....unless you're really mad at them lol), and a nightlight (you could use any kind of wax candle but make sure it's not coloured). Then I rubbed the bristles of the toothbrush vigorously over the candle and then all over the inside area of the die. Voila, once they were put through the die cutting machine as normal, the die cuts almost fell out of the die. I reapplied the wax after every 3 to 4 cuts. My goodness this worked like a charm and removed at least 90% of swearing. Try it yourself, I'd love to see how you get on.

So, back to the card, this was super easy to make.

 I cut a 12 by 4.25 inch piece of white cardstock and folded in half for my card base, then another piece of 5.75 x 4 inch white CS for my top layer. I cut out a medium sized snowflake from this in the lower right corner and saved the die cut for another card, then I stamped a Christmas sentiment in blue ink in the lower left corner, this one is from the Simple Holidays set. I attached a small square of blue design paper, on my base card, so that it would show through the snowflake shaped hole, without showing beneath the sides of the top layer, then I added the top layer to my card base with some foam tape. Finally I decorated with a few enamel dots.
That's all there is to it. I'll share the other cards with you later as well and I've listed everything I used on this one down below.
This weekend, once work is finished,  I'll be mostly tidying away my craft stuff from the trip and making cards for the October Whimsy Stamps release. If someone could point out to me exactly where September went I'd be very grateful!

Happy crafting! 




6 comments:

  1. A beautiful and elegant card.
    Love the sentiment.
    Valerija xx

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  2. I understand how busy you must have been. My dad is in hospital at the moment. It is very tiring visiting and I live across the road from the hospital.
    You card is beautiful and I will certainly try your tip with the candle for those difficult to release dies.
    Have a lovely weekend.
    Hugs Sharon. x

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  3. September went by in a blur for me so I can imagine how you feel. I'm glad all your hard work and preparation were gratefully received and I'm sure you and your 'pupils' had a great time - look forward to hearing about that in your upcoming post.
    I love this CAS card design, very unusual to see from you but elegant and lovely none-the-less. Thanks for the tip on releasing awkward dies, the air is blue in my room at times especially when you want to be quick and they aren't playing nicely.
    Take care,
    Lorraine

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  4. Fabulous CAS Linda.. it looks really elegant! Loving the tip re releasing difficult dies... thank you for that!

    Glad you had a wonderful time at the retreat... it sounds like fun was had by all!

    Christine x

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  5. This is very elegant and a bit different.
    I'll look forward to seeing more from you about the retreat.

    Hope you dad is ok... great tip about the wax by the way.

    Anne x

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Linda xx