This is the card I shared with you on the Tour de Freaks Blog Tour last week. I created it using the brand new Serene Snowflakes stamp set and the Magic Snowflake technique. Today, I am going to share a tutorial on how to make this card. I have been using the Magic Snowflake technique for a couple of years now and I just love it! I did not come up with this technique, I'm not sure who did. The first time I saw it was on SCS, Vickie Maduzia was the creator of the tutorial.
For this card I used the following items and pieces of card stock.
- Bermuda Bay, Taken with Teal and Tempting Turquoise Classic Ink Refills, Rubbing Alcohol, Cotton Balls, Metal Clip
- White Embossing Powder and Heat Gun
- White Gel Pen
- Clear Rhinestone Brads
- My Way Punch
Taken with Teal Card Stock
- 5 1/4" x 10 1/2" scored at 5 1/4"
- 3 1/4" x 3 1/4"
- 2 3/4" x 2 3/4"
- 4 1/4" x 1"
Bermuda Bay Card Stock
- 4 3/4" x 4 3/4"
Glossy White Card Stock
- 5" x 5"
- 3" x 3"
- 2 1/2" x 2 1/2"
Whisper White Card Stock - you could use Glossy White if you prefer
- 4 1/4" x 3/4"
1. Use your Embossing Buddy on the piece of 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" Glossy White Card Stock. Rubbing your card stock with the embossing buddy before you emboss will help to keep those pesky extra bits of embossing powder off your card stock.
2. Ink up the snowflake stamp using Whisper White Craft Ink. Stamp the snowflake image on the piece of Glossy Card Stock.
3. Using White Embossing Powder and a heat gun, emboss your snowflake.
4. One of my very talented uplines, Karen Duke, told me about this little trick to keep the ink off your fingers when doing this technique. Use a Bulldog clip to hold the cotton ball. Isn't she a smarty! You need to wet your cotton ball with the rubbing alcohol. It is really important not to get too much alcohol on the cotton ball as the technique just doesn't work as well if the cotton ball is too wet. I usually just quickly tip the jar upside down over the ball.
You will then want to drop one or two drops of each ink refill on the wet cotton ball.
5. Once your cotton ball is all inked up you will start dabbing it all over your embossed snowflake. Keep going until the image is completely covered.
At this point the image really doesn't look that great as the ink is covering up the embossing.
6. Here is the really cool part! You use the heat gun to go over your embossed image again. The snowflake will magically appear through the ink. The image will become crisp and clear again! Isn't that cool?
I think the rest of the card is pretty easy to figure out. I used the smaller snowflakes and I stamped the Bermuda Bay card stock with Whisper White Craft Ink. I used a white gel pen to add a frame of dots around the main image. This just helped the main image to pop a bit more.
I do have one more little tip for you. On the greeting pennant I used the My Way Punch to get a perfect V cut. Just turn the punch upside down and place the end of your card stock in the large arrow punch. It gives you a perfectly even V every time!
To create the bump in the middle of the greeting I used a couple of dimensioals stacked on top of each other.
The Rhinestones came from Stampin' Up's Clear Rhinestone Brads. I simply took the rhinestones out of the silver brad.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me. I will do my best to answer them!
Stamps: Serene Snowflakes (available September 1), Four the Holidays (available September 1)
Inks: Whisper White Craft Ink (101731), Bermuda Bay Classic Refill (115661), Tempting Turquoise Classic Ink Refill (101041), Taken with Teal Classic Ink Refill (100550)
Card Stock: Taken with Teal (101584), Bermuda Bay (115317), Glossy White (102599), Whisper White (100730)
Accessories: Clear Rhinestone Brads (113144), White Embossing Powder (109132), White Gel Pen (105021), My Way Punch (110709)
