Sunday, November 1, 2009

Sparkly Snow Cards



While I was working with the book cover material to decorate the Harvest Lanterns I posted yesterday, I had an idea for another project.  I would need clear book cover material to try this idea.  So, today we had to get new ink cartridges at Staples and, as usual, I checked out the clearance section.  Well, it must have been meant to be - in the clearance section there were rolls of clear bookcover material for only 50 cents!



I used this element from the Graphically Speaking cartridge.  It is designed to be a square image  but I used Design Studio to change the proportions for an A2 card topper.



Here you can see the changes I made - the original image is on the left.  There are some detail cuts in the original that I hid for my card topper so you need Design Studio to make this project since it is not possible to hide cutting lines on the Gypsy yet.



I made several trial cuts - in two sizes and two different cardstocks.  The top piece of lighter blue is Bazzill textured cardstock and the bottom piece is Coredinations "vintage" cardstock.  The second trial cut for each is slightly smaller than in the screenshot above - 3.75 x 5 inches.



I cut a piece of the bookcover material large enough to cover the cut out areas of the design.



I adhered the cut piece to the back of the card topper so the sticky side was exposed in the openings (it may be a bit hard to see in this photo but the areas behind the letters and snowflake are the sticky side of the bookcover material.



I then found this glitter that I bought last year after the holidays - it has a interesting texture and is coarse but very sparkly.



I dumped glitter all over the the exposed adhesive.  It is very fine and sticks to the adhesive backing easily.  I used my fingers to smooth down the glitter and then applied a second layer.



By rubbing on the glitter you can flatten the pieces so they stick securely to the adhesive.  You can feel the little bits standing up on end and they will flatten as you smooth over the area with your fingers.



I tried several variations for the cards - you can see them above.



For the first card I rounded the corners of the card base and added a dark blue layer below the light blue topper.  The sparkle of the glitter against dark blue is pretty but I thought it lost the "snow" effect.



For the other versions of the card where I added a dark layer below the topper, I inserted some white paper so the snow would look more like "real" snow.



This version uses the larger version of the topper directly on a dark blue base with the white paper liner between the two.



For this card I put the layer directly on a white card base so I didn't need an extra layer.



I think this is my favorite version - but I have a few more variations in mind to try...

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing this idea on the book covering material. I have been looking for something for my pom pom trim cut file. Using two way glue did not get fuzzy enough. I also wanted something my cricut could cut. I will give this a try.

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  2. I love this effect! I may just have to make a stop by Staples today to see what I can find. I may also have to stop reading this blog because, while the blog and ideas are free, it always seems to end up with me making a trip to the store to buy more supplies! ;-)

    Thanks for so many wonderful ideas!

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  3. I like the dark blue with the white behind the letters and snowflake too.

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  4. I love all of them! I need this cartridge now (off to check on-line for a good deal).

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  5. You are so creative and clever. I love this card idea. Thank you so much for sharing your work. Diana

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  6. I love your snow cards! They are beautiful - thank you for the directions!!!

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  7. I am, as always, inspired by your ingenuity!!
    Thank you for sharing...and in such detail!!!!!

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  8. I love this card. Great idea with the glitter. Now I need to go to Staples! Thanks for sharing your idea on this.

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  9. I love your card - we are not thinking of snow yet in Virginia, but I would like to be ready! I also appreciate the DS directions, as I will not be getting a Gypsy anytime soon. Thank you!

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  10. Gorgeous...thank you for wonderful instructions. I will have to give this one a try!

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  11. Hi Diane--Thanks again for a great tutorial. Can't wait to try it.

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  12. Thank you Diane. You inspire me so much.

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