Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Swirling snowflake card out of recycled items: Foil, soda can, leftover lace and trim

There is just something about shiny foil I like, so when I found out I could use my Stampin' Up punches on foil, I had to try them out!  Then when I learned that in order to sharpen your punch, you punch using a flattened soda can (but have to be careful until the soda can is punched, because it is sharp - so I had my husband cut and flatten the cans).  Once you punch out a design from the soda can, it is not sharp anymore....I just got my snowflake punch and of course, I had to start punching snowflakes out!  I used the presto patterns designer paper (because it has white shiny designs on it), and gold and silver cardstock, and in this picture above, I "sharpened" my punch to make a soda can snowflake.  Actually, this snowflake is the inside of the soda can, since I didn't want the soda can design on it and the inside of the can is a more subtle shiny.  I wrapped a little piece of black lace around the snowflake center and then tied it, leaving the ends longer so it would look like a flying snowflake.  And I also tied a bit of the clear tinsel trim in the center to give a little more dimension to the swirling flying snowflake.

I had just gotten the Northern Flurry embossing folder,
 and was dying to try it out, and the Sudsol design challenge this week was to use recycled items - a perfect opportunity to use this embossing folder with foil - more shininess!  But first I wrapped the heavy-duty aluminum foil around my card cut to the size to fit in the embossing folder (it folded back over the edges very neatly)....Look how great the embossing looks in foil!  See in the center of the snowflakes I colored with a black sharpie and put a tiny pearl over the black.  I also colored a few of the snowflake tips with the black sharpie, and scattered some more pearls around the snowflakes.  I was aiming for lots of swirly flying snowflakes, like you were in a snowstorm....having lived in states where the winters are long, cold, and very snowy for most of my life, I know firsthand what that is like - pretty to walk around  in, but can be difficult to drive through and see the road (oh yeah, I have gone off the road in snow, and back on....or not sometimes). 
Now this is gonna be a shiny silver, white, and black card (I love black and white cards, but don't make them much - kinda remind me of Hollywood retro).  You know when you get a new roll of ribbon or trim, and there is a plastic strip covering the ribbon that you have to take off before you can use it?  I usually pull and tug on it, and end up having to cut it off....I took mine from the black lace roll and wrapped it around the foil card and tied it so the ends were in the front.  That is where I tied my snowflake onto to - so it looks like it is "floating..."  If you are familiar with snowstorms, you know the saying 'Big flakes, little snow or Little flakes, big snow?"  If you don't know what that means, the Big snow refers to big snowflakes that won't amount to very much snow on the ground (so you won't have too much to shovel lol!), and vice versa.  That will tell you too, if you will have good snow for making snowballs/snowmen, and snowboarding or skiing (I've tried both; found snowboarding more fun but spent more time sitting down on the slope than going down it)

Now I have to dress up that soda can snowflake with a little more, so I stamped Merry from the Tiny Tags stamp set and punched it out as well as 3 mini-tags from silver, black, and presto patterns paper; hooked them together with a vintage trinket pin, and attached the pin to the center of the snowflake.  Doesn't it look much prettier now? 

I glued some foil on the right side of my whisper white card, then punched a border, mounted my snowflake card on black; glued it all to the white card, and tied black lace on the left side.  You can probably tell the aluminum foil and soda can shininess doesn't come out very well when you try to scan it - it looks blue and grey....In a real snowstorm, the snow can look white, black, grey, blue....so if you squint when you  look at my flying snowflake card, you can pretend you are in a snowstorm....but not cold, wet, and best of all, you don't have to scrape your car off, or shovel your sidewalk and driveway!  Of course, unless you have a snowblower!!  Or maybe like me, now live somewhere that you don't get snow lol....


Here is a picture I took of my card with my cell phone, but the foil still makes it hard to get a decent picture (yeah I know, I gotta get a good digital camera - working on that!)

I am sure some of you visiting my blog will have real snow flying outside your place!  Getting you in the Christmas spirit, right?!  Don't forget, you can try out Sudsol for free for 2 weeks if you are a Stampin' Up demonstrator (click on my Sudsol link).  Also that Stampin' Up is having a super-awesome sale right now too - I would be happy to help you pick out some things to get you started - just email me OK?   mklecuyer@hotmail.com

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