Let It Snow

Hi blog friends,  I had no idea where I was going when I started this card, but I do like where it ended up.  The only thing I was sure of was that I wanted to use the snowflake dies to create a flower.  Truth be told, these were my least favourite shapes as snowflakes, but they are brilliant as flowers.  That  makes them more versatile and, as such, valuable dies to own.  I started with a small piece of some gray and cream snowflake paper that I owned (one of the few Christmas themed papers I owned at the time).  I stamped a few of the snowflake stamps from the Snowflakes and Twigs stamp set around the background for interest.  I stamped them in black and embossed them so they would show up against the busy background paper.  Next I added a border strip of cream and black card to which I added some layered scalloped cream lace.  Next I cut out the large Holly motif and embossed it.  Before removing it from the die, I taped the back of it so the pieces would stay intact.  I like this technique as it gives you a completely different look to your die.  Next I cut it again out of black card but removed the fall way pieces.   I stamped and embossed the black Holly motif with the snowflake stamp so that it was off centred and slightly off the die edge.  I layered the two Holly Motif pieces, slightly offsetting them.  I stamped my sentiment and cut it into a forked strip.  I layered this piece with a black mat.  I stamped the edge with another snowflake stamp for interest.  I cut out two of each of the snowflakes, but did not emboss them. I did this because I was turning one of each of them over to create my flower.  This gave me a mirror opposite to create my flower with.  So I layered all four pieces up and curled them inward to create my flower.  I added a large black rhinestone for the centre.  The flower was glued on top of my double bow tied from black silky crush ribbon.  I added two stick pins that were a gift to me from Linda Burrows, aren't they beautiful!  The unforked end of my sentiment strip was glued underneath my bow.  I finished the card with Cosmic Shimmer black PVA glue dots around the edge.  A very vintage looking Christmas card for you.  All for now, Sue x