A Freshly Made Snowflake

This card was a lesson in perseverance and letting go of my original ideas.  To start with, I wanted to used this Freshly Made Sketch:

I also wanted to use this snowflake die cut by Tim Holtz which caught my eye at Hobby Lobby.  The cut shape is not particularly exciting, but once embossed with the accompanying folder and inked up it is beautiful.  (To see how to use this Sizzix product in a Cuddlebug check this post.)  I used a brayer to spread Gold metallic ink on the embossed design and then sponged Gold and Bronze along the edges.  For the background I had planned on lightly stamping small snowflakes, but once I put the embossed snowflake over them I found that it was too busy and made the snowflake hard to see.  I then thought about sponging the background with gold and letting it fade out around the edges.  I decided I would practice on my already stamped piece before cutting a new layer.  That is when the inspiration hit.  I could make the inner part solid to make the snowflake show and then fade into the smaller flakes as though they were emerging from the glow of the big snowflake.  

Next it was time for the sentiment.  I had been planning on cutting "Peace on Earth" from some antiqued gold paper but the letters did not show well against the snowflake.  Then I thought about deviating from the sketch and stamping directly on the card to the lower left of the snowflake because the sentiment stamped on a piece of Colonial White placed over the snowflake seemed to cover too much of it.  Finally I remembered that I had a "Peace" stamp in a smaller font, and the shortened, smaller sentiment stamped on a bit of Colonial White cardstock fit right into the angled parts in the center of the flake.  I attached it with foam tape and was almost done!  I decided that a border of antiqued gold cardstock did not fit the softness of the rest of the card, so I lightly sponged some gold on the edge of the main layer, pressed the edge into to stamp pad to get a gilded look and attached it to a Colonial White card base.  The last step was to embellish with a clear sparkle because y'all know I love sparkles...

I am pretty pleased with how this card (finally!) came out.  It may be a little softer and more distressed than the criteria for Freshly Made Sketches, but I worked too hard on it not to enter it.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used:
Paper:  Colonial White cardstock by Close to My Heart
Ink:  Gold and Copper by Color Box
Stamp:  Scandinavian Wishes (retired) from Close to My Heart, the small snowflakes were done with a very old wooden stamp with no label from I don't remember where
Embellishment:  Clear sparkle from Close to My Heart
Other:  Snowflake die cut and embossing folder set by Tim Holtz