3D Shaping with a Snowflake set

Hello! It's Keren back just for a visit, just filling in for Jill.

 I was digging through some of my sets and found this Hero Arts stamp set which is actually titled as 'Snowflake Pattern Bold Print'

It's a pretty cool snowflake pattern, but seems so completely versatile for all year round, that I thought I'd try and create something just a little bit more dimensional with it.First of all, stamp it and colour in. I've just used alcohol markers. Then trim out each hexagon and score straight down each point so you get the shape divided into 3. Fold and then trim up one of the lines stopping at the centre.

Then simply overlap one of the triangles and glue well and you end up with dimensional pentagon. These patterns now take on an almost Art Nouveau-stained glass-Tiffany lamp vibe ;-)

I just added a little wet glue along each bottom edge and held the shape in place for a minute until I knew it had adhered.

They take on an almost Limpet quality and are perfect for a contemporary card. Add some more masculine colours (or even leave it black, white and grey) and it'll so double duty as a 'man card'.

The sentiment is from another of my current favourite sets 'Just Because' by Concord and 9th

I hope you'll try giving your flat stamps a dimensional make-over. I'm certainly looking at them all with new eyes. And before you ask, yes, this will be a challenge to get into an envelope; I'm thinking shallow decorated box! ;-)

Thanks for having me and I'll be joining you again in a few weeks

Keren xx

Hey There Fabulous Friend!

Hey stampers, Anni here!

It's snowing! AGAIN! At the end of March!!! It is supposed to be spring! It's unbelievable!

In another attempt to elicit spring I am making again cards with lots of flowers. A lot of die cutting and no stamping at all was involved.

I just recently bought Concord & 9th's Just Because Die set! I love it so much because it is so versatile and just perfect for masculine cards in my opinion (but I didn't make a masculine card today). The Just Because Stamp set is beautiful, too, and goes great with the die set but I haven't used it for these two cards.

I started by die cutting the flowers and leaves from watercolour cardstock several times - I used up all scraps of watercolour paper in my stash.
Then I pressed some different shades of Distress Oxide Inks (they will be available at Seven Hills Crafts soon - YEAH!) onto my craft mat and sprayed them with some water. Then I dipped all the die cut pieces into the puddles, let them dry and dipped them in again - this time chosing another matching colour.

For both cards I die cut sentiments from Concord & 9th's Fabulous Phrases. Again I die cut several ones to stack the sentiments up. This is an easy way to achieve some dimension.

For the card above I also die cut a scallop rectangle from Mama Elephant's All Prettied Up. On this rectangle I arranged a lot of flowers and leaves with the sentiment in the center. The card turned out a little bit wild and not the CAS style I prefer.

That's why I decided to make another card - and because I had still some leftover die cuts. The second card turned out really clean and simple. I just used three flowers, some leaves and a sentiment. For a finishing touch I added some gems and that finished up the second card.

Let me know which card you prefer? The simpler one or the one full of flowers? And please tell spring to come over when you meet it!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!
Anni