Melting Snowflakes card rescue

So last week I explained the steps that I take to rescue a blah card. This week (and for the next two) I'll show this process at work. This week is a card I call: MELTING SNOWFLAKES.

Step One: Choose a Snack – skittles. My creative brain loves sugar.

Step Two: Choose a card. I chose this card because it is a newer addition, and it has been on my mind. Don’t adjust your screen, the blurriness is the problem. It was a heat embossing mishap.

Heat emboss mess. The snowflakes are melting together.

This was the base of a card I’ve made several times, but when I double stamped and embossed the snowflakes, it offset, which I didn’t see until after embossing the second time. But, it’s good watercolor paper and I just knew I could save it.

Step Three: Research.  On Pinterest, I found a few examples of snow globe cards. I had a set from forever ago (purchased at Michaels) that was smaller, but I realized this would provide a strong image that would cover push the double emboss into the background. I could then create a strong design triangle using die cut snowflakes, stickers and embossed aluminum (Kitchen foil!) that would suppress the offending image.

The card with the design triangle highlighted in blue.

Step Four: Colors and papers. The colors were in the original card. But I knew I needed to use high contrast to make the image ‘less important’ to the eye, so I went for a color palette of plum and navy, and used those in the matting layers. The plum and foil I used was already embossed from another project. I also had parts of snowflakes left from other cards so I grabbed those.

Step Five/Six: Design and assembly. First, I used a larger card so I had plenty of room. I chose stark white, again, to increase contrast, drawing the eye from the problem area. I inked the corners with aqua to tie it in. I glued the plum to the navy and trimmed it so ¼” of white would show and then trimmed the original background to show ¼ of the dark mat. I glued down the snowflake pieces then trimmed them to the edge of the card.

 

Next, I stamped the snow globe and added a snowman (I seriously considered the snow bunny…). This was colored with markers and pencils. While stamping I decided to add the word “joy!” to the foil so it wasn’t plain and again, draws the eyes away from the problem area. These were attached to the card using dimensional foam adhesive.

The last step was adding the aqua and blue sticker to the plain white snowflake. This was needed as the large snowflake at the top was “heavier” than the small snowflake. The added height and color provides weight and balances the asymmetrical layout.

Another design note: The snowflakes, snow globe and foil have strong contrast and depth and create a strong bottom left to top right movement which is counter to the problem image. This movement causes the lower contrast background image to recede, allowing me to use it without it bothering the eye. If the image were black or the background higher contrast, this would not work.

AND....Finished

 

Supplies: (if you wish to create)

·         Snow Globe set (Michael’s Crafts purchased 10+ years ago. Brand unknown), Mini letter stamps (Walmart 10+ years ago. Brand unknown).

·         Inkadinkado: 98397 Snowflakes A-plenty

·         Sizzix Framelits Die Set 3PK - Snowflakes by Rachael Bright

·         Spellbinders S5-065 Shapeabilities Moroccan Motifs Die

·         Flourishes Embossing folder (Hobby Lobby brand I believe)

·         Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil

·         K&Company Dimensional Stickers: Snowflake 30-668775

·         Inks: Stampin'-up: Aqua, Night of Navy, Perfect Plum; VersaMark  ink

·         Cardstock: White, Plum, Navy

·         Other: emboss powder, heat tool, glue, scissors, acrylic block, colored pencils, markers

Have fun rescuing your own cards. I'd love to see pictures of what you do!