Thursday, December 2, 2010

Faux Snow - Grated Paper Fluff Again!

Card made with a Stamp Set called Scenic SeasonYou have to love Wisconsin weather!  Last night we had the most beautiful light crystalline snowfall.  It was picture perfect illuminated by the barn light after dark. So my inspiration for this card is those lovely little sparkly flakes. Of course its not really winter yet so it didn't really stick on the ground, but this card is what it made me think of.

I'm so happy with the way this turned out - especially the "snow".  Its another example of the technique I showed in October, which I was calling "Grated Paper Fluff". This is just the coolest thing - so simple to do and so effective.  All you do is roll up some scrap paper and
grate it with a kitchen grater. The grater cleans up really easily. It is a little dusty, but not too bad.  If you look back at the October post you'll see that I was grating colored card stock to make fall foliage for a tree image. There are lots of great (pun intended) things about this technique:  first it uses up scrap paper!  Second, by using your own paper you can get a perfect color match for any paper you have. Third, you didn't $pend money to buy a fluffy product and you don't have another bottle of bling to find a place for on your stamping shelves. 

I wanted to make a card that felt cold and frosty.  I chose the trees from a stamp set called Scenic Season (which my daughter chose in her Starter Kit when she joined me as a demonstrator. I didn't ink the stamp too heavily because I didn't want the black ink to overpower the frosty snow.  The sparkles on the tree are very subtle, I made them with Iridescent Ice embossing powder.  (I made several versions of this, the final card above does not have the sentiment on it that you're seeing here)

How to make a pleated ribbon strip
Notice the ribbon? I laid a strip of Sticky Strip across the base of the focal point. It is the same width as the 1/4" grosgrain ribbon. Then I just started sticking the ribbon to the sticky strip and bunching it up as I went along.  I wanted to have the ribbon continue the feel of snow on the bottom of the image. 

I stamped the image on a piece of Crumb Cake card stock and layered it on top a piece of black cardstock.  Then I randomly stamped snowflakes on the white card base.  I used snowflakes from a stamp set called Serene Snowflakes - but this card would look good with any snowflake set you have. 

All the supplies are from Stampin'UP! (except the kitchen grater!).  Let me know if there is any way I can help you with your stamping needs. 


Thanks for choosing me as your source of stamping inspiration and education. I'm here to help you. Your choice to purchase your stamping supplies through me helps to support this website.

--Katie

3 comments:

Candee said...

Never saw this before---thanks for the grate (haha) instructions and also for the ribbon row---TFS! Candee P

*BJ* said...

Love your card. It is beautiful. Thanks for sharing this wonderful technique.

Patti said...

This is such a lovely card. I love the sparkly trees. Thanks for sharing this unusual technique.