Snowflake Medallion FREEBIE

I am working on a snowflake medallion design. Here is the prototype I first printed. To colour, I used the Gradient Flood-fill tutorial. I'm not sure if I like the black on this... future coloured versions will be a bit lighter and the outline will be a darker version of whatever colour I am using instead of the black. The background is a snowflake paper from the Blue Poinsettia Pack or the Poinsettia Red & Blue Bundle found HERE at the store.



This card, was made with an outline printout of the same medallion. I coloured the darker parts with a Tranquil Teal Bic Mark-It marker. The lighter layer was coloured with minty and cream coloured pencils - a bit of blending with OMS on the mint shading before I shaded with the cream. The dots on the medallion are meant for glitter "love" LOL. I added Patina Stickles to the perimeter and spots. I added an aurora borealis gem to the center. The ribbon is white iridescent organza coloured with the same teal marker. The background was done with chalk pastels with the techinque I posted HERE. * So basically, everything started out white and was coloured in LOL!


Close up to show the stickles... OK I think Patina Stickles is my fave colour!!! :) but you can't really see its true multi-faceted colour, trust me ... it is fab!

Now for the good part:
I am going to make this a tradition LOL! I had a snowflake medallion freebie last year, and I want to carry on the tradition :D

Here is the Digital Stamp version of this Snowflake Medallion and one sheet with minty and light blue coloured versions. DOWNLOAD FROM HERE
I will have another download with more coloured versions early next week ( as I have run out of time... busy busy LOL).

***The Terms of Use are different for this download. You can make coloured digital versions/sheets of this medallion and share with your friends/blog/groups. Just please make sure my name and blog address are somewhere on the sheet. Please don't sell the sheets. You CAN sell your crafted items and cards still. Please tell your friends and show me the link love :)) if you post your cards, etc. *** Thanks so much.

I'd love to see your creations... hint hint LOL

I'll be away this weekend, so if you don't hear or get replies from me until Monday don't panic LOL.

:)* Fred

Catchin' Flakes - in the store!

Catchin' Flakes is in the store now. There are 2 colour versions ( the above is the other version with the red hat) with varying backgrounds, digital stamp outlines, and a paper pack. Please check the bottom of the listing for special bundled price :)
Catchin' Flakes Product listing HERE

*Also, if you have any witty or cool ideas for verses, etc. for this image, please add a comment here, if I like any, I will create and post a sentiment freebie! Or the peeps can just use the submissions for ideas for their own cards :)

P.S. I kept it simple and didn't add PDF's just jpegs, if you are buying and are heartbroken that I didn't include the PDF files, please email me after your purchase and I will email you the PDF's as soon as I can. Thanks :)

Have a great day!

:)* Fred

Catchin' Snowflakes

Oh my, I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted! Let's chalk it up to work, stress, bugs, and out to lunchness! LOL! anyhoo....

I have been working on this design. I am not allowed to say who this cutie-patootie is modeled after, although I can say, I have a person in the house who is not too happy with his Mama! LOL "That does NOT look like me, I don't wear my hair that way!, I would NEVER wear that!" Too funny! Yes, my sweet - Mumzy used to cut your hair like that! ...and yes you were that cute and yes, you are still cute! ...In a dude cute kinda way! The unnamed lad in this scene has a little competition in the snowflake catching business, although I think the pup has a more efficient method of catching them ;)

I hope to have this available Monday or Tuesday. I also have him with a red hat, etc. to coordinate with more christmas-y colours.

The paper on card is my design and cuttlebug embossed, the center of the snowflakes have been dotted with a glitter pen. The edge of the scalloped border is outlined with a blue Sakura stardust pen. There are glittery bits all over the image but you can't see them in the photo.

***The ribbon.... oooooh it is actually white iridescent striped organdy ribbon, coloured with a Bic Mark It marker! I am loving these markers! Any smelly ( smelly=permanent or alcohol based ) marker will colour ribbon, Sharpies, Copics, or even alcohol inks brushed on!*** Coolest trick ever! LOL - I now have many colours of organza, satin ribbon and ric rac LOL.

I hope to post again tomorrow! ;)

:)* Fred

Emma the Hugger - snowman edition PNG file

Carol from Custom Creations by Carolivy kindly made a PNG file that has a soft fuzzy blue background that graduates to transparent. It would be lovely for adding on top of your background papers.

If you purchased Emma The Hugger Decoupage & Print Pack ( the one that is already coloured) send a request to my email using the email you used to purchase or your transaction ID number and I will gladly email you the file :)

Have a great day!

Fred :)*

CARD - Playing with Chalk Pastels pt 1

I don't know about you, but I get the most excited, while card making, when I have a blank slate... a lovely, clean, white smooth piece of paper to work from. A white piece of paper or cardstock can turn into just about anything... you can print on it, stamp on it, slather it up with all kinds of artsy, gloopy, or glittery stuff. This time around I have been playing with a 48 pc set of chalk pastels I have had in one of my crafting drawers since forever. I bought them once when I had an opportunity to visit a Michaels store. They were in the art supply section, the cheapy stuff. I think they were under $5!! :D Leow-Cornell brand. They are definitely not artist grade but very chalky and very blendable. I also have a small set of artist soft pastels and they work great for what I was doing too; any chalky pastel stick will do. Note * I am not reinventing the wheel here, just a fun and simple technique and I dare you to only make one paper! LOL

Ingredients:
cheap white paper
chalk pastels
cottonballs or facial tissue
pearlescent or shimmery paint ( acrylic or watercolour )
liner brush
fixative spray
things to emboss your paper like cuttlebug and embossing folders ( optional)


What I did:
-I cut copy/multipurpose paper into quarters, the size I want for my cardfronts.
-I Selected 3 or four coordinating pastel sticks - card above used a yellow, peach, light pink & dark pink.
-Draw random curly cues & swirls all over the paper, use all the colours.


-Then take a cotton ball or a balled up facial tissue and lightly blend the paper, try to follow the movement of your curly cues. The result will have a soft & light pastel feel, go back over with more curly cues of pastel and blend again if you want a more vibrant look.

The result above is actually more colourful in RL. Here is another try:

-this one I didn't overblend so the lines are more prominent.

*(Alternative, use one chalk pastel at a time and blend between colour applications.)
-I then sprayed my paper with a fixative spray so the chalk stayed put.
-After I was "done" with the chalks, I pulled out my Niji Pearlescent watercolour set and wet the gold, primed up a liner brush and just started making swirlies until I filled up the paper with curly cues.



-For the card above, I cuttlebug embossed the paper. The "lacey" front was made with a combination of embossing folders from the "Frills" and "With Love" sets.

If you don't think you have the knack for painting your own curly cues, try stamping with gold ink and or embossing. Another thing you could do is cuttlebug emboss your paper, lightly brayer some versamark and then emboss with gold embossing powder OR just brayer some gold or shimmery ink/paint over the raised areas.

LATER, I got a little more adventurous and the fun ensued. But THAT is another story.... ( pt 2)

Have a great day!
Fred :)*

CARD - Emma the Hugger in Blue

Here is another Emma the Hugger card; this time I used some blue mistletoe paper. The embossing was coloured over with a sakura stardust glitter pen. See my bow? Still a bit wonky but better than some previous efforts. Thank you YouTube for letting me search for bow tying videos, and thank you to the generous folks who made the tutorials. {grin}

Have a great day!
Fred :)*

CARD Dover Clipart and Coloured Pencils & OMS

I did this card a while back and I enjoyed colouring it. The bouquet is Dover clipart from the Floral Illustrations collection. I used Koh-i-noor woodless pencils to colour in and blended with OMS. The black looking card is actually navy and the edge around the flower front is outlined with gold pearlescent watercolour paint for that gilded look :) The cuttlebug embossed background was attacked with shimmery chalks after I made the mistake of using my embossing pad rather than versamark... no the blue tint does NOT disappear like it does with blue tinted glue LOL ;)

I have had those heart shaped brads kicking around forever and, boy, do they work great for fastening organza ribbon together, when you are bow-tying challenged like MOI! However, I have been practicing; this ol' lefty is getting the hang of it but they are still a bit wonky, my bows LOL! Will show one of my better efforts ( bow) tomorrow ;)

Have a great day!
Fred :)*