Embossed Snowflake Fun - Guest Designing at Let's Squash It!!

Hey everyone - I'm excited to be Guest Designing for the December Let's Squash It! Challenge!! I was Empress of Squash in October, winning with my tree card - woo hoo! Hosts Gail and Jo have become great friends of mine since I started playing at LSI and other challenges they host like The Card Chain Challenge and Christmas Kickstart. This month's theme at LSI - SNOWFLAKES & STARS!! I have oodles of embossing folders with either one but I went the snowflake route. Here's my card:

Supplies: Paper - Park Lane A2 card; Spellbinders White;

Hero Arts Glitter Paper Basics

Embossing Folder - Hero Arts/Sizzix Snowflake Background Set (retired)

Dies - A Jillian Vance Design Stitched Dot Rectangle Backdrop Set;

Art Impressions Lg Snowflake Dies;

 Spellbinders Snowflake Splendor & Holiday Greetings (both retired

but found HERE & HERE at Frantic Stamper; FS calls the latter Snowflake Bliss)

Other - Hero Arts Glitter Hero Paste; 

TH Salty Water Taffy Distress Stain & Villanous Potion Reinker;

Hero Arts Taffy Reactive Ink; 

Taylored Expressions Simple Strips in Reverse Christmas

I was playing with a bubble technique in the opposite corners of a card, like I did HERE, but my bubbles were too large. I wasn't getting the same subtle corner effect  that I did on that previous card. My solution - bubble the entire panel - fab! Then I decided to spritz a bit with Salt Water Taffy Distress Stain. That got a bit heavy in spots but the large die cut snowflake covered the worst spot - LOL.

After drying the panel, I die cut it with a stitched rectangle and ran it through the Vagabond with a snowflake embossing folder. Next I swiped some Hero Arts Taffy ink on the raised bits, then used my finger to spread some glitter Hero Paste here & there. Once thoroughly dry, I ran it through with the ef a second time - this really brought out the pattern and also flattened the areas that had warped.

Next I added various shimmery snowflakes and the sentiment, then adhered everything to an A2 card. Here's the funny part: I'm looking at the embossing folder (found in a box of unpackaged ones) and thinking - hmmmm, this looks like it should have more details. Then it hit me - this belongs to one of those old stamp & emboss sets! I have a bunch from a Hero Arts/Sizzix collaboration; the snowflake set was released in 2012 and retired long ago. Here's a shot of the ef with it's matching stamp - they are reunited!

And why not, since I found the matching stamp, make a card with the combo?! So here's your bonus:

Supplies: Paper - Paper Studio blues;

Hero Arts Glitter Paper Basics

Stamp & Emboss Set - Hero Arts/Sizzix Snowflake Background Set (retired) 

Inks - Hero Arts Navy & Cornflower

Stencil - Hero Arts Sprinkled Dots

Other - Docrafts gems;

Taylored Expressions Simple Strips in Reverse Christmas

I stamped the cling snowflake background onto pale blue cardstock using navy ink. I die cut the panel with a stitched rectangle and used the stamp's matching ef. I sponged some cornflower blue ink around the edges, then used the same ink to stencil some falling snow in the bare spots. Glued the panel to a navy card, added some gems & another TE sentiment strip backed with glitter paper - done! I'm curious - which version do you like better - plain embossed or stamped/embossed? Both were fun to make! 

And I couldn't resist a threefer. Was shopping (big surprise) at Hobby Lobby and they had 40% off a bunch of dies and efs. I found a beautiful snowflake set by Momenta (no name listed & it's not available at Hobby Lobby's website). Besides the ef, there are 7 dies - a great value!

Embossing Folder - Momenta name unk

I inked the raised bits with some white ink and popped on a couple snowflakes from the stash. The rather spiky looking purple one is from Elizabeth Craft Designs Snowflakes set. The sentiment is from SSS sentiment strips collection & fussy cut. Very quick and easy!

Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this long post! And thanks to Gail and Jo for inviting me to guest design. Hope to see you in the Let's Squash It! gallery!!

Thanks for stopping!