How Many Different Ways Can You Use a Snowflake? Six, it Seems!

I've been locked in my craft room recently coming up with oodles of ideas to make different cards out of the same die. Although these are created specifically for Top Dog Dies, you can certainly adapt the ideas to dies you already own as well.

In case you haven't heard, Top Dog Dies is a new online store that offers their own brand of wafer-thin and steel-rule dies, along with dies from brands you already know and trust, including My Favorite Things, Sizzix, Savvy Stamps and Cheery Lynn Designs. Top Dog Dies is also the leading U.S. retailer for Tattered Lace, a new line of intricate dies designed by U.K. designer Stephanie Weightman.

The dies that we're going to study today are these gorgeous Snowflakes Trio Dies. I'll show you six projects ... the first two projects will use the dies as-is, and the remaining projects will alter the dies slightly, with the intent to really stretch your supplies!

1) Change the color. Snowflakes don't have to be just for Christmas. Here's a Valentine that, instead of using hearts, uses snowflakes cut in light and dark pink cardstock. They are tucked into an angled panel, almost like they've collected in the corner of a window. This card is an example of how changing the color of your snowflake to something other than white will change the look of it immediately without any additional work.

2). Vary the loose pieces you punch out. Here's a giant 12" snowman cut out of chipboard and covered in many of the Snowflake Trio dies. 

A close-up shows the different snowflakes covered in chunky glitter. Even though there are only three snowflakes, you can give the impression of having dozens of different snowflakes by selectively punching out the loose pieces. Keep some snowflakes with all the loose pieces, some with all the loose pieces punched out, and some with different patterns of pieces punched out (i.e., all the inside and outside pieces, all the middle pieces, all the lined pieces).

To stand up the snowman, I've used another piece of chipboard, scored 1.5" from the top so it bends out. Covering the back of the snowman and the stand is a nice finishing touch. The twigs are clipped from the tree in my front yard and glued between the layers of paper and chipboard. To avoid excess bulk, I flattened the ends of the twigs with pliers before attaching them between the layers.

Now let's alter the snowflake dies slightly for even more looks. To see additional photos showing exactly where the dies were cut, see my post at Top Dog Dies.

3) Turn it into a flower. Cutting the largest snowflake between the "petals" turns it into a flower! Die cut this snowflake-turned-flower in a patterned yellow paper, add it to a tag along with a sentiment, and you're done. You could easily make a whole bouquet of these. The black flower center is from the current Fusion Challenge photo that I'm nuts over.

4) Make a double-layered flower. The first blue snowflake is cut in between each petal like the previous card, but the second yellow snowflake removes every other petal so you're left with just three sections. When you layer these two, they make a beautiful flower with a colored streak down each petal. Hold the layers together with a brad. A simple, embossed sentiment, and patterned paper on the inside finishes this card off.

 

5) Make a butterfly. Pick two fun colors and die cut two snowflakes. Then cut each snowflake so only two adjacent sections remain, skipping the section between them. Attach one section pointing up and one section pointing down, and you have a butterfly. Again, if this is confusing, you may want to check out the post at Top Dog Dies to see exactly what sections are being cut.
 

Here's a closer look. This butterfly uses double-sided paper as an easy way to make sure the colors go together. You can see there's another yellow layer underneath the butterfly to make it even more colorful.
 

An even closer look shows the middle of the butterfly. Can you guess what it's made from? Yep, it's from those negative, long, skinny pieces going through the middle of each petal! I just lined them up next to each other until I got the width I wanted for a body. Add some metallic silver thread for the antenna and you're set.

 

The clouds and buildings are cut out by hand. The sentiment is extended with a felt tip pen to make it look like the butterfly's flight path.

6) Use the loose pieces. This card uses the long, spikey pieces from middle of this snowflake to make a laurel wreath.

 

It's what I call a "left-over" card. As long as there are useable elements left over from a card, I've been trying to make another card with those elements while I still have all the supplies out. This one uses all the left-overs from the first card with the pink and red snowflakes. The angled panel is the negative from that first panel, and the long, spikey pieces are from the snowflakes.

Layer the long, spikey pieces along a curve on both sides of your sentiment and add some sequins. Done.

And there you have it ... snowflakes used 6 different ways. I hope you've come away with some ideas for the snowflake die, especially those not in any way related to Christmas or winter.

 

Here's a bonus set of cards featuring a few different looks from cutting apart the Leafy Branch Die.

Once you cut the leaves off the die, you can use just two of them to break up a sentiment, like a dramatic pause in speech.

 

Here the leaves are used in a single layer around a ring of cardstock for a sympathy card. The sentiment is below center to tie in more with the twine wrapped around the card.  

Choosing neutral colors and a simple wreath style is in keeping with the tone of the card. The wreath reminds me of a gentle hug

Instead of lining the leaves up around the ring, you can fan them out to create a more extravagant wreath. There are 7 different shades and patterns of green used to give this wreath more depth.

The bow looks very thick and difficult to mail, but it's actually very squishy and flat. Double sided paper from American Crafts Kringle and Co. decorates the inside of the card.
 

 And if you've made it through all of those projects, you certainly deserve a free giveaway!!

How about a chance for $50 to spend at Top Dog Dies? You can sure do a lot of damage with that! To enter, just register here. For extra entries, you can:

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The deadline to enter the giveaway is Sunday, Jan. 26 at midnight.
  

 Thanks so much to Top Dog Dies for inviting me to use their products and post on their blog. I really enjoyed myself and had a lot of fun!

-Kelly

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