Peacock Feather Snowflake LTC

All of my practice cards

I am participating in live4thepast's "Snowflake Flurries" LTC swap.  I started looking on Google for some kind of unique snowflake and found the peacock feathers.  I carved it up right away.  I knew I wanted to use Distress Inks for my background but I looked on Pinterest to narrow down the technique.  Then I found THIS.  It is beautiful and I had to try to copy it.

It took me forever to make this set of cards.  I don't think I have ever worked on one set for so long.  Tip of the day: don't work on a set of cards during Black Friday or other Christmas sales.  I ended up buying a lot of stuff with this card in mind.  I bought 2 Distress Oxide pads, ink daubers and case, a pad of Mixed Media paper, and the Tim Holtz drying tool.  The final card used none of these items.

Distress Ink on card stock

I started off rubbing Distress Inks on my craft mat, spraying with water, spreading my card thru the ink, and letting it dry.  I tried card stock, Bristol, and Mixed Media paper.  That didn't get the results I wanted.

I switched to rubbing the ink on the paper with felt and my new daubers.  I tried both inks and oxides on card stock, Bristol, and Mixed Media paper.  Again, I wasn't happy.   But I liked this better than the first try so I was going to stick with rubbing Distress Inks on card stock.

I decided that while I was working on this I would watch/listen to some Distress Ink videos on YouTube.  I guess I have never watched Tim Holtz use Distress Inks.  I just watch videos of other people using inks on their blogs.  The video was from 2008 and he rubbed the ink on his craft mat, sprayed with water, rubbed his card through the ink, dried the paper with his heat tool and tapped the card in the ink again, dried the card, and repeated the process until he was happy with the card.

Finished card, before the rhinestone 

I have never seen this with Distress Inks!  On the blogs I have only seen people rub the ink on the mat, spray with water, rub the card through, let then dry and they are done.  This 9.5 yo video was mind blowing.  So I tired this and was happier with the outcome.  I asked the Princess which background she liked best and this was the winner.

I stamped and embossed my stamp.  I also stamped the stamp around the edges and punched the corners.   At the last minute I decided to add a gold rhinestone.   I worked on this set of cards for two months and they are finally done!!