I watched my third grade daughter create a Christmas ornament for a classmate several days ago, I thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

It was a classic snowflake cut out. You know, fold the paper, cut out little parts from the inside, open it up and there it is, an incredible, one-of-a-kind snowflake.

It occurred to me. “Why can’t I do that technique using my Wizardâ„¢. Use the dies to cut out the intricate shapes that are so lovely in a snowflake.”

Well, it worked. But it was not easy. I know, you all are used to whipping out your Wizardâ„¢, throwing a few dies down, having them cut on the first go around and moving on. Well, that was not how this process worked. But I really felt that sharing it with you was a MUST. So…gather your Wizardâ„¢, some dies (preferrably Shapeabilities® dies, not the ones in the plate form), some vellum or light-weight paper, your best little pair of scissors and your patience and let’s get started.

First, the result called “Wicked Beauty”

It features a storm we had several years ago that left 3 feet of snow around town and closed it down for several days.

Now, the challenge, to create the snowflakes. Do you have your supplies ready:

As you can see, here are some of the Die Templates I chose to use for this project: Doodle Parts, Stars 5, Butterflies 2 and the tiniest Paisley. There are lots of choices, just remember to really look at the shape that is being produced by the Die Template and don’t think about what it actually is.

To begin, fold a 7 inch vellum square:

Begin with the outer shape of the snowflake which will help define the overall look. I chose to cut the first with the points of the largest nested star:

Here is where the patience begins. After the first cutting pass on the Wizard, you’ll get just 3, maybe four layers cut…there are 8, yikes. remove the flaps that are cut from the snowflake:

Now replace the die on the snowflake and run it through to cut again. It will get more challenging for the tamplate to cut through the layers. That’s when you’ll rely on the trusty old scissors to finish the job.

The straight cuts are not so hard but but let’s get to the really interesting shapes. Note how I placed part of the star shape above the Die Template. That part will not be cut:

Again, remove as much of the vellum layers as you can. Repeat the cutting process in the Wizardâ„¢ and then working back and forth between Wizardâ„¢ and scissors, remove all 8 layers of the paper. Wow. It is beginning to take shape.

Now you get the gist. Keep adding shapes and being very careful. The Shapeabilities® Die Templates tend to want to slip off the vellum. I know this because I was challenged by slipping that cut out the entire center of my first big snowflake. So using a bit of low-tac transparent tape can help.

Now get to it. Create your own snowflake projects. Just take along some patience, scissors and your Wizardâ„¢.

Cheers to all, Eli

Tags: Die cutting, Eli, Snowflake, Winter

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 20th, 2008 at 8:12 am and is filed under Savvy Saturday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.