More Snowflakes!

I made it back home from my trip and tonight we are expecting another storm in Massachusetts - so I decided to share this snowflake file I did last year when I got my Christmas solutions cartridge. I am getting tired of snow but I am still fascinated by snowflake designs!

I welded the snowflake designs together in the "seven sisters" pattern commonly used with hexagons in quilting. The large snowflake design looks like this (on a 12 x 12 page)



I also did the same design but eliminated the center snowflake for a frame - this variation looks like this



Below is a photo of the full seven sisters cut on the mat



After the large snowflake was carefully lifted the remainder bits on the mat looked like this



By placing the frame cut on top of these leftovers you can get an idea of how this would look if you carefully saved all of the cut out bits and adhered them inside the frame (similar to a puzzle and the Indie Art frame from yesterday's post).



Below you can see the full cut layered over the frame



and the frame layered over the full cut



Since I did this as an adjustable file you can copy and paste the design and adjust the size to suit your project. I did a few common card sizes for you to see how they look - below is a labeled screen shot



and here are the actual cuts.



When you cut the large size of the design lifts easily but on these smaller cuts you need to take care - there are many tiny pieces that may need some "help" to come away from the frame. You can see the small slits that stayed "stuck" in this photo



This is the tool I used to help "poke out" the slits



This is actually a tool to use for picking up small pieces and moving them around with a sticky substance that extrudes from the point on the other end but the tip on this end worked nicely to separate the cuts.



Here is one of the card cuts after a bit of "clean up" to remove the smallest interior pieces.



You can trim the center points away to make a more open frame as seen in the photos below





The full page offcuts left from the larger cuts are attractive and could be used as a page background





You could even add back the center from the frame cut for this effect (sorry, in the photo I have it a bit off center but you can get the idea)



Be sure you have a sharp blade and a good mat for these intricate cuts - I had a few problems with the blade snagging at corners but I was able to snip the few small uncut areas (you can see a close up of one in the photo below).



The design shown with two shades of blue for the cut and background.



I hope the snows aren't too deep where you are - but if you get snowed in have some fun with your Cricut!



Snowflake variations (A)