Kindest Gnomes for the Cardz 4 Guyz #303 Challenge

Welcome to the latest Cardz 4 Guyz #303 biweekly challenge! Our hose this time, Melanie chose using a stencil to create a card. I used one of the Wonderful Snowflakes as my stencil, and am rather pleased with the result. When you finish here, I hope you will visit the challenge website to see the projects the rest of the design team created.

Here’s my card:

I found this fun fold on Connie Stewart’s YouTube channel. It’s so much fun, and so incredibly easy! It looks complicated, but truly it isn’t! You can find her video here.

Measurements:

The Cherry Cobbler base measures 5-1/4 by 11 inches. It’s scored at 1-3/4 and 3-1/2 inches from either end of the length of the base.
I also trimmed 3 pieces of Cherry Cobbler to 1-3/4 by 4 inches for the flaps.
The last piece of Cherry Cobbler I trimmed is for the mat on the front of the card. It measures 3 x 3 inches.
I needed two pieces of Basic White cardstock. The first is for the front and the final measurement (after using the embossing folder) is a 2-7/8 inch square. The second piece goes on the inside and measures 3-3/4 by 5 inches.
I used a piece of Sahara Sand cardstock on which I mounted the Cherry Cobbler base. The Sahara Sand measures 5-1/2 by 4-1/4 inches.
After I used the snowflake as a stencil, I trimmed the cardstock to 3-3/4 by 4-7/8 inches. From that piece, I trimmed it down to three equal pieces measuring 1-3/8 by 3-3/4 inches.
Finally, I trimmed a piece of Cherry Cobbler DSP to 6 inches by 2-1/2 inches for the envelope flap.

The Wonderful Snowflake as a Stencil:

I now have one very inked up snowflake after I used it as the stencil. I found out a couple of things as I was creating the background.
HINT 1: I found it much easier to use the snowflake when I figured out to use a small amount of removable tape on the back of the center of the snowflake. That way I didn’t have to work so hard to keep the snowflake lined up.
HINT 2: I used a blending brush with Sahara Sand ink on a piece of Sahara Sand cardstock. Since the snowflake is so fragile on the outward spokes, I found it much easier to use the blending brush in outward strokes from the center rather than in a circular motion.
When I finished stenciling the snowflakes, I splattered clear Wink of Stella over the cardstock. As usual, the Wink of Stella doesn’t show up well in photos, so I took a close-up of it:

The Kindest Gnomes:

I stamped the gnomes on white cardstock using Momento Tuxedo Black ink.
Then, I colored these cuties using the light and dark Cherry Cobbler and Crumb Cake blends combos.
I used the medium SU500 natural tone blend for the skin color and the dark Early Espresso blend for the shoes.
Finally, I used the light Smoky Slate blend for their beards.
The sentiment on the front comes from the Kindest Gnome stamp set. I stamped it in Cherry Cobbler ink then cropped it using a banner from the Stylish Shapes die set. Then, I outlined the banner using a Crumb Cake marker.
The last thing I did was add iridescent pearls randomly on the embossed snowflake square.

I really hope you try this fun fold! It truly is remarkably easy and people will think it took you forever. Honestly, it took longer to create the stenciled cardstock background than it did to create the whole rest of the card.