Snow Crystals in November

Pure and Peaceful, originally uploaded by desireux.

I finally made my snowflakes pop-up card :) This design took me quite some time, from the snowflake illustration to joining the snowflakes to make the intricate "network" of snowflakes at the top of the arch and finally putting the piece together.

One of the challenges of making pop-up cards is that one has to always think of the cutting step or the assembly step while proceeding with the illustration. The illustration has to look good as a cut-out, meaning that one has to think of it in terms of negative and positive spaces.

After the card is made, another challenge would be the photography of the card. I find these 180 degree cards easier to photograph because they are clearly three dimensional. However, for the 90 degree cards, the cards need to be at an angle where you can see the "pop up". This is an aspect which is important too, because I want my pop-ups to not only look good in person but in photographs too. This is why I even envision the photo taking process at the designing stage of the pop-up.

I have my Snow Crystals pop-up card on Etsy now, together with the rest of my 2009 Holiday Collection which I will post of more in days to come. Meanwhile, hope November goes well for all of you!