Frosted Cards - Free Ideas for Frosted Holiday Greeting Cards

Want to learn how to make drop-dead gorgeous frosted greeting cards? This article features free card making ideas, tips and techniques you can use to create your own frosted cards.

Clear acrylic is a versatile material for card making. There are limitless ways to dress it up or down; since it is clear, it matches anything and everything.

One of my favorite techniques is sanding the clear acrylic to created a frosted look. This technique can be used for a variety of different purposes. You can frost the clear acrylic to make it resemble beach glass or ocean waves. In these examples, I've chosen to use it on winter holiday greeting cards; it's the perfect technique to use with motifs like snowflakes, stars and snowmen.

To achieve a frosted look, you could use any of the following items:

Sandpaper

The sanding and distressing tools in the Making Memories Distressing Kit

An emery board or nail file from your manicure kit

Another abrasive surface

How to Create the Frosted Look on the Acrylic:

Remove the protective coating from both sides of the acrylic, and discard it. Then sand the acrylic by rubbing your tool, sandpaper or other abrasive surface over the acrylic in the desired areas.

You could frost around the edges of the acrylic piece, or you could frost the entire piece. You could also frost parts and leave other parts alone. If you want it to be really frosted, sand both sides.

You don't have to stop there; you can also embellish the acrylic with crystals and rhinestones or other supplies. You could also draw on the acrylic with paint markers or gold leaf pen for a sophisticated effect.

Shapes for Frosting

You can frost any acrylic shape you choose. The winter-themed shapes are all fantastic for frosting; the snowflakes, snowmen, stars and bells all look lovely when frosted. Consider frosting other embellishments too; the letters of the alphabet would look stunning with frosted accents.

Any of the clear acrylic minis would be great for using in cards, and many of Clear Scraps' Clear 'N' Chip sets feature embellishments that would work for card making too.

Pairing Frosted Shapes With Papers

Certain papers work better than others with frosted acrylic embellishments. Really "busy" papers distract from the frosted effect, and there are some patterned papers that will obscure it all together. These should be avoided.

When considering which paper to use, hold the frosted shape overtop of the paper to see how it looks. If the frosted look doesn't show up well, choose a different paper.

Compare the two greeting cards shown in the photos in this article. One photo shows a frosted snowman shape and a frosted snowflake shape. The snowflake is attached to a backdrop of plain cardstock, while the snowman is layered overtop of a patterned paper. It's easier to see the frosted look on the snowflake shape.

The second card shows a frosted star shape layered overtop of patterned paper. In person, you can see the frosted effect, although it doesn't stand out much. In the photos, you can barely even tell that the shape has been sanded.

Frosted cards are an ideal place to use solid cardstock; the frosted effect usually shows up well when layered on top of a solid-colored paper.

Share Your Ideas for Frosted Effects Too!

If you have other good tips and / or suggestions for achieving frosted effects for your greeting cards, please share them in the comments section below. Thanks!

Sources:

Clear Acrylic Shapes: Clear Scraps

Stamps: Studio G

Patterned Papers: Hambly,Moxxie

Velvet Stickers: Thickers by American Crafts

Decorative Scissors (Paper Edgers): Fiskars