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Shalina's wonderful flaking style is most mysterious indeed.  I have drilled her on more than one occasion to try and "x"plain it to me.  She has graciously agreed to let me place some of her information here, as I feel it is important to document.

-×-   ThanX Shalina, I will add to this page as you see fit!  -×-
 
 

I do a lot of little things that apparently nobody else does, at least not that I can see.  I don't have a specific style really...I do all sorts of things, but I manage to get in a rut and stay put  for  long periods of times and when I go back to a former style, people are in shock!  Haha

I could tell how I do my dreadful Grid Flakes.   I will say "You too can scream and want to chuck the computer into
the street!"   What a secret!   Throw a hissy fit when things don't go just right and delete the flake!   Hehe  You can use this paragraph if you like.  I know it is pretty raw..but its true!

 First off, my mouse is a… wheel mouse optical 1.1A USB and PS/2 Compatible 5V 100mA from Microsoft.  I have no idea what all that means.  I copied it from under the mouse and I also have DSL.  You can adjust the mouse sensitivity on your desktop.  That will make a difference on how your flakes turn out, no matter what type of mouse you have. My mouse pad is some sort of cloth, but not too slippery. I once used a folded up newspaper at my mom’s house for a mouse pad, because the one she had was so slippery.

My biggest flaking secret is that I must have fun!  If I am not having fun, then its over with before I even start.  I am very silly, and some flakes reflect my goofy sense of humor.  I am sure this should be “featured flaker” info, but I think it is imperative to know where I am coming from.  I also (shock surprise) do not always like straight lines in my flakes.  I know this may give “X” cramps or something to hear me say this, since it is his masterful trademark!  Thanks to him, I know how to make a straight line when I want one.

The reason some of my flakes are shaded is because one day I was playing around with a snowflake on the PF.  What a  surprise!  LOL   I was doing the traditional cutting, as if I had an actual flake in hand, with scissors.    Suddenly I  thought, what would happen if I shaded back and forth very quickly, almost spastically, just to be ridiculous.

 Look at 1301372 .

I was amazed at what happened.  It added a 3-D sort of magic that was quite amazing to play with.    Most of my flakes start out with them being shaded back and forth in super straight lines very closely together.  Also, you will notice my flake eXample is shiny, which brings up my next secret.

SILVERY FLAKES
Originally published at Snowflake Maker's Group as:
How to make Silvery Flakes~ (mssg#1015)

I have been asked countless times how to do shimmery silver flakes.  I suppose its almost like trying to explain the color orange to someone who is color blind, but I will try to now...so here it goes.

The first step is to shade straight fine lines back and forth starting from the bottom corner edge, moving your way up, or from near the top moving downward without stopping. Don't overlap the lines or have crooked lines...they need to be somewhat uniform. This should be done with quick fast strokes going side to side. In example 1 (1012252), I have shaded back and forth, but not all the way to the top, which will later help create the shimmer. If it doesn't look quite right, just undo it and redo it till it starts to look somewhat like this one. This first step could take a
while...like several attempts unless you get lucky.

The second step is to cross shade in the opposite direction. In my second example (1012253), I did the first shading part, but then I added one sliver of a line into the white area. It should start to look shiny. It should be straight and fine.  Experiment on what looks best. If it looks harsh or real black, then undo the line and redo it. Don't make the line go all the way into the very top of the white. We are creating the shiny illusion this way.

In the third example (1012255), I added more shading.  Draw back and forth with straight lines over half of the lower part of the flake. They need to be in the exact opposite direction of the first lines you did...a criss cross effect. I did mine on the lower right side as you can see. This is the basic way to make shiny flakes. Of course you can play around and create other designs using this technique.

Good luck everyone and remember, first and foremost, have fun!

THE APEX:

Every flake has what I call an ApeX.  It is the light source of the flake.  It is what makes a flake shine, glow, shimmer, etc.   (See  1301527 and 1301532)

It is usually found at or near the center of the flake.  If you cut the ApeX away, you will have a dull or flat looking
flake.   A glowing flake has the ApeX functioning.  Many of my shaded flakes have the ApeX enhanced to the maX, for a dramatic effect.  If I cut too much away, my flake looks washed out or very dark.  Look at  #1301391 for a non-apeX.  Of course there are eXceptions to this.  Once you cut the apeX away, it is very hard to get it back.

FAIRY DUST:

Fairy dust…see flake 1301432   This type of flake has the ApeX, and then the lint,  sparkle dust or fairy dust,  as it is sometimes known by.   Many months ago when I first began to flake, I noticed that some flakes would go into this strange sort of “morph” as I called it.  I was trying to tell another flaker about what was happening to my flakes and I said “I don’t know, but it is morphing on me” or something to that effect.  Since then, the word morph has become a common flaking word.

It is basically the program doing its own thing, and making pesky lines when there should not be any.  For months I would fight my flakes from doing this horrible morphing thing, but then I realized that if I could make it work for me instead of against me, I could actually make some really nice flakes.

This fairy dust is when a flake has morphed, and I “pull” a tiny piece of white downward or sideways, to draw it away from the solid part.  This is a series of tiny cuts and squiggles in no particular order.  They are not really straight lines, but they can be.

 They crisscross one another too. Of course these flakes usually start out by being shaded.  It looks like you are pulling cotton candy apart!  So, in a nutshell, shade the flake first.  Second, cut out some design that makes you happy, keeping the apex in tact.  Then thirdly, start to pull out pieces of it to make the fluff.

 
SUNBURST / STARBURST FLAKES
(what are these called anyway?..hehe)

…These are flakes that make “X” say, "OH YESS" when he sees that I have made one!

I start off with a shaded flake with the center still white.  It is also a flake  that will morph when you draw a line
downwards from the middle.  I draw straight lines from near the center of the flake to the edge of the flake.  Make sure you use very thin straight lines to do this. After a while, much of the flake looks like it is missing.  Some lines are black, and some are white.  The morph is working  its magic on that.

You can’t really control which one type of line will happen, but if you don’t think the flake looks balanced as you are doing this, then use the delete on any cut that is not nice.   Look at 1301478 to see how I have straight lines coming from the white middle, and they are very thin and evenly spaced a part.  Every cut must be checked, as to not be destroying the ApeX.  Any single cut can wipe out an ApeX on one of these.

You will be using the undo button a lot on these because some lines take out way too much of the flake, or put a huge white part back in.  The key is to take tiny parts away at a time, from various angles.  By the time the SPs come, you should have a very fluffy little flake with a glowing center.  At some point, you can start to use the fairy dust technique to pull from the Apex downward to fill the flake back out.  The straighter lines, the better. Here are three that I have made:  1297236, 1298431, 1299365