Rustic Poinsettias

I was immediately drawn to the poinsettia on Wendy Weixler's card when I received it in my email and knew that I just had to CASE it! I thought it would make lovely Christmas cards for my stamping group and would look pretty in a number of colors.

Because I knew that I would punch petals from 3 x 7" strips of paper, I trimmed five Whisper White sheets to 7 x 9" and then used a stamp from Gorgeous Grunge to stamp over the entire sheets. I chose these colors–Real Red, Pacific Point, Strawberry Slush, Bermuda Bay, and Melon Mambo.

I trimmed each sheet into three strips and punched 8 small petals and two double petals using the Festive Flower Punch. I also punched Whisper White circles using the 3/4" Circle Punch to serve as a base for each flower.

For each petal, I folded it in half lengthwise to give it some dimension and then inked the edges with Soft Suede, using a sponge dauber. I used my glue gun to assemble each flower on its base.

I cut three mattes of each of the five colors of card stock and then used Heidi Swapp's Color Shine Spritz in Gold Lamé to spritz each one. This gave a festive look to the panels and I loved the look of the paint drops of varying sizes!

From Thick Whisper White I cut card bases and then used my heat tool to make sure all the mattes were completely dry. Next, I stamped the sentiment from the Embellished Ornaments Stamp Set on each matte and heat embossed it using Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Using the Burlap ribbon, I cut lengths for each matte and then frayed the bottom edge. To make the ribbon not look quite so heavy looking, I also pulled some strands from the centre of each ribbon. I used sticky strip to attach the ribbons to each matte.

The mattes were adhered to each card base using Dimensionals and the poinsettias were adhered to the burlap ribbons, also using Dimensionals. To complete each flower, some Gold Cording Trim was threaded through a Gold Basic Metal Button and tied in a bow, and the button adhered to the flower using the glue gun.

The finishing touch for each card was to add three snowflakes from the now retired Frosted Sequins mix. However, the stark white of the snowflakes wasn't quite right so I painstakingly dipped each snowflake in glue from the Fine Tip Glue Pen and then sprinkled them with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter. Once they were completely dry, I adhered the snowflakes using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

Close up of one of the Melon Mambo cards.

Close up of one of the Melon Mambo cards  from another angle.

I am very pleased with how these cards turned out! The poinsettias and the gold-sprayed mattes remind me of the vintage enamel ware pots and pans people used to have! Such a homey look!


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Color Burst Christmas and Wonderful Wonderland

Wow! We had a crazy, jam-packed stamping class on Friday night! Sixteen ladies in attendance and stamping–it got a little warm in the room with so many bodies present but we persevered to create some spectacular cards!

I had been wanting to give my group the chance to try working with the Color Bursts and I knew that our last class before Christmas would be busy with our tag exchange so I went ahead with my plan on Friday.

As this was their first chance to play with the Color Bursts, I decided to keep things simple.

I demonstrated how to achieve both smooth and more distressed looking effects using just two colors of Color Bursts. I had hoped that they would be able to experiment and make two background panels but because they were having so much fun playing, most only got to make one.

After their Color Burst background panel was completed and dry, they trimmed up the panels to make a 4 x 5.25" matte and inked the edges. It was then adhered to a Thick Whisper White card base.

They had previously chosen a color of card stock that would coordinate with the Color Bursts they were using. From this card stock they used the Festive Flower Punch to punch small petals (8), double petals (2) and the 3/4" Circle Punch to punch a circle to use for a poinsettia embellishment. They also punched three small petals and two centres from either gold or silver Glimmer Paper.

They folded each petal in half lengthwise to give it some dimension and then inked the edges of each using either Basic Black Archival or Early Espresso ink. They used glue guns to assemble the poinsettias and then adhered them to their Color Burst panels using Dimensionals.

They stamped a sentiment from the Happy Scenes stamp set on a strip of Whisper White and inked the edges with either Basic Black Archival or Early Espresso. One end was flagged and then the sentiment was adhered to the card front. A few sequins were added for some extra sparkle!

It's here that I would love to have posted pictures of the lovely cards they made but once again I forgot to take photos! If I get the ladies to send pictures of their cards, I will edit this post to include them and let you know!

The second card that we made was cased entirely from the lovely card designed by LeeAnn Greff. LeeAnn has a video tutorial on her blog that shows how to construct this card.

We started by brayering the lovely sky using both Island Indigo and Rich Razzleberry inks. We then used Basic Black Archival ink to stamp two clumps of trees using the Wonderland stamp set. A strip of Whisper White as stamped with the sentiment from the same stamp set. The strip was then ripped to simulate the edge of a snowbank and then adhered to the bottom of the inked background.

The completed panel was mounted on a Whisper White matte which in turn was mounted on a Rich Razzleberry card base using Dimensionals.

A white gel pen was used to create stars and add snow to the tree branches. Once dry, a Two-Way Glue Pen was used over these spots and Dazzling Diamonds added. The glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds were also added to the edge of the snowbank.

A Whisper White matte was stamped with the trees for the inside of the card.

Such a lovely result and fun techniques used to create the card. Thank you LeeAnn for designing this wonderful card!

I hope you will get a chance to try the Color Bursts, creating a Poinsettia and brayering to create the beautiful Wonderland card!

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Pretty in Pink Poinsettia

I often wake up with an idea for a card. Today was no exception and since it was one of my days off, I was excited to create what I had envisioned!

I started by stamping the petals for a poinsettia using Pink Pirouette ink on Pink Pirouette card stock. I punched them using the coordinating Festive Flower Builder Punch. I also punched out three larger petals from Silver Glimmer paper for leaves and the centre parts of the flower.

Though you won't be able to see it in the photos, I used my Wink of Stella pen to trace over the stamping on each petal, giving each a subtle yet noticeable shimmer. I then folded each leaf in half and out again to give each petal a bit of dimension.

I used my 3/4" Circle Punch to punch out two Pink Pirouette circles to act as bases for the petals. Using my Silicone Craft Sheet and a glue gun, I proceeded to glue four larger petals to one of the 3/4" circles. Once the four were in place–clock fashion at 12, 3, 6 and 9–I glued the remaining four large petals in between the first four.

I glued the four smaller petals to the second 3/4" circle, again in clock fashion, and then topped them with the two double petals criss-crossed on top. I then glued the base for these petals onto the larger petals.

Next I glued the silver centre parts of the flower and finished up by gluing the three silver leaves to the back of the finished flower. What a pretty flower this made!

I cut a 5 x 7" card base from Whisper White Thick card stock. I glued a 3/4" strip of Silver Glimmer paper down each side, using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

Using the Softly Falling Embossing Folder, I embossed a 5 x 6" piece of Whisper White Thick card stock. This card stock really holds the embossing very well!

On a 1 1/2 x 2 1/4" piece of Whisper White card stock I stamped the sentiment from the Embellished Ornaments stamp set. I first inked the stamp with Versamark and then Pink Pirouette and stamped using the MISTI This allowed me to re-stamp again using the Pink Pirouette to get a nicely colored sentiment which I heat embossed using Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Using a sponge dauber I inked the edges of the tag in Pink Pirouette. I then used my Fuse to create a plastic pocket for the sentiment from a page protector, first fusing the bottom and sides and then adding in a selection of pink and silver sequins.

I left the top plastic about 1" in length but trimmed the back piece of the plastic even with the top of the tag. I then threaded the plastic through a jumbo size of silver paper clip and folded the long top plastic piece down the back of the tag. I fused three lines on the back, starting nearest the paper clip and spacing down about 1/4" each time.

An important tip about sequins . . . because they are so full of static, and the plastic pocket also holds a lot of plastic, I take a few precautions to try to eliminate as much static as possible. I pour my selection of sequins onto a dryer sheet and rub them down good with it. Before pouring them into the plastic pocket I stick a rolled up dryer sheet in there and rub it around. Finally, I pour the sequins into the plastic pocket from the other dryer sheet. This seems to help a lot!

I took my completed sentiment pocket and clipped it onto the top right of the embossed sheet of Whisper White. I applied Mounting Tape to back and then adhered it to my card base. I used a few little pieces of the Mounting Tape to adhere the poinsettia to the bottom left of the card.

My last touch was for the inside of the card. Using the poinsettia from the Reason For The Season stamp set and Versamark, I stamped a poinsettia on the bottom right of the card. I heat embossed this with Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder.

I love how this card turned out! The glitter of the Glimmer paper, the Wink of Stella shimmer on the poinsettia and the twinkle of the sequins all combine to produce a beautiful Christmas card!

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