Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Some red, green and white

I just love all the beautiful sights of Christmas, and poinsettias, snow and evergreen boughs are no exception. The variety of Poinsettia solids and outlines in this soon-to-be-released stamp set by Clear Dollar stamps will surely satisfy your most creative plans! "Poinsettia Petals" will be released on October 1st.

Dimensions: 4.25"x5.5", Card opens from side
Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps Poinsettia Petals Stamp Set
Techniques: Basic Stamping, Cuttlebug Embossing, Sponging
Paper: Colormates Medium Berry Red Cardstock, Paper Trey White Cardstock
Ink: Stampin Up! Real Red Ink, Adirondack Pitch Black Ink
Tools: Nestabilities Regular Round and Scallop Round Dies, Martha Stewart Branch Punch, Cuttlebug, Embossing Border Folder, Paper Piercing Tool, Karen Foster Click-It Punch, Signo White Gel Pen
Embellishments: Making Memories Jeweled Rhinestone Circular Brads, Brass Brad Hanger, Die Cut Glittered Snowflakes, Michael's Holiday Ribbon

Instructions:
To create this card, I cut the red cardstock to card size and then background stamped randomly the Poinsettia Petals in different sizes using Real Red ink. A narrow strip of white cardstock was cut to form a side border and was embossed with the Cuttlebug using the new dotted swiss border folder. The center "Christmas ornament" was created by stamping a Poinsettia Petal off-center using the stamping off method (it gives it a more subtle stamped look), and then I overstamped the sentiment in Pitch Black Ink. The image and the two mats were cut using the Nestabilities regular and scalloped round dies and the Cuttlebug. The edge of the center white mat was heavily sponged with Real Red ink. The red mat was dot-doodled using a white gel pen and the outer mat was embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder before being die cut. The three layers were glued together, and a red jeweled circular brad was punched through the center of the Poinsettia Petal blossom for interest. To add more interest to the focal point, I added die cut, glittered snoflakes, embellished with white pearl beads, and branches to resemble evergreens with a punch and glued them along with the snowflakes along the edge of the "ornament". I punched a hole at the top of the 3 layers of the "ornament" and attached a brass hanger, anchored with another red jeweled circular brad and looped a striped Christmas ribbon through the hanger top and secured the other end of the ribbon to the card base back. To embellish, I added white gel dots to the Poinsettia Petal background and punches a green swag border to line the white side border, using the branch punch. To finish the card, the card base was glued to the card white cardstock lining.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful holiday card! I really like this one! Actually, I like ALL of them!

Jami said...

WOW - What a stunning card!! I love so much about this - the ornament you've created, the punched branches, the glittery snowflakes... all of it!! Your attention to detail is amazing!!
hugs, Jami