Flourish & Poinsettia Christmas Card

A couple of Saturday's ago Jan and Wendy came to my home to make a card.  On their previous visit they made this birthday card which features the water stamping technique - the blog post for that card is HERE.

 

They both loved the technique and the card and asked if next time they could make the card again but as a Christmas card.   I was happy to oblige, it's fun to redo a card in a different way!  I used a traditional red, green and vanilla combo, added a poinsettia made from stacked punched flowers, tweaked the layout a tad and sprinkled on some snowflakes. I inked the oval with Wild Honey and Fired Brick Distress Inks before water stamping the image over the top.  I edged the image oval and the sentiment oval with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.  You can't tell from the photo but the gold CS has a glittery, sparkly finish which looks fab when the light catches it!  I placed red nailheads in the snowflake centres to complete the card front.

Here's a close up of the poinsettia.  I punched three flowers from Fired Brick Core'dinations CS, snipped between the petals, used a DEET (Double Ended Etching Tool) with a moulding mat to add shaping and fixed the three layers together with a gold brad.  I don't own a poinsettia die but I knew that Jan does so I told her to bring the die with her so the ladies had the option to use a die cut flower or a punched one.  Both Jan and Wendy opted for the poinsettia die - it did look better I have to say, but I'd fixed my punched poinsettia to the oval mat layers with the brad so it wouldn't have been easy for me to make a substitution!  Jan loaned me the die for a while so I ran it through my Big Shot a good few times so I now have some poinsettias in my stash!

Here's the inside and the envelope flap.

Because I make Christmas cards all through the year, thanks to the challenges and a DT spot at 52 {C}CT,  my Christmas card box gets filled up quickly.  Last year I had more cards than I needed so I still have some cards in the box left over from last year.  Jan and Wendy had a good rummage through the box to select the card they wanted to make next.  Oh dear, they couldn't pick just one and they couldn't wait a month so they came to visit again last Saturday to make this Rudolph on a spring easel card!  Next time they'll be making two vintage snowmen cards, this recently made card and also this card made back in August 2013.  The time after that it will be this chubby robin card.  Saves me having to design new cards for them to make and they get a few Christmas cards made early - happy days all round!

 

Supplies:
Stamps: Penny Black 'Delicate Pattern' background stamp, SU! 'Best Yet' set, Stampendous 'Christmas Cheer'
CS: SU! Old Olive & Very Vanilla, Fired Brick Core'dinations CS, glittered gold CS
Ink: Ranger Tim Holtz Wild Honey, Fired Brick & Frayed Burlap Distress Inks, SU! Old Olive
Tools: Petite Oval & circle Nestabilities dies, Cheery Lynn 'Fanciful Flourish' & 'Mini Fanciful Flourish' dies, MFT Die-Namics 'Photo Corners' die, SU! plain & scalloped oval punches, X Cut snowflake punch, DEET & moulding mat, sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: SU! 'Sleigh Bells' ribbon, red metallic nailheads, gold brad, SU! Dimensionals