Merry & Bright

One final Christmas card for this year! I took my design & color inspiration from the current Fusion challenge:

I began by die cutting the "Poinsettia Border" from Memory Box out of a scrap of Canson XL Mixed Media paper. I took out the inner petal pieces of each flower, and watercolored them with a damp paintbrush & 2 blue shades of iridescent gelatos. I just scribbled the gelatos onto my non-stick craft mat, and picked up the color with my paintbrush. I did mix the two colors (a teal & kind of a warmer dark blue), to get a custom shade. After my petals dried, I went over them again with the same colors, let them dry, and repeated a third time to get the depth of color I wanted.

My initial idea had been to use Nuvo Silver Bullion gilding flakes on the outline of the die cut. So I ran the border through my Xyron Creative Station twice--once on each side--to coat it with adhesive. I had a really hard time getting the die cut to behave, though, so I could apply the flakes. So I finally gave up on that, die cut another piece, discarding the inner pieces this time into my recycling bag, and ran it through my Xyron only once to coat the back (so I could later adhere it to my card). Then I coated the top side with 2-way glue and let that dry so it was tacky. While the flakes did adhere for the most part, they also stuck in between the die cut portions, and made a huge mess of it that I just couldn't seem to clean up adequately. So I finally gave up on that idea, and die cut it a third time from silver glitter paper!

For my greeting, I used the "Merry & Bright" from Simon Says Stamp's "Christmas" mini stamp set. I stamped it onto a strip of dark teal cardstock with Versamark ink, and heat embossed with Recollections Snow embossing powder. I had a bit of trouble with that, too, since (despite using a powder bag) embossing powder stuck where I did not want it. In brushing that away, I brushed a couple of spots where I did want the powder. Thankfully, I was able to fix those spots with a white gel pen!

I adhered my greeting strip in place with a little ATG tape runner to a white card panel that I'd cut to 4.25x5.5". I applied small amounts of Perfect Paper Adhesive to the back of my die cut poinsettia "frame," using a fine-tip applicator bottle. Then, with the help of my tweezers, I adhered it over the greeting strip, running up the side of my panel. I had to use the negative of the die cut to help me maneuver the top flower into position, since it's so delicate. Finally, I glued the colored petal pieces into place.

I had a couple of small "boo-boos" (after all that) where the flower went over the greeting strip. So I decided to use that as an opportunity to embellish, and glued a clear 8mm gem to the flower center with Ranger Multi Medium Matte. I used the same adhesive to glue 2 smaller gems to the centers of the other 2 flowers. Finally, I filled in the centers of the little "accent" flowers in the die cut with Nuvo Grey Mist Crystal Drops. Finally, I adhered my card front to a white A2 card base. I had questioned my sanity in taking on this design a few times, but in the end, I like the results! :)

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Die Cut Divas: "Winter Time"
Creative Knockouts #224: "Christmas Delight"
613 Avenue Create #204: "Anything Goes w/Optional Twist of Christmas/Winter" (I am playing the twist.)
Pile It On #137: "Non-Traditional Holiday Colors and/or Snowpeople" (I assume blue, silver, & white are considered "non-traditional" for Christmas!)