Poinsettia & Pearls

I really wanted a large poinsettia stamp this year - one that would fill the whole front of a card. I finally found a beautiful set called Poinsetta and Boxwood by Flourishes and made this card. I had intended to do another in the traditional red for the poinsettia, but time is running out! Oh well, there's always next year.

For this card, I gold embossed the main image three times on 140# watercolor paper, and lightly watercolored it with my SU Classic ink pads with much watered Rose Red and Certainly Celery. I cut out each individual leaf and built up the flower, layer by layer. The paper directly under the poinsettia is last year's Rose Red DSP that I stamped with the retired Filagree stamp and embossed with Judi-Kins Egyptian Gold EP, which I absolutely LOVE. It is so sparkly. The hardware on the corners is thin chipboard cut with the CB Ornamental die and also embossed with the Egyptian Gold EP. The hearts are plastic buttons that I snipped the shanks off and glued on. The green DSP is last year's SU Wintergreen paper.

I made this card into a photo card by finishing off the inside panel with a blank center where either photo or a personal note can be added. The right side of the panel was left open and I made another photo card that can be slid in between the two layers. Then I made a separate photo card that could just be slipped inside the card before inserting into the envelope. So basically, three photos could be contained in this micro-scrapbook.

I used the Filagree stamp to emboss with Egyptian gold on vellum and punched it out with the SU corner punch. All the machine stitching is in gold thread. The zig zag edges are done with a Martha Stewart punch.