Keeping Christmas & Twelve Days of Holiday Cards - Day Eight + Giveaway

Hello!  I'm so glad you stopped by today.  Today's post is a two-fer and that's always cause to celebrate in my book.  It allows me to share with more than my regular crowd of folks who visit. Today is Day Eight of the Twelve Days of Holiday Cards and it is also the monthly Keeping Christmas Blog Hop.  Christmas is officially one month away!  All of the ladies have projects to share with you today.

Occasionally, I take great pleasure in sitting down, gathering a few products and playing around to create a really over the top beautiful card. This is not what I would consider to be traditional Christmas colors, which gives me a sweet little bit of additional joy. I love to send cards that have something unexpected whether it's bling or shimmer or color.  During the rest of the year, any colors work but I love playing around with all of the colors.  I realized that I am going to have to find a source for this gorgeous pearlized cardstock that matches the Gina K Designs Fresh Asparagus ink.  It is just the perfect color for so many types of foliage.  I have just one 5 x 7 sheet left so I need to find a replacement soon.   I tried a few claiming to be moss green, but they just look dull in photos.  I think this is one time when I could really use a pearlized cardstock versus the shimmer that I have such great love for. The high shimmer makes it difficult to photograph and also difficult to get accurate color representation in my photos.

Anyhow, on to today's project.  Normally, I try to do multiples of my project for Keeping Christmas,  but today I have a single card for you.  I really loved the Scribble Holly Trio Outline that I used on yesterday's card, so I wanted to figure out a way to use it with a few other dies to create a new look.

I have several different dies in use today, and they are all from Poppy Stamps except for the sentiment.  I have the Scribble Holly Trio, Blooming Poinsettia, Small Blooming Poinsettia, and the Holly Vine Sidekick Frame and Stencil.  I am crazy over the coordinating stencil as it allows me to add another color to whatever color I cut my cardstock from.  In this case, I cut it from some peach pearlized paper (which came from a pretty old Die Cuts with a View Mat Stack) and then I used the Stencil to go over just the holly leaves with some Gina K Designs Fresh Asparagus ink using one of my Taylored Expressions Blending Brushes.  Once the ink was dry, I attached the frame to a card base made from Gina K Designs Heavy Base Weight White Cardstock.  This white is a bit softer than my usual Cougar Super Smooth Digital White Cardstock, so it has a slightly warmer tone which paired well with the more earthy tones of the peach and green.

I wanted to see what would happen if I paired up the Poinsettias with the Scribble Holly Trio Outlines so I die cut all of my pieces and assembled the blooms.  Next, I played with placement and I was thinking the large bloom might be too large, but once I had the layout figure out, I liked the size so I went for it.  I am anxious to make more cards using these beautiful poinsettias in my favorite Shine Red Satin cardstock.  I love using Poinsettias for my December Birthday Cards, so I love that I have a few different styles now.

I used Studio Katia Gold Foiled Pearls for all of the little berries and the flower centers.  I also use my Teflon Bone Folder to kind of curl the petals.  I take the pointed end, which on mine is super smooth because I've used it so much, and holding the petal at the base, pull kind of like if you were curling ribbon only not so hard.  If you pull too hard, you'll break the petal off at the base.  Once I glue the flowers in place and they have dried, then I pop up the petals again.

For the Scribble Holly Trio I did the same thing I did previously; die cut one from gold and one from green and then inlaid the green pieces into the gold outline.  Then carefully placed into my 5-inch Xyron and ran it through.  Don't forget to go all the way around with an embossing stylus or similar tool before you take the top cellophane layer off so you don't get adhesive strings.

I was going to put a bit of foam tape under the tips of the holly leaves,  but I was so enchanted with blooms that I forgot until I had already pressed them down.  Since I use Permanent Xyron Adhesive, there is no going back so I'll have to try that another time.

Here is the list of blogs along the "Keeping Christmas" Hop.  Be sure to leave some love for everyone as we work hard to bring you content on this monthly hop. This is our last blog hop for the year as we take Christmas Day off.  We'll be back in January with a few new team members helping you get started on next year's cards and projects.

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden

Broni Holcomb

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Vicki Finger (You are Here)

Nancy Guse

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Be sure to comment for your chance to win one of the daily prizes for the Twelve Days Of Holiday Cards.  All winners will be announced on November 30th here on my blog.  I'll be back tomorrow for Day Nine of the Twelve Days of Holiday Cards.   

Affiliate Links may be used at no additional cost to you.

Gemini Full Size Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	GKD Fresh Asparagus Ink Shop at: SSS | GKD	GKD Heavy Base Weight White Cardstock Shop at: GKD	Memory Box - Scribble Holly Trio Die Shop at: SSS
Poppy Stamps - Blooming Poinsettia Shop at: SSS	Poppy Stamps - Small Blooming Poinsettia Shop at: SSS	Poppy Stamps - Holly Vine Frame and Stencil Shop at: SSS	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS
ScraPerfect No Clog Tip for Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS	Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Tonic Paper Trimmer Shop at: SSS	Tonic 6 Inch Personal Trimmer Shop at: SSS
Xyron Create-A-Sticker - 5 inch Shop at: SSS	Xyron Create-A-Sticker - 5-Inch Refill Shop at: SSS