Hi Everyone, I can’t believe this is the last in our series of birthday blossoms where did that year go?? It’s no surprise that the flowers for December birthdays are holly and poinsettia (although it’s
Hi Everyone, I can’t believe this is the last in our series of birthday blossoms where did that year go?? It’s no surprise that the flowers for December birthdays are holly and poinsettia (although it’s generally holly leaves). These are two favorites of mine for Christmas cards, my challenge was to use them for birthday cards but not make them look too Christmassy, so I tried to use non Christmas colour schemes.
For this first card I got the Distress Oxides out to make a background and used a single stem of holly die cut from gold card.
Start with an A6 white card blank for the base and layer that with another piece of white card, adhered with double sided tape.
Cut a piece of white card approx 8 x 5cm for the inked background. Smear three Distress Oxide colors onto you craft mat, spritz them with water, then dipp and paddle the white card into the three colors of ink until it is completely covered then dry it off with a heat gun.
Trim the inked piece of card to 7.6 x 4.6 cm, cut a piece of gold card to 8 x 5cm and mount the inked piece on to it. Die cut a branch of holly from the same gold card and use a quickie glue pen to apply the adhesive and fix it over the inked card as shown in the photo. Use adhesive foam pads to attach this to the front of the card to lift it and add some dimension.
Stamp and heat emboss the greeting in gold to match the holly branch.
That’s all you have to do, it’s an easy to make card with an eye catching finish. I hope you like it.
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For the next card I had my first play with our new layered poinsettia stamp set, the design of the stamps makes it very easy to line them up to make sure each layer is in the correct position which is a bonus! Although you can get pink poinsettia’s I thought it looked a lot less Christmassy than the red ones.
Start with a white 12.5cm square blank card, cut a piece of pink card slightly smaller and adhere it to the card blank with double sided tape.
Take a piece of white card bigger than required for the stamp and starting with the flower stamp, position it on the card. The stamps are rectangular and have the top left corner cut off, use this to lightly mark with pencil the position of the stamp. (I marked the cut corner and the one opposite to be certain.) Ink up your stamp and stamp it on the card. Next use the foliage stamp, ink it up and stamp it in the same position as the first one, finally repeat with the twigs stamp.
When the ink is dry trim the white card to 8.5cm sq and mount this on a piece of green card 9cm sq. Colour a silver peel off sticker with green marker pen and position that in the top right corner of the white card.
Use double sided tape to attached the flower panel to the card front at an angle, add a pale pink adhesive pearl to the centre of the poinsettia and one at each corner of the card to finish it off.
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For the third card I wanted to use a die cut poinsettia and also try out the new Select a Size dies from Concord & 9th, again I tried to avoid Christmas colours.
Start with a 15 x 15cm white blank card, these actually measure about 14.8cm square when they are folded so I often trim them down to 14.5cm square to make it easier to size any layers that I want to cut. Trim a piece of patterned paper to 14cm square and adhere it to the card base using double sided tape.
Cut a piece of white card to 14 x 11cm and using the decorative edge die from the Select a Size set cut both long sides of the card. Cut a piece of the patterned paper to 14 x 9cm and die cut both long edges of that with the same die. Layer one die cut piece on top of the other and attach them both to the centre of the card front.
Die cut a poinsettia from white card, I cut two of the large petals, one of the medium and one of the small. Before you glue the petals together, gently roll the end of each petal round a pencil or similar object to curl them slightly and add dimension to the flower. Glue the layers of petals on top of each other and hold in place for a few seconds to make sure that they stick firmly.
Cut a selection of foliage and leaves from white and green card and arrange this under the poinsettia flower, I find it helps to arrange everything without gluing so that you are happy with it then take a photo, so that you can lift it all off the card and glue it in place using the photo for reference. A Quickie glue pen is ideal for applying glue to small areas like the backs of the leaves and stems. Once the foliage is glued in place use an adhesive foam pad to attach the flower so that you don’t have to flatten it out to make it stick.
Add silver adhesive metal gems to the centre of the flower and dot a few around the rest of the card. Pop a silver die cut greeting out of it’s backing card, if there are any little notches left on it gently sand these away with a sanding block or fine nail file and attach this to the bottom of the card with more adhesive foam pads.
I’m very happy with this card, it will go to my Mum in Law whose birthday is in December, so I hope she likes it.
That’s the last card of the Birthday Blossoms series thank you for reading and joining in when we have had giveaways, your comments have all been appreciated and I look forward to hearing what you think about these latest cards.
Debbie x
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