Everyday Expressions

Hey Everyone! Here is my fourth card in the Hero Arts Holiday Cardmaking Challenge, and I have to say this might be my favorite so far. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I started looking at all of my Hero Arts stamps to find something different. I found Holiday Greetings, and decided to play around with all of the little pieces that came with the sentiments. I love the way the greenery with branches and berries turned out! Seriously, I think I liked it even better before I added the Poinsettias and pinecones.

I began by tracing around a circle die as a guide for my stamping, and then stamped pine branches in two green colors around the circle. Next I stamped holly followed by the branches in brown. The wreath definitely needed lots of filling, so I added more pine branches in two lighter shades of green. This is where the magic began to happen! Finally, I added red Ice Stickles to the branches, and WOW! The whole thing suddenly became so striking!

Next I stamped the Poinsettias in two colors, and the pinecones in brown. I fussy cut each out, and added dimension with colored pencils. Before placing the Poinsettias and pinecones on the wreath, I outlined them with matching Copic colors. (I’ve seen Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire outline their cut images with black outline. I now either outline in black or matching colors most of the time. It makes the final piece look finished and professional.) I stamped the Holly Jolly sentiment with Ranger gold embossing in the middle of the wreath before adding some Poinsettias with foam and others with pinecones glued into place. Finally, I added Wink of Stella with Glossy Accents and then Buttercup Liquid Pearls for the flower centers.

I used some heavy cream cardstock as my card base, and then layered red with Crafter’s Companion Shimmering Cardstock in green envy. I found the floss as I wandered Jo Ann Fabrics looking for different accents and string. That floss is soooooo pretty that I think I bought six different shimmery colors. They aren’t metallic and don’t feel like cotton floss. I think it must be some kind of polyester, but truly so pretty. I used a dark red and vintage kind of gold-silver for the bow. Don’t you think that floss is lovely? I really am enamored with it.

The final step was to glue the wreath onto the card. Ta-da! I love this card. The only bit I’m not completely happy with are the colors of the Poinsettias. They turned a little bit of a funky orange-red color with the Glossy Accents. As I said earlier, I think I liked it even better before adding the flowers and pinecones. What do you guys think?

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you’re inspired to create a card and join me in the Hero Arts Holiday Cardmaking Challenge.

Erin