Elegant Poinsettia

I admit...I've caught the Christmas card bug...I tried so hard to avoid it!  Willing it to hold off for just a little bit longer...but alas...the crafting world has broke me and I now find myself dreaming up wintery cards and Christmas scenes...

I will try not to bombard you with too many (after this post :) ) for a little while longer...but they are coming!

I have had this gorgeous stamp set from The Cat's Pajamas called Elegant Christmas since last year (unfortunately it looks to be sold out...).  When I purchased it, I absolutely adored it and felt I had a ton of ideas for using it...but it sat on my desk and I barely touched it.  Nothing ever seemed to click or I got wrapped up in other things and couldn't get around to using it.  I think the main reason I bought this set is for this stunning poinsettia image.

With the spark of Christmas hitting me this week, I decided it was time to put this set to use.  So I pulled it out and started playing around with this poinsettia.  I stamped it with distress inks so I could do some watercoloring.  While my post yesterday was about simple watercoloring, this card is the opposite :)

I wanted to avoid all those perfect swirls so that they stayed nice and crisp white.  Doing that was super easy with a really fine point brush and a steady hand.  But you have to have patience!  You can't rush or use too much water or the whole thing blobs out and you have to start over.

The flower was first stamped in Abandoned Coral distress ink to get the base color down.  Then I went in with Fired Brick for my darkest color in the center and Barn Door for my mid-tone.  Once I had those blended nicely, I came back in with some more Abandoned Coral and blended it all out to get a nice smooth finish.  I trimmed around both flowers and layered them together.

The challenge over at The Cat's Pajamas is to case one of the DT.  I fell in love with the layout of Christine's card and decided to use that as my guide.  Of course, I got the placement of my sentiment wrong...but I think it works out better at the top for my card anyhow :)

The white background was embossed using the Simon Says Stamp Triangle Pattern die.  I backed that with some Lawn Fawn paper and added a few sequins and that wrapped up the card!!

Thank you so much for stopping by! <3