Merry Monday #264 {Christmas Cheer}

Welcome to this week's Merry Monday Christmas Challenge! Today Marcia has asked us to create cards using Kraft and Red! I realized that the majority of the cards I have made for this challenge already have used a lot of Kraft and Red, so I was up for the challenge! LOL!

You can read about the rules for the Challenge HERE and see what the other designers have come up with! There are some super cute cards over there so I definitely suggest checking it out!

I've mentioned on more than one occasion the pile of stamps that I got for my birthday...today's card uses one of those sets. I used one of the included sentiments on my card two weeks ago, but I have been itching to use these gorgeous Poinsettias and I knew this week's challenge would be the perfect excuse! To begin, I stamped quite a few of the Painted Poinsettias in Pure Poppy Ink. These are a 3 step stamp, but I opted to just use the bold flower image and the vein image. I embossed the veins in gold AFTER I die cut them so that I wouldn't squish the raised quality. The centers are also embossed and added to the flowers using foam squares.

The leaves are stamped in Antique Linen Distress Ink with gold embossed veins. I really like how they turned out. I'm thinking that I will make some white Poinsettias using this same color combination on a different card. 

The little curly bits are die cut out of gold glitter paper. I actually googled "Poinsettia images" because I was unsure where these are on a real flower. I couldn't find an image with them, so I just put them where I liked! LOL! The sentiment is embossed in gold as well onto a strip of Pure Poppy Cardstock. I had originally planned on having a lot of flowers over the card, but in the end I only used three. I added another one to the inside with a different greeting. The Woodgrain background adds some extra detail and dimension. Once the entire card was put together, I spritzed it lightly with some Shimmer Spray. A few burnished gold sequins finish up this design. Thanks for fluttering by!