Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge

Hi all.  Well another month has passed and today is the start of the Happy Little Stampers October Christmas Challenge.  I am so thrilled to have been asked to be Guest Designer and here is the first of my two posts, the second being at the half way point of the challenge.

As you can see it is all about Poinsettias this month which I think are the very essence of Christmas and I have used a couple of different stamp sets here.  The first for the twiggy wreath is from Card-io called Oriental Blossom but works well for Christmas too, and the second is a set of flowers from Honey Doo called Flowers for Design which again are quite generic but I hope you agree make a pretty Poinsettia. 

I stamped the wreath with Versamark ink and WOW Silver Embossing Powder on to a piece of white stamping card using this little twiggy branch, and gradually built up the circle with it.  I think there are about three layers and I heat set after each layer.  I also used a circle die as a template and marked very lightly in pencil as a guide for placing the stamping.  I then used some other pieces of white card for the Poinsettias, each has two layers, and stamped using the middle and smaller sized flowers.

I used a water brush and red watercolour paint from a tube which gives a more opaque and brighter red finish, and I also used a touch of Seedless Preserves Distress Ink to darken the middle of the flowers a little, and then finished with some clear Wink of Stella to give a nice touch of sparkle.  I also used a gold coloured gem in the centre of each flower but I'm not sure they show up very well in the photo.

To finish I stamped the sentiment using the Versamark and WOW Silver EP.   I cut the wreath topper to fit and layered this on to a white square card, layered the flowers and shaped them a little, and then placed them on the wreath.

I would like to finish by saying a big thank you to Happy Little Stampers for giving me this opportunity and please do go and see all the wonderful creations that the Design Team have made, you won't be disappointed.  Find all the details of the challenge HERE.

Thank you for dropping by.

Pat x

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