Guest Designing for Rudolph Days

Hi everyone.  I was so pleased to be one of the Top Picks over at Rudolph Days and was really happy to be given the opportunity to be a Guest Designer for one of the challenges.  I used three recently acquired sets of dies from Spellbinders.  The first is a Candy Stripes die set by Simon Hurley, and the second is a set of Poinsettia dies by Susan Tierney-Cockburn, and finally a set called Snowcapped Holidays which is a birdhouse to hang from a branch with a couple of birds and it also has some pieces of foliage including a pine branch, leafy branch, couple of holly leaves and a berry branch all of which I am using for the first time.

I started with the background and cut the stripes die into a piece of white card and cut around it to leave a small border.  I then placed a piece of gold card behind it.  I found some pretty pink paper with a gold thread running through it...not easy to see in the photo, which I thought would work but it was very thin, and I found a piece of white vellum and glued the pink paper onto it using some Mod Podge glue which I brushed over the vellum and then gradually smoothed out the paper over the top.  I then cut out the layers of the flower and also cut the three white pieces which layer up to form the centre of the flower, and then five of the smaller leaves to go around the outside which I coloured with a couple of greens and added a bit of yellow to the tips of the centre piece over which I added some Glossy Accents.  I also coloured the other pieces mentioned above to add around the flower, all using my alcohol markers.  I also made the berries purple as I thought they went better with the pink poinsettia.

I finished by layering it up onto a 5" x 7" card and I added a stamped sentiment heat embossed using WOW Rich Gold Metallic Embossing Powder.  I think the paper over the vellum gives the flower more substance but has more flexibility than using card as it is easier to bend to curl the petals and it tends to stay better.  I may well use this again I think.  I do have another pink flower which I cut and I have a piece of red which also has the gold thread, so watch this space.     

The Rudolph Days Challenge runs from the 25th to the end of each month, other than December of course, so still time to add to your stash of cards for this year.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I'll see you again soon.

I am also entering the following challenges:

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge - No. 98 Anything Goes.

Allsorts Challenge - No. 835 Autumn Colours/Anything Goes.

Die Cut Divas Challenge - Oct. '25 Anything Goes.

Crafter's Cafe Challenge - No. 93 Anything Goes/Christmas.

The Creative Crafters Challenge - No. 93 Anything Goes.

NBUS Challenge - No 79 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.