Hello there. Welcome. I had some good news the past couple of days – I was a winner in the Uniko challenge for October, and also a chosen winner for Happy Little Stampers October CAS challenge – one layer card. Yay! Talk about being inspired. It certainly got my creative juices flowing this weekend.

I have also been having a look through the Inkspirational challenge cards where I am still Guest designer – another few days to go still – and there are amazing creations on there. I am still going through and visiting people and looking at their cards and their process…….

Onto the card for today……I had so much fun putting this card together, and I am definitely going to make more of this style and theme. I just wanted to share with you straight away.

I took inspiration from several challenges, but the colours were from Color Throwdown, and the theme/topic was from The Card Concept. I knew I wanted to do a card with poinsettias on it, and decided to go with an orange poinsettia. I know there are some out there, as I did a Google search, but have never actually seen on in real life.

The base card is Kraft card, and I die cut Avery Elle ‘Diagonal Stripes’ leaving out the centre rectangle, but inserting a smaller rectangle from another die set. I wanted the Kraft card to show through the die cut so it looked almost like a trellis against wood.

I used Stampin Up adhesive strips around the edge of the die cut, and added some to the centre rectangular piece – but I didn’t take the sticky off the inner rectangle. Why not? Well, I knew I wanted to place the flowers and leaves in, under and around the white die cut, so having that inner rectangle stuck down wouldn’t work. Lateral thinking, huh?

I then stamped the poinsettia with Catherine Pooler orange ink, and the leaves with Altenew green ink. The centre of the poinsettia is where the brown comes into the card. The stamps themselves are also from Catherine Pooler. I die cut them, and then started to play with the positioning. Once I had it sorted – kinda – I then used 3D glue gel to put the flowers down first, then the leaves, as this glue gel gives me time to move things around until I am happy.

I think you can see the dimension on the die cuts from one of the photos. Sticking down the leaves half in and half on the white die cut, underneath the flowers, generally creating a positive cornucopia of foliage. 🙂

I didn’t add a sentiment, for several reasons. Firstly – I couldn’t find one which would suit or match the card, secondly I couldn’t find anywhere to put one where it wouldn’t look out of place, and thirdly – I didn’t want one!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – Brown, Orange, Green, Kraft

The Card Concept – Photo inspiration – Poinsettia and leaves

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes (option reindeer)

Allsorts Challenge blog – Autumn colours

Crafty Friends Challenge – Christmas