Saving poinsettias

Hello, crafting friends!

 

While making THIS Christmas card the other day, there was an unfortunate smearage incident (!) and I had to discard the first attempt. With 'waste not, want not' in mind, I saved the poinsettia by fussy cutting it, then stamped another on a non-inky part of the card and fussy cut the centre out of it. I coloured these with red coloured pencils.

 

Taking a deep breath, I stamped another poinsettia off the edge of a new card base (successfully, hurrah!) and coloured that in the same way. I arranged the cut-out blooms overlapping the stamped one, popping up the top one on dimensional pads. 

 

The centres were coloured with a gold metallic paint pen and I added a sentiment made with two retired stamp sets from Stampin' Up. And there we go - simple!

CHALLENGES

This is my homework for the Snippets Playground (anyone for a game of Jacks in the treehouse?); I'm also linking up at Inkspirational where the challenge is Clean and Simple with an optional twist of Inspired by a Movie and I'm going for a slushy little Christmas film called Poinsettias for Christmas; I'm joining in with Jingle Belles' Christmas Story challenge too - remember the folk tale about the little girl who couldn't afford a gift for the baby Jesus so she picked a handful of weeds which turned into beautiful red blooms because she gave them from the heart. I used to read it to my children and we all loved it! I'm also playing at ABC Christmas where T is for Three of a Kind,  and entering at Rudolph Days where we make a Christmas card on the 25th of each month.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We have had such a bumper crop of raspberries this autumn. Every other day, I trot off to the allotment with Madame La Floof in tow and collect up a couple of punnets of the sweetest most delicious raspberries, which we guzzle with cream before I can even think about what else to do with them!

 

Eva is a fan of raspberries too. She sits nicely by the canes and watches me picking the fruit. There is an air of expectancy about her too because she knows than whenever I come across an over-ripe raspberry, I'll throw it to her. She must have missed one the other day because when we were walking home I noticed she had a little pink streak on her bottom where she'd sat on one!

Sending hugs,

The Masked Poinsettia

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's an Addicted to CAS kind of Saturday today and I invite you to come and contemplate the new Code Word at the challenge, dreamed up this time by Sue:

 

One of my favourite techniques is masking so I didn't hesitate! I brought out a Christmas set by Reverse Confetti* which has yet to come out of its packaging :)

 

I started by stamping the poinsettia from the set onto a nice thick card base using dark red ink. To make a mask, I stamped it again onto a sticky note, fussy cut it and stuck it over the original. Next, I stamped the leaves and berries in green ink and removed the mask. I loved the graphic look of the uncoloured leaves and the poinsettia, so I just coloured the berries using a light red water-based marker to avoid any bleed through the card front, and the centre of the poinsettia with a yellow marker.

 

The sentiment was a mix of 'with love at' from The Greetery's PreText Sentiments and 'Christmas' from Endless Wishes, an old Stampin' Up set. The card was finished with some 'shine' on the berries using a white acrylic paint pen.

Okay, now it's your turn to interpret the Code Word! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge site to check out the inspiring cards my team mates have made. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to link your own creation up with us. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Little Red Wagon where the challenge is No Snow Christmas; also Addicted to Stamps and More where the Any Occasion challenge has come round again; I'm also playing at Darnell's NBUS Challenge where we share our Never Before Used Schtuff. 

 

*Attention all you UK bargain hunters: You can find Reverse Confetti stamp sets and dies at Seven Hills Crafts at half price, and there's an amazing Sale section and Bargain Basement there too! You're welcome!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The title of this post made me giggle as I thought of a mysterious poinsettia tiptoeing about in the dark! And that reminded me of a night long, long ago when I lived in London and shared a house with my sister. We were both woken in the small hours by a loud crash. There was a long pause and then my sister and I converged on the landing, white-faced in our dressing gowns. We tiptoed silently down the stairs clutching each other. Nothing. We made our way towards the glass door leading into the kitchen - and that's when we saw a movement inside the room! We both screamed loudly, wrenched the front door open, and were halfway up the street when it dawned on us that the movement we'd seen was our own reflexion in the glass door. On returning to the kitchen, it turned out that we had hung a heavy pan up on a hook that was loose, and it had given way, falling onto the tiles below. We had to have a soothing cup of milky hot chocolate before going back to bed I can tell you!

Sending hugs,