Plaid Poinsettia Petals

Happy Tuesday!

I did manage to get into my craft room to make two cards this past weekend, but it took a while to do them!  Tonight's card is a bit of a departure for me – as it's a little "busier" than my usual cards.  Most of the cards I've made using the Poinsettia Petals set have been made using the stamps and have been grey/green.  I have really tried to color those stamps red, but I just can't get them to look right.

So, I decided to use the die-cuts  mostly without the stamps.  I die-cut 4 layers of varying sizes using Schoolhouse Red card stock from Simon Says Stamp.  For one of the layers I heat embossed a stamped image in gold onto black card stock.  I then colored that with colored pencils.  Using this layer helped to break up the red and I think it works?  To add some more dimension to the die-cut images, I used a finger dauber and some Cajun Craze and Rich Razzleberry ink on the edges. 

I went to town with some gold metallic card stock and some green glitter card stock.  I used the die-cut from the set and then spaced those around the poinsettia.  I really had this urge to pair this with some of the plaid DSP (which is gorgeous BTW) and added the whole thing to some shaded spruce card stock that had been mounted onto a Neenah Solar White 110# card base.  To finish off the card I heat embossed the sentiment and popped up  the Poinsettia and the sentiment using foam.

Here's my card:

I love the richness of the red with the spruce and gold and, in the end, was happy with how the poinsettia turned out.

On a personal  note:

When I was making my two cards this weekend it was tougher than I expected.  Whether it was stretching for my ink pads, cutting with my guillotine trimmer, or just pressing hard on the MISTI, I felt those sore muscles from my recent fall.  Warm baths and hot compresses are helping and at least the bruises are disappearing. 

Regardless of how stiff I was that didn't stop me from having some fun – and from getting out to take some photos of the fabulous colors of Autumn.  Lucky I took the photos on Sunday, cos it's been incredibly windy since then and most of the leaves are now gone!   Hilda – these photos are for you – so that you can see what should be hitting Delaware very soon 🙂

I just love the mixture of greens, yellows, burgundy, orange, rust and brown.  The colors really were gorgeous this year.

Aren't they gorgeous?  What a wonderful array of fall colors.

Whilst I was out there, I caught a glimpse of the white throated sparrow and tried to get a quick photo of him… he didn't hang around for long, so it's not a great photo.  But he's so handsome, I had to share.

Then… if you haven't had enough of trees and leaves.. here are a couple more photos 🙂

On that note I will "leaf" 🙂 your for tonight.  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift today.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe:

• Stamps:  Poinsettia Petals – Stampin' Up!
• Dies:  Rectangles, Poinsettias – Stampin' Up!
• Card stock:  Shaded Spruce – Stampin' Up! Schoolhouse Red – Simon Says Stamp.  White card base – Neenah Solar White 110#
• DSP: Wrapped in Plaid – Stampin' Up!