The Flower Challenge #109 - Use Christmas Florals

Hello friends.  Are the Christmas cards done and in the mail yet?  Mine are made but not addressed yet...need to get busy!!  If you're still in need of a few cards, we have the perfect challenge for you this month at The Flower Challenge...just use your Christmas florals!

Before I get to the details of my cards, I have a bit of news to share.  Regretfully The Flower Challenge will be closing after this months challenge.  I had already made the decision to step down because of time constraints (my 93 year old mom is requiring more of my help and time and we also babysit 2 days a week for our 2 youngest grandbabies, so time in my craft room has become more and more limited.) when Karren announced that she was also struggling to find the time to run the challenge and had decided she needed to close it at the end of this year.  This challenge has had a good run and we have seen some absolutely BEAUTIFUL floral cards during its time, so do not be sad it is leaving but be glad it was and offered so much inspiration for so long!  A very BIG thank you to Karren and all the DT members past & present for all the work they have put into this challenge over the years, and a BIG thank you to all of you who have played along with our challenges too.  I'll still be around and you'll still be seeing flower cards from me as they're at the top of my favorites list to make.  We hope you'll all play along this month so we can go out with a bang...so get out those stamps, dies & stencils and let's flood the gallery with beautiful Christmas florals!!  And now back to my regular post...   

I love Poinsettias and have quite a few stamps, stencils, dies & embossing folders with Poinsettias, so the hardest part of this challenge for me was picking out what to use!  I wanted to try out a technique that Therese Calvird did a while back (you can watch HERE) that uses embossing folders and rubbing your ink pad over the raised areas.  She started using DSP from Crafters Consortium, so I pulled out the only pad of Crafters Consortium DSP I had (Ink Drops - Dusk) and gave it a try using 2 different embossing folders.

I used Altenew's Perfect Poinsettias 3D embossing folder with a lighter piece of the DSP and then lightly ran my Delicata Gold ink pad over the raised areas.  

I matted the embossed layer with a thin piece of gold matte cs and then used the same gold to cut out my sentiment from MB's Merry Christmas Posh Script.  Both layers were attached to a kraft card base and I called it good...no bling!

I have a 2nd card using a darker piece of the DSP and SSS's Poinsettia Spray embossing folder.  I also used the embossing folder to emboss a strip of gold mirror card stock and added it to the left edge of my card.

I wish my photography skills were a bit better so you could see all the detail in this card...it is really pretty IRL!  The die cut sentiment is another favorite MB die called Special Merry Christmas.  Another kraft card base and no bling on this one either.  The Delicata Gold ink has so much shimmer to it that you really don't need to add anything else!

The DT has some absolutely BEAUTIFUL Christmas florals to inspire you to play along and you can find them all right HERE.  This challenge is open till Thursday, Dec. 25th @ 5:00PM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!