Golden Christmas

Hi friends!  I'm popping in with a card using this week's November Week 3 Viva la Verve sketch + inspiration.  As soon as I saw the inspiration picture, I knew I'd have to find some time to play along with the challenge.  Christyne had me at pumpkins.  {grin}  So, I'm recapping this week's sketch and sharing some of my favorite entries from the last week over on the VLV Sketches Blog today.

Anyhow, since my desk is covered with Christmas goodies from the recent release, I decided to trade the pumpkins for poinsettias, using lots of cream on cream and golden accents.  I wanted a really clean, crisp look and you would not believe how many times I had to stop and remind myself of my objective and step away from the paper distresser.  I'm pretty sure I have a distressing problem!  LOL

Anyhow, the card came together really quickly.  I stamped the poinsettia with leaves from Pinecone Christmas in Versamark six times and embossed with gold embossing powder.  Next I cut three of the images out with the coordinating die from Poinsettia Pinecones Die Set.  The other three I cut with the smaller poinsettia die, so I could pop up over the other die cut.  (You get a little bit of the leaves on the border around the poinsettia, but since I was popping it up over the same image and not doing any coloring, I knew it wouldn't be very noticeable.  I loved the effect and it was much easier than cutting the poinsettias by hand.)

Next I die cut 3 circles (embossed with dots) from cream and matted with some gold vellum scraps I had.  The sentiment is also from Pinecone Christmas, embossed in gold and hand cut into a banner.  I layered everything together, added some gold ribbon, jingle bells and 3 shiny flatback pearls to the center of each flower and I was done.  Pretty quick and super elegant.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  On the agenda for today is lots of the boys' favorite new book, Dinosaurumpus and some toddler crafting in the form of no glue paper bag turkeys. Wish me luck!  {grin}

Viva la Verve Nov Week 3

Enabler's List
Stamps: Pinecone Christmas (Verve Stamps)
Paper: cream, gold vellum
Ink: versamark
Accessories: Poinsettia Pinecones Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), Classic circles nestabilites (Spellbinders), dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), ribbon, jingle bells, flatback shiny gold pearls (Pizzazz Aplenty)