This morning’s project pretty much went according to plan. As I sat down I knew I wanted to make a Christmas card with a few special touches. So instead of using ink, I opted to emboss all the details on my poinsettia. In fact I ended up using two colours of embossing powder and I love the finished result.

CLEAR EMBOSS AND DIE-CUT

I began this project with the focal point, the large multi-layered poinsettia.

The Poinsettia Petals Stamp Set has three different sizes of image that are designed to be layered and I opted to use small and medium-sized ones. For the top part of the poinsettia I chose Real Red Card, with the lower bracts in Mossy Meadow.

Instead of ink I thought that I would emboss the images using Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder. So using VersaMark ink I stamped one each of the small and medium images onto Real Red Card. Then I stamped just the medium image onto the Mossy Meadow Card.

While my Heat Tool warmed up I sprinkled the three images with Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder. Then I tapped off the excess and removed some stray specks. Finally I melted the powder using my Heat Tool set on 2 (high).

Once the embossing had cooled I was ready to die-cut the images using coordinating dies from the Poinsettia Dies set. In addition I cut a couple of the berry sprigs from Gold Foil Sheet using another die in the set.

With that done I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to layer the die-cut pieces together. First I attached the two red pieces so the smaller bracts sat between the larger ones. Then I mounted them onto the Mossy Meadow piece, so the green tips were visible. Finally I snipped one of the gold berry sprigs in two before attaching the three foil pieces to the back of the poinsettia. Then I put the completed poinsettia aside while I got to work on the rest of the project.

EMBOSS IN GOLD

It was time for a little more embossing, but this time in gold.

First I cut a 3-3/4″ x 3-3/4″ piece of Whisper White Card. Then in the top corner I stamped “Merry Christmas” from the Poinsettia Petals Stamp Set using VersaMark ink. Next I sprinkled the VersaMark with Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder, then after tapping off the excess I set it aside.

Next, in the bottom corner of a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Whisper White Card, I stamped the berry image from Poinsettia Petals Stamp Set. I sprinkled this with Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder, tapped off the excess and set this aside too.

Finally I stamped the berry image in the bottom right corner on the front of a Whisper White Medium Envelope. As before I sprinkled the Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder onto the image and tapped off the excess.

Now all I had to do was remove any stray specks of powder from the sentiment and images while the Heat Tool warmed up again. Once I was happy, I melted all three using the Heat Tool set on 2 (high).

FINAL ASSEMBLY

At this point I was torn between a coloured card base or a white one. In the end I used my Paper Trimmer to cut and score some Thick Whisper White Card. Then after folding along the scored line I sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder.

On the inside of the card I used liquid glue to attach the layer with the embossed berries.

Then I cut a 4″ x 4″ piece of Gold Foil Sheet and glued the sentiment piece to it before mounting it onto the front of the card base. The assembled poinsettia came next, also attached with liquid glue, but just in the centre.

Finally I added a little more bling with 7 small self-adhesive Champagne Basic Jewels clustered in the centre of the poinsettia. With that my card was complete.

This project is every bit as beautiful as I’d hoped it would be. The gold embossing and foil add a touch of luxury, as does the clear raised embossing on the poinsettia. What’s more, the layers of the sentiment and poinsettia create dimension with nothing more than simple liquid glue. I hope you love it as much as I do.

PRODUCT LIST

UPDATE 2021 – Due to a change in manufacturer, Stampin’ Up! Whisper White Card and Envelopes have now been replaced with Basic White.