Blooming Christmas

Well, it's about time I started Christmas cards, don't you think??  Last week I was playing with the Bloom With Hope hostess set, colouring it with both Blendabilities and watercolouring, just to see what different looks I could get with it.  I didn't set out to create a Christmas Card but it sort of morphed into one. 

Christmas card featuring the Bloom With Hope stamp set with sentiment from Many Merry Messages (retired).

Now it just so happens that this week's challenge over at Just Add Ink is all about Christmas in July...

...so I decided to enter this card.  We'll see what happens!

To create this look I stamped the images in black Staz On and then started with a watercolour wash in Crumb Cake all over the background of the watercolour paper.  I coloured the flower using an aquapainter and Cherry Cobbler and Daffodil Delight ink pads.  The leaves were done with Mossy Meadow ink and an aquapainter.  Once the images had dried I stamped over the whole thing using one of the spatter images from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and gold Metallic ink.  I matted the whole thing on a piece of Mossy Meadow card stock.

For the card base I used some of the new Kraft card stock and then stamped the leaf image repeatedly all over it using Crumb Cake ink.  I also stamped the same spatter image in metallic gold to give it some shimmer.  The sentiment is heat embossed in gold, die cut using the Chalk Talk framelits and adhered with dinmensionals.  I added a wee bit of Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon and an Antique Brad by way of embellishment.

On the inside I stamped the leaf image again, as well as the gold spatters and then added the sentiment, from the long-retired Many Merry Messages set, in Mossy Meadow ink.

Be sure to check back tomorrow to see this same flower image coloured with Blendabilities!