Poinsettia and Holly for Merry Monday

It's my turn to choose the challenge at Merry Monday this week.

This is what I chose.

Need I say it?  I LOVE embossing.  Especially the dry embossing.

And this is one of my favorite embossing folders.

I did some partial embossing to leave a space in the middle for a sentiment.
(There are lots of tutorials on the web about how to do this.)
And I added a scored line on the edge of each embossed section.

I die cut the smaller flowers from my Spellbinders Poinsettia die
and used Loll's technique to shade and shape it.
What a difference this makes!

Then I added a few gold beads to the center of the flower and
added punched pine sprigs and a bit of ribbon underneath.

This is one of the few cards that started with a firm idea and
actually turned out the way I envisioned it.

That doesn't happen very often!


Since I used die cuts and punched pieces, 
I'm linking up to

Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge.



Where I am this month's Guest Designer.

My snippets for the poinsettia will let me in to 
Pixies Snippet Playground.


I hope you'll pull out your embossing folders or powders and join us at
Merry Monday.


I'm so glad you stopped by.

Enjoy!

    **********

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Christmas Wishes (Verve)

Ink:  Soft Suede, Real Red, Garden Green

Paper:  Very Vanilla, Real Red, Garden Green, Bronze snippets

Other:  Powdered Sugar EF (Sizzix), Poinsettia Die (Spellbinders), Gold Beads (stash), Vanilla Velvet Ribbon (SU retired), Simply Scored

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted