Christmas? In July?

Yes, I know it's only July and the children are still enjoying their summer vacation, but not only do I have to get my own cards together, but I sell cards to raise money for the International Baccalaureate program at my daughter's school (Oakmont High) and I have some big plans for the coming months.  So there are going to be more than a few Christmas cards mixed in with more seasonal offerings.  When I saw this poinsettia from Memory Box, I just HAD to have it - I had it inked up within hours of getting it home, and I'm still absolutely delighted with my purchase.  I've been playing a lot recently with the masking technique and so I thought I'd have a go mixing it with the music background I picked up for $1 at Michaels last year.  I couldn't resist getting the water colours out as well.

The first step was to stamp the poinsettia onto a piece of scrap card - I used card stock, because I anticipated that cutting the image out might be fiddly and I knew that I would want to replicate the card if it came out well - and cut out the image leaving a small border (this time I wanted a 'halo' effect), I then stamped the poinsettia on water colour paper using memento black ink, carefully lined up the cut out image and secured it with masking tape.  The music was then stamped on top, lifting the mask was extremely satisfying.  I then left it overnight to dry properly before applying a pale green pearlescent wash to the whole card, another wait and I was able to paint the poinsettia itself.  When everything had time to dry, I mounted it all up on A|S card.  Beautiful, and well worth the effort.

Thanks for looking in, come back soon