Christmas Poinsettia and Pine Cone Tutorial

 

Today I wanted to create a card using two beautiful Marianne Design products for a background for a pretty Susan's Garden poinsettia.  I used the Marianne Design, Anja's Decorative Rectangle (DF3406) embossing folder on the bottom of this 6x6" card.  At the top, I added the Marianne Design, Anja's Border, die cut.

To stay with traditional Christmas colors, I created a red poinsettia using Susan's Garden Poinsettia dies.  These poinsettias always look so realistic.  Under the poinsettia, I added some Tim Holtz  Tattered Pinecones.   The shiny gold "Noel" is part of the Memory Box Grand Joyeux Noel die. I did not have room for the entire die, so for this card I used only the "Noel" die cut letters.

TUTORIAL FOR PINE CONES

 As I stated, I used the Tim Holtz Tattered Pine cone die to create a variety of pine cones. 

This die cut pine cone is similar to the rolled roses spiral die cuts.  You can click on this LINK to see Tim Holtz tutorial.  I picked up some good tips from his instructions, but had a different idea on how to shape the pine cones and will show you my way below.

 I die cut several different colors of card stock to see which color I would like best.  There are different ways you can create different looks by using different colors of card stock, the way you shape them, and different ways to add texture.  I tried several ways to shape each "petal" of the pine cone and found the most realistic look was to shape each petal with the loop tool on the tan shaping pad from Susan's Garden Tool Kit.  I shaped the petals from the backside, pulling the loop tool from the edge all the way to the bottom of the petal.  This gave the petal a nice bowed out shape.  In the picture above, you can see the spiral when all the petals have been shaped. 

 I liked Tim's idea of rolling the pine cone by hot gluing a tooth pick to the end petal, then rolling it.  You want to make sure you are holding the spiral with the petals bent out (not cupped in), when you start rolling.  It looks like you are working on the backside of the spiral, because the shaping has the petals bent back, but you are actually rolling from the top (front) side.

 When you get to the end, add some hot glue on the inside of the petal at the base to hold it all together.  There is a little notch before the last petal that will fit nicely over the toothpick, that will hold it in place.

 You can create different shapes of pine cones, depending on how tight you roll the spiral.  To make a larger pine cone, I glued two spirals together, alternating the petals, then rolled it.  It made a "fatter" pine cone.  You could also glue two spirals together at the ends to make a longer spiral, therefore getting a larger pine cone. 

I didn't use them on my card, but I wanted to see if I could add snow to some of the pine cones.  I used Ranger Texture Paste to dab some paste on the ends of the petals, then I dipped the pine cone into The Distress Clear Rock Candy dry Glitter.  It looks like real snow.  I also used the Adirondack Snow Cap Acrylic Paint Dabber to add some white to the tips of petals. The point dabber has a sponge top and you just swipe it from the tip, inward, to create white tips.   Both took very good. 

 Last year I purchased different colored poinsettias so I could create realistic poinsettias using Susan's Garden dies.  In the past, I have been lucky to keep all the petals on a poinsettia through the end of the year.  Look what has happened this year!  All three of my poinsettias have taken off, and even still have the colored flowers on them with a ton of new growth.  It will be interesting to see if I get new flowers on these plants for Christmas!

You can purchase the following products from Ellen Hutson, LLC:

Marianne Design Anja's Border 

Susan's Garden Poinsettia dies

Sizzix, Tim Holtz Tattered Pinecone

Susan's Garden Flower Tool Kit

Ranger Texture Paste

Distress Stickles Clear Rock Candy Dry Glitter

Adirondack Snow Cap Acrylic Paint Dabber

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Heartfelt Creations Blog Hop WINNER

I want to thank all of you that joined us in the August Heartfelt Creations Alumni Design Team Blog Hop.  The winner of the $25 Gift Certificate, to shop at Heartfelt Creations, is JANIE PRINTZ.  CONGRATULATIONS JANIE.  Please email Emma Lou with "Winner of August Alumni Hop" in the subject line to claim your prize.

We had an amazing hop this month and I hope you all enjoyed the projects posted by the Alumni Design Team.  Be sure to check out the Heartfelt Creations Blog for a lot of beautiful creations with the Festive Christmas Collection and to get a sneak peak of the new September Classic Sunflower Collection.

Beautiful Roses

 Today's card made me happy; I love how it turned out.  I used some of my favorite products; Heartfelt Creations flowers, Marianne Design dies, and Graphic 45 Design Paper.

 Here is a picture of the products I used.  I have had the Graphic 45 Botanical Tea 8x8 inch  Paper Pad and 6x6 inch Patterns and Solid paper pad for a while now and don't believe I have used it.  I love the papers in these pads so much,  maybe I was afraid to use it up!  I am so happy I did.  I love the large pink rose in the design paper so turned to my Heartfelt Creations Arianna Blooms stamps and die to create flowers.  When I create flowers, I always create a lot while I am doing it and in this picture you can see I even created a few different style flowers with the Arianna Blooms, which I will use later.

Have you used the Heartfelt Creations Arianna Blooms stamps and die to create flowers?    It is so quick and easy and you can create so many different types of flowers.   I stamped the flowers (which are all on one stamp) using Pink Pastel Color Box Chalk ink on Bazzill iced pink card stock.  The matching die for this stamp is so easy to use.  You can just line  it up over the stamped image, and you get five die cut flowers. I use a magnetic plate so didn't even need to tape the die down.  For the largest flower, I used 3 of the largest petals, 3 of the next size down, and just one of the 3rd size down for the center.  For the medium flower, I did the same thing using the three smallest petals.  For the buds, I used the next to the smallest petals and just folded them up into a bud.

I used the Marianne Design Anja's Delicate Corners for the base piece of the design.  Next I die cut the frame and center circle from the Marianne Design Petra's Circle and Crown (LR0317) to frame a piece of the Graphic 45 Design paper that I wanted to use.  The design paper was die cut using the circle die that comes in the Petra's Circle set and attached it to the card stock circle. I sponged blue ink around the edges. The frame was attached with dimensional tape to the card.  The circle was attached with two sided adhesive so the frame is up higher.  It was dropped into place, so it was perfectly centered, after the frame was attached.

 The bird, butterflies, leaves and stamp squares were cut out from the design paper.

 The polka dot and solid blue design paper were used from the Graphic 45 6x6" Patterns & Solid Botanical Tea paper pad.  A piece of sticky back ribbon was placed across the middle of the card (under the frame).  To complete the card, I used a lot of pearls in the design.

Thank you for stopping by.  Have a great weekend.

Marianne Design Anja's Delicate Corner die

Graphic 45 8x8" Botanical Tea Design Paper Pad

Graphic 45 6x6" Patterns & Solid Botanical Tea Design Paper Pad

Heartfelt Creations Arriana Blooms PreCut Set

Heartfelt Creations Arriana Blooms Die

Kaiser Craft white pearls

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Heartfelt Creations Alumni Design Team Blog Hop

 

It is time for more inspiration from the Heartfelt Creations Alumni Design Team.  As in the past, you will have a chance to win a $25 gift certificate from Heartfelt Creations by leaving a comment on each of the posts in this blog hop.  A winner will be randomly selected from comments left on one the blogs.  The hop will close Friday, August 29th at midnight and a winner announced at noon on Saturday August 30th.  Be sure to leave comments along the way so you have a chance to win.

If you are going in order, your next stop will be to Amarilys Doria.

Here is a complete list of designers participating:

Emilia van den Heuvel 

Selma Stevenson   (you are here)

Amarilys Doria

Alissa Wells- 

Giovana Smith

Candy Slabaugh 

Kerry Urbatch 

Sarah Miller

Glenda Brooks 

Lisa Gregory

Mary Faus 

Vicki Dutcher 

Debbie Seyer 

Lisa Allen

 

The autumn season will soon be upon us.   For my card, I used a variety of Heartfelt Creations design papers; Floral Key Collection, Classic Editions Collection, and Majestic Morning Collection.  The flowers were created with the Delicate Asters PreCut Set and die cut using the matching dies; they were white embossed on peach card stock and sponged with Rusty Hinge Distress ink.  The pumpkins were fussy cut from a sheet of design paper from the Classic Editions Collection (which is retired) and layered over one of the design panels in this paper collection.  The sentiment is from the Majestic Morning Collection. 

You can purchase your Heartfelt Creation products a this LINK.

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Silent Night Card and Branch Tutorial

 This morning I was going through some of my old Christmas design paper and found this beautiful sheet.  It was not in a pad so I'm not sure, but I think it is a Graphic 45 design paper.

The first thing that came to mind was to create a pretty red poinsettia with my Susan's Garden Poinsettia dies.  The petals were die cut using red card stock then applied  Susan's Garden Orange Pan Pastel to give the petals some highlights.  On the end of the stamens, I used the Light Moss Green Viva Decor Paper Pen. I really love how realistic Susan's Poinsettia looks.

Many times when you go to the florist shop at Christmas time, you will see beautiful poinsettia arrangements that include snow covered branches.  I wanted to add this dimension  to my poinsettia so I die cut some of the Susan's Garden Branches using dark brown card stock.

 To give the branches some shape, rather than being "flat", I sprayed them with a fine mist of water to soften the card stock.  After letting them sit for a few minutes, I rolled each branch between my fingers to shape them.  This is an easy step to take and it makes the branches look so realistic.

Once the branches were dry (you can use your heat gun to speed this up) I glued Impression Obsession pine branches and the Susan's Garden branches in the center of the card.  The completed poinsettia was attached with dimensional glue dots.  

I decided to add a bit of snow to the branches.  I used the Viva Decor Opal Pen and dabbed it around then sprinkled it with Distress Clear Rock Candy glitter.  A few red pearls were added in the top corners to complete the card.

You can purchase the following products from Ellen Hutson, LLC:

Susan's Garden Poinsettia dies 

Susan's Garden Pan Pastels

Susan's Garden Branches and Stem die

Bazzill Red Hots Card Stock

Viva Decor Light Moss Green Paper Pen

Viva Decor Opal Paper Pen

Pop up Glue Dots

Distress Clear Rock Candy Glitter

Kaiser Craft Red Pearls

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Enjoy the Sweet Moments of the Season

Last year I enjoyed working with Goosebumps Texture Spray on poinsettias I created with the Susan's Garden Poinsettia dies and wanted  to create some more cards using that technique.  I die cut the Susan's Garden poinsettia petals using a light yellow card stock, shaped the petals using the tools in the Susan's Garden Tool Kit, then sprayed the petals with Goosebumps.  Once the goosebumps was dry, I sponged on cranberry ink.  The color is much prettier in real life.

The background piece was embossed with the Susan's Garden Bird embossing folder.  There are two embossing folders in this set - the other one is a wreath.  I love that cute embossed bird.  I hope you can see it in the lower right corner.  Around the edge of the white panel, I used the Tim Holtz Ruler to punch nice even holes.  The  Tim Holtz Ruler is my favorite ruler because it is a clear acrylic ruler that has a grid background for perfect placement, a center measuring guide, a straight edge for drawing lines, a metal edge for cutting, plus spaced holes for paper piercing

The poinsettia is attached with dimensional glue dots, above four Impression Obsession Pine Branches.  I die cut the pine branches in white to match the embossed design.  Under the poinsettia, I added some pearl embellishment I purchased from a floral shop.

The sentiment is from the Heartfelt Creations Sweet Memories PreCut Set. 

Have you tried working with Goosebumps Texture Spray on your poinsettias?

Links to products I used:

 Goosebumps Texture Spray

Susan's Garden Poinsettia dies

Susan's Garden Flower Tool Kit

Susan's Garden Bird & Wreath embossing folders

Impression Obsession Pine Branch

Tim Holtz Ruler

Heartfelt Creations Sweet Memories PreCut Set

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Stair Step Card

Today I have a stair step card created with peach/pink flowers. Last year I created roses with the Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom One" die and the smaller roses and rose buds with the My Favorite Things "Mini Royal Rolled Rose" dies.  I liked the rose arrangement so much I created two panels and never used the second one, so decided I would use it on a card for a friend who sends me beautiful cards.

 The large moss green doily, behind the roses, was die cut from the Marianne Design "Petras Large Ovals" die set. Right behind the roses is the Memory Box "Calypso Flourish", or you could use the similar Memory Box "Quinn Flourish".  The butterflies were cut out from one of the Webster's Pages design papers. 

Thank you for stopping by.  Hope you are having a great weekend.

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Susan's Garden Crepe Paper Poinsettias

 

 Aren't these poinsettias beautiful.  They were created with the Susan's Garden Poinsettia dies.  Can you guess what they are made out of?  I used crepe paper I purchased from Paper Mart.  The petals were die cut and glued to the calyx, then two rows glued together.  I did not shape the crepe paper petals until the petals dried.  You just have to give the crepe paper a little twist between your fingers, to shape each petal.  In the center of each flower, I glued in gold beads.  The poinsettia leaves, from this poinsettia set, were sponged with several shades of Distress Ink.  Under the flowers are the Impression Obsession die cut Pine Branch.. I added texture to the pine branch by adding Ranger Distress "Pine Needles" Embossing Powder. 

  

 I posted information at this LINK if you are interested in how I added texture to the pine branch.

 Last year I posted quite a few tutorials on how to use Susan's Garden Poinsettia dies for a variety of colored poinsettias.  You can check them out at this LINK.  If you want even more inspiration, you can go to this LINK to see Christmas cards I posted last year.

I hope I am getting you in the spirit of starting your Christmas cards so they will all be done before the holidays.

You can purchase the dies for this project from Ellen Hutson, LLC at the links below:

Susan's Garden Poinsettia dies by Sizzix

Impression Obsession Pine Branch Die

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Merry Christmas Lantern

Have you started working on your Christmas Cards?  It seems a bit early, but I am looking forward to having all my cards ready to go before the busy holiday season.  I love the stamp used on this card.  It is from the Festive Candlelight PreCut Set by Heartfelt Creations.  It was stamped on water color paper.  I wanted to see if Copic markers would work on water color paper and was very pleased with the results.  I just lightly pressed on the marker so a lot of ink did not absorb into the paper.  I sponged on Scattered Straw Distress Ink over the image, sponged yellow ink around the flame, then added gold Stickles to the flame.   The stamped lantern was die cut using a scallop oval Nestability.  The background design paper is from the Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas Paper Collection.  The stamped image was added to the Spellbinder Filigree Delight frame with dimensional glue dots.  

To add dimension to the design, I added a poinsettia created with the Petite Poinsettia PreCut Set.  It was placed over the poinsettia in the stamped design.  The sentiment (tag) was cut from the Festive Christmas Design Paper.  Along the outside edge, I added some large gold, flat backed beads with glue dots.

I forgot to take a picture of the inside of this card but I used the sentiment from the Festive Candlelight PreCut Set, and stamped the pretty poinsettia border below it.  

Today Heartfelt Creations has a lot of new cards/projects on their blog that I am sure you will want to check out.  Here is the LINK.

Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas Collection

Heartfelt Creations Festive Candlelight PreCut Set

Heartfelt Creations Festive Paper Collection

Spellbinders Filigree Delight Frame

Heartfelt Creations Petite Poinsettia PreCut Set

Heartfelt Creations Layered Poinsettia dies

Another Christmas Card

Good Morning.  Before I am off for a busy day, I wanted to post another Christmas card designed with the new Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas Collection.  I used one of the 6x6 inch card frames from the Festive Christmas Design Paper Collection for the background on this 6x6 card.  For the center of the empty frame, I added the stamped dove image from the Dove of Peace PreCut Set.  The image was stamped on water color paper, water colored, then cut out with scissors so it could be attached at the bottom of the frame with dimensional glue dots.    The flowers were stamped with the Petite Poinsettia PreCut Set, colored and small yellow beads glued to the center.  They were attached with glue dots.

 To complete the inside of the card, I used one of the sentiment panels from the Festive Christmas Design Paper Collection and added a narrow strip of design paper along the bottom edge.  I love creating beautiful, quick and easy cards, using this new Heartfelt Creations Christmas Collection.

Be sure to check out the beautiful cards created by the Heartfelt Creations Design Team at this LINK for a lot of great ideas for your Christmas cards.

Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas Collection

Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas Design Paper Collection

Heartfelt Creations Dove of Peace PreCut Set

Heartfelt Creations Petite Poinsettia PreCut Set

Heartfelt Creations Layered Poinsettia Shapeabilities

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Celebrate

I can't believe how fast this year is going by.  Christmas will be here before we know!  I have been busy creating my Christmas cards.  The new Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas Collection is making it so easy to create beautiful cards.  For my card today,  I used one of the stamps from the "O Little Town PreCut Set".  The image was colored using water colors then die cut using the Spellbinders Captivating Squares dies.  For the background I used one of the card panels from the Festive Christmas Paper Collection and layered it on another piece of design paper from the same collection.  The sentiment is also from this design paper.  Heartfelt Creations has two Poinsettia stamp sets with matching dies.  For the flowers on this card, I used the Petite Poinsettia PreCut Set.  The flowers were water colored, die cut, shaped then attached with dimensional glue dots. 

Heartfelt Creations Design Paper Collection makes it so easy to complete even the inside of your cards. This is the perfect sentiment to go with the design on the front of the card.   I used the Cut Mat Create 2A die to die cut the matting for this sentiment and embossed it using the Crafter's Companion Dots embossing folder.

I will be posting other cards this week that I have designed with this beautiful collection.

For a lot more inspiration, be sure to go over to the Heartfelt Creations Blog to see all the cards prepared by the design team, and be sure to watch the video prepared by Emma Lou. I hope we can get you inspired to start working early on your Christmas cards!

Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas Collection 
Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas Paper Collection
Heartfelt Creations O Little Town PreCut Set
Heartfelt Creations Petite Poinsettia PreCut Set
Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create dies
 Spellbinders Captivating Squares

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Thinking of you

Today I have another pretty card created with the new Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create Paper Collection.  It is so nice to be able to create a lot of quick and easy cards for future use.  Don't you love the layering in the design of the card panels in the Heartfelt Creations  paper collection!.  I cut the card front out of the 12x12 inch design paper, mounted it on a piece of Navy Blue card stock and attached it to a white card.  The beautiful scripted sentiment is from the Summer Glory PreCut set.  To complete the card I  added Diamond Stickles to the center of each flower and a Navy Blue bow. 

Thank you for stopping by.

Heartfelt Creations  Summer Glory PreCut Set

Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create Paper Collection

Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas

 

I love this Christmas card!  It is always fun to start creating Christmas cards when you have new gorgeous stamps and design paper from Heartfelt Creations to work with. I love to get a head start on these cards before the busy holidays. 

Heartfelt Creations is ushering in the wonder, warmth and joy of the holiday season with the release of the Festive Christmas Collection. These stylish stamps and papers celebrate the jubilant spirit of Christmas with time-honored symbols of peace, hope and majesty.  A luxurious color palette of radiant red, traditional evergreen, and glimmering gold is layered with soft neutral backgrounds. A bounty of deluxe card fronts, artwork, pre-designed layouts and original sentiment panels allows you to create exquisite handcrafted projects in a jiffy, freeing up precious time during this busy season.  Hand drawn images are combined with heartwarming Christmas greetings and versatile backgrounds in six coordinating stamp sets.  Put the “merry” back in your Christmas crafting with this festive collection celebrating the most wonderful time of the year!  

This week, Emma Lou posted a video to demonstrate how to perfectly place a stamped image on an open card front using the Stamp Positioner, and reveals a clever method for creating two die cut layers at the same time

Christmas time is perfect for creating cards with beautiful jewel tones. I am so disappointed I could not get a good photo of this beautiful card.  No matter where I placed the card, the beautiful shinny gold just would not come out clear in the photo.  The Festive Ornaments PreCut Set, which is a beautiful background stamp, was perfect for me to use some "Gilding Gold Leaf" flakes.  I brushed the "Flake and Glitter" glue to the background stamp, stamped it on black card stock,  then applied Gilding Gold Flakes over the glue.  I watched a video at this LINK to see how to do this technique.  I love the shinny metallic finish.  The gilded piece was layered onto a piece of shinny gold card stock then onto a piece of the Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas Paper.  The bottom layer is also a piece of gold card stock.  

To create the poinsettias, I stamped the Heartfelt Creations Christmas Poinsettias, using VersaMark onto a piece of shinny gold card stock; they were gold embossed. You use the Heartfelt Creations Sun Kissed Fleur Die to die cut the poinsettias.  I used two different size die cuts for each of the three flowers.  Since the gilded flakes have a variety of colors, I used a mixture of colored beads for the center of the flowers.  Gold cording was placed behind each flower.  Down the right side of the card, I attached flat backed  gold beads. 

I love the elegance of this Christmas card.   I am looking forward to using this beautiful background stamp to create a variety of different cards.  

To get a lot more inspiration using the Festive Christmas Collection, go over to the Heartfelt Creations Blog.  

All the products in the Festive Christmas Collection at be seen at this LINK.  Be sure to check out the I Want It All Festive Christmas Collection for a great savings.  This special is only available until Sept 5.

Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas Collection
Heartfelt Creations "I Want It All"
Heartfelt Creations Festive Christmas Paper Collection
Heartfelt Creations Festive Ornaments PreCut Set
Heartfelt Creations Christmas Poinsettias PreCut Set
Heartfelt Creations Sun Kissed Fleur Die
Creative Expression Cosmic Shimmer Gildling Flakes
Cosmic Shimmer Flake & Glitter Glue

Thanks A Bunch

Good Morning.  We have been without Internet Service which put me behind on some of my posts. We had a warning this morning that another big storm is to arrive this afternoon and our power may go off again.  I hope that is not true!   I have had fun working with the new Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create Collection.  This card was created using one of the card panels from the Paper Collection.  The pretty rose was stamped using the beautiful rose in the Classic Rose PreCut Set.  I used scissors to cut around, just the rose, and water colored the image.  It was shaped using the tools from the Flower Tool Kit, then attached it with dimensional glue dots to the center of the card.   The sentiment is from the Birds and Bloom PreCut Set.  A green gingham bow was added to complete this card.  

If you would like to create beautiful quick and easy cards with this collection, you can see the entire Cut Mat Create Collection at this Heartfelt Creations LINK.

Thank you for stopping by.  I'll have another card from this collection for you tomorrow.

Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create Collection

Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create Paper Collection

Heartfelt Creations Classic Rose Pre Cut Set

Heartfelt Creations Birds and Bloom PreCut Set

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Pretty White Posies

 Aren't the stamps and papers in the new Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create Collection beautiful!  For this card I used a piece of the design paper from this collection for the background.  The pretty image from the Summer Song PreCut Set was stamped using Archival black ink and watercolored.  It was die cut using the matching die from the Cut Mat Create 1B die set.  For the white matting behind the stamped image, I used the one size larger die from the Cut Mat Create 1A die set.  Behind this image, I added the Heartfelt Creations Decorative Lattice Swirl Die. I stamped three Posy Patch Flowers, colored them to match the design paper and the stamped image and die cut them using the Posy Patch dies.

You can see the entire Cut Mat Create collection at this LINK.

Below are direct links to products used:

Heartfelt Creations Summer Song PreCut Set

Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create 1B die set

Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create 1A die set

Heartfelt Creations Decorative Lattice Swirl Die

Heartfelt Creations Posy Patch Flower PreCut Set

Heartfelt Creations Posy Patch dies

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Roses for You

I received a beautiful new Marianne Design Embossing Folder from a friend and thought some Susan's Garden roses would be a perfect bouquet for this pretty embossed background.

The Marianne Design Embossing Folder is DF3405.  At the bottom of the embossed background, I used one of the dies from the Marianne Design, Anja's Flowers, die set.  

The roses were created with the Susan's Garden Rose dies.  The roses were die cut using ivory card stock and colored with Susan's Garden Pan Pastels.  Rather than creating fully bloomed roses, I created large rose buds.  Behind the roses I added two Marianne Design LR0192,  Creatable leaves,  die cuts.

To complete the card, pearls and a silk bow were added.

The following products can be purchased from Ellen Hutson, LLC:

Marianne Design, Anja's Flowers

Susan's Garden Rose Dies

Susan's Garden Pan Pastels

Hero Arts Accent Pearls, Medium