The Flower Challenge # 2

I can't believe a whole month has gone by since we started this brand new floral challenge, and its now time for our second one. Where do all these days keep disappearing too????

And before I forget I must say a big THANK YOU to everyone that made the first challenge such a huge success. We were so overwhelmed with the amount of entries (which made picking a winner even harder!!) and it was wonderful to see everyone loves their floral stamps as much as we do!

For this months Flower Challenge theme, we would like you to create a floral project about 'A Special Occasion'. This doesn't have to be a public or national holiday, it could be an occasion that is special to yourself or maybe your family. It will be lovely to see the Gallery filled with projects dedicated to special moments in your lives!!

I love Christmas! I've never been able to sleep on Christmas Eve, even when I reached my 'adult days' the excitement on that night is palpable. And now that its November and its only so many weeks till we put up our Christmas tree (I passed my 'Christmas love' on to my children), I have Christmas cards on the brain. I'm very worried that I won't have enough to send to everyone so will have to make a bit more of an effort and try a 'mass producing weekend'!

One of the things I want to do with my cards for this particular challenge, is use stamp sets that either haven't been used before or haven't seen the light of day for some time. A friend gave me this stamp set so I thought of her as I water coloured away:

I've had an extremely busy week working full days and collapsing into bed after dinner, so this card was wonderful to relax with and paint. This was actually my Day 1 of the 30 Day Colouring Challenge but Day 2, 3 and 4 haven't quite happened yet.....

I cut a panel of water colour CS the same size as my card front, and then stamped and heat embossed the poinsettia in gold. I then used my Gansai Tambi water colour paints and coloured each flower, concentrating the darker red at the base of each petal. I also used yellow to colour the stamens. 

So I didn't cover up the flowers too much, I cut a strip of vellum and heat embossed the sentiment in the same gold embossing powder. I wrapped it around the panel and adhered at the back. I was then able to adhere the entire panel on to the front of my card. And of course I had to add a bit more gold in the shape of some sequins to carry on the theme. Maybe this could be my mass produced card in different colours????

The stamp set is from Ellen Hutson by Julie Ebersole 'Mistletoe and Holly', and the sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

You have until November 25th to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and the rest of the Design Team have some beautiful cards on the blog for you incase your needing some help with an idea or two. I can't wait to see your gorgeous flowers in the Gallery and I will be back on the 15th with a quick reminder just incase you've forgotten.....

Take care
Shona