Magical Holiday

 Hi bloggers!  This is one of the cards that never quite got out of the demo box in time as these dies and stamps sold out on Saturday.  It's another distressed sort of card, but still has a sort of elegant look to it as well I think.  I started with a piece of milk card that I embossed with the Couture Creations Adagio embossing folder.  I did the background in two sections to create a large enough piece.  This folder has musical note scores running in a diagonal manner, so it is difficult to line it up exactly, but if you plan your background so that something covers the join, it is easy to work around. I used a clear perfect medium pad around the edges and added some gold embossing powder.  Before heating, I rubbed it away in places for a more distressed look.   I selected some musical paper from my stash to use in conjunction with my embossed background.  I cut a wide border and wrapped some crochet ribbon around and taped the ends to the back.  I matted it with a thin edge of black card.  I used some older dies to mat and layer my sentiment, scalloped lacey ovals, labels 18, and plain ovals.  I stamped my sentiment (from Justrite) and gold embossed it.  I used a light inking of gold pigment ink while still in the die.  To create the flowers, I used the same musical themed paper from my border and stamped the Heartfelt Creations Sun kissed Poinsettia using a perfect medium pad.  I heat embossed them in gold and cut them out with the matching die.  The flowers layer up beautifully by simply adding a bit of glue to the centre and off setting them.  I finished the centres with a black flatback pearl.  I arranged them atop a piece of black tulle with some bronze metallic Bakers Twine.  I added a single flower to the opposite side of the focal element and some black swirls to the upper corner.  A double pierced milk coloured card mat finished it off nicely.  Finished dimensions are  6 1/2" x 9" in size.
A couple of quick notes, first of all, Julia Watts has shows on today at 8am and 2pm with Leonie with brand new stamp designs (love these as they were drawn by my artist!)  You will have to tune i to see her brilliant demos and great personality!
Secondly, I had an email from Nigel May to let me know that his new book called Trinity is being reviewed in New! Magazine, which is out  now!  In fact, it is the Book of the Week!  (see thumbnail)  If you are interested, you can download his steamy novel by clicking on the link on the right side of the blog.  We wish Nigel much success with his new venture!  All for now, Sue x