Technique Tuesday Perfect Poinsettia - Progressive Sale

Hey everyone!  I'm continuing to plug away at my Christmas cards, so I was quite pleased when Technique Tuesday sent me their latest Greenhouse Society stamp set (just released on Thursday), Perfect Poinsettia.

It's a really lovely image that has a vintage feel to it, so for my first card, I wanted to create some vintage looking patterned paper.

I stamped the image on watercolor paper using Versafine, and then painted it with my Kuretake Gansai watercolors.  The background/negative spaces were painted a very light tan and then followed up with a light layer of gold.  For the flowers/leaves, I dulled the colors a bit with a soft brown wash as well.  I also went back in and added a bit of brown to the shaded places - where there are dashed lines/hatching on the flower.

The panel was machine stitched to my card base and then I added a thin strip of green paper and a sentiment also from the Poinsettia set which was embossed in white on kraft.

For my second card, I wanted to color the flower with Copics to get a more vibrant effect.

Once that was done, the image was die cut, and then set aside.  I picked out some older patterned papers from BasicGrey.  I really loved the papers together, but I thought the flower wasn't popping enough, so I added a bit of painting with white gesso.

Once that was dry, I adhered the papers together and then to the card base with some more machine stitching.

The flower was popped up with some foam tape and I added a few white and clear sequins.

The sentiment is included with the Perfectly Poinsettia die, and was cut three times from kraft cardstock.

I also wanted to let you know about that today is the first day of Technique Tuesday's annual Progressive Sale on retiring stamps and dies.  Here are the details:

· Nov 4 - Nov 10: Use coupon code SafeBet18 to take 40% off the prices on all products listed on these "Progressive Sale" pages
· Nov 11 - 17: Discount increases to 50% off with coupon code GoodLuck18.
· Nov 18 - 26: Use coupon code LongShot18 to get an astounding 60% off.

Things to remember:

· Inventory is limited. If you wait, you may get a bigger discount or the products you want may be sold out!
· To receive the discount enter the coupon code at checkout. No refunds can be issued if it is missing.
· Due to the large number of orders and holidays during this sale, please allow for some extra shipping time.