Pom Flower Christmas

Wow! I have had this post queued up since the New Year.  I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get around to posting it.  As we all know life just sometimes gets in the way.  Luckily it was nothing overtly dramatic, just life itself.  So I created this card for my Mother in law for Christmas.  Now if you dust the cobwebs from my blog you will remember I did a similar felt flower pin in November.  I decided to dress it up a bit and add some beads to it.  There are plenty of tutorials on how to make the pin on the internet.  TBH it is very simple and I’m not going to re-invent the wheel here.  The big thing I had to overcome is how to adhere it to my card so the recipient wouldn’t destroy the card taking it off AND getting it into an envelope.

I was very lucky as my dear husband gave me a Grand Caliber for Christmas (when I found an incredible end of stock deal) that he let me use before Christmas.  I’m sure it helped that I explained my concept that I needed it for a card for his mother *wink, wink*  I used some of my hoarded lovingly acquired stash of Christmas cardstock that will most likely last me through my old age and then some.  I liked the idea of the repetition of flowers, even though they weren’t identical to the one I made.  I think it was more important to have the continuity of idea and colors.  I cut one of the largest sizes for the front of the card and some American Craft cardstock for the background.  I think off set the large die and cut it to fit on the front of my large card.  I used some Versamark and gold embossing powder on the edges of the die cut to make it pop from the background a bit more.  I used a smaller die to make a base for the flower pin.  Stamped and embossed the pin base and the card base.  My brain storm came when I used fun foam to create depth needed to put the pin on the small base and not mark the larger die cut on the card.  I used repositionable glue on the pin base so that it could easily be removed from the card.

My next brainwave was how to package the card.  Now it is at this point that I probably need to point out that I was sending this as part of a larger package to my in-laws with presents and other cards enclosed.  Space was a premium.  I have to admit I was rather impressed with myself for thinking about making a peek-a-boo window in the envelope itself for the pin to pop through.  My family said it was as if Rudolph got nosy!

Hopefully the pictures make it all pretty self explanatory.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5in x 5.5in
Cardstock – Neenah Classic Crest, American Crafts
Stamps – Inkadinkado “Warm Holiday Wishes”, Kitchen Sink Stamps “Whole Family”
Ink – Versamark
Accessories – Gold Embossing Powder, Spellbinders Grand Dies, Fun Foam, Felt, pin back, Beads, wiring,
Technique – Stamping with heat embossing