February Christmas card: Festive wreath

Since it definitely looks like Christmas around here, it seemed like a good weekend to make my February Christmas cards. And as a bonus, it gave me a chance to try out one of my new stamp sets.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Wreath Turnabout (Concord & 9th), Stitched with Cheer
Paper: Lucky Limeade, Very Vanilla card stock; Candlelight Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP); gold foil sheets
Ink: Lucky Limeade, Tip Top Taupe, Early Espresso, Real Red
Accessories: Bunch of Banners Framelits dies, gold sequins (Craft Medley), stamp positioner (Tim Holtz), Mini Turnabout Jig (Concord & 9th), Dimensionals, Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute Glitter)

The inspiration for this card was a sample card on the Concord & 9th site that featured a autumn-colored wreath on a striped card base. I love florals or leaves with stripes, so I ran with it.

The first step was to look through my paper stash to find a colors that would work with a wreath. This sheet from the Candlelight Christmas DSP was perfect. It has four colors: Early Espresso, Real Red, Lucky Limeade and Primrose Petals. For my first attempt at stamping the wreath, I tried using all those colors, but Primrose Petals was too close to Real Red, and it didn't look right. So I took that one out of the mix and substituted in a light neutral, Tip Top Taupe.

The most time-consuming part of this design was definitely the stamping. The Turnabout stamps are really fun and not hard to do with a stamp positioner. But since I was making six cards of this design, and I had to stamp each complete focal panel before moving on to the next one, I had to keep cleaning off the stamp to switch ink colors.

Once the stamping was done, the rest of the card came together pretty easily. I adhered a 3-3/4" x 5-1/2" piece of DSP to an A2-sized Lucky Limeade card base, leaving a 1/4" border on each side of the DSP. I added a strip of gold foil to the top and bottom of the focal panel and adhered that over the DSP. Using Dimensionals I attached a banner with a sentiment in the middle of the wreath, and three gold sequins are the finishing touch.

Thanks for stopping by!