Glazed and Grungy Stenciled Poinsettia Christmas Cards

Hi everyone! I'm knee high in Christmas crafts lately, and here are some cards I played around with, messed up, and then tried to fix, but I ultimately liked how they came out, and decided to share.  Although different colors, these were all made the same with the Poinsettia Duo Layering Stencil from Tim and Stamper's Anonymous, and lots of inks and Embossing Glazes. I hope the recipients like them.

I wanted a vintage look to these, so using old postcard tags from my stash, I inked over the edges of them using Antique Linen Distress Ink from Tim and Ranger, and I left the center area uninked. I added Gathered Twigs to the edges carrying it over a little. I flicked water on them, and then lightly misted with Old Paper and Antique Linen Distress Spray Stain. I gave them a dry with a heat tool.

 

 

 Using the Stamp Platform I stamped the pine branch with berries from the Forest Floor Stamp Set using Pine Needles Distress Ink, and stamped one on the top, right side, and bottom of the tags. 

 

 

 Using a stamping block, I hand stamped the music notes in Iced Spruce Distress Ink and the script in Pumice Stone Distress Ink from The Poinsettia Stamp Set randomly over each tag. 

 

I taped off the leaves and splatters from the Poinsettia Duo Layering Stencil, so that only the poinsettias would be inked in as I'm a messy stenciler...can't help it. I positioned the stencil sideways over the tags do that I could do both the large and small poinsettias at the same time. On one tag I inked in Fired Brick Distress Oxide and heat embossed Fired Brick Embossing Glaze over it. On another I inked in Tattered Rose Distress Oxide and heat embossed in Tattered Rose Glaze, and on the third, I inked in Picket Fence Distress Ink and heat embossed in Antique Linen Glaze. The reason I used Picket Fence instead of Antique Linen was that I thought it might be a little brighter since I was doing such a light color on a light background. After I did two poinsettias on all three, I went back and did the third poinsettia in the lower right corner on each one the same way I did the others. 

 

I removed the washi tape, and retaped so that I could ink in only the leaves this time. I used Peeled Paint Distress Oxide Ink and Peeled Paint Embossing Glaze for the leaves on all three tags. Then I removed the tape and cleaned up the stencil. 

 

 

I inked over the poinsettias only using Antique Linen Distress Ink to bring out the veins and lines on the lighter flowers especially. I used a damp paper towel to wipe off the ink on the glazed parts. Trying to mimic what white and pink poinsettias really look like, I used a Twisted Citron Distress Crayon and a Detail Water Brush to go over all the veins and lines on the flowers and leaves like the ones I have seen in real life, but I was not happy with how it looked. It went from cool to yuck, and I felt like I really lost the Antique Linen flowers...they were hard to see now. I was almost ready to throw these out and begin again, but I pressed on.  

 

I decided I needed to go darker to bring out the rose and linen flowers so I inked over the flowers using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink carrying it off over the borders of the flowers. I immediately was happy about this as I could now see the details on the lighter flowers, and of course I liked the grunge of it. I wiped off the ink on the glazed parts, and then decided to go over the lines again with Twisted Citron Crayon. This time I liked it. I also colored in the open parts of the stamped pine needles using the Twisted Citron Crayon. My flowers lost their luster and shine after all the inking and removing, so I hit them with the heat tool real quick to lightly heat up the glaze to make it shiny again...a trick I learned long ago after trying to save a project or two. 

 

I put the stencil back on over the flower, this time no taping any parts, and inked in the splatters with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. I cut a kraft card base, a green Shattered mat, and a vintage gold mat that I had in my stash. I inked the edges of all these in Gathered Twigs along with the tag, and matted them all to each other using two sided tape. I distressed the top and bottom edges of the green Shattered piece as well since the card was longer than it was wide.

 

 

 I found some old Christmas Word Sticks in my stash, and lightly colored them with Gold Mixative. I filled in the words with Pine Needles Distress Crayon and wiped off the crayon on the surface. I am in love with the Velvet Trims (I love all things velvet.) and used the gorgeous vintage green one to thread through the word band. I used two sided tape to secure everything, and then fish tailed the ends of the ribbon. I filled in all the berries on the pine branches and the centers of the poinsettias with Lime Green Stickles for a little glitz.

 

Supplies: 

(Ink Blending Tools, Distress Sprayer with Water, Heat Tool, Stamp Platform, Stamping Block, Washi Tape, Scissors, Silicon Mat, Two Sided Tape, Paper Distress Tool, Alcohol Ink Blending Tool with Felt) 

-Postcard Tags, Vintage Gold Paper 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Antique Linen, Gathered Twigs, Pine Needles, Iced Spruce, Pumice Stone, Picket Fence 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain: Antique Linen, Old Paper 

-Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamp Set: Forest Floor, The Poinsettia 

-Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection Layering Stencil: Poinsettia Duo 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink: Tattered Rose, Fired Brick, Peeled Paint 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Glaze: Tattered Rose, Fired Brick, Antique Linen, Peeled Paint 

-Ranger Detail Water Brush 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons: Twisted Citron, Pine Needles 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Mixed Media Heavystock: Kraft 

-Tim Holtz Core-dinations Kraft Core: Shattered 

-Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Christmas Word Bands, Christmas Velvet Trims 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink Mixative: Gold 

-Ranger Stickles: Lime Green

Back to the Crafty Cave for me. I'll be back soon. I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!