I originally made this card for my mother-in-law who has dementia and lives in a nursing home. I was so happy with it that I made another one that is identical to give to an elderly friend.
The card looks complicated – I acknowlege that fact – but let me assure you it’s very simple.
Begin with green cardstock folded in half. (I use half an A4 size as my standard.) Mine is bottom opening, but you can do it whichever way works for you. Then I searched through my stash to find some scrapbooking paper that would work well with this design. The light green paper has flourishes of leaves, which I feel makes it an extension of the die cut flourishes.
As you can see, I’ve left the paper straight at one end, and rounded it at the other. I tried using a round die, but couldn’t find the exact size I wanted. So instead I placed my roll of double-sided tape at the end, then traced around it (on the wrong side of the paper). Then I cut it with scizzors.
What I’ve done here is leave a decent gap on the right hand side so the green cardstock is showing.
Before gluing down the light green scrapbooking paper, add some contrasting ribbon and glue or tape it down at the back. Once that is done, you can then glue the paper down.
Next I took my new Spellbinders Nested Poinsettia dies and cut out one or two of each size in red paper. Make sure you emboss each one after cutting them as this adds to the effect. Next you will layer the poinsettias by size. Sit them on each other, and decide if you want two of each size, or less. On this card I’ve used one of each size, but on the other card I made, I used two medium, two of the second smallest size, and two of the smallest size.
You’ll need to play around and find what works best for you.
Glue your poinsettia pieces together and add some yellow stickles to the centre. Set aside to dry while you continue with the rest of the card.
For the small folliage (below the flower) I used Spellbinders Foliage (Shapeabilities Die)
For the flourishes (above the flower), I used Cheery Lynn Tropical Flourishes. I can’t find them on Amazon, so you may have to replace them with something else, such as Spellbinders Floral Flourishes Shapeabilities Die
With both the folliage and the flourishes, I did one in the same green as the base cardstock, and another in gold. You may notice the green is on the left side where the light green paper is. That was done on purpose so it shows up. Adding it to the right hand side means it will blend into the green cardstock and won’t be seen.
By now your poinsettia flower should be dry enough to move.
Lay your flourishes and folliage on top of the card that should only be partially assembled at this point. I tend to place the flower close to the edge of the cardstock and light green paper. It seems to balance the card out, but you can also place it closer to the ribbon, but you may need to balance it out by adding a greeting somewhere near the bottom right corner.
Don’t glue anything yet.
You don’t want anything showing from under the flower except what can be seen above and below. Once you’ve done that, lay the assembled poinsettia on top, and make sure nothing can be seen that shouldn’t be seen. I had bits of ‘stalks’ sticking out all over the place, so I had to clip about a quarter off the bottom of each flourish. This sounds a bit wasteful, but you can keep those bits for future use if you want.
Once you’re happy with the layout and the way it all looks, take the flower off again, and glue down your flourishes and folliage.
If you use tackly glue, you’ll be able to reposition the pieces for a short time before it dries completely.
Now that you’re happy with that step, add your poinsettia flower. Hold it gently until you’re happy it will stay in place.
That’s it – you’re done!
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Supplies and Equipment Used for this card:
Spellbinders Foliage (Shapeabilities Die)
Spellbinders Floral Flourishes Shapeabilities Die
Cuttlebug or other die cut machine
*You may already have some or all of these items in your stash. As always, use replacements if necessary. I’ve been unable to locate the exact flourish I used, but you can use a replacement.