blue... times two!

we're still celebrating "blue christmas" at jingle belles and you are still invited to join the fun! this week, i wound up with two cards, though one of them is distinctly blue-er than the other!

i recently acquired this beautiful hero arts poinsettia ornament die from the "xmas in july" shop box at paper anthology. and i can think of A LOT of ways to use it, but my first instinct, when i saw it in the store, was to diecut the top layer from watercolor paper and paint it with colorburst. so that's what i did. here's my top tip for creating with colorburst, acrylic paint, modeling paste, or anything else that involves drying time: make two or three at the same time. that way, if your first idea doesn't pan out, you've got a second chance, sitting right there on your table! in this case, i painted the poinsettias with ultramarine colorburst that had a teeny tiny bit of prussian blue mixed in; and the foliage with terre vert to which i added a little verdi gris liquid metal. when my creation was dry, i layered the diecut ornament over a leftover panel of a similar shade of blue, and trimmed neatly around the edge. then i embellished with seambinding, small prima flowers held on with eyelet outlet pearl brads, and a few extra stick-on pearls and snowflake bling. up until now, this endeavor is very very blue indeed. but then i had to select a background paper. and this scrap of ancient green echo park patterned paper just made the ornament stand out SO MUCH MORE than any shade of blue in my collection. so i went with it, but decided to use my "fall back"ornament in something a little more blue.

my fallback ornament has poinsettias painted with prussian blue colorburst, smaller blossoms of diluted ultramarine and foliage in a very very diluted shade of lime green. i layered the finished diecut on top of a rejected experiment involving gelato crayons and white modeling paste which didn't look very lovely on its own, but was perfect for the inside of the bauble! i added a larger prima flower to one side, then found the perfect blue background with just enough detail. my sentiment is composed of ancient and well-hoarded basic grey alphabet stickers, which i still contend is the best ever font for cardmaking!

so technically, only one of these cards really fits this fortnight's "blue xmas" challenge at jingle belles. but i do really like how they both came out, and in my experience, there is absolutely NO downside to having a few extra holiday cards when december rolls around!