Monday Make with Creative Expressions - Christmas Wreath

Hello followers! And hello to any of you who have stumbled upon me today! Welcome to the Monday Make with Creative Expressions!

New month and so begins a new month of projects made using Creative Expressions products. I was sent a fantastic parcel of loveliness which made me quite giddy with ideas! This wreath was made using a fantastic combination of stamps and dies. The dies are designed to work perfectly with the stamps. Or is it that the stamps are designed to work perfectly with the dies? I haven't got a clue! All I know is they are brilliant together!!

I started by colouring 2 Sheets of A4 white card with the yellow/orange/green paints from the Cosmic Shimmer Watercolour paints in Pastel colours. I was fairly random with the colouring as I wanted the finished pieces to look natural.

Once this was completely dry I stamped and heat embossed the petal forms using the Stamps to Die for Pinstripe Poinsettia. I used the 3 sizes of the 5 petal stamps and used Cosmic Shimmer Gold detail embossing powder. 

At this stage I really didn't know how many I would need but I did a full sheet of A4 of the largest petal stamp making sure I used as much of the card as possible. I got 9 out of my piece of card. I then stamped an equal number of the next 2 sizes on the other sheet.

Next came the cutting. This was a doddle! I used the matching cutting dies! I cut one of each of the sizes with each pass through my cutting machine. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing the die cut each of these stamped images perfectly every time! 

Taking one of each size of the petals, I then formed a flower by using Cosmic Shimmer glue (where would I be without that?) turning each layer so that the petals weren't lying directly on top of one another. 

The wreath form was a bit of a DIY thing. I took a piece of cardboard and cut a large circle just big enough to sit the flowers on. It is rather like a big washer, (or a ring do-nut if you are like me and relate better to food items!) 2 circles, one inside the other, forming a narrow band.  I didn't want any of the cardboard to show so I made it just big enough to take the 9 flowers that I had ended up with. Odd numbers always work better than even ones.

Once I was happy with the placement I glued each one onto the ring with CS Glue. The little gaps in between were filled with those lovely 18mm red Dazzlers. I finished things off with some Green and Ivory Grosgrain ribbon and another Dazzler! 

I think this makes a really lovely decoration for Christmas, although I wouldn't want to hang it outside of the house. It could be made in more traditional poinsettia colours of course for a more Christmas feel. I did think of that but I am still not quite ready for full-on Christmas crafting yet! Isn't there a little bit of summer still to come?

OK, I could take waffling to Olympic levels! I have a mountain of things to do so I better get on with them! 

Hope you have enjoyed this project.

Have a great week, come back soon! 

Kim