Another out of date range holiday

Oh yeah, sometimes you just have to work on an idea when it pops up whether it's date-relevant or not.  Since I still had some Perfect Pearls-Distress Ink mixes left from my project on Wednesday I decided to use them in my Simon Says Stamp & Show blog project that must feature a flourish.  In fact, they were the catalyst for my idea.  Well, what would you do with red, green, gold and brown?  Yup, Christmas!

I started out with a 5" chipboard circle and painted it with Claudine Hellmuth's Traditional Tan paint but left some spots bare.  Once dry I stamped Wendy's poinsettia flourish in Jet Black Archival Ink.  Various brown distress inks were sponged over the the entire piece then I smeared some Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint over all, again not being too neat.  After the crackling was done I smeared more brown distress inks over the piece.

Using the leftover Mini Mister mixtures, I sprayed another piece of cardstock with all the colors (not overlapping the colors).  Wendy's image was stamped multiple times so I could cut and stack the layers.  Between each layer is a bit of foam tape; the flower petals were pinched for more dimension.

Maya Road chipboard flourishes were touched up with Peeled Paint DI as well as the green MM mix.  The brown MM provided the background for the stamped fragment.  The Gold Paint Dabber was run around the edge as a finishing touch.

Using some of the leftover crepe paper ribbon from Wednesday's tag I sprayed it with the red mix then ran it through my Big Shot using Tim's medium rosette die.  I did have to add tape to the back side as the ribbon is thin and fragile.  LOTS of glue holds this fiddly piece on...but it was worth the hassle (I think).  Last, but not least, I confiscated some gold chain from an old necklace.

I know quite a few stores celebrate Christmas in July.  After all, crafters need to get started early if they're going to finish cards, decorations and gifts in time.  So think of this as my way of jump starting the creativity process.  You probably don't want to hear this but I already have my holiday card idea worked out.