Christmas Berry Wreath - Stampin' Up! Thoughtful Blooms

   In these trying times we must make do with what we have on hand and that includes trying to make Christmas cards with only 2 Christmas sets.  I wanted to play along with the CAS Christmas Challenge which is to make a card using winter berries but there was a problem..... no winter berries to be found in either of my Christmas sets. 

  What to do? What to do?  I dug around and the only stamp set that had something even close to berries was the Sale-a-Bration set Thoughtful Blooms.  And it is a teeny tiny image!  How to get this itty bitty image to be the basis for a whole card.  Luckily part of the challenge is CAS which is Clean and Simple.  I decided that using the berry image to create a wreath might work.  That prompted me to figure out how to make a template for my Stamparatus that I had been putting off for some time.  It was far easier than I thought it would be and I'm pleased with how it came out.

  The berries are stamped in Shaded Spruce and Merry Merlot and once I got the wreath all set I cut it out with circle dies and added a larger circle in Copper Glimmer paper behind it for some shine.

  The double bow is Cherry Cobbler baker's twine which is a decent match for the Merry Merlot and that's added to the wreath with a glue dot.

  The sentiment from Merry Christmas to All (which is retiring in case you still want it) is stamped in Versamark right onto the DSP and embossed with copper embossing powder.  The DSP is retired Joyous Noel and the color is the retired Tranquil Tide but is a nice match to the Shaded Spruce berry stems.

  Overall I think it took longer to find a berry stamp and make the wreath template for the Stamparatus than it did to actually stamp this card.  And it was fun trying something new and using up some retired supplies.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Thoughtful Blooms (retired SAB), Merry Christmas to All

Ink: Shaded Spruce, Merry Merlot, Versamark

Paper: Very Vanilla thick, Very Vanilla, Copper Glimmer paper (retired), Joyous Noel DSP (retired)

Accessories: Circle dies, Cherry Cobbler baker's twine, copper embossing powder, dimensionals