Visions of Christmas Cards

August is almost over, and so my card-making thoughts are turning to Christmas cards — the cards I use the most, as well as some of my favourite to make. Meredith's card caught my eye at Muse: ChristmasVisions the other day. Here's her beautiful card: 

I was inspired by the tag element, the use of vellum, the joy die cut and the floral theme. Here's what I ended up with: 

Meredith stamped her background panel, but I knew I had some patterned paper that would work perfectly for what I had in mind. When I tried vellum over it, the design disappeared a little too much, so instead I used some tracing parchment. I watercoloured and fussy-cut the poinsettia, and die cut the joy sentiment from gold pearl paper (with a bristol board layer underneath) to match the pale gold pearl embossing powder I used for the flower. Instead of a secondary sentiment panel, I cut a tag topper from the patterned paper. I'm not 100% happy with the finished design — it's a little bottom-heavy, but overall it's a pretty and elegant card, I think. 
I've been resisting starting back on Christmas cards, as once I get going, it's hard to stop! Fair warning... ;) 

Supplies: white cardstock, Fluid hot-press watercolour paper, pale gold pearl paper, Echo Park Christmas This & That patterned paper, Borden & Riley parchment tracing paper, bristol board, Gourmet Rubber Stamps Heaven and Nature stamps, Versamark ink, pale gold pearl embossing powder, Papertrey Ink Joy, Technique Tuesday This Tag & MFT blueprints 24 stitched rectangle dies, watercolour pencils, Michaels gold ribbon, pop-dot tape