Poinsettia Christmas Trees

Hellos crafty friends! I have been busy cranking out crinoline poinsettias for the past 2 weeks ever since the beginning of Frilly and Funkie's latest challenge 'Home For the Holidays'. Kathy wants us to deck our halls with  hand crafted holiday decor. So here I am almost at the close of the challenge with my pair of poinsettia Christmas trees.

I was inspired by this photo my sister texted me. She and her husband are growers in Missouri, and this is a shot of one of her many filled green houses. I sent her a photo of my pink poinsettia card, and she gushed over it a little. So I decided to make her a pair of trees she can set out at her annual Open House she holds for her loyal customers. If you ever need plants and are in or near Springfield,  Missouri, you might want to look her up--Hilltop Farms. They provide the prettiest and healthiest of plants year round.

I started with styrofoam cones from the craft store and covered them with lace ribbon I got at a yard sale. It really doesn't show, but I wanted it to be pretty underneath in case anyone got real close--sort of like a petticoat under a pretty dress! About a ga-zillion passes with Tim Holtz Tattered Poinsettia die and crinoline, Goosebumps Texture Spray, Picked Raspberry Distress stain, Distress inks in Crushed Olive, Mowed Lawn and Picked Raspberry, Perfect Pearl Mist,  2 weeks of pink fingers, several mornings and nights with the glue gun and 10 burnt fingers later, this is what the trees looked like (photo on right). The gold berries are from a Christmas pick I picked apart. Still lacking something.

 

  Sitting on my desk next to my photo booth was a bag of Twinkle Trim I picked up early in the season at the craft store. So after I spent time making sure there wasn't a strand of hot glue webs in sight, I added back what almost looks like hot glue webs on camera, but in real life it shimmers. By the way, an easy way to get rid of those pesky webs is with a blast from your heat gun, in case you didn't already know that. One of my duties at my step mother's florist shop when I was in college was to pick off all the webs from her's and Tessa's beautiful flower arrangements--if only I knew then!

I think the trees really pop with the black backdrop! What do you think? The green props are part of my fairly large collection of green Depression glass.

I am sharing my trees with the following challenges:

-Frilly and Funkie 'Home For the Holidays'

-Scrapy Land Challenge # 55 Anything Goes (with any die that Scrapy Land sells) I used just one Sizzix die a ga-zillion times!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #179-Christmas With a Twist My Twist is non-traditional colors and non-traditional use of poinsettias.(1/16)

Noor! Design December Challenge 25-'Sparkle'

A Vintage Journey December Challenge-Winter Magic

Country View Challenges December 2016-Christmas

-Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge-Ice Inspiration The Tinsel Trim and berries are supposed to echo the sparkle of snow and ice.

Southern Ridge Trading Company-Christmas and New Years

Creative Artiste Challenge 21-Anything Mixed Media Goes

-Fussy and Fancy Challenge 178-Christmas in Tones or Pastels

Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments! I know you are busy this time of year, so it is even more special to me that you've visited!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily