Christmas!
Do you know why we associate the poinsettia with Christmas? The plant’s association with Christmas began in 16th-century Mexico with a story about a little girl. She looked forward to the annual Christmas festival but could not afford to buy a gift to take to the festival. On Christmas Eve, she set out for church to attend the service and picked some weeds along the way. She placed the weeds in the manger as her gift to the baby Jesus. Miraculously, the green leaves turned into bright red petals and soon the entire manger was surrounded by the star-like flowers. These flowers are now called the “Flor de la Noche Buena,” the Flower of Christmas Eve.
When the flower was introduced to the US in the early 1800’s it was renamed the poinsettia in honor of the “discoverer” Dr. Poinsett. Nowadays, poinsettias are synonymous with Christmas and the Holidays. When I see the poinsettia, I can’t help but think of cold, wintery nights, Christmas trees, and the Holidays. I know it’s only July, but it’s never too early to start on those Christmas cards.
I’m sharing the Reason for the Season stamp set again and showing off that gorgeous poinsettia flower this time. The poinsettia in this set is so big and so bold it makes quite the statement. I decided to take it another direction and play up the fact that it is so big and bold by stamping lots of them to make my own background paper.
The Festive Flower Builder punch was originally designed to coordinate with this stamp set so you can make your own poinsettias. You will want to punch out multiples of the petals and leaves so you can build up your flower. I have eight of the large petals, four of the medium petals, and two of the small petals. I added the sentiment as a separate punched piece. I didn’t want it to get lost among the flowers on the card.
I used some of our new Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper. This pack is a little more expensive than some of the other packs, but you get 24 sheets instead of the usual 12. There are four each of six double-sided sheets so you actually get more of each pattern than you normally would in our other packs of paper. This is really nice if you want to make a bunch of one card.
As July is coming to a close, I wanted to remind you about Bonus Days, which ends this Sunday, 7/31. For every $50 you spend in July (pre-tax and shipping), you get a $5 coupon to use in August. The coupons are emailed to you by Stampin Up after you place your order. Don’t lose that coupon though as Stampin Up has no way to look them up. This is an email you definitely want to be sure you save.
I will be back on Friday with a little more Holiday cheer.
Great post! Love the story!
Thanks, Poli!