Birds, Holly, and Poinsettias

Well, Christmas is coming fast and I need to be getting my cards finished!  Here are a couple more I made using the bird stamp I've shown previously (from StampinUp) for my focals, and my new Poinsettia embossing folder which I've also shown previously (from Sizzix).  As you can see, I started with a piece of red patterned paper which I glued to the front of the card, then added a slightly smaller piece of iridescent vellum that had been embossed in my poinsettia folder.  After stamping and coloring the focal, I cut it with a die from my Resplendent Rectangles set (love that set!).  I matted it with a piece of red, and ran a ribbon around it before attaching it to the background.

This next card was done in a similar manner, except there is no ribbon, and I used a nestability die to cut out my focal.  As you can see, this time I stamped on a colored piece of card stock and using the die as a stencil, lightly added a golden brown color around the inside edges.  The sentiment is a piece of art from a Christmas Cardmaking Kit from Hot Off the Press; the background strip is from them, too.