Christmas is coming -

and although we all seem to moan about starting preparations in August I think we have to -  to get all those handmade goodies and cards done in time.  In my case I need something more and  Christmassy for the Show next month.  The tree is already in a display case I have purchased for the purpose - so this last couple of days I have been making some Christmas parchment flowers - mainly poinsettias. This year I tried to make them more realistic and I hope I have managed to give that impression.  I used my usual pattern for the flowers and green and red parchment which I purchased from the Art of Craft.  After I had stuck the layers together I used some creamy yellow beads and stuck them individually into the centres.  Doing them one at a time avoided the bead hole showing uppermost.  I then just touched the top of the beads with a Sakura Brush pen in green and then yellow.  I used a new - to me - glue called appli glue.  It dries clear and is just thick enough to allow the bead to stand and not flop over whilst drying. In fact I have been using this glue quite a bit in the last week or so - I can recommend it.
I tried glitter on one of the poinsettias but it didn't look good.  They are better plain.

Here they are - mixed in with some others made using a special sparkly vellum.