ED173 Christmas Completed by Pamela Horton The whispering Platypus

Thank You Emy for this beautiful Christmas design. I am also going to make a sympathy card in silver, black and white.

The design certainly lends itself to universal use.

I used an off white, light card to the design onto, and set out the cottons and beads I needed to complete this pattern

Here is a list of what I used.

My Off white card is 12cm high and 11 cm wide.

The ribbon is 1cm wide

The plum pudding is a peel off which I attached to a white card and coloured with alcohol pens.

The threads I used are both polyester, a deep dark green and a really bright red. I only used single strands.

Here is a list of the beads I used

15 x Red rice beads-each 0.5cm

1x Very dark green rice bead- 0.5cm

45 x Tiny glass bright red seed beads

4 x Tiny glass Bright green seed beads

The steps I followed, were as the instructions indicated, and I began with the green thread to complete the leaves. I next used the red thread to sew all the tiny flowers, which could be berries when made in this size. I then completed the swirls in the green single thread, before attempting to attach the beads

I then attached the rice beads and lastly the tiny seed beads.

To make the card. I first of all edged the front edges with a fine gold peel off. I used power tape to attach this to the green backing sheet 13x 12cm. I coloured the gold peel off strips with a red permanent pen before attaching the strips to the 4 sides of the green backing sheet. I wrapped the ribbon around the front of the topper and secured it at the back.

The next backing sheet is white card 13.25 x 12.25cm which I edged with a fine line, green permanent pen. This I attached to the green backing sheet with padded double sided tape,

The main card is also white card, 26cm x 13.5cm. I used padded double sided tape to attach the completed topper to the front of the card,

For the insert I have used Clare Walker's backing sheet of Berries and Mistletoe, And added a smaller version of the card on the left hand side. I added a simple Christmas message on to white copy paper, edged it around with the Peel off strips coloured in green, and also added 3 extra small puddings in the bottom right hand corner.

This design is absolutely worth the effort. It makes a stunning variation to my Christmas stash.

Pamela Horton