Christmas in July - July 9

 There we go!  So much better!  I just put my itunes on Christmas Music.  It's actually raining here today.  It's actually been raining here for MONTHS, but I enjoy it.  It keeps my husband in a job he loves, and when I lived in south Texas, there just wasn't much rain.  I enjoy how it keeps everything in so many shades of green, and my flowering trees blooming!

That said,  I got caught in it today while I was out running some errands, and forgot how much I hate getting my feet wet!  :(    Oh well. 

I'm happier with Christmas music on anyway.

Today's card is a series of three I made which you'll see in the coming week.  It's a stamp set called White Christmas.  (My favorite Christmas movie!)

I stamped the images in Crumb Cake with the banner in Cherry Cobbler.  The snowmen are watercolored to help them stand out a bit.

I also added some Stickles (Diamond) because snow on the ground always sparkles!

Christmas in July - July 8

 This is also one of my very favorite cards.  I've made many variations of it over the last few years of making Christmas Cards. 

Here I used some Stampin' Up Dies to cut the frame instead of the Spellbinders. 

I don't have much to say about this except that it's one of my favorites.

Christmas in July - July 5, 2015

I've seen these snowman cards circulating the past few years.  The first one I received was from my niece.  It was SO cute!  She did a great job with it.
The next one I received was from my craft friend Melissa.  Hers was great too!

I thought it was time for me to finally dive into these snowman cards.  After looking through my stamp stash, I found my set of Kitchen Sink Invisible Snowman stamps.

 They were PERFECT!  I stamped the hat separately and fussy cut it, but the eyes, nose, and pipe are stamped right on the stacked snowman.

Stamp Recipe:  All inks Stampin' Up except the black.
Eyes:  Crumb Cake, Soft Suede
Nose:  Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Tangelo Twist
Pipe:  Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Tsukineko Tuxedo Black
Hat:  Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Basic Gray, and Tsukineko Tuxedo Black

January:  6 cards
February:  6 cards
March:  6 cards
April:  6 cards.
May:  5 cards
June:  6 cards
July:  6 cards
Total:  41 Christmas cards!**Plus the July cards!  Total at the end of the month.

March 2015 Christmas Cards

This month I've got another set of blue cards...  definitely a darker tone than February's cards!

Only 2 colors here as well - Night of Navy, and White.

 I embossed the trees from the stamp set Lovely as a Tree in White with some Iridescent Ice sprinkled along the tops of the trees.

I got out my Spellbinders Dies and played around with some shapes.  The inking on the Merry Christmas piece is done with the Stampin' Up chalks in Night of Navy to highlight the edges.

February 2015 Christmas Cards

I used only 2 colors for this set of cards:  Soft Sky, and Coastal Cabana.

I used Coastal Cabana to stamp the large Letterpress snowflake on the front of the flip, the Merry Christmas on the inside, and the sentiment on the inside panel.

 The snowflake Thinlits die was one I purchased so long ago, it seems... and just broke it out.
Soft Sky is the color for the background paper, the snowflake DSP, the little snowflakes I stamped on the front, and the snowflakes stamped on some of the other panels.

 I used a snowflake die to emboss the bottom of the card, and inked it with Coastal Cabana as well.

Here you can see a close-up of the layered punches I like to use.

We've had lots of snow lately, and days of school closings, so it put me in the mood to work with the snowflake die at last.

Christmas in July - July 30, 2014

This card features a card form I've used many times - the Stampin up Card Framelits.  LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

You can make them 'short' cut at 4 1/4", or 'tall' cut at 5 7/16"... and decorate so many ways...  limitless!

 The only new piece I cut for this card was the Merry from the framelits.  I had the gingerbread men from the earlier stair-step card (made way too many!), and the Merry Christmas from a scrap I stamped and hadn't used yet.

Here you can see the card opened up to view the inside details.

Christmas in July - July 23, 2014

 OOPS!  I meant to get this card up for yesterday, but I've been very busy getting ready for this coming school year - starting out with a full classroom and all after years working peripherally - it's been a hectic summer!  That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!!  :)

 Today's card is a tri-fold card.  Not difficult to make, just a little time consuming, but SO worth it!

This card does fit into a regular A2 envelope, even though it doesn't look like it will.

I punched and die cut a lot more gingerbread men than I needed for this card, so you're going to see them pop up in the next few days! :)

I used the Gumball Green Coordinations cardstock  as a base, and embossed the front and back panels and sanded them to take advantage of the effect of this paper.  I didn't emboss the center panel so I could use it for the greeting, and it would be hidden when the card was closed.

Click HERE for a tutorial on how to make the cuts for this very cute, relatively simple card.

Christmas in July - July 7, 2014

I saw this picture online, and I just had to share it!

 Sometimes, you just get that Christmas "JOY" that washes over you - no matter what!

My card for today fits this picture, as you'll see in a moment.

REALLY sorry for the head-tilt needed to view this card...  the camera on my phone forgot about Blogger's idiosyncrasies, and I took the picture the wrong way.  I can assure you it won't happen again.

HERE it is!!  I took the picture again, and made sure I was in the correct camera mode.

This card actually took me about 10 minutes to put together.  Regular A2 card base, 3 3/4" square patterned paper, 3 1/2" square overlay, cut with the tree die cut.  Adhere all the layers, using dimensionals on the very top piece.  A double bow at the top, and a sentiment at the bottom, and it's a Christmas card!

Even though this was quite an easy card to make, I really love the design.  I hope you do too, and yes, I'm sorry about the crick in your neck.  :)

2014 Christmas Cards - July

Because I'm currently working on my Christmas in July cards, I made only four of these for this month's Christmas Cards throughout the year.

I really love this wreath.  It's 3 different sized stamps, all turned and placed together to make the concentric circles.
Real Red, Garden Green are the colors, with an old stamp set's sentiment Noel, and a Real Red taffeta bow.

It's not my usual busy, complicated card... it's very simple and straightforward.  I'm working on it!

Happy Blogoversary to Me!

I LOVE these colors!  Have you noticed?
It seems 85% of the cards I've created lately feature these colors.... Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, and Daffodil Delight.

The other day I was reading a magazine (yes, I read a few) and there was a monogrammed card set using those exact colors.  I don't by any means follow fashion, but I was right-on with this color combination!

SO, it's my Blogoversary....  what does that mean?  On July 5th, 2008 I started this blog.  I don't post consistently by any means, and would like to receive more comments - but that's not why I blog. :)  Six years - that's such a long time!  Sometimes I look at some of the things I've created over the years, and remember how I made them, but it takes me a moment to realize, "Hey, I made that!" 

So.... this was one of the quickest and easiest cards I've made in quite awhile.  I'm using a scrolly stamp from Heartfelt Creations in the colors listed above.... found a Happy Holidays stamp and just inked the Happy part of it for the center... and had a ribbon with some Melon Mambo.

It probably took less than 5 minutes to make.
Hope you like it!

April Christmas Cards

Oh!  April already!  This year is flying by at the speed of light!

This is a design I used years ago.  I really love this medallion!  It's cut from the Winter Woodlands cartridge in 4 pieces.  Just choose your paper, cut and go!  I love the holly mat paper, and the berries lend themselves very well to a touch of Stickles.

Here you can see the inside view with the sentiment.

 Of course, "No naked envelopes!"

This month, even though I made 9 cards took me a little time to get together.  I knew I'd get the cards done, I just had to work a little harder to get motivated.