2013 Christmas Card Challenge! July 2013

Happy July, 2013!  I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL 4th of July - celebrating with family, cookouts, fireworks displays in the backyard or in the community...    We always went to Ruth and Hamilton's for 4th of July, and then when we were older, hamburgers and brats, and the fireworks in Sheboygan over the lake (Lake Michigan).
Coming back from our honeymoon, we were fortunate enough to have a room in Jacksonville, Florida on July 4th overlooking the ocean - and were able to see Jacksonville's fireworks from our balcony.  Completely unplanned, and really spectacular!!

SO... here we are in July!  5 months until Christmas!  Are you preparing?  Have you started planning gift purchases or are you a last minute buyer?

I like to plan ahead, and have ideas for gifts I'm making already in mind.

SO, on to July's Christmas Card Challenge.

The theme for July is:      WREATHS!

SO SO many options for wreaths...  Martha Stewart's branch punch wreath,  Cricut cuts, stamps, punches....

Find your favorite type of wreath and have at it!

I'll admit that I really LOVE this card!  Every time I make a card or project there's always something I feel I could improve on - or would change the way I make it the next time.  This one - I just think looks pretty awesome.

 All the paper is Stampin' Up:  Lucky Limeade, Riding Hood Red, Basic Black, and the DSP paper pack Festival of Prints.  The doily is the Tea Lace Paper Doily.  SO pretty!

The wreaths are stamped with Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and Cherry Cobbler ink, and Versamark with white embossing powder to emboss the stamp on the front.

 The wreath stamp, inside sentiments, and envelope stamps all come from sets I purchased from CTMH ~ Close to My Heart.

 The white embossed Christmas stamp on the front is from the Stampin' Up set Seasonal Sayings, and I used the new bow maker my Dad made for me to tie the bows from some of my SU satin ribbon.

Click HERE for the complete list of rules and regs. (They're easy, I promise!) in order to compete in the challenge.  The best part of competing in my challenges?  Your Christmas cards will be all completed, hand-made (not rushed) and ready to send out right after Thanksgiving.  What a great way to give hand-made cards and not feel that extra pressure at the holiday!


Basically - make 6 Christmas cards complete based on the theme - including the inside sentiment with a stamped envelope (No naked envelopes!) to complete this month's challenge.

Enter your card link below into the Linky to be entered into the prize drawing!

An InLinkz Link-up