Christmas In July #6

I hope this little Santa makes you smile just as much as he made me smile!  I had time to kill while I was at my parent's house last year and decided to play with my mom's large collection of markers.  I stamped this little Santa and after one previous "practice" Santa, I made him.  He's so cute and I absolutely love him.  I think that I did him justice and really like how he turned out.

I wanted Santa to be the star (he's a diva nd deserves it) so I kept the rest of the card very simple.  I also kept up my quest to purge the button stash as well, so that was a bonus.  I really like this card and I love that Santa gets to spread the joy he gave me.

Identifiable Elements:

• Paterned paper - SEI
• Santa - "Cookie Cutter Christmas" by Stampin' Up!
• Markers - Stampin' Up!

Christmas in July #4

This card was completely inspired by my desire to color.  I stamped the wreath before I'd even cut the card stock for the base of the card itself.  I was relaxing to color it in and add the pearlescent dots.  Afterwards, I just let the other elements fall into place.

The buttons are more from that massive stash of thousands of button I bought from an estate sale 2 years ago.  I feel like I've barely made a dent in the stash, but progress is progress.  I conservatively estimated the number of remaining buttons and figured out that I only need to make 400 more 5 button cards to be free of them.  At a pace of 7 cards a month I'll be done in 4.76 years...

Identifiable Elements:

• Washi tape - Zakkalover Etsy
• Pearl puff paint - Perlen-Pen by Viva Decor
• Green marker - "Gumball Green" by Stampin' Up!

Christmas in July #3

This Christmas in July card is very simple, but I like it because of how versatile it is.  Simply swapping out the greeting and perhaps the color palette, and you could have a pretty quick and simple Valentine's Day card.  I try to not duplicate cards often, because I really do enjoy the creative process of coming up with something new, but sometimes I don't have a choice and any card that I can quickly replicate appeals to me.

Working through these cards, I have come to realize that I don't have as many holiday themed stamp sets as I thought I did.  I could've sworn that I had more, but I took all of my sets out and dug through them and came up shorter than I thought.  Because of this, I'm glad I had these chipboard hearts that look vaguely seasonal to help pick up the slack.

Identifiable Elements:

• Chipboard hearts - Bo Bunny
• Ribbon - Stampin' Up!

Christmas in July #2

Today's card was an unexpected struggle.  The stamp I used for the red pattern on the white strips absolutely did not want to cooperate.  It was patchy every single time I stamped it so eventually after trying and failing about 6 times to get a clean image I just decided to cut some of the "better" parts out to make the strips.  This is definitely one of those times where mishap turns into "artistic choice".

Despite not being my first choice for card design, I do like how it turned out.  It was quick and simple to make which means I can make a few duplicates rather quickly if I find myself in a pinch come December.

Identifiable elements:

• Red ribbon - Stampin' Up!
• Red ink - "Real Red" by Stampin' Up!

Christmas in July #1

We're kicking of Christmas in July with an adorable little kitty cat!  I bought this little guy from our local scrapbooking shop because he was just too cute to pass up. 

I decided to jazz up his Christmas lights with some markers and glitter.  I actually got to use one of my fine art markers because it ended up being the perfect shade of red for the piece.

My hope is to get some of my Christmas cards done and out of the way so the holiday season becomes a little less stressful for me come December.  I really cut it close last year and I refuse to have a repeat this year.

Identifiable Elements:

• Gold glitter - Glitter Glue by Studio G
• Red marker - Pigma Micron
• Gold marker - American Crafts
• Washi tape - Create 365
• Cat stamp - "Tangled Kitty" by Rubbernecker Stamps