Christmas in July #5

Today was a good day because I got to use framelets for the first time.  I'd never actually taken the time to sit down and use any before so I decided to take advantage of this less than busy day to give them a shot!

I really enjoy how this card turned out and how nice clean the lines are.  It keeps the card simple, but interesting.

Hopefully this month will give me plenty of inspiration for more cards come Christmas time, but this is one that I wouldn't mind making a few more exact replicas of.

Identifiable Elements:

• Red paper & ink- Poppy Parade by Stampin' Up!
• Green paper & ink- Old Olive by Stampin' Up!
• Sentiment- "Versatile Christmas" set by Stampin' Up!
• Ornaments- "Holiday Ornaments" set by Stampin' Up!

Scrap Our Stash July Challenge!

Yesterday I decided that I wanted to get back into making some scrapbook pages, even though I'm still at my parent's house for a bit, and I only have a handful of photos to work with at the moment.  I decided to take on Scrap Our Stash's July sketch challenge.  At first I was hesitant because sketch challenges are harder than others for me and I was worried about not having the right photos for it.  Luckily for me, I found some that work, and I think that the page turned out great!

This was the sketch that we had to work off of:

I stuck close to the sketch until I realized the title I wanted was a bit bigger than theirs, but I think I made it work.  I really wanted to keep the photo positions, long background strip, and the fun accent in between the photos (which is something I would probably have never tried to do on my own).  I'm both glad  to say I kept all three.  For the "Arrow" I made sure to use arrow like pink paper and the thicker with the arrow banner.  I didn't have any true arrows in my personal stash to work with but even if it doesn't fit the challenge absolutely perfectly, I'm very proud of my effort.

This whole color scheme and everything isn't my usual style but I think I might start adopting it as such.  I really love how it turned out and can't wait to do some more like this!

Identifiable elements:

• Chipboard embellishments- "Butterfly Kisses" Layered Chipboard by Bo Bunny
• Coral lettering- Boardwalk glitter foam Thickers in Fireberry by American Crafts

Christmas in July #4

I woke up this morning and found that it's actually overcast out in Arizona today.  With the apocalypse clearly imminent I decided to catch back up on my Christmas in July series and make this cute little card.  

It would be a quick and simple design but unfortunately the letter stickers I decided to use didn't want to stick so I ended up hand gluing each down.  

I'm still considering making a few more though just to be done with the stickers and to knock a few more cards out quickly.

Identifiable elements:

• Snowflake stamps- "Snow is Glistening" by Stampin' Up!
• Green ink- Pear Pizazz by Stampin' Up!
• Grey ink- Smoky Slate by Stampin' Up!
• Green paper- Pear Pizazz by Stampin' Up!
• Alphabet stickers- Recollections

Christmas in July #3

This Christmas in July card I was bound and determined to use some of my massive stash of eyelets.  I have an unnecessarily large collection and yet I never use them.  They're usually annoying for me to line up and get together, but I pushed through and used some for this card.

I really feel like I could've done more with the card style wise but after all the eyelet dealings I had to do I was more exhausted than anything.  I just wanted to be done.  I still like the way it looks but it's definitely not a practical approach if you want a quick and easy Christmas card.

Christmas in July #2

Today's card actually uses a cream background, something that I thought I'd never really do in my modern craft life.  I don't know why but I've always been biased against creams and off whites, partially because I've always just thought of them as scummy white, but I'm learning to move past that particular neurosis.

I really tried to mimic falling snow with my random placement of elements.  I also tried to steer away from my fallback of using large blocks of colors and patterns to create interest.

I really enjoy this fun, simple, and whimsical design.  I might have to make some duplicates for the holiday season!

Christmas in July #1

I'm getting a head start on my Christmas cards again this year!

I really like the idea of some monochromatic holiday cards which are great to send out to just about anyone.

I'm also a fan of using more scrap paper and elements that I've had tucked away for way too long.  

This is a very fast and simple card, but that's probably exactly what I need to make sure I have everything ready this holiday season!

Slowly Coming Back

I've been making big life changes again, and as per usual, I fell behind on the blog again.

I used this page as an excuse to use up a lot of scrap paper that I had stashed away and I really like how it turned out.  I think I'm just about out of all of my "I Love Family" papers by Echo Park and while I'll be a bit sad to see them go, it's definitely time for something new.  I was able to use a lot of elements that I wouldn't have usually put together as well.

I'm very proud of myself for how far I've come with pattern mixing.  It wasn't long ago that I would've never mixed together the patterned papers AND patterned border stickers.

I'm having fun getting back into it and since I'm staying with my mother for a while I've got even more fun stuff to play around with.

I'm going to try and start posting on here more regularly again, but I've learned that I shouldn't really being making that promise at this point so don't hold me to it.

Identifiable Elements:

• Sequins- Mixed Sequins by Advantus Corp.
• Background borders- Adhesive Borders by K & Company
• Patterned paper scraps- "I Love Family" collection by Echo Park Paper Co.