Christmas in July, day 6 (a day late...)

I missed yesterday's post. Whoops! Little Miss is still not up to par, and her brother feeds off of her whining, which alters his usually sunny personality to a whiny ball of crying, and then we had errands to run.... All in all, I found myself wishing for another 3ish hours in the day yet again.

Today's post has two cards, both with the same basic layout (another flat shaker) but with two different color schemes. The basic technique on the card was to create a flat shaker pocket with my wrmk Fuse tool, then I created a panel with a subtle background pattern. For the pink, I used the Market Street Stamps diagonal striped background in Silver Pearl embossing powder in Aqua Mist cs, and the gray panel (fog cs from  Avery Elle) was stamped with charcoal ink using the Hero Arts Aspen Frost cling stamp. I die cut a circle out of the center, then added my poinsettias and pine boughs to the bottom to create a sort of half wreath. I die cut the Season's Greetings sentiment from silver foil and charcoal glitter cardstock, then adhered them to the shaker. A die cut and stamped bow from the Tinsel and Tags kit finished it off!

I hope you all enjoyed! I will be back tomorrow with the last of my Christmas in July posts! :)

Christmas in July, day 5

I'm kind of glad that I remembered to post today... One of the twinkies has a double ear infection, so it's been a long, long day. Poor baby girl. :( nothing worse than a stick kiddo. I hope you'll forgive if I'm a little more incoherent than normal.

Today's card is inspired by those vintage-y graphics you see on Pinterest all the time, the ones with the beautiful typography surrounded by a lovely floral wreath. I used my distress inks to stamp the images, including the sentiment, then I took my trusty paintbrush and water (not a water brush) and spread the ink out. I added a little bit of shading to the poinsettias (from PTI's Bells and Boughs) and the greenery (from PTI's Tinsel and Tags) using my paint brush and distress ink pads. The sentiment, from Mama Elephant, was also done this way. I added a little dimension with some glossy accents over the top of the berries and the bow. Nice and flat for the mailbox!!

I hope you enjoyed this one! We are in the home stretch of Christmas in July week; then I will be back to inundating you with flowers. :)

Christmas in July, day 4!

Hi all! I hope you aren't sick of my Christmas cards. :) Today's card is one of my favorite Christmas combinations: aqua, pink, and silver. My mom had a Victorian-themed Christmas tree that was an homage to these colors, and it was stunning.

I recently purchased a wrmk Fuse tool specifically to make flat shakers and that nifty gift card shaker thing that Jennifer McGuire made in one of her recent videos. I used it and some inexpensive scrapbook page protectors to create my shaker pocket for this card. I filled it with some aqua seed beads, some clear pink sequins from The Ton, a few snowflakes, and some artificial snow. In order to make the card front, I used the Hero Arts Aspen Frost cling stamp with silver pearl embossing powder on aqua card stock. After heat embossing the panel, I used the Ornament Shaker die from Papertrey Ink to cut the window, then adhered my shaker pocket behind the embossed panel. I mounted it on a Sweet Blush card base, then adhered a die cut (in the Neenah metallic paper) from PTI's Wet Paint Christmas on the front of the shaker panel. A white silk bow finished it off.

Only three more days of Christmas to share with you! Hope you are enjoying!

Christmas in July, day 3

Happy Sunday! It's been a lovely weekend for us, thus far. My mom came to visit, so hubby and I got to go out on a date last night! It was quite nice to just go and relax... Had some yummy seafood, then a few cocktails and dessert... My idea of a good time with my cute redhead!

Today's Christmas in July post is very technique-y. I love the magical, nebulous look of bokeh, as I'm sure you've noticed, and I thought what is more magical than the idea of a reindeer that can fly?? I started with a panel of watercolor paper and blended several shades of blue on it: TH distress inks in chipped sapphire and tumbled glass, then some SSS island blue for my medium shade. I then took my bokeh dots set from Ellen Hutson and stamped various size dots, some stamped off once, in the same ink shades. I stamped one of the "burst" stamps from the EH set in Delicata Silver ink, then pounced some Perfect Pearls to add even more shimmer and sparkle. I double heat embossed the sentiment from Mama Elephant in super fine silver embossing powder, then added the reindeer die cut (a wplus9 die) cut with silver glitz paper from dcwv. A very easily mailed one layer card, but definitely a lot going on here!

I hope you all are enjoying these posts, even if they aren't really seasonal... I'm loving having a jump on my Christmas cards! I'm thinking I will attempt to keep making one card a week, that way I'm not overwhelmed come November. Back tomorrow with a flat shaker card!!

Christmas in July, day 2

So it's super hot out. So hot that we got the baby pool out! The little ones will play in that after their nap. :) I'm hoping this Christmas card will help me ignore how hot it is.

I was so inspired by Betsy Veldman's ink blending this past release, and I love the look of Aqua Mist blended on white card stock. This sentiment is from Mama Elephant's Seasons Greetings, and I blended some aqua mist ink around the edges of a Nostalgic Notions die cut. The poinsettias are wplus9's Pretty Poinsettias stamped in Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, and Tropical Teal inks. I die cut some PTI pine boughs from Neenah metallic silver card stock (love the weight of that stuff!) and created some little arrangements. I put some glossy accents over the sentiment and the center of the flowers. The background of the card base was stamped in Aqua Mist using a Hero Arts Aspen Frost cling background stamp (one of the two cling stamps I got this week! Love the detail!)

That's all for me today! Hope you enjoyed it. Merry Christmas in July! I'm off to put my feet in the baby pool.... :)

Christmas in July!

Merry Christmas!

No seriously.

I love Christmas. (I know, I know, who doesn't??) But seriously. Christmas was always one of my absolute favorite times. My mom was a single mom, so we didn't have a ton of money, but good gracious did she know how to make Christmas special. We always had an incredibly beautiful tree, a ton of decor around the house, and we always did fun things at Christmas time... Going to the Santa Claus parade, visiting Santa at the mall, watching holiday movies, baking (aka sampling...don't judge) cookies (aka dough. Or maybe that was just me... Don't judge!) until we were so full of cookie (dough) that we could probably have burst. Our house always smelled like vanilla, peppermint, and cinnamon when my mom got out the Christmas decor. The combo sounds kinda gross, I know, but seriously, it worked to create this blend of scents that permanently etched themselves into my olfactory glands.

Now that I have my own little ones, I hope I can do as good a job as my own mom of instilling a love of all things holiday in them. (Hubby has been a bit of a Grinch until Christmas Eve, but he is just going to have to learn to fake it.) I'm sure Pinterest will help! (Oh, the things my mom would have done if Pinterest were around back in the eighties and nineties!)

I got a few Christmas stamps during Ellen Hutson's sale, which put me in a crafty holiday mood, though I haven't turned on any holiday music....yet!! I thought I'd do a week of holiday projects in honor of the completely-made-up Christmas in July! For our first day, I have a chalkboard style one layer card. Super flat, easily mailed, and pretty trendy. Sounds good to me!

I used Waltzingmouse Stamps " 'Tis the Season" for the sentiment, and a variety of Christmas greenery from PTI's Bells and Boughs and Tinsel and Tags Sprigs to create the little clusters at the top and bottom. The main blooms and evergreen boughs were white heat embossed, while the little additions were simply stamped in white pigment ink. I dabbed some white pigment ink on my finger and swiped that over the sentiment, then swiped the ink pad around the edges. A Teresa Collins jewel finished off the centers of the flowers.

I hope you enjoyed! I will be back tomorrow with a bokeh-inspired card! Have a fabulous day, friends!

Thanks a bunch....

The Ton Stamps has a ton (forgive me, but pun intended) of gorgeous floral stamps, and I love them all. You've seen my obsession with the multi-step peonies, then the mini peonies, and now I have a card showcasing the Wild Florals stamp set from their last stamp release. (Oh, and I have their peony background set on the way to me.... My first rubber cling stamp!)

This card is loosely inspired by Rifle Paper Co and their stunning artwork, particularly the color scheme and general flowery imagery. I used Altenew's Ruby Red and Coral Berry inks for the large flowers, HA field greens, memento pistachio, and PTI spring moss for the greenery, and wp9 Bloomsberry for the little wisteria-esque sprigs. I lightly traced a circle die to use as a guide for my wreath, then erased most of the pencil marking so that it was barely visible. I tried to utilize the "rule of three" principle to keep some balance and create a visual triangle, but after I stamped the main flowers, I just filled in with greenery. I stamped the wisteria to fill in any holes. "Wild Florals" is certainly an apt descriptor for this card. A sentiment double heat embossed in Ranger Princess Gold finished the stamping. I thought it looked better as a square card, so I trimmed it down and mounted it with fun foam to a PTI linen card stock base. A twine bow finished it off and added some dimension. I used my wmrk envelope punch board to create a coordinating square envelope from some dcwv lightweight pattern paper.

I hope you enjoyed! Have a wonderful week, friends!