CHRISTMAS IN JULY

I had the day off work today to get ready for tomorrow's SU workshop - but I stayed up late last night and was able to get most of the work finished so that I could PLAY today! Yay!!!! So - I decided to work on the design for this years Christmas cards. For the first one I used the SU set "Lovely as a Tree" but decided I really didn't want to Coluzzle 150 ovals to make all the cards I will need. I might try a variation of it though because I really did like the card.

I double stamped the large pine tree from Lovely as a Tree onto Very Vanilla Card Stock then randomly stamped the small spots from the Itty Bitty Backgrounds in Creamy Caramel. (Anyone who knows me knows which stamp this is cuz it's my favorite!) I sponged the edge in Creamy Caramel and adhered it to the Chocolate Chip Oval. I placed the ovals onto a piece of Kraft card stock that had been stamped in Close to Cocoa using the "Weathered" background stamp from SU. Then I rounded the upper corners of the Kraft Card Stock and the upper corners of the Chocolate Chip card face and adhered them together. The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip and is from the SU set "Holidays & Wishes". To finish the card I cut three small strips of natural twine and tied them together with a small piece of ribbon and stuck them into place with a glue dot.

The second card I made took ALOT longer to make because I had to design, draw and print the image onto watercolor paper using the computer. I love the Hanglar Stanglar stamps - but since you can't purchase them outside of Sweden and Norway I decided to create my own line of round faced children. This drawing is from my "Matt n Mandy" line of drawings. It uses the same color scheme as the card above and also incorporates the "Weathered" background stamp and "Itty Bitty Backgrounds."

I colored the image using Julie Buhler's "No Copics, No Problem" technique. You can view the tutorial video on her blog at http://paperpleasing.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/no-copics-no-pr.html . I must say the Stampin Up Markers actually blend BETTER than the Copics. See the cheeks - those are Copics that DID NOT blend. I was a little irritated because I had finished the entire card before doing the cheeks and they came out DOTS! Oh well - I will know the next time to use SU markers and do the faces FIRST in case I botch it again!!! LOL. I also thought I might add some Liquid Applique to the tree and the top of the tree stump on the next one.

Hope you enjoyed looking. Until tomorrow -