My Christmas in July Begins!

And, none too early with just a week to go, eh? Hello again! I am so behind on my holiday cards compared to what I'd planned. But then, that's par for the course this year. I have a lot of catching up to do.

Trying to get into the Christmas groove, I bought this cute Twinkle Lane Designs digital image called Gingerbread Treat, printed it out on Springhill card stock and colored it using my ProMarkers, Polychromos colored pencils and my white Sharpie Paint pen and white Signo gel pen.

I cut the image out using a Spellbinders scalloped oval die and cut a mat for that using a Spellbinders Labels 10 die. The card base is Springhill and the rest of the papers are from Carta Bella's Have a Merry Christmas 6x6 paper pad.

  

I used Crazy 4 Challenges sketch, resizing it in PSE to 6x6. That stretched the layout enough for me to use both sentiments that came with the digi, which I printed and colored and cut with a smaller scalloped oval die. I arranged them on the left of the image in place of the top and bottom flowery sketch elements. I used a large star in the middle and added peppermints I stamped, heat-embossed and die cut using Impression Obsession's Peppermint Stamp & Die Block Duo. All the stars were cut with my Verve Starry die. I combined some peppermint ribbon and some skinny washi tape below the focal image, both adhered to leftover scraps.

I lined the inside of the card with more Carta Bella papers and stamped inside sentiments from Clear Dollar and one from a set I received in a magazine as a prize. The peppermint sticks are from a Sara Davies set.

The back has more layers of Carta Bella paper and my custom siggie stamp, stamped on a Spellbinders Fancy Tag die cut I already had in my stash with peppermint ribbon.

A couple of close-ups...

I plan to make cards while Tropical Storm Hanna as it moves into our area this weekend. Luckily it has tracked more to the south as it's approached the Texas coast. We are just outside the cone to the north but on the trash side and the circumference is so large we will be in for wind and shower bands. The silver lining is that the temps will hopefully drop a bit! Praying it doesn't train over us and cause flooding -- we are all a bit gun-shy about that after Harvey. Plus, I worry about those who might have to evacuate to shelters that won't be able to take in nearly as many as normal because of the pandemic. On the other hand, this is a good practice for us in case a hurricane hits us this season.

Thanks for dropping by and have a good and safe weekend!

MY CHALLENGES PLAYLIST:
1.  Crazy 4 Challenges Sketch Week #C4C544: Sketch is shown above 
2.  Outlawz July Freebie/Progressive Challenge -- My first month participating. I purchased the Twinkle Lane Designs digi image Gingerbread Treat .
3.  The Card Concept Challenge #138b: Christmas in July -- I was inspired by the stripes that are in my candies, the star shapes, and the colors: all the bright red, the whites and off-whites, the dark green tree, the light green outside plants.  My card style is what I'd call Collaged Clean and Layered, since I have that arrangement of elements to the left of the focal image. 

4.  Winter Wonderland July Challenge: Hip to be Square
5.  Christmas Craft Creations July Challenge: Christmas Characters -- Gingerbread man  

6.  Arty Divas Challenge #26: ATG + Opt. Christmas -- I've played the option
7.  Colour Crazy Craft Challenge Week 28: AG with Colouring -- I colored my focal image with ProMarkers and Polychromos colored pencils
8.  Split Coast Stampers CCC20AUG: Candy