Christmas in July #18

Well this is my last card to share for Christmas in July. In reality, I made 21 cards but did not share 3 of them here. For this one I used this sketch from Sketch N Scrap:

In addition to their sketch challenge, I am also entering this card in the Merry Monday Christmas In July Summer Link-Up

The challenge was to use snowmen and they are all over my background paper on this card.

The final challenge I am entering is the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by....I will be back soon with another project to share .

~~Sandi~~



Christmas in July #17

It is late and I am tired so I will make this post short and sweet. I only have one stamp set by Essentials by Ellen. I need more. Lots more. I love her stamps. So I am entering the Pin Sights Challenge on her blog. The challenge is to take inspiration from these photos.

I went with the aqua and red colors, polka-dots and stripes.

I am also entering this card in 2 more challenges:

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge

and

The Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday Add Some Sparkle Challenge (Don't you love that glittery red ribbon? I sure do!)

Well I have to go to bed and try to squeeze in 5 hours of sleep...no wonder I do not like Mondays!!

~~Sandi~~





It Moose Be Your Birthday

Time out for another birthday card....I just adore this moose. I usually use him on a Christmas card but the Sugar Pea sketch this month just looked like a birthday card for me and the stamp set included a birthday sentiment so I went with it. Here is the sketch I used:

I am entering these challenges:

Sugar Pea Mix It Up challenge #33

and

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.

~~Sandi~~



It's Always a Party When Grandma is in Town

Several years ago I was able to attend my grandson Cole's birthday party after a week long business trip in the Midwest. After the party, when we were watching a late night movie at Uncle Matt's house, Cole snuggled up to me and said, "Grandma, it is always a party when you are in town" That is one of my favorite memories so I decided to use it as a title for this page featuring my granddaughter Izzy when we were in town to see them in June. I used this awesome sketch from Sketches in Thyme:

And I am also entering this page in the Scrap Our Stash Tic Tac Toe Challenge.



I went right down the far left hand column and included number (the date in the lower right hand corner), chipboard (the balloons) and striped paper.

That is it for tonight....join me tomorrow when I will be sharing a card and a moose. Thanks for dropping in.

~~Sandi~~

Christmas in July #16

Popping in for a quick post before I head off to work....I would like to share this humorous Christmas card, The sentiment is a free digital from Julee Tilman at Verve stamps that she offered last December. I squirreled them away for use this year and I am so glad I did. They make for a quick and easy card. I used this versatile and fun sketch from Kerry Urbatch for the Sunday Sip and Share sketch challenge at the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog.

That is about it....gotta run. Thank goodness there is only 33 months until retirement.

~~Sandi~~



Christmas in July #15

I love making coffee themed cards..coffee themed Christmas cards, coffee themed birthday cards, coffee themed thank you cards...well you get the idea. This card is both a Christmas card and a thank you card AND it is coffee themed...lol.  I used this Sunday Sip and Share sketch from the fabulous Kerry Urbatch for the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog. I look forward every Sunday to a new sketch and a fabulous card from Kerry.

I am also entering this card in the Merry Monday Christmas in July Summer Link-up

This card was inspired by the above challenge from 3/27/17....to create a red, green and white card.

That is about it for tonight.....thank you for stopping by my blog.

~~Sandi~~



Christmas in July #14

Back again with one of my favorite Christmas color combos. I love gray/black/red. The little image of the warm mug of goodness (espresso? cocoa?) and the sentiment are free digitals from Julee Tilman at Verve Stamps from last December. I printed off a few of them to save for this year's Christmas cards. My dad is in assisted living and I am going to need a quite a few holiday themed thank you cards this year for his caregivers. I used this awesome Sunday Sip and Share sketch from Kerry Urbatch at the Coffee Loving Card makers blog.

I am also entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp July Work It Wednesday Challenge to Add Sparkle. The whipped cream on my cup is made of sparkly Stickles. I wish is had photographed better. It is quite pretty in real life.

The final challenge I am entering this card in is the Merry Monday Christmas in July Summer Link Up. I was inspired by the mug in the picture from challenge #232 from January 23rd, 2017

That is about it for now....I will be back tomorrow to share another Christmas card.

~~Sandi~~

 

Authentique Birthday Card

I decided to take another break from Christmas cards and make the card I am going to need for my mother-in-law's upcoming birthday. I love Authentique papers and so rarely pull them out to play with. But when I saw their Happy Mail Challenge this month I knew I was going to use them for this birthday card. The challenge was to create a pocket letter or something to send to someone. I used a few of my older papers for this card and this sketch for the summer crop that Sketch-N-Scrap is having on Facebook this month.

I am also entering this card in Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge -- the challenge for July is to use old paper.  The Authentique paper on this card is from 2012. That doesn't make it antique but it IS one of the older paper collections in my stash.

That's about it for now....I am going back in my creative place and I hope to work on a 12x12 traditional layout and some more cards. I will be back tomorrow to share what I created. Thanks for stopping by.

~~Sandi~~

Christmas in July #13

Well it is almost Friday....my favorite day of the week! I have been busy working all week on cards....mostly Christmas with a couple of birthday cards sprinkled in. This weekend however, if I have time to be creative I think I might want to work on some Project Life pages and some traditional 12x12 pages.  Do you plan your creative time into your days? I would never do anything creative if I did not set time aside just for me.....I can be a real couch potato after a 12 hour day at work.

I created this card the night before last on an evening when I made TWO cards. I was thrilled that I had enough mojo after work to work on (and finish) two projects. I used my CAS-Fridays stamps again for this card and heat embossed the snowflakes and sentiment in silver. I was playing last weekend and made a few paint splattered backgrounds so this background was just sitting waiting to be used. I am entering this card at the CAS-ual Fridays Christmas In July Challenge

I am also entering this card in the Tuesday Throwdown Tic Tac Toe Challenge

I went straight down the left hand row and made a Christmas card using silver and that glittery silver ribbon.

And the last challenge I am entering this card in is Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday Challenge to Add Sparkle.

That is it for tonight....thank for dropping in. I will be back tomorrow with something completely different.

~~Sandi~~

Christmas in July #12

I got two Christmas cards made tonight....yippee! This is one of them and I used one of my favorite Christmas stamp sets......Snowy Sayings from CAS-ual Fridays. I embossed the snowflakes and sentiment with silver embossing powder and they stamp so perfectly...even the fine details embosses without a flaw. I am entering this card in the CAS-ual Friday Christmas in July Challenge.

I an also entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Use Plaid

That is it for tonight....I am off to soak in a lavender scented bath and go to bed a little earlier than normal tonight.  I will be back tomorrow.

~~Sandi~~

Christmas in July #11

Just to spice things up a bit instead of a card for my 11th Christmas in July post, I have something a little different to share tonight. I give a few gift cards to my older grandchildren and I always like to give them in a gift bag or some sort of spiffed up packaging. When I saw the Essentials by Ellen Mix it Up Challenge this month, I knew immediately what I was going to do. The Challenge is to use an item from Essentials by Ellen and mix it up whit Lawn Fawn. The hipster Santa on my gift bag is from the awesome Ellen Hutson stamp set Tis The Season. The gift bag was cut with my favorite die from Lawn Fawn....the Goodie Bag die. For the sentiment I used Claire's ABCs from Lawn Fawn.

I am also entering this bag in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Get In Shape Challenge. The challenge is to create a 3D item or something with an out of the ordinary shape.

Thanks about it tonight.  I am usually exhausted on Monday nights and tonight is no exception.

Thanks for stopping by.

~~Sandi~~

Christmas in July #10

I am continuing on with sharing my Christmas cards that I have made this month so far. This is just a fast and simple card that I put together using the versatile card sketch from Sketch-N-Scrap:

I cannot believe that the weekend is about over.  I really need more that 2 days per week to fit in everything that I want and need to do. I need to retire. Seriously. But until I do I will be at work bright and early tomorrow morning and back tomorrow evening to share a sweet little gift bag that I created today.  Thanks for stopping by.

~~Sandi~~



A Pineapple A Day....

I recently bought a little set of tropical color watercolors and was playing with them on some watercolor paper.  I really liked this design so I decided to make a card with it. I had a stamp set from Newton's Nook and I had never used this sentiment so I stamped it, die cut the pineapple from the watercolors I was playing with and this card happened. AND it is perfect for a friend going through a rather rough time right now.

I am entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Distress It Challenge

and

The Papercraft Crew New to You Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!

~~Sandi~~

Christmas in July #9

I went for a funky tropical non-traditional Christmas card with this one. I water colored and die cut the pineapples and trust me they look better in real life. I used Newton's Nook stamps and dies. I am entering this card in their Inky Paws Color Challenge:

I used this sketch from Stamplorations:

Lastly, I am also entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Monday Distress It Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by...I will be back in a little bit to share another creation.

~~Sandi~~

Christmas in July #8

I am here to share another Christmas card in my quest to create 30 Christmas cards this month. I used this awesome Stick It Down sketch:

I am entering this card in the Sketch Challenge at Stick it Down

and

the Merry Monday Christmas in July Summer Challenge.

I was inspired by the January 30th challenge to make a Christmas card with 5 of something on it. I added 5 flat platinum sequins.  They did not photograph well, but if you look closely you can see then on the card.

Well I did not sleep to well last night so tonight I am going to take a hot bath with lavender bath salts and go to bed early in hopes of getting a good nights sleep.

I will be back tomorrow.

~~Sandi~~



Christmas in July #7

 Here is tonight's card and my first rather childish attempt at water coloring an image. I was very unhappy with the results of my water coloring efforts but it is not so bad when the whole card got put together it did not seem so bad.

I used my cherished Christmas Elves stamp set from My Favorite Things and their current sketch:

In addition to the MFT Sketch Challenge, I am also entering this card in the Merry Monday Christmas in July Summer Link Up  The Shimmer and Sparkle challenge (from February 27th) inspired me to add bling to my elf's shirt and hat.

Well up early in the morning so I better go to bed.  Thanks for stopping by my blog.

~~Sandi~~

Christmas in July #6

Back again with my 6th card to share....I have actually made 8 Christmas cards but I have not shared 2 of them yet. This one has a warm, rustic, country feel to it. I used this sketch from Die Cuttin' Divas:

The die I used is the Merry Christmas Polaroid die from Simon Says Stamp called Holiday Frames. I am entering the Sketch Challenge at Die Cuttin' Divas

I am also entering this card in the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #413 to use Red, Cream and Dark Brown

Finally, I am also entering this card in the Merry Monday Christmas in July challenge. The challenge that inspired this card was from May 29 and was to create a card with a rustic feel.

Well, that is about it for this weekend....I hope yours was relaxing, fun and refreshing. Now onto 5 days of work..fun!

~~Sandi~~

Christmas in July #5

I was not feeling very inspired to make any Christmas cards on Friday night. Maybe it was the after effects of a long, short week at work or the concern that I have for a family member going through a hard time right now but I could not muster up any creativity. A good night's sleep changed all that. I woke up early Saturday morning and before 7:30am I had knocked out two Christmas cards and was very happy with both of them. For this card I used this week's sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch:

I am also entering this card in the snippet challenge at Pixie's Crafty Workshop as this card was just made from a couple snippets of paper that I pulled out of my scrap basket. It pays to hoard scraps, doesn't it? Di is offering up two fun prizes and I am playing for both of them....the die and the stamp set.

Well it has been a long day and have stayed up way too late tonight.  I think I will sleep in tomorrow. Who am I kidding? My internal clock goes off no later than 7am. But compared to my 4:30am alarm M-F, I guess 7am IS sleeping in.  I will post more creations tomorrow.

~~Sandi~~

Christmas in July #4

I love using non-traditional colors for my Christmas projects. Since I am working on my Christmas cards this month, I was looking around for some card challenges and I saw this awesome color challenge for Newton's Nook:

So I decided to challenge myself to make an Christmas card with this very obvious summer color palette and I think I may have pulled it off. I am entering this card in the Inky Paws Challenge #50.

I am continuing to work on my cards so I will be back later to share another with you.  What are you working on this weekend?

~~Sandi~~

Tis the Season to be Jolly -- Christmas in July #3

I am slowly getting into making my Christmas cards this month.  It is a tough month emotionally for me and I decided to concentrate on making Christmas cards as a welcome diversion. I am not really feeling inspired but I feel if I keep hanging in there the inspiration will come.

I decided to go the clean and simple route with this card.  I used one of my favorite Christmas stamp sets...this one is from CAS-ual Fridays.

I am entering their Tic Tac Toe challenge with my card. I went straight down the far right hand row and used stripes, no embellishments (that was tough!) and I used an embossing folder for texture.

I am also linking this card up to the Merry Monday Christmas Summer Link-Up

The challenge that inspired me was from February 6th ....make a CAS (clean and simple) card.





Thanks for stopping by tonight and checking out my blog. I will be back tomorrow to share another card or two.

~~Sandi~~

Winter Wishes -- Christmas in July #2

I started my Christmas cards today.  I always start to create them in July so that by the first week of December rolls around, I have my 70-80 cards made that I need.  This is card #2.  I am entering this in the Elle's Studio Inspired By Challenge.  The journal card with the beautiful colored sentiment Winter Wishes is what totally inspired this whole card.

I am also entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge

Thanks for stopping by....I am going to pour myself a nice cold glass of iced tea and go out on the back patio to watch the fireworks in the distance. Don't you just LOVE summertime?

~~Sandi~~