SAS4K DT Cards: Christmas in July!

**For my Paper-Crafting Journey Challenge Design Team Post, click here.**

Ho Ho Ho!  While in reality my outer adult has been sweating and melting my way through this past week in the sweltering heat, my inner child has been playing in the snow, singing Christmas carols and glittering everything in sight. Time for the men in white coats? Nope... it's Christmas in July here at I Never Went to Kindergarten-land, the Send A Smile 4 Kids Challenge blog and at Bugaboo Stamps!  (Although I confess the men in white coats have been after me for years LOL)

Our current challenge at SAS4K is Christmas in July and we hope it will help you get a head start on your Christmas holiday card crafting! Donations of your cards isn't required for the challenge, but it's always welcome... just follow the guidelines here. 

We have two fabulous sponsors for this challenge: Bugaboo Stamps, donating 7 digis for a random winner, and Crafty Sentiment Designs, donating 3 digis for a second random winner. Plus you may be chosen as a Top Three!  Both sponsors also generously provided the DT with some really great images to play with and I had a ball doing my favorite kind of cards - Christmas Holiday! Bring on the snow and glitter! LOL 

I couldn't decide which image to use for my first card so I chose to use all THREE images we were given from Crafty Sentiment Designs (you can find them in their Christmas Digi shop):

 

Here is an image of it somewhat flat and folded up. It doesn't stay completely flat, but I'm sure some time in an envelope will change that. =)

I spent a lot of time coloring and glittering on this one, but I love it! I did some 1" folds at the bottom to be able to get the depth and dimension between the images that I wanted. Then a print of a digital Snowflakes paper from Summertime Designs' Winter Gifts kit by Summer Driggs (cool free kits!) gave me my color cues for the snowmen's outfits and accessories. I colored all the images with Copics and ProMarkers and added a well-restrained dose of Stardust and Waterfall Stickles on my snowmen and the little star swag on the tree and a bit of Christmas Red and Lime Green Stickles here and here. I used a metallic silver gel pen on the silver bell.

I fussy cut my images and adhered them to the various folds and then added a couple layers of cardstock on each fold to cover the bottom of my images. Here's a side view:

On the front I added a little red and white bakers twine and layered a computer-generated sentiment and a snowflake made from two Martha Stewart punches. The snowflake was colored with Copics to match the colors on my snowmen and glittered up. I even added Stardust Stickles to the clear gem in the center... it doesn't photograph well, but IRL it gives it a frosted look with lots of sparkle.

So cute and Christmas-y! =)

I'm entering this card in several challenges and link-ups...
2 Sisters Challenge Blog - #99 Christmas in July
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - #80 Snowmen
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - #16 Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy - #66 Fancy Folds (hoping my folds are fancy enough LOL
Whimsy Stamps - #46 Anything Goes
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - CHRISTMAS Acrostics:  I used Coal buttons/nose, Carrot nose, winter Hat, Happy Snowmen, Red Ribbon, Red Twine, Red Christmas balls, winter Scarves, Sparkling Snow and Snowflakes, Twinkling Stars, Christmas Trees, Sparkling ear Muffs and Silver bell.  Whew!
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes 
Hooked on Crafts - #22 Christmas in July
Lollipop Crafts - #84 Christmas in July

I made a second card for our challenge post using this sweet gingerbread girl from Bugaboo Stamps:

I really focused on coloring on this one (using Copics) and am quite pleased with most of my blending, especially on my candy cane. The photo loses some of the detail, but there is a real 'roundness' to the cane in person. I used red liquid pearls to fill in the heart on her sweet ginger butt.

 Then I carefully applied white enamel in the icing sections and held my breath as I dumped Glamour Dust over it while it was wet. I waited until it had dried to dust it off and see what stuck. Turns out, quite a bit! Lovely sparkle.

(Oh, how I LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE Christmas holiday cards! hee hee ho ho hee!) 

I kept the layout very simple and made a smaller card than usual (4.5x5.5") so that the image was large and in charge. The papers are from a DCWV Christmas and Winter 180-page pack and I used some kraft cardstock. All my edges are well inked with either Burlap or Walnut Distress Inks (or both!). Very country, I think. I know my followers will be oh-so-shocked to hear I popped my image up on foam dots. Ha! I tied on a bit of Christmas red and white twine and a button and added three itsy bitsy pearls to finish it off. Yummy!

I'm entering this card in the Just Some Lines challenge - Clean and Simple.

Now... this month is going to be full of fun...

SAS4K is joining Bugaboo for their Christmas in July celebration over at Catch the Bug from July 14-21. Plenty of fun and prizes to be had and lots and lots of SPARKLE! =) LOL And they will be doing a card drive for SAS4K as part of their celebration. Click on the image below to get all the details!

And if you've hung in all the way to the end of this monster post... here's a bit of a reward:
On Monday I'll be having my first ever BLOG CANDY here at I Never Went to Kindergarten, with a special bonus for my current followers. It will be a super sweet Christmas in July!

So see you Monday and until then...

Happy Crafting!
Christy
Christmas Elf

Happy Snow Days, Billy!

Hi, it's me again! Please, don't fall over in shock. I'd hate for you to break something this close to the holidays. LOL I just finished up a wintery card that was inspired by a trip through a bunch of challenge sites yesterday and I figured I'd post it before bed. (And at least it's not 2 a.m. this time!)

I present to you... Happy Snow Days! starring Billy from the Pink Cat Studio:

The glitter--mostly Stardust and Waterfall Stickles--really sparkles in real life. Alas, even with two lamps, these angle shots were the best I could get. But he's still pretty. Wait, boys aren't supposed to be pretty, are they? Ok, well, the sparkly snow is pretty then. =)

 I colored my digital Billy up with my Promarkers, with just a touch of T1 Copics to tone down the blue I used for his snowsuit. I wanted to use bright blue and orange together and then I found this paper buried in my stash - what luck! I used two light blue Color Box chalk inks together to sponge the background and then layered two pieces of white cardstock for the snow, glittering the edges with a combination of Stardust and Waterfall Stickles. The shadow under his feet is a bit of Promarkers in blue and grey with some Waterfall Stickles over it. The snowflakes are all Martha Stewart. The little ones are from the Aspen Punch-Around-the-Page punch. These are the positives from punching out on a blue card for another project. The sentiment was done on the computer. A bit of grosgrain in two widths was glued down first, then I used various thicknesses of foam dots. Billy himself has foam squares behind his head and upper body, but his feet are glued to the top snow layer. I thought the shadowing and glitter at his feet would make more sense with his feet actually touching the ground instead of magically hovering above it. LOL

Well, that's it for today. I am posting Billy in the following challenges:

Craft Your Passions - Tis the Season
Kaboodle Doodles Challenge Blog - Bundle Up for Winter
Lollipop Crafts - Challenge #59: B is for... (in this case Billy, Boy and Blue!)
PaperCrafting Journey - Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin' - Punches and Dies
Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C115 Snow!!!
Send a Smile for Kids - Happy Holiday Wishes 
Paper Sundaes - Winter Wonderland
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Winter Wardrobe

Now I'm off to let the dogs have one more potty break and we're all off to bed. See you soon!
Happy Crafting,
Christy

THANKS... this one's for Squirrel!

Just a quick stop this morning as I'm waaaaaaaaay overdue for bed. (Um, yes, Mom, I know. I will be tired at work tomorrow. Sigh.)

Earlier this month I won a candy draw from my bloggy friend Squirrel who does some absolutely fabulous Distress Inks coloring. Tim Holtz himself even said so. (nudge and wink) haha (You can find her great tutorials Part 1 here and Part 2 here at Squirrel's World.) Anyhoo, I won the cutest little Henry hugging a heart from Whiff of Joy and he made the journey safely across the Pond, through the US Postal Service to my mailbox and has settled right in to his new home in my craft room. =) I figured inking him up and putting him to use was the best way to say thank you... and what could be more appropriate than using him for... a thank you card!

I used ProMarkers to color Henry, a little pumice stone and spun sugar on the Nestie circle behind him, and dazzled up his little heart with some fruit punch Stickles. The sentiment is from a Popcorn Bear set from Crafter's Companion and the papers are DCWV textured cardstocks and an older Provocraft pack, I believe. The bit of ribbon was a clearance find at WalMart. I added a couple of pink rhinestones as the tag was a little boring.  Pretty simple, but I wanted Henry to be the star of the show.

On to the challenges...

All That Scraps would like us to Give Thanks this week

Crafting 4 All Seasons this week is #14, Thanksgiving, Thank You or a Sketch

It's Being Thankful week #47 at PaperPlay Challenges

and Anything Goes over at Samuel Taylor's

Well, Squirrel, my bloggy friend, I hope you feel I did little Henry justice! =) Thanks again!

Happy Crafting and Happy Monday, everyone!

Christy

(Love ya, Mom!)

Hopefully this card is too cool for you...

One of my nieces turns 16 in early December and, as many teens think, adults are just not cool. So I'm hoping that I managed to come up with a card that wasn't too eye-roll inducing. LOL

I have been playing with side steps... a few others are in the works I'll be sharing soon... and I love the interest and depth. Such a little effort to slice and dice the paper in the right place has such a big impact. I found a DCWV pack at Michaels on Sunday that caught my eye more for my 11-year-old niece who adores pink and purple everything and while not a frilly, frou-frou dress wearer still likes girly colors. The soon-to-be 16-year-old isn't a tomboy per se, but she wears a lot of burgundy, hunter green, navy... unisex colors, I guess... and the ubiquitous blue jeans.=) So I picked a Kenny K image that attracted my attention months ago (looooove those sneakers!) and pulled out the burgundy in the dp, using the dark teal and dark pink coordinating papers for an accent. I admit to having cropped out those drips under her hand on the original digistamp. They just weirded me out. LOL

I had a hard time getting a good pic from the front view since it's so dark out and I kept overlighting one area or another and what looks like smooth color transition in person is sharper here than IRL(pretty please Santa Claus, bring me a new camera!), but I like the side views:

 You can just see the inside which I also decorated. I made a little pocket with the teal silver-glitter heart paper to hold a $20 bill or a gift card. The other side I made my message spot. =)

Still working on my coloring but I flipped back to ProMarkers this week as I don't have any burgundy or teal/green-grey shades in Copics. A little frosted lace Stickles over baby pink made a really pretty ice cream color. =) Gel stickers are EK Success, heart and star are Colorbok pearlescent paper cut with Sizzix dies, and the cupcake brad is Doodlebug, I think. I bought some thinner 1/16th inch foam squares to mix up my dimension a bit, so I used those on my Troublemaker image so she's still close to the wall. I think she looks more like she's leaning against it that way.

This one was a lot of fun to do. It's amazing how some color can bring alive a stamp. I think I'm going to be hooked on cardmaking for a long time! =)

And luckily enough, I managed to fit my design to suit a few challenges:

Sweet Stampin' Challenge is doing BIRTHDAY to celebrate their own 2nd birthday

Kenny K's Krafty Girlz Challenge is focusing on Kids (even though at 16 she doesn't think she's a kid! ha!)
Lollipop Crafts Challenge #58 is the always easy ANYTHING GOES
and I <3 ProMarkers is also on an ANYTHING GOES (#93) this week.

Back soon with another crafty creation... I have about 4 or 5 cards in the works at once this week. Time to finish something already! LOL  See you soon! 

Happy Crafting,
Christy