Christmas CRAZY in July!

Susan's OLW challenge this week is to make a one layer Christmas Card.  It's that time...Christmas in July.  I'm happy to make Christmas cards all year, so that's fine with me!  Susan's post is hysterical...about Christmas stamping on a hot day...sweat dripping where you don't want sweat...etc!  Well, I knew I was going to participate, but I didn't know I was going to dive off of the deep end! 

Since I also like to participate in the Christmas Cards All Year 'Round monthy blog challenge, (and I got carried away with the OLCs!) I decided to combine the two challenges.  This month, CCAYR is re-vamping the DT, etc., and are having an anything-goes-holly-and-pine-and-turtledoves free for all. 

So there are 6 one layer Christmas cards...in honor of Susan's sweat and to play for the prize at CCAYR (you need to have 5 entering for the prize, but one is good for just playing along!)  To be honest, one was also for the bling it up challenge at Christmas Stampin All Year Long...but (of course) I missed the deadline!  Here we go:

This angel was in a "junk" bin at the Repeat Impressions booth a stamp show a few years ago.  The guy even joked with me about buying the "junk"!  I love her!  She's sparkly and I love that.  The hearts were added from Memory Box Valentines stamp.  Her dress is painted with gold paint. 

This is a CTMH set.  I know it's not traditional christmas, but it looks a little old fashioned with the brown ink, gold embossing and vanilla paper (looks more beige irl).

This little guy was my first attempt at Susan's challenge.  I had gotten this TAC stamps set a while ago and hadn't even used it yet.  More traditional colors here!  Ooops...blur on the photo.

For this one, I went for simple, but wish I had some small olive branch or holly that wouldn't dwarf that dove!  The sentiment is amuse, the dove is smARTworks, and he's colored with twinkling h2os.

Sheep from MFT, sentiment AMUSE.  Just love that liquid applique for sheep!

This is the image left of a chipboard snowflake that I placed on the cardstock and sprayed with glimmer mist.  It's very sparkly and festive irl. 

Thanks for looking...hope these give you a feeling of winter as we're about to hit 100 tomorrow here in the Baltimore area! 

An SU-only challenge

Being an equal-opportunity spender when it comes to stamping, playing along with an SUO challenge was different for me.  It really made me think of what I had that I could use.  I do buy SU products, and my friend Michele Reynolds called for a challenge to make birthday cards. (She doesn't have all of the submissions posted on her site because she's heading out to the SU convention this week.)  

Luckily, it came just in time, because I needed a few cards this week.  I made a few cupcake cards (you don't usually see a lot of designer paper in my designs - but I had this from SU and the cards needed to be girly!) and the Wish card was for my husband who had a birthday last week, too.  I love when you can use a floral stamp and still have it turn out "masculine enough".   The Wish card is a case of a wonderful card I found here.  Love the CAS of it and that dotty ribbon!  So I made it work with some SU products I already owned!

Ocean-y OLW

Well, it's just WRONG that I haven't been posting...even worse is not having time to stamp and create, let alone blog about it!  Kids are home for the summer...silly me thought there'd be time to do EVERYTHING.  :)  How are YOU getting it all done???

Luckily, there was time for a few this week.  Susan's OLW challenge was to use watercoloring on your one layer card.  Funny how she posted just today about ocean-y colors. (Hope you get to the beach soon, Susan.  LOVE that wave-y card!)  I love the beach, and need to send a thank you to someone who helped us out planning for our own beach time this month.  The shells are heat embossed and then wet brushed with SU baja breeze over top.  Sentiment is PTI in SU soft suede.  Simple and summery!

My brother in law is in need of a peach upside down cake (one of his faves from childhood) to help him get well after surgery yesterday.  The boys and I went to get the peaches at a local orchard today and we're baking tomorrow.  I had to have a get well card to go with it, of course!  The peach is a $1 stamp from Michaels...I added the sentiment on the computer.

I WILL (I have to keep reassuring myself!) be back soon...and be creating in between.  Hope you find time this summer to get inky, too!

Cool cards on a hot day!

I mentioned having to still do my June cards for the Christmas Cards All Year 'Round blog challenge.  Their challenge for June was to use a bright color and your fave embellishment.  So here it is, heat index over 100 in the balmy Baltimore area, and I'm making Christmas cards!!  It was a little Arctic escape!  But I refused to go outside into the heat and take the pictures...and it shows!  The poor paper snowmen may have melted out there!  The cards are actually white, folks...even though they look cream colored!  (bad indoor flash!!)  Anyway, I used Kiwi ribbon and Pacific Point as my bright colors.  I always include ribbon...but lately, my fave embellishments are sparkly...so I used ribbon and stickles (on his nose and his popped up scarf)s.  I can always use thank you notes at Christmastime, so I actually made 6 of them! 

Here he is with all of his melting friends

And now for a complete seasonal U-turn!!!

I also went the exact opposite direction in season to do a summer challenge over at Stamp Something -- where this is my first time entering a challenge...and apparently I'm in GREAT company (which I always consider to be on all stamping sites!), as there are so far 244 entries!!  WOW!  Lots of summery challenges out there this week, with it being the first "official" week of summer and all...and certainly feeling like it around here.  This one went bathing suits and sparkle.  Again with the bad indoor photo...this is actually su! pink pirouette...and it looks way more peachy. (sorry...I wasn't stepping out into the sauna that was our backyard this afternoon, even if it was for bikinis!) 

A splash of baby blue...

...is the theme for the Play Date Cafe challenge.  Black and white and a splash of blue.  The samples and entries are wonderful.  I remember seeing their splash of color challenge using orange...WOW!  Gorgeous!  So I tried to play along this time.  I used a tried and true SU background and added baby blue jewels.  I flipped around the layout and used the OCC Sketch for this.  It's a go-to type of sketch - which I love!  Makes the design process much quicker!  (Just move right on to the fun inky part instead!!)  I tried to use it for this Twilight inspired card, but don't think it actually all came together.  It's so heart-y and swirl-y that the Verve "with all my heart" sentiment seemed to go well.  (oooh...pic is a bit dark...hope you can see it!) 

Hopefully there will be time for stamping this week.  School is out and it's forecast to be 96 here this week.  YUCK!  Thank goodness stamping is an indoor activity...where there is air conditioning!  Which reminds me, I need to make my Christmas cards for the Christmas Cards All Year 'Round.  Always a good time to make snowman cards when they may actually melt!

A card for Team Edward...

...and the Pixie Dust Studio Challenge!  Though I'm definitely a card-carrying member of Team Jacob, my buds (Anne and Mary...this one is for you!) are fans (read: obsessed) with a sparkly vampire named Edward.  Ever heard of him?  :)  The challenge at Pixie Dust is to use red, black and/or silver in their Twilight themed challenge.  There are lots of cute little vampire-ish cards there...go see!  I didn't have an Edward likeness, so I had to stick to a little vampire I had.  But I tried to make him sparkle!  (and find out my spica marker is definitely out of ink!  boo!!)  I made two versions...and I think I like the extra glitter at the bottom better - more sparkle IRL.  The sentiment is computer generated after my friend Mary's t-shirt.  I'm surrounded by vampire lovers!  HELP!! 

Thank you so much for the encouraging comments on my last post!  I loved hearing from you about your husbands' ugly shorts, too!!  My husband got his father's day card and came down from getting dressed and proudly wore the nasty plaid shorts featured on the card.  He said, "look I'm wearing them!  I'm your inspiration!"  We'll just let him think that, OK? 

Possibly the fastest card I've ever made...

Flourishes...love to see them on others' cards...never know quite how to use them on my own!  And, of course, that was Susan's challenge for us this week on One Layer Wednesday.  My first attempt failed, as no matter what I did, it was going to be more than one layer.  (I liked the finshed product, but it won't work for this challenge!) 

Anyway, simplicity "flourished" when I thought of the new Cuttlebug folder I just purchased.  So my flourishes are actually embossed, not stamped!  I think it may possibly be the fastest card I've ever made...and I am already picturing more in my head!  Happy birthday, new baby, etc.  I can't wait to see how others use this folder...do you think you can put an image in the box, or only a sentiment??  I'll have to try it out...what do you think?

The wedding one is colored with a spica pen, so it's sparkly irl!  I went with the platinum bands on that one... :)

The other card is for a father's day submission to the CAS tastic challenge.  Funny thing is, just like Mother's Day cards, I don't feel that they actually have to say "Happy Father's Day" on them.  They are very personal...which is why handmade is a great way to go.  I mean, the designers at Hallmark do a great job, but they don't know my husband OR my dad and what they may like in a card, right??? !!

I'm also using this card for the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger challenge.  I've never played their challenge before, but as soon as I saw that pillow...it gave me the idea for my husband's card!  He has this ratty pair of plaid shorts that he LOVES.  Obviously, not my favorite.  He's lost some weight recently, and they fall off now...so he's taken to belting them...a beautiful look, I must say.  NOT! 

Anyway, I photocopied his shorts for the card!!  It may not be the most artistic card ever, but it's TOTALLY HIM and he'll totally love it and that's all that matters!

Have a great weekend...to you and all of the one-of-a-kind fathers in your life!