Christmas In July!

Welcome to my little corner of the crafting world!  I am glad you stopped by to visit!
Can you believe that there are only 5 more months until Christmas?
Every year I say I am going to get a jump start on making Cards and Gifts - and that never seems to happen!
So when Erica at My Cricut Craftroom gave the design team the option of creating some kind of a 

Christmas project for July 25th - I jumped at the chance to get a start!
Frequently, I design at least 2 or 3 cards and then decide which I would like to reproduce to send to all those on my Christmas Card list.  When you are making a large number of cards, you want something that is cute and unique, but simple enough to make (in my case) about 75 or so cards!

I was excited to use the Cricut Lite Jolly Holidays cartridge.  I purchased this cartridge just before Christmas last year, but after I made my cards - so it remained wrapped up until now!  

This cartridge has some super cute Winter and Holiday images on it! 

I selected the penguin with an umbrella (I am still puzzled as to WHY they designed this image with the umbrella!)  and cut the base image  at 4.25 inches. A couple of quick snips with my scissors and the umbrella was no longer there!  

I then cut all the penguin layering images (also at 4.25, of course!) and chalked his little cheeks to give him a rosy glow!

Let me give you a full view of the card and we'll review some of the details together!

(Click on any image for a larger picture)

How cute is he??
For my cute little penguin, I used some googly eyes and that just makes his personality shine, don't you think?

I then selected the tree, also from the Jolly Holiday cartridge.  I embossed the tree with the Evergreen

embossing folder, then added Stickles to the little balls on the end of the tree instead of cutting out the circles that were intended to be included in the cut.  I think it is fun to add a little creativity and not always cut every layer, but sometimes use other products to create the desired effect!

Look at those Stickles and Embossing!  I JUST got a new camera...these are my first images from it! I am so excited to be getting much sharper, close up photos!

I hand cut some drifts of snow and embossed them with one of my "go to" Cuttlebug

Embossing folders called "Divine Swirl".  I find myself using that embossing folder quite a bit!

I added just a light brush of light blue ink on the edges of the snow drifts, and tucked the trunk of my tree deep into one snow bank!  

Being a fan of foam layering squares, I popped up my little penguin so he appears to be nearer the viewer with the tree just a bit further in the background of my scene.

With Fiskars Stamp set called "Tis The Season", I stamped with white ink the 

phrase "Merry Christmas" as well as a scattering of snowflakes!

Showing you a closer view of the snowflakes stamped on as well as the dimension given with the foam dots!

(Ok, who am I kidding?  I am trying out the new camera....trying to see what detail I get from angles and various distances!  But I did want you to see the depth the foam squares adds to a card vs. just always gluing the images flat on your card or layout.)

One final view!
Do you make your own Christmas cards?  If you do, when are you likely to get started on them?
I hope today's post gave you some inspiration to at least think about your Holiday crafting plans!  

Please be sure to stop by My Cricut Craftroom to see what my fellow Design Team members have to share with you today!
www.mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

I hope you'll take a moment to leave a comment!  I love to hear what you have to say!
Have a great day!

Thanks for stopping by!