Christmas in July!?

Hi there crafty peeps!  You might be wondering about the title of this blog post.  Has she gone crazy? It is July.  Did she honestly mention the big "C" word this early?  Well you read it right, I did!  I usually start prepping my Christmas cards starting in September with the hope that I can have them all out in the mail by the 2nd week in December but this year I have decided to start even earlier.  My husband and I purchased our first home this spring and I am so excited to decorate it for Christmas this year, so by starting my cards earlier, it will leave me more time to do this!  I created this little beauty below as my first Christmas card of 2015.  I plan on giving this to my grandma as Cardinals are her absolute favorite bird.

I stamped this beautiful image made by Deep Red Stamps onto Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock with StazOn Jet Black Ink.  I then watercolored the image with my Distress markers.  I matted the image onto a piece of red glitter cardstock and forest green cardstock.  I then took this and adhered it to an A2 card base made from the same Forest green cardstock and a slightly smaller plaid red and green patterned paper.  I stamped a "Season's Greetings" sentiment from My Favorite Things onto some left over forest green cardstock with Versmark ink.  I then heat embossed it with Ranger Gold fine detail embossing powder.  I cut out the cardstock with the sentiment into a fishtail flag banner and popped this up onto the card with foam tape.  I added a poinsettia embellishment to the card for a final decorative accent.

As I am talking about preparing for Christmas today, I wanted to mention that over at Patience Brewster they are busily preparing for the Holiday season as well.  If you are not familiar with this wonderful company you should definitely head over to their website and blog to check them out.

"Patience Brewster, Inc. is a small one artist company creating unique ornaments, gifts and textiles from start to finish."

This family run business is so full of creativity and imagination.  Their Christmas ornaments are so fun and whimsical.  I fell in love the minute I first saw them! Anyone who knows me well knows that I adore owls, so I have to say I am particularly fond of the Olivia Owl Ornament.  They are having a Christmas in July contest over on their Instagram page and there are still a few days left to enter!  All of the details can be found on their blog.

I hope you enjoy the first of many Christmas cards to come this season.  Stay tuned as I will be posting more as it gets closer to the big day.  Have a wonderful day!