Christmas In July

Hello friends.  Christmas in July??  Pretty warm in my neck of the woods to be celebrating Christmas (it's been in the 90's and very hot and humid here!!), but I'm playing along with a few challenges where Christmas just fit the bill!  I'm playing along with The Flower Challenge where they are looking for PRETTY PASTELS, the Color Throwdown Challenge where they are looking for Pink, Gray, White, & Silver, and also a special challenge with my sweet friend Michele who came over to play this week and make Christmas cards.  

We were both struggling a bit with the current Flower Challenge because neither one of us is really a pastel person, but we decided to use the same Altenew Poinsettia set and see what we came up with!  

I water colored my flower with Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks (Peeled Paint for the leaves) and then mounted to a white card base with a small stitched window opening that I added a piece of embossed (SU! knitted embossing folder) gray cs behind.  The sentiment was stamped in gray (as well as the outlines of the flower and leaves) and was from one of Michele's sets that I don't remember the name of...sorry!  I also added some Silver Linings Nuvo Drops to the center of my flower and finished off with a few clear sequins.

Here's a closer up so you can see some of the detail better.  My card also works for the current Color Throwdown Challenge with the Pink, Gray, White, & Silver and their inspiration photo is what totally inspired me to use the knitted embossing folder on my card.

You can play along with The Flower Challenge HERE and the Color Throwdown Challenge HERE.  Lots of GORGEOUS cards from both Design Teams, so make sure you check them both out and play along!

I have 4 more cards to share with you today that are from the play date with Michele and she will be posting some of the cards she made today too, so make sure you check out all her lovely creations!  This 1st card uses a STAMPlorations set by Shirley called Layered Poinsettia's...

I love this stamp set and the artsy design!  SO simple but really packs a punch!!  The sentiment is from Altenew.

This was just a fun card because I wanted to use the moose die (Poppystamps) that I'd had for ages and never used.  Wasn't happy with the card though until Michele suggested tying a bell around his neck...definitely perked it up in my eyes!!

These last 2 cards were done with a Gina K set called Christmas Greenery and I had fun inking up the trees with a few different colors of green inks.  I also did some ink splattering with white and gold and a little bit of loose water coloring around the trees.

If you made it this far, CONGRATULATIONS for sticking it out through this looooong post!  Hope it made you feel a little cooler too with all this HEAT and HUMIDITY going on outside!  Once again, make sure you check out The Flower Challenge and the Color Throwdown Challenge (links above) for more wonderful inspiration, and definitely Michele's post to see all her wonderful cards from our play date!  And thanks Michele for such a FUN play day...I had SO much fun and can't wait to do it again!!   
  

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!