Christmas in July

It's time for Christmas in July!  CHA Summer is almost here and that means lots of new holiday products soon to debut!  I can't wait to see all the new lines.  Being from Texas, I appreciate winter/Christmas lines that don't focus too much on snow.  I don't see a lot of that in Houston so I gravitate more toward generic Christmas lines.  I would love for someone to do a tropical Christmas line!

Anyway, to start prepping, I thought I would show you a card I made last year.  It was inspired by a Tim Holtz Christmas tag he had done previously.

I wanted to do a card very similar to his tag - alcohol technique and all, but I didn't have enough time.  Plus I was making this card for a Christmas swap I was doing with my Stamp Club and I wasn't going to actually be there to explain/demonstrate the technique.  So I went a safer, simpler route - using a different set of Tim's wonderful products to create a similar look.  

Supplies: white card, miscellaneous green cardstock, white cardstock  (craft supply), Gumball Green and Cherry Cobbler cardstock (Core-dinations/SU), Cherry Cobbler ink (SU), Christmas Background texture fade, Festive Greenery and Tattered Banners decorative strips (Tim Holtz/Sizzix), Antique Linen distress ink (Tim Holtz/Ranger), Holiday Sayings stamp set (Hero Arts)

To make this card:

1. Cover the front of the card with green cardstock.
2. Cut a slightly smaller red cardstock rectangle.
3. Emboss red piece.
4. Using various pieces of green cardstock, die cut leaves/greenery.
5. Leaving a gap at the top, adhere die cut leaves into a wreath shape on the red embossed panel. (Don't worry about getting the whole leaf to stay down.  Use enough adhesive so they don't fall and bend or roll the free edges to add dimension.)
6. Tie bow from seam binding and use to fill in gap at top of wreath.
7. Using white cardstock, die cut banner.
8. Stamp sentiment in red and ink edges in brown on banner.
9. Z-fold ends of banner and adhere across wreath (use one foam square in the center and adhere ends with regular adhesive).
10. Adhere red panel to green panel.

Some fun alternatives or embellishments to add

• Color the seam binding.  The plain white is too bright to go with the rest of the card.  Or you could not distress the banner and leave that pure white as well.  
• Add some bling or stickles to the wreath. 

I thought it was a simple, fun card to make and fairly easy to mass reproduce (the greenery would be kinda of pain after a few cards).  Apparently it was a toss up with Stamp Club.  Everyone loved it, but a few thought it was a difficult card.   What do you think?  

TFL and keep creating!