Christmas in July

Summer is here in full force. The thermostat is inching up higher by the hour. My herbs are wilting and the garden is browning as it produces fewer and fewer tasty morsels. That’s OK though. It’s too hot to pick and to hot to be in a steamy kitchen canning all day. The freezer is full of peaches and squash and the pantry has a good supply of green beans, pickled cucumbers, banana peppers, green tomatoes and plump juicy red stewed tomatoes.  

The shelves look like Christmas

 The shelves look like Christmas; all red and green. I guess that’s why a “Christmas in July” challenge seems just right about now.

BBTB2, Little Scrap Pieces and GoFish are all challenging everyone to get creative with their Christmas cartridges and have fun with ‘Christmas in July’. I LOVE the Jolly Holidays cartridge but I thought I would challenge myself and try playing with a different Christmas cartridge also.

Background Paper & Lettering are from the Martha Stewart Holidays Pad

For the Challenges I used:

The cartridge Jolly Holidays for

  Branch-Line 5, key 6-S

  Ornament-Line 3, Key 3.

But I also used Cartridge Christmas for

  2 ornaments- Feature Key Blackout, Line 3, Keys 3 & 5

  Happy- Line 2, Key 10-S

  Christmas- Line 2, Key 10.

I rearranged the placement of the ornaments on the limb so my pictures could be seen.

The branch looked a little bare so I did a search for pinecones and found the perfect one on the Lyrical Letters cartridge-Feature Key Jumbo; Line 4, Key 10. I don’t use this cartridge often because I have trouble getting a smooth cut on the thin letters. (Anyone have a tip for this problem?) But the cartridge does have some cute shapes. It was a fun project and got me thinking about things I want to do for Christmas this year. There are so many cute ideas out there.