A Twist of Fall with Christmas in July

Hello My Friends. I am so excited to have you join me for week 2 of Christmas in July with a Twist. This week I am joined by all my Friends at the Stampin with Friends Blog, so be sure to check out all the other fun Christmas in July ideas we have for you. I really enjoyed how the cards turned out last week so I was excited to jump in and create another 2 in 1 idea for you this week, but give it a Twist of Fall. The Base for both cards is the same at 11″ x 4 1/4″ scored at 5 1/2″ I decided Starry Sky would be the perfect backdrop for my Christmas card.

I knew I wanted to use this Adorable All Bundled Up set from the New Mini Catalog to create our cards for this week. I truly love all the Critters that Stampin Up creates. I think the moose might be my favorite, but really, they are are so fun. Who can resist all that cuteness. Definitely NOT me. These animals are ready to create some fun cards so who is ready to join this fun adventure.

The first step to creating your Fabulous Christmas in July cards is to create a scene with your Critters. That means you need to use Your Best Friend, the Stamparatus. It allows you to have perfect placement every time and allows you to stamp the same images over and over so you can do your assembly line stampin. If you notice in the picture above I have placed my cardstock at the corner of the 15 mark on both sides and used the magnets provided with your Stamparatus. This will allow me to go back and continue to place the same size paper in the same place and produce mulitple images. (Refer to my “So Now What” series of videos on my Youtube channel to learn more on how to use the, ever-so-versatile, Stamparatus) The cardstock for your front image measures 4 3/4″ x 3 1/2″ and is the perfect size to begin to create your scene.

Once you have placed your paper you need to create a scene with your Critters. What does that mean…I am so glad you asked. You simply place your Cute Critters in the order you want them to appear on your card. The Stamparatus allows you to create so many fun and unique scenes by arranging your stamps in new and different ways. Now the only thing you can not do is combine your cling stamps and your photo polymer in the same scene. Otherwise, the only thing that is holding you back is your imagination, so go have fun and experiment with new ways to use your stamps.

Once you have decided on the scene you want to create, the Stamparatus does the rest of the work for you. All you need to do is drop the plate down on top of your scene and it will pick up all your stamps at one time. Did you know that the plates are also provided for you when you purchase your Stamparatus. Stampin up really does think of everything. Just one of the many reasons why you need to make The Stamparatus your Best Friend.

What do you do with the scene you have created…that is a Great question. You will need to stamp your image with the ink of your choice and then use the plate to stamp your image on to your paper. Then the choices are limitless. I love to color, as you may know, so I wanted to use my Stampin Blends to bring my little critters to life. I used the same colors on both of my cards for the main parts of the moose and the raccoon. Then I added the Twist by coloring there hats and scarves different colors to create the Christmas or Fall card of your choice.

So how do I choose my colors for my cards. I love our DSP and that is a how I end up choosing a lot of my colors. This Gorgeous Snowflake Specialty Vellum is iridescent and allows you to use lots of different color choices. I decided to use Starry Sky as my card base and that really brought out all the lovely colors in the DSP, so that became one of my main color choices.

I actually find that a lot of our colors looks Fabulous with our New In Color Starry Sky. I felt like we could add some lovely purples and blues to create a lovely Christmas card. I chose to add Orchid Oasis, Pool Party, Highland Heather and Fresh Freesia. They really helped to bring our scene alive. And don’t forget to give your card a Bling with The Fine Pearls Embellishments that you can find in the New Mini Catalog. Every card needs some fun Bling.

I used the Joyful Flurry Stamp set from the mini catalog to stamp all around our Sweet Friends to really bring out the Christmas feel. I truly love snowflakes and I love that you can continue to use them in to January and February. I love having versatility with our stamps and finding different ways to use them makes me so happy. Don’t you love this color combo for our snowflakes.

I have a sneaky little trick for you that I used when I was making my cards this week. The DSP layer that I used on my cards measures 5 1/4″ x 4″. I like to find ways to make my DSP stretch and I love to show you ways to save money and give you extra pieces to use for your creativity. So here is my little secret this week…punch out images of the DSP that you are going to use to layer on your cards. Your top image will cover the punched out images and no one will every know that you created extra pieces for yourself. Don’t you love this idea.

Now that we have created our Christmas in July card it is time to give it a fun Fall Twist. I started by choosing a Beautiful image from the Rings of Love DSP from the Sale-A-Bration catalog. Did you know that you can get this DSP for FREE when you make a $50 purchase. It is really Lovely and has a lot of versatile images so you can use it for many different creations.

I chose to use the DSP with leaves and acorns for my background piece. You can also cut a 4′ x 1″ piece to use on the inside of your card as well. Don’t forget our secret tip to punch out images from your DSP before you attach it to your card base. We want to continue to find fun ways to make our money stretch. You will notice that I chose to use black cardstock as my card base for our Fall card. I decided my three main colors for my fall card would be Soft Succulent, Sweet Sorbet and Mango Melody. I think they make a Great combo and really make my Twist card come to life. They match the DSP so well too and I always love that.

An Amazing Fall card requires leaves, and the Forever Fern Set never disappoints. I think this set can easily get overlooked so I wanted to draw your attention to this Fabulous set. It is truly very versatile and can be used to create a lot of Fabulous looks. I love how Beautiful these leaves are and what a Great Fall card they create.

Can you even stand how Cute this card is. I love these little guys and I love how fun they make Fall feel. Once again I am loving showing you 2 in 1 cards. Did you notice that I created stripes on all of the scarves for this Fall card. I also decided that our little critters needed to have a Harry Potter feel. Don’t you love that each animal represents a House in Harry Potter. The cute raccoon is Slytherin, the sweet bird is Ravenclaw and last but not least our Moose is Gryffindor. Which character is your Favorite.

I have another fun tip to share with you this week. We start by punching out an image from the Label Me Fancy punch found in the Annual Catalog. We want our image to be in the white cardstock so you can stamp your sentiment as well as your leaves or snowflakes. Then you punch the image again out of the Black and the Starry Sky cardstock. Now you cute that image in half and mount it behind the white cardstock to create a shadow effect. You can do this with a lot of punches and it gives it a really fun affect. I also used the New Glitter Washi tape from the Mini catalog to add a little something extra to each of my cards.

So there you have it my Friends. A Fabulous Christmas in July Card with a Twist of Fall. I am not even sure which card I love more. I do know that I had a Great time creating these little critters in both seasons. Can I tell you a secret…they feel like special little friends to me. I know, so goofy, but true. We are always better when we have our Friends surrounding us.

Here is a list of all the items I used to make my creations this week. I will provide you with page and item numbers so that you can go shopping and get ready to make your own creations.

• pg 153 {AC} Label Me Fancy Punch 151297 $19
• pg 153 {AC} Decorative Circle Punch is my extra design punch 159174 $19
• pg 147 Stamparatus 146276 $49 and Grid Paper 149621 $6.50
• pg 122-123 {AC} Starry Sky Cardstock 159263 $9.25 – White cardstock 159276 $10.25 Black cardstock 121045 $9.25 – Stampin Blends $9 per group…Here are the colors I used. Cherry Cobbler, Mango Melody, Soft Succulent, Black, Gray Granite, Night of Navy, Smokey Slate, Starry Sky, Orchid Oasis, Pool Party, Fresh Freesia, Blackberry Bliss, Highland Heather.
• pg 73 {AC} Forever Fern 152559 $24
• pg 128 {AC} Natural Tones Stampin Blends $9 for a set of 2
• pg 7 {SAB} Rings of Love DSP 159939 FREE
• pg 19 {Mini} Joyful Flurry 159804 $22
• pg 40 {Mini} Snowflake Specialty Vellum 159832 $10
• pg 43 {Mini} Fine Sparkle Gems 159967 $7.50
• pg 45 {Mini} All Bundled up 159824 $23
• pg 49 {Mini} Amber Gems Combo pack 159969 $8
• pg 57 {Mini} Glitter Washi Tape 159973 $9

I hope you have a Fabulous weekend and that you can enjoy some time being Creative. Always take time to be Kind, My Friends, and to Go and Make the World a Better Place. Until I see you next week, I bid you Adieu My Friends.

The content of this site is the sole responsibility and opinions of Rachel Markin as an Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator and the use of its content, classes, services, and/or products offered is not endorsed by Stampin’ Up! Stamped images are copyright Stampin’ Up!