Christmas in July

It is fun to be creating Christmas art in July when we have sweltering heat with humidity levels at 90% and long sun filled days.  The current challenge with the Frilly and Funkie design team "Christmas in July" has us cooling down.

The talented Cec has asked us to get a head start on your Christmas projects.   In her words:  "You might be experiencing summer heat but let's think cool by getting a head start on Christmas preparations.  Your vintage or shabby chic creation could be a card, something to present a gift in or a decor item for the house or tree."

I was inspired to pull out the dwellings die to create a Christmas cottage. 

I have this die because I love vintage paper houses and especially the churches.  I started by cutting all the pieces for the church and ended up with a rustic holiday cottage.

I cut all the pieces out and started by stamping text along the bottom half of the house.  I left it halfway to draw the eye upward.  I then sponged the bottom half a little darker and drew again up to the top with a lighter effect.

I decided to accent my house with a mix of reds and browns on the windows, door and chimney.  I stamped the door and chimney with a mix of stamps.

I continued with the same theme all around the house with my little holly and berries on the windows.
The roof and porch were just dragged brown die ink across the surface to give a grainy effect.

The wreath was a little inspiration from a previous project. I had cut a few of the wildflowers and had them leftover on my desk. I thought how fun it would be to use a paper punch and punch a hole in the center of the flower, cut the stem off and shift them a bit to create a small wreath to hang on my porch.

I cut up the leaves and created swags of holly with a few pearls colored red to coordinate.  I sprinkled it with mica flakes and a snowy little cottage on Christmas Eve.

At the end of the challenge the team will choose their top four picks. Our first place winner will be invited to join us for a Guest Designer spot here at Frilly and Funkie. Three additional talented participants will receive badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and adheres to the challenge guidelines will be entered into a drawing to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique!

Please cool off with us and share some Christmas design with us at Frilly and Funkie this week!

Suzz

Sizzix Bigz Die - Village Bell Tower by Tim Holtz	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black Pad #3	IndigoBlu MegaFlakes - Winter Dawn	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Aged Mahogany	Ranger Tim Holtz Ground Espresso Distress Ink Pad
(February Pre-order) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Fired Brick	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Antique Linen	$23.95 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Documents	Carabelle Cling Stamp - Collage Texte et Negatif	Sizzix Holiday Greens Die Leaves
Sizzix Thinlits Die Set - Wildflowers by Tim Holtz 661190 (February Pre-Order)	$23.95 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Correspondence	Scor-Pal Scor-Tape 1/4" x 27 Yards	Ranger Inkssentials Mini Ink Blending Tool - With 4 Blending Foams	KAISERCRAFT Pearls - Self Adhesive Latte

Live by the Sun

I am back!  I wanted to share the second card inspired by the Summertime challenge at Frilly and Funkie.

This one started with the same background and circle of the first card I shared earlier this week. But I wanted to use the sweet fairy from the Masquerade stamps from Graphic 45.

I tried to make her effervescent by stamping her skirt and wings onto acetate with StazOn and then painting the backside with the pretty gold shimmery paint.

I was thinking midnight on a summer night with the fairies dancing and the flowers appear to be black with the moon behind them.

Happy Friday!

Suzz

Summertime

Hello!  Time for the Funkie side of the Frilly and Funkie Challenge: "In Good Old Summertime".   Kathy is hosting this challenge for us and she describes it as: " it's time for those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Whether you vacation at the beach, in the mountains, or enjoy a relaxing "Staycation" in your own back yard, your challenge is to create a vintage or shabby chic project that shows what you love best about summer. Use summer colors in your project. Be sure to tell us in your post what you love about summer, and how you've represented that in your project."

Thoughts of summertime had me thinking of family times both now and when I was young.  I remember long summer days rolling into night with running with the other kids in the neighborhood playing kick the can or ghost in the graveyard.  It inspired me to create a card using a few of the paper dolls along with the beautiful purple colors that are everywhere in my flowers right now.  I realized I probably have more purple flowers in the flower beds than any other color.

The highlight of the card has to be the adorable girls in their frocks and the way they are giggling int he photo.

 I started with an old sheet of music which I gessoed with a spatula.  (My gesso is getting a little thick)  I then stenciled on the pretty splashes which look like Hydrangea's to me. 

 I then moved to adding the stamped circle and then cut my piece of background to mount on the black cardstock and white card base. 

 Then I pulled out my misc ephemera and images to layer along with some fun tissue tape.

At the end of the challenge the team will choose their top four picks. Our first place winner will be invited to join us for a Guest Designer spot here at Frilly and Funkie. Three additional talented participants will receive badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and adheres to the challenge guidelines will be entered into a drawing to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique!


Come join us and share your summertime fun!

Suzz

(February Pre-order) Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Background Stamp - Circle Collage	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black Pad #3	Tim Holtz Ideaology Paper Dolls TH93555	Prima Art Basics - Heavy Gesso - White 17 fl. oz. (March Pre-Order)	Ink Blending Tool
(February Pre-order) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Wilted Violet	(March Pre-order) Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - SPLASH	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Butterfly Design Tape	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Snippets Ephemera	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Quote Chips

This is the Day

Howdy!

This summer is flying by and my poor craft room is neglected... I am hardly in here with all that is going on. I have a simple card to share today that I created with while playing with new stamps from Spellbinders.

A very pretty set of stamps which got a quick pass from me. I will have to play with them some more when things settle down.  I did cut the edges of the flowers and leaves to try to raise them up and give them some texture.

I hope your summer is going well!

Suzz