Candyland Christmas {in july}

Hello! Hostess Tami here with another "Christmas in July" card to share with you! This one is done is Candyland-inspired colors with only a little nod to traditional Christmas green and red...

Think outside the standard Christmas color box when it comes to seasonal greeting cards.  Your cards can be whimsical stand-outs from the sleigh load of other cards!

Coordinating colors of Smooch Spritz and ColorBox Premium Dye Inks were used for the "JOY" strips....

Tiny holly leaves with pearl trim berries were stamped at the center of each "O", bringing in a little red and green...

The border was stamped on an separate strip of white cardstock {see hints below}...

I also have a few hints for making and sending multiple cards {and I broke a few of them when i made this card!}:

• Work assembly line style. Make all you need of each piece before moving on to the next part. Depending on your card type, it may be faster to work in stages when assembling as well.
• If you are spraying or stamping a background; stamp or spray whole sheets of cardstock and then cut to size. Smooch Spritz does not warp or damage your cardstock, so it will still be easy to cut.
• Consider handcutting some pieces like I did on the vertical "joy" strips. It can sometimes be time consuming to center your stamp directly on a thin strip, or to exactly trim a stamped strip using a paper trimmer and keep the design centered. Handcutting is quicker and hey - it's a handmade card!
• Try not to stamp directly on your card base. If you make a mistake, you may have to toss the whole card, which can get costly if you are like me and error prone. The border strip at the bottom of my sample card was stamped on a separate piece of white cardstock and then adhered. You have to look close to notice it. 
• Use a standard card size to save on postage.
• Avoid using 3D Dots or bulky embellishments like buttons to save on postage.
• Make a sample card and take it to your post office to see how much it will cost to send. Better to find out that the odd size, or thick embellishment is going to increase your rate BEFORE you make a bunch of them!

SUPPLIES:

Clearsnap Products:

• Smooch Spritz: Grape Burst, Pink Sprinkles, Carrot Cake and Emerald Sprinkles
• Clearsnap ColorBox Premium Dye Ink: Royal Purple and Party Pink
• Stephanie Barnard ColorBox Premium Dye Inks: Spearmint and Tangerine
• Color Catcher

Other Products:

• My Sentiments Exactly: Christmas Sentiments
• Hampton Art: Art Warehouse: Holiday Ribbons and Words
• Bazzill: Prismatics: White Cardstock
• Memory Box: Pearl Stickers: Berry
• Beacon Adhesives: Zip Dry
• 3D Foam Squares

Tools:

• Trimmer and Scissors 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut a 5 X 10 piece of white cardstock and fold in half to make card.
2. Cut 3 - 1 1/2 X 4 pieces of white cardstock. Place in Color Catcher one at a time and spray with Grape Burst, Pink Sprinkles and Carrot Cake Smooch Spritz; set aside to dry.
3. Cut a 3 3/4 X 2 piece of white cardstock, place in Color Catcher and spray with Emerald Sprinkles Smooch Spritz; set aside to dry.
4. Cut a 2 X 6 piece of white cardstock. Ink scalloped border with Tangerine Ink and stamp at top of strip - scallops up. Then ink sentiment border with Royal Purple Ink and stamp below scalloped border. Finally, ink double line border with Party Pink and stamp below sentiment. Cut close to designs and adhere about 1/4 from bottom of card front.
5. Stamp each of the 3 - 1 1/2 X 4 sprayed cardstock pieces with coordinating ink using "JOY" stamp. Cut close to words to measure about 1 X 3 1/4. Ink edges with coordinating ink.
6. Use Spearmint Ink to stamp holly leaf in "o" of each stamped "JOY". Then add peals over stamped berries in design.
7. Ink edges of green sprayed cardstock with Spearmint Ink and then adhere about 1" down from top of card.
8. Use 3D squares to adhere "JOY" strips, evenly spacing them on green piece and leaving about 1/4" at each end.

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