Christmas in July - Day 1 - Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer!

Merry Christmas....

in July that is!

I thought it would be fun take a week out of July and post a few inspiring cards and projects to get you in the mood for some holiday crafting!  You do realize that there are only 155 days till Christmas don't you?  I know it SOUNDS like a long time but really when you think of making gifts, baking cookies, making greeting cards, possibly even making some ornaments to give or use yourself it's not that long at all.   It's time to get thinkin' about what you want to make this year.

So I thought I'd start it off with a card I made in honor of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer....it's one of my favorite holiday programs and makes me cry every time Rudolph runs away to the land of misfit toys. 

Here's what I did....

I started off by stamping the wreath on a sheet of white cardstock and stamped a second wreath on a piece of scrap paper to be used as a mask. 

I cut out the mask and placed it over the wreath and stamped the sheet music stamp several times over the piece of white cardstock. 

I then trimmed the cardstock to the side desired for the card.  I then inked the edges and the background music with a variety of brown distress inks.  I used my Spectrum Noir markers to color in the wreath and I added a few highlights with my white Gelly Roll pen from Sakura and a few bits of Stickles Glitter Glue.  After it was dry I used an exacto knife to cut out the center of the wreath.  I set that paper aside for now.

I stamped Rudolph on a scrap of white cardstock, colored and fussy cut him from the rest of the cardstock.

Next I stamped a green panel of cardstock with the holly sprigs and added Stickles Glitter Glue to the berries.

All Stamps are Stampers Best - Deep Red Stamps

To assemble the card I first added a strip of "Merry Christmas" washi tape to the top of the green card panel and affixed it to the red card base.

Next I determined how much of the wreath I wanted to hang over the edge of the washi tape and drew a pencil line straight across the cardstock on either side of the wreath.  I then cut away the bottom portion of the wreath/music stamped panel....fussy cutting around the wreath and making a straight on the pencil lines.  So now I have a panel that is square at the top but has the wreath hanging down below on the bottom.

I tucked Rudolph in the wreath and added a pop dot near his shoulder and head to help him stand up a bit off of the surface of the card.

I then glued the music/wreath panel to the upper portion of the card.

Here's a close up of Rudolph...

I know it's a lot of work for one card but this could be a special card for that special person on your list.

OR

use a

~ QUICK ALTERNATIVE ~

You could speed the process up a bunch by substituting pattern paper for the sheet music and holly background papers and just stamp the wreath and Rudolph.

Simply stamp the wreath, color and cut ~

stamp Rudolph, color and cut....

tuck Rudolph in the wreath and stick em both on the card!

Quick and Simple!!