xmas in july

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is that old seasonal favorite, "xmas in july". this is one of those things that people have strong feelings about. some folks hate making holiday cards out of season and refuse to haul out the appropriate supplies until sweater weather has arrived. and some --a crafty friend recently referred to us as "crazy people" lol-- are partners in a blog like ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ with their craft bestie, and make one card every single week to be *done* with xmas cards by december first. it takes all sorts, right?

i've been trying to emphasize the "stash" part of SOS lately, so i dug deep to find some ancient items. these ki memories chipboard letters must be at least ten years old. i'd be embarrassed about that except: i still really like them! i think the reason they've gone unused is that they're on the large side for cardmaking... even for ME, lol! but as soon as i saw them i was determined to build my card around them. by virtue of constructing an A7 card, choosing a short word, and strategically overlapping the "m" i think i made it work. bonus points for finding (in my xmas scraps folder) some little strips of paper from the same collection, as well as a bit of "love elsie" goodness and a tiny piece of sei pink that i fell in love with when my nieces were little! the felt bird is slightly younger than the rest, but not by much... he's a basic grey dimensional felt sticker, from that year when felt was The Big Thing! ;)

there are many other inspiration projects, featuring "classic" products, on the SOS blog. you should really stop by and see what my design team darlings have been up to! ♥