Christmas in July

July is almost over and Christmas less than five months away. Yes, it's that close! I've been working on Christmas cards all through the past month, trying to build up a collection to send to troops stationed overseas. Last year I sent 175; this year's goal is 200. I am happy to report that I am--as of tonight--half way to that goal. These need to be done by end of October so that there is enough time to ship them overseas, with plenty of time for them to send them back home to family and friends. Here are a few of those done so far.

All of these use the now-retired Stampin' Up set, Sleigh Full of Toys. The third also uses the dog from another retired set (and one of my all-time faves), Winter is Calling. I used greetings from a variety of sets, mostly Season's Greetings (Stampin' Up) and Winter Wishes (Hero Arts). All of the cool ribbon is by American Crafts--it was a set of six mini-bobbins I picked up on clearance at Archiver's a few months back. I knew it would come in handy once I started working on Christmas cards. Paper used was white, real red, green galore, gable green, certainly celery, glorious green, and a non-SU dark green. Ink colors are basic black, glorious green, real red, so saffron and craft white. Aside from ribbon accessories used include Marvy Uchida scalloped punches, and Le Plume markers. I especially like the last one, but coloring in all those presents (times about a dozen) took forever.