Christmas in July

It's Christmas in July at My Craft Spot!  I have to admit that I am totally and completely in summer mode so really struggled to get into the Christmas spirit for this week's challenge.  Having spent the past three summers working on my Masters degree, it's an absolute delight to have this time off!!  Anyway, I always enjoy using Jolly Holidays so finally decided on a fun Santa card.  As I was designing it, my husband came into my craft room with a little Joseph.  I'll explain:

I collect nativity sets.  Last Christmas, I got a tiny little set with figurines no more than one inch high.  I was worried about the cats and the little pieces, so I put this particular set on the top of a bookshelf.  Apparently, that didn't seem to bother our mischievous black cat and she somehow managed to climb to the top and knock off the majority of the set.  We found all the pieces except for Joseph.  Quite disappointed, I substituted a shepherd in Joseph's place, praying I wouldn't be zapped by a lightening bolt for making Mary something that she's not!!  Anyway, as I was designing my Santa card, my husband found Joseph!!  I felt it was a sign from above that I needed the focus of my card to be on the real story of Christmas so changed direction altogether. 

I used Inspired Heart for the nativity silhouette, cutting the top layer from a beautiful musical score paper from Recollections "The Ballet".  I used this same paper for the mat.  The gorgeous silver doily was created with the 4" Lacy Doily metal die from My Craft Spot.  I used George and Basic Shapes for the frame and added some silver photo corners cut from an EK Success punch.  

After inking my layers, I assembled the card, popping the silhouette for some added dimension.

I finished things off with a double bow created using some luscious Cranberry crinkle ribbon from My Craft Spot.  I topped this with a tag cut with the My Craft Spot Tiny Tags metal dies and stamped with a sentiment from the My Craft Spot Mistletoe sentiment stamp set.  Finally, another double bow was added with some silver thread looped through a silver eyelet.  (I'm a bit disappointed with the photos.  The metallic silver cardstock that I used simply refused to cooperate during its photo shoot.  This card really does look quite pretty in real life!)

Please head over to My Craft Spot to see the rest of the fabulous projects created by my talented design team sisters!!  You have a week to link up your project for a chance to win this week's prize.

I am also going to link up my card at Exploring Cricut and Crafting When We Can as they are also having Christmas in July challenges.  I also discovered that Cut It Up is having a Christmas in July challenge as well - AND they are giving away a My Craft Spot Merry Christmas stamp set as a prize!!  What a great opportunity for everybody to take part in a few challenges this week - and get a head start on Christmas!!