Starting the Christmas Countdown

You may have noticed the Countdown Timer in my sidebar?
Yep... we're already thinking about Christmas!!
I swear it's not sneaking up on my this year and I WILL have my cards ALL done on time this year! (yeah, right!!) LOL!!
I got to spend a little crafty time this weekend and I just LOVE how this card turned out!


The image is "Natalie" from The Stamping Boutique.
I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils and added a little "puffy paint" on the fringe of her suit. 
For the background, I used Versamark ink and stamped the swirls and sentiment
(the stamps are all clear stamps in my drawer and I just can't remember who made them, MFT, maybe?). I then heat embossed them with Zing clear embossing powder. After it cooled, I spritzed it with gold "homemade" shimmery mist spray. 

The Monthly Challenge at the Latte Lounge is "Christmas in July" and the FUN thing about our challenges there is that every week, we add a new "twist" to make the challenge progressively more challenging!
This week's add-on is: Add Punches or Die Cuts. 
I cut the scalloped edge border with MTC and my Cricut, then added the red ribbon to (hopefully) "tie" it all together. Typically, I don't think red and purple are used together, but for this card, I think it's a perfect color combo!
It looks like I need a little "Adhesive Repair" on the bottom edge... oops!

And while we're getting ready for Christmas, look at my cute little Hexagon Box!
This is the newest project from DtsArt and is SO super-easy to cut and put together. And the file is also available in Pdf for the "cutter-free" folks!


There are actually 2 box sizes in the file. This is the "small" one and measures about 3.5" across the bottom!

The topper is a little tissue paper pom pom. I used the same pink tissue paper to line the box and make the "skirt'. Decorative edge scissors around the rim of the top and its ready to be placed under my virtual tree!

You can purchase this adorable box SVG set at Dardi's  little corner of Cut and Create, DtsArt.com or DieCut Designer


Challenges:
Get Hippity with Ippity, Christmas in July
The Latte Lounge, Christmas in July
Stampin' Sisters in Christ, What works for you: What works for me here is having the freedom to choose! I chose the color combos that would typically not "go" together and it "worked" perfectly for me!


I would also like to enter the Christmas in July Challenge at Paper Creations Ink