Christmas in July

I know shocker, right? I never participate with the Christmas in July "goings on" each year. But lately I have found a few challenge blogs that I'm really enjoying, and The Paper Players is having a "Christmas in July" challenge, so I thought, "Hmmm....."  I don't have any current Stampin' Up Christmas stamps (but I have the mini Holiday catalog sneak peek, and the catalog is full of fun things for Oct, Nov, and Dec!)

So in order to play with The Paper Players this go round, I pulled out some old retired Stampin' Up stamps from the 90's. The image is from "Joys of the Season," and the sentiment is from "Everyday Expressions."

In fact, one of the "Everyday Expressions" retired stamps in this set made the June Best of 25 Years stamp set! Stampin' Up is celebrating 25 years of crafting and each month this year a new stamp set is being introduced with previously retired stamps and one never before seen new stamp. All of the "Best Of" stamp sets come in clear mount only, and are always $14.95 and available to order through March 31, 2014. I'll show them all to you at the end of this post, but remember, a new set is introduced each and every month this year! Click on my Page Tab "SU Best of 25 Years" at the top of my blog, or click HERE to stay up to date with the new sets being introduced each month.

• Card base cut @ 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (using retired Certainly Celery cardstock)
• Whisper White used for image matting
• "Joys of the Season" (retired) for tree stamped with Wild Wasabi ink
• Tree colored using Aqua Painter with inks: Backed Brown Sugar, Crushed Curry, Real Red
• Background sponged with Marina Mist
• "Everyday Expressions" (retired) for BELIEVE sentiment stamped in Real Red
• Large Scallop Edgelits used for border on image mat and with Real Red cardstock
• Whisper Whtie Baker's Twine wrapped along image edge

Thanks for stopping by! :) Janis