Bellarific Friday - Christmas in July

Hello Crafters! This week's Bellarific Challenge was Christmas in July. In case you were wondering, Christmas is only 155 days away! Where is this year going? I decided to use the fabulous CHRISTMASGIFTABELLA stamp as the focus of my card. She is so sassy and I love it! 

I stamped the image in Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink onto a piece of X-Press It card stock and colored her up using Copics. Below you will see the colors I used. Next I fussy cut the image and used an exacto knife to cut out some of the interior details. Stamping Bella offers the coordinating "CUT IT OUT" DIE and I would definitely recommend picking it up to make trimming the image easier. 

For the background of the card, I took inspiration from a holiday paper pack I got last year in the Target "One Spot" along with another pack from Pebbles called Home for Christmas. I liked the way the image popped on the black paper. The little words and phrases are all Christmasy. Super cute! I cut a strip of the striped paper and then layered the black on top. I adhered all of this to a standard A2 sized red card base. I stamped the sentiment in red ink onto a piece of white cardstock. I cut it down to size and adhered it toward the bottom of my card. 

I wanted to add some texture to the Bella's dress so a grabbed a rarely used snow marker. I actually wasn't sure it would still work! I applied a fairly thick coat of the marker to the trim of her dress then used a heat tool to make it puff up. It's pretty amazing! It's like watching embossing powder but better! You'll know when it's heated because it changes from an off white color to more of a white and of course it puffs up. I don't know why I don't use it very much. I think that will change this holiday season! It would make the coolest snow effects. 

Next I applied a single layer of foam tape to the back of the image and stuck it down to the left of the sentiment. I grabbed some red and green enamel dots and scattered them around the card. I decided to add a few more details to the image. I used glossy accents on the black elements (ribbon, headband, and shoes) and then green stickles to the green areas. I also applied white gel pen to each little dot on her dress to make them stand out a bit more. I really like how simple and classy this card turned out. Here's a better look at all the little details:

Be sure to check out the Stamping Bella blog and see what holiday creations the Bella Babes created. If you would like to participate in Bellarific Fridays for a chance to be entered into a monthly drawing to win some Bella Bucks click on the link below for more details.

Next week's Bellarific Friday challenge is the photo inspiration below. I can't wait to play with some of the summery new release images for next week's card. Hope you join along and create something with us! Have a wonderful day and I'll be back soon!