Christmas in July!

Are you one of those people who buys Christmas gifts all year long and you're all done with your shopping months ahead of everyone else?  Not me.  I would love to be caught up on my Christmas shopping, but the truth is, I wait until the last minute like everyone else.  I blame it on my husband.  He got me into this terrible habit and we always shop together, so now I can't get a lick of it done without him.  Sadly, he won't budge until after December 20th.  I have pretty much the same problem with the Christmas tree.  I would love, love, love to have my decorations up and ready to go on Black Friday (hey, I won't be shopping....), but I can never get anyone to help me, so it takes days and days and days to get everything set up.

Over the years, I have just learned that if I want to get anything done early, it has to be homemade.  I'd like to say I give a whole lot of handmade gifts, but sadly, the shopping procrastination has spread to my crafting as well, so I can't ever make up my mind about what to make or how to do it until it's almost too late to get anything done.  That's why I like to make my Christmas cards early if I can.

Usually, I start working on my cards while we're on our annual scrapbooking cruise in September.  It's a great project to take on the go because it's compact, I usually don't need a lot of supplies, and since it's really repetitive work, I can get a lot done and still enjoy the cruise.  I make about 100 cards every year, and send out close to 75.  The remainder either get sold or donated.

If, like me, you wind up with extra cards lying around and you don't know what to do with them, please consider donating them to a worthy cause.  There are numerous organizations that send signed cards to active duty military, and there are even several groups that ship the blank cards to soldiers so they can send cards home to their families.  I'll try to have some names and contact info for the next blog!

Speaking of Christmas, this week, our 3rd Wednesday Stamp Club celebrated "Christmas in July" with a Christmas-themed card exchange.  Here's a few of the cards we shared:

And of course, we made a few projects.  I really loved this one!  We used the Stampin' Up Heat and Stick powder and some pretty glitter.  If you click on it, you can see how prettily it glistens!

Don't you just love the Lego card?!  This was such a simple idea, and so perfect for a little boy!

This handy post-it note holder has a magnet so you can stick it on your fridge!

If you like these projects, you can see more in our Picasa Web Album