Yes - it is officially the hottest day of the year here in the UK with record breaking temperatures expected and I have a Christmas card to share with you! Well, with all of the 'Christmas in July' challenges around, it would be rude not to, right?! I'm playing along with the following challenges with today's clean and simple card:

AAA Cards have a CAS 'anything goes' challenge with an option of Christmas Pets in July and Less Is More want us to use traditional Christmas colours. So I paired my 'go to' traditional colours of red, green and gold (here found in a snippet of retired Perfectly Plaid DSP from my scrap box) with my 'choose two' of fur and stitching over at Just Add Ink and reached for my Scottie dog punch to create a sweet, furry bundle all dressed up for Christmas in his tartan bow - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

My stitching is courtesy of my Stitched with Whimsy dies, which frame my cute canine without adding extra layers and on today's card my 'white space' is red, as I wanted to use white velvet paper for my dog, which gives him a lovely 'furry' texture too, although this is quite difficult to see in the photographs:

I added a gold heat-embossed sentiment from the 'Christmas Scottie' stamp set to the front of my card, and completed my greeting with another from the same set on the inside:

I know Scottie dogs are traditionally black in colour, but my card today will be heading to a friend of mine who loves West Highland White Terriers, or 'Westies' as they are affectionately known. This looks just like her pooch - who at Christmas will undoubtedly be dressed in his finest plaid bow too! 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy the rest of your day; it's early evening here and there are no signs of things cooling down. I think we are in for a sticky night; it could be worse though - at least I'm not wearing a furry coat like the Westie on my card! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CHRISTMAS SCOTTIE BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£35.00)

SNOWY WHITE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) VELVET SHEETS (£4.75)

CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)

STITCHED WITH WHIMSY DIES (£27.00)

VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)

METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday. 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'Global Tiger Day' which is on 29th July. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I resisted the urge to use up some retired 'In The Wild' paper (which amongst other animals features tigers) and instead used frame, fur and black and broke open a new stamp set and went with a clean and simple card for Christmas - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

Is this Christmas Scottie not the cutest?! I added a Real Red stamped grid patterned background (perfect for the challenge over at Addicted to CAS this week) and a sentiment from the Christmas Scotties stamp set to the front of my card, and used my scoreboard to add a simple scored frame border to my panel. Then I used the Scottie Dog Punch (yes, there is a punch!) to punch a dog out of (retired) black glimmer paper as I wanted to give his fur some texture and added a festive red bow (cut from retired red velvet paper) and a googly eye, then popped him onto my card using dimensionals.

I think the addition of some different textures for the punched element adds lots of interest to an otherwise clean and simple card:

I added a 'furry' themed sentiment to the inside, along with a stamped Scottie for a little extra decoration, this time with a grid-stamped bow. What a dapper chap! 

I'm not a big animal lover, but this Scottie dog has totally won me over - I think he's so cute! You will be seeing lots more of him in the coming months I'm sure. 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the  Festive Friday Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Stephanie Lanzalotto
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James

Enjoy your day; I will be aiming to catch up with the housework having been out and about on my travels in recent weeks, hopefully after a lie-in following my 1.30am alarm call to get the youngest of the James Juniors to school in time to catch his bus to the airport for his school trip to Munich. This could be a long day! I'll be back on Sunday with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CHRISTMAS SCOTTIE BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£35.00)

REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)

TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£8.25)