Spellbinders | Christmas in July + Cat Scenes. July Small Die Of The Month

Hi friends!

How is your summer going? It’s the season I hate so I’m surviving it. Which is actually not so hard to do as several years ago I figured out for myself the way to live through this season with not much regrets about it being here. My free time situation is following – I work full time and spend three hours per day commuting. Sometimes I can work extra hours as well. I’m coming home exhausted and can do very little around home. Luckily on one hand my hubby likes cleaning, so he does a lot of such work. On the other hand he is very tolerant when our home is not in the best condition. He always prefers me playing in my craft room versus cleaning. But still there are many projects that only I can tackle (organization, decluttering – stuff like that). And I only have weekends for all that (plus crafting, running errands etc). So mainly I’m very behind on all those projects.

I have to learn to express my thoughts briefly for sure. I wrote a whole bunch of words in a post ABOUT CARDS and still haven’t told my trick of surviving summer yet. Here it is – I plan some big home projects to be done during summer and work on them on summer weekends. When it’s fall or winter I hate staying inside sorting out shoes and bras as having so little time for myself I’d rather go out and enjoy these seasons. In summer I don’t care about being out (prefer not to) plus I have some projects done which fills me with satisfaction.

Another trick of surviving summer is starting working on holiday projects early. Fall, Halloween, Christmas – all these cards give me hope that summer is going to its end and WINTER IS COMING.

And speaking of holiday cards – I’ve already started on them.

Today I’m sharing a couple of projects made using this month’s Spellbinders Small Die Of The Month – Besties Forver. With his set you can make the cutest cat and dog, bone, fish bone and grass. This set can be used in so many ways.

CHRISTMAS

My first card is a holiday one.

Here I made the Distress Inks blended panel which I sprinkled with water, let the ink love and then blotted it. Then I added some white paint splatters suing my splatter brush.

Next I made the tree using dies from the Truckin Through The Seasons Die Set. After that I adhered it onto the card.

I die cut elements for a cat and dog and assembled these guys. There is a collar die in the set which I die cut six times and made scarfs for the pets using these die cuts. One die cut went around a neck and two others made a scarf ends. I also made them stripped by stamping with the Pinstripe Background in red and then coloring in between pinstripes with a red marker.

You can totally do it without stamping. I did it because I suck at eyeballing and at the same time I have OCD.

Next I foam mounted the panel onto a white card base. Followed by popping the pets onto it.

Then I decorated the trees with fish bones and bones which I turned into “candy canes” the same way I did the scarfs.

Lastly I added a sentiment white embossed on red cardstock strip.

CAT SCENES

My next card probably only people who have or know cats can understand. I made several scenes representing classic cats behavior.

When they hunt something down wiggling low on the ground with eyes wide open and ears flattened to their back.

I had to modify the car head for this position. The car head die has ears straight up. After die cutting the head I cut the ears of by running this die cut through die cutting machine with the dog head die. These two dies have very similar shape at the top so it cut out ears perfectly.

Then I die cut a cat heat one more times out of a gray cardstock, cut off the ears and adhered them to the head sides.

I also made round eyes using the die for the collar tag (versus the die that cuts out eyes).

When they sit still and neglecting the whole world around in a perfect statue shape. This is especially hilarious when you see just a half of a cat (through a door and what not).

Finally when they decide to violate bathroom privacy (or decide it’s the best time to play) stocking their paw through an opening under a bathroom door.

I choose HELLO THERE sentiment for this card as I think it fits the best the scenes I made.

If you’re interested in joining to the Small Die Kit you can do it here. Spellbinders also have 5 more subscription clubs which you can check out here. There are several Value Club options available for those who would like to join multiple clubs at once.

SUPPLIES

If you’re interested in the supplies I’ve used – they’re listed below. Where available I use compensated affiliate links (which means if you make a purchase I will get a small commission with no additional cost for you). Click on the letters below to go to a favorite store: Simon Says Stamp (SSS), Studio Katia (SK), Altenew (AN), Ellen Hutson (EH), Scrapbook.com (SC), Amazon (AZ), Spellbinders (SB), etc.
I truly appreciate your support!

Altenew Pinstripe Stamp Set Click A Shop: AN	Simon Says Stamp Hello There Stamp Set Click A Shop: SSS	Spellbinders Besties Forever – Small Die Of The Month Club Click A Shop: SB	Spellbinders Truckin Through The Seasons Die Set Click A Shop: SB	Altenew Ruby Red Dye Ink Pad Click A Shop: SSS | AN
Ranger Tim Holtz Salty Ocean Distress Ink Pad Click A Shop: SSS | SC	Altenew Classic Crest Solar White Cardstock 110lb Click A Shop: AN	Altenew Pale Gray Cardstock Click A Shop: AN	Altenew Real Gray Cardstock Click A Shop: AN	Altenew Dark Gray Cardstock Click A Shop: AN
Bazzill Rock Peppermint Card Shoppe Cardstock Click A Shop: SSS | SC	Hero Arts Precision Heat Embossing Tool Gun Click A Shop: SSS | SC	Tsukineko Versamark Watermark Stamp Pad Click A Shop: SSS | SC	Hero Arts White Embossing Powder Click A Shop: SSS | SC	Altenew Rose Gold Crisp Embossing Powder Click A Shop: SSS | AN
Altenew Pure White Ink Spray Click A Shop: SSS | AN	Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue Click A Shop: SSS	Ranger Mini Multi Medium Matte Glue Click A Shop: SSS | AZ | SC	White Double Sided Acrylic Adhesive Click A Shop: AZ	Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares Small White Click A Shop: SSS | SC
Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares Regular White Click A Shop: SSS	Scrapbook Adhesives Thin Foam Squares Mix White Click A Shop: SSS	Ranger Tim Holtz Mini Ink Blending Tool Click A Shop: SSS | SC	Ranger Tim Holtz Mini Ink Blending Tool Replacement Foams Click A Shop: SSS | SC	Spellbinders Platinum 6 Die Cutting And Embossing Machine Click A Shop: SSS | SC | SB
Spellbinders – Tool N One Click A Shop: SSS | AZ | SC | SB	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer Click A Shop: SSS | SC	Altenew Markers Set A Click A Shop: SSS | AN