Christmas in July

This summer has been a strange one for Minnesota.  It's been much hotter than usual!  I need to think cool thoughts.  So, I decided I'd do something kind of fun and quirky on my blog for the rest of the month...I'm going to celebrate "Christmas in July!"  To kick things off, I'm sharing two Christmas layouts in this post.

Supplies: background paper (Bo Bunny), white-on-white patterned paper (Crate), doily (Royal Consumer Products), journaling card (Lily Bee), brown alphabet stickers (October Afternoon), red alphabet stickers (Crate), decorative stickers (Basic Grey), number board die cut (My Mind's Eye), pen (Sakura), ink (Tsukineko), corner rounder (Creative Memories).

The layout above is called "Cocoa for Christmas," and the journaling reads: "Since she couldn't come visit us this year, my friend Beth from California sent us a special treat: gourmet hot chocolate mix and ginger-flavored marshmallows.  Yum!"

Supplies: train patterned paper (October Afternoon), all other patterned paper (Teresa Collins), circular stickers and large alphabet stickers (Basic Grey), mini alphabet stickers (Lily Bee), thin label stickers (Jillibean Soup), square label sticker (Lily Bee), tag stickers (Crate), photo corners and file tab stickers (Bo Bunny), ink (Steward Superior).

The second layout, which you see above, is called "The Train Store at Christmastime."  It features a spiral made of torn paper, which symbolizes a model railroad track.  Instead of writing a block of journaling, I sprinkled little label stickers all over the page and used mini alphas to spell out captions (see detail shot below for example).

Both of the layouts in this post are a bit different from typical Christmas layouts.  They don't involve big events, like putting up the tree or opening gifts.  Instead, they are about small, special moments that occur during the holiday season.  I used the portrait and macro modes on my camera to capture most of the photos on these layouts.  I think it's important to capture life's details.  :)