Bloomin' Awesome!

It seems we are not the only cardmakers in the world who looooove to create with holiday blossoms. A quick glance at the Mele Kalikimaka gallery very clearly shows that absolutely every card was enitirely gorgeous! Here are a few that especially tickled our fancy:

Robyn Oliver of Waterlily Cards

...combined stencils and diecuts in a way that sings with CAS perfection!

Maria of Rieslingmama

...used a variety of bright, beautiful shades to instantly make this impressionist poinsettia stamp feel totally tropical!

Janie Rinta of The Crafter's Castle

...proves that amazing Christmas flowers can come in ANY color, including this luscious shade of denim blue!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single card! We'll be back with a midnight snack for your creative appetite! 

Under the Mistletoe

We're still creating with flowers to celebrate, "Mele Kalikimaka" and you still have time to join the fun, which we hope you will! Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I had this American Crafts floral paper in my hand last week, but it wasn't quite the right home for a flamingo, so I moved on. I hadn't stopped thinking about it though, which was a head start for this week's card. As soon as I saw the current Sketch Saturday (#538) I was smitten...  so that took care of positioning. A white flower, badge center and velvet holly leaves were all pretty straightforward. Believe it or not, the hardest part was finding a sentiment sticker which made sense, fit the space, and didn't clash, lol!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I learned that photographing the beauty of foil is a bit of a challenge.  My background was made with Decofoil Transfer Gel, Brutus Monroe Tide Pool Foil & Carabelle Studios Accumulation De Ronds Stencil. My flowers are from the lovely Little Birdie Handmade Flowers and the remaining elements are from Authentique Jingle Elements (nothing like mixing together lots of different companies)."

Scroll down to the original post to see the gorgeous readers' gallery and link up your own floral fabulousness! ♥

Mele Kalikimaka

Since Mele Kalikimaka is a tropical Hawaiian holiday greeting, we're making cards featuring flowers … which could be a tropical hibiscus … or a traditional poinsettia … or anything in between. Maybe even both? (But probably only if your name is Lauren, lol!)

Here's how we're blooming this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I loved the various floral designs in an unopened package of Pebbles Cardstock Shapes sitting on my *Christmas* shelf ... they were perfect to feature with some coordinating Basic Grey Papers in the Mojo Monday Sketch (yay! Julee has brought her sketches back)."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I couldn't resist going a bit tropical, of course, but actually Heartfelt Creations' system for making awesome dimensional flowers-- in this case poinsettias-- was my number one inspiration. I used the coordinating stamps and dies on their very cool foam paper, added some color and ultra-fine glitter,  then used my heat tool to make the petals curl into realistic looking blossoms. once I had loads of lovely poinsettias, of course i added some hibiscus, plumeria, palm fronds a flamingo and faux polaroids. Ok yeah... I might've gotten a teeeeeeny bit carried away!"

And now it's your turn to get festive with flowers! Remember you don't need to incorporate anything tropical or Hawaiian! Any type of flowers, in any style of design, will do. Link up here before 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, November 14th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:18:23.

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas Creature Feature

We loved all of the creative Christmas Creatures that filled the gallery ... here are a few we thought were extra fun.

Trina P of Phamtastic Design

not only featured an adorable wintry penguin ... 

she also provided a tutorial for an amazing reflection technique.

Jen Mitchell of I Create

rocked a perfect CAS design with our favorite grumpling Moose ...

because everyone has at least one grumpling at Christmas.

Toni at Frankie Helps Craft

used masking, drawing & coloring

with some white ink splatters for snow 

to create an absolutely perfect winter scene.

Come back and join us at midnight for a little *blooming* fun.

not a CREATURE was stirring

We're still creating with CREATURES this week ... for most of us that means animals ... but it could mean a Winter Yeti ... or even an October Monster if you dare ... as long as it has a holiday theme, all creatures are fair game.

Here are the creatures we featured this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I'm totally loving the Gina K Wreath Builder system. This week I discovered that if you use one of the larger round stamps to frame the center, you can punch the middle out and make a little window to reveal a sentiment or... in this case... a bunny! To create the wreath I used a bunch of different shades of green Distress Ink, most of the foliage branches in the Holiday Wreath Builder set, and some fab Eyelet Outlet Holly Brads. I chose the fun Pebbles' tree paper as a background before I started stamping, so that I could coordinate the greens to match!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I went with another reindeer-themed design.  I've had this gorgeous sheet of Christmas Reindeer paper for a long time ... so I paired it with my fun new Triangle Deer & Sentiment from Lesia Zgharda Design.  I added a red enamel dot to his nose to help him stand out in that herd of funky reindeer (of course I had to make sure I featured the texty deer that had part of Jingle Belles)."

Remember you have until 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, October 31st to link up your creature-feature designs. The keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:18:22.

While Shepherds Watched their Flocks

Description:For this week's Jingle Belles prompt we're asking you to show us your animals! (Flock ... get it?) It could be one of those sweet little sheep or perhaps a reindeer or camel … or maybe a Christmas Yeti is more your speed ... okay we're even allowing Christmas Monsters if you're in a Halloween mood and want to stretch the theme.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I found a trio of *vintage* animal stickers in my stash (vintage is a nice way of saying lost and forgotten about) and decided to channel my inner Tenia and make a trio of fun card designs featuring paint splattering, washi tape, twine, foam tape layers, and stitches. You can click-on-over to my blog to see the other two."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I never can resist Doodlebug stickers, generally, and their reindeer in particular. I was a little shocked to discover that, despite having bought several reindeer-inclusive sticker sheets this year, the little dude above is the LAST? Definitely time to re-order! I've kitted him out with some very majestic Eyelet Outlet Antlers (he'll grow into them!) and given him a beautiful Gina K foiled background in which to strut his stuff. i arranged all the bits and bobs according to the current Atlantic Hearts sketch (#286) which i think you'll agree is pretty inspiring."

Link your critter-centric creations here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, October 31st. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:18:22.

An InLinkz Link-up

In the PINK! ♥♥♥

We *ALWAYS* love the kindness and skill that goes into all of your amazing PINK CHRISTMAS creations, and this year is definitely no exception. If you haven't yet treated yourself to a thorough scroll through the gallery, please do, there is soooooooooo much inspiration to be found, we really did have a very hard time featuring just a few cards, which we'll get to in a minute.

But first, we know that everyone is longing to hear how much money you helped us raise for the Breast Cancer Reasearch Foundation! Counting posts with multiple cards... (for which we thank you VERY much indeed!) ...there were a grand total of *69*! We have both pledged $2 per card, which means we multiply 69 x 4 and come up with $276! Thank you so very much to EVERYONE who participated and extra special thanks to those who linked more than once, we are so grateful for your help each year! ♥♥♥

And now just a few shout outs to some of our faves:

Jerri of Coloring Outside the LineZ

...says she wasn't sure about *PINK* penguins at first. Jerri, we had no such doubts, they are AWESOME,! ♥

Bonnie of Stamping With Klass

...was worried that this amazingly lovely creation might not have enough pink in it, but we beg to differ! Granted it's just a splash... but it stands out all the more against the gloriously textural white!

Viv of Viv's Visuals

...created this serene but sparkly minimalist masterpiece on which we just cannot stop feasting our eyes!

Once again MANY thanks and a big WOW not just for the number of cards, but the fact that each and every one was exceptionally lovely! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will appeal to your love of CREATURE comforts?! :)