All Bundled Up

Ok, hang on a second, we realize that the title, "All Bundled Up" sounds nuts in mid-July, especially if it's 90 degrees and 80% humidity where you live! But bear with us while we explain that what we're actually looking for this fortnight is holiday cards with *LAYERS*... three or more layers, to be specific. That's do-able, right? Here's what we made:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I suppose by now everyone knows that using lots of layers isn't much of a challenge for me, lol. But in this case I've got four layers of paper and still come out with a flat card, which I'm pretty happy about! In addition, my poinsettia centerpiece has a few layers of it's own: its got patches of red and green ColorBurst, then background pattern stamps, then embossed poinsettia stamps from Ken Oliver Crafts, and finally a rub-on transfer sentiment and a few Eyelet Outlet gem centers!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I couldn't resist using my *bundled-up* Snowman 2 from Paper Smooches (don't you love his matching hat & scarf) together with all of my paper layers from the Very Merry Collection by American Crafts ... holiday cheer for sure.

And now it's your turn to make a layery creation and link it here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, July 25th. Keyword for galleries or Flickr is JB:18:15.

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Shining STARS (and STRIPES)

We loved all of the creative uses of stars and stripes in the gallery this week.

Here are a few that caught our eyes.

JanR

from

Huh. So this is a blog.

used a star in her image & her sentiment ... 

and her coloring really brought this adorable little one to life.

Pamela

from

Pamela's Craft Spot

featured both twinkly stars in the night time sky 

and a focal star image with her adorable holiday teddy bear.

Scatty Jan 

from

Scrappy Scatty Jan

featured traditional stars at the top of a beuatifully

water-colored Christmas tree ... she

also incorporated wonderful texture in her design.

Join us at midnight for our next holiday card prompt.

Pinstripes & Super Novas

We're still celebrating with STARS and/or STRIPES for Christmas.

Here's our second round of cards:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Since June 30th was the 5th Saturday of the month, we could choose ANY sketch from the Sketch Saturday archives. I chose #283 because it had a star already on it (!) AND two great places to put strips of stripey paper. Which I did! I flipped the sketch horizontally to suit the direction that cute My Mind's Eye chipboard station wagon was driving, but otherwise I was quite faithful. Easy, peasy!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started with my grungy Star Collage Background from Technique Junkies on a scrap of Gel Press paper that Lauren & I created during our annual Art Camp.  I added the Christmas Kitty & Dear Santa Sentiment, also from Technique Junkies (all stamped in Midnight Blue StazOn) and finished with some Enamel Stars.  If you like any of these stamps, there's a 10% discount if you use my code TJ10Stephanie at checkout."

Scroll down to the original post to see the glorious starry, stripey reader's gallery and to link up your own creations!

Stars AND/OR Stripes for Christmas

Next week in the USA we will be celebrating Independence Day, so we're asking you to incorporate either stars or stripes into your card design.

They need not be red, white or blue … just stars or stripes (or both if you're an overachiever).

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with Striped paper and coordinating Star paper using this week's sketch from The Paper Players.  They both coordinated perfectly with my Christmas R2-D2.  I punched a star from a third paper to cover the tag hole in his Christmas Hat.  The finishing touch was a sticker sentiment."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've combined lots of different elements for this one. The striped paper and journal card are both older Echo Park papers. The tree paper and the Santa sticker are slightly newer, from Doodlebug. The green scrap and the cardstock star punch-out are both so old, I'm honestly not even sure who made them, lol. But everything came together when I used the current Sketch Saturday to guide my layout."

Link your star-struck and/or stripey masterpieces here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, July 11th. Keyword for galleries or Flickr is JB:18:14.

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Wonderful in White!

We have to confess that as committed color-lovers, we sometimes find it challenging to make cards that are mostly white... but looking at the beautiful creations in the "White Christmas" gallery, it seems like we're the only ones who struggle! Here are three cards that made us not miss any of the shades of the rainbow at all: 

Brenda B of Brenda's Scrappy Blog

...traded color for sparkle, dimension and beautiful attention to detail --like that awesome scalloped, lacy edge-- in her perfectly CAS creation.

Barbara Godden of Barb's Crafting Corner

...made three (3!) gloriously all-white layery creations of which it is impossible to choose a favorite, so you need to visit her blog and see the other two, ASAP!

Aimeslee of Paper Paisleys Art Adventures

...makes us want to go back and re-make both of our cards from this challenge because: WOODGRAIN!!! ♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we love seeing ALL of your creations! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will put stars in your eyes...

Winter WHITE

We're still creating cards featuring the color (or lack of color) WHITE.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I've been having fun this week using up scraps of paper to make this fun (easy!) herringbone pattern, so while I was still in that phase, I decided to make a card using all of my white, cream, ecru, magnolia and nearly-grey-but-not-quite scraps! There are some process pics in this blog post, but I'll warn you right now, it's addictive, lol! Meanwhile the combination of snowflakes + flowers never stops looking good to me, so I've added a stack, secured with a fancy Eyelet Outlet pearl brad."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I went with Lauren's tip from last week and added texture.  I die cut and embossed my Tim Holtz Layered Holiday Wreath on white textured cardstock.  Then I cut it a second time from gold cardstock and off-set them slightly to create a *shadow*.  I curled the leaves & bow for a bit more texture and added a sticker sentiment & white pearl."

Scroll down to the original White Xmas post to see the gorgeous readers' gallery and link your own masterpiece(s)!

I'm Dreaming of a WHITE Christmas

This week we're asking you to go WHITE ... create a card that predominantly features the color white.  Maybe you'll create with snowmen ... or snowflakes ... or just all of your favorite white papers.  We just want to see the amazing beauty that comes from the absence of colors.

Here's what we created.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I won't lie, I was stuck this week.  I finally just grabbed every piece of white designer paper and white embellishment I could find in my stash and laid them all out on my craft table.  Then I went hunting for inspiration in my favorite place ... the talented Lauren who I knew has a particular talent with the color WHITE.  I took my inspiration from her gorgeous card from 2013.  Lots of white banners, felt snowflakes, white doilies, white ribbon and a white sentiment sticker.

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Ok, so, I had really informative things to tell you about my card this week, and now I'm blushing so hard from what Stephanie said, that I can't remember, lol! But I have actually had quite a bit of practice with the white-on-white genre, because I have an aunt whose favorite color is white! My secret tactic when I can't use a range of colors is to compensate with lots (and LOTS) of texture. So my card has torn, inked and layered bits of a white gridded patterned paper (by Photoplay) topped with loads of lovely dimensional florals, a few diecut snowflakes that incorporate colorburst + modelling paste and a nice big chipboard sentiment. And before you ask about envelopes... this is definitely one that will get mailed with a package, or better yet, handed to its recipient in December!"

And now it's your turn to break out all of your white and create a marvelous holiday creation ... and link it here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, June 27th. keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:18:12.

An InLinkz Link-up