♥SOFTLY♥ Falling Snow

As you know, there is nothing we ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ enjoy more than having a lovely guest star come along with a fabulous prompt and a jaw-dropping card to go with it. this week we're thrilled to welcome the very sweet and VERY talented Noelle McAdams, so let's hear what she has in store for us:

Hi! My name is Noelle & I am a Christmas junkie. No seriously, I am CRAZY about this joyous season & that may have something to do with the fact that my birthday is on Christmas Day. When I’m not caring for my 3 sons, my hubby, or our Pomeranian; you’ll usually find me decorating, baking, and oh yes, CRAFTING! I have a personal blog & I am also on the design team at the ColourQ blog as a scrapper. Sometimes, I also do freelance work for craft manufacturing companies.

When I think of winter, I think of: softly falling snow, snuggly sweaters and socks, mittens, down parkas, warm, soft cookies & coziness in general. So, that was my jumping off point for this idea of making a SOFT Christmas card/project. I recently learned how to do wool felting & I knew that was something I wanted to incorporate, as well as flocking, ribbon, & stitching. But, some other ideas of SOFT items you could use on your projects this week are: batting, velvet, fibers, denim, thick layers of embossing powder, soft silk flowers and snowflakes, pillow stickers & upholstered brads! Really, anything your brain can come up with that is SOFT, it doesn’t have to be only papercrafting products that you use, either! I encourage you to pull out those quilting, knitting, sewing, & flocking skills!

And now, let's take a look at how we interpreted the "SOFT" theme:

Noelle's Card and Felted Giftcard Holder

Noelle says, "This project started out with the felt snowflake medallions that you see on the giftcard holder and on the card. I die cut the green scalloped circles from a wool felt sheet. The snowflakes were felted on freeform using wool roving. I have more details and links to felting tutorials on my blog! Wool felting is very simple & I have really enjoyed adding this technique to my crafting skills. The pouch is also felted, instead of being stitched closed.

I used some craft felt as my base mat for the card and stitched the cardstock card front to it in the four corners. I gathered some ribbon with a running stitch & adhered that down, too. Had to add some flocking to sweet Santa & a tassel made from fibers to my giftcard. I’d LOVE to see how SOFT you get with your projects this week! Thanks for playing this prompt!"

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "When we scheduled this prompt I happened to mention to Stef that I wassad having used my idea for paper-piecing a sweet reindeer in felt for the "Baby It's Cold Outside" prompt, and thus couldn't use it again. To which my ever sensible colleague immediately replied, "OF COURSE you can use it again!!! Why on Earth NOT??!" Once she said that I realized she's right--a good idea is always open to more than one interpretation and not only is it OK to try out variations on a theme, it's fun, and a great time-saver! In the meantime I'd bought this adorable Sizzix Reindeer die, which made it extremely easy to cut all the parts I needed from soft cotton quilting fabric backed with index stock. To accentuate the "SOFT" theme i added a jaunty tulle scarf, felt snowflakes, and set the whole thing in a landscape of soft pink fabric and paper!"

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "My card started with pre-made glittered felt embellishment stickers from Jolee's boutique (hey, what can I say ... 20% off coupon + sale) that incorporated both the soft & snow elements of the prompt using this week's CPS Sketch. I die-cut my large snowflake embellishment from stiffened white glitter craft felt (I've found the stiffened felt cuts easier), that was then layered with a blue paper-punched snowflake & silver glitter sticker."

And now it's time to see how ♥YOU♥ will be inspired by the "SOFTLY falling" theme! Pull out some felt, fabric, ribbon, yarn, flowersoft, flocking... or ANYTHING soft and snuggly and get creative! Link up here by 6pm (EST) next Wednesday, October 26th. Keyword for galleries and our Flickr group is JB43.