Neutral Noel

This week we're delighted to welcome the very lovely Noelle McAdams to the ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ house, so let's meet this talented lady!

"Hi there! I'm Noelle McAdams and I have been a crafter and artist all my life. :) I got hooked on paper crafting in 1998 when my cousin asked me to host a Creative Memories party. I still scrapbook and I love stamping and making all kids of cards and decorative paper items, such as party favors, gifts, and home decor items. I am a mom to 3 boys, 1 cat, and 2 Pomeranians.... yes my life is a little chaotic (ok, a lot, but I like it that way!) ;). I've been married to my awesome hubby now for almost 17 years. We live in the beautiful hogbacks at the base of the Rocky Mountains. My background and education is in the performing arts, and I teach theater to kids part-time as well as being a full-time SAHM to my 3 boys. I also take on as much crafty/artwork/writing opportunities as humanly possible! Currently I serve as part of the Cat Pack DT for the Cat's Pajamas stamps, and also as a Contributor for Craft Storage Ideas. When I'm not crafting or teaching acting to kids, you can find me enjoying time with friends, refinishing old furniture, and training for my first ever mini sprint triathlon."

This fortnight, Noelle would like to invite us all to put on our thinking caps, and create holiday cards which embrace ONLY the neutral colors: white, cream, ivory, ecru, black, grey, charcoal, obsidian, brown, tan, kraft, camel, oatmeal, sienna; use them all together, or choose one and rock the monochrome,  whatever you desire; if it's NEUTRAL, it's *IN*!!! And yes, for the record, we consider gold, copper and silver to be the "bling" equivalent of neutrals, so you may use them as much (or as little) as you'd like!

There are a lot of ways to go with this, and we feel confident that our constantly creative fellow belles will think of things we've not even imagined yet, but just to get you going, may we suggest replacing color with texture (burlap, jute, paper bags, cork, sandpaper, lace, linen); embracing technique (neutral shades of flocking, foiling glitter or embossing powder; silhouette stamping; sanding, tearing, pressure embossing) or trying a "specialty" product (clear acrylic elements, plus all of the fabulous new wood veneer and "chalkboard" products which are currently so popular will all work PERFECTLY for this one!)

In the meantime, here's what we did:

Noelle's Card

Noelle says, "I *love* color and normally use as much color as possible on my cards. However, recently I've found myself really digging on all-neutral cards. When you lose one of your "go-to" tools for adding interest (in my case, color) then you are forced to look elsewhere for ways to add interest. Texture, pattern, metallics, and glitz are all ways to do that without adding color. This was a simple card made with scraps of DP, and a dry embossed strip of gold cardstock as well. Simple stamping is used, and a glitzy paper-pieced ornament for the "o." I love adding some sparkle to an all neutral card. It really gives it the POP that I'm missing from no color. I added the die cut snowflake topper in sparkly silver to give this card that wow factor. Some silver gems are the perfect accent and help draw your eye down to the bottom of the card as well."

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I love how a challenge like this one makes me think differently about my supplies.  I think this gorgeous Hero Arts Aspen Frost Poinsettia stamp looks so elegant in charcoal ink on soft stone cardstock, but without thinking *neutral* I probably never would have tried this combination.  I added several spritzes of pearl glimmer mist for all-over sparkle as well as highlights from a silver glitter pen to the centers of the bloom.  I used an SRM Sticker sentiment (loved the *bright* pun with my neutral palette) on top of a scrap of the pearly sprayed cardstock & an elegant black bow tie to finish the design."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Much in the same way Noelle described, whenever I find myself limited in color, i also immediately start thinking about texture and dimension. This relatively flat card actually has SIX layers: three different transparencies, a patterned paper, a vellum, and then my embellishments on top--a collage of floral, snowflake and rhinestone swirls. i unexpectedly got a "bonus" layer when i scored and folded that swirly gold transparency for my card-base, and discovered that the reverse side of it is copper!"

We're celebrating a couple of fun blogiverse milestones this week: our 200th post and 100,000 page views, for which we thank you very much, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! Around here, we think that celebrations ought always to include presents, so there will be a little prize packet of Christmassy goodness randomly awarded to one lucky holiday cardmaker who links up with us for this prompt!

6x6" Crate paper pad; chipboard alphabet stickers; Making Menories trimmings and brads; Imaginisce florals and stamp; dimensional die-cuts, stickers, ribbon... and MORE!

So grab up your kraft cardstock, your black embossing powder, your white doilies and any other neutral-colored supplies you can think of, and get as creatively christmassy as you possibly can, then hop back here and link up with us for a NEUTRAL NOEL by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, March 27, 2013. Keyword for galleries and our flickr group is JB:13:06.