Friday, June 21, 2013

We Wish You a Digital Christmas

Have you already guessed from the title ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ what the prompt is going to be this fortnight? If you're thinking we want you to make a "hybrid" holiday card which utilizes at least one digital element, then yes, you have guessed, well done! To help us inspire you to use your digital stamps, printable papers and other pixelly goodness, we've invited our good friend, Gina Cunningham, to be our lovely guest star! 

As well as making cards, carving stamps, art journaling and painting, this year Gina has been totally rockin' the digital version of Project Life, which you really have to see! In addition to her fabulous blog, Gina has a wonderful Etsy shop full of her gorgeous hand-carved stamps, a ton of awesome Pinterest boards, very cool Instagrams, and she is just starting her own YouTube channel to hold her crafty videos, so be sure to check out her links and leave her some love!

Here's what we did this week :


Gina says, "I used a digital frame from Julia Makotinsky on Scrapbook Graphics and I brought it up in Photoshop. I then put it on a 8x10 white layer and used font to put around the greeting in an arch on the top and bottom. I printed that out and then inside the frame I drew my own santa and then traced him in ink. I chose to use watercolor paints to color him. I placed many different layers of Christmas pp together and some pearl sticker elements. The half a christmas tree was a sticker I had that I wanted to use up. I placed this all on a white base card I got from Joanns."


Stephanie says, "I have quite a collection of digital design products on my computer that I've picked-up along the way ... but I'm not so good about using them.  I was glad for an oppportunity to break out digital paper & a digital snow globe image from Echo Park together with an Anna Aspnes Distressed Frame.  Once I composed my basic card on the computer, I printed it out and added a rub-on sentiment, pearls and a wrap of bright red holiday ribbon."


Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've got lots of digital supplies, too, and i'm ashamed to say that i mostly use them to make blog headers or other things that will be seen online. Which is a shame, because hybrid cards are fun to make, and so very economical, since you can customize each bit, and you only need print what you're actually going to use!  I've been meaning for months to make a card that features the kit I used for this year's ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ header, Christmas Shopping by Polka Dot Pixels, but it took a specifically digi-based prompt to make me actually DO IT. Having said that, I really like how this came out, and I have a feeling you'll be seeing these elements again!"

Just in case you have *NO* digital elements, but would still like to play along with us, here are few links to freebies: The Graphics Fairy specializes in gorgeous (free!) vintage images and has a nice Christmas Section; at Free Pretty Things for You there are some rather fab Free Pretty ChristmasThings; in O'Scraps Shop "freebies" section you could grab this pretty Cozy Christmas Day Add-On; Smitten Blog Design has this very cool Smitten Christmas Kit; Webster's Pages freebie section only has a few specifically Christmas items, but they are very pretty; and of course there are a zillion awesome digital stamping sites, many of which have regular freebies, too! Finally, I (Lauren) only just realized while prepping this post that Two Peas in a Bucket, who historically had one of the best digital sections of any online store (and by far the best freebies!) recently "retired" about 90% of their product line, which leaves quite a big (and slightly sad) gap in the digi landscape. However, there are bound to be loads more cool places we haven't even heard of yet, so if you have a favorite freebie, go ahead and leave us a link in the comments of this post!

Link your own gorgeous digital/hybrid holiday cards up with us below between now and 6pm (est) on Wednesday, July 3rd. Keyword for galleries and our flickr group is JB:13:13

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love playing with digi stuff, mainly papers or stamps, all free. In fact, I have a page linked at the top of my blog dedicated to some of the great sites I've found that offer free stuff. Raspberry Road and Summertime Designs are superb for papers and my favourite digi site is Beccy's Place. She has a shop but also has a huge list of excellent quality free stamps. Have a look at your own showcase from Nov 2011, the first card you picked uses a free Beccy's Place digi!

Great challenge, I hit this one purely by chance with a card I finished last night, so I'll try and make another one with more digi elements in it.

Hugs
Brenda

Rose said...

awesome cards ladies!!! :) and of course another fun challenge!!

Jennifer Scull said...

thanks for the links to the freebies. what a bummer that 2 Peas retired so many. Create with TLC offers some great freebies every day, and holiday ones as they get closer.

Anonymous said...

this was a tough challenge, but i did make a mini card. all your cards are beautifully done and lauren, hard to believe it's a digi; i thought you die cut the letters on your second one.

Electra said...

Spectacular samples for this one, ladies! Thanks, I loved this!

Karen said...

Absolutely marvelous creations! :o) Thank you for the inspiration and the fun challenge. :o)

Hugs and blessings!