SKETCH-ing Around the Christmas Tree

Sketch-lovers rejoice! We're thrilled to debut our first sketch of 2014; it's by our very own sketch-mistress extraordinaire, the lovely Stephanie; and it's so flexible that we're sure EVERYONE will be pretty excited to make a card... or two... or three!

Here's how we used the sketch this week:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I believe this was the EASIEST card i've made all year, and it's also one of my favorites. The proportions and shapes in the sketch are so wonderful, i felt like I couldn't go wrong! I've been saving the Crate Paper snow globe for just the right occasion, and when i saw the sketch I knew this week was it. I couldn't quite choose between the pretty trees and the elegant quatrefoil pattern, so I divided the background at the vertical line, for which I used a third coordinating paper. I love how this looks AND it's a nice flat mailable card!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started by choosing the item for my *circle*, a 3-D gift tag for my focal image ... then I finished my design using the sketch road-map and coordinating scraps of holiday papers ... I love the pop of glittery blue."

Now it's your turn to rock the sketch in your very own way. You have until 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, March 12, to link up as many cards as you're inspired to make! Keyword for galleries and our Flickr group is JB:14:05. ENJOY! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Ravishing in RED

Wow ... we love all of the wonderful ways you featured RED in your designs.

Here are a few remarkable RED designs that caught our eyes.

Kylie 

of

Kylie is Addicted to Stamps (and now Butterflies)

really made her reds pop by adding touches of glitter ... and contrasting it with a snow-white palette ... and the wrap of twine was such a great finishing touch.

Lisa J

of

Snowy Moose Creations

incorporated a wonderful combination of red papers for her festive and elegant holiday design ... the embossed main panel really helps tie it all together.

Pia

of

Pias Papir og Perler

so cleverly turned her Valentine's Day image into a fabulous holiday card design ... love those heart-strings ... bravo!

Check back at midnight for our next prompt ... and keep stocking that holiday card stash.

Snoopy vs. the ♥♥RED♥♥ Baron

I know the title is a bit of a stretch, but I couldn't resist the ♥♥RED♥♥ reference in one of my favorite childhood holiday songs.  We're still celebrating RED this week ... making cards that predominantly feature the color RED.

Here is our second round of RED designs:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I used last week's (expired but still awesome) Unscripted Sketch #243 for my layout, which I thought would work pretty well with some of the many older, but still-beloved tags I still have from various retired Basic Grey holiday lines; and I think it did, actually! I also couldn't quite resist adding in a red, heart-shaped, vintage doily leftover from Valentine's Day, which I think sort of 'grounds' the cluster of tags."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I'm sure I bought this gorgeous piece of flocked SEI Winter Song paper because of the gorgeous red color & soft flocked texture (I love paper with texture) ... but after purchasing, it has been parked in my stash for years.  Thankfully this prompt made me revisit my stash with a *red-focused* eye and I realized the flocked bird would be the perfect focal point for a 5" x 6.5" card design.  It sort of feels like cheating when paper is this pretty, since all I had to do was detail trim 3 flocked snowflakes from the scraps and add a blue pearls and SRM Sticker to finish ... 

but often easy is a very good thing."

We hope you'll find time to ♥GO RED♥ with us ... upload your cards by Wednesday,February 26th at 6pm EST ... keyword is JB:14:04 for our Flickr (and other) galleries.

Rudolph the *RED* Nosed Reindeer

Since today is Valentine's Day, we're going ♥RED♥ for Christmas ... this week's prompt is to make a card that predominantly features the color RED. Here's what we made:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I went hunting for all things *RED* in my holiday stash and found this great Christmas Circle paper by Teresa Collins.  All I had to add were a plastic snowflake & plastic *think snow* words, which are some of the first embellishments I ever purchased when I started making cards ... so glad they finally found a holiday home."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've had this gorgeous Santa (who's scanned from a vintage greeting card, and printed out a bit smaller) sitting in my "leftovers" pile since the end of November, and I was thrilled to finally have the perfect card on which to use him! I've rotated the current Seize the Sketch ninety degrees to the left, added in a few other leftovers (like my last ancient scrap of SEI's gorgeous red velvet paper!) plus a bit of vintage (red!) doily, and called it a happy cardmakin' day." 

We hope you'll find time to ♥GO RED♥ with us ... upload your cards by Wednesday, February 26th at 6pm EST ... keyword is JB:14:04 for our Flickr (and other) galleries.

An InLinkz Link-up

A (Wonderful) Way With Words!

That is what you lovely ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ have displayed this fortnight, and no mistake! Here are a few texty masterpieces that left us speechless:

Robyn Oliver of Waterlily Cards by Robyn

Used text paper, a very pleasing traditional color palette, and the perfect sketch to create her beautiful bauble-bedecked card!

Marina of My Perfect Life

Chose a glorious oversized sentiment as the perfect complement for her elegant snowscape; then used sprayed and sponged ink to tie everything together even more seamlessly!

Leslie of The Crooked Stamper

Created her own uber-fun background paper (in a very neat way that contradicts her blogging moniker, lol!) on which to build her fabulous CAS scene! (Plus... those sequins!!!)

We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope hope will have you seeing red... but in a good way... :)

Oh Christmas Words

We're still having fun with the "TEXT ME" prompt, and hope that you are, too. Luckily, there are LOTS of cool ways to go with this one! Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Yet another advantage to starting our holiday cards in January is that we can really take advantage of the post-xmas sales to snap up awesome supplies at bargain prices. My texty print and little houses came from a large tablet of glittery and metallic papers that were 70% off, which is hard to beat, right? I used Retro Sketches' 100th sketch to guide my layout."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I was searching through some vintage Christmas Ideals magazines for inspiration when I found this poem.  I decided to use the layout from Feeling Sketchy and make the text the focal point of my design."

Remember you have until 6pm EST on Wednesday, February 12th to Link-Up your Texty creation.