Blog Banner Inspired

Every year I look forward to seeing what Lauren will create for our new Blog Banner.  Sometimes I make a few suggestions ... other times I just let her run with her own inspiration.  Regardless, I am always amazed by the end product.

This week we're asking you to create a holiday card inspired by our 2018 Jingle Belles Blog Banner.

Maybe you love silver glitter letters ... or silver snowflakes ... or gold star banners.  Just let us know how the banner inspired your design.

Here's what we created:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Can you see all of the pieces of inspiration I took from the banner?? How about color palette, tall skinny holiday trees, a stapled heart, a reindeer (with a teal nose of course), silver glitter die cut letters, scalloped border, typed sentiment ... and a stapled heart.  I love how it all came together."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose to use the banner's color palette of neutrals with pops of lime green and teal blue. But I made the reindeer and tree --who are supporting characters in the header-- the stars of the show! It's hard to tell in the photo, but the snowflakes scattered around the background are actually quite glittery. I used this week's Sketch Saturday layout pretty faithfully, although when I rotated the elements, I accidentally forgot to rotate the strip; but I was definitely inspired by the sketch!"

And now we can't wait for you to show us your cards inspired by our Blog Header ... link them here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 8th ... keyword for galleries for our Jingle Belles Flickr gallery is JB:18:16.

An InLinkz Link-up

Lovely and Layered

We just love the many ways you interpreted the layered theme of "All Bundled Up". As usual, the only difficulty was choosing just three cards to feature!

Linda S of Snail's Space

... built a beautiful layered cup of cheer on top of her beautiful layered background!

Pinky of Pinky's World

... incorporated a layer of stamping, a layer of patterned paper and a layer of embossed texture, yet she STILL has a beautifully flat and mailable card! Yowza!!!

Glenda Atkins of Gilby's Corner

... cleverly turned three gorgeous layers into SIX gorgeous layers, just by adding those dramatic, skinny black mats!

As always, we thank everyone who played along, and encourage you to scroll down to the original post to see all the amazing cards in the gallery. Meanwhile, we'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will lead to a banner day of creativity!

A Bundling We Will Go

We're still making "All Bundled Up" cards... by which we mean cards with three or more layers. Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I took my color queue from this week's Sunday Stamps Tranquil Cottage Color  Challenge by layering gorgeous Graphic45 St. Nicholas Collection Papers.  If you look at the bottom right corner you'll see I have seven layers of paper for a perfectly mailable card ... gotta love it.  The layout is from the Sketch Saturday Challenge and the Believe Sentiment is from Essentials by Ellen Brushstroke Christmas (which I thought paired well with the Santa-theme of the background paper).  I sponged a little Taylored Expressions Pineapple Ink on the punched stars to cover any of the white edges of the paper and add some shading."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I love layers, generally and torn layers, in particular. In this case I've combined the fronts and backs of two of my favorite papers in the "Silent Night" collection from Craft and You Design and used a round icon from the same set as my focal point. I can rarely resist a bit of vintage sheet music or some old lace... so I didn't even try to leave them out!"

Scroll down to the original post for complete details and to link up your own masterpieces!

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.

An InLinkz Link-up

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!