In Great SHAPE

We're still creating with SHAPES this week ... making cards that are any shape other than a square or rectangle.

Here's how we got SHAPELY this week.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Yes, I've been a bit more ambitious this week! I made a star fold card, using this tutorial from Crafting with Joanie. I also tried out a new set of flower stamps, dies and shaping molds from Heartfelt Creations. They even make realistic stamens, that really take these to the next level, imo. Being a bit of a dimensional flower junkie, I LOVE that I can now easily custom make blossoms exactly the right size, shape and color for each of my projects!" 

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I hand-drew my coffee cup on some two-sided Authentique Nostalgia papers (love those reindeer in scarves and that yummy texty background) and then drew my lid on the reverse side of the same paper and traced around it with a black sharpie.  The sleeve was traced  from the cup on kraft cardstock and topped with a Spellbinders Be Merry Die Cut.  I attached my top-fold card to the back of my cup ... perfect Christmas card to deliver with a gift card to the local coffee shop."

Make sure you link-up your shaped cards HERE by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, September 5th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:18:18. 

SHAPE-Up for the Holidays

This week we're getting in SHAPE for the holidays ... more specifically, we're making cards that are NOT square or rectangular.

Break out your die cuts, templates or just free-hand-it … think round, triangular, heart-shaped, tree shaped, candy cane shaped, snow globe shaped … you get the picture.

Here is how we got in shape today.

Stephanie's Card(s)

Stephanie says, "As I was going on a scavenger hunt through my studio looking for possible shapes, I discovered an unopened container of printed cardstock ephemera from Pebbles Holly Jolly Collection.  The Gingerbread House and Snow Globe were perfect for turning into tiny cards to attach to a gift.  I folded cardstock, traced the shapes leaving the fold slightly below the top, and cut the card to adhere to the back. Next I decorated the images with pearls & bling for the snow globe and enamel candy dots for the gingerbread house."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "With all of those awesome shape choices listed above, and Stephanie's awesome examples to inspire me, you'd think I'd come up with something especially creative, right? Sorry, nope. I've done a round card, like usual, lol! Ok, so, I'm not one of life's natural engineers, thus the fancy folds and super-cool shaped cards I drool over on Pinterest rarely become things I actually make. I do have a pretty fancy idea for next week, though, I promise! In the meantime, please accept this standard 6" round card, built around Authentique's gorgeous, retro-inspired, "Jingle" collection with which I am entirely smitten!" 

Link up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, September 5th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JN:18:18.

An InLinkz Link-up

Nothing Sketchy Here!

Because every single take on Stephanie's beautiful sketch was totally inspirational! Here are a few that made our eyes especially happy this fortnight:

Karen Finkle of Karen's Card Korner

...used limited tools and ingredients from a Christmas card kit, but was inspired by the sketch to use all of the "bits" in completely different ways, and we are quite smitten with the result!

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...chose to repeat the same simple image in all three circles, then took this card to the next level with beautifully vivid, non-traditional colors!

Brenda of Brenda's Scrappy Blog

...swapped the circles for diecut snowflakes, each one framing an adorable snowman; what a great way to feature smaller stamps!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we love seeing every single one of your creations. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we'll hope will shape up into major inspiration!

Do you SKETCH what I SKETCH?

We're still making holiday cards based on Stephanie's awesome sketch and you're still invited to join us! Here's the sketch:

And here's how we were inspired by the sketch this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This is one of the fastest cards ever, because it's not only 00% faithful to the sketch, I've also used all readymade items to complete my card. There are circle icons that I've punched and matted on slightly larger circles, border stickers as a ground for the focal point, and an ancient (but still awesome, imo) sticker sentiment. Easy peasy, and that's another flat/mailable card added to my stack for December!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie say, "My original intention was to my favorite Penny Black Snowman Joy be the three circles in the sketch and have a vertical sentiment from the top ... but he seemed a bit lonely, so I added two penguins from Essentials by Ellen Arctic Pals to join him in the snow and a horizontal sentiment from the left ... so my card is really doing double-sketch-duty."

And now it's your turn to be inspired by this fun sketch. Scroll down to the original post for all the details and to link up your own cards!

Sketching in a Winter Wonderland

We're getting SKETCH-y this week at Jingle Belles ... we think there are lots of possibilities with this fun layout devised by Stephanie:

As always, you can stretch, shrink, expand, contract, flip or rotate this layout to suit your needs, just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch! Here's how we were inspired this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I chose papers from the same collection (Echo Park I Love Christmas).  I sponged ink around the three punched 2 1/2" circles to help cover the white edges (on the red) and tie the designs together.  I finished with a Santa sticker from the same collection, a Christmas rub-on sentiment, and lots of layers to frame the design."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Amongst the many things I love about this sketch, it's a FAB fab opportunity to use a bunch of smaller stamps or stickers, which I sometimes find challenging. In this case, I've brought out my favorite Doodlebug characters, from their 'Here Comes Santa' line. I swapped hearts for the circles, and I've punched them out of my blue snowflake paper, then layered it over some high-contrast red to create little frames. This left me with a rather long rectangle, so I decided on a 'tall card' design."

And now it's your turn! Link your sketch cards right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 22nd. Keyword for galleries or Flickr is JB:18:17. 

An InLinkz Link-up

A BANNER Christmas

We loved seeing all of the fantastic card designs inspired by our Jingle Belles Blog Banner.

Here are a few of our favorites:

Loll of Stamping with Loll

made this gorgeous shaker card featuring silver metallic foil snowflakes with lots of 

gorgeous blue and teal sequins (and if you click through

you can see what she made with her leftovers)

Darnell of  djkardcreations.com

created a lovely stenciled & splattered background

for her perfect glittery elements ... love that teal heart.

Donna of CraftDee Donna

created a fantastic super-glittery inspired scene ...

love those reindeer frolicking in the snow.

See you at midnight for our next prompt ... it's a sketchy one.

Getting Ahead(er)

We're still making cards inspired by our lovely Jingle Belles Blog Banner this week.

Here is how we were inspired.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I again chose to use the basic color palette of neutrals with pops of lime, silver glitter and teal. I also tried to do a version of the header's very layered background, though instead of digital elements, I used a variety of rub-on transfers, which kind of unintentionally added to the "distressed" vibe of the collage! But there are echos of many of the same shapes, including those shiny scattered gold stars, which miiiiiight be my favorite!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I used a larger deer and tree as my focal images and added embossed texture, pearls, texty sentiments and some bling at the top of the tree ... as I created, I just kept thinking WWLD (what would Lauren do)."

Can't wait to see what you create ... link-up your card at the original post by 6pm EST on Wednesday.