Neutrals & Sparkles

We're still taking our inspiration from the rustic-but-glam Christmas scene this week:

(photo source)

Here is how we found our inspiration this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Having gone seriously Maximalist last week, I had intended to pare down this time. (I stress the word INTENDED in that sentence.) I was still very inspired by the incredible tree in the inspiration pic, and wanted to make a bauble-shaped card which was mostly white-on-white, using papers from Prima's Pretty Pale collection, but then adding in some little hits of green. That part did actually happen. The pared-down-ness... not so much, lol. It turns out that when it comes to Prima flowers, the words, "just a few" are meaningless to me. But then Christmas is a good time to go a tiny bit crazy, in a good way, right?!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I pulled in a little blue from the blue spruce on the fireplace mantle to complement my neutral tones.  I combined it with a vintage texty piece of designer papers as the base and then lots of ephemera and a piece of a vintage receipt book before finishing with some bronze glitter dots to bring in the sparkle ... all of those layers remind me of the decorations on that gorgeous Christmas tree."

Scroll down to the original post (directly below this one) to link up your own masterpiece and also to see the fun prize one randomly chosen cardmaker will win! ♥

A Rustic Glam Christmas Fireside

...is the vibe we are channeling this fortnight. Or at least, it's one possible interpretation of this beautiful inspiration photo we're using as a jumping off point for our holiday card designs:

photo credit

But in case you're thinking, "Well that's definitely not my style!" remember it's just an Inspiration Photo! So you can use as much or as little of ANY aspect of the pic. 

Maybe you'll go for a palette of all neutrals? Maybe you'll focus on ALL THE SPARKLE? Maybe you'll just choose one element, like the stockings hanging from the mantel? Or the frosted evergreen garland? Or even something super-specific, like the sweet vintage bike under the tree, or the amazing texture of that sisal rug? It's 100% up to you! 

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with the texture of the rug by covering my card base with DCWV Burlap paper.  Then I used the sketch from Fusion Card Challenge to incorporate my other elements like multiple shades of neutral ivories and browns with a touch of golden ribbon.  I die cut a Gina K. Designs Decorative Tag from a piece of Basic Grey Aspen Bark packaging (which I thought was close to the shape of the mirror on the mantle) and then used a few vintage embellishments that evoked the feel of the room that both include a Christmas Tree and grounded them with a cork sticker.  I attached my entire tag with a piece of vintage sheet music of The Little Drummer Boy.  I finished with an Alexandra Renke die cut clip."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "It's pretty obvious that I focused mainly on the neutral-but-never-boring color palette... specifically the many shades and many textures of WHITE which are in that gorgeous holiday room. My background paper is from Prima's "Pretty Pale" collection and has a bit of a layered, collage style. I couldn't resist adding floral elements and sparkly snowflakes, like the ones included on that amazing tree. My "natural" style tends to be a bit on the --ahem-- maximalist style (lol) so it was no trouble at all for me to add layers and layers of embellishment in the form of stenciling, rub on transfers, and of course plenty of bling!"

We've got an extra added attraction this time, in the form of some fun holiday goodies for one randomly chosen cardmaker who links up with us this time!

Link as many cards as you'd like before 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, July 31st. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:19:15.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Terrific Trios

The only "problem" with the amazing gallery full of Tic-Tac-Toe cards is that it made it harder than ever to only choose three to feature. Luckily... they didn't have to be in a row, lol! Here are a few we especially loved:

Jane Willis of Onions and Paper

...created a sparkly confection of a card that just makes us pretty sure we need EVERY. SINGLE. PRODUCT she used. (Especially that cool frame which is the perfect place for LOTS of bling!)

Donna Whitten posting on SCS

...made several beautifully stamped and incredibly colored creations that incorporate exactly the right amount (in our opinion) of embellishment!

Tammy A of My Craft Central

...made two beautiful versions of the same adorable snow-folk card; which illustrate REALLY well what a difference it makes just to change colors!

Many thanks to everyone who played along with us this fortnight! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope you'll think is picture perfect! ♥

Tic-Tac .. TWO?

We're in the second week of our fun holiday Tic-Tac-Toe game and we'd love for you to join us in another round of cards based on this board:

These are the trios we used this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I chose the top row, so I had SNOWMAN + GLITTER + STAMPING to work with. I stamped my Pretty Pink Posh Happy Snowman (for a bit of a two-fer!); then grounded him on some fun glitter-bedecked paper from Pebbles. As a bonus, I gave my handsome snowman an Eyelet Outlet Hat Brad and added some Snowflake Brads to the glittery snowflakes printed on the patterned paper."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I won the Paper Smooches prize at Junkiefest, which included this fun Snowman Card Die.  I die cut him from white glitter paper to use the Horizontal Row across the top (Snowman, Glitter, Stamping).  The scarf and sentiment piece were a leftover piece of watercolor paper sprayed with Technique Junkies Vivid Volt Shimmering Bliss."

Jingle Belles Tic-Tac-Toe

We're playing a fun game of Tic-Tac-Toe at Jingle Belles ... you just have to create a holiday card using three of the items that are in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

Here is how we *scored* this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "For my Tic-Tac-Toe, I went vertical down the middle for Glitter - Red - Santa.  I love picking-up glittery tags at the after Christmas sales for super-easy holiday cards ... glittery Santa, designer paper, done."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose the diagonal which runs from the top right corner to the bottom left:  STAMPING + RED or GREEN + RIBBON. I was lucky enough to receive this beautiful Uniko "Block Party Christmas" stamp for my birthday from A Certain Someone, which I couldn't wait to ink up! Since the stamp is 4 x 5.25" you really don't need much to make a beautiful card, even if you like to make A7's as I have here. I added some Eyelet Outlet holiday brads, because the stamp actually included things like the triangle shaped tree, various sizes of snowflakes, an ornament, holly leaves, etc. I stuck to a traditional palette as inspired by the "red or green" box of the game board and only needed to add a few mats and a ribbon accent to complete my Tic-Tac-Toe choice."

Link your Tic-Tac-Toe masterpieces here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, July 17th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:19:14.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

It seems we're not the only folks who feel that the best time for SNOW in the northern hemisphere is the middle of summer. A quick scroll through the gorgeous cards in the SNOW MUCH FUN gallery will confirm this! Here are a few cards we thought were especially cool this time:

Linda of Snail's Space

...made two different versions of this adorable card. They are both *BEAUTIFUL* and also a great illustration of how much difference it makes to just change COLORS!

Jen of I Create 

...made this beautiful CAS tag with a super clever FLOATING snowflake that we really really want to CASE as soon as possible!

Lyndal of Ideas and Paper

...made a simple-but-stunning card in non-traditional colors that we just CANNOT stop looking at! (Seriously... that bokeh background...)

As usual, there was not a single card we didn't love, so if you haven't cruised the SNOW Gallery we heartily recommend the trip! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope you'll be game for... :)