Holiday Leftovers

One of my favorite things about the holiday meal is the leftovers … I always enjoy a little stuffing and cranberry sauce on my ham sandwich. So this week we're celebrating Holiday Leftovers by creating cards using all of those little leftover pieces of paper, alphabet letters, stickers, ribbon … you know those things you have saved because they were just too cute to throw them away … well, we want to see you use them to make some fun leftover holiday cards.

Here's how we used our Holiday Leftovers: 

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I recently designed a holiday-themed "Class in a Kit" for my LSS, Paper Anthology which featured stacked windows of diamond, oval and circle shaped mats. Which means I now have a lifetime supply of diecut circles, ovals and diamonds. Not a bad "problem" to have, lol! I managed to use six of the diamonds to create my distressed argyle pattern, which I topped with a couple of fabric poinsettias and the leftover bits and pieces of Eyelet Outlet Swirl Bling that I had trimmed to fit on various other cards."

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I included lots of leftover from my Prima Santa Baby Collection (paper scraps and stickers) using this week's Sketch Saturday.  I also added a few other stray sentiment stickers from my stash and even some pink postage stamps to finish the design."

One lucky, randomly chosen, participant will receive the 4"x6" Acrylic Stamp set Be Merry and Classic from Couture Creations.

Link your Leftover Lovelies here by 6pm (EDT) on Wednesday, August 12th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:20:16

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Colorful Cards

We loved seeing all the different ways you were inspired to create holiday cards based on that beautiful inspiration photo. Here are a few that especially caught our eye:

Vicky of Crafting Clare's Paper Moments

...was inspired by the bright colors and bottle brush trees and her amazing CAS masterpiece captures those elements perfectly!

Marina of My Perfect Life

...refers to this beautifully original, quirky and delightful card as "Weird Christmas"; a tag with which we respectfully disagree. We love how many elements she has incorporated from the inspiration picture, as well!

Lucie G of Lucie G Cards

...took two of our favorite items from the photo: the gorgeous tree and the super-fun pom pom garland and combined them in this card that really does sum up all things merry!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we love seeing so many crafters embrace Christmas in July. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will find you with enough holiday spirit "leftover" to join us... :)

Colorful Christmas Redux

We're still making holiday cards based on the fabulous decor scheme in this photograph and you're still invited to join us. Just choose one or more element(s) you like in the photo and use them in your card! Be sure to point out what inspired you if it isn't obvious.

 Here's how we were inspired this week:

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I wanted to focus on the multiple Banners in the rainbow of colors with lots of white space.  I used Taylored Expressions Party Pennants Background inked and stamped with my MISTI with different colors.  Sentiment is from Taylored Expressions Spoiler Alert.  I finished with bling on two of the beaded garlands red at the top & purple at the bottom."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week, I went less literal, so instead of a card that resembles the photo in any way, I have a card in which I've chosen some of the elements to reinterpret. For example, the banners on the fireplace are represented by this patterned paper's star and circle garland pattern; the sparkly tree decorations get a nod from my glitter foam star shapes; the bottle brush trees and tiny houses are interpreted by pretty cardstock cut outs; and of course there's lots of nice white background!"

Link your cards at the original post, which is directly below this one. 

Colorful Christmas Inspiration

This week we're bringing you a holiday photograph to inspire your card-making. You can take as many (or as few) elements from the photo as you wish. 

Maybe you love the Christmas tree decorated in white with pops of color; that fun vintage sled or wooden reindeer; maybe you've fallen for the fun banners or rainbow of bottle brush trees? There's so much here to love! Just remember to tell us how the photo inspired your holiday card design.

photo source

Here's how we were inspired:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My initial inspiration were the bottle brush trees in those wonderful colors.  I stamped the tree from Essentials by Ellen Bear Ware 2 five times in the fun color rainbow.  Then my inspiration for the sentiment came from the JOY on the right side of the fireplace and is from Essentials by Ellen Retro Holiday Greetings.  Finally, my wood grain card base was inspired by the flooring."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I fell in love with that bright white fireplace, bedecked with small white houses and rainbow colored trees. I had some ancient Studio Calico fabric house stickers with exactly the right vibe; and they were the perfect size to pair with punched trees from every bright shade of glitter paper in my collection (which is LOTS lol!). I even found some non-holiday washi tapes to give the feeling of the bunting beneath the mantel, and also anchor my little village." 

Link your photo inspired creations right here by 6pm (EDT) on Wednesday, July 29th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:20:15.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Stars of Stripes!

So pleased to see how many people are jumping in and celebrating Christmas in July, we loved seeing all your starred and striped creations! Here are a few that especially caught our starry eyes:

Marina of My Perfect Life

...not only incorporated stars AND stripes but she's managed to make a holiday card that is entirely red, white and blue but still looks Christmassy! Quite a feat!



Imke Ludwig of My Crafty Place
...made her card completely from scraps and leftovers; and has also made us fall in love with her beautifully elegant copper, black and white color scheme!


Lisa J of Snowy Moose Creations 
...combines traditional holiday hues, a beautifully stamped and colored image AND a trifecta of perfect papers. What more could we possibly want?
(Ok, maybe some cocoa with whipped cream...)

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single card! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope you'll think is picture perfect! 

STRIPES and/or STARS

We're still creating with STRIPES and/or STARS this week (there are no bonus points for using both, but you know we love it when you do).

Here's what we created:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I went a bit exponential: my star paper is cut into star shapes and the stripes in my striped paper have stripes! Gotta love that, right? I used my nested star dies to cut two layers for each star and matted them off-center for a more casual look. I used the stars to frame up some fun Doodlebug holiday stickers and found an ancient tab to serve as my sentiment. Job done!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I went through my Christmas paper stash with my 1 1/4" square punch and punched out anything I could find with a star or stripe.  Then I created this fun quilted design on a kraft card base.  I added some bling and a few gold glittery foam stars to finish the design.  The sentiment is Memory Box Typewriter Holiday Elements.

♥♥♥

Scroll down to the original post to see the Stars and Stripes readers' gallery and link up your own masterpiece!

STARS and/or STRIPES Forever

Since tomorrow is Independence Day in the USA, we're asking you to incorporate either stars or stripes into your card design (it needn't be red, white or blue) … just stars or stripes (or both!) in any medium you choose.

Here's how we used our Stars and/or Stripes:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I couldn't resist breakout out my Taylored Expressions Starry Background with coordinating Stencil & Cutting Plate.  I used the Starry Cutting Plate on Purple Glitter Cardstock and laid it over the Stamped Image on light purple cardstock that I stenciled with two colors of purple ink.   I finished with a sentiment from Taylored Expression Flip the Snowflake."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I went with stars AND stripes, but my Simple Stories red-on -red stars are admittedly  quite understated. All of my papers are from 2018 or so, and came from my LSS, Paper Anthology in Kenvil, NJ. The sweet fussy-cut snowman and candycane striped paper are Authentique; the dimensional holly is from Prima Marketing and the sheet music is from my stash of vintage goodies."

Link your starry and or stripey creations right here, by 6pm (EDT) on Wednesday, July 15th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:20:14.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

We're In Great Shape!

And the proof is in the amazing readers' gallery of Shaped Cards, located two posts below this one. If you haven't checked it out yet, we highly recommend a scroll through! Meanwhile here are just a few that especially caught our eye:

Paper Papier

...created several incredibly creative designs using label-shaped dies 

that make us want to get our Nesties out RIGHT NOW! 

Tinz from Craft, Animals and Growing Veggies

... created this amazing and sparkly tree, then decorated it beautifully!

Fatima of Pink Clover Cards

...has us going round in circles with her elegantly layered (and perfectly colored!) creation!

And now I think we'd all like to know whose home that sweet little prize pack will be going to, right? Well the fine folks at Random.org have selected Lucky Number 100 which means that...

Jenni aka Mom2Two

of Wish I Was Scrappin'

is our lucky winner!

Congratulations!

Please send your snailmail info to Lauren 

at llaurenb @ hotmail.com 

so we can get that on its way to you!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we truly do love seeing every single card! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will make you starry-eyed! ;)