banner banter!

hard to believe another two weeks has passed, and we're firmly into february already ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! on the other hand, time flies when you're having fun, and with all the amazing BANNER HOLIDAY cards to drool over, who could fail to have fun?! here are a few which especially took our fancy:

 clare of miscanthus crafts

was inspired by the inky snowflakes and sparkly bling of our header in her gloriously minimalist card!

jill of a life well crafted

rocked our color palette in a big way with this adorable stamped and layered masterpiece! 

marie bingaman of ANOTHER card making blog?!

incorporated sparkly swirls, red glitter, and just enough glamorous grunge to make us swoon!

if you have not yet perused the gallery, please do your card-makin' mojo the tremendous favor of scrolling down without further ado... then cruise right on back here at midnight for another dose of holiday inspiration!

another banner day

just a reminder that you still have nearly a whole week to link up your cards for "A BANNER HOLIDAY" and you know we long to see them! so scroll down, check out your fellow belles' sterling work, and link up your own card; or perhaps your own cards... because you might find it hard to stop with just one--we did!  :)

Stephanie's Other Card

Stef says, "For my second card I wanted to incorporate 

some of the "grungy" elements from our banner ... 

sponging through punchinella, staples, hand-drawn lines, and even

stamping with the bottom of my diet soda can.

I added silver jingle bells, felt snowflakes & a Hero Arts

sentiment with I Believe paper & tag from

My Mind's Eye."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "ok, you might be tempted to call this cheating, because this time i incorporated products from the same digital kit i used on our blog header: anna aspnes' retro holiday art play palette! on the other hand, the reason i bought that kit--and used it on the banner-- because i ♥LOVE♥ it; and the whole point of digi is that you can use it again and again, right?  this time i added the "jingle bells" element to a patterned paper with a gorgeous swirly tree on it, and printed two copies so that i could layer the second tree on foam tape for extra dimension. then i went totally NUTS with real life stencils and stamps similar to the digi ones in the kit, finally i added some rub-ons and red glitter chipboard letters to form my sentiment."

a banner holiday

have you already guessed this week's theme ♥JINGLE BELLES♥?! the title, "A BANNER HOLIDAY " ought to give you a hint: yepper, we're making holiday cards inspired by any aspect of our new (for 2012) blog header that appeals to you, whether that's the color scheme, the funky retro styling, or any of the individual elements, such as the glorious glitter or the fun and festive bells... or all of the above!

our header was made in PSE9 by me (lauren!) using paper, brushes and elements from an utterly gorgeous kit called artplay palette: retro holiday, by one of my favorite digital designers, anna aspnes, purchased at o'scraps; the fonts are deftone stylus, bohemian typewriter and impact--all free from dafont.com; and the divine sparkliness of the lettering is thanks to flergs' over the rainbow glitter layer style from scrapbook graphics, which i learned how to use via this great tutorial!

    

here are our cards:  

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i may have gone a little crazy with the inspirations this time! i used the color palette, obviously, and the fabulous (though slightly hidden) memory box jingle bell die that miss lorraine gave me for xmas (thank you!); and then i've also got the grungy vibe of the header working with some messy stenciled snowflakes and dots, plus i've got red glitter chipboard (of course, lol!) and i went a bit vintage and collagey with a lot of little fanciful layers, just the same way i did-- digitally-- making the header."

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "I took my inspiration from the color palette of the banner (although slightly deeper hues) and added some golden glittery Memory Box jingle bells (thanks Lorraine).  Papers are Basic Grey Jovial with sentiment stickerz from EAD Designs Sweet Sweet Christmas and this week's CardPattern's Sketch."

and now it's time to see what ♥YOU♥ will do with "A BANNER HOLIDAY"! remember you can use *any* aspect of the header that inspires you: the colors, the retro style, the various elements, it's all fair game... so feel free to be as literal or as abstract as you like! link up here by 6pm (EST) on wednesday, february 8th. keyword for galleries or our flickr group is JB12-03.