Stars OR Stripes, Forever (Week 1)

Since July 4^th is Independence Day in the United States of America, this fortnight we're asking you to incorporate the USA flag elements of either stars or stripes into your card design. It doesn't need to be red, white or blue, but certainly can be… just stars or stripes (or both!) in any medium you choose.

In addition, we are also the "Twisted Sister" option on the Double Trouble Challenge Blog's Christmas in July event, where there is a basic recipe: (three colors + two layers + one holiday image) required for all entries at Double Trouble. Then there's a TWIST: to add Stars and/or Stripes and also link with us here at Jingle Belles. Then there's a DARE: to use one of two sketches from Try a Sketch on Tuesday.

Remember, you only need Stars or Stripes to enter here at Jingle Belles, but if you're up for a bigger challenge, consider hopping over to Double Trouble for all the details!

Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Since I had my patriotic cardmaking supplies on my studio table, I decided to see what I could find to use this week.  I combined a scraps of red swirls, blue stars and blue stripes for my layout.  Then I went looking in my holiday papers and found these neutral toned tags.  I finished with red gems."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My stars and my stripes are in the form of two different (ancient!) patterned papers, the red is DCWV and the green is Carta Bella. I found half a pack of Pebbles' diecuts and made them into a cluster that connects the four staggered background panels. There are a few elderly chipboard stars courtesy of Echo Park; and the sentiment sticker is from Doodlebug."

♥♥♥

JB2614: Stars OR Stripes, Forever runs until 6pm (Eastern) on July, 15th. Link your starry and/or stripey masterpieces right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sketch Stars

Everyone did an amazing job making gorgeous cards based on Stephanie's superb sketch! If you haven't checked out the Readers' Gallery, we highly recommend a little scroll through all of the fine inspiration. In the meantime, here are three sketch cards that especially caught our eye: 

Sandy J of Adventures of a Stamping Writer

...colored this lovely image with pencils and made it her focal point; then chose just the right elements to fill in the sketch!

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...stretched the sketch into a landscape format to hold an amazingly well coordinated snow scene for her adorable critters to inhabit!

Darnell of DJKard Creations

...streamlined the sketch into a CAS masterpiece with her choice of subtle papers, a bold sentiment, and lots of breathing space for that super-cute snowman! 

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who participated, we loved seeing your superb sketch cards. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt and we hope you'll flag the occasion! ;)

Merry SKETCH-mas

We're still making cards this week using this fun sketch layout:

This is how we got sketchy this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I only have a couple of Penny Black's pre-printed Masterpieces Made Simple journal cards left, but luckily one of them was landscape oriented, because I wanted to rotate the sketch this time. I found this stencil-printed piece of white on dark blue cardstock in my "ufo" box and loved the way the colors and branches sort of echoed the background of the deer illustration. I added a strip of glitter silver tape to serve as the strong line inside the sketch, and a small glittery snowflake is swapping in for the circle piece. The tiny white pearls get a little bit lost in the white branches at the bottom left, but the ones on the top right show up well. Finally I chose a Tim Holtz Idea-Ology wordfetti sticker as my sentiment, and placed it towards the top of the snowscape scene."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I wanted to use this fun tag from Simple Stories All Wrapped Up Big Bits, so I flipped the sketch on it's side.  I paired with with Simple Stories All Wrapped Up papers and a fun little Bella Boulavard St. Nick Bella-Pop 3-D sticker for the "circle" element in the sketch."

JB2613: 'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas runs until next Wednesday evening, July 1st. Details and Linky Tool are on the original post.

'Twas The SKETCH Before Christmas

For our next holiday card prompt we're using a sketch to build our cards, designed by our very own Sketch Scholar, Stephanie!

Here's how we got sketchy this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "When I first saw the sketch, I thought of a scrapbooking journaling card as the focal image, so I opened the never-before-used Carta Bella Merry Christmas Flora Collection and used it to build most of my card.  I decided to part with a piece from my hoarded Flair collection for the circular element and also added a few wraps of red metallic card on the horizontal paper strip."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I started by embossing Hero Arts' Christmas Rose in white on kraft cardstock; then colored the blooms with Prismacolor Pencils. I trimmed the panel to slightly smaller than journal card size, and matted on a scrap of shimmery hot pink cardstock. The background of the sketch is composed of three coordinating papers: the top and border are actually giftwrap I had saved and backed with thin cardstock; the pink stripey paper is ancient Kaisercraft. I did some machine stitching, punched a circular sentiment from a journal card, added some Eyelet Outlet White Matte Enamel Dots and called it a day. I've been very nearly 100% literal in my interpretation of the sketch, though I did have to move the sentiment circle as it was covering up too much of my fancy coloring!"

♥♥♥

JB2613: 'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 1st. Link your sketch-centric cards right here: 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Flat Out Fabulous

The single layer card is quite a challenging category, but the folks who linked up this time have definitely rocked it! If you haven't checked out the Readers' Gallery, we definitely recommend the trip; and maybe a couple of right-clicks that you save for the next time this type of assignment pops up. In the meantime, here are three Flat Feliz Navidad cards that especially caught our eye: 

Robyn Oliver of Waterlily Cards

...not only stamped this beautiful image exactly at the center of her card front, she colored and shaded it beautifully with watercolors! 

(So carefully that it didn't even bleed through to the inside!)

Helen of Helen's Craft Haven

...not only made one layer work, she took the vibe even more CAS by omitting color as well. 

(It turns out that white embossing on kraft cardstock creates an instant gingerbread village!!!)

Deb Horst of Sendable Sentiments

...not only stamped and colored her focal image to really stand out... she masked and stamped; then masked and stenciled; then masked and stenciled some more to fill the whole cardfront! 

(Making the most impressively maximalist and detailed single layer card we've ever seen! Brava!)

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who participated. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt that might just be a tiny bit "sketchy"! ;)

One Layer Wonderland

We're still creating for the Flat Feliz Navidad theme ... one layer cards for the win.

Here is how we created flat this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week, I got out my Simon Hurley Bold Holiday Blooms background stamp. It’s one of the great Ranger "Peel Apart" stamps that you can use either as a whole 6x6 background; or remove some of the flowers out and stamp them on their own; which is what I’ve done this time. I stamped the big poinsettias in Simon’s Prom Queen Stellar Ink; and stamped the smaller ones in Rosy Cheeks. I stamped the big poinsettias in Simon’s Prom Queen Stellar Ink; and stamped the smaller ones in Rosy Cheeks. I’ve got a small branch from Penny Black’s Nature’s Garlands set; and a sentiment from Taylored Expressions’ Flip the Snowflake set. When I finished stamping, I added some big and small dots with my Zig Dot Markers, et voila! Job done."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started by Die Cutting the next-to-the-largest Star from Hero Arts 5-Point Star Infinity Dies from lightweight cardstock.  I placed the mask over my ivory card base and blended two colors of yellow and one orange Distress Oxide Ink and then splattered some water for a bit more visual interest.  I stoped the large sentiment from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Bold Tidings 3 in black ink and finished with a few holly leaves & berries from Hero Arts Greetings Christmas Messages."

♥♥♥

Scroll down to the original post to link YOUR Fabulous Flat cards; this challenge runs until next Wednesday evening, June 17th.

Flat Feliz Navidad

With this fortnight's Flat Feliz Navidad prompt, we are asking that you make a one layer (or some call it "no layer") card ... which means that everything should be directly on the card base, with no additional layers on top of that. 

If you're not sure, you can't go wrong by avoiding taping or gluing anything on! We're looking for completely flat cards this time!

Here's how we were FLAT this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My card layers two stencils from Kristina Werner's Simple Christmas Stencil Pack.  I used the all-over diamond stencil first in Speckled Egg Distress Oxide. Next, I rotated the stencil and used Seedless Preserves Distress Oxide.  I stenciled the words on top using three different colors of Distress Oxide Inks - Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet and Villainous Potion.  I finished my single layer by blending more Seedless Preserves on the edges."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "As everyone who knows me even a tiny bit will realize, this is NOT my forte. I'm the queen of lumpy, bumpy, multi-layered (and then let's mat those layers!) cards. So yes, I did a lot of surfing, googling and scrolling to get ideas. And I confess that it took me more than one (!!!) try. But, eventually, I broke out the uber-cute bears (& small sentiment) from Simon Hurley's create. Skating By Stamp Set and stamped everything in Ranger's Jet Black Archival. I colored the bears with Prismacolor Pencils and added a tiny bit of Cry Baby Stellar Ink to the curve of the pond's edge, then toned it down just a little with Shadow Grey Archival. I stamped just a couple of Simon's Peel Apart Stitched Snowflakes (sadly out of print) in the sky and then forced myself to call it a day before I was tempted to add... well... lumpy, bumpy, layery things lol."

♥♥♥

JB2612: Flat Feliz Navidad runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 17th, and YOU are invited to link up with us... if you dare!!! ♥

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter