A World of Wonderful Whimsy

"Whimsical Wonderland" was a new theme for us, but clearly it's a rich vein. There are so many sweet, funny, charming and adorable cards in the Readers' Gallery, we do hope you'll take time to check them out. For the moment, here are three that especially caught our eye:

Kate of Cards a la Kate

...proves that small details can make a big impact: her jolly jumping elf has a white felt beard, shiny shoes and a nose made dimensional with glossy accents; he's jumping (on a wobbler) out of a beautifully shaded box diecut, in front of the perfect sentiment, all set in a rather splendid (and dare we say whimsical) funky frame! (Wow!)

Chrissy (xx) from Truly Chrissy

...found this sweet and adorable image un-colored in her to-do box and built this beautiful and vibrant card around it!

Ellen of Ellen's Kaarten

...devised an entire holiday scene for us with frisky mice, lots of candy canes and a perfectly decorated mushroom home; so charming!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing ALL of your fabulous cards. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will supply you with some good old-fashioned inspiration! ;)

More Holiday Whimsy

As we mentioned last week, "Whimsical" describes something, "Playfully quaint, fanciful, imaginative and slightly odd; often suggesting a lighthearted, unpredictable or charmingly unusual quality not based on strict logic." So this fortnight we're asking you to use that definition and make a Whimsical holiday card… it might be mice decorating the holiday tree, a space-age midcentury modern wreath, some fun little holiday gnomes, or maybe even adorable tiny reindeer driving a red plaid car?!

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I probably only use my Lawn Fawn Car Critters + Holiday Add-On stamp sets a couple of times a year. I nearly always paper-piece the little guys and use the curvy road template I made when I first got the sets; thus it's a pretty similar version each time, but it always makes me smile, so I see no reason to stop now. Most of the paper used here was scrap pieces I stamped on or punched. The trees background was a freebie from Flow Magazine; the red is Carta Bella. I stamped a Lawn Fawn sentiment on graph paper and colored the gifts with Tombows."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "When I thought of whimsical animals, I was immediately taken back to one of my favorite authors/illustrators of my childhood, Richard Scarry.  I just bought a shirt with his art from Out of Print. I found a Richard Scarry book in my collage stash, so I hoped there would be the perfect whimsical illustration for a card ... and of course there was.  How cute is that little guy all bundled-up marveling in the gorgeous snowfall.  I found the perfect sentiment in Tim Holtz Tiny Text Christmas stamps.

JB2607: Walking in a Whimsical Wonderland will run until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 8th. Scroll down to the original post to add your card(s)!

Walking in a Whimsical Wonderland

Whimsical describes something playfully quaint, fanciful, imaginative and slightly odd … often suggesting a lighthearted, unpredictable or charmingly unusual quality not based on strict logic. 

We're asking you to use that definition and make a Whimsical holiday card … it might be mice decorating the holiday tree, a modern wreath, some fun little holiday gnomes, or whatever says whimsical to you.

Here is how we walked through a whimsical wonderland this week.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I got the Spellbinders Fragmented Gaze Dies by Jaycee Gaspar this week, and I thought it would be "whimsical" to try to turn her into a sassy version of Mrs. Claus (I guess you could say I went with the imaginative and perhaps slightly odd).  I started by using Mirror Ball Luxe Silver Glitter paper as the base (not realizing it would give her a rather creepy glittery eyeball, which I solved with a few cardstock scraps).  I had fun combining some designer papers with cardstock in a holiday palette.  I finished by hand-cutting her Santa Hat that I adorned with some jeweled holly and attaching her to a de-bossed minty card base.  I finished with what seemed like the perfect holiday sentiment from My Favorite Things Sassy Pants Holiday."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My friend Gina wrapped my holiday gifts in super-cute Hello Kitty holiday paper; which of course I saved carefully and backed with cardstock. Then I cut out alllllll of those presents, trees and Kitties. (Yes, I am indeed nuts; thank you for asking.) I wanted my whole background to be that pale green snowflake paper, but alas there wasn't enough. As it turns out, I think that was a good thing, because it completely changed how I used the tiny cut out houses and trees... for the better! The pine tree background is ancient Pebbles; the scrap of plaid is, I believe, Echo Park; and also quite elderly."

♥♥♥

JB2607: Walking in a Whimsical Wonderland will run until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 8th. Link your wonderful, whimsical greetings right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thrice as Nice

Creating with trios is fun and satisfying, as everyone who linked up this ofrtnight has proven pretty conclusively! If you haven't scrolled through the Readers' Gallery, we highly recommend the trip. In the meantime, here are (coincidenally!) three cards that especially caught our eye:

Helen of Helen's Craft Haven

...notes humorously in her post that she realized we did not *literally* ask for cards with Three Kings, but when she realized she could do that, it was impossible to resist. We couldn't agree more!

Robyn Oliver of Waterlily Cards

...made this trio of elegant baubles by dipping an empty bathroom tissue roll in watercolor paint, then filling in the circles with sparkly shimmering color!

Jolanda Johnstone of The Inque Spot Studio

...went all in with glorious gold: gold paper, gold foil, gold embossing; this card is most definitely "good as gold"! 

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who participated. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will warm your whimsical heart!

Tinsel Trios

We're still creating in threes this week ... asking you to include 3 of something on your card design.

Here are our Tinsel Trios:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I have about half a sheet left of PhotoPlay's Ugly Sweater Party patterned paper, and I must confess that I've never used it in any other way than I've done here; I really only want to cut out the cute little sweaters and put them on cards. So much so, that I had cut out four or five sweaters to make my THREE-centric card before remembering I either had to put some aside or make two cards with three sweaters. Obviously, I chose the latter course. I used my Elizabethcraft Planner Filmstrip die to hold the sweater trios and I computer-generated my silly sentiment, Don we now our ugly sweaters."

 

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week's card is an homage to my grandma ... she had a desk in her living room that she filled with all sorts of papers and stickers for her grandkids to play with.  I remember these National Wildlife Association and other charity stickers and stamps.  I also spent hours filling S&H Green Stamp books and choosing what I wanted to buy with them (we saved them up to get my first Black & Decker Teflon Iron for me to take to collage).  I finished with two trios of enamel dots and a three-word Tim Holtz Label sticker sentiment on a kraft card base.  She would have loved it."

We THREE Kings

The next Jingle Belles prompt is asking you to create a card with THREE of one element: three circles, three reindeer, three packages under the Christmas Tree ... you get the picture.

Here are our THREE point shots for this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with three vintage chipboard ornament stickers from my stash that I topped with three chipboard snowflake stickers.  For my background, I stamped Simon Says Stamp White Christmas Text on the background in white ink and embossed with white embossing powder for subtle texture.  I finished with a sentiment from Hero Arts Holiday Borders and Icons.  I attached all of the pieces with foam tape on the white-on-white background."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My card was inspired by three vintage kittens, as you can see. In addition my A6 card has a few more threes: three torn patterned paper pieces and three pieces of doily. I kept trying to add "one more thing" but nothing really seemed right, so I attached the sentiment, did a bit of machine stitching and called it good."

♥♥♥

JB2606: We Three Kings runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, March 25th. 

Link your card(s) right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Singing Along

How delightful to see so many Jingle Belles singing along with our "Fa-la-la-la-la" challenge to incorporate music, instruments or a holiday song title. If you haven't yet seen all the entries in the Readers' Gallery, we highly recommend a little scroll through all of the musical inspiration. In the meantime, here are three cards that especially caught our eye:

Brenda B of Brenda's Scraps of Life

...stamped a beautiful creche scene over the music for "Away in a Manger" using neutral tones with  touches of gold for a look that's soft, sweet and elegant. 

Susan B of Cardmaker's Garret

...made these bold copper-colored watercolor bells the centerpiece of her gorgeous CAS card which also features lots of background texture and a perfectly appropriate sentiment!

Jo from Jo Blogs

...chose a cute and comical caroling kitty to be the star of her charming and adorable greeting! (Bonus points for the super cool Fa-La-La-La-La sky!)

♥♥♥

And now let's find out who will be acquiring that very cool CUTplorations Doodled Christmas Bells Cover Plate Die from Stamplorations:

The Random Number Generator has chosen...

(drumroll, please)

Lucky Number 6!

which means that

Jolanda Johnstone of The Inque Spot Studio

is our Lucky Winner!

CONGRATS!

Please send your snail mail info to

llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com 

so we can get that on its way to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who participated. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt that's easy as one... two... three!