Ombré Wonderland

This fortnight we're asking you to walk in an Ombré Wonderland with us ... creating a card that features an Ombré blend. Ombré is literally French for "shaded" ... a gradient effect where colors smoothly blend into each other, usually transitioning from light to dark or between different hues.

Here is how we got colorful this week.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started by blending four shades of Green Distress Ink to create my Ombré ink blend. Next, I die cut the Memory Box Marvelous Pine and blended a bit more ink for a higher contrast from bottom to top.  I decorated my tree with pearls and added a star on top. I used the Pinkfresh Studio Notched Corner Frame with Tim Holtz Idea-ology Red Paper. I used a solid red from the same paper collection and ink blended darker ink along the bottom to get an Ombré ink blend on my background.  I finished with Merry Christmas sticker sentiment."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "When I found a white-embossed snowflake panel in my UFOs box, I immediately knew it'd make the perfect start to an ombre emboss/resist background. I blended four shades of Simon Hurley pink inks (Piggyback, Rosy Cheeks, Stupid Cupid and Prom Queen) over the embossing; added some Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads and then loaded on lots of adorable Doodlebug Design stickers. Job done!"

JB2611: Ombre Wonderland runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 3rd. Link your OMBRE cards right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Snow Far, Snow Good!

It's been unseasonably hot here in the Northeastern USA, and thus the brilliant job you've all done on snowy cards is especially appreciated. If you've not yet checked out the Readers' Gallery, we highly recommend a little scroll through all of the fine and frozen inspiration! In the meantime, here are three cards that especially caught our eye:

Pinky of Pinky's World Projects

...added the snowy theme to a softly beautiful Country Christmas vibe; and the result is exponentially more lovely!

Helen of Made by Helen 

...embraced a navy and white color palette and let her intricate (but un-fussy) diecuts take center stage in this triumph of CAS simplicity!

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...created the illusion of a complete snowy landscape with just clever inking, a scattering of tiny snowflake diecuts, and perfect placement of those handsome reindeer!

♥♥♥

And now it's time to award that fun little SNOWY prize!

The Random Number Generator has selected

Lucky #18

which means that

Becca Yahrling

is our lucky winner, congratulations!

♥

Please send your snail mail info to

llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com

so we can get that in the mail ASAP!

Many thanks to all who participated. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will delight all of the mujers y (h)ombres aqui!

Walking in a SNOWY Wonderland

We're still creating cards that feature snow this week and we'd love for you to join us. In the meantime, here's how we walked in a SNOWY wonderland.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "One of my favorite "specialty" mandalas to draw is a Snowflake Mandala. So of course, when I realized we were featuring SNOW this fortnight, I knew this would be the perfect time for the first one of 2026. I made a nice inky background with some of my favorite blue Archival Ink shades, dried it thoroughly, and then drew lots of snowflakes with a Letter It Fineliner. I added details with a few blue markers and finally put additional white in there with a Posca Pen. Since the design is quite busy already, when I turned my mandala panels into cards, I only added bright blue mats, a chunky (sparkly!) sentiment and some small Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling."  

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started by embossing white cardstock with the Penny Black Geometric Embossing Folder, which I thought sort of looked like tiny snowflakes.  Next I added a lovely snowy scene from Penny Black Masterpieces Made Simple Home for Christmas that I framed with red cardstock that I cut using the Penny Black Stitches of Love Creative Frame Dies.  I added a green frame with designer paper whose plaid pattern repeated the embossed design.  I finished with a sentiment from Penny Black Banner Sentiments."

♥♥♥

And remember, one lucky participant will receive this fun snowy gift. All you need to do is link up a SNOW-centric card (or more than one, if the snowy spirit moves you!) on the original post and wait to see if the Random Number Generator picks your digit! Winner to be announced on the Shout Outs Post, Thursday, May 21st. 

Dashing Through the Snow

For our next Jingle Belles prompt we're asking you create projects that celebrate the white fluffy flakes of snow … it might be snowmen, snowflakes or just snowfall, but include some snow on your cards.

Here's how we are dashing through the snow this week.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started by cutting the entire Kristina Werner Snow Flurries Dies from Lawn Fawn Pixie Dust sparkle cardstock.  After I positioned them on my glittery purple textured handmade paper card base, I went back and cut two of the smaller snowflakes a second time to fill in the remaining space.  I finished with a stamped sentiment from the Kristina Werner Snowflake Season Easy Repeat Background Stamp set attached with foam tape for dimension.  It's really card to capture in a photo, but the all-over glittery sparkle is magnificent."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I still have a few well-hoarded Penny Black Masterpieces Made Simple journal-style cards and this one fit the prompt perfectly. I gave Scrapaholics' Elegant Frame a quick coat of white Dina Wakley MEdia Acrylic Paint, added it to my snowscape, adorned the whole thing with Eyelet Outlet 1.5" Snowflake Bling (the same as in our little blog candy prize pack!) and popped the whole thing onto a piece of Photoplay's Solids + paper with earth-toned snowflakes, et voila!"

♥♥♥

But wait, there's more:

One random lucky participant will receive this fun snowy prize package, just for linking their newly made snowy card(s) with us this fortnight!

 (PS: Just in case you don't win or can't wait, please note that ALL Eyelet Outlet Bling selections are currently on clearance for just $1.00 each... while supplies last!)

♥♥♥

JB2610: Dashing Through the Snow runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, May 20th. Link up your own snow-centric design(s) right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Earth Day Beauties

Many thanks to everyone who joined in out Earth Day challenge to re-use, re-cycle or up-cycle an element. We always love seeing your clever ideas. Here are three that especially caught our eye:

Charmaine Stack of Tweedcurtain Productions

... made this adorable Santa & Girl paper drinks coaster the centerpiece of her gorgeous vintage-style card!

Deb Horst of Sendable Sentiments

...saved the cool fabric band off of her new cozy blanket and used it as an element in this adorable multi-textured card!

Barb G of Barb's Creative Corner 

...tried out a fabulous new-to-us format called the Eclipse Technique, to re-use an especially beautiful square gift-card holder on her super-charming card!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who participated! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will make you say, "Snow far... snow good!" ;)

Christmas Down to EARTH (Day)

We're back for round two of our EARTH DAY prompt featuring RECYCLING, where we'd like you to create a holiday card that features re-cycled, re-used or up-cycled elements.  You know you've got that stash of things that you saved because they were just too pretty to throw away ... break them out and create with them.

In the past we've used everything from Kleenex Boxes & Soda Cans to Gift Wrap and we *always* have a lot of fun making our own cards and admiring yours!

Here's how we up-cycled this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "A couple of years ago, I bought this fun yeti gift wrap. I used most of it to wrap presents; but whenever I had scraps, I saved however many intact yeti photos there were, backed them with cardstock, and set them aside to fussycut and use on cards. The grey paper with stars came as a free gift with a craft magazine. (Not exactly recycling, but a sort of related field, I feel.) This is definitely not the fanciest card I've ever made, but it makes me smile! Also it's flattish and flexible, which means I can mail it for a reasonable price. So I'm callin' it a WIN!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started with this recycled front cut from a vintage holiday card using a stitched die cut.  Next I framed it in red and layered it on top of a piece from a tissue box and a piece of crafty packaging that covered the card front.  I finished with a stamped sentiment from Kristina Werner Pretty Poinsettias."

♥♥♥

Scroll down to the original post to link your card(s) and heck out the fabulous Readers' Gallery. JB2609: Peace on EARTH DAY runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, May 6th.

Peace on EARTH DAY

Those of you who have followed us over the years know that we have a special place in our hearts for EARTH DAY.

So our EARTH DAY prompt each year has been all about RECYCLING ... and we'd like you to create a holiday card that features re-cycled, re-used or up-cycled elements.  You know you've got that stash of things that you saved because they were just too pretty to throw away ... break them out and create with them.

In the past we've used everything from Kleenex Boxes & Soda Cans to Gift Wrap and we *always* have a lot of fun making our own cards and admiring yours!

Here's how we got EARTH=y this week.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I have a spot in my gift closet where I save all of the packaging bits from the year that look like they have potential for future cards.  This one combines an image die cut from one of last year's holiday cards together with a stiched square cut from Tim Holtz Idea-ology packaging (I swear he makes it with the intent of it finding it's way into a design).  I positioned it on a red glitter card base to pull out the foiled red metallic shimmer in my image.  I finished with a Taylored Expressions Simple Strips - Christmas that was already assembled on a mat in my UFO box."

Lauren's Card(s)

Lauren says, "I was lucky enough to get not one but TWO Amazon giftcards in December that came in these adorable reindeer-bedecked holders, so OF COURSE my first thought was, "I'm making these into cards" which... as you can see... I did! I cut off the logo-ed flaps and used Tim Holtz wordfetti style stickers to cover up the slot in the middle which held the flap closed. The design was already so cute that I only added a few diecut snowflakes, my favorite Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads and some mats.The red layer is patterned paper, but the tan consists of a few smallish scraps of leftover giftwrap that I confess I saved especially for this challenge." 

♥♥♥♥♥ 

JB2609: Peace on EARTH DAY runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, May 6th and we cannot wait to see what you will make! Link your card(s) right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter