Ornamental Color Challenge

We have a marvelous Ornamental Color Challenge for you this time. We're asking you to make a card featuring at least THREE of the five colors in the palette below.

Here's how we got colorful this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I used four of the five colors this week in my layout using this week's Sketch Saturday layout and Jolly Holiday Greetings from Concord & 9th.  Colors are Concord & 9th as well - Rainforest, Peacock, Powder & Sorbet."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "As I was puzzling over what I wanted to make, it suddenly occurred to me that one of the things I liked in the inspiration pic is the sidebar with the colors stacked together. I was pretty sure I had scraps of cardstock in all of those colors, and sure enough I did! I found the sentiment on a mini journal card and diecut a Hero Arts Snowflake Cluster from glossy white cardstock to emphasize the winter/holiday aspect."

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We will choose one lucky participant to win this fun little Yay You die cut by CZDesign for Simon Says Stamp.

Just a reminder, you needn't use ALL five colors of the palette, we'd just like to see three; though as you can tell, we both had fun using the entire set! JB2509: Ornamental Color Challenge runs until 6pm (Eastern) on the evening of Wednesday, May 7th. Link your cards right HERE:

Remarkable Recycling

There was not a huge turnout for our annual Earth Day Recycling Challenge, but the shortfall in quantity was more than made up for by the over-abundance of brilliant and beautiful ideas! To celebrate, here's a recap of all the fabulous entrants:

Susan B of Cardmaker's Garret

...took the ubiquitous and humble corrugated coffee sleeve, added a little shimmery white paint and instantly had the perfect snowy backdrop for her gorgeous neutral-palette greeting. 

Jolanda Johnstone of The Inque Spot Studio

...speaking of coffee, Jolanda upcycled a vibrant holiday card to make her holiday beverage SNOW much fun! Bonus points for that fabulous fancy fold, as well!

Deb of Sendable Sentiments

...saved the festive red ribbon from a floral arrangement and made it the star of her CAS (but infinitely textural!) card! Love that cool wooden snowflake, too!

Deanne of A Little Bit o' Paper

...rescued two amazing ornaments from a holiday card she received last year, then really set the scene of a Christmas tree by adding hangers, floral toppers and evergreen branches!

Gail L of What's Normal?

...got back a bunch of her own handmade cards when helping a loved one downsize, and thus was able to reuse and upcycle her own designs! How cool is THAT?! 

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...added lots of texture and detail to various paper scraps and even diecut that beautiful tree from the perfect "leftover" of festive holiday paper!

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Many thanks for playing along! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will suit your holiday cardmaking palette! ;)

recycle... reuse... and JINGLE!

We're still celebrating EARTH Day at Jingle Belles this week by creating cards featuring recycled materials.

Here is how we recycled, reused & Jingled this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "If someone hands me a present wrapped in beautiful paper which has a smooth, un-wrinkled, un-taped area that's card-sized or larger, I will (surprise!) be saving that giftwrap! I like to immediately back it with lightweight cardstock and store it with my regular patterned paper. This card has two such saves from Xmas 2024: the white snowflake background piece, and the torn tan snowflake piece. The snowglobe is a dimensional sticker which was part of a gift tag. In addition to these recycled items, I've got a scrap of lace, a bit of washi tape, part of an embossed snowflake panel and a couple of diecut snowflakes. The "joy" sentiment was cut from a larger dimensional embellishment, because it was the perfect size, color and vibe for this card."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "What can I say ... when a theme works I repeat it.  This week's card features a Puffs tissue box.  Since Puffs puts their logo in the corner rather than the center, a stitched circle made the most sense to get as much of that lovely floral holiday pattern as possible.  I used two smaller stitched circles to pull in some more of those white blooms.  I attached it all to more K & Company packaging and added a Simon Says Stamp CZ Design Merry & Bright sentiment & snowflakes die cut from scraps of a GelliArts print and vellum that were small enough to likely be headed to the recycling.  And to stay with the theme of last week's card, I added more of those delicious Concord & 9th Enamel Dots.  I love this unexpected  color combination for a holiday card."

Remember, you have until 6pm EST on Wednesday to link-up and join the EARTH Day fun.

Peace on EARTH DAY

It's time for one of the Jingle Belles' favorite holidays... (apart from Christmas, of course!) ...Earth Day.  

Our EARTH DAY prompt each year is 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 recycled this year:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My card started by using a stitched rectangle die cut on part of a Kleenex tissue box.  Next I found a piece of K & Company packaging that made the perfect card base.  Finally, I found a recycled calendar tile in my stash to cover the Kleenex logo and finished with Concord & 9th Enamel Dots."

Lauren's Card(s)

Lauren says, "In December, we received an advertising mailer from a local bank that was about 5x9", made of sturdy cardstock, and bright teal with beautifully dimensional-looking snowflakes on it; so OF COURSE I saved it. Later that month, a second and third mailer arrived and I put those aside too. And here they are, trimmed down and paired with a plaid from Dare 2B Artzy's Snow Much Fun collection. I added strips of foil washi tape; the last two sentiment stickers in an ancient pack; plus some red metallic poinsettias and TA-DA!"

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JB2508: Peace on EARTH DAY will run until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 23rd. Link your newly made holiday card(s) featuring at least one re-cycled, re-used or up-cycled element right here:

One-Layer Wonders!

Some people (aka Lauren!) find the single layer holiday card design extremely challenging, but a quick look at our Flat Feliz Navidad Readers' Gallery proves that it's an art form in which some crafters positively excel! We highly recommend taking a little journey to check out all of them, but in the meantime, here are three cards that especially caught our eye this time:

Imke Ludwig of My Crafty Place

...illustrates that not only does she not need more than a single layer; she only needs three colors... black, white and Christmas red... to make a showstopper of a CAS card!

Darnell of DJ Kard Kreations

...went vertical with an beautiful multicolor snowflake stencil set that cascades down the side and right "over the edge"... in a very very GOOD way!

Helen of Helen's Craft Haven

...used a kraft background to make her perfectly colored, adorable, joyful House Mouse stand out even more. Bonus points awarded for that amazing reflection in the patch of ice!

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Many thanks to everyone who played along, as always, we enjoyed seeing every single one of your creative and beautiful designs; and those of us who are "flat card challenged" (again... LAUREN!) have bookmarked quite a few of them for future reference! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will put you in the mood to treasure your "trash"! ;)

One Layer Christmas

We're still celebrating Flat Feliz at Jingle Belles by making one-layer Christmas Cards.

Here's what we made for week two:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I'm a little obsessed with had Simon Hurley's create Sketched Snowmen stamp set and Simon's Dye Inks from Ranger. Luckily these were perfect for watercoloring the images and background. I embossed the snowmen and sentiment in black; then embossed the snowflakes in white; colored everything in... et voila! I confess that while I love how it came out, my natural instinct is still to make this a panel on a layered card with machine-stitching and maybe some brads, but I'm resisting. (For now!)"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started by stamping the Gina K. Designs Graphic Tree in white pigment ink and embossing with white embossing powder.  Then I painted Green shimmer paint over the top of the tree.  Once it dried, I added a sentiment from the same Graphic Tree and positioned it to look like the trunk of the tree.  I finished by blending Gina K. Designs Medium Spruce ink around the edges."

Flat Feliz Navidad

This fortnight we're embarking upon that most challenging of challenges (at least for Lauren, lol!); it is generally called the One Layer Card; though some folks refer to it as the No Layer Card. 

What does that mean? It means your entire design is flat... your elements get stamped, drawn, embossed, etc, directly onto the cardbase; so basically you're not taping or gluing ANY additional papers/diecuts/layers to that base. We're looking (as the title implies) for completely FLAT cards this time. Are you up for the challenge? Great! Here we go:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started by using a torn piece of typing paper as an inking mask creating three shades of Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide Ink (start at the bottom and then keeping inking over the whole space to keep the bottom darker than the top).  Next I stamped two Memory Box Sentiments and the Memory Box Holiday Greenery Stamp.  I used alcohol markers to color the greenery, turning part of the leaves into a poinsettia.  I added a few extra berries & a leaf to finish.  I colored out of the lines a bit, so I just embraced that coloring style ... sort of like the fill stamps that are meant to be a bit off from the base image."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "This is NOT my natural metier, but I'm always up for a challenge! Starting with a white 5.5" square card, I taped off all four edges with low-tack washi, then broke out the awesome Wendy Vecchi Build-a-Plaid Layered Stencil Set from Spellbinders to create a diagonal Christmassy plaid in Archival Inks of the red, green and gold variety. I added some of Hero Arts' Winter Foliage Rub-On Transfer poinsettias and foliage as well as a rub-on sentiment from another set of HA Rubs called Holiday Messages. I like the way you can very very faintly see the plaid inking underneath the transfers AND the fact that this baby is even flatter than the average credit card bill, which will be such an advantage when I hit the post office in December!"

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Link your newly made One/No Layer holiday card(s) right here! JB2507: Flat Feliz Navidad runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 9th.

Going Green

Spring has sprung and the only things more beautiful than the budding leaves outside are the Grinchly Green holiday cards in our Readers Gallery. We highly recommend taking a little time to check out all of them, but in the meantime, here are three that especially caught our eye this fortnight.

Tina Z of Treebug

...combined a green-gloved Santa in a green candy car, driving through a gorgeous green patterned paper landscape!

Gail L of What's Normal

...stitched this gorgeous and intricate bauble with green metallic thread, added a bold green bow, and mounted the panel on a green embossed foil mat... et voila!

Marianne of Marianne's Cards 'n Stuff

...went impressively minimal with just one simple, perfect, Geometric Tree stenciled in two perfectly chosen shades of green for CAS card perfection! 

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And now let's find out which cardmaker be getting a little more "Green On" 

when this adorable PoppyStamps holiday tree die set lands in their mailbox! 

The Random Number Generator has chosen

Lucky #9

which means Jolanda Johnstone of The Inque Spot Studio is our winner!

Please send your snail mail info to

llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com 

so we can get those sweet dies on their way!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who participated, as always, we enjoyed seeing every single one of your creative and beautiful designs. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will make you want to work flat out to join the fun! ;)

I'm Dreaming of a GREEN Christmas

We're still getting our Grinch on, by making predominently green holiday cards. Here's how we showcased our green this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I went a bit collagey, and if you say the words, "collage" and "green" to me in the same sentence, I immediately think about my stash of vintage S&H Greenstamps, obviously. (Thank you, Stephanie!) These have been layered over a 4x6" piece of 49 and Market's Spectrum Sherbet Lace Washi, to which I added a strip of drywall tape, some Eyelet Outlet Silver Pearl Swirl Bling and the diecut tree (Sizzix Christmas Tree #2) made of torn and layered scraps of green cardstock that I stumbled upon in the diecuts box last week. Some edge distressing, a sage green mat and a bit of machine stitching complete the design."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie Says, "I've been making my way through another Gelliarts gel print a day month, so I have lots of prints for creating at my disposal.  I cut numerous green prints into 3/8" strips and created a quilt background.  Then to help tie them together, I embossed the panel using an old quilt-like texture embossing folder.  To finish the card, I added this sweet little chef in green from Fancy Pants cookies for Kringle Ephemera."

And the Luck of the Green will be with one lucky participant who will receive a brand new Nordic Dimple Trees Die set by PoppyStamps.

Get Your Grinch On

This fortnight we're asking you to Get Your Grinch On, which means we're celebrating our friend the Grinch by creating cards that are predominantly GREEN (and bonus points if you throw in a Grinch too).

Here's how we're showing our GREEN this week.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with a fun green polka dot card base.  Next I matted a tag from Doodlebug Designs Candy Cane Lane with a link layer of blue to match the present and give a big of contrast to the background.  I added some glittery silver ribbon, a tie of lime twine, and a tiny bit of red bling for the gingerbread man's button.  I finished by using foam tape to add the tag for a bit of dimension."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I started with a (seemingly firm) plan that involved a Christmas Tree layered with about six different shades of torn green cardstock. But then... I found this little quartet of adorability on a sheet of journal cards and the next thing I knew my card had four snowmen, two green polka dot papers, three EO Snowflake Brads and eight washi tapes. Because that's the way I roll, lol. (Not to worry, I can make the other card for next week!)"

♥♥♥

And the Luck of the Green will be with one lucky participant who will receive a brand new Nordic Dimple Trees Die set by PoppyStamps.

JB2506: Get Your Grinch On runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday evening, March 26th. Link as many newly made, mostly GREEN holiday cards as you'd like to, right here:

BLING It On!

What's sparkly and shimmery and absolutely awesome? Every single one of the cards in the Bling On the Holidays Readers' Gallery, of course! If you haven't already treated yourself to the inspiration therein, we highly recommend the trip. Meanwhile, here are three cards that especially caught our eye this time:

Susan B of Cardmaker's Garret

...used multiple shades of green pigment powders and a stencil to create her gorgeous multicolor branches of holly; then framed them in red and added loads of beautiful, blingy berries!

Becca S of Becca's Quest for Love and Country Creativity

...built a wonderous winter landscape set under a snowy sky full of glistening snowflakes and pearly accents; surrounded by a pristine snowfall of glittery acrylic paint!

Deanne Saunders of A Little Bit o' Paper

...stacked a constellation's worth of blue and golden diecuts, added lots (& LOTS!) of glorious glitter et voila... a shaped card that shines as brightly as the stars it resembles!

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Here's a badge, if you'd like one!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing ALL of your cards! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we think might find you GREEN with envy! ;) 

Jingle Belles are BLING-ing

We're still BLING-ing in the Holidays at Jingle Belles this week ... creating cards featuring jewels, gems, beads, pearls, glitter, stickles, or anything sparkly.

Here's how we got BLING-y with it this week.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Believe it or not, this week's card has more BLING-centric elements than last week's... but admittedly they are harder to see. The gorgeous three-layer tree is Simon Hurley's Classic Christmas Tree from Spellbinders. I diecut the solid background tree from deep green cardstock and the foliage from medium green. I used a natural sponge to lightly dab both layers with Bronze Liquid Pearls for a subtle iridescent shimmer. I diecut the tree stand, some of the ornaments and the background mat from shimmery gold cardstock. I cut more ornaments from gold metallic and gold glitter cardstock. I added small rhinestones and pearls to the tree before mounting the whole thing on a piece of Lawn Fawn's Spiffier Speckles in Leprechaun (perfect for March!) on which the speckles are gold metallic. Finally I added a layer of ancient Hambly Screenprints doily patterned paper, which is also shimmery"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started by covering my snowflake designer paper with Eyelet Outlet Silver Pearl Swirl Bling.  Next I added sentiments from Concord & 9th Big on Christmas, using strategically placed foam adhesive, so the sentiments floated above the bling."

Remember, you have until 6pm EST on Wednesday, March 12th to link-up.

BLING on the Holidays!

This fortnight we're celebrating (...you may have guessed it from the title...) BLING! All you need to do is make a card featuring jewels, gems, beads, pearls, glitter, stickles, or anything sparkly and join the fun by adding it with the Linky tool at the bottom of this post.

Meanwhile, here's how we're BLING-ing it this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Bling is the perfect way to decorate a Christmas Tree, especially this three layer Kaleidoscope Christmas Tree die cut set from Spellbinders.  I cut the bottom layer of my tree from white glitter paper for even more sparkle.  And for a bit more shine, I topped the tree & die cut the My Favorite Things PEACE Die-Namics sentiment from Concord & 9th Champagne Foil Paper.

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've had these Bling Snowflakes from the big box store for aggggggggges, so I was determined to use them for this prompt. I found a funky gel print made (at some un-remembered time, lol) by using an ancient Darice snowflake embossing folder to remove paint from the plate. I added some older Tim Holtz metallic rub-on transfers to enhance the holiday theme. My sentiment and mat are white glitter cardstock and the finished card is an A6."

♥♥♥

JB2505: BLING on the Holidays runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, March 12th. Link your beautiful BLING-centric card(s) right here:

Clearly Awesome

Clear elements can be challenging to work with, but the Midnight Clear Readers' Gallery (clearly!) proves that the effect is worth the effort! Here are three cards that caught our eye this fortnight:

Jolanda Johnstone of The Inque Spot Studio

...layered vellum squares over her elegant trio of candle images, giving them a soft nostalgic feeling that works perfectly with her traditional red and green palette!

Beverly Sizemore aka @bevscreativepath on Instagram

...pressure embossed an alphabet folder on a piece of clear acetate (bonus points for upcycling a piece of packaging!) enhancing the sweet scene of  critters mailing letters to Santa!

Renate of Made by Renate

...made a BEARY cute shaker card that's got so much dimension, texture and charm it's practically a gift all on its own!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every card! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will BLING on your holiday creativity!

CLEAR-ly Christmas

We're still creating cards with transparent and/or translucent items (think vellum, acetate, lucite) if you can see the light through it, it works.

Here's how we were CLEAR-ly Christmas this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I love Sunny Studio's Build a Tag #2 Die Set and that's what I used to make the tags and reinforcers on this pair of A2 cards. I punched square windows into the tags, backed them with scraps of clear acetate, and made a little winter scene with Eyelet Outlet Glitter Tree Tape, Sparkle White Glitter Tape hills and Snowflake Sequins. I finished off with Snowflake Brads and Penguins or Snowy Trees; then added tag-shaped mats and panels adorned with Glitter Tall Tree Tape, sticker sentiments and a few more sequins. Gotta love an easy two-fer, right?"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started with a Dina Wakley Pattern Play Media transparency, which I painted on the back with Dylusions Shimmer Paint.  Next I use puffy stickers to build a little scene on top (and give me places to use adhesive to attach the transparency to my card).  I finished with a die cut sentiment from Concord & 9th Jolly Holiday Greetings.

Remember, you have until 6pm EST on Wednesday, February 19th to link-up your CLEAR creations.

It Came Upon a Midnight CLEAR

This fortnight at we're asking you to make a holiday card that contains at least one see-through element. 

It can be a glass embellishment, an acrylic transparency, some vellum, acetate or "ghost" shapes, clear stickers, Lucite buttons, shrink plastic... whatever you like. If you can see through it (AND figure out how to attach it to your card) put it on there and link it up!

Here's how we were CLEAR-ly inspired this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started my card with this weeks Sketch Saturday layout and a lovely clear piece of Hambly Screen Printed lace.  Then, as I was working through the rest of the Sketch elements, I realized I could turn the Tim Holtz Ephemera Tag Box into a shaker if I added some clear acetate, so my card for this week is a CLEAR-ly a two-fer."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I still have a fun little stash of the late great Hambly Screen Prints transparencies, which are so thick and sturdy you actually can make a card base out of them and build your entire design on top. Fair warning: however well a transparency card comes out IRL, it will be VERY hard to photograph (as you can see) but other than that, I'm pleased with this one. I used nearly an entire sheet of Hero Arts' Holiday Messages Rub-on Transfers and three out of four ancient dimensional snowman stickers from the big box store. I added a plain white diecut panel inside the card (see the pic on my blog) for writingon, but realized belatedly that the front is so transparent, I might add another panel to the back of the card and add my personal greeting that way."

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And now it's time to start planning what YOU will make, then link it up right here! JB2504: It Came Upon a Midnight CLEAR runs until 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, February 26th. 

In Great Shape!

There are some amazing cards in the Shape Up Readers' Gallery, so if you haven't yet taken a little scroll for inspiration, we highly recommend the trip. Meanwhile, here are just a few that especially caught our eye:

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...constructed an beautiful winterscape as a clever (reverse) J-shaped side-step card; which has so much dimension and interest, this is basically a piece of decor rather than just a card!

ArtMBR

...made perhaps the most elegant (and sparkly!) round card EVER in black, white and gold; and reminded us how much we love the classic round card design!

Wendy of Cartai

...drove her perfectly pieced and shaded vintage VW Beetle car (with holiday tree on top) straight into our shaped-card loving hearts!

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A big giant heart-shaped THANK YOU to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single card! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new challenge that we hope you'll deem to be CLEARLY inspiring! ;)