'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

Merry SKETCH-mas

The Jingle Belles are still getting SKETCH-y this week.

Here is how we celebrated SKETCH-mas this week:

Lauren's Other Sketch Card

Lauren says, "This week I raided my stash of holiday cuuuuuteness, including some adorable Doodlebug stickers and papers, plus coordinating items from Elle's Studio, Carta Bella and Pebbles. My card is all about Santa getting ready for the holidays at the North Pole and I've been about as faithful to the sketch as I could possibly be! (Of course *YOU* do not need be as literal as this; feel free to swap shapes; flip, rotate or stretch the sketch; just so long as we can see "the bones"!)"

Stephanie's Other Sketch Card

Stephanie says, "My Sketch Card started with a Concord & 9th Cup of Kindness adorned with an Eyelet Outlet Retro Christmas Tree brad.  I paired it with papers from Pebbles Cozy and Bright and a sentiment from STAMPlorations Caffeinated Christmas.  I finished with two enamel dots. I'm also joining the Caffeinated Christmas Challenge.

 ♥♥♥

Remember there's a fun little prize for one lucky random cardmaker who links up with us this time. Check it out (& find the Linky Tool!) on the original 'Twas the Sketch Before Xmas post, directly below this one.

'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas

...and all through the blog, we're busy making new holiday cards based on this clever and inspiring layout by our own Jingle Belles Sketch Diva, Stephanie! 

As always, you can interpret the sketch using any colors, stamps, papers or supplies; and you can flip, rotate, stretch or smoosh it; even swap the circle for a different shape... just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch in your design!

Here's how we got SKETCH-y this week:

Stephanie's Sketch Card

Stephanie says, "I went searching for a circular tag in my stash to use for my sketch, but instead fell in love with this round-topped penguin gift tag.  I paired him with a coordinating teal scrap of designer paper and some red glitter paper.  I finished with a vintage woodblock Memory Box sentiment ... because clearly he's too cool for yule."

Lauren's Sketch Card

Lauren says, "As you can see, I flipped the sketch upside down (unintentionally) and I shifted things (on purpose) a bit to the righthand side to accommodate my square card format, but otherwise I was quite faithful to Stephanie's beautiful sketch. Unusually for me, ALL of my items not only come from one manufacturer (49 & Market) but from one collection, "Christmas Spectacular" with which I am a bit obsessed. I used parts of three patterned papers and built my focal collage from the "cut outs" sheet that's included in the collection. I did lots of distressing and a bit of machine stitching and called it a day."

♥♥♥

And we've got a fun little prize for one lucky (randomly selected) Sketch participant - the Winter Foliage Stamp Set from Uniko.

Link your Sketch-centric card(s) right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, August 13th. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

SKETCH-tivus for the Rest of Us

We're asking you to get SKETCH-y with us this fortnight. Take a peek at the inspiring sketch Stephanie has created for us and feel free to flip it, stretch it, rotate it, smoosh it or change shapes; just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch in your card!

Here's how we celebrated SKETCH-tivus:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "A tag is the perfect thing for the horizontal element in the Sketch.  My card is made completely from Doodlebug Designs papers, which I love for their bright happy colors."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "A frame is also a nice choice for the focal element in the sketch, and since this one was oriented vertically, I rotated the sketch 90 degrees counterclockwise, but otherwise my card is quite faithful to the original. I filled said frame with sheet music and some supercute stickers, added various washi strips to the beautiful 49 and Market background panel, did a little stitching, et voila!"

♥♥♥

Link your sketch cards right here by 6pm (eastern) on Wednesday, October 9th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2420.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Merry SKETCH-mas

This week at Jingle Belles we're bringing you a Sketch to inspire your holiday card designs. Of course you can flip it, stretch it, smoosh it or change shapes; just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch in your card!

We can't wait to see how this layout inspires you.  Here's what we made:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I combined a collection of festive Doodlebug holiday papers with a fun candy theme, which works for the current Caffeinated Christmas Challenge to create with candy or cookies.  I added an Eyelet Outlet Holiday Coffee Cup & Candy Cane brads, together with a stamped sentiment from Impress."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "As you can see, I changed some of the shapes, but other than that I've been quite faithful. I used ancient Nestabilities Labels for the hex shape (it's an Authentique journal card) and the large rectangle; added a Hero Arts' "Joy" diecut in place of the sentiment strip and dangled a little My Mind's Eye taglet from the Idea-ology flair which is my circle element. As always, I love working with a sketch because it makes life easier; and I love Stephanie's sketches because they're always both beautiful and flexible!"

And because who doesn't love a prize - one lucky participant will receive the Simon Says Stamp / CZ Design Let It Snow Stamp Set & Coordinating Die Cuts (yep both).

Link your own gorgeous sketch card(s) right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, September 20th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2319.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sketch-o-licious

There were fewer entries for our Merry Sketch-mas Challenge, but on the plus side, every single one was outstanding! If you haven't scrolled down to see the gallery, we highly recommend the trip. In the meantime, here were a few ideas we found especially inspiring:

LeAnne Pugliese of Wee Inklings

...used a coordinated line of celestial papers and embellies for a beautifully cohesive look, with a sophisticated palette of greens, gold and white.

Vicky of Vicky's Scrapping Passion

...cleverly made the center diamond into a shaker, then used a beautiful bauble-shaped die to hold a sweet chickadee and an assortment of bead berries.

Patrice who posts on Instagram

...rotated the sketch to landscape format, made a handsome cardinal the star of the show, and added lots of golden touches for an extra elegant vibe.

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who joined our Sketch-mas fun, we loved seeing all of your amazing creations. We'll be back at Midnight for our first prompt of October, so those of you who've joined us before may already know what color of INK we might want you to THINK! ;)

SKETCH-ing in a Winter Wonderland

We've got another week of SKETCH-y fun for you this week at Jingle Belles.

Remember, you can rotate or stretch ... as long as we can see the bones of the sketch in your design.

Here's how we got SKETCH-y this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I rotated the sketch, and placed my focal point slightly off center. I also went a bit mad for plaid, with two different bold green varieties that match surprisingly well considering that they are older scraps from different companies. I trimmed down an American Crafts journal card and overlapped it on one of my oldest dies (Sizzix's Tree, Christmas #2); added some Eyelet Outlet Red Snowflake Bling, Red Star Sequins and a Poinsettia Brad, and called it a (holi)day!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started with a coppery patinaed Gel Press Print and accented with turquoise designer papers and a vintage focal element.  I finished with sticker sentiments and some holly leaves for the corner elements."

Remember, you have until 6pm EST next Wednesday, October 5th to link-up your SKETCH-y design to join the fun.

Merry Sketch-mas

We're getting SKETCH-y at Jingle Belles this week with a Sketch that holds lots of possibilities:

It can be clean & simple or all decked out vintage... cardstock or designer paper or stamps (or all of the above). You can flip, rotate, compress or stretch the sketch... just be sure we can see the "bones" of it in your finished card. We can't wait to see what you create!

Here is how we got SKETCH-y:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with inspiration from the Inkspirational Photo Challenge using kraft, twine, text and some dry wall tape (in place of the lace).  Next I die cut a vintage postcard for the diamond element in the layout.  I used a fun sticker sentiment and finished with red jewels that coordinated with St. Nicholas."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Arctic has been around a while, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that my friend Elisabeth at Paper Anthology was still able to special order it for me! I paper-pieced the critters on the diamond shape in the sketch, where I fashioned abstract layers of sky, snow and water. In my washi stash, I found the perfect grey tape to act as a sentiment. I matted out the design with some silvery Lawn Fawn snowflakes and a bit of stylized graph paper. My diamond got a bit bigger than I planned, so I slightly truncated the sketch, in order to make it fit a 6" square card.

Link your fabulous sketch-inspired masterpiece(s) right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 5th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-20.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Merry SKETCH-mas

It's Sketch time at Jingle Belles, so we've got a beautiful, flexible layout devised by our very own Stephanie Severin to help you design this week's holiday card.

The circle element can of course be any shape, and you're welcome to rotate, flip, or stretch the design; just make sure we can see the "bones" of the sketch in your card. Here's how we were inspired by the Sketch:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I couldn't resist combining papers from adorable Doodlebug Polar Pals Paper.  I added some purple bling to the sky and a sticker sentiment to finish the design."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I *love* card sketches because they streamline the design process so brilliantly, especially if you stick to readymade items. I used wintery Echo Park stickers from last year to make up my focal point, as well as the strong horizontal element up top. For the vertical on the left, I used self adhesive, super-thin wood veneer that came in a roll, which is absolutely my new favorite thing. A couple of coordinating patterned paper mats and some Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads complete the design."

Link your sketch cards here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, March 10th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-05.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

We Wish You a Merry Sketchmas

At Jingle Belles, we're still making cards based on Stephanie's beautiful sketch, and you're still invited to join the fun, which we hope you will!

A reminder that you can swap the shapes, play with the proportions, flip or rotate the sketch, just make sure we can see "the bones" of it! Now here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I've had the pack of Pebbles diecuts from which this sweet snowman-in-a-jar came, for more years than I'd like to admit, lol! I think it's the perfect thing for this sketch, though, so I swapped him for the tag shape. I used suitably winter-ish layers of patterned paper, skinny tape and grosgrain ribbon for the horizontal band and added an Eyelet Outlet Pearl Bling Swirl that I cut apart and rebuilt in a shape that fit better on my card. "

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I love collecting Christmas tags like this gorgeous glittery 3-D one from after Christmas Sales ... and then making them the perfect focal point of my holiday cards.  I paired it with a piece of stunning holiday paper from Dress My Craft Christmas Bells Collection .  I added a Lawn Fawn Die Cut Lacy Border and just like that, this card was done."

Remember, one lucky Sketch-a-licious participant will receive these awesome versatile Laurels dies from Paper Smooches (can't you see how fun it would be die cutting a bunch to make a Christmas Wreath or Tree).

Scroll down to the original post (directly under this one) to see the fantabulous readers' gallery and link up your own sketch-centric creation!

Oh Christmas Sketch, Oh Christmas Sketch

Yep... it's SKETCH-mas time at Jingle Belles, and once again we are lucky enough to have Stephanie doing the honors!

Stay true to the general feel of the sketch, but for example the tag shape can be another shape or embellishment you like; you can rotate, flip or stretch it. Just make sure we can see the "bones" of the sketch!

Here's what we created:

Stephanie Card

Stephanie says, "I fell in love with this Grinch Stamp set from Gina Marie Designs.  I stamped his hand on the green tag and then paper pieced the ornament and sleeve.  I used a metallic pen for the ornament cap.  I added some Eyelet Outlet Clear Swirl Bling flourishes and finished with some EO Holiday Bling in the tag corner."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I flipped the sketch horizontally, and chose a mug rather than a tag, but I think I've done a fairly faithful adaptation. Most of my ingredients are Prima, from the Santa Baby collection; plus a bit of non-holiday paper from Pretty Pale. I used tape for the sketch's horizontal band and a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die for those pink flourishy things, which I thought looked a bit like steam rising off the delightful mug of cocoa."

And one lucky participant will get the awesome Laurels Dies from Paper Smooches.

Link your sketch-inspired creations right here by 6pm (EST) Wednesday, May 6th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:20:09

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Oh SKETCH-mas Tree

We're still making cards based on Stephanie's beautiful sketch, which, if you recall, looked a bit like this:

Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "Last week's card recipe worked so well, I followed it again this week with a glittery star tag and tiny typed sentiment from Hello Bluebird Typed Christmas."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I've done a much looser interpretation of the sketch this week, but i think you can see the "bones", right? Because I finally got my hands on the fabulous Sizzix "Home for the Holidays" die set, with that amazing retro car, so of course I absolutely HAD TO use it. And the shape of the car sort of dictated the shape of my medallion, so I really had to turn it in the other direction on the card. But the great thing about a wonderful sketch is, you can do ANYTHING with it!"

Scroll down to the original post to see all of the amazing cards already in the readers' gallery and link up your own masterpiece!

We Wish You a Merry SKETCH-mas

We're feeling a little bit sketchy at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this fortnight, thanks to the super sketch-creation skills of Stephanie, who's made this beautiful roadmap to inspire our cards!

And here are the cards we made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I always buy fun tags at the after Christmas sales like this cute Yeti to have for card making.  I paired him with a Taylored Expressions Plaid embossed background and a tiny typed sentiment from Hello Bluebird Typed Christmas."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I (finally!) used this beautiful (and frankly hoarded) vintage-inspired Santa illustration from October Afternoon for my focal point, then filled out the rest of the sketch elements with a fussy-cut sentiment banner and some miscellaneous red paper scraps. It's super, super simple and yet I love how it turned out!"

Link your sketchtastic creations right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, May 8th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:19:09.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Do you SKETCH what I SKETCH?

We're still making holiday cards based on Stephanie's awesome sketch and you're still invited to join us! Here's the sketch:

And here's how we were inspired by the sketch this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This is one of the fastest cards ever, because it's not only 00% faithful to the sketch, I've also used all readymade items to complete my card. There are circle icons that I've punched and matted on slightly larger circles, border stickers as a ground for the focal point, and an ancient (but still awesome, imo) sticker sentiment. Easy peasy, and that's another flat/mailable card added to my stack for December!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie say, "My original intention was to my favorite Penny Black Snowman Joy be the three circles in the sketch and have a vertical sentiment from the top ... but he seemed a bit lonely, so I added two penguins from Essentials by Ellen Arctic Pals to join him in the snow and a horizontal sentiment from the left ... so my card is really doing double-sketch-duty."

And now it's your turn to be inspired by this fun sketch. Scroll down to the original post for all the details and to link up your own cards!

Sketching in a Winter Wonderland

We're getting SKETCH-y this week at Jingle Belles ... we think there are lots of possibilities with this fun layout devised by Stephanie:

As always, you can stretch, shrink, expand, contract, flip or rotate this layout to suit your needs, just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch! Here's how we were inspired this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I chose papers from the same collection (Echo Park I Love Christmas).  I sponged ink around the three punched 2 1/2" circles to help cover the white edges (on the red) and tie the designs together.  I finished with a Santa sticker from the same collection, a Christmas rub-on sentiment, and lots of layers to frame the design."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Amongst the many things I love about this sketch, it's a FAB fab opportunity to use a bunch of smaller stamps or stickers, which I sometimes find challenging. In this case, I've brought out my favorite Doodlebug characters, from their 'Here Comes Santa' line. I swapped hearts for the circles, and I've punched them out of my blue snowflake paper, then layered it over some high-contrast red to create little frames. This left me with a rather long rectangle, so I decided on a 'tall card' design."

And now it's your turn! Link your sketch cards right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 22nd. Keyword for galleries or Flickr is JB:18:17. 

An InLinkz Link-up

O' SKETCH-mas Tree

One of the best things about being a fortnightly challenge is that we get to do *TWO* versions of everything... which is something I (Lauren) especially love when Stephanie has drawn us a gorgeous sketch like this one:

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I've said it a million times, but I'll probably just KEEP ON saying it: I loooooooove Doodlebug Designs, especially their Christmas lines! Nearly all the stickers on this card are from them, plus I've got a few festive paper scraps and a couple of adorable Eyelet Outlet Holiday Brads. What else do you need, right?!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "When I finished creating the sketch, I knew I wanted to try a card using snowflakes.  This card features a combination of four colors of felt & glitter snowflakes as well as bling from Eyelet Outlet ... sentiment is a favorite from CatsLife Press."

There's still plenty of time to link up your own gorgeous sketch card, scroll down to the original post for full details!