We Three Kings

Our Jingle Belles prompt - We Three Kings - is to encourage you to dig into your stash of designer papers (you know you have them!) and use at least three different patterned papers in your card design.

This may happen by cutting into your favorite hoarded pieces ... or  by digging into your scrap pile ... You can combine three different patterns from the same coordinated collection, or branch out and choose unrelated prints that you just happen to love. Be brave, be colorful, and have fun!

Here are the cards we made this week celebrating designer paper:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've actually got six different patterns here, though admittedly some are featured more prominently than others. The MME blue background is pretty obvious. The two red prints by 7 Gypsies from which I've die-cut my "appliqued" quatrefoils are very similar, but one has a shiny accent that adds just a little variety. Pattern number four is the very pale white-on-white by K and Co which constitutes my card base; whilst the last two are snowflakes in my focal point stack: reddish polka dots by Glitz down towards the bottom and pale blue swirls by Basic Grey up towards the top!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My inspiration came from the photo at the Weekly Christmas Card Challenge. I started going through my hoarded 12"x12" papers and pulled out pages that featured reds and pinks (none of which are actually Christmas papers or from the same paper collection). I combined them using this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch. The strips of paper melted into the background design, so I matted them with dark brown cardstock, which helps all of the patterns work together. My focal elements is another pocket card, which makes cardmaking so easy."

Link up between now and 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, October 12th. Keyword for galleries and flickr is JB:14:20.

An InLinkz Link-up

Sketch Stars!

There were so many amazing takes on Amy's gorgeous sketch! You guys reallllllllly made it hard to feature just three, when every single card had some wonderful bit of inspiration; thus we highly recommend a scroll down to the readers' gallery. Meanwhile here are a few we found especially awesome:

Deepti of Dee's Art Utopia

...layered fabulous fussy-cut bells over an utterly dreamy emboss-resist background for a card that's clean and simple in the best possible way!

Kim M. of Art Keeps Me Sane

...used one of the most handsome bird stamps we've ever seen and colored it to look absolutely realistic! (Plus check out those sparkly icicles!)

Tesa B. of Tesa's Scrap

...knows a thing or two about choosing the perfect paper and then letting it do most of the work for you; but her pearls, twine and stamped presents add amazing texture and intersest! 

Once again we thank everyone who participated and offer an especially huge gratitudinal shout-out to the lovely Amy Tsuruta for her inspiring sketch and great company! We'll be back at midnight with a new prompt that may have you hearing the pitter-pattern of little feats! :)

Jingle Sketch Rock

We're still having fun with Amy Tsuruta's fabulous sketch this week ... we hope you'll join us to make one (or two or three?) holiday cards.

Here's what we created:

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie say, "I will confess I've become a bit obsessed with Pocket Cards (Project Life Cards) for cardmaking ... this one was perfect with a bit of flair and an embossed background."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "If you're thinking this is an incredibly *MINIMAL* card for me, you're not the only one! What can I say? Amy T's gorgeous sketch and beautifully minimal cards have inspired me to pare down... for this week, anyway! Apart from anything else, this lovely Christmas-in-the-City scene from October Afternoon's "Holiday Style" collection was just too cool to cover up; to use as large a piece as possible I made a tall card with just a few little embellies added in."

Sketch-tivus for the Rest of Us

Yes, you've guessed it, we're going sketchy this week... and who better to help us with such an endeavor that than our uber-talented lovely guest star and sketch creator extraordinaire, Amy Tsuruta. Here's the beautiful sketch she's whipped up to inspire us:

Here are the cards we've made this week:

Amy's Cards

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "One way you can tell an AWESOME sketch from a merely good one is that you can make a tall card, a wide card, or even a square card, and have them all be equally fab. I went with wide this week because it just seemed to give my diecut sheet music reindeer and his cluster of frilly embellishments a little more room to breathe!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "When I saw the over-layed embellishments in the sketch, I remembered some 3-D ornament gift tags in my stash.  Since they were glittery, I my favorite DCWV glitter papers on the background.  A few snowflake sequins and a tiny holiday sentiment, and this card was complete."

And now it's your turn to make a holiday card using Amy's gorgeous sketch! Link it up right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, September 24th. Keyword for galleries or flickr is JB:14:19.

An InLinkz Link-up

Golden Girls!

We were overwhelmed, in a really, really, *GOOD* way, by all of the glitzy gilded goodness you glorious Belles produced this fortnight, so take a bow, every single one of you! Meanwhile here are a few gold medalists whose cards we especially loved:

Deanne of Three Trees (Paper) Creations

...used vintage images in a totally fresh and fabulous way, with lots of gold pattern, gold distressing and those awesome gold stick pins!

Lee Ann Barrett of Greyt Paper Crafts

...paired (to quote her title) "lots and lots of glitter" with a few gold foil letters in a way that made our sparkle-loving hearts swoon!

Christine Dring of Chrispy's Creations

...went completely monochomatic in a way that makes us wonder why we thought we ever needed any other colors anyway!

Once again we ask you to join us in thanking the lovely Lisa Hausmann for thinking up such a wonderful idea in the first place and then coming along to inspire us with her gorgeous cards! We'll be back at midnight with another lovely guest star who miiiiiiiight just have something a bit sketchy up her creative sleeve! ♥

Gilt Trip

We're still celebrating all things golden, gilded and glittery... won't you join us? Here are the cards we made this week:

Lisa's Other Card

Lisa says, "I wanted to really focus on the incredible die-cuts I achieved with my Cameo by backing the wreath and sentiment with simple white. The star-printed vellum - a total favourite too these days - provided subtle detail while allowing that gold to simply shine off the card."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I love gold foil paper ... but I hate trying to photograph it.  I stamped my Impression Obsession sentiment in Delicata Gold Glitz ink on ivory cardstock and embossed with gold detail embossing powder.  I embellished with two different kinds of gold sequins and framed it in gold foil paper ... golden, glitzy & mailable."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I used the very awesome Cardabilities sketch #106 to guide my design"

Baby, It's GOLD Outside!

This fortnight we're pleased and proud to have as our lovely guest star and prompt-setter the very talented Lisa Hausmann of Recklinghausen Musings! Lisa's come up with a gloriously glimmering theme, she wants to see GOLD! But we'll let her tell you herself:

"I love following scrapbook trends and incorporating them into my own style. The rush to use lashings of gold on our layouts totally had my name on it and hardly a page goes by without a little (or a lot of) gold finding its way on there! So it was only a matter of time before I'd be overloading my cards with gold too. I love how luscious and rich it looks and am thrilled to be sharing my love of gold with the Belles this week."

Since we Belles love anything shiny and sparkly, OF COURSE we were happy to oblige, and we hope you will be, too! Here's what we did:

Lisa's Card

Lisa Says, "I brought together as many gold elements as I could find in my stash to see how many shades and textures I could incorporate onto my card. Sequins, a doily, glitter paper, foil card die-cuts as well as gold letters are a beautiful contrast to the simpler background. I just let the gold do all the work. "

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've got quite a few golden items on my card: the diecut tree is made from doily scraps I've layered with bits of Doodlebug's awesome glitter-encrusted cardstock; the sentiment is one of those super-shiny foil peel-offs; the little velvet flowers have a touch of gold glitter; and finally the background paper in which I've framed the whole thing is a gold filigree print. I've used  Sketchbook Saturday #127 to guide the placement of all my yummy embellishments!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I pretty much went all-out-gold as well ... stamping done with Delicata Golden Glitz Ink ... gold DCWV glitter background paper ... gold sequins ... and snowflakes punched from gold foil paper.   Unfortunately there was no gold ribbon in my stash (seriously, that must be remedied), so I used blue glitter ribbon instead ... layout is from Tuesday Morning Sketches.

So grab your foil papers, your shiniest embossing powder, your golden glitter and sequins or whatever glamorously gilded ingredients make you happy! Link up before 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, September 10th. Keyword for galleries and flickr is JB:14:18.

An InLinkz Link-up