Mission: Embossable!

There's seemingly no limit to the beautiful and creative ways to combine embossing with holiday cardmaking, as the Readers' Gallery for My Sweet Embossable You shows very clearly. Here are just a few cards that especially caught our eye this time:

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...cleverly (and carefully!) used both white and gold embossing powders on her gorgeous stamped bauble for a two-tone effect we can't stop looking at!

Meg of Bits and Pieces

...used just a strip of debossed snowflakes to add the perfect accent to her innovative stamped, colored and layered images!

Deb Horst of Sendable Sentiments

...made not one but two beautiful cards featuring a fabulous snowy embossing folder and we love the way it adds instant wintery vibes to both designs!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your inspiring cards! We'll be back again at midnight with a brand new prompt that might just seem a tiny bit sketchy... ;)

Embossing Around the Christmas Tree

This week we're still creating cards with Embossing ... it can be texture embossing, heat embossing or both if you're an overachiever.

Here's how we got Embossable this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Since I used an embossing folder last week, I decided to break out my Wendy Vecchi Doodle Christmas set, stamped the poinsettia over an entire background, embossed with Ranger's Vintage Pearl Embossing Powder, and then painted the flowers with Buttercup, Sunflower and Viridian Archival Inks, using a waterbrush filled with rubbing alcohol. I put Sunflower Liquid Pearls in the centers of all the flowers, added a couple of sparkly mats, a bit of White Lace Tape and a suitable diecut sentiment and called it a day."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I used a favorite embossing folder technique this week - brayering red ink on the inside of the Time Holtz Texture Fades Holiday Knit #2 embossing folder before embossing it on a piece of ivory water color paper.  I covered 2/3 of my card with the embossed texture for the Let's Squash It!: Cuz 2 out of 3 Ain't Bad Challenge.  The vintage 2002 wood-mounted sentiment from Double D Rubber Stamps is a long time favorite that I usually use on the inside of my cards, but this time stamped it on more watercolor paper to shine front & center.  I finished with a few wraps of natural twine."

My Sweet Embossable You

This week we're asking you to create holiday cards that feature embossed texture, or heat embossing, or both (if you're one of those extra-credit type of crafters).

Here's how we got *embossable* this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I went with texture embossing this week using the Spellbinders Forevergreen Embossing Folder on Green/Kraft Core'dinations cardstock.  I sanded the embossed texture and then inked the embossed texture with Catherine Pooler Deck the Halls Ink for a bit more contrast.  I attached it with foam tape to a red card base and added two sentiments from Spellbinders Mini Christmas Greetings."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I also went with texture embossing and, in fact, used my oldest embossing folder, Darice's Snowflake Swirl. Since I didn't want to cover up too much of that lovely design, I broke out my newest die set, Spellbinders' Winter Welcome Sled from Paper Anthology, framed it up with a few appropriately colored mats and finished with a sticker sentiment.

♥♥♥

If you choose to accept this Mission: Embossable, link your card(s) up right here, by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, September 21st. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-19.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Rockin' the Retro!

There are so many ways to interpret a Vintage or Retro vibe and we loved seeing ALL of them this fortnight! Here are a few that especially caught our eye: 

Helene aka Mummylade Made in Sweden

...created her mindblowingly lovely scene on just ONE layer by stenciling a white leaf on grocer's kraft, stamping and coloring a tiny perfect winter cabin, and scattering sequins. 

(WOW!) 

Aimslee of Paper Paisleys Art Adventures

...found the cutest ever retro reindeer, added stamping, diecuts and embellies and finished the whole thing off with beautiful, classic Basic Grey holiday papers. 

(PS: the back of her card is equally pretty!)

Majda of Majdinustvarjalninemir

...made two incredibly lovely versions of the same fun sketch, with classic holiday images and EXACTLY the right amount of inking and distressing!

(We LOVE two-fers!!!)

♥♥♥

And now we need to find out who'll be snapping up the fun little vintage Christmas assortment and $15 giftcard from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff!

The random number generator has selected #6 which means that...

Pam Sebring of Crafty Hair Lady

is our lucky winner!

Congrats, Pam!

Please email Lauren at llaurenb @ hotmail.com

to claim your prize!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we enjoyed seeing every single card! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will make a good impression!

An Old-Fashioned Holiday

We're still celebrating cards made with vintage or vintage-style products, or even just themes that have a strong retro vibe. Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I've dipped into my stash of actual old stuff: I made a collage of torn sheet music, vintage book pages and Green Stamps; added Simple Stories washi, and framed part of an Authentique journal card with an ancient Tim Holtz Idea-ology Christmas Vignette Boxtop and sticker. I inked and machine-stitched around the edges, then mounted the whole thing on some Authentique brick-patterned paper and an A7 kraft card."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I found this monochromatic winter/Christmas scene in a vintage Christmas issue of Ideals Magazine.  I sprayed it with clear sparkle spray (that is absolutely gorgeous but seriously refused to show-up in any angle of photograph).  With the sparkle, the Taylored Expression Simple Strips - Christmas sentiment was all I added to the serene scene."

♥♥♥

There's a sweet little prize this fortnight, which comes from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, so if you've been wishing you had some older goodies to play with, you should definitely link up on the original post!

Since it's a week that happened to contain a fifth Monday, you can automatically link up your Jingle Belles card with the Double Trouble Challenge's SomeThing, AnyThing, EveryThing event, since we're on their list of Past Partners!

Walking in a VINTAGE Wonderland

This week we're asking you to create a card that features retro or vintage products, a vintage style, or you can go for extra points and do both.

Here are our Vintage creations for this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Most of the items in my Vintage mailable collage are Tim Holtz vintage-reproduced items (except for the truly vintage S&H Green Stamps & the Simon Says Stamp sentiments).  I love layering all of those items together for a completely mailable holiday card."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've used a fun retro 1950's style journal card from Authentique (one of my fave manufacturers for a vintage vibe; Graphic 45 and Carta Bella are good too!) with coordinating distressed gingham background; plus an ancient paper poinsettia, 7 Gypsies velvet leaves and an MME brad that might have been purchased during the last century. The fun and snarky sentiment are snipped from another journal card; and the ribbon, which is new, from Paper Anthology, was impossible to resist because how often do you get to put red AND green gingham on the same card?!"

♥♥♥

One randomly-selected cardmaker who links up with us this time will win a 

Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment 

and a $15 gift card to choose anything else they'd like 

from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff

♥♥♥

Link your vintage or retro-inspired card(s) right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, September 7th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-18.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sensational Slimline

What a fun and inspiring challenge this was, and once again we thank our lovely friend Lela Meinke for suggesting the Slimline idea, which spurred us all on to stretch... both literally and metaphorically... our holiday card designs! Here are a few that especially caught our eye:

Jolanda Johnstone of The Inque Spot Studio

...mixed lots of fabulously festive foliage with tons of texture, topped with the perfect traditional sentiment for her delightful mini slimline design!

Denise Bryant who posts on Splitcoast

...combined a coffee-loving critter with lots of snowy, inky, wintery goodness, and oriented it all vertically for a slimline version we used to call a Tall Card back in the day!

Barbara Godden of Barb's Creative Corner

...created not one but two mini slimline cards (the second is HERE) using many of the same ingredients but to very different effects. Smart crafting AND awesome design!

♥♥♥

And now let's find out the winner of our Slimline Prize Pack:

The Random Number Generator has selected #13

which means that

Meghan of Made by Meghan K

is our lucky winner, Congratulations!

Please email lauren at llaurenb @ hotmail.com with your snail mail info 

and we'll get that out to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who participated, we loved seeing every card and have bookmarked quite a few ideas to try in future! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that's full of old-fashioned fun!