Tic-Tac-Toe Triumph

Possibly the only thing more fun than playing Treeskirt Tic-Tac-Toe is seeing the amazingly creative ways our fellow Belles have used the Tic-Tac-Toe Board to inspire their beautiful cards. Every single one is worth a closer look, so we highly suggest a scroll through the Readers' Gallery, but in the meantime, here are three that especially caught our eye: 

Jenn Borjeson of StampinAngelJenn

...didn't just rock the Tic-Tac-Toe board in ONE direction, she's got two complete rows (die cut/red or green, heat embossing on the diagonal; and heat embossing, ribbon + stamping going down) as well as a boatload of  adorability and style!

Trina of Phamtastic Design

...also pulled off an impressive double play... on a CAS card (top row - snowman, glitter/bling, dry/heat embossing & bottom row - die cut/punch, santa, stamping) and made our jaws drop by virtue of her fabulous stamping, masking and coloring skills!

Crystal O. Minkler of Tawny Owl Paperie

...took the board straight down the middle with Glitter + Red or Green + Santa; then gave us the best and most elegant version of all three!

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Special Note:

If you LOVE holiday card challenges as much as we do, please be sure to check out our friend Jo Avery's fun, fresh and fab Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the current theme is FRIENDSHIP and we (Lauren and Stephanie) are honored to be the Guest Elves!

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Many thanks to all who played along, truly every card linked up was an emphatic winner of this fun Tic-Tac-Toe game! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new challenge we hope will prove to be a manly splendored thing! ;) 

Saint Nick-Tac-Toe

We're still playing a game of Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe this week; here's a reminder of what the board looks like:.

Here is how we played the game this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I chose the right-hand vertical column, which gave me: Dry or Heat Embossing + Ribbon + Stamping. I'll admit I did that partially because I unexpectedly rediscovered my Dina Wakley Soaring embossing folder and once I saw it, I HAD TO use it immediately. My ribbon is of the gorgeous, pink, semi-sheer May Arts variety (which I think you'll agree stages really well!) And finally, my stamping is just the sentiment (from Taylored Expressions' Flip the Snowflake set) but I chalked up a second type of embossing by using Ranger's lovely Pink e/p. I diecut Hero Arts' Snowflake Corner twice (from pale pink and also silver glitter cardstock) and added a single Eyelet Outlet 1.5" Snowflake Bling to give it even more sparkle."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started with the BYSH Cardmakers Sketch and decided to go diagonal down from the top left side with dry embossing, red/green and a die cut.  I used the Penny Black Geometric Embossing Folder for my wavy panel (using the debossed side) and then I die cut using a stitched hilly landscape die on each side.  I used a red and green color palette featuring a Penny Black Woodland Splendor Stickeroo image (for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge Things with Wings) and finished with some enamel dots and a stamped Penny Black Banner sentiment."

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Scroll down to the original Tic-Tac-Toe post to link your card(s) today!

Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe

This fortnight, we're playing Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe, which is a bit like "Beach Blanket Bingo"... but much more Christmassy... and with a lot more embellishments! We'd love for you to join us; all you have to do is pick a row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) and create a lovely new holiday card featuring all three elements in that row. (Please note that you can, of course, use more than one snowman, more than one diecut, etc. etc.)

Sound like fun? We thought so! Here's how we played the game this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I went with vertical down the left side with a Snowman Die and a Flower adorning her cute little cap.  Dies and Stamps are all Memory Box with one of my woodgrain Gelliarts prints used for the arms ... and of course, I never pass up and opportunity for googly eyes."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose the center horizonal row, which gave me: Flowers + Red or Green + Ribbon. I couldn't wait to use my new Simon Hurley Festive Holly Layering Stencil set for the "red or green" portion; I used Simon's Iced Out and Tropical Tango Stellar Inks for the holly leaves and stems, with Prom Queen for the berries. My "flowers" consist of the single white silk poinsettia I had left, stacked with two layers of Tim Holtz's Tattered Poinsettia die, which I cut from deep pink felt and held on with an ancient holly themed brad. For "ribbon" I used two different patterns from an older set of Doodlebug Design holiday ribbons. At the very end I sewed around the perimeter (those ribbons are ON THERE lol!) and added a couple of mulberry paper ivy leaves of unknown origin."

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JB2616: Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe runs until 6pm (Eastern) on the evening of Wednesday, August 12th. Link your totally terrific Tic-Tac-Toe cards right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Unicorn Magic

We had so much fun creating cards with the fun Unicorn Holiday color palette, and we're glad to see that you did, too! Every single entry is most definitely worth a look, so we recommend scrolling back to the original post and checking out the FAB Readers' Gallery. In the meantime, here are three cards that especially caught our eye this time: 

Meghan of Made by Meghan K

...used all of the colors, not to mention an amazing selection of adorable patterns; with an extra award for terrific coloring skills!

Cindy Major aka @encrepapierciseaux on Instagram

...not only used all the colors from the board in this super-detailed nutcracker diecut, she also managed to combine several different challenges very impressively!

Charmaine Stack of Tweedcurtain Productions

...creatively blended three of the colors to make the sky behind her handsome snowpeople look like the Aurora Borealis; bonus points for an excellent take on the postage craze!

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Many thanks to all who played along, we hope you loved this fun palette as much as we did. We'll be back with a brand new prompt at Midnight... when we'll let the games begin! ;)

Unicorn Colors Christmas

This week we're still asking you to create a holiday card using at least three of the colors from our Unicorn Holiday graphic. You can also be inspired by the image, but it's not required!  Neutrals (brown, black, white, kraft) are also allowed. 

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I couldn't decide between recreating Stephanie's amazing card from last week or using my new Simon Hurley create Tangled Lights Layering Stencil Set; so I did a bit of both! I used Simon's Inks for the lights; and a set of nested dies to make the four graduated circles from Stephanie's design. I considered a yeti... or a narwhal... even Hello Kitty; but in the end I chose the snow person in Simon's North Pole Sentiments set from Spellbinders, and had fun dressing him up using scraps from the same colors of cardstock that make up the circles."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I cut cardstock from four of the colors into 3/4" strips for my angled card base.  I used the fifth color for Santa's hat and the stamping ink.  I'm also linking-up my card up at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers X is for Xmas in July, since I believe Simon Says Stamp Santa Man dies paired with sentiments from CZ Design's Sassy Christmas are the perfect snarky fun."

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Scroll down to the original post to link your Unicorn Holiday cards.

Unicorn Holiday

This fortnight we're asking you to create a card that is made using at least three of the colors from this fun Unicorn Christmas color palette from Artsy Fartsy Life (your card does not have to be inspired by the image, but certainly can be as long as it includes at least three of the five colors) … additional neutrals are allowed.

Here's how we used those colors this week.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started by using the darkest color to accessorize my adorable little Lawn Fawn Winter Yeti adding a Santa Hat from Lawn Fawn Hats Off to You (that I've embarassingly had FOR-ever and never used).  I embossed the Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake Backdrop on the other four colors cutting out circles for my background.  I finished with an outline Happy Holidays sentiment from Lawn Fawn Offset Sayings. I'm also linking-up this cutie at the Lawn Fawnatics Christmas in July Challenge."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I was excited to find this ancient piece of SEI "Twitterpated" striped paper which had all of the colors in the palette! Then I pulled out some pale green paper to coordinate and grabbed some diecuts and stickers from the serendipitously matching Simple Stories' Snow Pine Lodge collection. Finally I added Eyelet Outlet Poinsettia and Holly Brads for a little extra texture. Et voila!"

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JB2615: Unicorn Holiday runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 29th. Link your magical cards right here:  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Stars of the Stars and/or Stripes!

How fantastic to see so many gorgeous Stars OR Stripes designs in the Readers' Gallery. We thank the gang from the Double Trouble Challenge Blog for including us in their Christmas in July festivities; and Try a Sketch on Tuesday for not one, but two fabulous layouts. As always, we're grateful to our regulars for linking up such inspiring cards. Whether you've just found us or are an old friend, we hope you'll keep in mind that we post a new holiday card prompt every fortnight, January through November, and you're welcome to come and play along as often as you wish!

Now, without further ado, here are three cards that especially caught our eye:

Le Anne from Wee Inklings

...made us say, "Hooray for the red, white and GREEN!" in a big big way; we love the bold simplicity of her CAS design!

Kim Crouch of Tuff az Nailz

...included stars, stripes and SNOWFLAKES in a patriotic palette of red, white, blue and neutrals; while combining the Double Trouble Recipe and one of the great sketches from Try a Sketch on Tuesday!

Debbie B of Paws to Scrap

...stenciled a red and green peppermint stripe sky as the perfect background for her adorable reindeer-driven holiday train to traverse. Bonus points for her amazing coloring skills, too!

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Many thanks to all who participated, we loved seeing every single card. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will color you happy! ;)