JB12-02: sketching through the snow!

helllllllo and happy friday the 13th! of course, to me, friday means ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ so they all feel pretty lucky... but this week we are fortunate indeed to have another very lovely guest star, who's also a very good friend AND our first official sponsor of the year, so that makes this friday especially cool in my book.

can you possibly guess who it is? will it help if i mention she's drawn us a rather gorgeous sketch and is offering a gift certificate to her rather fabulous online papercrafting shop to one lucky cardmaker who links up with us this time? howsabout if i show you the sketch in question:

yepper, it's my very dear pixie-in-chief, ms. kirsty vittetoe, come to help us kick off the year in style and i could not be happier!!! if you have a minute, do pop over to JINGLE BELLES and say hi to her, and to stef, and see their magnificent cards, ok? it's worth the trip, i promise! plus you can read the details of the *prize* and hear about a special pixie offer, just for jingle belles!!! ♥

i cannot wait to show you my card. i should say right now, i actually made two, and i like both of them, but i'll post the other one next week and then you can decide! :)

(patterned paper: tim holtz, sei, frances meyer, echo park; florals: irene's garden, imaginisce; vintage inspired card & wordstrip: october afternoon; stickers: fancy pants, mme, 7 gypsies; brads: oriental trading; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

well, heck, kirsty's sketch is--as always--fabulous and thus most of the work was already done for me; but still, i like this combination of red and kraft, old and new, xmas stash and regular... it's all got a certain balance that appeals to me.

of course, the thing that MOST appeals to me right now is getting as many of my lovely card-makin' friends as possible to come and play along with us at JINGLE BELLES!  i'm sorry if i'm starting to sound like a bad televangelist on this subject, but i cannot possibly convey to you how much more *awesome* december 2011 was, compared to the last 5 or 6 previous, and it's because my holiday cards were already finished. believe me, i know ALL the arguments against embarking on a project like this: i wasn't sure i'd have time... but the fact that it was permanently on my schedule each week made all the difference! i wasn't sure if thinking about christmas all year wouldn't sort of "dilute the magic"... but if anything, it MULTIPLIED it! i wasn't sure i could sustain my inspiration for 11 months... but it turned out that for me, the "inspiration-killer" was having to make 50 similar cards in a short period of time; whereas making one per week, to a different theme, was completely revitalizing.

ok, ok,so i will stop (for now, lol) trying to convince you... but at the very least do pop over to JINGLE BELLES and soak up a little inspiration. who knows, you might decide you'd like to give it a try! ♥♥♥