yes, i really DID make this card, too!

i realize that if you look at my ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ sketch card from last week, and the one i'm going to show you today, you could be forgiven for thinking they weren't made by the same person; but hey, one of the best things about making christmas cards once-a-week throughout the year (instead of a big, stressy, early december clump!) is that you can try every cool new product, every off-beat idea, and every conceivable style you've ever wanted to have a go at! so i did. :)

(patterned paper: echo park, basic grey; tiny accent and sentiments: funky christmas tags stickerz by EAD designs; santa cardstock diecut: crate paper; tag: basic grey; alphas: american crafts; brad: doodlebug; other: baker's twine, plain white cardstock from staples; adhesives: staples glue tape roller, 3m foam tape)

another reason to go in a COMPLETELY different direction this time is that i really wanted to show off how incredibly flexible miss stephanie's beeeeeeeeeeeeautiful sketch is:

something else i've been longing to do is get back to playing in the monthly color challenge at EAD designs , which i sort of lost track of whilst enjoying all of the summer ICAD fun. now, and of course, when i looked at the august colors...

...i thought, "ooooooooh christmas card!", though i confess i had my doubts about the bright yellow. and then as i scrolled down the eye-candy filled DT post on the EAD blog, i saw this tag of liz's which is not only brilliant (in EVERY sense of the word!) but also: i have those stickerz!!! sitting right in front of me at the time was a piece of dear lizzy "neapolitan" paper with the super-cute faux polaroids on it (including yellow and green ones) which seemed like the perfect frame for a collage of tiny little elements! weirdly enough, none of the "ingredients" i chose had ANY BLACK in them, so i decided to (somewhat uncharacteristically) make my "tie it all together color" be white; which kind of just totally lightens and freshens the whole thing in a cool way, don't you think?

the august challenge at christmas cards all year 'round is "kids' christmas" for which they'd like to see cards suitable for children; whilst at my time to craft they are celebrating "christmas in august", so i'm going to throw this little baby in to both; with a hearty "HELLO" to the talented teams at those sites!

and finally i'm going to link up with miss patrice's 52 card pickup, on her blog the old back porch:

there is still nearly an entire week in which to link up with us for the fab sketch challenge at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ which i hope you'll do ASAP. for one thing, we are always happy to see ya... for another thing, did i mention the prize...??!?!  ;)