JB2315: Neutral Noel

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to create holiday cards which embrace a neutral color palette: white, cream, ivory, silver, gold, ecru, black, gray, charcoal, obsidian, brown, tan, kraft, camel, oatmeal, sienna (you get the picture). If you're feeling limited by lack of color, why not think texture? There's burlap, jute, paper bags, cork, chalkboards, sandpaper or lace... Use them all together or chose one hue and rock the monochromatic design  as long as it's NEUTRAL it's in.

Here's what I made for our Neutral Noel:

I raided my well-hoarded stash of Ciao Bella's Snow and the City papers (from Paper Anthology a couple of winters ago) from which I took the bokeh paper, the brick paper and tag; I was even able to make my focal point by punching a circle from the thumbnails on the collection's cover sheet. I mixed in a fabric poinsettia, Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling, some Pavilio White Lace Tape, a Tim Holtz sticker sentiment and lots (seriously LOTS!) of distressing and machine stitching.

Why not head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful Neutral Noel card and start planning one of your own?

SOS488: Winter Fun

If you've already guessed that the new challenge at Shopping Our Stash involves incorporating any fun winter activity (skiing, skating, sledding, snowmen, snow angels, etc etc) into your card then WOOHOO, you're absolutely right, and here's what I made:

My favorite aspect of challenges is that they push me to go in directions I wouldn't necessarily have thought of. The downside of that is: sometimes I discover I somehow have literally NO products that will work for a specific topic. This was one of those times. HOW is that possible?? I own at least 57 Lawn Fawn stamp sets with critters doing every conceivable human activity. Except, as it turns out,  winter sports. Luckily, as I was cruising through my holiday papers to make a Jingle Belles card, I came across the remainder of Ciao Bella's Snow and the City collection from a couple of years ago, and I found this pretty ice skating girl, with coordinating tags and papers. I considered making a holiday card, but then I realized that while these items are definitely WINTERY, they aren't necessarily holiday themed. And since my cousin's birthday is coming up and I really needed to make her a card, I just went a bit wintery and snowy and feminine. The sentiment is from an ancient Paper Smooches stamp set, with a Tim Holtz sticker beneath. I found some really cool glittery, pebbley red paper in my stash and the red sheet music is older Simple Stories. This is an A7 card, which is slightly bumpy because of the seambinding bows, but I really like how it came out.

Be sure to check out all of the design team goodness at SOS and then start planning what you'll link for this "Winter Fun" challenge!

'Twas the Week Before Christmas...

...so there's time for just one more Eyelet Outlet holiday card design! This one has a winter vibe (which seems appropriate on the second official day of that season!) featuring a double row of the beautiful Glitter Tall Trees Tape in the background, and an ornament bedecked with a Deer Brad, some Pine Trees and a couple of Snowflake Brads, dangling from a Jewel Strip hanger, with a small scattering of Snowflake Sequins.

Wishing you a warm and wonderful First Week of Winter!

Neutral Noel

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're creating holiday cards which embrace only the neutral color palette: white, cream, ivory, ecru, black, gray, charcoal, obsidian, brown, tan, kraft, camel, oatmeal, sienna, gold, copper, silver... ok, you get the picture! Use them all together, or chose just one hue and rock the monochromatic design. As long as it's NEUTRAL it's in. Need some texture to replace the missing color? There's burlap, jute, paper bags, cork, chalkboard, sandpaper, lace, metallic papers... so many choices! Here's what I made this week: 

I chose to combine a bunch of different neutrals, mostly from the brown family, with accents of silver and white. My focal image is once again an older Ciao Bella patterned paper from Paper Anthology; I've got some copper-enhanced specialty cardstock with silver metallic mats and diecut sentiment; rounding off with a few Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads and silver Star Sequins. 

Head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's amazing layery tag creation and link your own Neutral Noel masterpiece.

Bling It On (Again!)

We're still celebrating sparkly stuff like beads, glitter, gems, jewels and pearls over at Jingle Belles and we'd love for you to join our bling-based fun. Here's what I made this week:

This beautiful Ciao Bella "Snow and the City" collection came from Paper Anthology the winter before last, but I still really love it... for both cardmaking AND staging! I did a bunch of distressing and layering and then added a metallic diecut sentiment, and a poinsettia adorned with some oversized Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling.

Be sure to head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and then start planning what you'll link up!

Cue Elvis!

Have you been joining the fun of Paper Anthology's 9th Anniversary Party on the Paper Anthology FaceBook page? We've been having a lot of fun and we love that our friends from all over the world are able to play too!

There have been some AWESOME cardmaking challenges revealed so far, now here is my latest, it's called Blue Christmas. Did you already guess that the brief is to create a holiday card which is predominantly blue? If so, you're ready to roll! Here's what I made:

I started with a base of blue chippy-peely woodgrain patterned paper from Craft Consortium's 6x6 Wood Texture Paper Pad, added a fussy-cut snow globe and a couple of pine cones from Ciao Bella's Northern Lights Paper Collection, and embellished with glittery blue foliage using Penny Black's Juniper, Holly Branches and Bountiful Berries dies. I stamped one of the sentiments from Taylored Expressions' Flip the Snowflake set onto Lawn Fawn Pearlescent Vellum, added a Eyelet Outlet Cardinal and Pinecone Brads and called it a day.

I hope you'll join us at Paper Anthology's 9th Anniversary Party, the fun continues through Sunday night! ♥

Happy Mother's Day

...from the gang at Shopping Our Stash, we're making cards that celebrate our moms this fortnight and we'd love for you to join us! Here's what I made:

patterned papers: ciao bella's ducato d'este collection, except the very bottom layer which is authentique; flowers: prima and recollections + some white ken oliver paper leaves; sticky-back pears: eyelet outlet; antique lace trimming from my late mother-in-law's sewing basket; ancient pearl stickpins and also resin flowers: unknown; embroidery floss: dmc; the world's most awesome distressing tool, that alas, they no longer sell: prima marketing; adhesives: elmers brand glue tape, 3m foam tape, hot glue, sewing machine

You'll notice there isn't a sentiment on this card, but I assure you that anyone who knows my mother could immediately peg this as being a card for her! The chickadee... (ok, the Ciao Bella Ducato D'este patterned paper version has a lot of blue in it, but I think he's still a chickadee?) ...the flowers, the shabby chic vibe, the vintage lace, etc, etc, all spell, "M-O-M" from where I'm sitting. The papers themselves are only about a year old, from my lss, Paper Anthology; I'm super glad I bought two sheets of the paper with the chickadee on it, so I could fussy cut one and put it over top of the one on my background panel, like in old-school decoupage. All the rest of the card is seriously stash-centric: the dimensional flowers are ancient, the bling has been around for a bit, the resin flowers are so old I'm not even sure where they came from, and the pale blue pearl stick-pins have to be pre-2013 because I remember very nearly throwing them out when we moved, lol!

Be sure to check out the beautiful and inspirational design team cards at SOS and start planning your own MOTHER of a card! :)

(The Good Kind of) Winter Blues

Have you already guessed the brief at Shopping Our Stash this fortnight? If you're thinking that "Winter Blues" means we want to see winter-themed projects and/or those which are predominantly blue, then YES you are correct. I went with "predominantly blue" though when I look at my finished card, it does feel a bit wintery in a weird way.

patterned paper: ciao bella; "beautiful" sticker: fancy pants; ruler sticker: julie nutting/photo play; navy cardstock: bazzill; embroidery floss: dmc; edge distressing tool: prima; adhesives: elmers brand tape runner; 3m foam tape; sewing machine with coats and clark heavy duty upholstery thread

I have been hoarding this gorgeous Ciao Bella "Broccato Estense" collection from Paper Anthology for about eighteen months. Which... as hoarding goes is not really all that long, but I've been trying to buy less and actually USE IT, so this was just the nudge I needed. In fact the only non-Ciao Bella products here are the ancient stickers and the navy blue cardstock. I added real hand -stitches over the pretend ones on that beautiful journal card, tons of distressing and lots of machine stitching and called it a day.

Hop over to SOS and see what amazing wintery and/or blue projects the crew have assembled especially to inspire YOU! ♥