Unicorn Holiday Color Inspiration (week 2)

It's the second week of our Unicorn Holiday Color Challenge at Jingle Belles, so here's a reminder of the palette. You don't need to reference the photo... or the unicorn... as part of your inspiration; just use three (or more) of the colors placed below the graphic. You can add in neutrals, too, of course.

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 in Piggyback, Prom Queen, Love Bomb, Over Zealous and Cry Baby for the lights; with some Black Widow for the cords and sockets.

Then I used 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 from 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.

Be sure to check out Stephanie's latest card over at Jingle Belles. JB2615: Unicorn Holiday runs until next Wednesday evening, July 29th, so you have plenty of time to join the fun!

JB2615: Unicorn Holiday

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, 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. Remember, 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 my card:

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!

JB2615: Unicorn Holiday runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 29th. Link your magical cards on the Unicorn Holiday post at Jingle Belles!

RED-dy or Not

It's time for week two of the Rudolph the RED Nosed Reindeer prompt at Jingle Belles; for which, as you may recall, the brief is to make a card that's predominantly RED!

I am fairly proud of how many scraps of RED patterned paper I combined to make this card (for the record, it's nine); and also the fact that I unearthed and used not one, not two, not three... but FOUR ancient border punches to do so!

There are also eight (RED!) stickers; three (RED!) Eyelet Outlet brads and two (RED!) circle diecuts involved. I sewed around the perimeter to keep the edges on all those borders from curling up and called it a day.

JB2604: Rudolph the RED Nosed Reindeer runs until the evening of Wednesday, February 25th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and link up one (or more!) of your own.

JB2509: Ornamental Color Challenge

It's time for a festive color challenge at Jingle Belles and thus we present a lovely and inspiring palette. This fortnight we'd like to see cards which incorporate at least three of these five colors:

Your card can be of any style, shape or holiday theme, you just need to work with some... (or all, if you're feeling brave?!) ...of these shades! Here's what I made:

As I was puzzling over what I wanted to make, it suddenly occurred to me that one of the things I liked in the inspiration pic is the sidebar with the colors stacked together. I was pretty sure I had scraps of cardstock in all of those colors, and sure enough I did! I found the sentiment on a mini journal card and diecut a Hero Arts Snowflake Cluster from glossy white cardstock to emphasize the winter/holiday aspect.

Be sure to visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and check out the little prize that one lucky random cardmaker will score this fortnight. JB2509: Ornamental Color Challenge runs until the evening of Wednesday, May 7th.

SOS528: Color Challenge

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we have a fun color palette challenge featuring blush pink, rich red and camel; plus you can use neutrals, as well, if you like:

Here's what I made: 

I have a new obsession: imperfect embossing on textured cardstock! (I know, I know, we spend a couple of decades and a bunch of money on the best products & techniques in order to execute perfectly smooth embossing... and then... some of us decide to go completely in the other direction, lol!) This technique was partially inspired by my lovely blogging friend Jan R who often stamps and colors with pencils on textured cardstock and it looks VERY cool; so I wondered if it would be cool to try a similar idea with embossing and imo it came out really well, a bit like faded vintage linens. For best results, I recommend a biggish cover/background stamp (this is an older Impression Obsession Cover a Card called Peony Pattern) and you definitely want a fairly solid pattern, as opposed to just outlines. Then, just stamp using clear embossing ink and emboss as usual and the textured cardstock will the do work of "distressing" for you because the powder will stick to the bumpy parts but not get down into the crevices. The bottom layer of my card pairs My Colors Cardstock in Chamois with Ranger's White Embossing Powder. The top layer is Blush Pink cardstock and to increase the faded/distressed look of the design I used Rose Quartz mixed with Love Letter and a tiny sprinkle of Cranberry for a sort of stippled effect. Since I put so much effort into getting a cool look, I didn't want to cover my background up too much, so I added a bit of inking to the edges of both panels, matted them on the darker red color from our palette and sewed around the edges. A few ancient mulberry paper flowers and an oversized Eyelet Outlet Pearl Brad complete the design.

This color challenge (SOS528) will run until the evening of Monday, August 26th. Head over to Shopping Our Stash and be inspired by the lovely cards our creative Crew have made!

SOS508: Color Challenge

We've got a gorgeous color palette to inspire you this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, from which we'd like you to choose at least three of these rich, autumnal shades to use in your card or project:

photo credit

Having stumbled upon the remains of Dare 2B Artzy's Fall Harvest collection from Paper Anthology a year or two ago, I had most of them together in one place, see?

Then, as it turned out, I also found some Photoplay Fall Breeze journal cards and half a sheet of Echo Park's Celebrate Autumn stickers, all of which coordinated really well together, so this was one of the fastest cards I've made in a while... or at least... it would've been if I hadn't decided to fussycut allllllll those leaves! Which is still considerably less tedious than RAKING leaves, however, so I'm callin' it a win!

Head over to SOS to see what our talented crew have made to inspire you, then start sorting through some of your neglected goodies to see what YOU can link up with us this time! This challenge, #SOS508 runs until Monday evening, November 6th.