we three (times three)

there's a brand new prompt up at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ today and it's called, "we three kings" although the emphasis here is on the three more than the kings; in that we'd like to see cards that have a grouping of three... somethings. it could be three strong circle elements, three packages under the tree, three adorable reindeer, or... well, you get the picture right? my card has three trees. see?

coincidentally, this next card has three trees, as well. :) i actually cleared out quite a lot of my holiday scraps while re-organizing before christmas, and part of the big clean up was to either toss or diecut any scraps that were too small for anything except tossing or diecutting. i'm hoping that having a little cache of pre-cut items will make "composing" my cards a bit faster; as well as making it possible to sometimes make multiples in weeks where i have more than one idea. so far, that plan seems to be working pretty well. 

because look, here's ANOTHER three trees in the next photo! something else you'll notice is that all of these are fairly flat cards, which can be mailed with just one stamp on them. because my other crafty resolution for 2018 is to try to make more cards that don't cost $3 to mail, lol. (if you've been reading my blog for more than a few months you'll realize that i make this resolution every year, and my good intentions rarely last much past february. but maybe this'll be THE YEAR i really follow through?!)

all of my cards were initially inspired by the sketch half of the current fusion card challenge, but since i freely admit that they strayed away from that pretty quickly, i'm not actually linking up. it's a great challenge, though, and they're celebrating their fourth anniversary just now, so i thought i'd mention it!

i'm probably never going to become a cardmaker who happily mass-produces, but even i don't mind making a few different versions of the same card, so this is a technique you may see off and on throughout the year.

ingredients for all three cards, most of which are made up of scraps and leftover patterned papers including: basic grey, glitz, crate paper, fancy pants, simple stories, pebbles, prima, echo park, creative imaginations; stickers: simple stories, echo park, studio calico; glitter paper: best creation; glossy white cardstock: the paper cut; tree die: echo park: punches: recollections, martha stewart; lace: from my stash; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

be sure to hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see what stephanie has made and link up your own tri-centric masterpiece(s)!

oh no it's the dreaded TIMED CHALLENGE, lol

this week at shopping our stash the challenge is to create a thank you card. but the twist (because you KNEW there HAD TO be a twist, right?!) is that you have to make it in 30 minutes!!! (and YES, you should set the timer!) i am not a fast crafter, you guys. but i did make a card in pretty close to the allotted time, and i do actually like what i made. so i'm calling this a win!

stickers: funny sticker world (critters), echo park (sun + grass), crate paper (pink scallop border), mme (alphas), michaels (tiny puffy hearts); patterned paper: my mind's eye (clouds) + echo park (polaroid); tapes: little b, love my tapes; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

i have to admit that whereas i didn't exactly cheat... i definitely stacked the deck in my favor. i figured it'd be good to use all pre-made ingredients, so i concentrated on stickers and tape. i knew it would be a lot faster to do something i've done before than to think up an entirely new concept, so i gathered supplies to make a little scene inside a faux polaroid. i also felt it was absolutely essential to have a road map, so i grabbed the sketch half of the current fusion card challenge:

i confess that i thought about what i wanted to use in advance, and gathered most of my materials before i started the clock. i chose things that wouldn't involve very much fussy cutting and i didn't do any machine stitching. on the other hand, the lack of the latter is kind of bugging me, so there's a definite chance that i'll go back and at least stitch around the outside of the card before i actually mail this baby. ;)

hop over to SOS to see the amazing... and FAST... creations from the rest of my design team darlings! ♥

it's spooktacular!

being as today is october 31st, i bet you can already guess what we'd like to see at shopping our stash, right? yep! it's EASTER CARDS!!! hahahahaha! sorry. just kidding. howsabout a much more sensible request like one more halloween-themed card, tag, page or project? here's mine:

patterned paper: dcwv, bella blvd +american crafts POW glitter paper; cardstock diecuts and sticker strips: bella blvd; kitten and pumpkin brads: eyelet outlet; glossy black cardstock: ranger; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

most of my goodies are pre-made on this one, thanks to a fun and timely bella blvd halloween bargain at peachy cheap. i did manage to work in some ancient ombre paper (with the bats and moon on it!) and a couple of brand new, super-cute eyelet outlet brads, as well. i used the sketch portion of the current fusion card challenge, which is called "autumn leaves".

there's lots more fabulous freaky halloween goodness to be had from the SOS dt... why not hop over and enjoy that right now, darlings? ♥

a bit sketchy

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is called, "that's sketchy" and i bet you've already guessed that we'd like you to base your card (or layout, or ATC, or tag, or any other type of project) on a sketch. and it can be any sketch you like, whether it's a current one from sketch saturday, atlantic hearts sketch challenge or any other current site you love; or an archived one from a late great challenge like mojo monday or 2 sketches 4 you!* just be sure to show the sketch in the same post as your project, so we can see how amazingly well you've interpreted it!

for my cards (bc YES, i made two, lol!) i used the sketch half of the current fusion card challenge, which looks a bit like this:

the reason i made two cards is because i'm slightly obsessed with the new tim holtz metallic kraft core cardstock i got at paper anthology, and i had more than one idea i wanted to try out. my first card uses the gold colored cardstock, embossed with a doily-patterned folder, dabbed with gesso to make the doilies stand out more. my second card uses a strip of the silver cardstock, embossed with a diamond pane folder, then sanded to expose the kraft, and dabbed with black ink to get a grungier look:

as a matter of fact, i still have a few more ideas of what to do with this fun cardstock... because as soon as you say, "metallic" the words, "alcohol inks" kind of naturally spring to mind, don't they? i will definitely show the results when i've had a bit of a play with that idea!

metallic kraft core cardstock: tim holtz/idea-ology; embossing folders: cuttlebug/provocraft + darice; patterned paper: american crafts; poinsettia: petaloo; cardstock: core'dinations, ranger; map + vintage car illustration from my stash; gesso: liquitex; ink: ranger archival; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, hot glue, sewing machine

meanwhile, there is lots more sketchy goodness from the DT over at shopping our stash. why not give yourself a treat and go check it out?!

*back in the day, 2 sketches 4 you was my favorite sketch challenge site, and i secretly still miss it, lol! ♥

wave your flag!

seeing as how this week's challenge at shopping our stash falls right on the fourth of july, we've called it "flag day". ...BUT... because this is the WORLD WIDE WEB, and we'd like everyone to be able to play along, we're asking to see a card or project that features the colors of your flag... whether they be red, white and blue for the USA; red and white for my canadian friends*, or indeed ANY combination that represents whatever flag you love best! ♥

flower flourish stamp from sheena douglass' "taste of india" set, circa... 2014?; patterned paper: creative imaginations; cardstock: coredinations; washi tape: red=little b, blue=unknown which is a shame bc it's cool, right?; florals: prima, petaloo, creative imaginations; gem brad: oriental trading; 

being american, i went with red, white and blue, but i wanted to use up some gorgeous... and ANCIENT** ...flower embellies, as well as some blue lace washi tape that's so old it dates to before i got wise and started writing the manufacturer's name*** inside the disc! thus, i decided to see what i could do with the colors without bringing in any overtly patriotic themes. and i have to say i'm pretty happy with the results. plus... i stamped AGAIN!!! that's twice in one week you guys!!! for this i used my all time favorite stamp set, sheena douglass' "taste of india" which stephanie gave me for my birthday a couple of years ago (2014 maybe??) and which i probably use more often than any other non-alphabet stamp i own. in this case, i've stamped the corners of some well-hoarded, elderly notebook patterned paper, using first faded jeans distress ink, and then (when that wasn't quiiiiite as prominent as i would've liked) i offset the same stamp, and stamped again in cobalt archival... resulting in a sort of shadow effect that i want to remember to try again, but ON PURPOSE next time, lol! :)

i used the sketch and the colors from the current fusion card challenge:

meanwhile my SOS dt sisters are ROCKIN' their respective flags... head on over and treat yourself to some eye candy, k?


*happy canada day, eh?! ♥

**the velvet flower brad is from a store that i KNOW closed like 5 years ago, and i don't think i bought that packet in their closing sale, either! ;)

***dear washi tape manufacturers, please to put your name on the little mounting roll thingie, so that we know who made it AFTER we've tossed away the packaging. thank you scotch/3m brand for already doing this!!!

all that glitters...

...is (wait forrrrrrr ittttttttttttttt) *GOLD* of course! which is what we want to see at shopping our stash this week. if you're anything like my own magpie self, that will be an occasion for great joy and rapture... right up until the very second you have to photograph your card. and then not so much, lol.

patterned paper: my mind's eye, glitz, basic grey; white kromecote cardstock: the paper cut; burlap dogwood flowers: prima; brads: october afternoon; doily from my stash; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots

so yeah. once again i've got a picture that not only completely fails to convey a primary element of my card, it's actually the element on which the challenge is based. excellent. most of my papers are from the couple-of-years-ago "my story" collection by my mind's eye, though; so basically, everything that looks tannish-kraft color in the photo (the sentiment, all the arrows, a few touches on the butterflies, etc) is metallic gold, honest. here's a sideways shot, that kinda sorta illustrates that point:

i've used both halves of the current fusion card challenge, which is always fun, obviously:

for more inspiration (and really lovely photos!) check out those golden girls known as the SOS design team right now, darlings!

SOS279: warm and fuzzy

there are a few ways to go with this week's challenge at shopping our stash. when we say "warm and fuzzy" you could pretty much incorporate anything from a fireplace, to a cosy sweater (ugly or not, lol), a cup of hot chocolate, even warm hats, scarves or mittens. like these:
 

plaid pattern painted with chartreuse, terre vert and olive green color burst on strathmore watercolor paper, outlined with a faber-castell pitt artist pen (XS nib); mitten shape achieved by printing out a piece of mitten clipart sized for a 4x6" photo and using it to cut out the 2 mittens, back to back; traditional patterned paper: studio calico, crate paper, my mind's eye, american crafts; sentiment strip (trimmed from a journal card): lawn fawn; old skool, out of print letter stickers that are still my ALL TIME favorite alphabet: basic grey; ink: colorbox; felt and vintage buttons from my stash; adhesives: elmers brand tape runner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, needle and thread (for the tiny buttons) sewing machine

if you're on instagram, you might've seen this photo last week, i was painting plaid patterns using all my favorite shades of green and blue colorburst:

i'd been thinking they'd be good backgrounds for xmas cards, but then i had the mitten idea, so i printed out a piece of clip art and used it as a template. then i added a little bit of felt trim, a connecting string* made of yarn, and a couple of tiny vintage buttons.

then i looked for an AWESOME sketch, and found one at fusion card challenge. btw, i thank the lovely fusion ladies for the shout-out on my tiny stickers card from last week!

check out the warm, fuzzy creations from my amazing DT colleagues at SOS, it's totally worth the trip, i assure you! :)

*neatly gluing down that 6" piece of yarn was by far the most difficult and time-consuming part of the entire card. true story. :0

SOS277: gobble til ya wobble

if you've guessed that we'd like to see thanksgiving cards at shopping our stash this week, then you're absolutely right. "but what if," (...you might be thinking...) "i don't send thanksgiving cards, or i do send them, but i'm canadian so i sent them two weeks ago when it was actually thanksgiving for me?" well then, a general thank-you card will be absolutely awesome. in fact, that's what i've made. see?

tiny stickers: funny sticker world and my little friends; patterned paper: prima, basic grey, my mind's eye, echo park; large and small journal cards: simple stories; brads: october afternoon; brackers: oriental trading; fabric flower sticker: american crafts; washi: freckled fawn, love my tapes; alphabet stamps: freckled fawn (colored with prismacolour pencils); ink: ranger archival and colorbox chalk; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

i'm kind of pleased with this one (she said, modestly) because not only have i used up loads of older stash, i've actually solved a problem that's been bugging me for a while. i love stickers, especially teeny kawaii cute stickers, but i never quite know what to do with them. so they accumulate. but this time i not only used the bear, the bunny and the cloud, i think i sort of figured out how to make them the stars of the card. so you'll definitely be seeing more little "sticker scenes" i think. (woohoo, eh?!)

i used both halves of the fusion challenge, or at least, i was inspired by both halves. i've clearly used the sketch, and in quite a straightforward way. as for the primary colors, i started out with the intention of using yellow, red and blue... but somehow i wound up with mustard, fuchsia and aqua. so there you go. i've used one-and-a-half halves of the fusion challenge. kinda. 

do pop over to SOS to see what the dt have done... it's worth the trip, i promise! ♥

the belles, the bellllllllllllllllllllles!!!

we're still ringing out the xmas cheer at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and you still have plenty of time to link up a bell-based card! here's what i made this week:

holly brads: eyelet outlet; journal card with bells and sentiment sticker: simple stories; patterned paper: basic grey, doodlebug + a scrap of vintage sheet music; kromekote cardstock: the paper cut; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

the fab bell image was actually on an oversized rectangular pocket-scrapbooking card, but when i saw the current fusion sketch, i was inspired to trim it into a circle instead. i did a bunch of machine stitching, added some super-cute eyelet outlet holly brads, and painted a bit of pewter liquid metals onto the center of the bells for a cool shimmer effect that... alas... can only be seen irl!*

despite a massive flooding event in cedar rapids and the mandatory evacuation of both her home and office this week, the amazing miss stephanie has still produced a gorgeous card which you can see over at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥. leave her a little love too, k?! ♥

*you're all invited round to see the card in person, i'll put more coffee on, shall i? 

it's a THREE-fer on TWO-sday!

yes, i have *three* blog posts today, if you scroll down you can see my guest DT post for the current retro rubber challenge, and below that, the fab project i made for the eyelet outlet blog this week! meanwhile here comes my regularly scheduled post for shopping our stash. this week's challenge might be a toughie for some of you hardcore stampers, because we don't want to see ANY stamping this week; instead we'd like you to, "cut and paste" by which we mean swap out your stamps in favor of diecuts or stencils or BOTH! c'mon... it'll be fun! here's what i made:

patterned paper and florals: prima; black and white tape: scotch; leaf stencil: penny black; distress ink: shabby shutters and peeled paint; label die: nestabilities by spellbinders; black glossy cardstock: ranger; machine stitching uses coats and clark heavy duty upholstery thread in black and the highest number of stitches-per-inch on my sewing machine; adhesives: elmer's brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots

i happen to love stencils and diecuts, so i've got both on my card. the former involves my favorite leaf stencil and a few shades of green distress ink; the latter uses one of the many label shape nestabilities, which i still consider to be one of the best papercrafting tools of all time! i've incoroporated both halves of the current fusion challenge into my card, because heck, they're both pretty awesome, right?

since i knew i wanted to place everything according to the sketch, i made a few light marks where my focal point/label would go and then started stenciling the leafy background to emerge from behind it. the plain leaves definitely had great shape and color, and they resembled the inspiration photo quite nicely, but there was something missing. i mention this because i think it might help anyone who is longing at this point to grab their stamps; the thing that i thought was missing was definition... so i added some outlines, by machine stitching around one set of the leaves and adding veins to the other. you could also do this with a pen if you don't like to sew. either a plain outline, or faux stitching would work!

to give the leaves even more interest, i borrowed a trick from hand-lettering, which is to add a drop shadow to one side of each letter, or in this case, to one side of each leaf. i use a grey tombow brush marker for this; at the moment my favorite shadow color is N60, which is just the right color and intensity of blue-ish grey, imo.

there are lots more beautiful "cut and paste" creations from the design team over at SOS. do stop by and check those out, won't you, darlings?! ♥

layers? again??!

yep, coincidentally, on the same week as the dreaded/awesome one layer challenge at SOS, it turns out that our brand new ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ prompt is "all bundled up" for which we'd like to see cards with at least three layers! go figure. so there's layery challenge goodness for both minimalists AND maximalists, woohoo! here's my take on the latter:

uber-cute santa tag: target; patterned paper and journal card: pebbles; bingo card: jenni bowlin digital kit, printed on kodak premium photo paper; tape: heidi swapp, october afternoon; black glossy cardstock: paper accents; corner rounder: we r memory keepers; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

being a fan of layers, myself, this card was a lot faster for me to put together. also, it helped that i used all ready-made items, such as the cute sentiment and pre-printed bingo card. but my ace in the hole was the suuuuuuuuuper-cool santa, who started life as a gift tag, an entire package of which i acquired in the holiday giftwrap section of target in december (...for like... $3??) and then promptly forgot all about, until the box literally fell at my feet whilst i was looking for something else. sometimes the gods of crafting just smile upon us, eh?

another way the gods of crafting are both bountiful and generous is by providing a brand new fusion card challenge every few weeks. i only used the sketch half of this one, but i wouldn't rule out a second attempt that uses the cool flowery "pretty in pink" mood board, either:

meanwhile stephanie has a gorgeous card to show you at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ so i'll let you hop over and check it out!

beachy keen

this week at shopping our stash the challenge is entitled, "i'm dreaming of a warm _____" and your assignment is to fill in the blank, then make a card based upon your answer. need some examples? ok, howsabout a warm blanket, a warm bath, a warm hug, a warm cup of coffee (or tea) or even, if you're like me and in the midst of a northeastern us winter, you might be dreaming of a warm beach!

watercolor beach and hibiscus done using ken oliver's color burst pigment powders on strathmore watercolor paper; patterned paper: my mind's eye, crate, recollections, prima; sticker: creative imaginations; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; clear gems recolored with a copic marker: recollections; adhesives: elmers brand glue tape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

the current fusion card challenge is called "woodland neutral" but alas, despite the total coolness of the theme, i didn't do the inspiration part this time, just the sketch, which is equally fab, however:

i'm pretty pleased with my color burst watercoloring this time, especially because i resisted the impulse to pencil sketch first AND to black outline at the end. not that there's anything wrong with either of those, but when i feel like something is starting to become an unbreakable habit, i start feeling slightly nervous. plus, it's good to change things up once in a while, don't you think?

meanwhile there is more warmth and goodness awaiting you at SOS in the form of projects by my amazing DT sisters. go forth and enjoy those, won't you, darlings? ♥

SOS235: 3...2...1!

it's a recipe challenge at shopping our stash this week, i love those, don't you? it's kind of a modified version, though, for maximum flexibility. we're calling it "3...2...1" because we want to see (sorry if this is obvious!) three of something, plus two of something, plus one of something. does that make sense? let me clarify by showing my own card, which has three flowers, two patterned papers and one hand-painted cuppycake:

patterned paper: dcwv, recollections; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; florals: prima, making memories; brads: recollections, mme; cupcake painted with artist's loft watercolors on strathmore paper, outlined with faber-castell pitt artist pen in xs nib; ink for edges: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i'm jumping in just under the wire on the fusion 2nd anniversary challenge (happy birthday, you guys!) because --as always-- they've got a fab sketch and a cool inspo pic, and i was able to use both, so this was the quickest card of the year, lol!

need more inspiration? b/c the SOS design team is rockin' it... but then... they always do, darlings!

only 359 days til xmas...

...time to get started on those cards, people!!! :) :) :)

ok yeah, that sounds completely nuts, but it is actually what we're doing at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ starting today! Because ridiculous as it may seem, a sane december starts in january; by which i mean making ONE holiday card per week, instead of 50+ in a big stressful clump at the busiest time of the year. so for our very first prompt of 2016 we give you: "something old AND something new" for which we'd like to see (...wait for it...) a bit of brand new crafty SOMETHING (that you got as a present, maybe?) and something that's been in your stash for a bit. here's what i made:

something NEW: gorgeous red damask Hambly transparency that stephanie found for me (despite those having been OOP for a couple of years!); and some Petaloo burlap flowers that maaaaaay have been a little gift from me to me when re-ordering adhesive online. something OLD: an illustration from an older, falling-apart holiday children's book from which i'm rescuing the pretty pictures, a scrap of october afternoon plaid and some ancient red velvet paper on which i've used my scallopped decorative scissors!!! (how's that for old skool?!) :) adhesives: elmers brand gluedot runner, 3m foam tape, mini gluedots, sewing machine

i got quite a few lovely crafty holiday gifts, so it was kind of hard to choose (best "problem" ever!) but amongst a box of gorgeous goodness from miss stephanie, there was this amazingly pretty scarlet damask hambly transparency, and that thing was just callin' my name! i used both halves of the current fusion card challenge to inspire the rest of my design:

and yes, i may have gone a little crazy staging my card in front of some of my holiday decor, so here's a closeup that you can really SEE, lol:

of course, we won't consider the official 2016 holiday cardmaking season OFFICIALLY open until we see all our lovely friends over at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ so why not stop over, check out stephanie's gorgeous card, and start planning one of your own?! and HAPPY NEW YEAR, darlings! ♥♥♥

no, i didn't set the challenge this week...

...at shopping our stash, that is. and in fact, this particular challenge, in recognition of the fact that it spans american thanksgiving with all of its lovely family, food, friends, football and other assorted ♥AWESOMENESS♥ is going to span two weeks, so we've tried pretty hard to make it extra-fab! i mention this because you may think when you hear that it's "no stamping" that it kind of sounds like my idea, lol. but no. it was a nice "freestyle" assignment for me, though. especially when i remembered i haven't gotten to play with the fusion gals in a bit (so that gave me a nice little jumpstart); but let me show you my card and then i'll tell you about it:

patterned paper: basic grey; colorburst powders (pre-mixed and used like especially blendy watercolor paints): ken oliver crafts; harlequin stencil: tim holtz (filled with faber castell "whipped spackle", highlighted with viva inkagold in soft pink, made a little more opaque with a white AC galaxy marker); outlining pen: faber castell pitt in XS; grey marker for shadows: tombow; white glossy cardstock: paper accents; watercolor paper: strathmore; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape runner, sewing machine

i did use both halves of the current fusion challenge, which is called "warm welcome". the sketch is off-the-charts cool; the colors are perfection (admittedly i "pinked them up" a little bit, lol!); the handwriting on the pumpkin was a great excuse to practice my hand-lettering (and machine-stitch outlining); and the flowers inspired me to watercolor with colorbursts, which is always fun.

head on over to SOS to see loads more gorgeous "no stamping" projects and leave a little love for my DT sisters! and remember you'll have *TWO WEEKS* to link up your very own masterpiece! ♥

claus and effect

we're still celebrating santa OR making holiday shaker cards at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ with our lovely friend marianne's theme, "shake it, santa baby". won't you join us? this week, i focused on the man in the red suit:

i used the current sketch from fusion card challenge; though not the nautically nice theme, obviously:

need a little more xmas inspiration? check out marianne's and stephanie's cards, not to mention the shake it, santa baby reader's gallery at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥!

this whole card was basically lorraine's idea

at least indirectly. you see, when lorraine, of paper vernissage, my fellow crafty jersey girl, saw the emboss/resist card i made for sos a few weeks ago, she said the mandala stamp i used reminded her of a snowflake. so when i was thinking about what to make for the second week of our embossing prompt at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ i decided to stretch the idea even further and see what would happen:

mandala (or snowflake, lol) stamp set: sheena douglass for crafter's companion; inks: several shades of blue distress ink by ranger and purple pigment ink by colorbox; white glossy cardstock: paper accents; holiday/winter sentiment sticker: SRM; purple patterned paper: anna griffin; snowflake stickers: stickopatomus; felt and gem snowflakes: hero arts; adhesives: elmer's brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine

i was playing around with a few different color palettes, but when i saw the gorgeous blue and purple tones of the new "floral fusion" board at fusion card challenge, i was smitten. i'd hoped to use the sketch, as well, but i wound up liking my background so much that i decided not to cover it up.

strangely enough, this was one of the easiest stamping adventures i've ever had, and one of the hardest card-making scenarios. which, for the record, is the reverse of what usually happens to me. but it turns out that when you don't really stamp that much, and you suddenly come up with a pretty cool background, you can totally psych yourself out about "ruining" it, lol! eventually... (by which i mean, "after literally trying every other idea in the entire universe that could possibly involve snowflakes"!!!) ...i just went really simple, enhanced one centrally located snowflake, and made a little pennant for an SRM sticker sentiment:

i'm happy with the end result, and would actually consider making a few more versions of this if i need some extra cards in december. i like that i could make them all the same in terms of design, but all unique in terms of colors and blending. plus-- except for the silly dithery bit in the middle-- it was really fun to make.

speaking of fun... you should totally go and check out the cards miss stephanie AND our lovely guest star steph c have made at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥. i'll give you a hint: they both feature embossing!!! :)