double BINGO!!!

not to be braggy (ok, mebbe just little bit!) but this is one of my favorite christmas cards i've made all year!

(vintage: velvet ribbon and doily; patterned paper: basic grey, kaiser craft, cosmo cricket, prima; floral and leaf: prima; letters: american crafts (altered with distress inks and a glitz stamp; also used on the label shaped panel; snowflake embossing folder and distress inks: tim holtz;  tree die: sizzix; label dies: nestabilities; chalks: pebbles; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

on second thought i don't think it really is being braggy, because the thing that's cool about this card is that i was inspired by various challenges in almost ever respect! first i took some elements from this fortnight's holiday bingo challenge over at jingle belles; i used the bottom horizontal row, but realized afterwards that i also have everything for the middle vertical column, as well:

then i swooned over the elegance  of this week's shabby tea room inspiration, which is called summer cottage (i also added distressing and a prominent sentiment for the same reason):

as it turns the gorgeous colors of the photo above is echoed by this week's challenge at simon says stamp and show, for which one can draw inspiration-- either individually or as a palette-- from tim holtz's new summer distress inks. i added subtle background stamping to my letters and the label panel for that one:

here's a close-up of the collagey panel, so you can see the details a bit better:

finally, for my positioning, i used this week's scrumptious sketch from retro sketches:

and you know i love to share my holiday cards with miss patrice via 52 card pick-up, so i'm linking up there, as well as christmas in summer at challenge up your life!

we ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ hope that you will link up with us between now and next wednesday, because we love seeing whatever everyone's been doing with this fun BINGO game! :)

bingo belles? surely not...

...there's got to be a much better-- but still quick-- way to say, "we're having a bingo challenge at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this fortnight!" or maybe there's not; but either way, we ARE, in fact, having a bingo challenge at jingle belles this fortnight, and we'd looooooove for you to come along and make a card with us. all you need is a little holiday mojo, a few xmassy papers, and this bingo card:

you can choose any row, column, or diagonal, and then you just have to incorporate all three consecutive elements into your card! it's actually quite easy, and totally fun; i had a blast making my own card, want to see it?

 (vintage: seam binding; digital patterned paper: damask tonals by katie pertiet, designer digitals; patterned paper: pink paislee; border sticker and dove chipboard: basic grey; chipboard ornament: k and co; florals: petaloo; bling frame: want2scrap; snowflakes: recollections, jolee's; distress inks: ranger; adhesives: staples brand glue tape runner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

i used the diagonal that runs from top right to bottom left, thus i needed to work in: bling, flowers, and dry or heat embossing. easy peasy, right? i know you can see the first two pretty easily, and i've used one of cuttlebug's little 1/2" wide strip embossing folders to pop up the snowflakes on that pretty sticker strip across the bottom of the card; the folder actually has little star-shaped flowers, but they look enough like snowflakes to work, and although it's hard to see in the photo, in real life it adds a lot of lovely texture!

once i realized the direction my card was going-- with flowers and rhinestones and embossed pink snowflakes-- it occurred to me that i could probably combine challenges and get in on the current inspiration at the shabby tearoom, for which we're instructed to use the colors of the photo, plus flowers and some damask; since i was VERY thrilled this week to have been chosen as winner of their "for the love of books" challenge* with my "dress of paris" card, of course i was excited to thank them, and play along again ASAP! and just look at the inspo pic, for "shabby patterns" it's SOOOOOOO me, dontcha think?!

something else that's very inspiring is this week's offering from unscripted sketches (#172); which i accidentally flipped upside down whilst making my card; of course the thing about a really GREAT sketch, is that tends to look good in any direction, right?!

speaking of excitement, i was totally honored to have received a shout out there last week for my dear mr. deer card, thank you lovely ladies! one of these days i'm going to actually DO the cool "piggyback" challenge when they have it... but sadly... it's not this time, because the lure of pink + damask was JUST. TOO. STRONG! :)

finally, you know i always love to show off my xmas cards in miss patrice's 52 card pickup linkie; plus, this week at simon says stamp and show, there are NO RULES, so you can enter anything at all you'd like... and i quite like this card, so there!

and now why not c'mon over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and try your luck at the bingo game in which everyone is guaranteed to win... the inspiration for one fabulous holiday card!

*not only did i win some lovely digi-stuffs from my time made easy, that i cannot wait to use; i've also been invited to guest design with the shabby girls in november, and i'm super-excited about that!!! ♥