jingling our stash??!

this week my two favorite blogs... ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and shopping our stash, obviously... are teaming up to give you one assignment with two link-ups and a chance at two lovely prizes. sound good? i thought it might, lol. i bet you can almost predict what we're going to ask for, can't you, darlings? especially if you remember a similar team-up we did last year? yepper, the jingle belles part is to make a christmas card (well duh, lauren!) and the SOS part is to use something from your stash that is at least a year old; oh yeah, and you need to tell us what that item is, so we can marvel at how cleverly you've used it! in my case it was reallllllly easy because, as you know, i have TONS of old stuff and i love to use it up, so apart from my glossy white cardstock cardbase, every single thing on this card is at least 3 or 4 years old... minimum... and some of it's nearly old enough to vote!!! :)

furthermore, since miss stephanie and i had the very great pleasure of spending crafty time together last week at my house, the two of us decided to add a little *extra* level of challenge to our own cards by using the exact same stamp. which DEFINITELY qualifies as senior stash, being as how it's from D.O.T.S. --a stamp co that's been gone for at least a decade; and the stamp wasn't new then! i confess that this part of the gig was nearly my undoing because stephanie is almost always more organized than i am, and is absolutely always a faster worker than i am, and she got in first with a gorgeous card that just happens to use two of the ideas i'd been counting on: handmade colorburst papers and lots of bling! so i had to get creative... or rather... more creative!

one of the first things you notice about this stamp is the fact that it has a bunch of horizontal layers within the tree. what would happen if i stamped the tree on several different scraps of green paper and pieced them all back together at the end? as a matter of fact, the results were super-cute, but when my tree didn't quiiiiiiiiite fill up the green panel, i thought i was sunk. and then it hit me: if i was adhering separate layers to each other anyway, why did i have to stop at just four? so i didn't! problem solved.

i've used the layout of sweet sunday sketch #285 to guide the placement of my stash-based schtuffs. i was fairly faithful, apart from the fact that i played with the proportions of the elements!

there are two places to check out more SOS + JB design team cards this week; namely shopping our stash and ♥JINGLE BELLES♥. so off you go for lots of extra inspiration! 

what ho? seriously?!

ok, the coolest thing about older "found" items is they are unique and wonderful; but sometimes, that means they really show that they're most definitely of a different time. like this vintage postcard that i scanned and used as the centerpiece of my second ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ "old fashioned xmas" card:

vintage postcard (scanned and printed on hp semi-gloss photo paper) sheet music and doily from my stash; patterned paper: pink paislee + the paper co; cardstock: core'dinations; florals: prima; brad: oriental trading; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

ok, so, yeah: i'm pretty sure i've never made a card which contained the phrase, "what ho!" as part of the sentiment. very sure, actually; and have no plans to change that policy in future. but just look at the font, and the way the sentiment is set off in its own little rectangle, then there's the beautiful snowscape, the fun skier, the muted impressionist background of the mountains... well, the whole package, really. i thought it'd be hard to pair with papers and things, so i planned to just mount it on some vintage sheet music and maybe a solid mat, but about 10 seconds into my search i found the admittedly elderly scrap of plaid pink paisley paper that literally had all the same shades. woohoo. or what ho, even, lol! :)

i used sweet sunday sketch #278 to guide my layout, because, well, it's totally awesome as you can see:

just in case you need one more look at that sentiment, here you go, in a closeup:

and now i absolutely guarantee you want to hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see stephanie's card and remind yourself there's a prize on offer to someone who links an "old fashioned christmas" card with us this fortnight! ♥

all bundled up!

don't worry, it's still SPRING out there in the northern hemisphere!!! we're not piling on extra clothing at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this fortnight, instead, we're adding lots of layers to our holiday cards! so bring on your matted shapes, extra embellies, lots of overstamping because we want to see cards with three or more layers of... well... something! here's my card:

(patterned paper: mambi, my mind's eye; journaling cards: webster's pages (which i shaped into an oval) and making memories (which i trimmed down a bit); plain white copier paper and cardstock: staples; floral: petaloo; "merry" chipboard: my mind's eye; deco scissors (!): michaels; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, "hey lauren, this is actually pretty restrained for you! in fact, i bet this will actually fit into an ordinary envelope with a little bit of coaxing!" and you're right, i played it pretty low key this time and went with lots of flat paper mats to prove a point: you can make an eight layer card and still mail it!!! so there's no excuse not to give this a try, right? and heck, if you want to pile on lots of lovely lumpy bumpy things* you can always send that card along with a wrapped package that you are posting, or just hand it to your lovely recipient in person!

helping my design process this week was the current sweet stop sketch, which is rather fab, i think you'll agree?

speaking of all things "rather fab" miss stephanie has a very lovely card to show you, why not join her at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to check it out?

*stay tuned for my card next week, i have a feeling it might be a bit of a record-setter, lol, to make up for being all sensible this week! :)

this one's even vintagier!*

by "this one" i mean my latest card for our vintage-style christmas card prompt at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and by "vintagier" i mean that it has even more awesome elements than the one i made last week. want to see? please note: you're welcome to say no, obviously; but such a course kind of messes up the rest of my plan for this post, which revolves around your having seen the card. no pressure, though... :)

ok, so here's the card!

(vintage bits: ideals magazine page + doily; patterned paper: daisy d's and pink paislee; gold and vellum poinsettia: prima; gold press on sentiment: best creation; adhesives: scotch gluestick, staples brand gluetape runner, low temp hot glue, sewing machine)

the background is part of a page from an old christmas "ideals" magazine. i was lucky enough to be given a pile of these when my uncle's mother died a few years ago, and i am utterly in love with their funky charm! the illustrations are probably my favorite part. these little bunnies were actually at the bottom of a page from which i had already cut a larger and more prominent element, and it was frankly hard to see *HOW* i would use the oddly shaped bit that remained, but i couldn't bear to throw them away. this week i found them again and was STILL puzzled how i could use 'em... until... i saw sweet sunday sketch #193, and everything fell into place!

and now i think you should head over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ because stephanie's card is to die for!!! oh yeah, and you could link up to win a fabulous prize, as well, which is always nice, too! ♥

*yep. i've OFFICIALLY run out of good blog post titles. hoping for a weekend special at big lots. :) :) :)

sweet sunday sketch guest designer!

i was super-excited last week to learn that my vintage-laden "dress of paris" card was chosen as a winner at the sweet sunday sketch challenge, and even happier to learn that such an accolade earns one a guest spot with their uber-talented design team, the sweet sunday stampers! first let me show you the sketch, because it's fab and i know you'll want to play along:

and now here's my card, i've even STAMPED for this one, can you spot where?  (un hint: ou est c'est la tour eiffel?!)

(vintage: sheet music; patterned paper: basic grey; perfume label sticker: laughing elephant; eiffel tower stamp: hero arts (stamped on a scrap of 3m inkjet printer transparency with stewart superior india inkpad) dimensional sentiment sticker: pink paislee; diecuts: k and co; florals: prima; brads: my mind's eye; pearl flourishes: want2scrap; fabric tape: love my tapes; washi tape: recollections; adhesives: scotch gluestick, staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape)

lest you think i'm so intrepid that i stamped fearlessly right on top of my fancy french perfume label, let me assure you, there's a TRICK: i stamped in permanent ink on a scrap leftover from an inkjet printer transparency sheet, then cut the image out; thus i was able to take my time in choosing where i wanted to add it in to my collage! (note: because you'll be stamping on the reverse side of the transparency-- the pebbly bit, that's designed to hold the ink-- if your image has text it'll be BACKWARDS when you turn the sheet over!) luckily the eiffel tower is pretty symmetrical, so the "flipping" issue was no problem for me.

something else which is never a problem for me is adding in lots and lots of layered embellies; au contraire; in fact, that's kinda my best thing, lol! :) here's a close-up so you can see my collection of diecuts, fabric florals, brads, pearls, fabric tape, and... well... there's a little bit of everything, all stacked up on some lovely vintage sheet music!

i used the palette (and the aforesaid flowers!) for the current color throwdown (#208):

being generally, as you know, a big user and aficionado  of "light red" (lol, sorry, leslie!) i was pretty excited last week to discover a an entire card making blog being run by fellow fans of that color, called in the pink! this fortnight the challenge is anything but square, and you have to go see the absolutely drool-worthy cards being posted over there!

in the meantime, i hope you'll head over to the sweetest thing and grab this sketch, see miss karen's gorgeous card, and check out the rest of the AMAZING design team cards! then start plotting and planning your own card so that maybe ♥YOU♥ will be the next guest sweet sunday stamper!!! ♥