Here We Come a-WASHI-ing

We're still celebrating the many joys of decorative tape, and there's still time for you to link up a tape-centric card (or cards, plural!) for a chance at the fun prize from our lovely sponsor, Eyelet Outlet, so please scroll down to the original post for full details and to link up your own masterpieces!

Meanwhile, we're very excited to have another of our Eyelet Outlet Design Team cohorts joining the fun this week: please welcome our amazingly talented friend, Dawn Mercedes Barrett; she's made two gorgeous cards and there are even more lovely things to see on her fabulous blog, Sunnyside Up, so be sure to check it out!

Here's what we all made this week:

On her first card, Dawn Mercedes used Glitter Green and Glitter Gold Tape as well as Pearl Flourishes; her second card features Holly Brads, Ornament Brads, Wreath Brads, Red and Green Pearl Bling Strips plus a few varieties of Holiday Washi Tape that were exclusive to the Eyelet Outlet Booth at a recent trade show-- another great reason to be sure to visit EO in person when they come to your part of the country with Scrapbook Expo or CKC or other craft shows! ♥

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I used two kinds of glitter washi (glitter red & glitter green dots) both from our sponsor Eyelet Outlet.  I covered scraps of cardstock with washi and trimmed the pieces to work with the sketch at The Paper Players.  Instead of a circle, I used a black chipboard ornament that I decked out with adhesive white jewels."

Lauren's Other Card(s)

Lauren says, "The 'quilt squares technique' (for which there are more details on my blog) is one of my go-to's for tape because it's easy, it comes out differently each time, and you get to combine a whole bunch of tapes! Here I've used Holiday Dots, Ornament Washi, Pink Foil with White Dots, and Music Notes; I've added Bumpy Heart Bling and Pink Flower Jewels to stacks of Red and White Paper Flowers as well as a few Pearl Strips."

Be sure to scroll down to the original post for full details on the challenge, the prize and how to link up ♥YOUR♥ holiday tape creations!

Walking in a ♥WASHI♥ Wonderland

We're thrilled to have a fantastic sponsor joining us this week, please join us in welcoming... Eyelet Outlet!

We (Stephanie and Lauren) both have the privilege of being on the Eyelet Outlet Design Team, so they provided both of us with Washi Tape to use on our cards, as well as a prize for one lucky participant that will include these adorable holiday sock monkey brads, as well as red glitter washi tape (which Stephanie used on her card this week) and holiday glitter brads. Of course, one of the best things about being on a great design team is getting to meet the other team members, and we're pretty excited to have our fellow EO designer, Barry Snarr playing along with us this week. Be sure to check out the fabulous creations on his blog, The Prince of Paper, and leave him some love!

Meanwhile, here's what we created for our WASHI wonderland:

Barry's Card

Barry used these cool Eyelet Outlet goodies on his card:  

Glitter Silver Washi Tape, Glitter Dark Blue Washi Tape and a Snowflake Brad  

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I used the gorgeous red glitter washi tape (which is all of the sparkle & none of the mess) together with stippled gem brads and a blingy flourish to decorate a journaling card.  I added silver shimmer paper and a blue card base to match my wrap of twine using this week's Retro Sketch."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Eyelet Outlet's ornament washi tape might be my current favorite, but don't tell the other tapes, ok?! ;) It inspired me to make some baubles similar to the ones on the tape. The green one has a base of patterned paper, adorned with eyelet outlet paper flowers and clear edge bling; the golden one is made of plain white cardstock, gussied up with glitter gold washi tape; and the third is composed of holiday dots washi tape applied in neatly lined-up strips, to make an all-over pattern. For hangers I've used white pearl strips; I also have smaller pearl strips in red to highlight the original piece of tape I started with. I knew exactly how to arrange everything because I used the super-cool current (#408) Sketch Saturday!"

Now it's your turn to grab your favorite washi tape (deco tape, glitter tape, packing tape and fabric tape are also fine!!!) and make as many gorgeous new holiday cards as you feel inspired to create! One lucky card-maker who links up with us this fortnight will be randomly chosen to win the super-fun Eyelet Outlet prize described above. Deadline is 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, May 4th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:09.

An InLinkz Link-up

The Happiest Earth Day Ever!

We always love the cards from this prompt ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and once again you've astonished us with your creativity and cleverness!  Here were a few eco-friendly designs which especially delighted us this fortnight:

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...saved some gorgeous Chirstmas giftwrap and re-used it as a beautiful background!

Jane Willis of Onions and Paper

...upcycled this gorgeous (SPARKLY!!!) bauble-shaped tag to dramatic effect!

Donna Digby of DAT's My Style

...re-used ribbon from a holiday package to make that lovely red ribbon accent!

Many thanks to everyone who played along!  Please join us once more in thanking the amazing and talented Kathe Deck for thinking up the original idea in 2011, and for coming along to be our lovely guest star once again this fortnight! ♥♥♥  We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt AND a fabulous new sponsor, so we hope you'll join us then!

Joy to the EARTH

We're still celebrating cards made with re-cycled, re-purposed or up-cycled elements and there's still plenty of time for you to join the fun! Scroll down to the original post for full details and to link up your eco-friendly holiday cards! ♥

Kathe's Other Card

Kathe says, "I saved the outer wrapper from my Stampin' Up! 2015 Occasions catalog, even though it didn't really match anything, because it had this cool design inside, and you know, free designer paper! After the catalog expired, the 2016-2017 In Colors were announced, and this paper is a perfect match for Mint Macaron - so glad I saved that wrapper!"

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "It just so happened that the day after we started this prompt, I was given a rather large collection of assorted paint chips! So of course it seemed like the perfect thing to diecut a little forest of trees to adorn my card. I didn't want to bring in too many other elements, so I made a hilly foreground (vintage paper scraps covered in part of a doily) and a snowy sky (a scrap of ancient SEI paper and half a packet of dollar-store snowflakes) popped on a diecut sentiment and called it day!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I up-cycled several pieces of packaging that were almost as pretty as the embellishments they contained (see my blog for the before picture).  I also up-cycled a 3-D sticker that was attached crookedly by dis-assembling it and using foam tape to put it back together.  The finishing touch was using-up a vintage package of snowflake stickers."

Peace on EARTH (day)

Those of you who have followed us over the years know that we have a special place in our hearts for EARTH DAY.

So our EARTH DAY prompt each year has been all about RECYCLING ... and we'd like you to create a holiday card that features re-cycled, re-used or up-cycled elements.  You know you've got that stash of things that you saved because they were just too pretty to throw away ... break them out and create with them.

In the past we've used everything from Kleenex Boxes & Soda Cans to Gift Wrap and we *always* have a lot of fun making our own cards and admiring yours! Something you may not know is that this prompt was suggested in the very first April of our Jingle Belles adventure, by the wonderful and talented Kathe Deck, who has jingled along with us since the very beginning, so it seemed only right to ask her back as our lovely guest star once again, and we thank her for joining us this fortnight!

Here's what we recycled this year:

Kathe's Card

Kathe says, "I made this card using tissue wrap from a Christmas gift given to me by a friend in 2014. I used the same tissue for a card I made in January 2015, and I remembered to send the card to the friend who gave the original gift. This year I added a snowflake medallion cut from a Christmas card; I think it was one of the business-to-business cards I brought home from work."

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "In case you didn't know, Lauren is the best present wrapper ever.  When I got a little box wrapped in this gorgeous wood bark paper, I removed it extra-carefully so I could recycle it for a rustic holiday card.  The paper was so pretty, all I had to add were a few vintage chipboard pieces for my design."

(To which Lauren replies, "Thank you" and blushes a bit!)

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My mom is also a pretty great present-wrapper, and gold paper in the background here is giftwrap from one of my xmas gifts from her; it was fairly thin so I smoothed it out and Xyroned it onto some plain white cardstock to make it a little sturdier. The mat behind that cool vintage-style Santa illustration is a bit of packaging from the yummy blue burlap ponsettias! The leafy gold thing is actually a vintage applique for sewing; it's HEAVY and needed quite a few gluedots to secure, but I absolutely fell in love with it, even before I realized how perfectly it coordinated with the gorgeous Eyelet Outlet Glitter Gold Washi Tape that makes me swoon every time I use it!"

And now it's your turn to create a little re-used, re-cycled or up-cycled EARTH DAY magic on your holiday cards! Link them up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, April 20th. Keyword for galleries or Flickr is JB:16:08.

An InLinkz Link-up

Santa's Extra-Nice List

There were so many cool cards featuring the awesome gang from the North Pole, we had a really hard time choosing! No need for a "naughty" list in these parts, that's for sure! Here are three cards that especially caught our eye:

Sybrina K of Chapter Three

...fussy cut the cutest Santa ever, then glossy-accented him (yes, that IS a word!) to make him shine, both literally and figuratively!

Donna of CrafDee Donna

...wins the prize for most handsome reindeer by virtue of meritorious coloring AND picking exactly the right patterned papers!

Debbie Yoder aka Swidebbie on SCS

...shows that when you're the man in the red suit, you don't need much in the way of embellishment; afterall, three-fifths of "CLAUS" is "CAS"! ;)

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we *LOVE* seeing what you'll make! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt, a lovely guest star, and possibly even a bit of trash talk! ;)

Santa Claus (and friends) are Coming to Town

We're still celebrating Santa Baby this week ... as well as his various North Pole friends.

Here's what we created.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "A few weeks ago I posted a card that made use of a super-cute Santa gift tag I got at a discount store last December; as it happens, they had a variety of fun tags, so I may have stocked up a bit, lol. This Santa is another of those, actually he's two more of those; the nice thing about having multiples is that you could... say... fussy cut Santa's cute glittery face out of one tag and pop it up on top of another tag to give the whole thing dimension. So I did! I used the current (#405) Sketch Saturday layout, which is pretty fab, isn't it?"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "When I started out with this Holiday Grumpling, I initially thought he was a reindeer (that's what I get for not wearing my reading glasses) ... then when I put on my glasses & started coloring those antlers, I realized he was a Moose.  Oh well, I'm pretty sure there's at least one grumpy Moose at the North Pole, so I decided to stick with him ... especially since he is decorated (at least half-way) for the holiday.  Layout is this week's Sketch from The Paper Players."

Scroll down to the original Santa Baby post for complete details and to link up your gorgeous creations!