Stars of Stripes!

So pleased to see how many people are jumping in and celebrating Christmas in July, we loved seeing all your starred and striped creations! Here are a few that especially caught our starry eyes:

Marina of My Perfect Life

...not only incorporated stars AND stripes but she's managed to make a holiday card that is entirely red, white and blue but still looks Christmassy! Quite a feat!



Imke Ludwig of My Crafty Place
...made her card completely from scraps and leftovers; and has also made us fall in love with her beautifully elegant copper, black and white color scheme!


Lisa J of Snowy Moose Creations 
...combines traditional holiday hues, a beautifully stamped and colored image AND a trifecta of perfect papers. What more could we possibly want?
(Ok, maybe some cocoa with whipped cream...)

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single card! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope you'll think is picture perfect! 

Warm and Cosy

It's hard to notice the chilly weather with so many amazing and unique cards in the gallery for, "Baby It's Cold Outside" if you haven't scrolled through both pages yet, we highly recommend treating yourself to that eye candy! Meanwhile, here are a few creations that made us feel especially warm and fuzzy!

Babs of My Way of Crafting

...stamped the handsomest snowdude imaginable in his winter finery, but it's the gloriously blended inky tag which takes this one to the next level in our opinion!

Sonja of Na obisku pri Oldpunci

...not only dressed her adorable Shining Star in a sweet Santa hat and scarf, she actually made that cool stencil herself as well! 

Izzy Scrap of Addicted to Stamps and More

...takes "FLEECE NAVIDAD" to bold new heights with an adorable sheep in winter garments AND a fleece fiber xmas tree!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single card you shared with us! We'll be back at midnight with our last brand new prompt of 2019, we hope you'll consider it a banner occasion! ♥

♥In the Pink♥

PINK CHRISTMAS is always our favorite Jingle Belles theme of the year and you guys definitely did not let us dowm. Not only were there LOTS of cards, each and every one was beautiful, unique and heart-warming. Counting the "extras" by which there were extra cards within a single post our grand total this year was:

64 CARDS!!!

With a donation of $2 for each card from both of us (Lauren and Stephanie) that means we are able to donate to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation a grand total of...

$256.00!

For which we thank all of you, who made it possible!!!

♥♥♥♥♥

Now let's take a look at a few of the linked up  PINK CHRISTMAS cards which made us especially happy this time:

Sharon B of Sea View Scrapping

...showed us that pink can be incorporated literally ANYWHERE on your card: the sentiment, the eyelets, the bear's scarf and even the sky are pink on her fun and festive card!

Allisa of Rocky Mountain Paper Crafts

...combined her beautifully elegant ballerina pink baubles with a sketch that resulted in an utterly dreamy CAS card! 

Shawna of The Grand Stampede

...proved that pink and black can be just as lovely and feminine as pink and white; and ever so much more dramatic!

♥♥♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, whether you made one card or LOTS we loved seeing them all... and adding them into our total for an awesome cause! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will be deer to your heart! ;)

Peace and Love

Many thanks to everyone who gave PEACE a chance this fortnight, it definitely resulted in some incredibly lovely cards! Here are a few that especially caught our fancy this time:

Rosi of Daenys Creations

...proves that black and white are anything but boring with her simple and beautiful stamped and masked creation. (We *love* that cool hand drawn frame, as well!)

Lisa J of Snowy Moose Creations

...created a peaceful holiday scene that is taken to the next level (or possibly the level after that!) by Expert Level coloring!

Sherri Thacker of Sherri's Blog

...has created a sweet, whimsical, quirky card we are entirely smitten with: a Moose driving home for a peaceful Christmas in his purple convertible. We vote YES to that! :) :) :)

We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt, for which you'll have more than eight crazy nights to participate! ;) 

Tag-A-Licious!

So many beautiful tag-centric creations in the gallery this fortnight. As always, you guys made it VERY difficult to only feature a few, but here are three that especially tickled our fancy:

Julene of Julene by Design

...layered a small circle tag onto a larger rectangle tag with all the trimmings. We are definitely in favor of tags-on-tags!

Epie of Cards by Epie

...made not one, but two, beautiful and intricate tags that tuck into a specially-made pocket card!

Sue Crease of Paper Pleasure

...broke the mold of ordinary rectangles and circles with this extraordinary BELL-shaped tag creation!

Many thanks to everyone who participated, we truly enjoy seeing EVERY SINGLE CREATION! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new theme; we hope we can count on seeing you then!

True Blue

We're totally in love with all the amazing creations in the "Blue Christmas" gallery. If you have not yet scrolled through, we highly recommend the trip! Meanwhile here are a few cards which have us "singin' the blues" in a very very GOOD way:

Bonnie of Stamping with Klass

...created this sparkly CAS masterpiece with glitter paste and a stencil. We've decided all stars should ALWAYS be teal blue now!!! 

(We also want to try her awesome "embossing powder around the edges" trick, ASAP!)

Shani Thomas of Paperesse

...is a girl after our own hearts when it comes to LOTS of lovely layers! She's also got a knack for pairing a fun stamp with absolutely the PERFECT sentiment!

(In English, the text translates to "Warm Wishes" lol!)

Shelly Schmidt of My Creative Rumblings

...paired crisp white diecut images with an amazingly blendy, inky, artful background that makes us want to get out ALL our inks and PLAY for the rest of the day!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who participated, we love seeing ALL of your creations! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt, we hope you'll tag along... ;)

Photo Finish

So many lovely cards linked up this fortnight. Many thanks to all who played along with us, we love to see what you make! Here are a few cards we thought interpreted elements of the inspiration photo especially well:

Brenda B of Brenda's Scraps of Life

...combined gorgeous wood veneer, lots of luscious gold and fabulous foliage to really sum up everything we loved in the inspo pic!

Marina of My Perfect Life

...made an amazing CAS card that manages to evoke both the color palette and also the "rustic glam" vibe of the decor in the photo!

Joanne Travis of Sleepy in Seattle

...worked in many of the wonderful shades and textures of WHITE from the inspiration photo, plus a touch of gold; and the bonus of that utterly adorable reindeer!

And of course we're all longing to know who scored that fun little prize package, too. According to the fine folks at Random.org the lucky number is #16 which means our lucky winner is:

BARB G!

please send your snailmail address to lauren (at llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com) to claim your prize!

We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope won't leave you feeling blue... ♥

Terrific Trios

The only "problem" with the amazing gallery full of Tic-Tac-Toe cards is that it made it harder than ever to only choose three to feature. Luckily... they didn't have to be in a row, lol! Here are a few we especially loved:

Jane Willis of Onions and Paper

...created a sparkly confection of a card that just makes us pretty sure we need EVERY. SINGLE. PRODUCT she used. (Especially that cool frame which is the perfect place for LOTS of bling!)

Donna Whitten posting on SCS

...made several beautifully stamped and incredibly colored creations that incorporate exactly the right amount (in our opinion) of embellishment!

Tammy A of My Craft Central

...made two beautiful versions of the same adorable snow-folk card; which illustrate REALLY well what a difference it makes just to change colors!

Many thanks to everyone who played along with us this fortnight! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope you'll think is picture perfect! ♥

The Write Stuff

It turns out there is no *bad* way to get texty at the holidays... which made it extra hard for us to just choose a few type-centric cards to feature. We highly recommend a scroll through the readers' gallery to see all the gorgeous cards. Meanwhile here are a couple of faves:

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...capitalized on the envelope-like shape of a recent card sketch, by adding text paper, embossing and the sweet stocking to her clever card!

Marianne of Marianne's Cards 'n Stuff

...strategically cut her text paper to make the perfect window for those beautifully glittery trees and super-fun baking paper snow!

Robyn of Waterlily Cards

...proves that CAS cards can be loaded with texture and interest, by virtue of embossing, tiny gems, and the most elegant sentiment ever!

♥♥♥

We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope won't have you looking for an Escape Claus! ;)

A Very Very Merry Sketchmas!

Many thanks to everyone who played along this fortnight and made such *BEAUTIFUL* versions of Stephanie's sketch! You definitely make it very, very hard to choose just a few cards to feature, and if you haven't had a good long look through the Sketch Gallery yet, we definitely suggest an inspirational stroll! Meanwhile here are a few cards we especially loved this time:

Kathe of Kathe's Adventures

...made two glorious CAS masterpieces, it was extremely hard to choose just one, so you should definitely click through and see the other!

Aimslee of Paper Paisleys Art Adventures

...combined a bunch of amazing ink-centric techniques (you should really go read her blog post!) with some gorgeous vintage style collage elements to make her beautifully artistic card!

Jenni (aka Mom2Two) of Wish I Was Scrappin'

...also made two completely wonderful cards using tag shapes she cleverly up-cycled (our favorite technique!) from store-bought cards received last year! 

We'll be back at Midnight with a good old fashioned brand new theme, we hope to see you then! ♥

It's a THREE-for-all!

So many clever and beautiful trios in our "We Three Kings" gallery! You guys always make it really, really hard to feature just a few. But here are three that especially tickled our fancy this fortnight:

LeAnne Pugliese of Wee Inklings

...fielded a trio of trios: three gorgeous Authentique patterned papers, three stars, three enamel dots... there is not one single thing we don't love about this card!

Cornelia of Stempel Spass (Fun Stamping)

...went three for three as well! (We love this trend!) Three happy reindeer, three beautiful funky trees and three jewels on top, all on a gorgeously vibrant neon green background!

Loll of Stamping with Loll

...has only one trio, but what a fabulous one it is: three of the most handsome snowmen ever, with a bonus in the form of that beautifully watercolored sentiment; so dreamy!

♥♥♥

We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt which we definitely hope you will treasure and not trash!

The Shape of Things to Come

Sooooooo many gorgeous entires in the Shape Up gallery prove that beautiful holiday cards come in ALL shapes and sizes. Here are a few that we thought were especially clever:

Bobbi's Treasure

...used beautifully simple silhouetted shapes within a distinctive frame for a card that's a STAR by anyone's standards!

Irene M of Irene's Scrapbook

...placed this beautifully colored bird on a clever half-moon shaped card, which makes this a LITERAL Rockin' Robin!

Beverly Sizemore of Bev's Creative Path

...made SEVEN amazing and unique shaped cards that each made us say, "WOW!" but it's hard to beat a card shaped like Santa on a motorcycle, don't you think?!

And of course we're all wondering who won that fun Ink Road stamp set as well, right? The fine folks at Random.org have decreed that *10* is the lucky number, which means that *Brenda B. of Brenda's Scraps of Life* is our Lucky Winner! Brenda, please email stephanie at smilystef @ aol (dot) com to claim your prize! (dot) com

We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will get glittering reviews! ♥

That's a *WRAP*!

I don't suppose it's a huge surprise that our fellow card-makers also love to save bits of pretty giftwrap and tags to reuse. Which makes it even more fun to marvel at all of the creative and beautiful ways you've found to USE such bounty! Before we show off a few cards that made us especially happy this fortnight, here's a little badge we made for occasions such as this, in addition to the more generic version on the sidebar.

And now here are some cards that especially ROCKED, in our humble opinion:

Rose of My Happy Place

...used a surplus-to-requirements clear Treat Bag to add an extra-clever shaker element to her fun and festive card!

Bonnie of Stamping with Klass

...shows that you can feature just a tiny bit of leftover giftwrap -in this case a snowman's face- and make it the centerpiece of a CAS masterpiece!

Sue Culotti aka Gregzgurl on Splitcoast Stampers

...reminds us that copper giftwrap is every bit as lovely as silver and gold; as well as impressing us with her amazing abilty to perfectly photograph such a shiny, reflective card!

Of course we're all dying to know who won the prize that was on offer this time, right? According to the fine folks at Random.org the lucky number is #100 so that means our lucky winner is...

♥Kathe D!♥

CONGRATULATIONS!

Please send your snail mail address to 

Lauren at llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com 

to claim your prize!

We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt... in every sense of those words! :)

Bloomin' Awesome!

It seems we are not the only cardmakers in the world who looooove to create with holiday blossoms. A quick glance at the Mele Kalikimaka gallery very clearly shows that absolutely every card was enitirely gorgeous! Here are a few that especially tickled our fancy:

Robyn Oliver of Waterlily Cards

...combined stencils and diecuts in a way that sings with CAS perfection!

Maria of Rieslingmama

...used a variety of bright, beautiful shades to instantly make this impressionist poinsettia stamp feel totally tropical!

Janie Rinta of The Crafter's Castle

...proves that amazing Christmas flowers can come in ANY color, including this luscious shade of denim blue!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single card! We'll be back with a midnight snack for your creative appetite! 

In the PINK! ♥♥♥

We *ALWAYS* love the kindness and skill that goes into all of your amazing PINK CHRISTMAS creations, and this year is definitely no exception. If you haven't yet treated yourself to a thorough scroll through the gallery, please do, there is soooooooooo much inspiration to be found, we really did have a very hard time featuring just a few cards, which we'll get to in a minute.

But first, we know that everyone is longing to hear how much money you helped us raise for the Breast Cancer Reasearch Foundation! Counting posts with multiple cards... (for which we thank you VERY much indeed!) ...there were a grand total of *69*! We have both pledged $2 per card, which means we multiply 69 x 4 and come up with $276! Thank you so very much to EVERYONE who participated and extra special thanks to those who linked more than once, we are so grateful for your help each year! ♥♥♥

And now just a few shout outs to some of our faves:

Jerri of Coloring Outside the LineZ

...says she wasn't sure about *PINK* penguins at first. Jerri, we had no such doubts, they are AWESOME,! ♥

Bonnie of Stamping With Klass

...was worried that this amazingly lovely creation might not have enough pink in it, but we beg to differ! Granted it's just a splash... but it stands out all the more against the gloriously textural white!

Viv of Viv's Visuals

...created this serene but sparkly minimalist masterpiece on which we just cannot stop feasting our eyes!

Once again MANY thanks and a big WOW not just for the number of cards, but the fact that each and every one was exceptionally lovely! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will appeal to your love of CREATURE comforts?! :)

The Shape of Things to Come

There were beautiful cards in literally all shapes and sizes in the Shape Up gallery. You guys really make it hard for us to choose only a few to feature!

Plony's Blog Vol Met Knutsels en Frutsels

...created an elegant, vintage-style, mitten shaped card that will surely be framed, or hung on the tree of the lucky recipient!

Sherri Thacker of Sherri's Blog

...not only made the cutest and cleverest round card imaginable, she used a set of non-holiday, watercolor-style landscape stamps to do it!

Rocky of Rocky's Crafting Blog

...used an extra large die, pearlescent cardstock and a whole lot of creativity to paper piece this sweet reindeer card, which not only opens, but actually stands up. Then she called her post, "Getting Ahead for Xmas" which you know went right to our pun-loving hearts!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your clever shapes and fancy folds. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope you'll want a piece of!