Crafty Christmas Collaboration with Jessica Frost-Ballas!

Good morning!! Today, I have the honor of being the very first guest in my fantastically awesome friend Jessica Frost-Ballas's new monthly series:

We were discussing how nice it would be to work on a Christmas card stash all year round, so that when the holidays arrived, the mad dash to get cards mailed wouldn't be quite so maddening! Jess came up with the brilliant idea to have a monthly collaboration with different crafters. She and the chosen crafter (I'm the lucky collaborateur this month!) each create some elements to make a card... some die cuts, a watercolor panel, a sentiment, whatever each one wants... being sure to create two of everything, so that we can keep one set and send the other. This way, we each make our own versions of the cards! We weren't allowed to show each other what we made until after we had already made it. So fun, right?? Here are the pieces I sent to her:

For my elements, I chose one of my sadly neglected holiday stamp sets from Papertrey Ink. I seem to go in spurts with my holiday stamps, and so it was nice to have an excuse to pull out one of the sets I didn't get around to using recently. I die cut and stamped a bunch of snowflakes from the Fab Flakes set, then stamped them with inks in shades of icy blues and purples. My sentiment die cut is also from PTI: Christmas Cheer die set. Truth be told, this is one of my favorite holiday sentiment die sets. I also created a sequins mix to go along with my pretty, icy snowflakes, just in case the Queen of Sparkle wanted to create a shaker card. :)  

And here are the pieces she sent to me:

She knew I had been ogling those darling little owls from Winnie and Walter's Happy Owlidays, and she sent me just enough to whet my appetite and make me want/need to buy the set. (You should have called this collab Crafty Enabling Collaboration, Jess!) She also included some pretty glass glitter and a sequins mix. I can't wait to use that glass glitter... so pretty and sparkly! 

Here's my project using my own supplies. I blended a soft purple halo with Soft Amethyst ink from PTI using my Clarity Stencil Brushes onto an A2 panel of white card stock. I trimmed it down slightly because I knew I wanted to add a frame of royal blue foil around the edge to really add to the icy look I was going for. I then arranged my Fab Flakes in a cluster in the center, using Press 'n' Seal to pick them up in the meticulously arranged cluster, and adhering them back on my blended panel with dimensional adhesive. Next, I adhered my silver foil "Let It Snow" greeting with some Multi Medium Matte.

The last step was to tuck some of the pretty sequins from my new mix here and there around the edge of the snowflake cluster. 

I was so excited when I saw that Jess had sent me something to color... Especially when I saw that I got to color those cutie patootie owls. I got out my new-ish Prismacolor pencils to color that adorable little owl... wearing a scarf... not much cuter than an owl wearing a scarf. <3 For the background, I again used my Clarity Stencil Brushes to first create a halo on an A2 sized white panel, starting with a light blue ink, then a medium blue around the very edges (I'm sorry, I can't remember which blues I used!). I then used my stencil brushes to blend some navy blue ink over a snowflake stencil from Echo Park. To create my shaker, I die cut the scalloped frame using some silver foil and filled my shaker, adding my owl and branch over the top. The sentiment was trimmed down from the panel Jess sent, then flagged on the end and adhered to the side of the card. 

And that's it! I love Jess's idea to see how different (or similar!) our projects can be starting out with the same supplies! So creative. If you haven't already come from Jess's blog, be sure to click over there to see the truly gorgeous cards that she created using the same supplies! They're so lovely.

Jess wants to include as many crafty friends as possible, so she's included a linkup in her blog post so that you can link up your own projects! All you have to do is create a project inspired by the projects in the collaboration series... it can be a color scheme, layout, stamp set, whatever... and link it up to her blog. Be sure to use the blinkie included in the top of the post in your own blog post! At the end of the year, she will draw a name from one of the participants to receive a $100 gift certificate to the crafty store of his or her choice! What a wonderful surprise! (You can read more of the details over on Jess's blog.)

Jess is also doing monthly giveaways... how amazing is that! All you have to do to be entered to win this month's $25 gift certificate to Winnie and Walter is leave a comment on both of our Crafty Christmas Collaboration posts. 

Well, that's all for me today! Have a marvelous day, friends!