Jewels…they dress anything up, including paper crafts. From rhinestones to sequins, you can “be-jewel” just about anything. Whether you take traditional jeweled paper craft embellishments or you venture out into the jewelry craft aisles of your local store, there are endless possibilities to add a little sparkle to your projects. Jewels not only add texture, but they give projects a little edge and a sense of happiness.

I hope these jewel trends inspire you to create a project for our current challenge here.

1.  Embellished Key from Julie Laird Hawkins (via JulieSells) | 2. Sequin Hearts from Diana Albright (via Scrapbook.com)  | 3. Jewelry from Mindy Jacqueline (via zsa zsa bellagio)

Congratulations Gladys! She created a lot of paper crafting goodness over there, so make sure you click the image to see more! We just love the cluster of paper rolled rosettes in all the colors. Thanks so much for participating in the challenge. We are all inspired by your creation!

Rosette embellishments are so popular on fashion and paper crafting designs. There are so many ways to add them from pre-made flowers or ribbon trim to taking on the challenge of making your own. So many entries included their own handmade rosettes, we were taken back. All of the entries were great! We hope you take a moment to click on each of the thumbnail above to see how the “hot” designers added rosettes to their projects. There are even more entries you can check out here for additional inspiration.

What’s next? Look out for an inspirational post for our current Jeweled Color Trends Challenge! Don’t forget to enter here. As an update about our blog, we successfully migrated to a new server and all of the glitches should be resolved! Thanks for hanging in there while the blog looked a little bear (if you even noticed).

A special thank you to Tina for being our photo inspiration contributor.

Create a card, layout, or altered item with jewels (including sequins, beads, rhinestones, gemstones, and pearls) and using the color palette showcased in the inspirational graphic above.

Jewels are a perfect way to dress up any project. You can add them to an embellishment or to the actual layout to create a design. It’s all up to you and we can’t wait to see what you create!

Upload a photo of your project to your blog or online gallery, such as Flickr, then copy the direct link to your project/post to the embedded link widget below. If you do not have a direct link to your blog/gallery posting that features the challenge, your link may be deleted. If it is deleted, no biggie, just come back and re-link the correct link! Only links left in the link widget will be considered for challenge submissions.

We will feature some “HOT” designs on a blog post about a week after the challenge ends. Check back on the blog or subscribe to the feeds so you will not miss it!

We also have a Flickr Group available to share your projects. Please add your projects to Embellish Magazine Flickr group.

Feel free to use the inspiration graphic above, but make sure you right-click and choose the “Save Image As” choice to save it to your computer, then upload to your blog.

Click here to view rules on submitting entries for the challenges.

Challenge ends Thursday, April 12, 2012 at 11:59 pm EST.

Need a jump start on creating rosettes before the challenge ends? Check out this video that shows how to create three types of rolled rosette flowers!

 Don’t forget, the Rosette Color Trends Challenge information is here.

Congratulations to Sarah Jay! Check out her multi-colored chevron pattern and that super cute Easter bunny in the hot hair balloon. Did you notice that the hot air balloon is really an Easter egg design? There is so much is this lovely design that reminds us all of spring. Thanks so much for participating in the challenge. We are all inspired by your creation!

Many parts of the country are experiencing spring-like weather very early and based on the challenge entries, it appears you all are welcoming it with open arms. We are thrilled to hear everyone’s excitement about the return of the challenges. The entries were remarkable and boy did you give us a hard to selecting some designs to feature. We hope you take a moment to click on each of the thumbnail above to see how the “hot” designers brought a little bit of spring into their projects. There are even more entries you can check out here for additional inspiration.

What’s next? Look out for an inspirational post for our current Rosettes Color Trends Challenge! Don’t forget to enter here. If you are having trouble navigating around our blog, we apologize. Please bare with us over the next few days while we migrate to a new server!