Spirit of Christmas Past

This week we're still celebrating A Very Vintage Christmas this week by making cards featuring real vintage items, or new things with a vintage vibe. Or maybe you're an overachiever and want to do both.

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "The robin postcard I built the card around, is from my own postcard collection, so rather than use the actual card, I scanned and reprinted. This also meant I could resize it just a bit smaller, to fit more comfortably on my A7 card. The poinsettia illustration in the lower background is part of a page from an old Ideals Christmas Magazine. The rest of my elements are new(ish, lol) from my lss Paper Anthology: the beautiful grey plaid Simple Stories paper, Petaloo burlap poinsettia and lovely realistic Prima holly leaves, not to mention the doilies and twill ribbon. I don't think I've ever made a holiday card with this much GREY on it, but I quite like the result!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I had plans to go a different route this week, but got sucked-in by the vintage bits and bobs still on my studio table.  I used the other half of the doily from last week's card, a vintage page of sheet music from a falling-apart-hymnal, and more vintage postage and holiday stamps.  I finished with a row of champagne jewels, because that color always says vintage to me."

Scroll down to the original post to see the fabulous Readers' Gallery, catch a peek at the prize, and link up your own Old-Fashioned Masterpiece(s)!

Have Yourself a Very Vintage Christmas

For this prompt, we're asking you to create a card with a vintage or retro vibe … either by using new products that are vintage-in-style or by incorporating actual vintage items into your design... or heck, really go for it and use both!

If you've got absolutely NOTHING to use, don't despair, there are a few scans below, from Lauren's personal collection/hoard for you to use if you'd like. Also, one lucky random cardmaker who links up with us this time will win some fab and funky Christmas Ephemera from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff!

Here's what we made:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I pulled together all sorts of vintage elements from my stash ... game card, ektachrome slide, trading stamps, postage stamps, wildlife stamps, a doily, and a dictionary page.  I had fun layering it all together and finishing with some modern vintage sentiment strips."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I went with mostly real vintage because it's sorta my thang, lol! I went collage-y for the same reason. But of course there are loads of fabulous brand new stamps and paper lines that will get you a similar effect; for that matter you could use vintage elements in a CAS card! There are lots of ays to go with this! I've combined a poinsettia fussycut from a vintage Ideals Magazine, a collage of sheet music and text papers overlaid with some fun Red Stamps and at the end I added ancient lace and brand new (but I've had them awhile) 7 Gypsies velvetty leaves for texture."

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Right-click and save an old-fashioned Belle-centric image to use if you'd like; print at full-size, as a mini, or anywhere in between!

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In addition, one lucky cardmaker will be randomly selected to win:

A Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment

AND a $10 gift voucher to

Lauren's Etsy Shop

Just Enough Stuff!

♥♥♥

Link up your old-fashioned masterpieces right here, by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, April 8th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:20:07.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Singing Your Praises

Nothing could have put a happier song in our heart this fortnight than all of the beautiful cards in the Fa-La-La-La-La gallery featuring... or inspired by... holiday music! Here are a few that especially caught our eye (and ear!):

Rose of My Happy Place

...combined uber-cute birds and a cool collagey musical background for a sweet/tweet card that's also a brilliant take on this week's Sketch Saturday! 

Sharon B of Sea View Scrapping

...took the lyrics from "Deck the Halls" as her sentiment, perfectly colored the most adorable of critters, and added lots of bright and beautiful embellies!

Brenda of Brenda's Scraps of Life

...says she's never quite known how to use this beautiful sheet music stamp, but we'd say she got it EXACTLY right on this elegant monochromatic card!

Many thanks to all who joined us, we hope you are keeping well and staying crafty! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we think will inspire some good, old-fashioned, holiday fun! ♥

A Caroling We Will Go

We are still creating with MUSIC this week ... that means we are asking you to create by incorporating music, musical instrument, holiday song title or lyrics.


Here's what we are singing this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I've had this "Fa-la-la-la-la" chipboard from My Mind's Eye "Sugar Plum" collection for ages, because honestly, it's a little big for cardmaking. But as the anchor for my A7 card, I think it works, and it really didn't need much else. I fussy cut a few elements from the coordinating patterned paper, added a Lawn Fawn music paper accent and threw in a scatter of Eyelet Outlet sequins just for fun!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I'm this week's Growing in Unity Gal (click on over an comment on my blog post for a chance to win one of two grab bags of Unity Stamps), so I had fun using three different Unity Stamp Sets for my card this week.  I sprayed watercolor paper with Mermaid Lagoon and Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide Ink.  After it had dried, I used my MISTI to stamp the Unity Stamp Company Burst of Flakes Border Background using Blue Belle Versafine Clair Ink.  Next I added the reindeer from the awesome October 2016 Unity Sentiment Kit ... a joyous season  (does he look guilty)?  The Song Title Sentiment is from Unity Stamp Company Naughty is the New Nice stamped in the same Blue Belle ink on White Cardstock and attached with foam tape.  I finished with a few cardstock layers and several sizes of light blue epoxy dots."

Scroll down to the original post to see the Reader's Gallery and link up your own musical masterpiece!

Fa-La-La-La-La

This week we're celebrating one of our favorite things at Jingle Belles ... Christmas Music.

We're asking you to create a card (or gift card holder, or whatever else you'll be needing for the holidays) that incorporates music, a musical instrument, or a holiday song title or lyrics.

Here is how we were inspired:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My first stop when I stumble across an estate sale is to search for vintage paper (books, post cards, music).  My card base is cut from a falling apart music book (I love the torn edge and the wonderful natural aged color of the paper).  I added several Alexandra-Renke items (book mark, washi tape & die cut) together with a Lawn Fawn wooden snowflake and some sticker sentiments.  The layout is my take on the Sunday Stamps Sketch.  This is an amalgam of all the wonderful Christmas songs about Peace and Snow."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says,  "I tend to obsessively hoard vintage sheet music, so this was pretty much a no-brainer for me, lol. I chose some medium-patina paper without lyrics as my base and a fabulous Authentique vintage-style journal card with bells and birds and little swirls of notes as my focal point. Plus an appropriate sentiment from my Idea-Ology holiday sticker book. Nearly everything on this card came from my LSS Paper Anthology, though I am honestly not sure if the Authentique was from a 2018 or 2019 collection"

Link your musical masterpieces here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, March 25th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:20:6.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Stick With Us

Apparently we are not the only cardmakers who tend to hoard (ahem!) ummm... hang on to our stickers for exactly the right occasion. Luckily, we're also not the only ones who had a blast using those saved-up stickers this week! Here are a few cards which especially stuck in our minds!

Linda of Snail's Space

...made four beautiful CAS cards just by pairing Penny Black stickers with the perfect sentiment stamp; because it turns out, that's all ya need!

Tammy of My Craft Central

...knew these fun tags were the perfect occasion to break out some super-cute older puffy stickers and we heartily agree with that judgement!

Barbara G of Barb's Creative Corner

...has previously considered herself "sticker challenged" but looking at this masterpiece we have to say that she is now a sticker EXPERT!!!

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And now I know we're all dying to find out whose home that super-fun Lawn Fawn Yeti Set will be traveling too, right? The fine folks at Random.org have come up with...

#6

which means that

Brenda B of Brenda's Scraps of Life

is our lucky winner!

CONGRATS!

Please email Lauren at llaurenb @ hotmail (dot) com 

with your address so we can get that in the mail to you!

Many thanks to everyone who played along this fortnight, we loved seeing all of your beautiful sticker-centric creations! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will be music to your ears!

Let's *STICK* Together

We're still STUCK on stickers at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join our holiday card fun! Scroll down to the original post to link up your sticker-centric creations and also to see the sweet little prize that's on offer. Meanwhile, here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Doodlebug Design is one of my go-to manufacturers generally, and a big fave for stickers, specifically. I combined stickers from a few different D-bug collections into a little scene on a journal card with a background of bokeh patterned paper; and a few strips of Eyelet Outlet Washi Tape just to ground the whole thing. Such an easy card and so much fun to put together!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I tend to hoard the adorable DoodlePop 3-D stickers from Doodlebug.  I paired this adorable Yeti with coordinating Yeti Paper from the Doodlebug Winter Wonderland Collection ... there's a 3-D sticker snowflake and a sticker sentiment too."

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And remember, there's a prize for one lucky participant who links-up their sticker card by Wednesday at 6pm EST.