Stars OR Stripes, Forever

Since this week in the USA is Independence Day, we're asking you to incorporate either stars or stripes into your card design. You needn't use red, white or blue; just stars or stripes (or both if you're feeling up to an extra challenge!) in any medium you choose.

Here's what we created this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I went with some candy cane striped paper from Doodlebug's Night Before Christmas Collection together with a polka dot solid and tiny tags from the same collection.  I added some enamel dots and a label sentiment to finish."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My card features four different striped washi tapes, and two tapes with stars; as well a trio of (sadly out of print) Eyelet Outlet star-shape Christmas Cookie Brads. I've used graph paper as my background very deliberately, because it makes lining up tapes (or paper strips, or stamps) so easy! The sentiment is an older Doodlebug journal card, trimmed down a bit to fit the space."

Link your starry and/or stripey masterpieces right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 13th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-14.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Everybody Loves Santa

Whether you call him Father Christmas, Pere Noel, Kris Kringle, Saint Nick or good ol' Santa Claus, we all love that jolly old elf, and the Readers' Gallery has the cards to prove it. Here are just a few Santa-centric cards that caught our eye this time:

Dee of Dee's Cards

...created a super-cute hybrid design featuring an adorable Santa Selfie and this is just one of the many cards she's donating to a charity called Cards for Hospitalized Kids!

Becca Yahrling (who posts on Flickr)

...linked up two fun and festive cards, making it even harder than usual to choose, but... we always love designs that feature sheet music! 

Jenny Martin of My Paper Epiphany

...made a scene (in the best possible way!) composing and stamping a beautiful North Pole landscape for Santa and his sleigh to inhabit!

♥♥♥

And now for the winner of the very fun Gina K stamp set:

the fine folks at Random.org have declared that the lucky number is...

#16

which means that Leah Hulten is our lucky winner!

Congrats, Leah, please send your snail mail address to 

llaurenb@hotmail.com

so we can get that on it's way to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved all of your different interpretations of Santa. Stay tuned until midnight, when we'll be back with a brand new prompt that might just have you seeing stars! :)

Here Comes Santa Claus!

We're still celebrating that Jolly Old Elf himself, so here are our Santa-centric cards this week: 

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This "tall" journal card from Authentique is a couple of years old, but still perfectly adorable AND happens to be exactly the right size for a very fast slimline card. I added a sentiment and some little cardstock circle icons from the same collection and filled in with star enamels and Eyelet Outlet Heart Pearls. A skinny red mat and a soft snowflake base complete my design."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "My card also started with a journaling card, but mine is from Prima with this great vintage Santa.  The space at the top was perfect for the Taylored Expressions Handlettered Holiday 2.  I cut some texty paper and paired it with candy can striped background.  Finishing touches were some Christmas stickers and enamel dots."

You have until Wednesday at 6pm EST to link-up for a chance for our great prize - Gina K. Designs Christmas Magic Stamps & Coordinating Die Cuts.

The Man with the Bag

This week at Jingle Belles we're asking you to create holiday cards that feature The Man with the Bag - aka Santa Claus aka Saint Nicholas aka Kris Kringle (we think you get the picture).

We can't wait to see how you feature Santa in your design.  Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My card is straight-up paper crafting this week using the Sketch from Try Stampin' (or Not) on Tuesday Challenge with Santa filled designer papers and stickers rom Echo Park & Carta Bella.  I added some plaid  and kept my design Masculine to join the Double Trouble Paper Crafting Challenge and of course my Hot Cocoa theme also works for the Masculine Challenge at Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My Santa is in Doodlebug sticker form and he's driving his pickup truck full of presents across a quilt-inspired background of patterned paper strips (one of my favorite ways to use up scraps!) which I found lurking in an envelope full of leftover bits. With this many patterns and colors you don't need much embellishment, so I added a little machine stitching and called it good!" 

And since the prior winner of our Gina K. Designs Christmas Magic Stamps and Coordinating Die Cuts Giveaway declined the prize, we're bringing it back for one lucky participant in the current prompt.

Link your Santa-centric designs right here, by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 29th! Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-13.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Hooray for Ombre!

Creating holiday cards that feature Ombre is a brand new challenge that we've never tried before at Jingle Belles, but OF COURSE you guys knocked it out of the park! We loved seeing all of your cards, but here are a few that especially caught our eye: 

Liz Williams of Old Right-Brain Madness

...added ombre with her beautifully blended stenciled trees, via multiple shades of gorgeous green Oxide inks; then added ornaments and stars on top!

Brenda B from Brenda's Scraps of Life

...proves that "the blues" can be a wonderfully happy thing, when approached as an ombre background for soft snowfall!

Aimeslee of Paper-Paisleys Art Adventures Blog

...created dozens of gorgeous ombre diecut stars to make a uniquely fun and festive card for her sweet angel digi to inhabit!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your cards. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will make you feel extra jolly!

Ombré 'Oliday

We're still creating cards featuring an Ombré color palette for our current prompt.

Here's how we got colorful this week.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I created my own unique version of ombre by blending six different shades of Distress Oxide Inks through an older Hero Arts Stencil. I originally intended making an absolutely seamless series of tone-into-tone shades of green; but then tweaked the idea slightly and decided to work the overlapping blend to include some of my favorite shades in order of intensity rather than strictly by hue. I used Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio, Mowed Lawn, Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles and Rustic Wilderness. And I really like the results!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I created my own Ombré background by painting with Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide Spray on watercolor paper.    I used Salvaged Patina and Peacock Feathers Distress Ink on my die cut Pine Boughs from The Greetery, and then stamped my two-part sentiment from The Greetery Snowflake Soirée in Pinecone Brown and Peacock Feathers."

Ombré Wonderland

This week we're asking you to create holiday cards that feature an Ombré  element or design (moving from light to dark in a single color family).

Here are our Ombré Wonderland designs:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I chose an Ombré designer paper from Pinkfresh Studio Office Hours Collection as the starting point my design.  Then I used the Sketch (and circle inspiration from the photo) at Fusion Card Challenge with some embossed white cardstock, a stitched die cur circle, and Pinkfresh Studio Holiday Vibes Epoxy Christmas Badges & Epoxy Dots."

Lauren's Card(s)

Lauren says, "Despite the fact that we never confer beforehand, my cards are surprisingly similar to Stephanie's!!! However, since I failed to find a ombre-printed patterned paper in my stash, I constructed my own by cutting and overlapping 3/4" strips of cardstock in a whole bunch of shades of red and green. After I had my ombre backgrounds, I added clusters of punched patterned paper circles and holiday stickers. Easy, Peasy!"

Link your Ombre masterpieces right here, by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 15th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-12.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter