Gratitude-fest

Thanks to everyone for sharing 2013 with us at jingle belles ... we've truly had a blast, and you're the reason why.

Here are a few of our favorite thank you cards.

Brenda of Brenda's Crafty Corner

totally rocked multiple thank you card design, but this clever use of text just blew us away ... so many possibilities, and so easy to make in bulk.

Joy Rozema of Joy in a Jar

made this elegant holiday design featuring flourishes, embossing and ivory silk ribbon.

Sarah T of Aunt Bee's Pickles

added a sweet little Gingerbread Topper to a bag of truffles for a fantastic little thank you gift.

And the winner of our Thank You Prize is .... (drum roll)

#4 - Julene Matthews of Julene by Design

who made this lovely thank you card

Julene - e-mail us your mailing address, and we'll get your goodies on their way.

Thanksgiving To You

We're still expressing gratitude at Jingle Belles this week by making Thank You cards.  Here's what we did for our second round.

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "Glittery Wintry Scenes are perfect for post-Christmas Thank Yous.  I stamped with Navy Ink and then embossed with glittery embossing powder for an all over starry sky."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Our suddenly wintery weather here in the Northeast already had me thinking about snowflakes, and once I saw Unscripted Sketch #232, the whole rest of my card came together. The only thing I love more than having my holiday cards AND thank you notes finished is using up tons of my smallest scraps! Woohoo!"

Remember, you have until 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, December 4th to link-up your holiday Thank You Cards for a chance to win our fun prize pack of goodies.

Thank You ... Thank You Very Much

For our final Jingle Belles prompt of 2013 we're expressing gratitude.  We're asking you to create a Thank You card that you can send out after the holidays ... it might be a thank you for a gift, for some food, or maybe even a thank you to someone for just being awesome.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with pretty papers from Bella Carta's Winter Fun Collection and a cute little Rudolph sticker using the Monday Lunchtime Sketch at Technostamper.  I finished with some sequin snowflakes falling from the sky."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I used this week's Cardabilities sketch to wrangle a bunch of different products-- 6x6" paper, a scalloppy journal card, layered florals, and vintage plaid ribbon-- of traditional Christmas colors into a super-fast design. Easy peasy!"

So link-up your thank you cards by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, December 4th.  Keyword for galleries and our Flickr Gallery is JB:13:24.  We'll also have a fun little Thank You Prize for one lucky participant ... a pad of American Crafts Merrymint Papers and the Naughty or Nice Stamp set by Hero Arts.

Celebrating Your Traditions

We always love seeing your gorgeous cards, JINGLE BELLES, and this week we also enjoyed hearing the wonderful stories behind them. Here are a few entries that particularly charmed us on both counts!

Lela aka Serenity Stamper

Recalls her childhood love of ice skating in a card that is a master class in diecutting, detailing and beautiful design!

Lisa H. of Recklinghausen Musings

Commemorates her childhood memories of hearing Father Christmas delivering her gifts with this charming and delightful card!

Jessi Fogan of One Crafty Mama

Reminds us that the true purpose of tradition is to make the holidays happy and comfortable for everyone, with cards (and an AWESOME blog post!) which combine the old and the new perfectly! 

Many thanks to everyone who participated, and especially to the lovely Marie Bingaman for coming along and suggesting such a wonderful idea. We'll be back at midnight with a timely new prompt we hope will inspire you!

More Holiday Traditions

Inspired by the lovely Marie Bingaman's wonderful suggestion, we're still thinking about our favorite holiday traditions, and making christmas cards based on them. Here's what we did this week:

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "As a child, one of my favorite holiday traditions was waking-up on Christmas morning and running to the fireplace to see what Santa had left in my stocking.  He always left an orange, an apple, and my very own glass bottle of Coca-Cola (a real treat), as well as lots of other little goodies ... such fun memories."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Coincidentally, I was also thinking about stockings this week! We opened ours first thing Christmas morning, sitting on my parents' bed. Typically they contained tiny toys, chocolates, and yes, there was ALWAYS an orange in the toe! My card was inspired by this week's Sunday Stamps Sketch and contains some of the treasured vintage green stamps the lovely Stephanie very generously shared with me!!!"

Scroll down to see the gorgeous readers' gallery and link up your own card. Be sure to tell us what tradition inspired you!

Holiday Traditions

We love thinking up new themes and ideas to inspire your Christmas card-making, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥, but something we love even more is when you write in with an awesome idea for US! This time it was the very talented and very enthusiastic Marie Bingaman who emailed us with the idea of making cards based on our favorite family holiday traditions, a suggestion we heartily approved! Maybe you'll be inspired by something your family did when you were a child, or maybe you'll choose a newer tradition which you've begun with your own children or grandchildren. Either way, we cannot wait to see your cards and hear your stories!

You will probably recognize Marie Bingaman's name and fabulous style from seeing her cards in our readers' gallery, or maybe you know her as the leaver of exceptionally nice comments on the blogs of her fellow belles? Either way, we know you'll enjoy a trip to her fun and funny online home, "ANOTHER Card-making Blog?!"! In the meantime, here's her card:

Marie's Card

Marie says, "The older I get, the more I realize how important family traditions were to me! I miss going to my grandparents' house after the Christmas Eve service to eat goodies and talk. That tradition died a little bit when my Grandpa passed away, and then for good when my Dad died...Grandma's heart just isn't in it anymore! Hopefully, when I have grandkids...in the *very distant* future(!!), I can start the tradition over again for a new generation!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "One of my favorite family traditions was decorating the Christmas tree as a family with our collection of vintage ornaments.  We would pull them out one by one and take turns placing them on the tree until it was completely covered.  I loved sitting in the dark living room at night and watching the lights twinkle ... great memories."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I think my favorite holiday tradition was reading Clement C. Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas" every Christmas Eve. It started with my father reading to my siblings and myself when we were tiny. As we grew, it was quite a big deal the first year each of us was old enough to be the one to read it. Eventually we could all recite it by heart--and to this day, I still can! I treasure the first story-book copy I was given as a tiny girl, and as an adult I've collected a dozen or so more, and am always on the lookout for pretty vintage versions. This card uses a scaled-down color-copied page from one of my favorite editions, with illustrations by Zillah Lesko." 

Now we long to hear about ♥YOUR♥ favorite holiday traditions, and see the cards they inspire you to make! Link them up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, November 20th. Keyword for galleries and our Flickr group is JB:13:23.

Creative Creature Feature

Well, once again, you've really outdone yourselves on this one ... so many fabulous creatures in the Jingle Belles gallery.

Here are a few that really caught our eyes:

Anni

of Annikarten

Anni's patterned landscape with a tiny pop of pink ... and her fantastic Distress Marker coloring and detail cutting make this creature super-cute.

Lacey

of Hand Stamped by Lacey

Lacey's brilliant use of masking to create her winter creature trio scene is so clever ... and her use of liquid pearls really takes her scene to the next level.

Marja
of Tahroja Kuviopaperilla
aka "Stains on Patterned Paper"

Marja's mastery of the clean and simple style shines in every element of this perfectly elegant landscape!

We'll be back at midnight with a new prompt and a very lovely guest star!