A Very Vibrant Christmas

This week we're bringing you an inspiration photo (found via Lushome) to get your creative juices flowing.  You might take your inspiration from the awesome colors ... the reindeer, oranments, fallen snow, or perhaps the stacked plates & flourishes on the placemats ... feel free to create using whatever inspires you.

Here is how we were inspired:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I knew I wanted to combine as many colors as possible together with a glittery reindeer ... and this is the result. For some dimension, I die cut the reindeer once from green glitter paper and three more times from thick white cardstock.  I layered them all together before adhering to my Lawn Fawn Bokeh background ... I finished with an SRM STicker, a flair button and some sequins & pearls (including a purple nose).  The layout is this week's Retro Sketch."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I have to confess that when I saw the gorgeous inspiration photo, as much as I liked it, my first panicky thought was, "I don't have ANY Christmas papers in those colors!!!" Later on, a search of my stash revealed that, in fact, I *DON'T* have any Christmas papers in those colors! As it turned out, I didn't need them, since I had quite a few ordinary papers in those colors, which I used in conjunction with clipart to fussy-cut the bauble shapes. Then I added snowflake stickers and bling and some fun shiny silver atick-on pearl borders to act as hangers... and called it a day."

Link up you holiday cards inspired by any feature of that fabulous tablescape before 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, March 11th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:15:05.

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Warmest Washi Wishes

It seems as if you guys love washi tape as much as we do, seeing as how this fortnight's gallery is chock full of your inspiring and fabulous tape-based goodness! Please join us in sending another huge ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ shout-out to the lovely and talented Lela Meinke who came up with this fantastic prompt. We predict that this could easily become an annual event! Meanwhile, here are a few especially clever ideas we enjoyed this time:

Kim M. of Art Keeps Me Sane

Used a single strip of (non-holiday!) tape to divide the stamped portion of her one-layer CAS masterpiece from the body of the card. (Yowza!)

Marianne of Marianne's Cards 'n Stuff

Used uneven vertical strips of tape to create a horizontal border across her card... genius or what??! (That "thunk" you heard was our jaw hitting the table!) :)

Jessi Fogan of One Crafty Mama

Made an all-over, crissy-crossy background using just two coordinating tapes for a dynamic look that doesn't steal the show from her adorable Santa. (Why didn't *we* think of that, eh?!)

Now, how about the prize? The fine folks at Random.org  have selected lucky number *21* which means our winner is:

Brenda B. of Brenda's Crafty Corner

Congratulations, Brenda, please email us at jinglebellesrock @ hotmail (dot) com so we can get your prize in the mail ASAP! :)

We heartily thank every single one of you for sharing your beautiful creations, and invite you to come back at midnight when we're planning to put a brand new prompt on your holiday inspiration table!

Washi! Washi! All Over the Town

With so many lovely tapes available, it's hard to stop at just *ONE* washi card... so we didn't! Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I did another washi tape background, however I only used one tape from Little B to create a silver star-filled sky.  Next I die cut the Memory Box Tall Taper and three snowflakes from the washi-covered cardstock.  I repeated the die cuts using glitter and shimmer papers and then inlaid them into the washi paper to create a flat, mailable design."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I'm one of those weird crafters who doesn't like to mass-produce, but occasionally I make an exception, such as when I accidentally stumble upon the easiest way ever to make a faux-quilt effect using lots of different strips of tape! Because the variations are infinite, no two cards come out alike; plus... it really is VERY easy, super-quick and lots of fun! (If you don't believe it's the easier ever, there are step-by-step illustrations on my blog!)"

Here We Come a-WASHI-ing

Some might consider Friday the Thirteenth to be unlucky, but we JINGLE BELLES couldn't disagree more! This fortnight we have our lovely friend and fellow belle Lela Meinke (whom you might know as Serenity Stamper on SCS) here to hang out with us and she suggested our awesome prompt title! If you're thinking this challenge might involve making holiday cards that use washi or any other type of decorative tape, you're quite right; so without further ado, let's see a few tape-centric creations:

Lela's Card

Lela says, "I had two weeks off for the holiday season, and I was feeling very creative. I wanted to see if I could come up with a theme. I was listening to Christmas music and scrolling through all the past themes on the blog history. All of the sudden, it hit me. “Here we come a-washi-ing.” And an idea was born. I made my own washi tape with instructions from Julie Balzer." (Be sure to check out Lela's SCS gallery for a full description and the link to Julie's tutorial!)

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My collection of Washi Tape is large (okay, so extremely large is probably a more accurate description), so I decided to use lots of it to create a Washi Tape background.  I added a sticker sentiment, a doily, and blinged-out Christmas tree."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've been wanting to play along with Leslie's very first Crooked Stamper Sketch Challenge, but there wasn't really a way to work in single strip or two of tape. So, like Stephanie, I decided to use a bunch of patterns and fill a whole panel. I started by laying one strip in the center on the diagonal, then added a strip at a time, at right angles, so that each addition is over the last tape but under the next. Since many of my tapes are sheer, you can also see a bit of the design on the lower tapes through the ones on top, which gives even more variety!"

Just in case anyone's still feeling a bit superstitious about Friday the Thirteenth, we've decided to make it even more desirable to link up with us this fortnight: one lucky random cardmaker will be chosen to win a little pack of holiday embellies which OF COURSE includes some fun washi tape:

So grab your washi, your deco tape, your fabric tape, or heck, even your duct tape; use it as an accent, make a fabulous background... or do something in-between; but be sure to link it up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday February 25th. Keyword for galleries or Flickr is JB:15:04.

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In Our Best Shape of the Year

Wow ... you really came up with some creative shaped designs (quite a few ideas we just might *borrow* for some future card creations).

Here are a few that caught our eye ...

Cyndie 

of

Reis's Pieces of Paper

created an amazing Poinsettia bouquet card ... sanding the paper really brings out the details int he design, and the wrap of twine with a Christmas tag was the perfect finishing touch.

Deb

of 

Paxton Valley Folk Art

took a lead from Lauren and used a digital wreath image to create a fantastic shaped card design ... we love the little bit of sheet music peeking through

Meg

of

Bits and Pieces

used a pipe-cleaner to create an adorable tiny Christmas tree ... the embossed snowflakes and landscape add such great texture to the design.

Check back at midnight for our next Jingle Belles prompt ... brought to us by a Lovely Guest Star that you won't want to Miss.

In Great Shape

We're still getting in shape for the holidays at Jingle Belles ... no jumping jacks or wind sprints required ... just making cards that are shaped (no squares or rectangles).

Here's what we created this week.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I think we've had a shaped-card challenge every year we've done JINGLE BELLES, and every time we do someone makes a fabulous gingerbread house and I think, "Darn! Why didn't I think of that?!" So this time, I did, lol! Of course, when I formulated this plan I was assuming that somewhere in my collection of digital kits I had a gingerbread house I could use as a template. As it turned out, no, I didn't. But really, all you need is a slightly wonky house shape with a door, two windows, a slanty roof and a chimney; and since we all drew those in grade school, I decided I could probably just wing it. The best part, of course, was adding all the candy bits as embellishments!" (For the record, this time I've done a proper card that opens... the hinge is at the top of the chimney!)

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I wanted to decorate a Christmas tree with designer paper scraps from Pebbles Home for Christmas collection.  I traced my tree card base with the fold along the left side of the tree.  I attached paper scraps, and then I flipped it over and trimmed along the base.  I *decorated* with a snowflake sticker for a *star* and an SRM Sticker sentiment before attaching my wood grain paper tree trunk."

Link up your own gorgeous holiday shaped-card masterpieces here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, February 11th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:15:03.

Shape-Up for the New Year

A common New Year's resolution is to get in shape ... so we're also going to Shape-Up at Jingle Belles by making cards that are shapes other than a square or rectangle.

Here are the shaped cards that we made:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My shaped card was made using Spellbinders Nestabilities Heirloom Ornaments (2011).  I positioned the of my folded card base just under the top ornament piece, so the card opens from the top.  Next I aligned my die cut on shimmery silver paper to center the pattern on my ornament.  I added two strips of solid silver shimmer paper. two red gems, a few wraps of silver thread around the top, and finished with an SRM Sticker Sentiment in the middle."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "One of my favorite uses for digital images and clip art is as templates for "real life" cards. I printed out the gorgeous snow globe in the "Icy Christmas" kit from Amber Shaw and Studio Flergs and used it to paper-piece the sections; then popped a Tim Holtz diecut reindeer, layered-and-sewn Sizzix tree, and an SRM Winter Sentiment into the resulting snow globe. Like most of my shaped cards, this is basically just a very fancy postcard. Yes, I know, it's easy enough to stick on a hinged back to make a "real" card, but usually I just skip the boring engineering part in favor of extra embellishing time and sign my name on the back... and now you know my little shaped card secret!" :) :) :)

Link up your own gorgeous holiday shaped-card masterpieces here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, February 11th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:15:03.

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