Navy Nativity

This week we're still celebrating a BLUE Christmas ... making cards that primarily (at least 75%) feature the color blue.

Here's how we added blue to our designs this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I was so inspired by Stephanie's gel print card from last week, that I decided to get out my own stash of prints and see what I could come up with. I used Tim Holtz/Sizzix Mixed Media Christmas Dies to cut the holly leaf cluster out of the center of the panel, outlined and backed it with white; then added a focal point of stacked fabric poinsettias, secured with an ancient blue bejewelled snowflake brad of unknown origins."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I used three colors of Blue Distress Oxide Ink (Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and the gorgeous new Uncharted Mariner) together with Pumice Stone for the dots using Taylored Expressions Create-in-Quads Snowflake Stencil (you can see the other three cards on my blog).  After ink blending, I sprayed my page with Avery Elle Clear Shimmer Spray for allover Sparkle.  I added a few small pieces of Mariner Blue gems to finish.   It was an unexpected color combination, but I loved how it turned out (and that my cards are totally mailable).  I think the Taylored Expressions Beautiful Baubles Add-On Sentiment gives it a fun Mid-Century Modern feel."

Blue Christmas

This week we're asking you to channel your inner Elvis ...

and break out the BLUEs for this week's holiday card ... make a card that primarily features the color BLUE (at least 75%).

Here's how we got the BLUEs this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I decided shopping in my gel press drawer was a great way to find lots of blues to combine for this week's card.  I even found a shimmery blue inky piece to add to the mix.  The stamp is Unity Stamp Company Holiday Joy Christmas Tree and the sketch is a great one from Sketch~N~Scrap."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I stamped the sweet baubles and evergreens from Wendy Vecchi's Doodle Christmas Stamp Set a few times at the top left corner of a splashy Morning Glory Archival Ink background, then used brushmarkers and a sparkly gel pen to color the ornaments. I lightly dabbed more Morning Glory onto the chipboard "LOVE" embellishment from Wendy's new Statements Chippies, and stamped the same color, full strength, randomly all over the word with the sparkles stamp. Finally, I added a strip of bright blue washi and matted on glitter and metallic papers in a coordinating shade of blue." 

Link your Beautiful Blue creations right here, by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednsdays, August 10th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-16.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Jingle Belles are Blinging!

Every year, Christmas in July gets a little more popular, and we're always so excited to see everyone joining in and getting a jump on their holiday cards. Here are just a few "Blingy" masterpieces which especially caught our eye:

Meghan of Made by Meghan K

...made FOUR gloriously glittery cards; in gold (seen here) red, silver and gold again; with little touches of black that make the sparkly bits really pop!

Sarah Stone of Sarah Stone Creations

...made a red blossom (with sparkly center), a bling flourish and a stamped sentiment add up to CAS perfection!

Beverly Sizemore of Bev's Creative Path

...made this amazing tree by cleverly stamping green Eiffel Towers and adding red gems in between. There's not a single holiday product on this card, just a boatload of inspiring creativity! 

♥♥♥

And now let's see who will be receiving that fun little Bling-centric prize pack? The Random Number Generator has chosen...

#21 

which means that 

Karen C of Creative Inspirations by Karen 

is our lucky winner!

Congratulations, Karen, please email Lauren at llaurenb @ hotmail.com 

and we'll get that right out to you!

Many thanks to the ladies of the Double Trouble Challenge, we enjoyed teaming up for this fun Christmas in July event; remember they post a brand new challenge on the first and third Monday of every month and there's a special challenge any time a fifth Monday rolls around (...so there might just be one in August...). A special shout out to everyone who played along this time, we loved seeing every single card. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt, and we don't think anyone could possibly feel blue about that... :) 

Bling It On!

Yes, that's right, we're still "Blinging on the Holidays" for our special crafty crossover challenge with the lovely ladies on the Double Trouble Challenge Blog. Which means you can make ONE (new, blingy, holiday) CARD and link it up at both sites... with a chance of a fun little prize at each!

Here's how we were inspired to use bling this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I'd been trimming up papers from Photoplay's North Pole Trading Co line for a Christmas in July class I'm teaching at Paper Anthology, so I had lots of weirdly sized little strips of pretty paper -including metallic gold and glittery red- and whenever that happens, I tend to want to use them to make backgrounds like this one I did a few years ago. For a focal point I used the round tag (and one of the cut-outs) from Pinkfresh Studio's Classic Tags with Fillable Elements die set to make an ornament from a scrap of older red moire paper. I backed it with Copper Non-Shed Glitter Paper adorned with Eyelet Outlet Pearls, and an oversized red Pearl Brad; dangling from a Champagne Bling Strip hung on my Tim Holtz Holiday Greens Thinlits."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "Lauren gifted me some of these lovely Penny Black Masterpieces Made Simple.  It was so lovely, all I did was mount it on a white cardstock card base and add some Eyelet Outlet Fancy Wide Bling and a sticker sentiment to complete the snowy scene."

Scroll down to our original "Bling on the Holidays" post to link up your card for a chance to win our wonderful blingy prize package AND don't forget to also link up at the Double Trouble Challenge Blog.

Double Trouble Crossover Challenge! - BLING on the Holidays

This fortnight we Jingle Belles are happy to be partnering with the lovely ladies of the Double Trouble Challenge for exponentially more fun AND a chance at some cool prizes! First, we should mention that our part of this event is called, "Bling On the Holidays" and we'd like to see your brand new holiday cards that include jewels, gems, pearls, sequins, glitter or pretty much anything sparkly! 

For the Double Trouble Challenge, it's "Christmas in July", and basically any holiday card will qualify; so if you make a card to link up with us here at Jingle Belles, we hope you'll also link it with them to be included in their drawing! Then be sure to check back every fortnight or so, because they have a new challenge every other week and it's a great way to find some new challenges and loads of inspiration!

If you're new to us here at Jingle Belles, welcome! We make holiday cards from January through November, and we reveal a brand new prompt every other Friday, with a reminder post in between. We're mostly a "just for fun" challenge blog, but we do include a little prize on special occasions, which this definitely is, so we hope you'll scroll down for that. 

But first... here's how we were inspired to use Bling on our cards:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started my card with sheet of Swirl Bling in Jewel Red from Eyelet Outlet.  Next I chose the pair of ice skates from my holiday ephemera drawer and then paired them both with some collage designer paper and framed the skates with a vintage journaling card.  After I got it all assembled on a 5" x 7" card base, I added two sentiment strips from my ephemera drawer to finish the design and a piece of red bling on the skate bow (I just love those plaid skate cuffs)."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "As you can see, I've also added LOTS of Eyelet Outlet Bling, in the form of an XL Snowflake atop my white poinsettias, and Clear Swirl Bling that I've cut up and rearranged to fit the space better. All this takes place on top of a diecut holly panel (ancient Hero Arts!) that I misted with glimmery blue spray ink; layered over green metallic cardstock and ...though it's hard to see in the photo... a mat of white glitter paper."

♥♥♥

Now here's a little prize pack we'll award to one randomly selected holiday cardmaker who links up with us this fortnight; featuring super-cute Pebbles clear stamps, sparkly chipboard snowflakes, colorful stickers and sequins, and of course some BLING!   

Link your Bling-centric creations right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July27th. Then be sure to head over to Double Trouble too!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Rising Stars (& Stripes!)

There were plenty of cool ideas for adding stars and/or stripes to our holiday cards and we loved seeing ALL of them. Here are three that especially caught our eye: 

Bonnie of Stamping with Klass

...made a bold red glitter star her focal point; then added silver star accents, as well as embossed stars... without ever veering from her gorgeous CAS aesthetic.

Donna of Keep Calm and Snark On

...added a couple of striped patterns, a couple of glittery stars and a supercute Santa to her colorful Christmas confection!

Pam of Crafty Hair Lady

...combined stars and stripes, in a classic Christmas color palette, to create a design that's both masterfully minimal and very dynamic!

(PS: You should also check out her other adorable cards, "American Santa" and "Green Cup"!)

Many thanks to everyone who played along! We'll be back at midnight with an extra-special Christmas in July Crossover edition!

Stars or Stripes?

We're still celebrating Stars OR Stripes at Jingle Belles, or if you're really into it, you can make a holiday card that has BOTH! Scroll down to the original post to link your cards.

Meanwhile, here's what we made this week (both of us using stars AND stripes):

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I've circle-punched some vintage-inspired holiday illustrations from an older Authentique patterned paper, dusted off a leftover piece of classic Basic Grey Stripey paper, added a Simple Stories sentiment, and then bumped up the star power with washi tape, a paper strip and some ancient anodized brads. Not the fanciest card I've ever made but it's sweet; plus... it's flat and mailable, which becomes a more desirable thing to me every time they raise the postage rates!

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "My card started by covering a red cardstock scrap with multiple sizes of two different gold star stickers.  Next I paired with with some stripes (in the form of plaid).  The final touches were a puffy coffee mug stocler and the perfect Caffeinated Christmas Sentiment from STAMPlorations designed by our friend Becca (this card is also perfect for the Stars Challenge at Caffeinated Christmas)."