Coffee & Christmas

We're still creating with Coffee (or Tea or Cocoa) & Christmas this week (and if you make your card Masculine too, you can also link-up at Caffeinated Christmas Challenge #18).

And remember, we're giving one lucky participant the super-fun A Very Silly Season Stamp Set from Gina K. Designs.

Here's how we got Caffeinated this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I can never resist a pun OR a chunky sentiment. Since I don't own a "Fa-La-La-La Latte" stamp I just made my own word art version using Lawn Fawn's Henry's ABCs alphabet dies, which I cut from various scraps of red and green cardstock, then embellished with Eyelet Outlet Holiday Coffee Cup, Santa Hat and Holly Brads. My patterned paper choices include an ancient stripey scrap of unknown origin and some fairly recent Lawn Fawn Knit Picky from my favorite papercrafting store, Paper Anthology, in Kenvil, NJ."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started my card design with a plan to use Red & Aqua from the current Color Hues Color Challenge.  I stamped three different Coffee images from Rubbernecker Stamps Coffee Set in black ink and colored them with Aqua Alcohol Markers.  I added a couple of October Afternoon red snowflake rub-ons to the coffee cups and a sentiment from Impress Holiday Word Set.  I finished my cards with Aqua and Red papers from Photoplay Not a Creature Was Stirring."

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Remember, you need only incorporate COFFEE + HOLIDAY to enter our Jingle Belles challenge; if you add MASCULINE elements as well, you can also link up with our friends at the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge Blog. Scroll down to the original post to see the Readers' Gallery, which is already looking very impressive, and link up with us!

A (Masculine) Caffeinated Christmas

For the month of June, we Jingle Belles will be teaming up with the amazingly talented gang at the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge, for their "Challenge #18: Coffee + Masculine" to make holiday cards that feature both a caffeinated beverage (coffee, tea or cocoa) and a masculine vibe. Note that for our first Jingle Belles challenge of June, your card only needs coffee & Christmas to link-up; but why not add a masculine element and join both?!

This month's Caffeinated Christmas Super Sponsor is Rubbernecker Stamps, so you'll definitely want to link your cards here AND at CCCC for a chance at some cool prizes! 

We've also got our own little prize, so one lucky person who links-up with us will get A Very Silly Season Stamp set by Gina K. Designs.

And now here's a little Coffee + Masculine inspiration to get you going:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with the Rubbernecker Coffee Bean Background stamp in Brown ink on a kraft card base.  Next I die cut the Rubbernecker Coffee Cup from Red with a black lid.  I die cut the cup sleeve from Simple Stories Claus & Co. Holly paper and then used a tiny journaling card that also featured red & holly, where I stamped a Holiday Cheer sentiment from Impress Holiday Word Set."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "To convey a masculine vibe, I used darker colors, concentrating on neutrals and a rich deep blue, plus lots of texture. My focal point is a "snowflake" made of Eyelet Outlet Coffee Cup Brads, interspersed with various shapes and sizes of Pearl Bling, surmounted by a Snowflake Brad. The sentiment stamp and Cable Knit Embossing Folder are from Taylored Expressions; the woodgrain vellum is from Lawn Fawn."

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Post your newly made Coffee + Christmas cards right here AND remember, if you've added a masculine element you can also link up at the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge, for a chance at some cool prizes from their Super Sponsor,  Rubbernecker Stamps. Deadline for this Link-Up is 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 14th. Keyword for galleries and socials is JB-23-12.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

No Stamping? No Worries!

It turns out our intrepid fellow Jingle Belles do not need rubber stamps to create a beautiful holiday card, as the No Stamping Readers' Gallery illustrates perfectly. If you haven't checked out all the cards, we highly recommend the trip. In the meantime, here are three cards that especially caught our eye this fortnight:

Julia Aston of Create with Me

...only needed three (3!) elements to create this dramatic and elegant card: a bold patterned paper, a golden frame and a diecut sentiment et voila!

Fiona W of Crafty Stamping

...says she found the absence of stamps challenging, but having combined several gorgeous embossing folders, which she distressed and embellished them beautifully, we would never have guessed!

Mary Marsh of the Charmed Life

...built her charming card around this diecut lovely sled, which she has paperpieced for maximum realism with woodgrain and a traditional red and green palette!

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Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your inspiring cards! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt for which we're teaming up with one of our favorite challenge blogs... we hope you'll grab a cuppa and join the fun!

Paper-crafting Christmas

We're continuing with making cards that include NO STAMPING ... let's see all of the ways you can make paper, stickers, and diecuts shine.

Here's how we created with papers this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This card has four different patterned papers (including TWO red and green plaids!) as well as a journal card that I diecut into an oval and matted to give it a little more visual weight. I'd love to take credit for the dynamic placement of elements, but in fact, I used an ancient (circa 2012, I think!) but very inspiring layout from the late great Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge which I stumbled upon on Pinterest and immediately thought, "AHA!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I love buying 12" pieces of scrapbooking paper that are made-up of twelve journaling cards.  I trim them down & keep them in a stack for quick & easy paper-crafting cardmaking.  This one is 3x4 Elements from Simple Stories Mix & A-Mingle.  I love the unexpected colors for a Christmas card.  I paired it with a piece of designer paper in similar colors, a snowflake button with gold cord, cardstock flags, and a few glittery enamel dots using the layout #242 from Sketch~N~Scrap."

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You have until Wednesday evening, May 31st, to link your cards on the original post, 

which can be found directly below this one.

No Stamping Christmas

Instead of a Hard Candy Christmas, we're having a No Stamping Christmas this week at Jingle Belles.  That means it's time to break out your designer papers, stickers, Cricut cuts, embossing folders and embellishments ... show us what you can do without your stamps.

Here's how we created with NO Stamping this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with one of my gel press prints that used the color palette from the Christmas Kickstart Challenge and die cut it with Penny Black Merry Christmas & the ornaments from Penny Black Ornaments Kit.  I die cut the ornament tops & the ornament string from the inside of a box of Kleenex with cooling lotion (great silver cardstock inside).  I attached it all to a piece of snowflake designer paper from Lawn Fawn Let it Shine Snowflakes paper for the Penny Black Saturday patterned paper Challenge."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I absolutely love diecuts, so they're the basis of my card this week. I've used Memory Box's Serene Bird and Branch die set as well as Penny Black's Peaceful Pines plus a few papers from Photoplay's 2022 It's a Wonderful Christmas line, all of which came from my favorite papercrafting store, Paper Anthology. As a matter of fact, this card is doing double duty, as it's also the official sample for the May Edition of Paper Anthology’s Holiday Jumpstart Card Kit, Peaceful Dove, which you can read all about on my personal blog and on the Paper Anthology website."

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The NO STAMPING Challenge runs through 6pm (Eastern) on May 31st; enter as many times as you like, using the linking tool below. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2311.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tic-Tac-Totally Awesome

Holiday Tic-Tac-Toe cards combine crafty supplies we might not have otherwise thought to put together... which sometimes leads to cards we might not have otherwise made. Which is pretty cool, right?! Here are three clever Tic-Tac-Toe cards that especially caught our eye this fortnight:

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...made TWO gorgeous cards using different combinations from the board. This one features the diagonal combination of Glitter + Silver + Diecuts and could not be more charming!

Ingen of Nice Things From Ingen

...combined the center column of Snowflakes + Silver + Stamping to create this amazingly beautiful stamped collage we cannot stop drooling over!

Silke of Karten Kram

...chose the bottom row featuring Diecuts + Stamping + Santa, then used a delightful pastel color palette on her adorable images! 

(Who knew Santa would look so awesome in pink?!) 

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Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single one of your beautiful and creative cards! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new challenge we hope will receive your stamp of approval!

Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe

It's another week of game-playing shenanigans here at Jingle Belles with our second round of Holiday Tic-Tac-Toe.

Here's how we played the game this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I chose the left-hand column, which gave me DESIGNER PAPER + XMAS TREE + DIECUT OR PUNCH. Since, technically speaking, I fulfilled all of those with my cluster of punched patterned paper trees; I decided to grab the middle column, as well, for which I added SNOWFLAKES (Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads) + SILVER (two retired EO Washi varieties... silver metallic and silver glitter) + STAMPING (paperpieced Lawn Fawn Yeti & sentiment). Once again the gang at Sketch Saturday provided the perfect sketch (#725) to get me going, for which I thank them!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I went vertical down the right side with glitter, ribbon & Santa.  I started with a Santa panel cut from designer paper and framed in red & green.  Next came silver vellum cut with the PinkFresh Rounded & Braided Rectangle Die Cut.  I added a wrap of red ribbon around the front of the card after layering it on green glitter paper (yay, I can still tie a mean bow).  I finished with some bits of green bling to accent Santa."

Scroll down to the original Tic-Tac-Toe post to find the Inlinkz Link Up, which will be open until next Wednesday eveing, May 17th.