bring on the sketch miss ♥AMY♥!

hello, all--it's lauren here! are you ready for CARD FIVE?! this week we have an amazingly lovely guest star for you, so i am even more than usually anxious to get started!

if you're a card-making blogger, then i'm pretty sure ♥AMY TSURUTA♥ needs no introduction: this lady has pretty much single-handedly raised the art of both making cards...and friendly blurfing around to see the cards of others, to a whole new level, hasn't she?! she's been on LOTS of design teams... (currently card patterns, skipping stones, and EAD designs are lucky enough to have her talents) ...not to mention the fact that she has her own fabulous blog and now a second one for her awesome friday flashback challenge, too! stephanie and i have both been lucky enough to count her as a friend for several years now, and so of course we wanted her to be one of the very first people to join us here at JINGLE BELLES! not only was she gracious enough to do so, she brought one of her lovely SKETCHES with her. see?

so you've probably guessed that CARD FIVE is AMY'S LOVELY SKETCH, right?!

here's what we did with it:

amy's card

amy says: Okay, this is truly an easy smeasy sketch...let me tell you my theory on that: I love panels...layers of colors and funky patterns.....BUT for Christmas cards I'm all about clean & crisp {translation=easily mass produced and no extra postage}. For Jingle Bells, I thought we should start with a clean and simple design... and then my fellow cardmakers can load it up or not...

stephanie's card

stef says: My card started with some fabulous Webster's Pages paper cut with the Stampin' Up Top Note Die. I added some ink and mounted it on striped holiday cardstock. Next, I stamped the Ledger image from Artistic Outpost's new Ephemeral Backgrounds set on light blue DP and punched out my Christmas tree. I sponged some more & adorned it with a champagne pearl garland. I finished with a sentiment from Artistic Outpost's Snowy Woods.

lauren's card

lauren says: amy's gorgeous sketch and her fabulous style inspired me to attempt a (relatively...for ME, lol!) "clean and simple" design. i started with the fun jukebox graphic (which miss stef found!) and paired it with a santa cut from a holiday catalog; a few "recollections" xmas lights and some puffy alphabet stickers later and i was done!

and now it's time to see what YOU will do for

CARD FIVE: amy's lovely sketch!

make it plain or fancy; go traditional or step out on a limb; keep it minimal or load it up...just make a holiday card and link it below by 6pm on wednesday, february 2, 2011!

remember, this is the last prompt before the big giveaway closes out, and i know you want a shot at the prize!!!

it's a random draw in which you get TWO chances for every card you've made and linked during january and ONE chance for every comment you've left on a january post; we're keeping it open until this challenge ends (6pm on 2-2-11) and will announce the winner in the shout out post on thursday, february 3rd! good luck!

♥LAUREN♥

pink & green & oh-so-festive

another fabulous week here on the ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ blog! we're so pleased to see so many cards from such amazing card-makers! thank you!

here are a few especially clever ideas that we thought interpreted this week's prompt, Pretty in Pink .... and Green particularly well!

Leslie of The Crooked Stamper

used a fabulous fold to turn some bright pink paper into a

rockin' Christmas tree,

as well as stamping text on some polka dot background paper

to turn it into a holiday masterpiece

Lisa of Lisa's Little Bits
Lisa (as did many of you) declared her aversion to Pink,

but pushed forward anyway

using it as an opportunity to brush up on some awesome techniques

like stenciling (with ink & stickles) & flocking

to create this oh-so-festive design

Paige of She Who Must Stamp
tackled the challenging (to her) nature of the color combination

by using little bits of color to highlight

her wonderful, mainly white, design ... magical.

thank you very much to *EVERYONE* who played along ... if you've not done so yet we strongly encourage you to scroll down to the thumbnails in the last post and spend a bit of time seeing your fellow ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ in action!

then come on back at midnight when the NEW prompt goes live ... we have another extra special guest star you won't want to miss.

Pretty in Pink ... and Green

Hello Jingle Belles ... this is Stephanie bringing you this week's Jingle Belle Challenge #4 (JB04).

This week is our first (of what we hope will be many) color challenge. I fell in love with this wonderful Pink Rose Vintage Chenille Stocking from doodaba's Etsy store, and thought these colors ~ Dark Pink, Light Pink & Lime Green ~ would make a great card-making color challenge.

My card base is Memory Box Gossamer DP embossed with a Snowflake Embossing Folder & then sponged with Pink Lemonade ink to bring out the texture. I added a wrap of my favorite May Arts ribbon and three foam glittery Fa La La holiday trees that I decked out in pink bling. I finished with an SRM Sticker Sentiment because to me, this card just screams ... CHEER!

LAUREN'S CARD

of course i *KNOW* we only needed to use the COLORS, but i just loved everything about of the inspiration photo: the style, the roses, the fabric detailing of that gorgeous stocking, so i went ALL THE WAY! i've got damask stripe tone-on-tone paper for my background, some nestie labels to hold my sentiment, and layers and layers of flowers, holly, snowflakes and other embellies! (full product list and details on my blog)

So break out your pink (yes, my card did used Valentine's Day paper ... remember, just because they're holiday cards, doesn't mean you have to use holiday paper) ... and your green ... and show us your Christmas Cheer!

much respect to the intrepid painters!

ok, despite this prompt being a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle bit outside our collective crafty comfort zone, it is massively impressive how many ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ got out paints, played with them, experimented, and really got into the spirit of gina's acrylic paint UPC challenge! plus THE CARDS themselves were AWESOME!!!

here are a few especially cool techniques that gina noticed this week: these folks showed up to USE, PRACTICE, CREATE...and jingle (with acrylic paint) in particularly rockin' ways!

HAZEL

(our fellow card-making blog hostess at crafty hazelnut's christmas challenge!)

brushed blue paint to make her sky, and stamped her snowy trees in white paint; to make a card that would look completely different if rendered in ink!

LINDA

cleverly and creatively used both sponging and stamping to create a fabulous effect that resembles an impressionist painting!

BEVERLY

really took the "USE, PRACTICE, CREATE" mantra to heart: she experimented with a bunch of different paint techniques and, in her words, "loosened up" to produce a one-of-a-kind card that is charming beyond words!

to everybody who played: THANK YOU! give yourself a BIG round of applause! and if you didn't quite get there this week, hey...just because inlinkz closed it doesn't mean the creativity has to stop! make a painty card now, if you like, then come tell us!

again many thanks to gina cunningham of tyggereye art for being our lovely guest star this week! we hope you will continue to check out her "UPC play along" throughout all of 2011, since there is always MUCH inspiration to be found over there!

oh and if you haven't seen your fellow ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ work yet, i assure you that is well worth your time to scroll down, peruse the thumbnails and do a bit of blurfing!

ps: the new prompt--which is NOT messy AT ALL!!!-- goes up at midnight! :)

use, practice, create...and JINGLE!

hello, it's lauren here!

this week i'm thrilled to introduce the first of what i hope will be many, MANY guest designers* to the JINGLE BELLES blog: my dear friend, my inspiration, and my artistic mentor, ms. gina cunningham!

those of you who read gina's blog tyggereye arts will know that having hosted a year-long art journaling prompt in 2010 called HEART the ART, this year she's embarking on a medium-per-month "play along" called USE PRACTICE CREATE, about which i am very excited! i hope you'll check out her blog (full of real- and digi-art that makes me DROOL!), her etsy shop (the coolest hand-carved art stamps you can imagine), and her UPC flickr group!

but right now, let's check out her card! gina's spending the month of january using, practicing and creating with ACRYLIC PAINT, so i thought it'd be fun if we all got out our brushes and played along with her!

thus, for CARD THREE we're going to

USE, PRACTICE, CREATE...and jingle!


here's what we did with acrylic paint, and a little description from each of us:

gina's card

Thanks to Lauren and Stef for having me join them this week. With my card I took an old Basic Grey chipboard snowflake. I put all different color acrylic paints on my palette and painted them all together while wet and blended them at the edges. I then let it dry. I then stamped it with some Tim Holtz snowflake stamps in Black Stazon ink. I then added little dots of white like snow. After that dried I added the Cosmo Cricket snowman rub on.

On the background I used some white Basic Grey cardstock. I spritzed it with some Tattered angels misters. Mounted it on red cardstock and used the same Tim Holtz snowflake stamp for stamping. More white acrylic dots added. Then I added the ribbons, stamped Tim Holtz Merry Christmas sentiment and buttons.

Very exciting that many of you are enjoying making Christmas cards like I am for jingle belles challenges. the UPC group I have started makes using a different medium for the whole month on different crafts a goal. Please come check out my blog of weekly projects I've done with the medium or the UPC flickr group.

stephanie's tags

I opened A Compendium of Curiosities to page 37 and gave Dauber Resist a try. I also took a tip from several of you, and while I had things painty & inky, I went ahead made two holiday tags. The Hero Arts Fabulous Flourish was stamped in Snow Cap White ink. I used a triangle make-up sponge (cheaper than the Ranger applicators) to add varying combinations of Victorian Velvet, Fired Brick & Peeled Paint Distress Inks. I also used some hoarded little holiday owl embellishments (another great thing about these challenges ... the opportunity to use our stashes) and Hero Arts Sentiments (Holiday Cheer & Get Merry).

lauren's card

last year i started stumbled upon the idea of using the negative space from paper punches to stencil through (THIS TUTORIAL shows the step-by-step method). i love it because t's super-easy to do, makes use of what is essentially TRASH...and looks pretty good, if i do say so myself! on this card i stenciled through an oversized martha stewart snowflake with a mix of white, silver metallic, and clear glitter acrylic paint; then i built the rest of my card using an illustration from a vintage children's book, patterned papers, diecuts, and ribbon. (full product details on my blog; or email me for info!)

so now it's time to see what YOU will do! brush or brayer it, splash it, splatter it, stamp or stencil with it, dab, drip or drizzle it; make it the centerpiece of your card or merely an accent...but get hold of some acrylic paint so you can USE, PRACTICE, CREATE...and JINGLE!!! :)

link up your card by 6pm EST on wednesday, january 19th; if posting to SCS, our flickr group, or the UPC flickr group use code JB03; remember that for the january giveaway, comments count as one chance and linked cards count as TWO...so you've got a shot at three more chances when you play along this week!!! ♥

*do YOU have a great idea for a prompt, or a fabulous technique you'd like to share, or a sketch you're dying for us all to try out? we'd love to hear from you! email us using the information on the sidebar!!!

you're all *INCHIE-LICIOUS!*

Well, we've had another wonderful week here on the ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ blog! And despite a certain amount of worry as to the concept of using inchies and twinchies, we're thrilled to see how many of you jumped in with both feet and *ROCKED* this prompt! thank you!

Of course we cannot resist pointing out a few particularly clever ideas that totally blew us away amongst the HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY {little} CHRISTMAS cards. Here they are now!

JAY GEE
Stamped her design across more than one inchie! How cool is that?!

LISA

Made ♥ROUND♥ inchies! (So did Lorraine and Emma and Tracy, too!) We {♥} them!

LINDA
made her inchies into a christmas tree, incorporated a recycled giftbag, and she made SIX cards!!!

Thank you very much to *EVERYONE* who played along, we strongly encourage you--if you've not done so already--to scroll down to the thumbnails in the last post and spend a bit of time seeing your fellow ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ in action! (It's worth the trip!) Then come back at midnight when the NEW theme goes live!

Have Yourself a Merry LITTLE Christmas

So, when Lauren & I were bantering about different holiday card possibilities (yes, bantering with each other is one of our favorite past times), one idea that we thought would be fun was tying some of our card making prompts to holiday song lyrics (because if you're going to make holiday cards all year long, you might as well break out some holiday tunes too).

So this week's Jingle Belle Prompt comes from the song ... Have Yourself a Merry LITTLE Christmas ... which to us inspires making cards that feature Inchies and Twinchies (2" squares) in the design (or perhaps a twinchie-sized gift tag).

I picked up some Inkadinkado Holiday Inchies on sale after the holiday (another perk of making Christmas cards in January), so those are what I featured in my JB02 card design.

Stephanie's Card

Inchies were stamped in Charcoal ink on My Mind's Eye Holly Jolly Snowflake DP, cut out at 1 1/8" to leave a slight border, and then matted on 1 1/4" grey cardstock squares. An 11" x 4 1/4 inch strip of the same DP was scored at 2" on one end and 3 1/2" on the other end to create an off-centered opening. The front was then stamped with Hero Arts Stunning Snowflakes, which were embellished with pearls.

Two inches were adhered on one side of the opening, with the third adhered on the other side.

It's fun to do this fold with two-sided cardstock. The sentiment was stamped on another scrap of snowflake paper and adhered inside.

And now here's Lauren's Card:

lauren's card

i also made inchies, but once i got going i couldn't stop! mine have vintage sheet music backgrounds and are decorated with a combination of hoarded "love, elsie" rub-ons and tiny paperchase stickers. the background of the card is "love, elsie" patterned paper mounted on basic grey "solid" cardstock; embellished with deconstructed silk flowers from michaels, held on by a doodlebug xmas tree brad.

Seriously, doesn't that card just make you want to sing Fa La La La La all day long ... love it!

And now it's time to see what *YOU* will do for CARD TWO:

Have Yourself a Merry *LITTLE* Christmas!

Link your card by 6pm EST on Wednesday, January 12th (use keyword JB02 if you upload to our Flickr Gallery or any other on-line gallery) and then tune in next Friday, January 14th for another prompt!

Remember we're collecting giveaway entries for the entire month of January! Each comment you leave counts as ONE chance in the random draw; each new card you make and link up, counts asTWO additional chances! Complete details HERE!

even *LAUREN* is speechless! :)

wow.

♥WOW!!!♥

37 cards for the very first prompt??!?!?! holy moly! we never saw that coming, but could not be more thrilled! thank you very much indeed to every one who played, or commented, or became a follower, or just stopped by and had a look. we're excited to see so many old friends AND to make so many new ones! as an added bonus it's unbelievably cool to see how many of you are going around to visit each other's blogs and leave comments!

plus...have you SEEN the cards in question?! truly amazing, unique, beautiful and creative works of art. and we mean EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. in fact, if you only have five minutes to spend here, stop reading this right now and scroll down to the thumbnails in the last post because THAT is the show. up here is just talk! :)

ok except for a couple of faves to which we cannot resist sending an extra-special shout out:

Lorraine
used found items (doily, cupcake wrapper, vintage style stamps) in a particularly brilliant way!

Paige
not only stuns with her stamping, but used a SERIOUSLY creative fold!

NiMu
(who's 4!) made this beautiful snowman tag...and is sporting the look of pure joy we hope ALL jingle belles feel about their creations!!!

remember, this whole "make our cards early" lark is NOT an obligation, and it's definitely not all-or-nothing! if you didn't get a chance to make a card this week, it's no big deal. seriously. come and make one next week! or heck, do the first prompt NOW! (the inlinkz is closed, but if you leave a link in the comments, we WILL come & see it, honest!!!) however many (or few!) cards we each make during the year lessens the load in december, and puts us that much more ahead of the game; truly, there is NO WRONG WAY to do this!!!!!

finally, we need to break out the largest font and some festive colors to express the appropriate amount of happiness in the following statement:

♥♥♥

thank you, fellow jingle belles!

for making this the BEST WEEK EVER... until next week, that is!!! ;)

♥♥♥

(the CARD TWO prompt goes up at midnight... hosted by miss stephanie...and it's a goodie... just sayin'...)

it's RESOLUTION-ary!!!!

hello, welcome, and happy new year!

for the rest of 2011, jingle belles will debut a new christmas card prompt each friday morning; but the symbolism of starting our project on the first day of a new month, of a new year, just seemed too wonderful to resist! (plus, we're so excited, we couldn't wait another six days to get going!)

so without further ado, the prompt for CARD ONE is:

something old, something new!

(told ya...we're ALL ABOUT the symbolism, here!)

make a holiday card using one of your favorite old products and one of the cool new things you've just been given for christmas and cannot wait to tear into ...OR... recycle one of the holiday cards you received in 2010 by combining it with something new you've been hoarding (yeah, we all do that) ...OR... combine vintage found items with a funky modern style! ...OR... well, go any direction you like, but combine OLD AND NEW in an interesting way on a holiday card!

here's what we did:

lauren's card

for old i've got a poem and illustration from a vintage "ideals" magazine, plus a bit of vintage sheet music; for new i have some fancy recollections' christmas tree stickers, a super-cool fabric brad, and some of my very favorite may arts leaf ribbon--of which my darling stef gave me AN ENTIRE ROLL for christmas!!! everything else is of medium age from my stash: prima poinsettias & holly, doodlebug brads, oriental trading bling snowflakes, and patterned paper strips i have edge-punched into submission!

stephanie's card

For old I've got a vintage Saint Nick cut from the cover of the December 1971 issue of Children's Digest (that I found at an estate tag sale for pennies) ... I love those vibrant Technicolor hues ... as well as vintage lace crochet trim from the thrift store. For new, I've got a K&Company Christmas Cheer rhinestone brad that my rockin' sister got me as a Christmas gift, as well as a tone-on-tone background stamped with the new Hero Arts Large Fabric Design.

and now it's time to show us what you can do for CARD ONE: something old, something new. link up here by 6pm EST on wednesday, jan 5th (use keyword JB01 if you upload to our Flickr Gallery or any other on-line gallery) and then tune in next friday, jan 7th for another prompt.

remember there's a bit of a prize pack up for grabs this month: each comment you leave us during the month of january gets you ONE chance in the random draw; each new card you make and link up, snags you TWO additional chances! you can read the details HERE!