Sleigh Belles Ring

Today at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we're thrilled to welcome the very talented, and very funny, Jessi Fogan, as our lovely guest star. You may recognize her as the author of the most wonderful comments to her fellow bloggers, or as part of the design teams at Tuesday Morning Sketches, Drunken Stampers, and Shopping Our Stash! She is also the mother of two teenage boys, so you can usually find her hiding at her desk or behind a book. Be sure to check out the gorgeous creations on her blog, One Crafty Mama; you're in for a treat!

For this fortnight's prompt Jessi came up with "Sleigh Belles Ring" and of course, always mad for a fab title, we jumped on it! We debated for a bit whether the brief should be, "Make a card with a sleigh on it" or, "Make a card with bells on it"... the latter encompassing either the real jingly kind, or just the image of a bell. Finally we decided we'd allow *either* (or both?!) of these ideas... and for anyone who finds those too challenging, we threw a third possibility, "Make a card using sheet music". So basically, if you cannot find SOMETHING you like in this one, you're just not trying, lol! :)

Here's what we did:

Jessi's Card

Jessi says, "I've been addicted to using bells on my Christmas cards for years - the super-tiny ones always get lots of oohs and aahs. The idea for this card grew out of my desire to use this hoarded soft aqua glittered bell - and some of my crochet mats, to whet your crafty appetite for that prize :) It didn't take too long to decide to add a never-inked Unity Itty Bitty set and to stick with a monochromatic palette to make this a soft, pretty, and yet trendy Christmas card!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I went with the sleigh-theme of this week's challenge.  I had this vintage sleigh in a stash that I found in a batch of cards I picked-up at an estate sale.  I carefully removed it from the aged card base and adhered it to my snowy landscape cut from ivory cardstock with an SRM Sticker Sentiment.  I finished with a coat of glitter spray to add some sparkly stars to the night time sky."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've got two out of the three elements in my card this week: the sheet music, obviously, (which is digital, from the "Christmas Shopping kit by Polka Dot Pixels) but I've also got some glittery diecut jingle bells in my border strip just beneath that large and super-sparkly Prima poinsettia. The latter are a bit subtle, but I think they are kind of cool. Maybe next week I'll try to work in a sleigh, too?!" 

Of course what we're longing to see is what ♥YOU♥ will do, so round up those sleighs, sleds, jingle bells, church bells, sheet music... or ALL of the above... and get cracking with your own fabulous card! Need a little extra incentive? Well, Miss Jessi has created a happy little packet of Christmassy card candy for one randomly selected cardmaker:

A few of Jessi's xmas faves for one lucky card-maker: October Afternoon "Holiday Style" 8x8 pad; a package of tiny bells; and a dozen of Jessi's own gorgeous crocheted mats... 6 oval mats (2 kraft, 2 white, 1 cream, 1 black) and 6 circle mats (in the same colors)

For a shot at the prize AND to be one card closer to a stress-free December, link up your "Sleigh Belles" card between now and 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, July 31st. Keyword for galleries and our flickr group is JB:13:15.