Clearly Awesome

There was never any doubt that you'd rock the "Midnight Clear" assignment, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ but who knew you'd do it with such amazing panache! Here are three cards that made us especially happy to looooooooooove Christmas:

Marianne of Marianne's Cards 'n Stuff

...made three seriously amazing cards using *VELLUM* in ways that make us want to make all the rest of this year's cards using vellum! :)

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...built her gorgeous all-white card on a transparency base, and did it as well-- or better-- than we've ever seen it done!

June Houck of Simply Elegant Paper Crafts

...cleverly upcycled the acrylic panel from a commercially produced Christmas card to complete a brand new design that's as eco-friendly as it is beautiful!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we LOVE seeing your clever ideas in action! We'll be back at midnight (clearly, lol!) with a brand new prompt we hope you'll think is picture perfect! ♥

Do you SEE what I SEE?

We're still celebrating holiday cards that contain clear elements, whether those be in the form of pre-printed transparencies, acrylic embellishments, or just shaker or window cards which utilize a bit of plastic packaging. Scroll down to the original post for full details and to link up your own masterpieces!

Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I used a scrap from the same clear Hambly Overlay as last week, but this time as an off-set tag using this week's Retro Sketch and a glittery Papaya! Art Sticker."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I'm sad to say that I'm down to my last few pieces of holiday-themed Hambly transparencies, despite Stephanie's magnificent job of scouring the midwest for leftovers and my own valiant efforts at hoarding. But the point of acquiring crafty goodies is to USE THEM, so while I do feel a certain responsibility in terms of making especially nice cards with them, I am determined to use and enjoy them until they're gone. Meanwhile, I'm pretty pleased with this one, as a matter of fact!"

It Came Upon a Midnight, *CLEAR*

Can can you guess from the title what this fortnight's assignment is, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥? Yes, indeed, if you think we want you to include a clear element of some sort in your holiday card design, you're exactly right!

What do we mean by "clear element"? it can be anything from professionally silk screened transparencies, to digital elements home-printed on an ink-jet transparency, to see-thru journal card overlays, to acrylic embellishments, or even something as simple as a window or shaker card with plastic packaging taped behind the aperture. like... say... this one:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I happen to love clear embellishments and overlays, and I suspect you'll see a few of them next week, but even if you don't have ANY you can still play along. I've made the most basic of shaker cards, I've filled it with tiny clear plastic beads that are made to use in shaker cards, and I've held those inside the card by the very simple method of taping some clear plastic to the reverse of the window opening. I actually used a small scrap of inkjet transparency, but you can use plastic packaging from something as simple as a takeaway salad container!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says,"I started with a navy card base and added a silver Hambly transparency on top.  I placed my Basic Grey Die cut where I wanted it on top of the transparency and then attached my transparency to my card base by applying adhesive behind the die cut (and in narrow strips behind the other patterns)..  I finished with clusters of clear pink & red gems for accents."

Now it's your turn to prove how clearly awesome you are! Link your cards here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, June 29th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:13.

An InLinkz Link-up

Super Snow People

There are some seriously cute snowmen (and pre-snowmen) in the gallery for this prompt ... here are a few of our favorites.

JanR

of

Huh. So This is a Blog

made her happy snowman front & center in her design ... 

and the coloring on textured cardstock is perfection

Donna

of

Creative Smiles

added lots of texture and layers to frame her cute little snowman ...

and click through to see how she made those metallic snowflakes

(and did you see his pockets are full of candy ... love that).

Jane

of

Cute Critter Cards

created with *pre-snowmen* ... her elegant snowflakes,

variety of texture and vintage image really come together to

create a show-stopper.

Thanks again for joining us on our creative holiday journey ... we really do love getting to share it with our Jingle Belles family each week.

And this week, Lauren and I had the pleasure of hanging out together in person in New York City and for some Gelli Printing Art Camp ... always fun to get to create together (and shop together ... and eat together ... and go to museums together ... and laugh together ... you get the picture).

Make sure you join us tomorrow for a *clearly* awesome prompt.

He Began to Dance Around

We're still celebrating Frosty the Snowman this week ... making holiday cards featuring snowmen (or pre-snowmen aka snowfall or snowflakes).

Here's what we created:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Yes, I've gone with snowflakes again this week, or if you prefer, think of them as Frosty's baby pictures, lol. This time I embossed Tim Holtz's snowflake e/f on kraft cardstock, and sponged the flakes with a little gesso for a nice soft effect. I added some embellies--including gems of course; then matted and stitched and called it a (snow)day!"

 

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I love this little Snow Dude from Paper Smooches.  I paper pieced his scarf and hat in teal and minty blue and die cut his body in black for a bit more pop.  I added snowflakes and a little birdie friend to finish the design."

Remember you have until Wednesday to have some snowman fun with us ... link-up here.

Frosty the Snowman

Our next prompt at Jingle Belles is "Frosty the Snowman" ... we're making cards that feature snowmen ... or perhaps a pre-snowman (aka snowflakes or snowfall).

Here's the snowy fun we had this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I used the Less is More Sketch with a fun little snowman gift tag (that is the one after-Christmas-sale item that I'm always on the hunt for because they are usually super-cheap and make such quick & easy cards).  Since he was decorated with glitter & a few gems, I added some glittery enamel dots for accent and finished with a Tim Holtz sticker sentiment."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've been in a serious drawing and painting phase, so I decided to doodle some snowflakes and go from there; I thought the center panel would be kind of equivalent to patterned paper and then I'd add chipboard snowflakes or silk flowers --or both-- on top; as it turned out I got a bit carried away embellishing the flakes with gorgeous eyelet outlet bling, glitter and metallic pen, so in the end I just added a little ribbon, a silver mat and a patterned paper card base."

And now it's your turn to pull out your coolest (ok, sorry, lol) papers and embellishments, then link up your snow-centric masterpieces here by 6pm EST on Wednesday, June 18th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:12.

An InLinkz Link-up

No Blues, Just Bliss

Who knew that a fortnight without *BLUE* could inspire you guys to such heights of awesome creativity? We found it especially hard to only choose a few cards to feature, but here are a couple that made our hearts go pitter pat:

Larissa of Car-D-elicious

...made us totally forget about reindeer, elves and snowmen; from now on this adorable Christmas Elephant (who's been made into such a lovely card!) is our FAVORITE holiday mascot!

Cornelia of Stempel Spass

...has taken the elements of an inspiration challenge and made them completely her own, adding in exemplary masking and stamping skills!

Yogi of Art With Yogi

...has combined a number of dies, stamps and artful techniques to produce this very sophisticated easel card design!

As always, we thank everyone who participated, it is always a treat to see every single card! We'll be back at midnight with a ♥COOL♥ new prompt we hope will inspire you once more!