Old-Fashioned Goodness

It's truly inspiring to see so many different ways to create a "Vintage" look for our holiday cards; we always love to see what our Jingle Belles will come up with, and you never disappoint! Here are three cards that made our holiday hearts especially happy:

Celeste of Crafting Junky

...had the perfect stamp for this theme and then made it even better with a clever two-layer stamping technique!

Plony of Plony's Blog

...added layers of paper, lace, flowers, diecuts, pearls and... well, let's just say we could stare at this beautiful vintage-style creation for a good long time!

Bobbi of Bobbi's Treasure

...proves that the vintage look can still be quite pared down and lovely; you just need the perfect retro-style image and just the right papers to finish off a perfectly sweet card!

♥♥♥

And now it's time to see who's won that fun Christmas ephemera pack from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff! The fine folks at Random.org chose number *10* which means that

♥ BARBARA G ♥

is our lucky winner!

Please email Lauren at llaurenb (at) hotmail.com so she can get that prize in the mail!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who linked up with us, we loved seeing every single card! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will put a song in your Christmas card-making heart! 

Have Yourself a Very Vintage Christmas

We are still celebrating "The Spirits of Christmas Past" by making cards that feature actual vintage ingredients, beautiful vintage-style modern ingredients, or which just evoke the feeling of an old fashioned holiday. Be sure to scroll down to the original post to see the complete details... (including a photo of the fun prize from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff!) ...and to link up your own masterpiece! Meanwhile, here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "When I was young, a favorite activity was paging through my Gran's collection of Ideals Magazines ... especially the holiday editions.  I found this vintage Ideals Magazine Photo in my collection, so I scanned it and sized it down to 5"x7" to cover my card front.  I thought the Impression Obsession sentiment was the perfect finishing touch ... do you remember making popcorn & paper ring garlands for your holiday tree?"

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Unfortunately neither of my grandmothers collected "Ideals" magazine, but I've made up for lost time since finding my first copy at a book sale about 15 years ago! For this card I've used two different blue-toned snowscape illustrations from two different issues of "Ideals" and framed them up with loads of textural blue, white and sparkly flowers. My layout is inspired by this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge." 

Spirits of Christmas PAST

It's time for a brand new prompt, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and this fortnight we are celebrating all things vintage! As you know, we loooooooove vintage paper and ephemera, and in fact Lauren even built her Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, around it! But for this challenge you needn't have actual OLD stuff; you can use vintage-style products or images; we've also put a few digital scans of some favorite items from Lauren's personal collection at the bottom of this post that you are welcome to test drive! But basically, we just want to see holiday cards using whatever conveys an "old fashioned" vibe to you! 

PEACEful Abundance

Thanks so much for sharing your gorgeous Peaceful Creations with us ... here are a few that caught our eyes.

Kathy K of

Create 365

colored this gorgeous Peaceful image ... 

and included peaceful sentiments both on the front & inside her card.

Keti of

Keti's Projects

shared her gorgeous angel with her golden peace sentiment.

Darlene Pavlick of

Dar's Crafty Creations

shared a glittery masterpiece in traditional Christmas hues ...

can you ever have too much shimmer & sparkle?

Make sure you join us at midnight for our next holiday card prompt ... as we continue to take back December, one holiday card at a time.

Goodwill to Men

One of my favorite themes for holiday cards is Peace. In the bustle and chaos of the holidays, I think it's important to step back from it all and find peace ... both inner peace and world peace.

So our prompt for this week's card is to incorporate a Peace Symbol or the word Peace into your design ... or create a card that evokes Peace for you (snow, forest, etc.).

Here are our second creations:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I am in a watercolor phase again, so this week I got out my ColorBursts and Liquid Metals and had a blast making a crazy, messy red and green background. When it was finished and dry, I stamped Ken Oliver's Poinsettias strategically on the reddest bits, and embossed them in white. To finish up, I added a diecut sentiment and a few Eyelet Outlet sticky-back pearls that I colored gold with an alcohol ink marker."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I used some Penny Black Stickeroos from 2005 for my peaceful creation I added some Eyelet Outlet Silver Pearl Swirls to finish my design."

Remember to Link-up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 16th.  Keyword for galleries & our JB flickr Gallery is JB:17:16

PEACE on Earth

I'm always seeking peace in one way or another ... peace of mind, peace & quiet ... and Peace on Earth.
Our next prompt is to incorporate a Peace Symbol or the word Peace into your design ... or create a card that evokes Peace for you (snow, forest, etc.)

Here are our PEACEful creations.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "This was the perfect opportunity to ink-up the new Stampin' Up set Carols of Christmas set (that I was able to buy early as a Demonstrator ... it will be available soon).  I used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment four times using two differing shades of Navy ink to get the deep blue solid color I wanted.  The background is Simon Says Stamp Falling Stars Craft Die layered over silver glitter paper.  I added a pop of red with the paper banner to finish the design."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I was headed in a completely different direction when i re-discovered my stash of colorful Eyelet Outlet peace sign brads which for some reason, seemed to me to go PERFECTLY with this fun Doodlebug Santa on a scooter, lol. My layout was inspired by this awesome "road map" from Tuesday Morning Sketches:"

So break-out those PEACE-ful images and show us your creations.  Link-up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 16th.  Keyword for galleries & our JB flickr Gallery is JB:17:16
An InLinkz Link-up

Everybody Loves Santa!

And with the amazing gallery full of Santa-centric cards we've seen this fortnight, we love the Big Guy more than ever! Here are a few cards that made us feel especially jolly:

Monica Soto of My Way

...combined digital elements with "real life" supplies to make this charming chalkboard greeting!

Kathy K of Purple Princess Diaries

...proves that CAS cards are a breeze, if you have the perfect image and awesome coloring skills!

Barbara G of Barb's Creative Corner

...not only uses dies to perfection to create an entire scene, she's cleverly *added* a Santa where there wasn't one; just by placing a bit of cardstock and a santa hat brad inside the sleigh!

(We also love that Barb decorates the INSIDES of her cards, that is such a cool bonus!)

♥♥♥

As always, we send our thanks and admiration to everyone who played along; we *LOVE* seeing every single card! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will leave you feeling peacefully creative! ♥