Not a CREATURE was stirring

This week at Jingle Belles we're breaking out the ANIMALS.

It could be a sweet little sheep next to the manger, a cardinal in a snowy tree, or perhaps one of Santa's reindeer ... okay, or even a Monster (or a Yeti) if you're in a Halloween mood and want to stretch the theme (and your name is Lauren).

Here are our Creatures for this week.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I couldn't wait to break out my Coolest Yulest Stamp set with this adorable reindeer.  I also used a page from a tiny dictionary (with the word reindeer) that I found at a used bookstore on my recent travels.  Rudolph does have a red gem nose, although it's a bit hard to see in the picture."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My name *IS* Lauren, lol, so YES... of course... I've got MONSTAS! :) :) :) These guys are sporting some pretty fab accessories, too! all of which are Eyelet Outlet brads. I managed to work in quite a few styles, including Santa Hats, Elf Hats, Mittens, Antlers, Holly and a Candy Cane, woohoo!"

We can't wait to see the entire herd & gaggle of creatures and critters in the gallery.

Link up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, November 8th. Keyword for galleries and Jingle Belles Flickr Gallery is JB:17:22. 

An InLinkz Link-up

May All Your Christmases Be... ♥PINK♥!

There are lots of reasons we love ♥PINK CHRISTMAS♥ so much. For one thing, we love that every single card you link up helps us raise more money to help find a cure for breast cancer! This year we had 46 amazing cards (and YES, we remembered to count the "extras" from those of you kind enough to put more than one into a post) and since each of us (Lauren and Stephanie) donate $2 per card, that means you've helped us raise $200 (ok, we rounded up a tiny bit) for the Breast Cancer Research Fund! THANK YOU!!! ♥♥♥

Another thing we love about this challenge is that we always see some of the most beautiful cards of the year. And here are three that made us feel especially "in the pink" this time:

Barb G of Barb's Creative Corner

...made not one, not two, but  EIGHT of the gorgeous cards in our Pink Christmas gallery, each one of them beautifully stamped, colored and embellished to perfection, for which we thank her very much indeed! We couldn't possibly pick a single favorite, but if you reallllllllllly pushed us, this might be the one! (You definitely need to check out ALL of them on her blog!)

♥♥♥

Sue Reynolds of I Luv Scrapping Too

...did not use the most or the brightest pink of all the cards we saw, but we'd argue that it's the most dramatic use of pink; and it stands out so amazingly well against the grey and white!

♥♥♥

Marianne of Marianne's Cards and Stuff

...made SIX of these beautiful CAS cards! You really need to go and see them all, because she used the same very cool mask + ink technique on all of them, but had fun changing up the stamps, the sentiments and even the orientation of the cards! And then she made four of this design. And two of these. We're kind of in awe and we think you will be too, so GO and see them all!!!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to every one who linked up their gorgeous cards, who shared the graphic, and spread the word for ♥PINK CHRISTMAS♥ we appreciate every single one of you! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will not effect your creature comforts in the near future... ;)

Deck the Halls... in ♥PINK♥!

We are still rockin' ♥PINK CHRISTMAS♥ for a very good cause! So whether you like rose or fuchsia, salmon or flamingo, magenta or bubblegum... or heck, maybe you love ALL of those, in which case grab your cardmaking supplies and link up as many times as you'd like, on the post directly below this one!

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "In honor of such an awesome occasion, I broke out one of my last treasured scraps of they-don't make-this-anymore Papaya Art glitter giftwrap, not to mention some washi, a little ribbon, a big poinsettia, a snowflake glitter sticker and a big beautiful Eyelet Outlet pearl brad. I also got to play with some cool new Ranger cardstock that is metallic on one side and and kraft on the other, which I embossed and sanded a bit sporadically. My layout was inspired by the current Sketch Saturday, but the finished card is admittedly a very loose interpretation."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I had lots of fun with Alcohol Inks and Yupo paper this week.  I combined four shades of pink ink with a little yellow, purple and blue to create my background.  I die cut the ornaments in black and then the next smaller size from pink inky paper for the insides.  I decorated them with some Eyelet Outlet bling."

Whether you're in the mood for making cards with loads of lovely pre-made products OR you'd prefer to experiment with inks... (or stamps, or oxides, or marbling, or collage, or well, ANYTHING you can think of, lol!) ...add in some PINK and come join our fun and help us raise some money for a very good cause! ♥♥♥

♥ Pink Christmas... for the Cure! ♥

If you've played along with us in other years, you may already know we always devote the first ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ theme of each October to making pink holiday cards as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that for each card that gets linked up, we each donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. There are really no rules for this challenge other than the fact that each card has to be newly made, it has to have a winter holiday theme and it has to feature PINK prominently. Does your whole card have to be pink? Certainly not. Can you combine other colors with the pink? Of course! Should you have more pink than say two or three baubles on your green tree set against a snowy white background? Well, yeah... that'd be good. :) But other than that, we'll leave it to you to decide how much pink, what shade, and how to employ it!

We're not generally huge on self-promotion around here, but this cause is near and dear to our hearts and we'd love to get GREAT participation, so be sure to tell all your cardmaking friends, and feel free to share the graphic and our link on your blog or social media.

But now let's get right to the cardmaking! Here's what we've made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says,"I started with this fun Christmas Kitty Stamp from Technique Junkies and colored his hat & nose with a combination of pink markers.  The sentiment stamp is a favorite from CatsLife Press (which seemed appropriate).  The reminder of the card was made using paper scraps from my stash, including the vertical border that was recycled from a mother's day card."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've gone with a bunch of shades of pink, from cerise to salmon to the soft pastel shade my sister calls, "sky blue pink", but I've added in white and cream in lots of lovely torn layers. The flowery chipboard letters are definitely "older stash" but I still really like them and I was pretty psyched that I had enough to make a seasonal sentiment! The rest of the card is older bits of paper, including some of my favorite Basic Grey grungy solids, a bit of washi, a bit of doily and a little machine stitching. In other words: all my favorite things in honor of my favorite challenge!"

You can link up as many ♥PINK♥ holiday cards as you'd like, and yes, you can put pics of more than one design into the same blog post... we will be sure to count the multiples! Link up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, October 25th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:17:21. ♥

An InLinkz Link-up

Mission Emboss-ible

Wow ... the gallery for this week's prompt is amazing ... so many awesome embossing techniques.

It was definitely hard to choose, but here are a few of our favorites.

Barb Housner

of

Paper Therapy Ponderings

rocked the emboss resist technique with gorgeous non-traditional holiday hues ... and that seam binding is fantastic.

Julie

of

Stamping with Julie Gearinger

beautifully combined texture embossing with heat embossing to create this gorgeous night time holiday scene.

Hansi

of

Quilting with Paper

also combined heat embossing with texture embossing to make this snow-filled winter wonderland design ... love how the penguin looks like he's trying to hide off the side of the circle to avoid being pelted by a snowball.

Come back at midnight for one of our favorite prompts of the year.

♥It's Almost Time!♥

♥♥♥

(Just sayin'...)

(Meanwhile there's still a day left to Dream the Embossible Dream; 

scroll down to the original post to link up!)

Dream the Embossible Dream

We're still celebrating embossing at Jingle Belles this week.  You can use dry embossing, heat embossing, or even textured or embossed papers ... whatever you can do to add a little texture to your holiday project.  

Here is what we created this week:

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I stayed with my snowflakes theme, but this week I used heat embossing for my snowflake background & my sentiment.  The embossing really makes the colors pop against the Distress Oxide background"

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I stayed with snowflakes AND with pressure embossing, I actually even used the same Tim Holtz/Sizzix embossing folder as last week. But this time I broke out my ColorBurst pigment powders (Prussian Blue, Ultramarine and a tiny bit of Turquoise, to be exact) and my American Crafts POW glitter paper in gloriously sparkly copper for a funky, grungy, artsy card that was a total blast to make!"