Taking Back our ~EIGHTH~ December

It's hard to believe that we've wrapped up yet another ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ season, but here it is November 30th (already?!) and we've been working towards this all year long, so we've got a pretty nice stash of cards built up. We're looking forward to spending December doing all the fun holiday stuff with our friends and family, and we hope you are, as well!

Thanks very much for turning our Holiday card-making into something enjoyable and fun all year long. We'll be back again on January 1, 2019 to start this whole shindig over again, and hope to see you then. Meanwhile we wish you the loveliest of Decembers and the happiest of holidays! Remember, if you have prompt ideas, we'd love for you to join us as a Lovely Guest Star ... just send us an email jinglebellesrock@hotmail.com  ...we really do love making this a group event.

Stephanie's Christmas Card Stash for 2018

Lauren's Holiday Card Stash for 2018

Of course, we don't rule out making another card or two in the next few weeks, and just in case you need to make a few more, as well, we'll leave this linky open until Christmas Eve so you can upload your cards, get a little inspiration and spur each other on to the finish line! ♥

An InLinkz Link-up

Delicious Leftovers

Thanks for sharing your holiday treats with the Jingle Belles ... it was so fun seeing all the different ideas.

Here are a few of our favorite eats & drinks:

Elisabeth of Paper Anthology

die cut and decorated a whole plate of holiday cookies ... 

the addition of the doily and striped twine were both perfect finishing touches.

Jane Willis of Onions and Paper

shared Rudolph the *very* red-nosed reindeer and his bottle of Christmas spirits ... 

we loved how his Santa hat is even a bit askew ... so much holiday spirit!

Amy T of Tsuruta Designs

cleverly combined stamps & dies to produce three different

mugs of holiday cheer ... Oh What Fun!

And now I know we're all waiting do find out who wins that fun prize, right?

The completely random selection is:  ***Lorraine Mastalski of Paper Vernissage***! please email smilynstef@aol.com so Santa can get that on its way! ♥  and for an extra, here's her adorable card.

It's hard to believe this is our LAST official challenge of 2018, isn't it? We've had so much fun this year and we hope you have, as well. Many thanks to everyone who followed along, linked up, left comments and just generally made the first eleven months of our year fly by so quickly! We'll post one last link-up tomorrow, for those who aren't quite finished their cards yet... and of course we'll be back on January 1, 2019 to start this whole thing all over again! Happy happy holidays to everyone! 

XOXOXOX

Stephanie and Lauren

Christmas Feast

We're still celebrating the food & drink of the Holidays this week at Jingle Belles (and remember, we've got a little prize for one lucky participant).

Here's what we're dining on this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Prima Marketing's "Santa Baby" collection recently arrived at my LSS, Paper Anthology, in Kenvil, NJ, and I'm completely obsessed already. I suppose it's a good thing it wasn't released earlier in the year, or most of my holiday cards would bear an eerie similarity to each other lol. I've mixed also in some of Prima's "Havana" collection from this summer as well as some older, more neutral, papers to ground the design a little more. My layout was inspired by the current sketch saturday (#540)."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I couldn't resist going straight for the Christmas candy (pretty much like I do at any Christmas gathering) ... that's me, Sweet but a bit Twisted (where's the dark chocolate)."

And the Jingle Belles are already looking forward to inspiring your with a year of holiday cardmaking in 2019 ... as we continue taking back December one Holiday Card at a time.

Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding

Description:Of course by “bring us” we mean metaphorically, in card form.

It need not be figgy pudding as such … ANY type of holiday food (or beverage) will do … as long as it's festive food (or drink) stuffs.

And for one lucky participant in our final prompt of 2018, we've got a little Holiday Prize ... a Taylored Expressions Cross Stitch Embossing Folder and Magenta Floral Holiday Trio Stamp.

Here are our delicious creations:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I cut into a hoarded piece of Alexandra Renke's German Treats designer paper for this card (and more on my blog).  Since the paper is so lovely, I kept the cards simple.  Her gingerbread and apples look good enough to eat ... apples always remind me of Christmas, because there was always one in the toe of our stockings."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My favorite holiday treat HAS to be Xmas cookies, especially those cookie press Spritz ones! Alas, I do not bake, but luckily I have adorable Eyelet Outlet Cookie Brads. All of the other bits and bobs are from different sources. The cocoa and Santa were each part of larger journal cards (American Crafts and Doodlebug, respectively) but since I didn't have stickers the right size, I had to fussycut them. It's exciting to see that Julee Tilman's awesome Mojo Monday sketch challenge is back, fortnightly now, and being held on her personal blog, Poetic Artistry. I absolutely love the current sketch. But ok, yes, I might've got slightly carried away with the scallop border section lol!" 

Link your food-centric holiday creations right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, November 28th, for a chance at that fun prize! Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:18:24.

An InLinkz Link-up

Bloomin' Awesome!

It seems we are not the only cardmakers in the world who looooove to create with holiday blossoms. A quick glance at the Mele Kalikimaka gallery very clearly shows that absolutely every card was enitirely gorgeous! Here are a few that especially tickled our fancy:

Robyn Oliver of Waterlily Cards

...combined stencils and diecuts in a way that sings with CAS perfection!

Maria of Rieslingmama

...used a variety of bright, beautiful shades to instantly make this impressionist poinsettia stamp feel totally tropical!

Janie Rinta of The Crafter's Castle

...proves that amazing Christmas flowers can come in ANY color, including this luscious shade of denim blue!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single card! We'll be back with a midnight snack for your creative appetite! 

Under the Mistletoe

We're still creating with flowers to celebrate, "Mele Kalikimaka" and you still have time to join the fun, which we hope you will! Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I had this American Crafts floral paper in my hand last week, but it wasn't quite the right home for a flamingo, so I moved on. I hadn't stopped thinking about it though, which was a head start for this week's card. As soon as I saw the current Sketch Saturday (#538) I was smitten...  so that took care of positioning. A white flower, badge center and velvet holly leaves were all pretty straightforward. Believe it or not, the hardest part was finding a sentiment sticker which made sense, fit the space, and didn't clash, lol!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I learned that photographing the beauty of foil is a bit of a challenge.  My background was made with Decofoil Transfer Gel, Brutus Monroe Tide Pool Foil & Carabelle Studios Accumulation De Ronds Stencil. My flowers are from the lovely Little Birdie Handmade Flowers and the remaining elements are from Authentique Jingle Elements (nothing like mixing together lots of different companies)."

Scroll down to the original post to see the gorgeous readers' gallery and link up your own floral fabulousness! ♥

Mele Kalikimaka

Since Mele Kalikimaka is a tropical Hawaiian holiday greeting, we're making cards featuring flowers … which could be a tropical hibiscus … or a traditional poinsettia … or anything in between. Maybe even both? (But probably only if your name is Lauren, lol!)

Here's how we're blooming this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I loved the various floral designs in an unopened package of Pebbles Cardstock Shapes sitting on my *Christmas* shelf ... they were perfect to feature with some coordinating Basic Grey Papers in the Mojo Monday Sketch (yay! Julee has brought her sketches back)."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I couldn't resist going a bit tropical, of course, but actually Heartfelt Creations' system for making awesome dimensional flowers-- in this case poinsettias-- was my number one inspiration. I used the coordinating stamps and dies on their very cool foam paper, added some color and ultra-fine glitter,  then used my heat tool to make the petals curl into realistic looking blossoms. once I had loads of lovely poinsettias, of course i added some hibiscus, plumeria, palm fronds a flamingo and faux polaroids. Ok yeah... I might've gotten a teeeeeeny bit carried away!"

And now it's your turn to get festive with flowers! Remember you don't need to incorporate anything tropical or Hawaiian! Any type of flowers, in any style of design, will do. Link up here before 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, November 14th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:18:23.

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas Creature Feature

We loved all of the creative Christmas Creatures that filled the gallery ... here are a few we thought were extra fun.

Trina P of Phamtastic Design

not only featured an adorable wintry penguin ... 

she also provided a tutorial for an amazing reflection technique.

Jen Mitchell of I Create

rocked a perfect CAS design with our favorite grumpling Moose ...

because everyone has at least one grumpling at Christmas.

Toni at Frankie Helps Craft

used masking, drawing & coloring

with some white ink splatters for snow 

to create an absolutely perfect winter scene.

Come back and join us at midnight for a little *blooming* fun.