12 Days of Christmas

Description:For the next holiday card prompt, we're making a card that features a numeral (like 25) or that features one of the elements from the song The 12 Days of Christmas, so break out those...

• Twelve Drummers Drumming
• Eleven Pipers Piping
• Ten Lords a Leaping
• Nine Ladies Dancing
• Eight Maids a Milking
• Seven Swans a Swimming
• Six Geese a Laying
• Five Golden Rings
• Four Calling Birds
• Three French Hens
• Two Turtle Doves
• and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Here is how we were inspired this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I found this vintage illustration of the 12 Days of Christmas in a Christmas Ideals book, so I scanned it and resized the first six days for the front of my card ... I just love those drawings.  All I added was a sticker sentiment and a wrap of neutral ribbon on a teal card base."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I opted for the "feature numerals" version of the prompt, and I incorporated them via a fun little December calendar journaling card from Simple Stories. The calendar wound up being more covered up than I had imagined because I got very involved in framing up pretty bits of patterned paper with these ancient chipboard circle frames I found buried deeeeeeeeeeeeep in my holiday stash! I really love them, though, so I guess I'm ok with the limited view of the calendar. (Let's face it December always winds up being a bit of a blur anyway, right?)"

And we'll pick one lucky participant to win this fun little holiday giveaway (the stamp set includes the matching dies).

Link any number of amazing "12 Days of Christmas" creations right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, September 11th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:19:18.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tag-A-Licious!

So many beautiful tag-centric creations in the gallery this fortnight. As always, you guys made it VERY difficult to only feature a few, but here are three that especially tickled our fancy:

Julene of Julene by Design

...layered a small circle tag onto a larger rectangle tag with all the trimmings. We are definitely in favor of tags-on-tags!

Epie of Cards by Epie

...made not one, but two, beautiful and intricate tags that tuck into a specially-made pocket card!

Sue Crease of Paper Pleasure

...broke the mold of ordinary rectangles and circles with this extraordinary BELL-shaped tag creation!

Many thanks to everyone who participated, we truly enjoy seeing EVERY SINGLE CREATION! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new theme; we hope we can count on seeing you then!

TAGS! (Again!)

We're still making tags OR holiday cards which incorporate tags; and you still have time to join the fun, which we hope you will! Here's how we were inspired to create with tags this week:

Stephanie's Other Tag Creation

Stephanie says, "This week's tag card was so easy, it almost felt like cheating ... so much so that I made several.  Pre-made silver/gold card base; 3-D glitter star tag; and sticker sentiment.  To be honest, you have some people on your card list that won't appreciate a card that takes 2 hours to make ... and these cards are for them."

Lauren's Other Tag(s)

Lauren says, "I'm usually more of a "cards which incorporate tags" kind of girl; but this year my card stash seems pretty healthy, so I've had fun making tags which will get attached to giftbags in December. Once again, I've made two tags that coordinate, because I have a specific pair of recipients in mind. I think everyone knows I love Doodlebug Design- especially their stickers- and I've used LOTS of them here! One of my favorite ways to use smaller items... like stickers or brads... is to frame and cluster them. Having said that, I have no problem with letting things overlap the edge of the frame, or even the edge of the tag for that matter!"

Scroll down to the original post (just below this one) to see the amazing readers' gallery and link up your own tag-centric creations!

Tag! You're It!

We've got a fun little twist this fortnight: we're making holiday tags (or using pre-made holiday tags), with a couple of options. You can make a freestanding tag to use on a gift OR you can incorporate a tag into a holiday card design. Here are our tag-centric creations:

Lauren's Tag(s)

Lauren says, "I chose to make freestanding tags, and made two, because I have a specific pair of friends in mind. Having said that, there have been years that I've made tags which, at some later date, get attached to folded card bases, because I've run short on cards in December, lol. I started with a couple of oversized manilla shipping tags and went a bit crazy with shabby chic embellishments from Prima. My patterned paper is from the "Christmas in the Country" collection, and I've paired it with my two all-time favorite stash items: vintage sheet music and doilies."

Stephanie's Tag-centric Card

Stephanie says, "I don't wrap any presents (Lauren cover your ears), but I do go after-Christmas shopping for all of the fun glittery tags I can get my hands on ... because I love to use them to make easy cards.  This one features a glittery wreath tag with this week's Try Stampin' (or Not) on Tuesday Sketch ... I also threw in a little Retro Rubber from Savvy Stamps."

Link your tags... or cards which include tags... right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 28th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:19:17.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

True Blue

We're totally in love with all the amazing creations in the "Blue Christmas" gallery. If you have not yet scrolled through, we highly recommend the trip! Meanwhile here are a few cards which have us "singin' the blues" in a very very GOOD way:

Bonnie of Stamping with Klass

...created this sparkly CAS masterpiece with glitter paste and a stencil. We've decided all stars should ALWAYS be teal blue now!!! 

(We also want to try her awesome "embossing powder around the edges" trick, ASAP!)

Shani Thomas of Paperesse

...is a girl after our own hearts when it comes to LOTS of lovely layers! She's also got a knack for pairing a fun stamp with absolutely the PERFECT sentiment!

(In English, the text translates to "Warm Wishes" lol!)

Shelly Schmidt of My Creative Rumblings

...paired crisp white diecut images with an amazingly blendy, inky, artful background that makes us want to get out ALL our inks and PLAY for the rest of the day!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who participated, we love seeing ALL of your creations! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt, we hope you'll tag along... ;)

Navy Nativity

We're still celebrating a BLUE Christmas this week at Jingle Belles ... creating holiday cards that predominantly feature shades of BLUE.

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I'm utterly smitten with this Hero Arts Poinsettia Ornament die, which I got at Paper Anthology. I cut it from plain watercolor paper and painted the flowers and foliage with ColorBurst in shades of Prussian Blue, Ultramarine and Lime. I layered the finished diecut on top of a scrap of paper adorned with gelato crayons and white modeling paste. I added a large Prima flower to one side, then found the perfect blue patterned paper background with just enough detail. My sentiment is composed of ancient and well-hoarded Basic Grey alphabet stickers, in what I still contend is the best-ever font for cardmaking!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "The DCWV Arctic Wishes Matstack is filled with beautiful blue papers including this one feature a trio of adorable snow people.  I used this week's Fab Friday Sketch with a cute little Doodle Pops Snow Buddies Sticker and a sentiment and snowflakes from Essentials by Ellen Snow Buds."

Scroll down to the original "Blue Christmas" post to see the amazing reader's gallery and link up your own rhapsody in BLUE!

Blue Christmas

We're having a Blue Christmas at Jingle Belles ... creating holiday cards that are noticeably and predominantly BLUE ... remember that hue can range from aqua to navy to cerulean ... but we want to see lots of BLUE.

Here's what we created in shades of BLUE this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with three different kinds of blue vintage trading stamps and this week's Sunday Stamps sketch.  I added multiple papers and postage stamps from BoBunny's Whiteout Collection and a sentiment from My Favorite Things Trio of Trees."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "The only time I ever really long for snow is in the middle of a HOT and humid New Jersey summer, lol. I used my Tim Holtz/Sizzix "Stacked Snowflakes" die to cut lots of layers of snowflakes from Prima's Geogia Blues collection. My suitably snowy background paper began as a piece of dark blue Core'dinations cardstock. I started with a fun and flakey embossing folder, sanded the impression to get some color variation, then added extra swirls of machine stitching. Finally, I affixed my fancy layered flakes, and finished off with some Eyelet Outlet Pearl Bling."

♥♥♥

Link your beautiful blue creations here by 6pm (EST on Wednesday, August 14th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:19:16.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Photo Finish

So many lovely cards linked up this fortnight. Many thanks to all who played along with us, we love to see what you make! Here are a few cards we thought interpreted elements of the inspiration photo especially well:

Brenda B of Brenda's Scraps of Life

...combined gorgeous wood veneer, lots of luscious gold and fabulous foliage to really sum up everything we loved in the inspo pic!

Marina of My Perfect Life

...made an amazing CAS card that manages to evoke both the color palette and also the "rustic glam" vibe of the decor in the photo!

Joanne Travis of Sleepy in Seattle

...worked in many of the wonderful shades and textures of WHITE from the inspiration photo, plus a touch of gold; and the bonus of that utterly adorable reindeer!

And of course we're all longing to know who scored that fun little prize package, too. According to the fine folks at Random.org the lucky number is #16 which means our lucky winner is:

BARB G!

please send your snailmail address to lauren (at llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com) to claim your prize!

We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope won't leave you feeling blue... ♥