Holiday Cards to Die For!

We're embracing the joys of die-cutting this fortnight at Jingle Belles, so break out your nested label shapes, your stamp-and-die combos, your beautiful background dies or all of the above! 

For those who have not embraced the format, we'll also accept cards that feature old school paper punches, as well as electronic cutting systems like Cricut, Silhouette, etc; so there's no excuse not to join the fun!

Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Memory Box is one of my favorite companies for Die Cuts.  This card features both their Tall Taper candle and the holly accent trimmed from the Memory Box Cabrini Ornament, all cut from glitter paper outlined by gold metallic paper.  I paper pieced it together on a piece of Memory Box Garland designer paper and finished with a sentiment from Memory Box Holiday Greenery."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I love this Hero Arts Holly Confetti Cover Die, so it's a bit of a mystery why I don't use it more? That's what I love about challenges... they spur me on to use neglected items. I made a funky smooshed background using Lime, Pthalo Green and Turquoise ColorBurst, and layered the diecut panel over some ancient dark green velvet paper. The flower and snowflake stack has some pre-packaged silvery diecut snowflakes, as well as Tim Holtz Tattered Snowflakes that I cut from white glitter paper; the flakes are sandwiched between layers of fabric flowers. The brad at the center is so old I'm not sure where it's from, but it has tiny holly leaves so I couldn't resist!"

Link your diecut (or punched!) creations right here, by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, April 7th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-07.

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Greenery Greats

 So much beautiful holiday foliage in the gallery ... here are a few that caught our eyes.

Vicky of Crafting Clare's Paper Moments

shared a stunning one-layer poinsettia card.  

The masked shading is such a great way to add visual interest to a CAS design.

Barbara G. of Barb's Creative Corner

made us smile with her holiday garland decorated with 

ornaments and a fat little Christmas Cat.

Susan B. of Cardmaker's Garrett

shared a super-cool technique with her 

boughs of holly.

And finally ... drum roll ... our prize goes to:

Cyndie R. of Reis's Pieces of Paper

We'll see you back at midnight with a *sharp* new holiday card prompt.

Festive Foliage

We're still celebrating holiday greenery at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join us! Scroll down to the original post to see the fun little prize we've got and to link up your own festive foliage card!

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I've combined LOTS of different diecuts: holly, a few types of evergreen, even a bit of fern; plus of course that beautiful big Penny Black "Glorious" poinsettia... all on top of a collaged background of sheet music, text paper and holiday postage."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "When paper is this pretty, I'm not too proud to let it shine front & center as my card design.  This paper featuring a collection of holiday foliage is from Simple Stories Vintage North Pole.  I trimmed it down and added another of the light blue papers along the top and the bottom.  I finished with some light blue sequins."

The Holly & the Ivy

This week's Jingle Belles prompt is “going green” … we'd like you to incorporate holiday foliage into your cards. 

This could be literally Holly or Ivy … but there's also mistletoe and did you know that Poinsettias – whether red, white green or even pink – are all actually considered leaves and not flowers?? So there's lots of room for ideas to “grow” on you.

And one lucky participant will receive the Flora & Fauna Holiday Word Party Stamp Set.

Here's what we've got growing this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I love how this image from Simon Says Stamp Joyful Season combines several types of holiday foliage.  I stamped it in Versafine Clair Rain Forest ink and then added red to the berries with Spectrum Noir Markers.  I finished with a sentiment from the set and coordinating paper borders."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "The beautiful panel of holly, berries and mistletoe was the background of a card someone sent me this past Xmas. I'm not sure how it got mixed into a pile of totally unrelated stuff on my desk, but I was excited to find it just in time to make this week's card. I added an Authentique journal card, a few diecut greens, super skinny red mats and a trio of Eyelet Outlet Poinsettia Brads and my flat, mailable masterpiece was complete!"

Link your foliage inspired creations here by 6pm on Wednesday, March 24th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-06.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Super SKETCH-mas Greetings

You guys sure made it hard to only choose THREE sketch cards from the readers' gallery to feature, but after a very difficult choice, here they are:

Donna of Keep Calm and Snark On

...made the adorable wee reindeer the star of the show in her fun, whimsical, vibrant card!

 

Cyndie of Reis' Pieces of Paper 

...achieved an artful, elegant vibe by pairing a beautiful gift tag with patterned paper on top of an amazing salted watercolor background that she painted herself!

Jenni of Wish I Was Scrappin'

...cleverly used ribbon for the sketch's strong horizontal and vertical lines, then made a smaller stamp work brilliantly as focal point, by accessorizing perfectly!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we love seeing ALL of your amazing creations! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that's unbe-LEAF-able! :)

SKETCH-ing in a Winter Wonderland

We're still getting SKETCH-y this week (link-up here by 6pm EST on Wednesday) with our wonderful Jingle Belles Layout.

Here are the Belles' designs for this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Again I capitalized on the efficiency of using a sketch by translating the various shapes into readymade items like stickers and diecuts. I flipped the sketch, so that the focal point and the intersecting lines are reversed, just to change things up a little. I've used five different Eyelet Outlet Washi Tapes to make the strong vertical line, and an older Crate Paper sticker that says "Winter" for the horizontal. I've clustered a few items to make up the focal point: a sweet jar diecut from Pebbles, embellished with EO Holiday Tree and Snowflake Brads; a couple of chipboard xmas trees that I think were Echo Park from several years ago. The whole thing is on a base of music-lined paper that is ancient, but still looks fab to me!" 

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I thought if I flipped the sketch, it would be the perfect way to nest a Snow Globe into my design.  I went searching through my holiday tag collection and found this adorable Merry T-Rexmas one that fit the bill.  I paired it with Gina K. Designs Winter Whimsy designer paper, which had the perfect colors & almost exactly matched the Christmas Tree in the snow globe.  I decided to run my vertical & horizontal pieces all the way across the card and finished with some glittery green Love from Lizi Peel-off Strips."