We Wish You a Plaid Christmas

This fortnight we're celebrating one of our favorite types of pattern: PLAID! There are lots of great patterned papers in that category, not to mention stamps and stencils for creating one's own. You might incline to tartan ribbon, a buffalo plaid background or argyle accents, just find a plaid you like and incorporate it into your card. 

Here's how we went mad for plaid this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Lawn Fawn has some of the prettiest plaid papers.  I combined this one from Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid with the Lawn Fawn Stitched Poinsettia Dies and a sentiment from Simply Winter Sentiments ... love the contrast of the solid elements with the plaid background."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I started with a buffalo plaid journaling card from last year's Carta Bella "Christmas Cheer" collection, added a vintage station wagon cut from an old My Mind's Eye design, added some handsome Eyelet Outlet Cardinals, and mounted the whole thing atop an older Authentique plaid set on the diagonal."

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Link your mad plaid masterpiece right here, by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 6th. keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-07.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sing a Song of Christmas

The only thing we love more at Jingle Belles than actual holiday music, is seeing all of the beautiful cards you've made, inspired by the sounds of the season. Here are just a few that especially made our hearts sing:

Beverly Sizemore of Bev's Creative Path

...corralled a choir of kittens, added some sweet sheet music and topped it all off with a sentiment you can SING!

Susan B of Cardmaker's Garret

...paired the coolest black sheet music patterned paper we've ever seen with an adorable teddy bear who plays  a mean horn!

Joyce M aka 2TallJoyce on Instagram

...chose the sweetest vintage-inspired image, colored it cleverly and used it as the focal point for a stamped collage including musical notations!

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Many thanks to everyone who played (and sang!) along this fortnight, we loved seeing all of your creative ideas. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new challenge, which we hope you'll be as mad for as we are!

A Caroling We Will Go

We're still creating with something musical on our holiday cards this week ... how do you hope to make your card sing?

Here are our musical creations this week.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "That cool, retro vinyl record is an older diecut from October Afternoon which I came across the other day and knew I wanted to build my card around. When I also found this ancient "circley" patterned paper (so old I have no idea who made it!) I decided to add other circle elements and ended up with the collage of stickers, chipboard and punched patterned paper you see before you."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I used a strip of vintage sheet music as the base for a combination 

of holiday stickers and wrap of twine for this week's card."

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Scroll down to the original post (directly below this one!) to see the Holiday Melody Readers' Gallery and link your own musical masterpiece!

Holiday Melody

This week's Jingle Belles prompt is to include something musical on your card.  It might be sheet music, carolers,  a musical instrument, or even a tweeting bird... just make sure it's clear how it conveys a holiday melody.

Here are our melodic creations:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I pulled out a vintage doily (that is pretty much covered), multiple pieces of vintage sheet music and papers, vintage trading stamps, vintage-like elements, and some Tim Holtz sticker sentiments to create a collage on a kraft card base, which I am titling Santa's Tidings to a Holiday Melody."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Coincidentally, I also went into vintage collage mode! (No, Stephanie and Lauren never confer ahead of time!) Starting with some lovely patina-ed sheet music, cancelled xmas postage, and a pretty poinsettia illustration from a discarded gardening book. I found the perfect Tim Holtz Idea-Ology sticker sentiment, mounted the whole thing on some very non-vintage non-shed glitter paper and called it a day!"

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Link your musical masterpieces right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, March 23rd. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-06.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Show-Stopping Stencils

Clearly we are not the only fans of beautiful holiday stencils, judging from how amazing the cards in the Readers' Gallery are this time. If you haven't cruised through the entire collection, we highly recommend the trip. Meanwhile, here are a few stencil-centric cards that especially caught our fancy:

Toni Maddox of Frankie Helps Craft

...used a beautiful set of layering stencils and a lovely non-traditional color palette to make a "JOY" card that really lives up to it's sentiment!

Lilian B of Lilian's Crafting Blog

...employed a simple star stencil to make an incredibly elegant backdrop for her lovely (and glittery!) holiday snowscape!

Barbara G of Barb's Creative Corner

...proved you don't need a specifically holiday-themed stencil; her bubbly background is the perfect home for a pair of utterly adorable narwhals to inhabit!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your creative ideas and beautiful cards! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new inspiration we hope you'll *TUNE* in for! :) 

Frosty the Stencil

We're still creating holiday cards featuring a stenciled element this week, and you're still invited to join the fun. Link your cards on the original Oh Christmas Stencil post, located directly below this one.

Meanwhile, here's how we stenciled for our second cards:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I unearthed my sadly neglected Hero Arts "Forest Scene" stencil and some Broken China Distress Ink and made a simple but graphic background for my A7 card. I added an oversized blue poinsettia with a sweet piece of Lawn Fawn Flair; and finished off with a couple of skinny mats, a little machine stitching and a few Eyelet Outlet Pearls."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This card features one third of the 12" Punchinella Stencil from The Crafters Workshop from a prior Gel Press-apalooza at Lauren's, which was perfect for a slimline card design.  I die cut the Memory Box Frosted Christmas Tree from Memory Box delicate green glitter paper and added decoration with a strip of gold bling.  I used a flower for the top of the tree and sentiment from Memory Box Christmas Tiles."