Walking in a VINTAGE Wonderland

This week we're asking you to create a card that features retro or vintage products, a vintage style, or you can go for extra points and do both.

Here are our Vintage creations for this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Most of the items in my Vintage mailable collage are Tim Holtz vintage-reproduced items (except for the truly vintage S&H Green Stamps & the Simon Says Stamp sentiments).  I love layering all of those items together for a completely mailable holiday card."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've used a fun retro 1950's style journal card from Authentique (one of my fave manufacturers for a vintage vibe; Graphic 45 and Carta Bella are good too!) with coordinating distressed gingham background; plus an ancient paper poinsettia, 7 Gypsies velvet leaves and an MME brad that might have been purchased during the last century. The fun and snarky sentiment are snipped from another journal card; and the ribbon, which is new, from Paper Anthology, was impossible to resist because how often do you get to put red AND green gingham on the same card?!"

♥♥♥

One randomly-selected cardmaker who links up with us this time will win a 

Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment 

and a $15 gift card to choose anything else they'd like 

from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff

♥♥♥

Link your vintage or retro-inspired card(s) right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, September 7th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-18.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sensational Slimline

What a fun and inspiring challenge this was, and once again we thank our lovely friend Lela Meinke for suggesting the Slimline idea, which spurred us all on to stretch... both literally and metaphorically... our holiday card designs! Here are a few that especially caught our eye:

Jolanda Johnstone of The Inque Spot Studio

...mixed lots of fabulously festive foliage with tons of texture, topped with the perfect traditional sentiment for her delightful mini slimline design!

Denise Bryant who posts on Splitcoast

...combined a coffee-loving critter with lots of snowy, inky, wintery goodness, and oriented it all vertically for a slimline version we used to call a Tall Card back in the day!

Barbara Godden of Barb's Creative Corner

...created not one but two mini slimline cards (the second is HERE) using many of the same ingredients but to very different effects. Smart crafting AND awesome design!

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And now let's find out the winner of our Slimline Prize Pack:

The Random Number Generator has selected #13

which means that

Meghan of Made by Meghan K

is our lucky winner, Congratulations!

Please email lauren at llaurenb @ hotmail.com with your snail mail info 

and we'll get that out to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who participated, we loved seeing every card and have bookmarked quite a few ideas to try in future! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that's full of old-fashioned fun!

Slimline Seasons Greetings

We're still celebrating Slimline (and Mini Slimline) card designs at Jingle Belles this week.  Remember, one lucky entrant will win a fun holiday slimline prize package.

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "My mini slimline celebrates all of those times a cat has tried to climb the Christmas Tree and the disaster that ensured (what, you've never had that experience??).  Clearly if the cat had coffee first, he would have been more successful.  My cute cat with coffee is also joining the Caffeinated Christmas Cute Critter Challenge, as well as incorporating the colors for the August Taylored Expressions #TEMakerChallenge."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren said, "This is one of the fastest cards I've made all year, because I totally "cheated" and used a bunch of tags from Photoplay's North Pole Trading Co Cardstock Ephemera collection. Since all the pieces were specifically designed to go together, it saved me a bunch of time finding and coordinating elements! I just added a few Eyelet Outlet Brads (a Candy Cane and a Sleigh) plus a few strips of Washi Tape (Vertical Red Tree, Heart Tape and Skinny Glitter Gold to be precise) and called it a day."

And remember, one lucky participant gets this fun slimline gift package ... so go get skinny with a slimline or mini slimline holiday card.

Skinny Santa Slimline

We're so lucky to have awesome friends at Jingle Belles. A few weeks ago, when our pal Lela Meinke came across this new-to-us holiday song, "Hey Skinny Santa" by JD McPherson she emailed us the video and the brilliant idea of using it as inspiration to make SLIMLINE (or Mini Slimline) holiday cards this fortnight! So that's what we're going to do. But first, let's meet our lovely guest star:

Hi! My name is Lela Meinke, and I can’t believe it but I’ve been stamping for 32 years! I’m retired from the corporate world now, and I’m living the job of my dreams as a creative coach and SU! Demonstrator. You can find me at lelameinke.com. I have been a fan of the Jingle Belles challenge for years! I think the idea of creating a card a week to “take back Christmas” is brilliant! I thought of JB again because I was wanting to create a slimline card using this unique Santa Express Suite. I know Lauren and Stephanie always like to tie the challenge back to Christmas songs, so I did a search and found a super-fun Skinny Santa song. I hope you agree that the slimline challenge, and the song, are a fun twist on things. And I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Just like Stephanie and Lauren, I will check ALL of your postings, and I promise to comment and celebrate what is unique about each one. So please do follow along!

Lela's Card

Lela says, "The slimline format is perfect for this Santa Express train card. I love fun-folds and I thought, why not take things up a notch. You can find step by step instructions for making this card over on my blog at lelameinke.com/santaexpress."

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie say, "I went with a mini slimline design using the Pinkfresh Studio Mini Slimline Frames dies.  I paired them with the wreath and leaves cut from the Pinkfresh Studio Indigo Vines Washi Tape.  I decorated my wreath with red Pinkfresh Studio Crystals and cut my sentiment from a piece of Pinkfresh Studio Christmas Magic Warm Wishes designer paper."

Lauren's Card(s)

Lauren says, "I have A LOT of washi tape. So I thought I'd make a dent in my older tape supply by making a slimline card panel out of tape. But then I had to decide whether to go with lots of red tapes, or lots of aqua and green tapes? In these situations, I've often found that making a decision can take longer than just doing both... so I just did both. I mounted the finished panels on coordinating cardstock, found a couple of fun Lawn Fawn tags to augment with Eyelet Outlet Brads (Holly and Cardinals, to be precise) did a tiny bit of machine stitching and called it a day. For the record, I still have A LOT of washi tape left, but it's a start..."

One lucky (randomly selected) cardmaker who links up with us this time will win a fun Slimline-Centric prize pack featuring six colorful slimline card blanks and envelopes, a beautiful snowy slimline cling stamp, holiday rub-ons and some Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling!

♥♥♥

Link your slimline holiday card(s) right here, by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, August 24th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-17.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Blue is the Hue

So many brilliant takes on our "Blue Christmas" theme, it was even harder than usual to only pick three to feature. Take a bow, everyone who played along; and if you haven't spent a little time scrolling through the fabulous Gallery we highly recommend the trip! 

Margaret A from Granmargaret's Cards-n-Stuff

...cleverly combined darling digital products with a beautiful sketch to make this lovely confection of a card! 

Elle-Jeanne of Krek Wa'k Wo

...show us how to literally think outside the box: her amazing layered holiday tree is three dimensional!

Darlene Pavlick of Dar's Crafty Creations

...diecut and then lovingly watercolored each perfect poinsettia layer to make flowers that seem to leap right off the card!

 

We hope you enjoyed making your Blue Christmas cards as much as we loved seeing them! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt suggested by a lovely friend and fellow Jingle Belle!

Navy Nativity

This week we're still celebrating a BLUE Christmas ... making cards that primarily (at least 75%) feature the color blue.

Here's how we added blue to our designs this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I was so inspired by Stephanie's gel print card from last week, that I decided to get out my own stash of prints and see what I could come up with. I used Tim Holtz/Sizzix Mixed Media Christmas Dies to cut the holly leaf cluster out of the center of the panel, outlined and backed it with white; then added a focal point of stacked fabric poinsettias, secured with an ancient blue bejewelled snowflake brad of unknown origins."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I used three colors of Blue Distress Oxide Ink (Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and the gorgeous new Uncharted Mariner) together with Pumice Stone for the dots using Taylored Expressions Create-in-Quads Snowflake Stencil (you can see the other three cards on my blog).  After ink blending, I sprayed my page with Avery Elle Clear Shimmer Spray for allover Sparkle.  I added a few small pieces of Mariner Blue gems to finish.   It was an unexpected color combination, but I loved how it turned out (and that my cards are totally mailable).  I think the Taylored Expressions Beautiful Baubles Add-On Sentiment gives it a fun Mid-Century Modern feel."