Stars OR Stripes, Forever... plus Double Trouble Challenge

It's time for Christmas in July and once again we've teamed up with the gang at Double Trouble Challenge which means you'll have twice as many opportunities to link up AND to win prizes!

You can link up ANY Christmas themed project with Double Trouble. Here at Jingle Belles, we're excited to be celebrating the USA's Independence Day next week, so we're asking you to incorporate either stars or stripes into your card design (it needn't be red, white or blue) … just stars or stripes (or both) in any medium you choose.

Here's what we did with our Stars and/or Stripes:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with scraps of striped paper from PhotoPlay's Not a Creature was Stirring that were the perfect holiday stripes and built my slimline card using other paper scraps and a collection of striped washi tape.  I added one of the images from the same collection (which sneaks in some stars) and finished with some sequins and a stamped sentiment from Impress Holiday Word Set (did you ever think about Santa decorating his own Christmas tree?).  Layout is the flipped Sunday Stamps Sketch."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My stars and stripes are, as you can see, subtle... just one starry and one stripey patterned paper, plus some really fun glitter foam star stickers; but it just goes to show that the "Stars and/or Stripes" theme is pretty flexible! I've built a little Doodlebug sticker collage on top of a cluster of patterned paper circles and added a wordfetti sentiment from Photoplay."

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Oh yes, we mentioned prizes, didn't we? Head over to the Double Trouble Challenge to see what you might win by linking up with them. Meanwhile, one randomly selected cardmaker who links up a newly made Stars and/or Stripes card, will win two adorable clear stamp sets from Pebbles!

Link your Stars and/or Stripes cards right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 12th. Then head over to the Double Trouble Challenge Blog to link up with them as well! Our keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2314. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Merry Manly Christmas!

So many magnificent masculine designs, we are always impressed with the way our fellow Jingle Belles rise to every challenge! As always, it was hard to choose only three cards to feature, but here are a few we're especially inspired by:

Lisa of This Sweet Madness

...chose a fab image, a classic holiday color palette and swapped feminine bling for masculine metallics; Brilliant in every sense!

Lynda of Ideas and Paper...

...pretty much had us at adorable beverage-drinking elves, but her amazing coloring skills take this over the top!

Cornelia of Stempel Spass (Fun Stamping)

...made two versions of this minimalist masculine masterpiece, using both the positive and negative sections of her skillfully ink-blended diecuts and so we were doubly impressed!

♥♥♥

And now we're all excited to find out who's won

 that fun little prize of Penny Black stamps!

The Random Number Generator has chosen...

(drumroll please!)

Lucky Number 3!

which means our winner is...

Deb Horst of Sendable Sentiments

CONGRATS!

Deb, please send your snail mail info to

llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com

and we'll get that in the mail ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who joined in, we loved seeing every single card!

An extra big thank you to the lovely gang at the

  Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge, 

we loved hanging out with you this month!

We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt and we'll be teaming up with another fun card challenge blog for the month of July, so we'd LOVE for you to join us!

Merry Christmas, Man!

Here at Jingle Belles we're still making holiday cards with a masculine vibe, and since we're still teamed up with the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge, if you add some coffee, tea or cocoa to your card you can also link up on their blog as well. Remember, there are (randomly awarded) prizes on both sites:  CCCC's is from their Super Sponsor, Rubbernecker Stamps; while we Jingle Belles have some fun Penny Black goodies that you can see on the Original Post... which is where the Linky Tool is as well! 

Meanwhile, here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I added lots of distressing to my Carta Bella journal card, three mats and two accent strips for extra texture and interest, plus an Eyelet Outlet Pine Tree and Deer Brad, then finished off with a sticker sentiment. It's not the fanciest card I've ever made, but it's flat and mailable (possibly needing an extra ounce, lol!) and it's another addition to my holiday card stash while we're still only in June... so I'm callin' it a win!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "On my recent travels, I picked-up fun Reminisce Cocoa papers that included this big cup of cocoa sticker.  I added some red cardstock, a Pinkfresh Studio Rounded and Braided Rectangle die cut and a chocolate stamped sentiment from Simon Says Stamp The Man, The Myth."

Masculine Christmas (with Coffee)

For our next prompt at Jingle Belles, we're still teaming-up with the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge. This time we Belles are looking for Masculine Christmas cards... and if you add Coffee, Tea or Cocoa you can also link-up at CCCC.

Here are our masculine holiday cards for this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie Says, "I colored the Rubbernecker Stamps Christmas Cheer Gnomes (I love the tiny stamps for the license plate) with Alcohol Ink markers and paired them with a sentiment from STAMPlorations Caffeinated Christmas.  I used the layout from Sketch Saturday with a piece of marbled paper that Lauren and I made on her deck years ago."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I used Rubbernecker's Coffee Bean Background, stamped in a deep rich brown, then added their Coffee Cup Die pieced in black and white, adorned with a strip of festive red and green holiday plaid, and accented with an Eyelet Outlet Santa Brad, a Sleigh with a couple of Gifts and some Coffee Bean Brads. My sentiment is taken from a meme I spotted somewhere on Pinterest, I used my classic Dymo Labeler to create the text."

Caffeinated Christmas has a fabulous prize on offer from their Super Sponsor, Rubbernecker Stamps; so not to be out done, we Jingle Belles have a little prize too, which will be awarded to one lucky crafter who links up here at Jingle Belles this time: it's Penny Black's "Santa's Visit" red rubber stamp AND their "Jolly Snippets" clear sentiment stamp set.

So Remember: if your card is Masculine + Christmas you can link up with us here at Jingle Belles; if it's Coffee + Christmas, you can link up with Caffeinated Christmas; if you incorporate Masculine + Coffee + Christmas you can link up on both blogs for a chance at two different sets of prizes!!! Our Jingle Belles prompt will wrap up at 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, June 28th and the keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2313.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Christmas + Coffee = Fabulous

There are sooooo many amazing holiday coffee cards in the Readers' Gallery it was even harder than usual to just pick three to feature! As "problems" go this is one we quite like having! Here are a few coffee cards that were definitely our cup of tea!

Jennifer K of Kraftercises

...made an amazing shaped card that incorporates both MALE and MAIL as well as hot beverages and plenty of holiday cheer!

Paperpapier

...designed FOUR fabulous coffee-centric cards, and you should really see them all, but the coloring on this one made it our fave!

Vanessa of Vanessa's Paper Creations

...shows us that the concept of "Warm Wishes" could not possibly be expressed better than by an adorable coffee-drinking owl in a Santa hat! 

(With bonus points for that amazing and artful snowy backgound!)

♥♥♥

Now let's find out where that very fun Gina K stamp set, "A Very Silly Season" will be heading out to!

The Random Number Generator has chosen:

Lucky Number 5!

Which means that our lucky winner is...

Brenda of Brenda's Scraps of Life!

Brenda, please send your snail mail info to 

llaurenb @ hotmail.com 

so we can get your stamps to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing ALL of your gorgeous cards! As you know, Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge #18 will run for an additional two weeks, so we'll be back at Midnight with our second "team up" post which has another fun twist... and another cool little prize, so be sure to check back! 

Coffee & Christmas

We're still creating with Coffee (or Tea or Cocoa) & Christmas this week (and if you make your card Masculine too, you can also link-up at Caffeinated Christmas Challenge #18).

And remember, we're giving one lucky participant the super-fun A Very Silly Season Stamp Set from Gina K. Designs.

Here's how we got Caffeinated this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I can never resist a pun OR a chunky sentiment. Since I don't own a "Fa-La-La-La Latte" stamp I just made my own word art version using Lawn Fawn's Henry's ABCs alphabet dies, which I cut from various scraps of red and green cardstock, then embellished with Eyelet Outlet Holiday Coffee Cup, Santa Hat and Holly Brads. My patterned paper choices include an ancient stripey scrap of unknown origin and some fairly recent Lawn Fawn Knit Picky from my favorite papercrafting store, Paper Anthology, in Kenvil, NJ."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started my card design with a plan to use Red & Aqua from the current Color Hues Color Challenge.  I stamped three different Coffee images from Rubbernecker Stamps Coffee Set in black ink and colored them with Aqua Alcohol Markers.  I added a couple of October Afternoon red snowflake rub-ons to the coffee cups and a sentiment from Impress Holiday Word Set.  I finished my cards with Aqua and Red papers from Photoplay Not a Creature Was Stirring."

♥♥♥

Remember, you need only incorporate COFFEE + HOLIDAY to enter our Jingle Belles challenge; if you add MASCULINE elements as well, you can also link up with our friends at the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge Blog. Scroll down to the original post to see the Readers' Gallery, which is already looking very impressive, and link up with us!

A (Masculine) Caffeinated Christmas

For the month of June, we Jingle Belles will be teaming up with the amazingly talented gang at the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge, for their "Challenge #18: Coffee + Masculine" to make holiday cards that feature both a caffeinated beverage (coffee, tea or cocoa) and a masculine vibe. Note that for our first Jingle Belles challenge of June, your card only needs coffee & Christmas to link-up; but why not add a masculine element and join both?!

This month's Caffeinated Christmas Super Sponsor is Rubbernecker Stamps, so you'll definitely want to link your cards here AND at CCCC for a chance at some cool prizes! 

We've also got our own little prize, so one lucky person who links-up with us will get A Very Silly Season Stamp set by Gina K. Designs.

And now here's a little Coffee + Masculine inspiration to get you going:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with the Rubbernecker Coffee Bean Background stamp in Brown ink on a kraft card base.  Next I die cut the Rubbernecker Coffee Cup from Red with a black lid.  I die cut the cup sleeve from Simple Stories Claus & Co. Holly paper and then used a tiny journaling card that also featured red & holly, where I stamped a Holiday Cheer sentiment from Impress Holiday Word Set."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "To convey a masculine vibe, I used darker colors, concentrating on neutrals and a rich deep blue, plus lots of texture. My focal point is a "snowflake" made of Eyelet Outlet Coffee Cup Brads, interspersed with various shapes and sizes of Pearl Bling, surmounted by a Snowflake Brad. The sentiment stamp and Cable Knit Embossing Folder are from Taylored Expressions; the woodgrain vellum is from Lawn Fawn."

♥♥♥

Post your newly made Coffee + Christmas cards right here AND remember, if you've added a masculine element you can also link up at the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge, for a chance at some cool prizes from their Super Sponsor,  Rubbernecker Stamps. Deadline for this Link-Up is 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 14th. Keyword for galleries and socials is JB-23-12.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

No Stamping? No Worries!

It turns out our intrepid fellow Jingle Belles do not need rubber stamps to create a beautiful holiday card, as the No Stamping Readers' Gallery illustrates perfectly. If you haven't checked out all the cards, we highly recommend the trip. In the meantime, here are three cards that especially caught our eye this fortnight:

Julia Aston of Create with Me

...only needed three (3!) elements to create this dramatic and elegant card: a bold patterned paper, a golden frame and a diecut sentiment et voila!

Fiona W of Crafty Stamping

...says she found the absence of stamps challenging, but having combined several gorgeous embossing folders, which she distressed and embellished them beautifully, we would never have guessed!

Mary Marsh of the Charmed Life

...built her charming card around this diecut lovely sled, which she has paperpieced for maximum realism with woodgrain and a traditional red and green palette!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your inspiring cards! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt for which we're teaming up with one of our favorite challenge blogs... we hope you'll grab a cuppa and join the fun!