The MAN with the Bag

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're asking you to create cards that feature - The MAN with the Bag - aka Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle (you get the picture). Make sure Santa is front & center on your design.

Here is how we celebrated Santa this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I picked up a piece of 12x12" journaling cards paper from Echo Park's The Magic of Christmas Collection together with the 6" paper pad from the same collection at my local scrapbooking store last week.  I have no idea why Santa has a Christmas Cake in his hand, or why his other hand was empty as if he was saying - Ta da - but I felt like he needed something in the other hand.  I settled on the perfectly sized Bottle of Beer brad from Eyelet Outlet - it will be perfect for several of the people on my Christmas card list.  I paired it with one of the papers from the 6" pack as well as a scrap of coffee swirled paper for the card base that matched the chocolate in the cake."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I’ve combined a bunch of different Doodlebug collections and elements: the Santa, tree and a few presents are cut from journal cards; the presents and candies are stickers; the sentiment is from a the super-useful page full of tags and sentiments. The red text paper is Elle's Studio... I think... it’s ancient, and was in the scrap box so I'm not positive. The blue graph paper is Photoplay. There are Eyelet Outlet Enamel Dots and an Enamel Star on the cute Christmas tree and a Matte Dot on Santa's hat."

♥♥♥

Link your Santa-centric masterpiece(s) right here by 6pm (Eastern) on May 8th. 

Keyword word for Flickr, galleries, etc, is JB2409. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Earth Day Celebration

The annual recycling challenge is always a favorite at Jingle Belles; we love seeing the pretty/ interesting/ useful things other crafters have saved... and we especially love seeing how they get used to make inspiring holiday cards. Every single link in the Readers' Gallery is worth a visit, and we hope you'll take time to scroll through. Meanwhile, here are three masterpieces of recycling that especially caught our attention:

Lorraine of Paper Vernissage

...has been Jingling along with us since the very beginning (in 2011!) and has basically NEVER made a card we did not love. But she is always especially "hot" when it comes to our Earth Day celebration, and this year is no exception. Hop over to her blog to read all about this adorable Rescued Reindeer AND... the other two cards she made from almost 100% found and recycled ingredients!

Heather of Wire Wrapture

...upcycled parts of a lovely holiday card she received AND the gloriously inky, shimmery blotter paper from her crafty work station to make a card that is both artful and elegant!

Deanne of A Little Bit o' Paper

...raises a caffeinated cup of Christmas Cheer and reminds us that long before we ever heard of Kraft Paper, many of us would save and re-use those lovely, sturdy brown grocery sacks from the Supermarket... which still work beautifully for creative purposes!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we'll be saving quite a few of your brilliant ideas for next year's Earth Day Special! Jingle Belles will be back at Midnight with a brand new challenge featuring a holiday hero we suspect needs no introduction!

Christmas Down to EARTH (Day)

At Jingle Belles, we're still celebrating EARTH DAY by creating cards featuring recycled materials. 

We also encourage you to check out your local Earth Day events on and around April 22nd (in my neighborhood we're having a big public spaces trash clean-up party).

Here's how we recycled this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Unfortunately I can't remember who gave me the gorgeous holiday-themed napkin which is the centerpiece of this week's card. I carefully peeled apart the layers, stuck it to a piece of Xyron-ed cardstock, and then discovered that there was ONE MORE layer I'd been unaware of. Having (even more carefully) peeled that one off, it turned out I had a semi-translucent layer of those lovely, whimsical critters, to which I (very VERY carefully) applied gluestick and stuck to a piece of navy-blue sheet music from an old Christmas Ideals magazine. A patterned paper mat, metallic diecut snowflakes and a Tim Holtz sticker sentiment complete the design of this not-quite-A7 card."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This card started with a piece of rainbow painted packaging from Viki Boutin Mixed Media Stencils that I die cut with a large tag die, adding a Doodlebug Design Candy Cane Lane Puffy Santa sticker over the hole at the hole at the top.  My Art Impressions Java Gift Card Holder was die cut entirely from three different pieces of saved packaging (can you see the swirls on the cup from Tim Holtz).  I used two more Doodlebug puffy stickers to decorate my cup and attached it to my rainbow tag with foam tape. STAMPlorations Caffeinated Christmas is my coffee-themed sentiment (designed by my uber talented friend Becca Cruger).  I finished with the absolutely perfectly coordinated rainbow paper from Simple Stories for the card base).  I'm also joining Amy T.'s Caffeinated Christmas Challenge."

Link your recycling-centric cards on the original Earth Day post (directly below this) and be sure to check out the inspiring cards in the Readers' Gallery.

Peace on EARTH Day

April 22, 2024 marks the 54th celebration of Earth Day, so this fortnight we Jingle Belles are asking you to help us celebrate by creating holiday cards that feature at least one recycled element.

Here's how we recycled this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Last year when I recycled my holiday cards, I die cut this lovely cardinal image from the front of one of them and put it into my recycle/reuse box.  For my card, I positioned the cardinals on top of a recycled piece of American Crafts packaging, cut with a stitched square die cut, using foam tape.  I finished with a red scrap of cardstock from my off-cut folders and a stamped sentiment from Impress."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I managed to incorporate a few recycled items into my card: the pink leopard tissue and snowflake paper were saved from holiday gifts (I adhered them to plain white cardstock to make them sturdier); the white and silver layer is the front of a greeting card I received last year; and I made a shaker box using Hero Arts' Woodgrain Frame Infinity Dies cut from the backs of old greeting cards, covered with a piece of clear plastic packaging. In fact, the stamped Sunny Studio bear, ancient glitter snowflake, and Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads (plus Sequins) are the only new items I've used."

♥♥♥

Need more inspiration? Check out the Jingle Belles Earth Day thread to see what we've made for this theme in years past! Then create your own masterpiece featuring a recycled element and link it right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 24th. Keyword for galleries, etc, is JB2408.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Cookie-Inspired Creations

Everybody loves holiday cookies, right? But as it turns out, in addition to being a tasty snack, cookies are excellent inspiration for making cards, as well! 

If you haven't visited the Readers' Gallery yet, we highly recommend the trip. In the meantime, here are three creations inspired by that fabulous photo from Kristen's Cookies which especially caught our eye:

Marina of My Perfect Life

...was inspired by the cookie with a silhouette of Santa's sleigh across the full moon, which she expanded out into a scene that fills her whole card!

Susan B from Cardmaker's Garret

...was inspired by the cookie with the realistic tangle of holiday lights and had the PERFECT stamp to recreate the look!

Barb G of Barb's Creative Corner 

...was inspired by the cookies with Santa against a pink frosting background; she matted and stretched the shape to fill her adorable mini-slimline card!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we adored seeing all of your creative takes on the theme. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new seasonally-appropriate prompt that we're pretty sure you can guess if you've ever Jingled along with us in any previous April! ;)

More Cookies, Please

We're still creating holiday cards inspired by this fabulous collection of holiday cookies from Kristen's Cookies, and you're still invited to join the fun. Remember, when you share your card, we'd like for you to let us know which cookie you chose, and how it inspired you! 

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I went with the pink cookie (how could I not?!) that has the cute Santa, and once again my inspiration was partially informed by the fact that I was under the impression that I had a very similar Santa image. As it turns out, I had a Doodlebug Santa that was in a completely different style, but... it was already on a PINK journal card, so I just went with the flow! I began with the intention of going super-minimal and using a plain pink background, but then I remembered I'm *ME* lol, and added a few pink patterned paper layers as well as the sentiment that I'd cropped off of the journal card."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "My card is clearly inspired by the cool Candy Cane Cookies.  I used stamps from Reverse Confetti (retired) and colored them with my markers.  Since my Candy Cane image didn't have the pretty pink bow, I created a pink gelliprint background for them to pull in that fun color combination."

This challenge runs until Wednesday evening, March 10th. Scroll down to the original post to see the super-sweet Readers' Gallery and link your delicious cookie-inspired creations! 

Cookie Inspired Christmas

This fortnight, we're asking you to create a card inspired by this fabulous collection of holiday cookies from Kristen's Cookies. When you share your card, make sure you let us know which cookie you chose, and how it inspired you!

(source)

Here's how we were inspired this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "When I saw the elegant "Merry" turned into a holiday tree in the bottom center, I thought I had something like that in my stash.  I did indeed in the form of Unity Stamp Company Say It Big Holiday Die Cut.  I die cut it three times from one of my green Gelliprints and stacked them-up to give some dimension like the cookie.  I used the Hero Arts Rounded Corner Rectangle Dies for my layers bringing in another green Gelliprint from my stash.  I finished with two punched stars from each of the Gelliprints."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose the cookie with the Charlie Brown-ish xmas tree inside a snowglobe, and I have to confess that part of the reason was that when I saw it, my Cardmaker's Brain kicked in and went, 'you've got Memory Box Nested Globe dies and Spellbinders' Bottle Brush Trees!' Then, when I was retrieving said dies, I found my Honeybee Layering Holiday Bells set, which has that cool two-part bow, so all that was left to do was find some teeny Hero Arts enamel dots, a Doodlebug sentiment and a coordinating blue scrap of patterned paper for the background. Job done!"

♥♥♥

Link your cookie-inspired deliciousness right here, by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 10th. Keyword for galleries, etc is JB2407.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Beautiful Bling

We were pretty sure our fellow Jingle Belles would know exactly how to Bring the BLING... and we were absolutely right about that! As always, it's very difficult to only choose a few cards to feature, but here are three that especially caught our eye:

Urska of Ustvarjalni Oblacki

...placed tiny gems at the center of each swirl, to act as ornaments on her intricate diecut Christmas tree!

Meghan of Made by Meghan K

...used Picket Fence Studio's Glitter Paste through a stencil to create a beautiful and unique glittery coffee bean background!

Bonnie of Stamping with Klass

...chose to diecut that gorgeous skinny sentiment from red glitter paper, and made it stand out even more by using white for the rest of her elegant elements!

♥♥♥

And now it's time to see where our fun little prize pack will be heading out to!

The Random Number Generator has selected Lucky Number #3 which means that Deb Horst of Sendable Sentiments is our Lucky Winner. Congratulations, Deb! Please email your snail mail info to llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com and we'll get that on it's merry way, ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your beautiful, bling-centric cards! We'll be back at Midnight with an inspiring little holiday snack we hope will get those creative juices flowing! 

BLING-le All the Way

We're still BLING-ing away this week at Jingle Belles... creating cards featuring jewels, gems, pearls, stickles, glitter paper or any other sparkly element(s) that catch our fancy. Here's what we made this week:  

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week, I applied Izink Diamond Glitter Paint (in a luscious shade called Rose Foudre) through an older TCW snowflake stencil, let it dry, then matted it on white Non-Shed Glitter Paper, I added multiple fussycut layers of a snowflake-looking Stamplistic Mandala stamp, each of which I had embossed with a different Ranger Embossing Powder (Love Letter, Gold Tinsel, Pink Tinsel and Copper, to be precise) and then I stacked up and adorned with sticky-back rhinestones.

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "For my BLING this week I went all-in with Glitter die cutting my card base from green glitter cardstock using a stitched rectangle and die cutting my Jingle Bells from gold glitter cardstock.  I added some green bling to the center of my glitter bow and finished with a rub-on sentiment directly onto the glittery paper."

Be sure to visit the original BLING On the Holidays post to see the Readers' Gallery; then start planning your own sparkly, BLING-y masterpiece! Remember there's a fun little prize for one random cardmaker, so link up your glitter-centric card today!

BLING on the Holidays

This fortnight we're BLING-ing on the Holidays - making cards that incorporate jewels, gems, beads, pearls, glitter, stickles or anything sparkly.

Here is how we got BLING-y this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "When I think of BLING, I think of Eyelet Outlet Swirl BLING Flourishes.  For my card, I deconstructed several Jewel Pink swirl flourishes to decorate my die cut Christmas Tree to coordinate with one of my favorite GelliArts Prints.  I topped it with a clear jewel star and an Impress Rubber Stamps Holiday Words sentiment."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "This card has a lot of elements (and A LOT of sparkle!) but it came together quickly because nearly everything on it was a leftover! The background was stamped with Simon Hurley's Bold Holiday Blooms and embossed with Ranger's Green Tinsel and Lime Tinsel Embossing Powders. It was one of several panels I made while playing around with said glittery e/p's to create this post on the Ranger Project Page. The stacked strip featuring the Eyelet Outlet Fancy Long Bling I found in my EO box when retrieving the tiny Pearls and the Jewel Brad that's holding the silk poinsettias and glitter paper snowflakes. I have no idea where that giant pale green holly leaf came from, but it was the perfect size, shape and color so on it went!"

♥♥♥

And now, here's a peek at a little blog candy that one Lucky (Random!) Cardmaker will score, just by linking up their own blingy masterpiece with us this time.

♥♥♥

Link your sparkly, glittery, BLING-centric cards right here by 6pm (Eastern) on March 27th.

Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2406.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Diecut Delights

We were DIE-ing to see all of your diecutting creations and they most definitely did not disappoint! As always, the hardest part of our job is narrowing down for all the amazing cards to just three that especially caught our eye as amazing examples of the theme.

 

Marina of My Perfect Life

...designed and cut these elegant oversized shadowed letters using her electronic diecutting machine, then added the most adorable critters imaginable!

Lynda of Loopy Loo Cards

...used (almost) nothing EXCEPT diecuts on her delightful card, and each element is perfectly thought out; notice the two shades of red adding dimension to the mug, the way things are affixed at different heights, and how that beautiful embossed background very nearly fills the cardfront.

Mary Marsh of The Charmed Life

...made a sweet collage of several diecuts on top of a diecut background that's layered over paper just a shade lighter... making for extra depth and dimension galore!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we hope you had a chance to hop around and see the inspiring cards your fellow Jingle Belles created! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will bring a SPARKLE to your eye! ;)

Prepare to DIE(cut)

This week at Jingle Belles we're still creating cards that primarily feature Die Cuts; shaped images made with craft punches or electronic systems (like Silhouette or Cricut) are also acceptable in this context.

Here are our "to-DIE-for" cards that we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I've used three dies to make two versions of one card. Penny Black's Glorious Poinsettia is my focal image; for each card I cut it several times from both green red, to make it more substantial and to emphasize the petals and leaves. I also used two of the three dies in Tim Holtz's Sizzix Mixed Media Christmas set to create background patterns using negative space, then layered the pierced backgrounds onto contrasting colors. As you can see, I love combining multiple patterned papers; and NO, for the record, I've never met a Christmas plaid I didn't love!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I combined four different Impression Obsession die cut sets (all linked in my blog post) together with googly eyes and Eyelet Outlet Holiday Coffee Cup & Candy Cane Brads for a fun green winter scene for the Caffeinated Christmas Challenge."

You have until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, March 13th to link-up and join us.

Holiday Cards to DIE(cut) For

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to make cards that primarily feature Die Cuts... (we'll also allow punches or items cut from electronic cutting machines like Cricut or Silhouette) ... just make sure the dies are front & center in your design.

Here's how we created our Christmas CUTs this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with the Trinity Mini Slimline Woven Die Cut from White Cardstock & thin marbled & gelliprinted paper, that I attached together for sturdiness.  I attached it to another gelliprinted background piece before adding lots of other die cuts using a sketch from Try a Sketch on Tuesday.  There are four different Simon Says Stamp Snowflake Die Cuts (Jewel, Kinley, Bliss & Alicia) together with the CZ Design Joyful die cuts.  I finished with Pinkfresh Studio Gems."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I adore my Tim Holtz/Sizzix Snowglobe #2 die set, but it has 26 separate dies, so as much as I love it, realistically, I only actually attempt it a couple of times per year. But there is NO arguing with the results, because seriously HOW CUTE are those tiny houses?! Apparently, the last time I used it, I organized the dies into three groups and wrote a cheat sheet (more about this on my blog) which streamlined the process, so it's possible you'll be seeing it a lot more in future!"

♥♥♥  

Link your diecut-centric creations right here! Our Jingle Belles Holiday Cards to DIE(cut) For challenge will run until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday evening, March 13th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2405.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

What's the Good Word?

There were LOTS of good words in our "Text Me" Readers' Gallery, so if you haven't taken a spin through to soak up the inspiration, we highly recommend the trip! Meanwhile, as usual, it was hard to just pick three cards to feature, but here are a few that especially caught our eye:

Brenda B from Brenda's Scraps of Life 

...made an over-sized sentiment the star of the show by embossing it in glittery gold, diecutting it into its own scalloppy panel, then adding just enough embellishment to let it shine!

Tina Z from Treebug

...chose a dynamic brush-lettered text-y patterned paper as a background for a super-cute Santa Shaker and added whimsical red and white fungi to her magical card!

Beverly Sizemore from Bev's Creative Path

...backed a bold diecut Christmas tree with tiny text paper that's beautifully echoed in her background panel and sentiment, with red mats to add definition to each level!

♥♥♥

And now let's see where those gorgeous Memory Box Celeste Snowflake dies 

will be heading out to!

The random number generator has selected 

Lucky Number #13

which means that

Tracy FP

is our Lucky Winner, congrats!

Please email llaurenb @ hotmail (dot) com with your snail mail info, 

so we can get that out to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single card and, as always, we were inspired by your amazingly creative ideas! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we think is to DIE for! ;)

Getting TEXT-y With It

This week at Jingle Belles we're still creating Text-y cards - cards that prominently feature some TEXT.

Here's how we got TEXT-y with it this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Stephanie gave me this beautiful Uniko Christmas Block Party Cover Stamp a couple of years ago and I don't use it nearly enough! I stamped it once (in Ranger Jet Black Archival) on plain white cardstock; then re-stamped the Santa, the Merry and the holly leaves on scraps of patterned paper which I fussycut and pieced into the design. I worked in a little more color with markers and pencils, then added a couple of Eyelet Outlet Matte Finish Enamel Dots, lots of tiny White Pearls, and five styles of EO Brads Star, Gift Brad, Pine Tree, Poinsettia and Candy Cane Brad."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I went with another dictionary page this week, this time containing the word Winter and sprayed with Hero Arts.  I die cut the Memory Box Stitched Merry Christmas Square Frame from white cardstock and ink blended some green Distress Inks for the Memory Box ink blending challenge. I finished with a white glittery reindeer and a few clusters of white gems."

Make sure you link-up by 6pm EST on Wednesday for a chance to win a set of Memory Box Celeste Snowflake Trio Dies.

TEXT Me

This fortnight's Jingle Belles theme is TEXT ME – create a holiday card that celebrates text. 

That might mean using some letter stickers, dictionary pages, texty patterned paper, or just creating a card where the sentiment is the star; but bear in mind that just using a small sentiment doesn't count... text of some kind should be the star of the show. 

Get creative with your words and make sure you get TEXTY.

Here are the TEXTs we are sending this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started by spraying a vintage dictionary page (with the word NOEL) with Dina Wakley Evergreen Enamel Gloss Spray.  After it dried, I die cut it with a horizontally positioned stitched rectange.  Next I die cut the Joy Crafts Sketch Art ~ Christmas Tree from dark brown cardstock & then cut the inside of the star with gold glitter paper.  I decorated it with Pinkfresh Studio Sparkle & Shine Glitter Drops in the openings.  I finished with a vintage My Sentiments Exactly! Woodblock I've had since at least 2008 stamped in brown ink and a few Love from Lizi Brown Peel Off Stickers to balance the design before attaching it to a kraft stitched rectangle."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "A couple of weeks ago I used a Memory Box's two-layer Brilliant Joy die set to make holiday card kits for Paper Anthology, and wound up with... I suppose you could say... an excess of joy! I glued them into little stacks of three, so they'd have a little more depth, then used them to create a text-y background on a piece of Photoplay plaid paper, which I augmented with vellum poinsettia stickers, as well as Eyelet Outlet Poinsettia, Cardinal, Cardinal Profile and Female Cardinal Brads. I trimmed a sentiment from a red texty patterned paper (Elle's Studio, I think?) and matted the whole thing on another alphabet-patterned paper from Recollections. It's definitely different from anything I've made recently, but I love how it turned out!"

And we've got a fun little prize for one lucky participant - Memory Box Celeste Snowflake Trio of dies.

Jingle Belles' Text Me challenge runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday evening, February 28th and if you're reading this, you're officially invited to join us! Link your TEXT-y cards right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter