The Spirit of Christmas Past

This fortnight we're celebrating the Spirit of Christmas Past … which means creating a card with a vintage or retro feeling. That could mean incorporating actual vintage elements, using new products that have a vintage style, or using stamps or images that convey a vintage vibe – whatever says vintage to you. 

And to add a little extra incentive to your endeavors, this fortnight we're sponsored by Lauren's fantastic Etsy Shop Just Enough Stuff, so there's a Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment of vintage holiday goodies (see photo below) for one lucky card member who links-up their vintage-inspired design.

Here are our vintage creations for this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I built my card around the vintage photo image from Tim Holtz Layers & Paper Dolls that I covered with clear Gesso and then colored with Derwent Inktense Pencils.  I layered it with a vintage doily, vintage dictionary page and vintage trading stamps.  I finished with a combination of vintage-like elements from Tim Holtz and sticker sentiments."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "This week I chose to use only commercial products to make my vintage-inspired collage, but the absence of actual OLD stuff didn't slow me down at all! I raided my stash of Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Pocket Cards, matted them on red shimmer paper and arranged them into an interestingly stacked compilation. A trimmed down TH Vignette Box Cover frames up a beautiful Authentique old-fashioned Santa journal card as focal image. I added everything to a background of older Ciao Bella plaid patterned paper, and finally affixed the whole thing onto a brushed gold A7 card." 

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But what about that PRIZE we mentioned??!

One lucky cardmaker will be chosen randomly to receive a Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment like this one, full of vintage holiday goodies from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff. All you have to do is link a newly made vintage- or retro-inspired holiday card using the linky tool below!

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JB2517: The Spirit of Christmas Past runs until 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 27th. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sensational Sketch Cards!

It's no surprise that Stephanie's beautiful sketch inspired gorgeous cards, but that does lead to our favorite Jingle Belles "problem" of narrowing down to just three cards in the shout out post! If you haven't seen ALL the cards we highly recommend the trip, but in the meantime here are a few that especially caught our eye:

Valerie Kaye of Inkspirations

...says she had the entire idea for her wondrous card as soon as she saw the sketch and what a FAB idea it was; in retrospect, that circle is so OBVIOUSLY meant to be a moon with the silhouette of Santa's sleigh stamped onto it!

Lee Ann Barrett of Greyt Paper Crafts

...used soft stenciling and subtle paper-piercing to add extra texture and interest without taking anything away from her lovely (& beautifully colored) focal image. Bonus points for clever stacking and framing of diecuts that perfectly fit the sketch!

Jenn Borjeson of Stampin Angel Jenn 

...swapped this adorable donkey on a bauble for the sketch's circle shape, then added bold patterns and bright colors to every layer, for a card that is as fun and festive as it is fanciful!

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And now we all want to know where that fun Uniko stamp set will be heading off to, right?

The fine folks at Random. org have chosen

Lucky Number 7

and thus...

Jenn Borjeson of Stampin Angel Jenn 

is our lucky winner, congrats!

♥

Jenn, if you could send your snail mail info to

llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com

we will get that prize to the post office ASAP!

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Once again we thank everyone who participated, we loved seeing ALL of your clever and inspiring sketch cards! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will send your vintage-lovin' vibes into high gear, so stay tuned!

Merry SKETCH-mas

The Jingle Belles are still getting SKETCH-y this week.

Here is how we celebrated SKETCH-mas this week:

Lauren's Other Sketch Card

Lauren says, "This week I raided my stash of holiday cuuuuuteness, including some adorable Doodlebug stickers and papers, plus coordinating items from Elle's Studio, Carta Bella and Pebbles. My card is all about Santa getting ready for the holidays at the North Pole and I've been about as faithful to the sketch as I could possibly be! (Of course *YOU* do not need be as literal as this; feel free to swap shapes; flip, rotate or stretch the sketch; just so long as we can see "the bones"!)"

Stephanie's Other Sketch Card

Stephanie says, "My Sketch Card started with a Concord & 9th Cup of Kindness adorned with an Eyelet Outlet Retro Christmas Tree brad.  I paired it with papers from Pebbles Cozy and Bright and a sentiment from STAMPlorations Caffeinated Christmas.  I finished with two enamel dots. I'm also joining the Caffeinated Christmas Challenge.

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Remember there's a fun little prize for one lucky random cardmaker who links up with us this time. Check it out (& find the Linky Tool!) on the original 'Twas the Sketch Before Xmas post, directly below this one.

'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas

...and all through the blog, we're busy making new holiday cards based on this clever and inspiring layout by our own Jingle Belles Sketch Diva, Stephanie! 

As always, you can interpret the sketch using any colors, stamps, papers or supplies; and you can flip, rotate, stretch or smoosh it; even swap the circle for a different shape... just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch in your design!

Here's how we got SKETCH-y this week:

Stephanie's Sketch Card

Stephanie says, "I went searching for a circular tag in my stash to use for my sketch, but instead fell in love with this round-topped penguin gift tag.  I paired him with a coordinating teal scrap of designer paper and some red glitter paper.  I finished with a vintage woodblock Memory Box sentiment ... because clearly he's too cool for yule."

Lauren's Sketch Card

Lauren says, "As you can see, I flipped the sketch upside down (unintentionally) and I shifted things (on purpose) a bit to the righthand side to accommodate my square card format, but otherwise I was quite faithful to Stephanie's beautiful sketch. Unusually for me, ALL of my items not only come from one manufacturer (49 & Market) but from one collection, "Christmas Spectacular" with which I am a bit obsessed. I used parts of three patterned papers and built my focal collage from the "cut outs" sheet that's included in the collection. I did lots of distressing and a bit of machine stitching and called it a day."

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And we've got a fun little prize for one lucky (randomly selected) Sketch participant - the Winter Foliage Stamp Set from Uniko.

Link your Sketch-centric card(s) right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, August 13th. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tic-Tac-Toe Triumphs!

We thought our crafty holiday Tic-Tac-Toe board might be TOO challenging, but as usual, our fellow Jingle Belles rose to the cardmaking occasion! ALL of the takes are worth seeing, but here are three that especially caught our eye:

Julia Aston of Create with Me

...chose the lefthand column of Animal + Diecut + Red by adorning a beautiful pine frond with perfectly pieced male and female cardinals!

Sandy J of Adventures of a Stamping Writer

...went with the top row which she populated with an adorable House Mouse (Animal); a vibrant dotty pattern (Designer Paper); and an accent that is perfectly on point: Ribbon with twinkly lights!

Meg of Bits and Pieces

...did a most impressive job of CAS cardmaking with the challenging bottom row which consisted of Red + Santa + One Layer: Nailed it!

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As we mentioned above, the Readers' Gallery for the Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge (on the original post RIGHT HERE) is definitely worth the trip, so we hope you'll check it out. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt you might think is just a teeny bit *sketchy*... ;)

St. Nick Tic-Tac-Toe

We're back this week continuing our game of Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe.

Here's how we played the game this week.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "My stash of classic Basic Grey holiday papers is dwindling, but being a top-notch hoarder, I do still have some medium-sized pieces (from which my two background pieces hail) and lots of little scraps (from which I diecut all of the shapes to paper-piece these adorable Impression Obsession Retro Ornaments. By which you may well have already deduced that this week I chose to work the middle row of Diecuts + Paper Piercing or Piecing + Ornaments."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I went vertical down the left side with Animal, Die Cut & Red.  I stamped, colored & die cut Big Grumpy from Taylored Expressions and positioned him on my Red background created with the Taylored Expressions Take Two Stencil and Picket Fence Studios Silver Paper Glaze."

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JB2515: Tic-Tac-Toe runs until next Wednesday evening, July 30th. Check out the original post for all the info and the Linky tool to add your own Tic-Tac-Toe creation(s)!

Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe

This fortnight, we're playing Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe, which is kind of like "Beach Blanket Bingo"... but Christmassy... and with a lot more embellishments! We'd love for you to join us; all you have to do is pick a row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) and create a lovely new holiday card featuring all three elements in that row. (Please note that you can, of course, use more than one animal, more than one ornament, etc etc.)

There are *lots* of possibilities, so let's get started!

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My Tic-Tac-Toe is vertically down the right side with Ribbon, Ornaments and a One-Layer Card.  I started with a large Dina Kowal Large Pixel Christmas Tree background image from Impression Obsession that I stamped in green inks on natural ivory cardstock.  I used watercolor markers on the red berries and the brown pinecone.  For the ribbon element, I added tiny gold ribbon bows to two of the ornaments hanging on the tree."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose the left-hand column, which gave me: Animal + Diecut + Red, so I went with the sweet bunny (plus a couple of trees) from Pretty Pink Posh's Holiday Pals stamp set; Diecuts in the form of Penny Black's Trees and Hills in the background and MFT's Happy Holidays frame; and three different patterned papers (plus a mat) in Red."

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Link your Tic-Tac-Toe masterpieces right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 30th.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Bloomin' Beauties

Christmas in July has never looked so lovely; if you haven't yet scrolled through the bumper crop of festive flowers and foliage in the Poinsettia Perfection Readers' Gallery, we highly recommend that inspiring trip. In the meantime, here are three cards that especially caught our eye:

Darlene Pavlick of Dar's Crafty Creations

...inked her gorgeous poinsettia embossing folder in timely shades of red, white and blue for a showstopper of a CAS Christmas card!

Karen Walker of Random Reflections

...went with a bold, black, textural background that makes the delicate diecut blooms on her beautiful bauble pop even more!

Barbara G of Barb's Creative Corner

...went big with a card-covering image embossed in gold and delicately watercolored for a look that abounds with elegance!

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A big shout out to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single card! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will have you "TIC"-ing all the boxes! ;)

Merry Mistletoe

This week we're continuing with our Poinsettia Perfection theme - asking you to make cards featuring Poinsettias or other holiday blooms; plants or greenery like Mistletoe or Holly; or even a Pine Branch wreath.

Here are our creations for week two:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Way back in February, for the "Midnight Clear" prompt, I had made a card built on a well-hoarded, super-sturdy Hambly Screen Prints transparency base, which reminded me how much I love those AND generated an interesting idea involving washi tape which I've finally gotten around to right here! As you can see, I just added strips of red and green washi dangling down from the topfold of the card. I've wrapped them around to the back as well, but trimmed those edges slightly shorter than the ones on the front so that they don't show. I was on the point of attaching some poinsettia diecuts when this hand-painted, machine-stitched poinsettia (that I made a while ago but for some reason didn't use) literally fell out of an envelope full of crafty "leftovers" which seemed like a pretty clear SIGN, so of course I used it, lol."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I loved the gorgeous poinsettia paper from the Mintay Merry Little Christmas Collection.  I paired it with the pink snow design that was on the reverse side and a poinsettia decked mug of hot chocolate using the July sketch from Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers.  I'm also joining the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge.  The sentiment is a vintage woodblock from Hero Arts."

Remember, you have until 6pm on Wednesday, July 16th to link-up your festive foliage cards on the original Poinsettia Perfection post (directly underneath this one).

Poinsettia Perfection

This fortnight's Poinsettia Perfection prompt is asking you to create a card that features a Poinsettia or other holiday blooms; plants or greenery like Mistletoe or Holly; or even a Pine Branch wreath.

Here are the blooms we're sharing this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "This was the perfect opportunity to break out my never-before-used Hero Arts Color Layering Poinsettia Window Stencils.  I used four colors of Distress Ink - Candied Apple, Fired Brick, Distress Oxide Mowed Lawn and Rustic Wilderness.  I die cut the blooms with the Hero Arts Nesting Rounded Rectangle Infinity Die and finished with a sentiment in the window from Hero Arts Comfort and Joy Messages."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I have a few choices for holiday foliage and flowers, but one of my favorite options is the Christmas Add-On set for Wendy Vecchi's Essential Envelope dies from Spellbinders. I used the triple holly leaf die on two shades of glimmery yellow/gold cardstock to build double-layer poinsettias, which the set's  feathery foliage die complements beautifully. I broke out Wendy's Studio 490 Perfectly Plaid stamp to use as the background (embossed in Ranger's Vintage Pearl powder) and again on a Statements Chippie (in Marigold powder). A sage green mat and some WV Washi Tape complete the design of my 5.5" square card."

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Link your own poinsettia-centric masterpieces right here, by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 16th. Keyword for galleries and socials is JB2514. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Fa-La-La-La Frames!

It turns out there really is NO bad way to use a frame... especially in the hands of our expert cardmaking Jingle Belles! Here are a few that especially caught our eye this time:

Brenda B of Brenda's Scraps of Life

...framed her lovely vintage-style sentiment with an elegant and intricate white frame, thus making her bold and beautiful blooms stand out even more!

Cindy Major aka @encrepapierciseaux on Instagram

...set off her adorable Santa in the perfect fancy frame; he's the perfect star of her wonderfully vibrant and festive card!

Chris of And Here's One I Made Earlier

...chose a bold plaid frame in black and red to highlight the perfection of her coloring on the lovely lady image! 

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Many thanks to all who participated, we loved seeing all of your beautiful and inspiring cards. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt and we hope you'll see the "point" of it and join in the fun once more! ;) 

Feliz Navidad Frames

We're still creating with Festive Frames this week ... include at least one frame in your card design.

Here's how we got framed this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "A few years ago I purchased a set of holiday postcards that were not in good condition, but since I wanted to use them on Christmas cards, that was fine with me. This one was the most battered of the lot:  it had several very large creases and was entirely missing its lower righthand corner. But luckily, by finding two frame dies of just the right size, I was able to select the nicest bits, frame them up, and showcase them in a collage of Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Pocket Cards, 7 Gypsies velvet holly leaves and assorted festive washi tape in coordinating colors."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "My frame for this week's card is a chipboard polaroid shaped frame from Crate Paper's Mittens and Mistletoe Collection.  I positioned it over one of the stars in paper from the same collection and then filled it with another chipboard sticker.  I finished with a couple of postage stamp stickers over the other two stars."

Remember, you have until 6pm EST on Wednesday to link-up!

Festive Frames

This fortnight we'd like to see cards that incorporate at least one frame as part of the design. Here's how we got festively frame-y this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "To make my frame, I used two Nested Ovals Double Stich Dies from Pinkfresh Studio and silver glitter cardstock.  I used this week's Sketch Saturday layout together with a tree from Fancy Pants Cookies for Kringle Ephemera, a vintage Memory Box sentiment and an edge die cut from Tim Holtz Sizzix Vault Edges Thinlets."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "One of my favorite ways to make frames is using a set of nesting shape dies... of which I have an (almost) embarrassing variety! With my Hero Arts Circle Infinity Dies, it was simple to make four different sizes of circle frames (I used the smallest twice); I then used the same circle dies on some very fun Photoplay Holiday Gnomes journal cards. I clustered the framed gnomes, added a sentiment, scattered a few (ancient) coordinating circle brads, and my 5.5" square card was complete."

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Link up your own Framed masterpieces right here! JB2513: Festive Frames runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 2nd.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Fa-La-La-La-Lovely!

Holiday music, Christmas carols, and other sounds of the season are always inspiring and there are some lovely cards for you to check out in the Fa-La-La-La-La Readers' Gallery. But first, here are a few that especially caught out eye... or, in the case, ear! ;)

Shani of Paperesse

... not only built her adorable and beautifully colored card around holiday song lyrics, she made them PUNNY! Be still our hearts!

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...built her vibrant and festive card around an adorable trio of singing mice; a concept guaranteed to make us smile!

LeAnne Pugliese of Wee Inklings

...set all of our Joy Bells ringing with this elegant, sophisticated card; and we're not just saying that because those bell dies were part of the prize she won last month right here at Jingle Belles, but it is especially impressive that she's already making awesomeness! 

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Much appreciation to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your clever and creative cards. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we we think is deserving of the hall of frame! 

A Caroling We Will Go

This week at Jingle Belles the theme remains Fa-la-la-la-la ... We're asking you to create a card that incorporates music, a musical instrument, or a holiday song title or lyrics.

Here's our tune this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I raided my stash of vintage sheet music and I chose a nicely patina-ed page to coordinate with this fun (ancient!) Basic Grey flower sticker. I added a few strips of washi tape, some inked edges, a chipboard sentiment and a shimmery red mat... et voila!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I found music for a Christmas Carol in a children's song book that happened to be perfectly card-sized.  I used the original music adding a stitched oval cut from a vintage holiday card and finishing with a 2002 Stampin' Up wood block stamped sentiment."

Remember, you have until 6pm EST on June 18th to link-up your Fa-la-la-la-la creations.

Fa-La-La-La-La

This fortnight we're celebrating one of our favorite things at Jingle Belles ... Christmas Music. 

We're asking you to create a card that incorporates music, a musical instrument, or a holiday song title or lyrics.

Here's how we're singing for you this week.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started by scanning some holiday sheet music from my collection and printing it out sized for a card front.  I chose this song because it made me smile when I thought about learning to sing it as a child.  I added a couple of designer papers for layers and curled one edge of the sheet music.  I added two stickers, a stamped sentiment from Flora & Fauna Bottle Brush Snow Globe set, and some adhesive gems."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Having decided I wanted to use musical patterned paper for this card, I was pretty excited to find a few half-sheets of absolutely ancient Love Elsie holiday papers from American Crafts! It turns out they paired really well with my fave Doodlebug character stickers and a chipboard sentiment I found in the Big Box of Miscellaneous Items!"

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JB2512: Fa-La-La-La-La runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 18th. Link your Musical Masterpiece card(s) right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Beautiful Beasties

Christmas Critter Cards come in all shapes, sizes and styles. Here are three that especially caught our eye this time.

Helen of Helen's Craft Haven

...not only displays her mind-blowing level of coloring skills with this sweet image, she's added the perfect snowy background and a skinny red mat that ties everything together! 

Helen of Made by Helen

...made us wonder WHAT could be cuuuuuter than an adorable scarf-wearing reindeer, framed in silver and pink? Bonus shout-out to the cool gems in the four corners!

Silke of Karten Kram

...made this adorable image even more charming by adding whimsical red, green and neutral elements to complete a fab and festive card design!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your wonderful and inspiring cards! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will have you singing along! ;)

Critter Christmas

We're back again this week with cards that include Animal Antics ... because even animals know when Santa is on his way.

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Arctic set is probably ten years old and yet, I still find it every bit as adorable and whimsical as the first time I saw it; I'm guessing others do too as it's still available. I love coloring or (as in this case) paper-piecing those happy arctic pals; and I'm especially happy with the floral moose! I went a little more wintery than xmas, with a neutral diecut sentiment from Elizabeth Craft Designs' Winter Wishes set (also ancient and I believe out of print) since not everyone celebrates Christmas and it's nice to have a selection of cards on hand in December."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie Says, "I knew my Taylored Expressions Big Grumpy needed to make an appearance for this prompt.  This time I added mittens on his paws and reindeer antlers from Big Grumpy Christmas together with the Ho Ho ... No. sentiment.  I finished with a silver embossed snowflake from Taylored Expressions Flip the Snowflake."

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JB2511: Animal Antics runs until next Wednesday evening, June 4th. Link your card(s) on the original post... directly below this one!