Cardstock Christmas

This prompt, we're asking you to step away from the designer paper … yes, put it away … none allowed … not even a scrap … because the next prompt is to create a card using only cardstock. 

You can tear it, ink it, stamp it, spray it, emboss it … but stick to only cardstock for your holiday card design.

Here's our Cardstock Christmas:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I created my card base using white cardstock with an ink smooshing technique using three colors of Distress Oxide Ink (Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint & Mowed Lawn).  I stamped the images and sentiments from Simon Says Stamp CZ Design Clean Line Christmas.  I used a die cut from the set on brushed metallic gold cardstock and finished with some brushed gold embellishments."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "One of my favorite ways to make a fast, easy background is with Wendy Vecchi's Build a Plaid Layering Stencils from Spellbinders and her Ranger Archival Inks. In this case I used Carnation, Goldenrod, Mulberry and Fern Green. As I often do, I built my plaid on a diagonal, and at the end I added some gold pen lines as well as two coordinating (cardstock!) mats, plus some poinsettia and foliage diecuts from the Christmas Add-On set for Wendy's Not Your Ordinary Card Collection. I couldn't resist finishing off with a few white velvet holly leaves and some glittery gold enamel dots."

♥♥♥

 

link up your own cardstock-centric masterpieces right here! JB2518: Cardstock Christmas runs until 6pm (Eastern) on the evening of Wednesday, September 10th.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Old-Fashioned Awesomeness!

There are some incredibly lovely cards in the Spirit of Christmas Past Gallery, so we highly recommend you take a little scroll through for extra inspiration! In the meantime, here are three cards that especially caught our eye:

Jolanda Johnstone of The Inque Spot Studio

...upcycled a very pretty card she received last Christmas by diecutting it into an oval, then pairing it with a beautifully muted collection of patterned papers which coordinate perfectly!

Bonnie of Stampin' with Klass

...stamped her sentiment directly onto vintage-vibed patterned paper, added soft inking to the edges and the perfect horse-drawn sleigh as focal point; all of which adds up to a lovely and elegant card!

(Bonus points for fabulous holiday staging!)

Suzanne Harkinson Posting On Flickr

...used a beautiful set of vintage-style patterned papers and a fabulous sketch from Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers to create this lovely (& wonderfully mail-able!) greeting! 

♥♥♥

And now we need to find out who's won the fun little Vintage Holiday Ephemera pack from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff. The fine folks at Random.org have selected...

Lucky Number 4

which means that Diane of Diane's Country Cards & Crafts is our Lucky Winner!

Congrats, Diane! If you'll send your snail mail info to llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com we'll get that prize to the post office ASAP and on its way to you!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to every one played along, we loved seeing all of your gorgeous cards. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt; we hope you'll stop by to take STOCK when we do! ;)

An Old-Fashioned Xmas

We're heading into the second week of The Spirit of Christmas Past, which means we're still creating cards 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 or retro to you. 

To add a little extra incentive to your endeavors, this fortnight we're sponsored by Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, so there's a Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment of vintage holiday goodies for one lucky card member who links-up their vintage-inspired design. You can see a pic of the prize and find the Linky tool on the original post... directly below this one.

Here's how we went vintage/retro this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I've got a background comprised of actual vintage bits (the vintage poinsettia illustration from an old Christmas Ideals Magazine, book paper, sheet music, etc) with a few images cut from Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Pocket Cards, a couple of golden rub-on transfers, some wordfetti stickers and coordinating washi tape. The frame is also TH/Idea-ology and it's surrounding a little vignette from Ideals. I inked the edges and machine-stitched the whole collage to a white 5.5" square card."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I started my design with the vintage ephemera of Christmas Snow from Tim Holtz and paired it with a vintage birdie wildlife stamp and vintage S&H Green Stamps from my own stash.  I added papers that I thought had a vintage-y feel and finished with lots of sticker sentiments."

 

Just a reminder that JB2517: The Spirit of Christmas Past runs until the evening of Wednesday, August 27th. 

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." 

♥♥♥

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!

♥♥♥

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!

♥♥♥

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!

♥♥♥

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.

 ♥♥♥

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."

♥♥♥

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