jingle belles

Stuck on You!

2012-02-24T00:05:00.000-05:00

Like the amazing Miss Stephanie did in December, I (Lauren) have had the pleasure of serving as EAD Designs guest designer for the entire month of February, and i have to tell you, it's about as much fun as a crafty girl can have, so be sure to check out their monthly color challenge (hosted by your fellow belle Amy Tsuruta) if you'd like a chance at this amazing honor.

In the meantime, since we are both *huge* EAD fans, and since we had such a great time with them last year, Stef and I asked Miss Emily if we could team up again and were thrilled when she said, "YES"! not only did she let Stef and me loose in the EAD Designs Shop to choose some fabulous Christmas goodies, she sent along the fabulous EAD Design Team to help us, AND she's providing an amazingly generous $25 gift card to one lucky BELLE who links up with us! Please join us in THANKING and WELCOMING our lovely sponsor EAD Designs!!!

E.A.D DESIGNS is a family owned and operated business. Emily Nelson (owner and illustrator) started E.A.D DESIGNS in 2002, and in a few short years has grown into one of the largest retailers/wholesalers for Vinyl Lettering and Wall Art. They started their scrapbooking rub-on line in 2009, and in 2010 started offering their amazing Stickerz. They also work very hard on creating custom designs for customers who are looking for something unique. Their Design Team is a fablous bunch of very talented ladies handpicked to inspire their customers with creative new ways of using their products, which are made with high quality vinyl in the USA! E.A.D. DESIGNS take pride in offering the newest and original designs on the market.

And now without further ado, let's see some amazing eye candy from the uber-talented EAD Design Team!

~Amy~ of Tsuruta Designs

needs NO introduction in these parts, but did you know that in addition to designing for EAD and running her very own challenge site, Flashback Friday, Amy is on design teams at Paper Issues, LESSology and The Craft's Meow? With regard to designing projects Amy says, "I definitely gravitate towards fun colors! I'm a big fan of non-traditional cards like today's "warm wishes" card. P.S. I'm huge lover of coffee too!!" Her unique and fabulous card uses EAD's Coffee Shop stickerz, Feathered Friends Stickerz and Christmas Sentiments rub-ons.

Jessica of Chick-n-Scrap

made this astonishingly cool "clean and simple" card using EAD's gorgeous Celebrate the Season Stickerz. Jessica is also on the design team at The Cutting Cafe and shared a secret we can relate to about deadlines, "I try really hard to get ahead on DT projects...and always end up changing my mind and design at the last minute... guess I work better under pressure LOL!" We wondered about her cool blog name; well, it seems that whereas most people have dogs and cats and fish, Jessica's family have fish but also 10 chickens!!! "They are our pets" she says, "and will come running when we are outside and love to be petted and carried around! We are looking to add 25 more birds in the spring....talk about a full Hen House!"

Julie Ranae of Julie's Open Window

is, in addition to her EAD Designs role, the Design Team Coordinator for The Twinery and The Craft's Meow as well as the creator of The Play Date Cafe & CAS-ual Fridays Challenge. Julie shares a few "fun facts" about her life, "I imported my husband from the UK. He is 8 years my junior and we're both grandparents to 4 amazing grandsons ranging in ages 9 years to 6 months.I love the color orange and anything in miniature. I collect in-flight magazines and am a student of all things Provence." Her wonderfully textural and elegant card uses EAD's Deck the Hall stickerz.

Liz at Liz's Paper Loft

splits her design team duties between EAD Designs and My Creative Time. Her gloriously merry and bright study in red and green takes both its beautiful palette and its amazing graphic "pop" from EAD's awesome Deck the Halls stickerz. Liz shares this about her creative process, "I create better alone, but NEED the social aspect of crops!"

Rose of Rose's Happy Place

is another familiar-- and well-loved-- name to all of us at JINGLE BELLES, and also on the 365 Cards Blog! Her amazingly elegant card features EAD stickerz from the Sweet Sweet Christmas set. Believe it or not, on the night Rose made this card, she was not happy with it, and planed to "tweak" it a bit in the morning! Luckily, after a great night's sleep, she saw it again and was thrilled with the way it looked... as are we! (We're also happy to hear we're not the only ones who sometimes have to take a break and come back to a project with "fresh eyes"!) ♥

Shellye McDaniel of The Papered Cottage

also designs for Imaginisce, My Scrapbook Nook, Paper Issues, I Heart Ippity, Vintage Street Market as well as EAD Designs; and has been a Guest Designer for Little Yellow Bicycle and The Kraft Outlet. We were excited to learn that Shellye loves Christmas music as much as we do! "One thing that kinda drives my family crazy is that I start listening to Christmas music around July... that's five whole months of falalalala! I love it!" Her uber-fabulous card uses EAD's Holiday Owls stickerz.

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose EAD's gorgeous Celebrate the Season Stickerz 100% because my fellow belle and EAD DT member Miss Rose used them to rock this amazing card a couple of weeks ago! I had planned to CASE it, actually, but for some reason I can never quiiiiiiiite pull that off, there is always some little change I make that leads to some other little (or big!) change... well, let's just call this card a "kissin' cousin" to the inspiration piece, ok?! :)"

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "EAD Designs Christmas Block Stickerz were perfect for this CardPatterns Sketch because they're repositionable ... it allowed me to move them several times to get everything lined-up exactly ... and the Christmas Sentiment rub-on coordinated perfectly (their rub-ons come in lots of wonderful colors)."

And now it's time to see what ♥YOU♥ will do for "Stuck on You"! Break out your favorite stickers, your most beloved rub-ons, or some of each... and get creative! Link up here between now and 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, March 7th, for a chance (by random draw) at that awesome $25 gift card to the EAD Designs Shop!!! Keyword for our flickr group and galleries is JB12-05.

Pushing Our Buttons

2012-02-23T00:01:00.000-05:00

We were so impressed with all of your creative uses of buttons, brads & eyelets. Here are a few that really pushed our creative buttons:

Eveline of Ditjes en datjes

used an ornament die cut and buttons in classic holiday hues
to create this amazing holiday card design ... the combination
of patterned papers was wonderful too ...
she also made two more awesome cards here & here.

Lorraine of Paper Vernissage

used perfectly placed white buttons to embellish her swirly tree ...
and the stamping around the edge of the card
created the perfect elegant frame ... magical.
You can see Lorraine's adorable button wreath card here.

Danielle of EcoScrapbook

added lots of fun little buttons to

bring new life to an up-cycled holiday card ...

love the vertical design.

A huge thank you to *EVERYONE* who played along with us this week.

If you've not done so yet we strongly encourage you to scroll down to the thumbnails post and spend a bit of time seeing your fellow ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ in action! then come on back at midnight when the NEW prompt goes live!

We'll have lots of lovely guest stars & a super sponsor to inspire our creativity.

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button

2012-02-17T00:05:00.000-05:00

We're still playing with buttons (or eyelets or brads) at Jingle Belles this week. You have until Wednesday, February 22nd at 6pm EST to link-up your cards in the post below this one.

Here's the second set of holiday cards that we created.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "these doodlebug christmas buttons are older than at least one of my nieces, and had never even been opened! it's not that i don't ♥LOVE♥ them, i'm just slightly "button impaired" i guess, lol! this prompt was just the push i needed to break those out and use them on a card, and i am pretty pleased with the result!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stef says, "I decided to go a bit more minimal and elegant with my design this week.
I started with a glittery copper snowflake border
and punched out the centers of each larger snowflake
to add a copper brad for a bit of dimension and texture.
I added an EAD Designs Rub-on Sentiment to copper metallic cardstock, attached
my border with dimensional tape, and a quick & easy holiday card was done."

We can't wait to see what you create.

All Buttoned-Up

2012-02-10T00:05:00.000-05:00

We decided that in the midst of winter (at least where Lauren & I are) was a good time get "All Buttoned-Up" for the holidays.

We're asking you to incorporate buttons (or brads or eyelets) into your holiday card design.

Here's what we did to get All Buttoned-Up.

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "The inspiration for my card was this lovely button tree by Shari Carroll. I fully intended to back clear buttons with designer paper like she did ... but then managed to somehow *misplace* my entire clear button stash ... so I did what any good creative soul does ... improvise. I used a package of Fancy Pants buttons that were on my craft table and added blue & champagne pearls to complete my tree.

Background & sentiment stamps are Hero Arts."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i found a button card with these three fun purple vintage babies in my crafty stash, and i have NO IDEA where they came from, but they inspired my whole card! i'd cut these purple poinsettias and the fancy musical label shape in december for something else and not used them; the transparency was one of my many lovely xmas goodies from miss stephanie! this was a very fast--and fun--card to pull together. gotta love *THAT* right?!" :)

So pull out those buttons, brads & eyelets and show us how you Get Buttoned-Up for the holidays.

If you're worried about mailing "lumpy"cards, eyelets would be the way to go ... and we know you've got a big stash of them somewhere (at least WE do). Another option is to do what Lauren & I do ... mail the lumpy cards inside boxes with gifts.

You have until Wednesday, February 22nd at 6pm (EST) to link up your creation ... keyword for galleries or our flickr group is JB12-04.

banner banter!

2012-02-09T05:00:00.000-05:00

hard to believe another two weeks has passed, and we're firmly into february already ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! on the other hand, time flies when you're having fun, and with all the amazing BANNER HOLIDAY cards to drool over, who could fail to have fun?! here are a few which especially took our fancy:

clare of miscanthus crafts

was inspired by the inky snowflakes and sparkly bling of our header in her gloriously minimalist card!

jill of a life well crafted

rocked our color palette in a big way with this adorable stamped and layered masterpiece!

marie bingaman of ANOTHER card making blog?!

incorporated sparkly swirls, red glitter, and just enough glamorous grunge to make us swoon!

if you have not yet perused the gallery, please do your card-makin' mojo the tremendous favor of scrolling down without further ado... then cruise right on back here at midnight for another dose of holiday inspiration!

another banner day

2012-02-03T00:05:00.000-05:00

just a reminder that you still have nearly a whole week to link up your cards for "A BANNER HOLIDAY" and you know we long to see them! so scroll down, check out your fellow belles' sterling work, and link up your own card; or perhaps your own cards... because you might find it hard to stop with just one--we did! :)

Stephanie's Other Card

Stef says, "For my second card I wanted to incorporate

some of the "grungy" elements from our banner ...

sponging through punchinella, staples, hand-drawn lines, and even

stamping with the bottom of my diet soda can.

I added silver jingle bells, felt snowflakes & a Hero Arts

sentiment with I Believe paper & tag from

My Mind's Eye."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "ok, you might be tempted to call this cheating, because this time i incorporated products from the same digital kit i used on our blog header: anna aspnes' retro holiday art play palette! on the other hand, the reason i bought that kit--and used it on the banner-- because i ♥LOVE♥ it; and the whole point of digi is that you can use it again and again, right? this time i added the "jingle bells" element to a patterned paper with a gorgeous swirly tree on it, and printed two copies so that i could layer the second tree on foam tape for extra dimension. then i went totally NUTS with real life stencils and stamps similar to the digi ones in the kit, finally i added some rub-ons and red glitter chipboard letters to form my sentiment."

a banner holiday

2012-01-27T00:01:00.000-05:00

have you already guessed this week's theme ♥JINGLE BELLES♥?! the title, "A BANNER HOLIDAY " ought to give you a hint: yepper, we're making holiday cards inspired by any aspect of our new (for 2012) blog header that appeals to you, whether that's the color scheme, the funky retro styling, or any of the individual elements, such as the glorious glitter or the fun and festive bells... or all of the above!

our header was made in PSE9 by me (lauren!) using paper, brushes and elements from an utterly gorgeous kit called artplay palette: retro holiday, by one of my favorite digital designers, anna aspnes, purchased at o'scraps; the fonts are deftone stylus, bohemian typewriter and impact--all free from dafont.com; and the divine sparkliness of the lettering is thanks to flergs' over the rainbow glitter layer style from scrapbook graphics, which i learned how to use via this great tutorial!

here are our cards:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i may have gone a little crazy with the inspirations this time! i used the color palette, obviously, and the fabulous (though slightly hidden) memory box jingle bell die that miss lorraine gave me for xmas (thank you!); and then i've also got the grungy vibe of the header working with some messy stenciled snowflakes and dots, plus i've got red glitter chipboard (of course, lol!) and i went a bit vintage and collagey with a lot of little fanciful layers, just the same way i did-- digitally-- making the header."

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "I took my inspiration from the color palette of the banner (although slightly deeper hues) and added some golden glittery Memory Box jingle bells (thanks Lorraine). Papers are Basic Grey Jovial with sentiment stickerz from EAD Designs Sweet Sweet Christmas and this week's CardPattern's Sketch."

and now it's time to see what ♥YOU♥ will do with "A BANNER HOLIDAY"! remember you can use *any* aspect of the header that inspires you: the colors, the retro style, the various elements, it's all fair game... so feel free to be as literal or as abstract as you like! link up here by 6pm (EST) on wednesday, february 8th. keyword for galleries or our flickr group is JB12-03.

Sketch-tacular

2012-01-26T00:01:00.000-05:00

First, a big THANK YOU to our lovely sketch designer & sponsor for this jingle belles prompt ~ Kirsty Vittetoe & Pixie Dust Paperie. So many fabulous variations on Kirsty's wonderful sketch ... we love seeing all of the different interpretations.

Here are a few that particularly caught our eye:

Rose of My Happy Place

combined this adorable felt Rudolph

with the perfect combination of patterned papers, stitching & pearls.

Linda of SUch is Life

combined such beautiful colors and lots of rubber stamping

to create great visual interest ... in a very mail-friendly design ...

oh yeah, and did I mention she made six of them ... Woot Woot!

Deena of A Deena Card

used her scraps (can you believe it) to make this peaceful holiday card ...
the variation of color on that textured canvas is stunning &
how do you not love that beautiful row of roses.

And ... drumroll ....

The winner of the fantastic prize from

a $15 Gift Certificate to the Pixie Dust Paperie Store

#35 - Zora

E-mail us, so we can get your goodies on the way.

And if you haven't already, stop by and check out all of the awesome sketch card designs & leave a little jingle belle love ... and check back at midnight for a new prompt to inspire you.

More Snowy Sketching

2012-01-20T00:05:00.000-05:00

A reminder of our lovely sketch by Kirsty Vittetoe:

You have until Wednesday, January 25th at 6pm EST to get linked-up

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "the starting point for this one was the fabulous santa illustration--which is actually a very reduced scan of a vintage book my friend gina gave me. (i collect copies of "the night before christmas!) then, once again i only needed to follow kirsty's awesome "road map" in choosing and placing my embellishments, so this came together quickly and easily!"

Stephanie's Other Card
Stephanie says, "I continued with my shaker stickers ... It was fun to make two cards that were similar, yet different. For this one I pulled out the black in Santa's belt with some black twine, black elements in my designer paper & a black rub-on sentiment from EAD Designs."

And remember, the very generous Kirsty is offering a FIFTEEN DOLLAR GIFT CERTIFICATE to the Pixie Dust Paperie Shop to one lucky randomly selected card maker who links up with us this time. You may enter as many times as you'd like, but each card must be a newly made holiday card and use the sketch!

We can't wait to see what you create.

Sketching Through the Snow

2012-01-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

We are overjoyed to have the talented Kirsty Vittetoe joining us again at jingle belles with one of her fabulous sketches to inspire us.

Many of you know Kirsty as the creator & lead DT of the awesome City Crafter Challenge Blog ... as well as the owner & Pixie-in-Chief of Pixie Dust Paperie, for which she puts together a wonderful collection of the latest & greatest papercrafting goodies each and every month, and now there's a Pixie Dust Paperie Etsy Shop, too. You can also see all of her amazing creations on her blog... Handmade Little Things.

Kirsty's offering a special deal just for us: There are only a few of these super-fun "Snow Shoe" kits left in the Pixie Shop, but during this prompt (or until they're gone!) jingle belles can scoop them up at half price! Just use this code at checkout: JB-2012-SS

Now here's Kirsty's fabulous sketch to inspire your holiday cards this week:

And here's what we did:

Kirsty's Card

Kirsty says, "I am glad to be able to come up with a sketch for Jingle Belles once again! I have a little sketch book, where I jot down anything that came up to my mind, I look through them when I need one, make changes if I have to, the rest is pretty much ready. It is really exciting to see every one's interpretation of my sketch!"

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I treated myself to a few new holiday goodies in the after-xmas sales, including a pack of vintage-inspired october afternoon "holiday style miscellany" and these fabulous dimensional poinsettias from irene's garden; and of course when you have *NEW* stuff it's the first thing you want to use, right?! since kirsty's sketch gave me the perfect "road map" to know where each element should go, this was a super-fast card to make!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I found this cute little snowman shaker sticker in the after-Christmas-bargain-bin & thought it was a perfect element for this week's sketch. I used colors from the sticker to inspire my card (this is a great sketch for scraps) & added an EAD Designs rub-on sentiment and wrap of red baker's twine to complete the design."

We hope that we've inspired you to get sketchy with it this week, but if you're still "on the fence" we should mention that the very generous Kirsty is offering a FIFTEEN DOLLAR GIFT CERTIFICATE to the Pixie Dust Paperie Shop to one lucky randomly selected card maker who links up with us this time. You may enter as many times as you'd like, but each card must be newly made and use the sketch!

Remember, you have almost two weeks ... until Wednesday, January 25th at 6pm EST ... to upload your sketch cards ... and use keyword JB12:02 if you upload to our Jingle Belles Flickr Gallery (or any other gallery).

it's a wrap!

2012-01-12T05:00:00.000-05:00

talk about a bunch of folks who really know how to start the year off right, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! if the marvelous designs we saw during the last two weeks are any indication, it seems that 2012 is going to be your most creative year yet!!! here are a couple of cards we thought interpreted the NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT(S) prompt in especially clever ways:

leslie of the crooked stamper

upheld her new year's resolution to "mix things up" with a non-traditional card in which a giftwrap background, one die cut, one stamp, and some gorgeous bling combined to knock our socks off!

debbie of debbie's dash of this and that

enhanced the perfect presenty patterned paper with ribbon, florals, bling and ink... that all add up to one elegant masterpiece of a holiday greeting!

deb hickman of a world of imagination

created a card in which any ONE of the brilliant elements--clever easel design, ruffly layered tree, or the fabulous 3D presents--would have wowed us; taken all together they're a show-stopper!

now you know that we consider "the prize" for playing along at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to be a stress-free december, but every once in a while, we like give away a few goodies, too! sometimes we tell you in advance... sometimes it's a little surprise... like this:

mme 6x6 paper pad, making memories rub-ons, offray ribbon flowers, recollections stickers... and more!

so which of our lovely cardmakers is going to get these fun holiday-themed products?

according to random.org the lucky number is...

46!!!

which means that

♥♥♥LISA V♥♥♥

is our winner!

congratulations, lisa! please email us at jinglebellesrock @ hotmail [dot] com to claim your prize!!!

we love seeing EVERY SINGLE CARD you guys make! each one is clever, beautiful, and inspiring in its own way... much like our lovely belles, eh?! do give yourself the treat of scrolling down and visiting the NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT(S) gallery. then c'mon back, because we've got another fabulous prompt... and possibly a lovely SPONSOR... (who can say??!) coming up at midnight!!! ♥

MORE time like the presents!

2012-01-06T00:05:00.000-05:00

just a reminder that this year we're posting our creative prompts every OTHER friday, so if you'd like to get in on the fun with our current theme, NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT(S), you still have until next wednesday evening! please scroll down to see the original post, ogle the gorgeous cards made by our lovely guest stars, and link up your own creations!

since stef and i (lauren) need to finish up the year with around fifty cards each, our plan is to make two cards for each prompt. sometimes they'll be variations on the same theme, sometimes they'll each go off in a completely different direction. we won't always post them here in the "off weeks" but sometimes we will, and this is one of those times! :)

stef's OTHER card

stef says, "This was my first attempt at origami wrapping paper folding.

The words on the silver paper didn't quite show like I'd hoped, but I still love the

soft muted effect. A few punched holly leaves, silver *berries*,

a wrap of silver cord, and an EAD Rub-on Sentiment finish the design."

lauren's OTHER card

lauren says, "i almost always have a couple of totally conflicting ideas for any prompt and often my biggest problem deciding which to use... which is one of the reasons i'm excited about getting TWO shots at each one this year! you can see i went in a completely different direction with this card, and in my collage i've included some chipboard presents in addition to MORE giftwrap usage in the form of that beautiful holly leaf background paper. by the way, the silver "jingle bells" were cut using a memory box die that i predict you'll be seeing A LOT OF this year--the lovely miss lorraine gave one to both stef and me for christmas, and we are IN LOVE with them, for obvious reasons! (thank you, lorraine!!!♥)"

if you have a little free time, why not sit down now and make your own version of a NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT(S) card?! if you believe you *don't* have time to make holiday cards right now, let me ask you this: will you have MORE or LESS TIME in december??! ...just askin'... (come & play!) :) :) :)

No Time Like the Present(s)

2011-12-30T00:01:00.001-05:00

I know, i know, we said we'd be kicking off the "new" series of JINGLE BELLES themes on January first, but we were so excited to have not only a fantastic debut prompt, but also ♥FOUR♥ (four!!!) lovely guest stars coming along to help us kick of the new year, so we just could not wait until Sunday! So let's get rolling shall we?

Can you a guess your assignment, based on the title of this post? Of course, it's a pretty good reflection of our impatience to start making next year's holiday cards... but as a matter of fact, the brief for this first card of 2012 is in there too:

"NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT(S)"

Make a holiday card that incorporates GIFT WRAP:
as a background, as an accent, or using motifs cut from your favorite wrapping paper

Make a holiday card with an image of present(s) on it!

We are pleased and proud to introduce our cohorts for this celebratory new year's post, although if you followed along last year, none of these names will be new to you. Yep, it's true, if you stick around long enough, even if you don't suggest a theme, eventually we are going to draft you to participate, anyway! Consider yourselves warned! :) Now, meet our lovely guest stars:

Electra of Wishin' I Knew How To Blog

made this gloriously sparkly and infinitely appealing confection of a present-shaped card!

Electra's favorite card from last year was made for the It Came Upon a Midnight Clear prompt, and surprised her by the fact that it convinced her she (apparently) likes PINK! (who knew?!) To us, however, it just confirms quite CLEARLY (ok, sorry!) that she can rock ANY challenge with which she is confronted! Electra once, "...accidentally asked the manager of a cheese shop to marry me because his cheese was so good. It was VERY good. And he said No." We cannot help but feel that whilst his cheese may have been exemplary, his judgement was poor, Miss Electra!!! ♥

Lisa J. of Stamping, Crafting, and Snow, Oh My!

stamped and colored, embossed and embellished, until this lovely card was just right!

Lisa is a design team member at The Friday Mash-Up. Her favorite card from last year was made using the Holiday Fall to Layout from our team-up with the Clean and Simple Stamping Blog. She loves--and so, emphatically, do we!!!--how fun this card turned out, especially since she wasn't too sure about the circles when she first saw the challenge! :) Lisa's Christmas card-making is just the tip of the creative iceberg; as she says, "My family and I love Christmas! We go all out decorating our yard for Christmas and have often been called "The Griswolds", after the crazy family in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation movie. We take it as a compliment and come January 2012, we'll be working on new ideas for our Christmas 2012 display!" We seriously cannot wait to see that, Miss Lisa, and hope you'll share photos with us JINGLE BELLES next November!

Lisa H. of Recklinghausen Musings

tackled the two aspects of this prompt, by making BOTH of the gorgeous cards you see above!

Lisa is a Master Forger at Counterfeit Kit Challenge and co-runs the scrapbook challenge blog, Whimsical Musings. Her favorite card from last year was in response to our prompt Shape Up for the Holidays, and it is hard to argue with her choice of that gorgeous present-laden sleigh! Lisa says she feels, "...a bit of a fraud to be guest designing over here, as I'm not really a card maker, I scrapbook! I joined in with the Jingle Belles fun last January and got totally hooked!" Without wishing to contradict our lovely friend we have to disagree: after finishing 60 gorgeous Christmas greeting, Miss Lisa, you can officially call yourself a CARD MAKER, too!!! :)

Lorraine of Paper Vernissage

loves to repurpose items into her cards and crafts, so this first challenge of 2012 was right up her alley, as you can see from this fabulous and glimmering card!

Lorraine's favorite card from last year was made for a prompt near and dear to our hearts, I'm Dreaming of a Pink Christmas... and a Cure; and makes us swoon just as much now as when we first saw it in October. Lorraine started stamping, "...when my daughter was in 3rd Grade - she's 28 now - and we used a toaster to do heat embossing on a Girl Scout project which worked quite fine until someone dropped their project into the toaster!" We not only admire the commitment to the next generation of papercrafters, we marvel at your ingenuity, Miss Lorraine!

Stephanie of Ingenious Inkling
has absolutely ALWAYS got a new idea, sketch, tutorial, or stamp to try out, and the results never, ever, disappoint, do they?!

Stef's favorite card from last year was made for our Shape Up prompt, and I think you'll agree it's a STAR, in every sense of the word! With regard to this current masterpiece Stef says, "I always buy my holiday wrapping paper at the after-holiday sales ... and I always look for papers that will work throughout the year like this metallic two-sided (teal & silver) paper. I thought it would be fun to see if I could create something using origami, so I found this Wreath Tutorial and started folding. The fold is very quick & easy and would make fun ornaments too. I attached it to a silver metallic card base (framed by more wrapping paper) and added a grey EAD Designs rub-on sentiment." Miss Stephanie is as committed to flossing as crafting, "...I own at least 10 containers of dental floss (Glide only please) and have them tucked away in my car, purse, desk, gym bag ... pretty much anywhere I might feel the need to floss."

finally, here's my own card,
Lauren of ...all the GOOD blog names were taken...
which uses the square sketch option of Mojo Monday 221, and incorporates several different scraps of gift wrap (the gold flourish background & fussy-cut poinsettia), plus a bonus item that illustrates a quirky "fun fact" about me: if I see something that'd be nice on a card, I retrieve it regardless of circumstance; this pretty ruffled holly tissue paper was literally grabbed out of the trash at my brother's house on Christmas Day! :)

In case you're wondering, I had quite a few "favorite" cards last year, and firmly believe that the reason is, I only had to make one per week and never hit the creative wall that mass-producing provokes in me. Perhaps the card of which I am proudest was from the prompt we called Cardstock Christmas... because giving up patterned paper is a HUGE challenge for me!!!

And now it's time to see what you will do for NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT(S)! Remember, we'll be posting prompts every other week this year, so you'll have nearly two weeks to participate... and of course you can make and submit as many new holiday cards as you like, as long as they fit the prompt! Link up here by 6pm EST, Wednesday, January 11th. Keyword for galleries or our flickr group is JB12-01.

Have fun, JINGLE BELLES, and may we be amongst the first to wish you a very Happy New Year! ♥♥♥

'twas the week before new year...

2011-12-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

...and all through the ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ house, stephanie and lauren were getting pretty excited about an imminent second year of holiday creativity, friendship and fun!

2011 was awesome, especially the part where we had nearly *FIFTY* cards completed on november 30th, and were able not just to take december back, but actually take december OFF! we spent the holiday season doing holiday things instead of frantically mass-producing festive greetings, and it was FABULOUS! :)

if you played along with us this year, then you know exactly what we mean, and we hope you'll be inspired to come back on january 1st and help us kick the whole thing off again! if you've just discovered us, we hope to see you next week, so you can get in on the action: trust us, this whole "spread the work throughout the year" lark has HUGE holiday benefits; plus it's just a whole lotta fun, too!!!

this time, we're going to try something slightly different: we'll be posting our new prompts every other week! we'll still start early on fridays, and wrap up on wednesday evenings, but we'll be giving you TWO weeks to make and link up your cards for each theme. we hope this will give everyone a little more time to create, and thus a better chance to participate! on the other hand, it means we'll be only be posting *24* creative ideas to inspire you (as opposed to 48 this year) so if you need to produce 50+ cards in total, you'll want to be making more than one for each prompt. (lauren's note: i still plan to make one card per week, and may post both here... or sometimes just do a "follow up" on my own blog.)

once again, we'd like to remind you that we think of this as a group project, and so we LOVE including as many of our fellow belles as possible, in as many ways as possible! so of course we welcome your ideas, your sketches, and your inspirations! you can email us anytime at jinglebellesrock @ hotmail [dot] com. many of our favorite prompts last year were suggested by readers, and here's a little secret: we used nearly ALL of the wonderful ideas your fellow belles dreamed up!!! even if you wouldn't like to set one of the prompts, we'd love to have you as a "lovely guest star"-- just write in and we'll fix you up with a date and an "assignment"! we’ll be starting the festivities with a few “regulars” from last year whom we’ve invited to make cards for the debut prompt!

the most important thing is to make this work for you, and--especially--to make it fun! the best thing we learned in 2011 was that the more friends we have with us, the more likely that is to happen, so we hope ♥YOU♥ will join us!

xoxoxo
stephanie & lauren

new look!

2011-12-23T19:46:00.000-05:00

hello lovely belles, just popping in to do a little "makeover" on the blog, and put up some brand spankin' new badges! ♥

PS: our new header and badges were made in photoshop using paper, brushes and elements from anna aspnes' gorgeous artplay palette: retro holiday, from o'scraps; the fonts are deftone stylus, bohemian typewriter and impact--all free from dafont.com; and the sparkliness is thanks to flergs' over the rainbow glitter layer style from scrapbookgraphics, and implemented courtesy of this great tutorial!

wrapping it up!

2011-12-02T00:01:00.006-05:00

can you believe it's december already ♥JINGLE BELLES♥? this year seemed to go by extra quickly, thus proving the old adage "time flies when you're having fun"! we certainly had a blast making our own cards each week, and even more fun seeing yours! of course it's very exciting to think that we each have nearly 50 cards ready to be signed and sent, but don't worry if you are not quite done yet, there's still plenty of time to finish up before the big day!

we won't have another prompt for you until we being our 2012 festivities on new year's day, but we thought you might like to continue cheering each other on during december, so feel free to link up the rest of the holiday cards you make, we'd love to see them! and who knows, we might sneak in a few more ourselves! :)

in the meantime, we offer yet another round of hearty ♥THANK YOUS♥ to all of our wonderfully generous sponsors, our lovely and talented guest stars, and to all of the amazing cardmakers who played along with us throughout the year! to every single one of you we say,

♥YOU ROCK, JINGLE BELLES!!!♥

talk about eye candy!!!

2011-12-01T05:29:00.009-05:00

what a wonderful week of tasty treats it was around here ♥JINGLE BELLES♥!!! we are just glad that there were no calories in all of the deliciousness you sent our way, or we'd be piling on the holiday pounds already!

here are a few cards that especially tickled our sweet tooth this week:

gina of tyggereye art

made two super-sweet and totally festive cards using some digital products, some holiday supplies, and a bit of her regular stash

mel x of mel's crafty delights

embellished one adorable stamp, proving that-- as in cooking--you don't need a lot of ingredients if you've got exactly the right ones!

pernilla of hellstrom

used the perfect patterned papers and stamps to

fashion a candy house that is far too beautiful to eat!

i'm sure you're as anxious as we are to find out which ♥JINGLE BELLE♥ will get to go wild with a $15 voucher in the very awesome ROGUE REDHEAD shop! but first please join me again in thanking the very fun and very talented shar, the lovely lady behind rogue redhead designs, for coming along to play--and so generously sponsor--our last prompt of 2011, it was a TREAT indeed to work with her!

now without further ado, the winning number as chosen by random.org is

NUMBER *9*

which means that

LAWREN F.

is our lucky lady!!!

LAWREN, please email us at jinglebellesrock @ hotmail (dot) com to claim your prize!

do take a few moments to scroll down and visit the CANDY KISSES gallery when you get a chance. i know we said so every single week, but that's because it is A FACT: we spent this entire year marveling at your cleverness, your skill and your unflagging creativity; what a treat to be surrounded by a group of such supremely talented card-makers! of course, the very best gift of all this year was watching you all of you lovely ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ support and encourage each other as much as you did us! we could not be more pleased or proud to have been a part of that, and we cannot thank you enough!

we're already busy thinking up new ideas with which to inspire you in 2012, and we hope to see you--and your card-making resolutions--bright and early on new year's day! in the meantime, we wish you a wonderful, calm, and stress-free december, and the happiest of holiday seasons! you've earned it, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥!!!

xoxoxo

lauren and stephanie

♥♥♥

Candy Kisses

2011-11-25T00:01:00.015-05:00

Since most of us in the United States stuffed ourselves with a Thanksgiving meal yesterday, we thought for our final Jingle Belles prompt of the year we would celebrate food.

The theme for this week's prompt is Candy Kisses ... We're asking you to create a card featuring holiday food, drink or candy ... maybe for you it's gingerbread ... candy canes ... or cookies & hot cocoa ... whatever foods mean Christmas for you.

And we are so excited to have Rogue Redhead Designs sponsoring our prompt this week. They provided both Lauren & me with their new Candy Kisses stamp set to use for our cards ...

and they will be providing one lucky winner with a $15 gift certificate to use at their store. RRD is celebrating its first anniversary with several stamp specials through the end of the year including fabulous bundled savings.

The Rogue Redhead behind Rogue Redhead Designs is the talented Shar of Ill Tempered Ink.

Shar says, "My addiction to paper crafting and stamping became passion, and I knew I would someday make my own stamps. Every so often people ask me about the name I chose for the company. The "redhead: part is obvious once you meet me. The "rogue" portion of the name comes from me not being great with rules. Even when I learn a new technique I tend to warp it ever so slightly in my execution. That works great for art (sometimes) but you probably don't want to test any of my baking :^)"

Shar shared several fabulous cards with us for this week's prompt:

Shar's first card combines the sassy lass from Milliner Misses

all decked out for the holidays with a candy kiss

on the brim of her hat and sentiment from

Candy Kisses.

Shar turned these yummy cupcakes from

Candy Kisses into a

delicious holiday wreath ... love those red cherries on top.

Here's what Lauren & I created with our fun Rogue Redhead Designs stamps.

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i've been inspired all year long by the cards made by our lovely belles--and there have been some truly ♥AWESOME♥ takes on the snowglobe! when i saw rogue redhead's gorgeous snow people, trees & snow background stamps, i knew it was my turn. i've done an old school shaker card (i still LOVE 'em!) using this template. since i'm not a fabulous colorer, i tend to paper piece; i stamp my images in permanent ink on scraps of clear label from the office supply store and then adhere them to my patterned papers before cutting. i did actually *EMBOSS* the snow background, however, and i'm quite proud of that!" :)

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "I went straight to the candy & cupcakes in Candy Kisses ...

I made a sweet little card to send to a girlfriend who loves holiday

sweets as much as I do (bring on the dark chocolate salted caramels).

The layout is this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch."

So break out those calorie-free food, drink & candy images and create a yummy holiday card design. Upload your card by 6pm EST on Wednesday, November 30th using keyword JB48 in galleries including the Jingle Belles Flickr Gallery.

We will choose one random winner for the $15 gift certificate to Rogue Redhead Designs.

And as Lauren mentioned, Jingle Belles will be back in 2012 ... to once again take back December one holiday card at a time.

festival of lights

2011-11-24T05:26:00.009-05:00

good morning, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! we'd like to wish a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all of our friends in the USA; meanwhile, we hope that even if it's not a holiday where you are, that your thursday will be especially pleasant!

we spent a lovely week watching all of your beautiful "non christmassy" cards roll in! here are three that particularly took our fancy:

jan of huh... so this is a blog

watercolored sky, artfully tore paper, and affixed tiny diamond stars, to give her lovely stamped figure a snowscape from which to enchant us!

nicki of cards with little ted

took C&S to a whole new level with a stark white background, a dramatically inky technique, and just enough glitter to make us say, "oooooooooh!"

brenda of butler's abroad

proved that one perfect stamp is all you need to make a gorgeous card... provided you also have an artist's eye and amazing color sense!

our last JINGLE BELLES prompt of 2011 debuts at midnight, and it's an especially sweet one--if we do say so ourselves! hope to see you then! :)

by the way, to all those of you who've been kind enough to ask: uh huh, we are going to do this again next year! we're gonna change it up a bit, and try some new things; whilst keeping all our favorite bits from this year. but yes,

JINGLE BELLES

will ROCK ON

in 2012!!!

♥♥♥

The Hanukkah Song

2011-11-18T00:01:00.011-05:00

hello again, dear ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! can you believe that we're already onto the 47th of our 48 card-making weeks?! if you've been with us since the beginning, like stef and myself you're probably starting to look forward to a gloriously stress-free december! if you've only joined us recently, well done-- you're definitely ahead of the game! even if you've only just started to think about holiday cards: don't worry, it's not even thanksgiving yet! whether this is your 47th card or your first, just stop for a moment right now and take a bow! because handmade holidays are a BIG ACHIEVEMENT, whether you make every single card or just a select few for your deearest friends! there is absolutely *NO* wrong way to do this, we assure you!!!

since we are getting closer to both the festive season and our own finale for the year, this seems like a good time to make sure we're including EVERYONE who is special to us... whatever occasion or holiday in which they partake! so this week we're asking you to make a card for your friends or family who don't necessarily celebrate christmas. this could take the form of one of the other winter holidays: hanukkah, kwanzaa, new year and solstice spring to mind; or you could go totally non-denominational with a general winter-themed card. there are lots of ways to go, and we feel confident that you will surprise and delight us with ideas we haven't even imagined yet, because you always, ALWAYS do! ♥

in the meantime here's what we did:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i realize i tend to be known more for pink-n-sparkly, but i'm a pretty big fan of blue-n-sparkly cards, too... and hanukkah is sort of the ultimate occasion for that! i've celebrated it here with a transparency-base "sideways tall card", some glossy blue starry paper, two different types of silver letters, and a fun, funky menorah that just wants to jump right off the page! bring on the festival of lights!!!"

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "My go-to theme for the cards I design for my "non-Christmas-celebrating" friends is peace ... a theme I believe everyone can embrace. I usually pair one of my many peace sentiments with snow. For this card I used a favorite John Lennon quote with a pre-made dimensional glitter tag I found in the gift wrapping section at Michael's (cheaper than *official* card embellishments). The layout is the November Sketch for You to Try."

and now it's time to see what you will do with this non-christmassy prompt! remember any other winter holiday is fair game: hanukkah, kwanzaa, the solstice, the new year; OR even a general wintery themed wish of "peace", a "thinking of you" card, or heck a pretty "thank you" note will do. put on your thinking caps and link up your best card creations by 6pm (EST) next wednesday, november 23rd! keyword for galleries and our jingle belles flickr group is JB47.

Stuck On You

2011-11-17T00:11:00.002-05:00

We really enjoyed all of the sticker creativity this week ... we particularly loved some *vintage* stickers finally getting some love ... we don't even want to admit how old some of our sticker collection might be.

A HUGE thank you to our fabulous guest stars Designer Team Members Liz & Amy from E.A.D. Designs and to the generous folks at E.A.D. Designs who sponsored this week's prompt.

Here are a few fabulous jingle belles we thought interpreted this week's prompt in particularly ingenious ways:

Sue of Random on Purpose

showed us that you don't need holiday stickers to make a fantastic holiday card ... she combined fun alphabet letters with holiday colors to her Chi-Chi's hat for this super-cute card.

Kirsty from Handmade Little Things

found creative ways to incorporate lots of stickers

into her fabulous holiday design ...

who knew Santa's belt could become a scalloped embellishment??

Marie of ANOTHER card-making blog?

recycled a sticker she cut from an envelope & saved

(yes, you know you've done it ... or at least thought about it)

into this adorable little holiday card.

and ... drum roll please ... our random number generator picked:

#19 - LindaB of Hands to Work ... Hearts to Love

to win our prize this week ... $25 Gift Certificate to E.A.D. Designs ... e-mail us and we'll get your gift sent on its day ... can't wait to see the fun things you create with all of those awesome stickerz.

You know the drill ... make sure you stop by the fabulous cards in the gallery & leave a little jingle belles love (because seriously ... who couldn't use a few more kinds words in their life) ... and then check back at midnight for our 47th (can you believe it) holiday card prompt.

Stick-y and Sweet

2011-11-11T00:01:00.016-05:00

We're going sticker-crazy at jingle belles ... this week's prompt is to use at least one (or perhaps many more than one) sticker on your card.

And to help us with this stick-y and sweet theme is one of our favorite sticker companies ... E.A.D. Designs.

E.A.D DESIGNS is a family owned and operated business. Emily Nelson (owner) started E.A.D DESIGNS in 2002, and in a few short years has grown into one of the largest retailers/wholesalers for Vinyl Lettering and Wall Art. They started their scrapbooking rub-on line in 2009 and in 2010 started offering their amazing Stickerz.

Not only did they provide Lauren & me with fabulous stickerz to design with this week (thank you very much), they are also providing one lucky participant in this week's prompt with a $25 Gift Certificate to their store (trust me, that will buy a whole slew of stickerz).

And ... we're also thrilled to have several talented members of the Design Team at E.A.D. Designs join us this week.

Liz of Liz's Paper Loft shares that she is married to a man that understands my need to be creative, and she has two grown daughters. She works part-time for a real estate company to support her *habit* ... a love for paper and all things crafty.

Liz's Card

Liz says, "The torn paper landscape is perfect for these

cute little Christmas Penguins stickerz."

Amy Tsuruta of Tsuruta Designs shares that she lives in the beautiful state of Washington with her two fabulous kids & is engaged to the best guy ever! Her dream job would be to craft all day (wouldn't we all love that luxury). Amy also hosts the fabulous Flashback Friday Blog where we get to revisit our past creations (and be grateful for how far we've come).

Amy's Card

Amy says, "I combined stickers from three sets ~ Frames Rub-ons,

Woodland Friends Stickerz & Christmas Sentiments ~ for this fun holiday card design."

And here's what we made with our E.A.D. Designs Stickerz:

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "For my card, I combined clear stickerz from Jolly Stockings and Christmas Words with perfectly coordinated papers from Crate Paper's Snow Day Collection (while I prefer clear ... stickerz also come in white if you don't want the background color to show through). The sketch is from this week's Christmas Card Challenge ... so quick, easy & fun ... and did I mention ... stickerz are repositionable ... if you get things a little crooked, just lift it up & try again with no tearing."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "for me, the only hard part of this assignment was choosing from the huge--and totally FABULOUS--selection at E.A.D. Designs! once i settled on deck the halls and retro christmas clear "stickerz" sheets, my work was pretty much done. all i had to do was choose a few coordinating patterned papers, layer my elements together and ♥VOILA♥ a card that's merry and bright in every sense! oh and did i mention i still have enough stickerz left for AT LEAST 3 or 4 more cards??! niiiiiiiiiiice!"

We know you've got some stickers somewhere in your crafting stash ... pull them out and show us your holiday sticker creativity. And if you use E.A.D. DesignsStickerz for your card, remember to also link your card up at their monthly customer showcase for a chance to win even more goodies.

Whatever you decide, link it up by 6pm (EST) next Wednesday night, November 16th. Keyword for galleries or the flickr group is JB46 ... we can't wait to see your sticker magic.

CLEARLY awesome!

2011-11-10T05:24:00.011-05:00

it must be said, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥, that we secretly thought this week's prompt, with its emphasis on all things transparent, translucent, and see-through, was one of the technically toughest we've set all year. and yet... CLEARLY you had no trouble at all rising to the occasion with amazingly impressive holiday cards!

here are a few clever cards we particularly loved this week:

Heather D. of Heather's Coffee Break

created a fabulous landscape seen through an acetate window frosted with snow and ice!

Jami of Stamp Happy with Jami

printed her sentiment on vellum edged with tiny, glimmery, totally glamorous glass beads!

Carissa of Creative Expressions

stamped and colored an adorable snowman... then built a real snowglobe around him!

if you've not yet scrolled down and perused the *midnight CLEAR* gallery, may we be so bold as to suggest that as your next stop? then, after you've basked in the glory of your fellow BELLES' infinite creativity, c'mon back here because we've got a brand new prompt and a lovely sponsor... who might well be offering a bit of a prize this week... though of course i couldn't possibly SAY SO before the official start at midnight!!! :)

it came upon a midnight CLEAR

2011-11-04T00:03:00.009-04:00

have you already guessed this week's theme, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥? has the emphasis of the word "CLEAR" given it away entirely?

ok, then, you've got us: this week we're asking you to make a holiday card that contains at least one see-through element, whether that be glass, a transparency, some vellum, acetate or "ghost" shapes, clear stickers, lucite buttons, shrink plastic... whatever you like... if you can see through it (& figure out how to attach it!) put it on there and link it up!

here's what we did:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i love making cards out of transparencies! probably because i love *LAYERS* so much, and the clear base gives you sooooo many possibilities on that score: you can use both the inside AND the outside in your design! plus the "wow factor" is kind of hard to beat, isn't it?! in addition to a gold snowflake transparency card base, i've placed holiday-themed vellum inside the card, and finished off with a few stickers, a couple of rub-ons, and a fancy bling word. i have to say i am pleased with this one, and can only tell you that if you like it A BIT in the photo... it's actually even cooler in real life!"

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "Somehow I managed to temporarily *misplace* my box of transparencies during a recent studio reorganization, so as I was searching for them, I also looked for any other clear items I could incorporate into this week's prompt ... I finally settled on some acetate packaging that formerly held a bunch of tiny roses.

I cut the *bubble* away from the packaging & punched a hole in the front of a folded piece of white cardstock, so I could fill my snow globe shaker with EAD Designs Stickerz and some clear bead-like shapes (the kind you find in the floral section to fill vases). Once I had that part finished, I created the front of my card (using this week's Cardabilities sketch) and then punched a hole through that, so I could slip in my shaker. I finished with an EAD Designs rub-on sentiment, a felt snowflake & gem, and a base for my shaker snow globe. Papers are Echo Park Holly Jolly."

so *CLEARLY* now it's time to see what you will do: go all out with full-on see through card? or perhaps more sensibly make a regular card with a bit of patterned transparency or vellum on top? or even just sneak in a couple of plastic or acetate items?! remember you can use inkjet transparency sheets from the office supply store to make any of your digital files into transparent elements!!! whatever you decide, link it up by 6pm (EST) next wednesday night, november 9th!!! keyword for galleries or the flickr group is JB45. we can't wait to see (thorugh) your cards! ♥

Creature Feature

2011-11-03T03:06:00.000-04:00

We love how everyone embraced their favorite creatures this week ... we had dogs, bears, reindeer, birds, cats, hedgehogs, mice and even a few monstahs ... what fun!

Here are a few that fantastic creatures that caught our eye ...

Y Yam

of Do More with Less

paper pieced this cute little holiday penguin ...

what a great color combination and

fabulous clean & simple design.

WendyMade

of WendyMade and all things crafty

colored this adorable Christmas Bat ... look at that fun little smile ...

love the holiday charm too.

Monica

of La Papera Gialla

decked out her adorable little hedgehog for Christmas...

love those glittery holiday decorations.

So take some time to skip through the Creature gallery and admire all of the fantastic holiday designs ... we'll be back at midnight with another fun holiday card prompt.

not a CREATURE was stirring!

2011-10-28T00:02:00.009-04:00

When Lauren & I first starting brainstorming ideas for Jingle Belles last year, one of the first prompt ideas that came up in our discussion was creatures ... which pretty much explains a lot about the two of us :)

We have been waiting all year for October ... the month that celebrates creatures, costumes & characters ... to schedule this prompt. Your creature might be an animal ... a mouse ... a bird ... a robot ... elves ... snow-persons ... or yes, even a monstah ... just have fun with it ... you can see we did.

Lauren's card

Lauren says, "those of you who knew me before jingle belles will realize i've been waiting all year for an excuse to sneak in one of my (in)famous MONSTA cards!!! i'm not sure how it started, but a couple of years ago i bought a roll of paperchase giftwrap in the (now sadly discontinued) "mini mutant" pattern, and for some reason decided the little aliens would be PERFECT for christmas cards! i stand by that decision, actually: these things absolutely always make me laugh and i've not yet given or shown one to anybody who didn't agree! i've set a number of different monstas in all kinds of holiday situations; i nearly always do the sentiment or joke in dymo labels, and there is often a bit of lovingly torn classic "love elsie" paper in the design as well. this little green guy... who's just looking for a little christmas snack... might be my favorite!" :)

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "I decided to go with a dual-creature card because my penguin looked like he needed a friend. I combined papers & stickers from Echo Park's Everybody Loves Christmas Collection together with an EAD Designs Stickerz sentiment and a wrap of red sparkle ribbon using October's Sketch for You to Try."

So break out those critters and creatures and show us your fun holiday card design ... we can't wait to see what you create. Link up here by 6pm (EST) next Wednesday, November 2nd. Keyword for galleries & the Jingle Belles Flickr Group is JB44.

Comfy Cushy Christmas

2011-10-27T05:01:00.000-04:00

We were so thrilled to have the talented Noelle as our lovely guest star this week. We loved seeing all of the different *soft* ideas that were translated into lovely holiday cards.

Here are a few that Noelle thought did a particularly fabulous job of translating the prompt.

Lorraine of Paper Vernissage

A beautiful, CREATIVE soft card made with dryer lint and an old tag?? You GO girl!! And then you have this lovely card, that if I had not read your post, I would have never known that precious hat and scarf were recycled. :)

Lisa H. of Recklinghausen Musings

I love this card on so many levels.... Firstly, it's just plain clever with the removable ornament, but then, the color combo blows my socks off! Beautifully rustic, homey & WONDERFUL! Love the SOFT felt, ribbon, and twine!

Amanda Profumo of Crafty Paper Girl

The soft felt tree, the soft color, the sparkle, and that darling banner across the center of the tree just make it So soft and pretty. This card evokes a soft feeling, love that!

Make sure you check out all of the comfy cushy soft goodness in the jingle belles gallery this week ... and join us at midnight for the next round of holiday card fun.

♥SOFTLY♥ Falling Snow

2011-10-21T00:02:00.022-04:00

As you know, there is nothing we ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ enjoy more than having a lovely guest star come along with a fabulous prompt and a jaw-dropping card to go with it. this week we're thrilled to welcome the very sweet and VERY talented Noelle McAdams, so let's hear what she has in store for us:

Hi! My name is Noelle & I am a Christmas junkie. No seriously, I am CRAZY about this joyous season & that may have something to do with the fact that my birthday is on Christmas Day. When I’m not caring for my 3 sons, my hubby, or our Pomeranian; you’ll usually find me decorating, baking, and oh yes, CRAFTING! I have a personal blog & I am also on the design team at the ColourQ blog as a scrapper. Sometimes, I also do freelance work for craft manufacturing companies.

When I think of winter, I think of: softly falling snow, snuggly sweaters and socks, mittens, down parkas, warm, soft cookies & coziness in general. So, that was my jumping off point for this idea of making a SOFT Christmas card/project. I recently learned how to do wool felting & I knew that was something I wanted to incorporate, as well as flocking, ribbon, & stitching. But, some other ideas of SOFT items you could use on your projects this week are: batting, velvet, fibers, denim, thick layers of embossing powder, soft silk flowers and snowflakes, pillow stickers & upholstered brads! Really, anything your brain can come up with that is SOFT, it doesn’t have to be only papercrafting products that you use, either! I encourage you to pull out those quilting, knitting, sewing, & flocking skills!

And now, let's take a look at how we interpreted the "SOFT" theme:

Noelle's Card and Felted Giftcard Holder

Noelle says, "This project started out with the felt snowflake medallions that you see on the giftcard holder and on the card. I die cut the green scalloped circles from a wool felt sheet. The snowflakes were felted on freeform using wool roving. I have more details and links to felting tutorials on my blog! Wool felting is very simple & I have really enjoyed adding this technique to my crafting skills. The pouch is also felted, instead of being stitched closed.

I used some craft felt as my base mat for the card and stitched the cardstock card front to it in the four corners. I gathered some ribbon with a running stitch & adhered that down, too. Had to add some flocking to sweet Santa & a tassel made from fibers to my giftcard. I’d LOVE to see how SOFT you get with your projects this week! Thanks for playing this prompt!"

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "When we scheduled this prompt I happened to mention to Stef that I wassad having used my idea for paper-piecing a sweet reindeer in felt for the "Baby It's Cold Outside" prompt, and thus couldn't use it again. To which my ever sensible colleague immediately replied, "OF COURSE you can use it again!!! Why on Earth NOT??!" Once she said that I realized she's right--a good idea is always open to more than one interpretation and not only is it OK to try out variations on a theme, it's fun, and a great time-saver! In the meantime I'd bought this adorable Sizzix Reindeer die, which made it extremely easy to cut all the parts I needed from soft cotton quilting fabric backed with index stock. To accentuate the "SOFT" theme i added a jaunty tulle scarf, felt snowflakes, and set the whole thing in a landscape of soft pink fabric and paper!"

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "My card started with pre-made glittered felt embellishment stickers from Jolee's boutique (hey, what can I say ... 20% off coupon + sale) that incorporated both the soft & snow elements of the prompt using this week's CPS Sketch. I die-cut my large snowflake embellishment from stiffened white glitter craft felt (I've found the stiffened felt cuts easier), that was then layered with a blue paper-punched snowflake & silver glitter sticker."

And now it's time to see how ♥YOU♥ will be inspired by the "SOFTLY falling" theme! Pull out some felt, fabric, ribbon, yarn, flowersoft, flocking... or ANYTHING soft and snuggly and get creative! Link up here by 6pm (EST) next Wednesday, October 26th. Keyword for galleries and our Flickr group is JB43.

Fa La La La Fabulous

2011-10-19T23:59:00.003-04:00

Wowza ... 52 awesome caroling cards this week ... each one unique and fabulous. Thanks so much for singing along with us this week.

Here are a few we thought interpreted the Christmas Carol prompt particularly well.

Tracy H from A Hint of Magnolia

made us smile with her Three French Hens singing a Christmas carol at the top of their little birdie lungs ... with a fantastic musical background ... and did you see that perfect bow!

Catherine of Catherine's Craft Corner

created a monochromatic masterpiece that

really captured the peace of a Silent Night.

Pam Sparks of Expressions with Heart

combined lots of creative stamping and perfect embellishments

to bring us O Holy Night.

Make sure you check out all of the awesome cards in the gallery & leave a little jingle belles love ... and join us at midnight for another LOVELY Guest Star & creative holiday card prompt.

A Caroling We Will Go

2011-10-14T00:01:00.001-04:00

For me, one of my favorite things about the holidays is Christmas Music. I always love caroling with a group, especially when there are people who can sing the beautiful harmonies (I'm pretty much strictly a strong alto melody gal) ... and Lauren & I both have extensive holiday music playlists that we thoroughly enjoy ... we actually had a discussion about purchasing a separate Shuffle just to hold our holiday tunes.

While we've certainly used a variety of holiday song titles for prompts this year, this week we're going a little broader ... we're asking you to make a card inspired by any holiday song ... it might be one that evokes childhood memories ... or a more modern tune ... just let us know which holiday song you find inspiring.

Here's what we created this week:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "despite the fact that we've been inspired by song titles all year long, when i sat down to make a specifically "music influenced" card, my mind went totally blank! then i did what i always do when i'm stumped: i went foraging through my stash of vintage stuff. within five minutes i had the sheet music and a plan, within another five i had found the gorgeous victorian postcard on t'internet and printed it out. not long after that, i was done. i love it when a plan comes together!" :)

Stef's Card

Stef says, "When Lauren and I visited The Ink Pad, we picked-up some fabulous Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas papers (one of my favorite holiday tunes). Since the FA-LA-LA-LA-LA paper had a variety of holiday lyrics ... I decided to go with a holiday song mix to inspire my card (lyrics on the paper include We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Silent Night, and Deck the Halls). My main image was inspired by Oh Christmas Tree except I used a Hero Arts Friendly Flag stamp & a bit of masking to create my fun & funky holiday forest. Lastly, my sentiment was inspired by Joy to the World. The layout is this week's Freshly Made Sketch."

So, we're giving you permission to break out that holiday playlist a bit early ... and find some holiday tunes to inspire you. Use keyword JB42 for our Jingle Belles Flickr & other galleries. Make sure you link-up your cards by 6pm (EST) next Wednesday, October 19th.

Can't wait to see what you create.

Pretty in Pink

2011-10-13T05:05:00.001-04:00

give yourselves a big huge round of applause ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and take some extra heart-felt thanks from myself and stephanie! because not only have you helped us raise $75* dollars for the susan g. komen foundation--which is utterly awesome--but also, we think you've done some of your BEST WORK EVER! some folks looooooved the pink and others not so much... but everyone ROCKED this prompt in a big way!

here are a couple of especially creative cards that caught our eye this week:

Susan Flynn of Craftin' Suzie

added the merest hint of pink, as an accent, to her completely glamorous and ethereal white-on-white masterpiece!

Deena of A Deena Card

used multiple shades of pink--plus lots and lots of texture and sparkle--in her clever and classy monochromatic confection!

Ashley N. Newell of Heart Hugs Designs

used pink with lots of other brights in her utterly fresh and appealing holiday card!

in other news, your hostesses (lauren and stef) were hard at work in new york city this week! here we are at our favorite shop, the ink pad, gathering inspiration--and a few new supplies--to better serve you in the weeks to come:

many thanks to anna, michael and jane for their assistance, advice and serious patience during the taking of photos! because it took quite a few shots to get the one above. mostly due to the fact that ONE OF US (the one who's not called stephanie, lol!) nearly always closes her eyes, opens her mouth, or freezes like a reindeer caught in the headlights of santa's sleigh when a camera is produced. or all of the above, as proven in this outtake:

thank you again for jingling along with us in a really good cause this week, we could not be more proud of the results, both aesthetically and financially! tune in at midnight for the new prompt which we hope will put a song in your heart! ♥

*ok, technically it was $72... but we rounded up! :)

i'm dreaming of a ♥PINK♥ christmas (& a CURE!)

2011-10-07T00:01:00.015-04:00

gooooooood morning ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and welcome to the first official post of october, which as you may know is breast cancer awareness month. which is why, in honor of our sisters, our mothers, our daughters and our friends who have bravely battled --or are still coping-- with this disease, we are eschewing the more ordinary christmas colors of red and green this week in favor of PINK in all its glorious hues, shades, tints and tones!

yep, we're asking you to make a holiday card with some pink on it somewhere! don't worry, we'll make it worth your while... because... we'd like this one to be just a little more meaningful... so for every fabulous "pink christmas" card that gets linked up between now and next wednesday night, stephanie and lauren will each donate a dollar to susan g. komen for the cure!!! that's right, $2 a card, and you can enter as many times as you like... but each card has to be newly made, and it has to have some pink on it!

here's what we did:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "it's no secret that i like pink... especially on cards... especially on *CHRISTMAS* cards, so this week was pure joy for me! :) i'm not sure how this card evolved into being french, as well, except that i found the pink eiffel tower fabric paper whilst searching for something else and that sort of set the whole thing off. i love it, though; especially since only the snowflakes and snowflake paper are specifically "holiday" products; everything else was regular stash!"

Stef's Card

Stef says, "I went with the deep vibrant pink of Authentique's Uncommon collection together with a Sketch from the CLASSRoom. I added EAD Stickerz sentiments and gold glittery snowflakes for holiday sparkle."

so now it's time to see what you will do: choose salmon or cerise, blush or fuschia... use the merest accent or a daringly dramatic monotone... keep it elegantly C&S or run to a riot of maximalism... (if you don't think that's a real word, please see lauren's card, above, lol!) but make a new holiday card (or cards, plural!) incorporating pink, and link up before 6pm (EST) next wednesday night, october 12th. keyword for galleries and the flickr group is JB41. and now...

let's make some cards

and

LET'S MAKE SOME MONEY!!!

♥♥♥

peaceful abundance!

2011-10-06T08:55:00.001-04:00

nothing makes ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ happier than seeing a gallery FULL of amazingly inspired-- and inspiring! --cards. this week, for the peace on earth prompt, everyone seemed to be even more than usually creative and skillful... want to see just a few of the many examples which prove it?

hilda of cut-n-craft

assembled this astonishingly lovely collage of ALL NEW ingredients... and then went to town with distressing and inks to make it match her gorgeous vintage image!

lisa j. of stamping, crafting, snow (& moose!) oh my!

used merely three colors, two embossing folders, some metallic ink, a dramatic pop of red... and a BOATLOAD of creativity and skill to make this amazingly serene piece of stamped art!

donna mundinger of popsicle toes

displayed her electronic die-cutting virtuosity with this jaw-droppingly beautiful C&S masterpiece made using ONLY her cricut and two shades of cardstock!!!

as always, we're thrilled to welcome old friends and new, and extend our sincere thanks to everyone who played along this week! *DO* check out the peace on earth gallery for an outstanding amount of inspiration, then c'mon back at midnight for the next prompt!

PEACE on Earth

2011-09-30T00:02:00.007-04:00

One of my favorite themes for holiday cards is Peace. In the bustle and chaos of the holidays, I think it's important to step back from it all and find peace ... both inner peace and world peace.

So our prompt for this week's card is to incorporate a Peace Symbol or the word Peace into your design ... or create a card that evokes Peace for you (snow, forest, etc.).

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "When I saw this "Christmas Peace Sign" t-shirt, I wanted to try and replicate a similar design using rubber stamps. I started by using pencil & a roll of tape to draw a light circle on white cardstock. Next, I gathered-up multiple small snowflake stamps from Hero Arts Holiday Cheer and Snowflakes sets and four colors of Distress Ink. I started with the larger snowflakes and then filled-in with the smaller ones. I finished with a favorite sentiment from CatsLife Press."

Lauren's card

Lauren says, "i started with this beautiful representation of the word "PEACE" from a vintage christmas card... (you can't really tell in the photo, but the gold bits are gilded and the whole thing is beautifully embossed!) ...i cut out the center of the letter "P" to fit in the dove, which i fussy cut from a different vintage card. then i became a little bit stumped because everything i tried to add in the way of embellishments just seemed like too much! eventually, i realized that was a sign i should just keep it simple with a couple of mats and a little decorative stitching."

So this week, find your inner peace, and channel it into a peace-themed design ... can't wait to see what you create. Link-up your cards by 6pm EST on Wednesday, October 5th. Use keyword JB40 if you upload to our Flickr Gallery or other Galleries.

♥SNOW♥ much fun!!!

2011-09-29T05:29:00.008-04:00

WOW!!! what a bumper crop of seriously snowy, clever, and ♥COOL♥ (in every sense, lol!) holiday cards this week! a big thank you to our lovely ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ old and new who rose to the challenge in some particularly creative ways! here are a couple of cards that made our prompt-setter extraordinaire, marie bingaman, particularly happy:

Noelle McAdams of Paper and Ice

Marie says, "Noelle's card is just plain FAB, but there is nothing "plain" about it, to be sure! So much shimmer, and the shape and stamp are gorgeous!"

Julie of Julie's Art, Craft and Life Blog

Marie says, "Julie's card is just so lovely...such a pretty purple snowflake trimmmed in silver...so peaceful, soft and pretty. Did I say pretty more than once?" :)

Lorraine of Paper Vernissage

Marie says, "Lorraine's card is just so darn clever!!! I mean using all those smaller snowflakes to make one large snowflake?? WOW!"

if you have not yet perused the SUZY SNOWFLAKE gallery, may we recommend a bit of a scroll downwards? you might like to take some hot cocoa with you, as there are quiiiiiiiite a few cards this week and absolutely all of them have a delightfully frosty feeling!

once again hearty thanks to our lovely guest star, marie bingaman, for coming along with such a wonderful song to inspire us... a gorgeous card to set us in the right direction... and her enthusiastic presence all week, we could not have done it without her!

we could not have done it without ♥YOU♥ either, dear JINGLE BELLES, so we hope you'll return at midnight when we'll unveil next week's mission, should you choose to accept it! :)

here comes suzy snowflake

2011-09-23T00:05:00.009-04:00

hello and may we be amongst the first to wish a hearty, "happy autumn!" to everyone living in the northern hemisphere... and "happy spring!" to everyone else! :)

this week, the prospect of cooler weather led our lovely guest star, loyal ♥JINGLE BELLE♥ and mega-talented cardmaker marie bingaman to write in and ask if we'd consider building a prompt around, "...the song Suzy Snowflake? It's an oldie, sung by Rosemary Clooney. I do love snowflakes, more so on cards than on the road though!" of course we agree heartily with that thought, and furthermore, we were completely enchanted by this charming song! for the full experience, click the link above to hear ms. clooney's rendition via youtube; in the meantime here are the lyrics:

Here comes Suzy Snowflake

Dressed in a snow-white gown

Tap, tap, tappin' at your windowpane

To tell you she's in town.

Here comes Suzy Snowflake

Soon you will hear her say

Come out ev'ryone and play with me

I haven't long to stay.

If you want to make a snowman

I'll help you make it, one, two, three.

If you want to take a sleigh ride

Whee! The ride's on me.

Here comes Suzy Snowflake

Look at her tumblin' down

Bringing joy to ev'ry girl and boy

Suzy's come to town.

If you want to make a snowman

I'll help you make it, one, two, three

If you want to take a sleigh ride

Whee! The ride's on me.

Here comes Suzy Snowflake

Look at her tumblin' down

Bringing joy to ev'ry girl and boy

Suzy's come to town.

so this week we invite you to make a holiday card that captures any part of suzy snowflake which inspires you: snowflakes, wintery landscapes, snowmen, sledding, sleigh rides... go as wild or as tame as you'd like, just have fun with it!

here's what we did:

Marie's card

Marie says, "Even though the song is called "Suzy Snowflake", this is actually "Lenny" snowflake, lol. I knew right away that I wanted to use one of these glittery snowflake ornaments from the dollar store, and this adorable Lenny image from StampFairy just seemed to fit the bill! Nothing extra special technique-wise on this card, just some good ole' dry embossing, coloring, and Stickles!"

Lauren's card

Lauren says, "i was pleasantly surprised to find a christmas song from the 1950's that i did not know, and it made me think of all the other rosemary clooney songs from that era i already love, especially from the film "white christmas" so i found myself inspired by the "vintage" aspect. i printed the sheet music on some off-white paper and further distressed it for as much authenticity as possible. a google search got me a wide choice for my focal point and i settled on this cool sled image that i cropped into a circle. my "snowfall" is part of a pack of glittery silver snowflakes by k&co interspersed with red heart shaped gems. i love this one, it really captures the feeling i had when i heard the song!"

Stef's Card

Stef says, "I used an all-out snowflake theme for my card. My snowflake ornament image was stamped in Versamark on white glossy cardstock, clear embossed, and then sponged with blue & purple distress inks before adding spritzes of Sparkle Shimmer Spray for all-over sparkle. The sketch is this week's Sassy Lil' Sketches. I finished with a wrap of blue ribbon, SRM Sticker sentiment, and several silver snowflakes with pearls."

and now it's your turn to be inspired in any way, by any feature or aspect of suzy snowflake! link up your wintery masterpieces by 6pm (EST) next wednesday, september 28th. keyword for galleries or our flickr group is JB39. we can't wait to see what you will do!

Dazzling Digital Designs

2011-09-22T00:01:00.001-04:00

It was so fun to see all of the different dazzling digital designs this week ... lots of fabulous holiday cards. A huge THANK YOU to our sponsor Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps and More! for the awesome free digital image & this week's prize package.

Here are a few digital masterpieces we we are digging this week:

Wicked Witch of Wicked Designs

created a unified design by using a digital image for her background & then a larger version for her focal point.

Lisa V of Mimi G. Gallery

used a digital image for the FIRST time ... and rocked it. She added wood grain texture and three layers of color ... what fun.

Fliss of Stampers Chef

used digital stamps, embellishments, papers ... and lots of fabulous detail cutting ... for this winter masterpiece.

And one extra ... this cute & clever card by Electra using this week's Free Digital Image from Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps and More!:

And the winner of this week's prize from Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps and More! ... 5 digital stamps or 4 digital stamps and 1 paper pack.

#25 ~ Frances R of Be Creative, Be You

Frances, please e-mail us, so we can get you information on how to claim your goodies.

Make sure you check back at midnight for another fun prompt with another fantastic lovely guest star.

Happy Hybrid Holidays

2011-09-16T00:01:00.005-04:00

This week at Jingle Belles we're going digital. We'd like you to create a card incorporating at least one digital stamp or element in your card design.

To that end, we've got a fabulous sponsor for this week's prompt, Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps and More! Here are a few words from those lovely ladies:

"Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps And More is proud to sponsor this challenge.

Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps And More, a division of I Did It Creations, was created and is owned by Robyn Weinrib. Robyn offers a wonderful variety of digital stamps and digital papers, designed to meet the needs of all digital paper crafting addicts for every occasion.

At the end of this challenge, Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps And More will be happy to award one randomly selected Jingle Belles card-maker her choice of either 5 digital stamps or 4 digital stamps and 1 paper pack."

That's right--there's a prize! It doesn't get much better than that, right? Well, actually, it does: in addition, Robyn's Fetish is very generously offering all Jingle Belles who'd like it, a free digital stamp of... what else? ...a Christmas Bell (aka Jingle Bell) ...to use on your card this week. All you have to do is e-mail susan_paulson@verizon.net and request your free Jingle Belles Digital Image. We're thrilled they're offering this opportunity for everyone to try a digital stamp.

And we're also thrilled that the very talented Susan Paulson, (aka The Stampin' Kat) coordinator of the Robyn's Fetish Design Team, is guest designing with Jingle Belles this week.

Susan's Card featuring

Chester da Snowman

Robyn's Fetish Digital also graciously provided Lauren & I with digital stamps that we used for our cards this week.

Stef's card featuring

Corner Holly &

Home for the Holidays

Stef says, "My favorite technique to use with digital images is digital paper piecing (here's a link to my prior tutorial, which also links to Kristina's video tutorial ... and here's a link to another tutorial from Allison). I have quite a collection of digital papers, so I just paper-pieced my image together on the computer and printed out the finished colored project that is ready to go on a card. I just added an EAD Designs Stickerz sentiment to finish ... and the great thing about it is that once I've taken the time to do it, I can print out as many copies as I want."

Lauren's card featuring

Christmas Twee &

Christmas Presents

Lauren says, "i paper-pieced too, but i went old school--with a new twist: i filled an 8.5 x 11" clear inkjet label from the office supply store with as many copies of my digi stamps as would fit... (about 3 trees & 5 or 6 of each present) ...then cut the images apart roughly and stuck them to the individual patterned papers i wanted to use, before cutting out neatly around each outline. this let me raid my "scraps" file and use up some teeeeeeeeny leftovers, while giving lots of variety of color and pattern to my design! admittedly it's more fussy-cutting involved than i'd be willing to do EVERY week, but i love how this card came out!"

So now it's your turn to go Hybrid ... or all-out-Digital if you're brave. We hope you'll take advantage of the free stamp in your design ... and take some time to browse through the other wonderful Digital Stamps at Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps... afterall, you'll need to be ready to choose your prize if you're the lucky winner! While you're exploring, you might like to also check out their blog, The Robyn's Nest where their rockin' design team shows off new designs, and hosts a weekly challenge of their own... often with "freebies" for the participants! This week's theme is "Anything Goes" so if you use the "Christmas Bell" stamp above and submit your card by tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon, you can link up in both places!

Inlinkz will be open until next Wednesday, September 21st at 6pm (EST). Keyword for galleries or our flickr group is JB38.

CARD sharks!

2011-09-15T05:45:00.008-04:00

it's been another banner week ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ in which you've proven once again that there is *no* curveball we can throw that won't elicit home runs all round! absolute GORGEOUSNESS in the deck the halls gallery... do give yourself the treat of scrolling down!

meanwhile, here are a few cards that particularly took the fancy of our lovely prompt setter, the wonderful sue culotti:

by Amy Tsuruta of Tsuruta Designs

(posted on flickr)

Sue says, "Adorable, whimsical, magical FUN! I especially love the stitched tab and toothpick flag. The colors rock, too..."

by Electra of Wishin' I Knew How to Blog

Sue says, "I am always in awe of people who can pull off "techniques" with such great results, plus pink and green always makes us happy, right?"

by Eveline of Ditjes en Datjes

Sue says, "I'm a total sucker for vintage images, and polka dots, and lace trim, and square cards, and clean layouts, and...'nuff said?"

once again we enthusiastically thank all who participated, and bestow an extra-helping of our admiration and gratitude upon miss sue for coming along to hang out this week, it was pure pleasure for us! if you need a little blog-based treat be sure to check out random on purpose, which is also the home of sue's fabulous digi-stamps... just click the random bliss tab!

we've got a new prompt at midnight which involves a lovely guest star, an amazing sponsor, some FABULOUS cards... (if we do say so ourselves, lol!) ...and there miiiiiiiiiiiight just be a prize on offer, but you'll have to come back to find out! ;)

DECK the Halls

2011-09-09T00:01:00.011-04:00

this week we're pleased to introduce a very lovely guest star who's been a good friend to both stef and myself, ms. sue culotti! i first met her last year when she was hosting the up-beat and motivational 52-card pickup project, but have since discovered that her personal blog, random on purpose, is always a great read and visual inspiration, plus she's also got her own line of fabulous digi-stamps (called random bliss) featuring some awesome halloween and christmas images! ...just sayin'... :)

here's what sue said in the email she sent us about this week's prompt, DECK the halls:

"My first thought was playing cards, but it somehow seemed sacrilegious to incorporate something so closely identified with gambling (sinful!) with a holy day, so then I though maybe ATC cards - the cards themselves, or add one to a card front."

stef and i both loved this idea so much, our only problem was WHICH aspect to use? because sue came up with three cool ways to go this time. being "more is merrier" kind of gals, we decided to incorporate ALL of them... and add one of our own! so this week, JINGLE BELLES, you can do any or all of the following:

make a freestanding (2.5 x 3.5") xmas-themed Artist Trading Card

add an ATC-sized element to your holiday card

incorporate a playing card into your design

use a recycled xmas card (or an element from

one!) on your (newly made) holiday card!

here's what WE did:

Sue's Card

Sue says, "I've been sketching playing-card-sized "Twelve Days of Christmas" (you know - a partridge, two turtle doves, five gold rings, etc...) and I used one of the cards from that deck - the "Partridge in a Pear Tree", obviously. I painted it with inks from my inkpads "smooshed" onto an acrylic block. Since I kind of wanted it to take center stage, I kept the rest of the card simple."

Stef's Card

Stef says, "When I go to yard sales or thrift stores, I always look for Board Games ... not to play, but for the cards & game pieces to add to my paper creations stash. This card features a die cut game card from Candy Land (which I believe was a gift from Lauren). It was perfect with some Echo Park Paper (including punched peppermint candy embellishments) and a Cardabilities Sketch."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i'm pretty proud that i managed to work in 3 of the 4 ways to go for this week's prompt: i started with a fun shaped playing card... (that sweet xmas tree is actually the 3 of clubs!) ...and made that the focal point of an ATC... (it's the rectangular element on the left) ...then i used sketchy thursdays' current GDT sketch to fit my ATC into a christmas card design that utilized a whole bunch of smaller paper scraps! big win!!!" :)

there are some lovely examples of ATC's here, here and here, should you need inspiration to go in that direction; or use any of the other ideas listed above! try out your wildest designs ever... or go with a tried-and-true strategem; but whatever you decide, link it up by 6pm (EST) next wednesday, september 14th! keyword for our flickr group and/or galleries is JB37. HAVE FUN!!! ♥

PS ~ they're also celebrating "Card Play" at the Moxie Fab World Blog this week, so depending on which idea you use, you might be able to link your card up there as well.

♥LAUREN♥

labor of love!

2011-09-08T05:14:00.009-04:00

we knew it would be fun to CASE each others' cards this week. we *hoped* it would also be easy and... well... "LABOR-saving" since somehow holidays often take additional effort (but in a good way!) but somehow we never expected that the task of CASE-ing would reveal so much creativity on the part of our ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! in retrospect, we should have seen it coming!!! :) every card this week was an astonishingly fresh take on an amazing original. here are three we found particularly clever:

fabiola of mon p'tit monde

kept the snowflakes-on-kraft background, scalloped frame and striking "tall card" design when she lifted tesa b's fabulous snowman card, but substituted a happy santa in her charming design!

hazel of my crafty outlook

expanded and amplified the sweet vintage images of stef's jolly old st. nicholas card to make this glimmering show-stopper!

carol of cm designs

CASED her own card from the "tag along" challenge in june, making a strikingly elegant plum version that's got a totally different--but equally fabulous--vibe from the original!

as always we encourage you to check out the gallery if you haven't yet. the new prompt--with an especially lovely guest star--debuts at midnight! see you then!

Love's LABOR DAY Lost

2011-09-02T00:01:00.009-04:00

Since this weekend will be Labor Day in the United States, we've decided to celebrate by giving you a bit of a head start with this week's card.

We're asking you to CASE (Copy And Selectively Edit) any other Jingle Belles card ... by which we mean any of our cards OR any of your fellow Belles' cards made for any prompt since our inception in January is fair game ... you might even want to CASE a card that you made! Be sure to tell us what card inspired you--and who made it--in your post, so we can all admire *both* versions!

Here's what inspired us this week:

Stephanie:

I loved Kathe D's card that was a Shout Out for JB28 - our Leftovers Challenge.

I changed-up the papers to use my own leftover Basic Grey Fruitcake Paper scraps. Rather than use the negative of the die cut as a frame, I attached my scraps to cardstock & cut out the shape with the Top Note Die Cut. I also swapped the ornament for a CatsLife Press Sentiment & added a bit of pom pom fringe.

Stephanie's CASE Card

Lauren:

I absolutely adored my partner-in-crime, Miss Stephanie's, whimsical snowmen card from JB06, our "Baby It's Cold Outside" prompt in February:

So much so that I immediately went out and bought the Basic Grey "woolies" she used! In retrospect, I wish I had also grabbed the "Jovial" papers, but alas, I did not, so I had to wing it and use non-holiday papers in similar tones to construct my landscape. The only major change I made was to build my card on a transparency base to give it a little extra"oomph" that hopefully comes close to matching the graphic impact of the original's fabulously festive patterns!

Lauren's CASE Card

Wherever you are spending this weekend, and whether it is of the two- or three-day variety, we hope that it will be a very happy, safe, and creative one for you, and that you will take inspiration from all of the marvelous cards we have seen in the last eight months! Inlinkz will be open until 6pm (EST) next Wednesday, September 7th. The keyword for galleries and our flickr group is JB36.

goin' for the gold... and silver... :)

2011-09-01T05:05:00.013-04:00

despite the unexpected (& not very welcome) visit from a little lady called irene on the eastern coast of the united states, this was a banner week in these parts, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥, during which we witnessed a genuine hurricane of creativity! miss leslie's clever prompt was quite a challenge, but that did not seem to daunt anyone; if anything it just spurred your fellow belles to "think outside the box" in some very impressive ways. we did not envy the task of narrowing down to only three featured cards; but after much deliberation, here they are:

michelle lupton of handmade by michelle

leslie says, "I really liked the simplicity of the embossed ornaments (which are cleverly "re-purposed" circle stamps) on the neutral background. She got in both gold & silver, and I just really liked it!"

dawn b of paper stamp scissors

leslie says, "I liked all the gold touches, and especially that she dug into her jewelry stash to make her own stick/hat pins. And that home-made flower WITH a tutorial! Just a great card all-around."

lisa h of recklinghausen musings

leslie says, "She knocked my socks off with FOUR gorgeous cards (not that everyone should start entering multiple cards to increase their chances ...) but each one is a neutral background with the gold or silver as the accent. So understated yet stunning at the same time. I think she totally captured the spirit of the challenge, even though she claims she lacks the Midas touch." :)

as per usual we thank everyone who devoted a slice of their precious creative time this week to "JINGLING" with us. if you've not yet perused the gallery, we highly recommend scrolling down for an especially nice treat!

many thanks to the lovely leslie of the crooked stamper for joining us with another brilliant (in every sense!) prompt idea this week. be sure to check out her blog (at any time) and shopping our stash (each tuesday) for more creative inspiration!

a brand new special "holiday weekend" prompt debuts at midnight; we can't wait for you to see it, so c'mon back, ok?! ♥

Midas Touch

2011-08-26T00:03:00.012-04:00

this week we are thrilled to welcome back our lovely friend and devoted ♥JINGLE BELLE♥ miss leslie... aka the crooked stamper! if you've been playing along with us this year you've probably laughed as hard as we have at her hilarious tales of cardmaking, and you've probably gotten some nice comments on your own holiday cards from her, as well. but if you need a little more leslie, why not check out her etsy shop, or drop by the fabulously inspiring shopping our stash weekly challenge blog each tuesday?

you'll have guessed by the title that leslie's direction this week involves a decidedly limited--and gloriously metallic--color palette, since everything king midas touched turned immediately into gold. to widen the possibilities just a little further, we're stretching the point, and asking you to make your holiday cards from gold AND/OR silver, and we'll allow the addition of white AND/OR cream. yes, it's a teeny bit daunting, but once you get going, we think you'll have as much fun as the three of us did:

Leslie's Card

Leslie says, "I have a piece of pretty paper in my collection with a mottled background and shiny gold-embossed-impressed script words. Soooo pretty, and I thought it would make a cool Christmas card. Well. you know how those Belles are always telling us they would like us to suggest ideas for future challenges*, right? Gold... Midas... a challenge called the Midas Touch! :) And I used that paper as my background! I tried to stay with all gold for my card, in the Midas spirit!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I decided to fully embrace silver with my card this week ... I pulled out my "metallic" scraps folder and went to town. Silver metallic card base; silver star paper (that is sort of holographic, so it changes when you move it); and silver glitter border cut into pieces. I finished with a white holiday sentiment rub-on from EAD Designs ... this baby sparkles."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "there's one in every crowd, isn't there? a person who just always has to push the limits; a crafter who, given the challenge of using ONLY silver and/or gold and cream and/or white, has to work in ALL of the above... in as many shades as possible! as usual, that person is me!!! :) i've got massively reflective silver letters, a silver transparency, a gold embossed reindeer, a few white-on-white patterns, creamy flocked damask, pearls, glitter, stickers, flowers... you name it! have i gone overboard? definitely! do i love this card anyway? oh yeah!!!" ♥

and now it's time to see how ♥YOU♥ will embrace the midas touch! put on your thinking caps, pull out your metallic papers, baubles, bangles and beads... whatever it takes to rock the "heavy metal" between now and 6pm EST, next wednesday, august 31st. the keyword in our flickr group and for posting in galleries is JB35.

*we absolutely always ♥LOVE♥ to hear your ideas for future challenges, email us any time! jinglebellesrock @ hotmail [dot] com!

Fall To Fabulous

2011-08-25T00:05:00.003-04:00

It was so fun seeing all of the fantastic interpretations of this weeks Clean & Simple Stamping Sketch ... so many fabulous possibilities. And while some of you found the Clean & Simple style a bit painful (ahmmmm Lauren), others embraced it full force.

A huge thank you to our Lovely Guest Stars & sketch providers this week from the Clean & Simple Stamping Blog.

Here are a few that rocked the CAS Sketch:

Christine of Das Kartenchaos

used an unexpected holiday color palette that made me smile (orange for winter ... how fun is that!)... and I loved how all of the little snowflake circles surrounded her sweet little snowman.

Paula Fuller of Paw Prints

used a combination of ornaments with subtle snowflakes to produce and elegant CAS design ... and she used a *kitchen fork* to tie those perfect little bows.

Julie E of The Last Minute Crafter

combined all different sizes of polka dots in her card for design continuity ... and kept it CAS (but far-from-plain) by adding a understated embossed design and a bit of stitching.

And ... drumroll please ... our random number generator picked

#18 - June Houck

to win our prize package this week. June e-mail us your mailing address, so we can get your goodies in the mail ... and as a bonus, here's her pretty little card:

If you haven't skipped through the sketch gallery to leave a little jingle belles love ... please do ... you won't be disappointed.

And make sure you check back at midnight for another Lovely Guest Star ... and more holiday card making inspiration ... and in case you're counting ... just 17 weeks until Christmas.

Holiday Fall To Layout

2011-08-19T00:01:00.014-04:00

This week we are thrilled to be partnering with the fabulous designers at the Clean & Simple Stamping Blog who designed a great Fall to Layout for us to use for this week's Jingle Belles prompt. We are also asking that you also incorporate a clean & simple style with your design & then make sure you link-up your card here & at the Clean & Simple Stamping blog.

Here's the Sketch

And here's what we created this week:

Natasha's Card

of Clean & Simple Stamping

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i predict my card will be the least "clean & simple" one we see all week... but JB regulars will realize how very verrrrrrrry pared down this is for *ME*! downright minimalist, in fact, lol! :) i re-sized a vintage book image for my centerpiece, and kept my patterns as un-obtrusive as possible, with lots and lots of white to help with the "clean" feeling. since i am a remedial stamper, i applied my sentiment to a clear label and attached it to the card at the very end!"

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "To help keep my card clean & simple, I went with one stamp set and a monochromatic palette (can you ever go wrong with purple for the holidays?). I stamped the image from Hero Arts Merriest Christmas Wishes twice in warm violet chalk ink. I used the second image to punch out the spotlighted circles. I finished with tiny touches of glitter pen for the sky."

And since we're sharing the challenge spotlight this week with the Clean & Simple Stamping team, we though it would be fun to offer a little pile of goodies for one random participant.

The Prize:

Some clean green felt thickers, some simple (but adorable) christmas "flair", some holiday stamps... plus one or two other little goodies! :^)

So now it's your turn to show us what you can create with this Clean & Simple Stamping Sketch (which I realize is more of a challenge for some ... ahem Lauren ... than others).

Inlinkz will be open until 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 24th ... use keyword JB34 for our Flickr gallery & other galleries too.

oh how you SHINE!

2011-08-18T05:58:00.005-04:00

wow, wow, ♥WOW♥ jingle belles! every single time we think we could not be more impressed by your collective card-making skills, you come back and blow us out of the water AGAIN!!! each and every BLINGTASTIC card this week was a masterpiece in its own way... if you've not yet cruised the gallery you're in for a treat!!!

it was pretty near impossible to only choose THREE amazing cards to show you, but each of these BLING ON THE HOLIDAYS in particularly cool and creative ways!!!

gina of tyggereye art

added sequins, glitter and a jewelled title to her delightfully whimsical vintage santa collage

deborah frings of deb's gems

used multiple techniques, inks and powders... plus additional sparkly elements... in her masterpiece of stamping and embossing

leslie of the crooked stamper

not only created an astonishingly lovely card with a near-lauren level of bling elements, she did so despite a "CRAFTASTROPHE" of epic proportions that is both heart-rending and hilarious. you should go and read about it! :)

a new prompt debuts at midnight--it's a really excellent (& challenging!) one that you'll definitely want to check out. oh, did we mention there'll be a PRIZE??! ♥

bling on the holidays

2011-08-12T00:01:00.009-04:00

i don't think it will shock any ♥JINGLE BELLE♥ to hear that both stef and myself enjoy a bit of bling year 'round! of course, in a christmassy context, sparkle is particurlary desirable and especially easy to pull off; after all, on just the tree alone there are shiny ornaments, twinkly fairy lights, and glittering tinsel that have already done half the work for us! this week, then, we're asking you to bling on the holidays by making cards which incorporate jewels, gems, beads, studs, pearls, glitter, stickles or *ANYTHING* sparkly!

here's what we did:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i may have gotten just the teeeeeeeeeeeeniest bit carried away this week. even by my own standard in these matters, this card has A LOT of bling! my sparkly elements include: shimmer paper, metallic wired ribbon, a glitter snowflake, a pearl brad, rhinestone and stud flourishes... the *WORKS*!!! to balance all that out, i went with a transparency base to 'lighten' the background. or, well, that was my THEORY anyway, lol!" :)

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "One of my favorite things at Christmas is sitting in the dark and watching the lights twinkle on the tree ... that is the effect I wanted to create with my card. I die cut my Sizzix Christmas Tree #2 from embossed specialty paper, and then cut apart several bling flourishes to wrap the lights around the tree. I softly stamped Hero Arts new Collage Music Background and finished with an EAD Designs Rub-on. I kept it clean, so the focus is on the bling."

and now it's time to see what you will do: keep it elegantly C&S with just one dramatic rhinestone flourish, or load on a zillion sparkly embellies. anything goes in terms of style, color, and theme, but BLING ON THE HOLIDAYS and let your best ideas shine! inlinkz will be open until 6pm (EST) next wednesday, august 17th. keyword for galleries and our flickr gallery is JB33.

Fit & Fabulous

2011-08-11T00:05:00.001-04:00

What a fabulous gallery of Shape-Up cards we have this week ... so many clever creations that it almost makes me want to do a few jumping jacks ... don't get carried away ... I said ALMOST.

Although it was seriously difficult to narrow down our choices, here are a few designers we thought did a particularly wonderful job interpreting this week's prompt:

Marie of Another Cardmaking Blog

"Marie not only used a lovely ornament shape, she also added some fabulous iris folding, sequined trim, and silver topper ... a shaped-card that's also a wonderful holiday decoration."

Rose of Rose's Happy Place

"Rose's cute little house made us smile ... she decorated it inside & outside for the holidays with a bit of snowy glitter on the rooftop"

DesigNeAL of DesigNeAL Home made Designs

"Designeal created this wonderful star album that can be a card ... and an album ... and even a holiday decoration ... what a versatile shaped creation."

I know we say it every week ... but seriously ... if you haven't taken the time to wander through this week's gallery and leave a little jingle belles love, you should ... so many inspiring cards to get those holiday design ideas flowing.

Make sure you come back and join us at midnight for another fun holiday card prompt (actually, we'll be in bed at midnight ... but our jingle belles alter-egos will be awake to make sure the prompts go on).

Shape-Up for the Holidays

2011-08-05T00:01:00.008-04:00

This week we're asking you to Shape-Up for the Holidays ... no, you don't have to do any jumping jacks or run around the block to work off that holiday meal ... you just have to make a card that is a shape other than the standard rectangle or square.

Here's what we came up with this week.

Lauren's Cards

Lauren says, "i wanted--for once--to forego my usual 'shape' strategy of making a round card in favor of something a little more interesting, but i was stumped as to what i could use for a template. then i remembered my digital files, specifically these adorable jolly lil friends stickers by minda terasawa! i layered the characters and trees digitally, printed them on glossy photo paper, then scored and hand-cut the resulting shapes... times SIX... so that all of my MY jolly little friends (& nieces!) will each get one at christmas time! more detail of technique on my personal blog."

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "When I saw Lynn's Star Fold Card, I knew the design would make a fantastic holiday card. I followed the easy instructions in the video, and was able to make it come together on the first try (not the norm for me). I used October Afternoon's Good Cheer Collection, EAD Sticker Sentiments, and red flocked reindeer stickers to finish my design. You can see the inside of the card on my personal blog."

Now it's your turn to Shape-Up for the Holidays ... break out those die cuts ... fussy cut around photos ... try some fun folds ... paper piece together Christmas icons ... whatever you decide to make ... just make sure you stretch your creativity & have lots of fun Shaping-Up (hey, it's got to be more fun than jumping jacks). Link up before 6pm (EST) next Wednesday, August 10th; keyword for galleries and the Flickr group is JB32.

true blue

2011-08-04T05:46:00.007-04:00

who could be sad whilst looking at this week's gorgeous selection of cards?! from aqua to navy to cerulean, every ♥JINGLE BELLE♥ rocked the spectrum of blue this week in a big, big way, and we could not be more impressed! in fact, our lovely guest star, miss june, has this message to share:

"I have enjoyed EVERY blue Christmas card entered in this week's Jingle Belles gallery. Each card is unique and it certainly made choosing only three very difficult! Thank you ALL for participating in my challenge; it was great fun visiting your blogs!"

and now here are a few cards that particularly caught june's eye this week:

Judy Ford of For Grins and Giggles

june says, "Judy's bold papers made me grin! I always center my image in a frame or mat either perfectly horizontal or vertical, so Judy's Santa Claus eagerly jumping out of his frame made me giggle."

Chick Barb (who posted to her SCS gallery)

june says, "Barb entered two lovely cards, but her snowman card is particularly clever! The dynamic white fibers recreating the feel of snow spray when skiing downhill totally blew me away."

Deanne of Three Trees Paper Creations

june says, "I was floored by Deanne's brilliant use of a SUMMER image on a WINTER card! Her use of blue patterned paper to paper piece the outfit is a brilliant take on the challenge. And she used polka dots... my favorite!" :)

an enormous THANK YOU to every belle who played along this week. if you have yet to cruise the blue christmas gallery, do scroll down and give yourself that treat! extra special thanks to our extra special and particularly lovely guest star june houck, whose help and support cn never be overstated! be sure to check out her blog, simply elegant papercrafts, and offer her congratulations on her new DT gig at the pumpkin spice online shop!

we'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will inspire and delight you! xoxoxo till then!

blue christmas

2011-07-29T00:01:00.013-04:00

this week our lovely guest star ♥June Houck♥ is channeling elvis' "BLUE CHRISTMAS" ... so we're asking you to create your cards this week using blue as your main color.

in addition to being an avid card-maker, the awesome miss june (a loyal belle and previous guest star in her role as design team member for betty bee's buzz, when we had our die cutting crossover in april!), is a SAHM to two beautiful fraternal twin girls and a 20-year-old furry daughter (some might say "cat") called skeeziks! june loves math, puzzles, reading, organizing, and playing with paper. her "happy place" is the new larger craft room (lucky duck!!!) she set up in her basement in january of this year. organizing her craft room is a constant work-in-progress, but brings inspiration when she finds things she forgot she owned! (we've all been *THERE*, right?!) :)

be sure to check out her blog, Simply Elegant Paper Crafts, but first check out her blue christmas card:

June's Card

June says, "I came up with this idea during Jingle Belles' Recycle, Re-use and Jingle challenge. My card that week used a blue paint chip from Home Depot and I had Elvis' "Blue Christmas" stuck in my head. I recently was re-organizing my Christmas-themed papers and embellishments and came across a set of vintage post cards that I have owned since 1989, but I had NEVER used. I remembered seeing this card on Lauren's blog; her card was just the inspiration I was looking for! I fell in love with the sapphire blue of Santa's suit."

lauren's card

lauren says, "even though technically the prompt has nothing to do with elvis, and we only need to use the color BLUE; as soon as june suggested it, i remembered that i had elvis stickers and was determined to work them into my design! the result is one of my weirder christmas cards, but i really like it!" :)

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I think blue is the perfect color palette for Frosty... and how could you possibly be blue with that cute little face smiling back at you??"

so now it's time to see what you will do: sapphire, robin's egg, cerulean or baby blue? elegant, whimsical, fancy or fun? stamped, diecut, painted, collaged... or all of the above??! turn up your elvis records, turn on your mojo, and get crafty with BLUE CHRISTMAS! inlinkz will be open until 6pm EST next wednesday, august 3rd. the keyword for galleries or our flickr group is JB31.

in the meantime, you might like to check out crafty steals where they are wrapping up a rather fab "christmas in july" promotion with bargains we christmas card-makers are BOUND to love; not to mention a christmas card sketch challenge that runs through monday on their blog... where, we've heard tell, a certain christmas card inspiration blog with the initials ♥JB♥ might just be today's "featured site"!!! check it out if you have a minute! ;)

HOLE-y moly!

2011-07-28T05:38:00.006-04:00

what a fabulous array of aperture cards we have seen this week! thank you ♥JINGLE BELLES♥, you've really done yourselves proud!!! we saw windows of every size and shape, incorporating the most clever techniques and innovative ideas imaginable, and every single one was a delight! if you haven't checked out the oh HOLE-y night gallery yet, do yourself a favor, we promise it is well worth the time to scroll down and see! in the meantime here are a few cards that particularly impressed our lovely guest star and proud prompt-setter, miss ros:

Amy L of Red Headed Crafter

Ros says, "You just gotta love those penguin faces ... so clever and such fun!"

Kirsty Vittetoe of Handmade Little Things

Ros says, "No favouritism honestly! I love that she used such pretty colours and a totally different shaped aperture for her wreath!"

Tesa B. of Tesas Scrap

Ros says, "I *LOVE* the perfectly clean and simple look of this!"

again we thank every single ♥BELLE♥ who participated, and offer an especially large thank you to the wonderful ros crawford for coming along this week and being a huge help as well as an incredible inspiration. do be sure to check out the amazing creations on her blog, mikey's mom and remember that she's one of the lovely hostesses over at city crafter challenge blog where they are wowing us every tuesday with a new idea and some fabulous designer eye candy!

we'll be back at midnight with another lovely guest star, an awesome new prompt, and a sweet little surprise; hope to see you then! ♥

Oh HOLE-y Night!

2011-07-22T00:05:00.008-04:00

hello, it's lauren here, bringing you the new prompt, and you'll have guessed i am over the moon with delight already... just from the title! it comes from your very generous and very clever fellow ♥BELLE♥, this week's lovely guest star ros crawford! you may recognize this talented papercrafter from her participation here and at many other crafty challenges where her creations never, ever, fail to impress and delight. she's also a designer at the fabulous city crafter challenge blog, where a new theme debuts every single tuesday!

ros came up with an absolutely terrific idea for this week--to make aperture (or "window") cards--during a little bout of insomnia she suffered recently. whilst lying awake in bed, her mind was filled with holiday card-making ideas, which she was generous enough to write in* and share with us. (for which we are very grateful!) oh HOLE-y night caught our imaginations immediately, both for the clever pun AND the interesting construction challenge involved!

here's what we did:

Ros' Card

Ros says, "The card was created with MME Christmas glitter paper stitched onto kraft ... To make the circle "window" I cut through all layers with Spellbinders Nestabilities standard circles ... made a frame for the hole with the SB scalloped circles I used some acetate with a criss-cross design in the aperture and adhered this in place to the back of the kraft cs before adhering to the card base ... Then I made a 3D bauble (again from scalloped circle nesties) and adhered this to the 'window' ... Stamped a sentiment from a WaltzingMouse stamp set and added a generous dollop of glitter .. a ribbon and some leaves and berries ..."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i also used a nestabilities die to make the aperture in my card AND create a frame for it; today on my personal blog i've posted a few tips i gleaned from a trial-and-error approach to that. i built the entire design around some larger vintage-style k&co stickers my mother-in-law gave me... i put the tree inside and father xmas outside, and only needed a few elegant embellishments to finish off the card! " :)

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "My card is pretty straight-forward this week made with my circle cutter & lots of circle punches ... I wanted to let those sweet snow people shine. I did punch a scalloped circle and small circular ring to frame the circle on my card front ... paper is Crate Paper's Snow Day Collection and the sentiment is a favorite from CatsLife Press. This will be one of the many masculine holiday cards I need to have in my stash."

so put on your thinking cap... get out your punches, dies, scissors or craft knife... and start plotting how you'll interpret oh HOLE-y night! (there are excellent tutorials here & here if you need some more ideas.) your "window of opportunity" lasts until 6pm (EST) next wednesday, july 27th. keyword for galleries or our flickr group is JB30. have fun!

*if you have a great prompt idea in the middle of the night--or at any other time--why not email us at jinglebellesrock @ hotmail [dot] com and share with us? we'd love for ♥YOU♥ to be our next lovely guest star!

Triple Word Score

2011-07-21T00:01:00.001-04:00

We had so much fun playing Reindeer Games at Jingle Belles this week ... each card made us smile. We loved seeing all of the creative critters that came out to play. Here are a few we thought did an exceptional job of playing along:

Nita of Nita Notes

Seriously ... how could we not feature this adorable beaver all dressed up for winter in his warm little scarf and hat ... and we love the texture on his tail ... cute cute cute.

Brenda of Brenda's Scrappy Blog

made a fun little paper-pieced holiday bird with great googly eyes and knobby little knees ... and love those ear muffs.

Angi B of Angi & Cokie Designs

turned her clever little reindeer into a perfect "O" ... and how awesome is that super-blingy rudolph nose!

Make sure you take some time to visit the links in this week's gallery & leave a little jingle belle love ... there are lots of fabulous designs to inspire you.

And check back at midnight ... we're excited to share another lovely guest star & a great prompt to keep those holiday cards stacking-up.

Reindeer Games

2011-07-15T00:01:00.011-04:00

This week at Jingle Belles we're playing Reindeer Games ... and everyone gets to join the fun. The prompt is to use a reindeer (or any other holiday animal) in your card design.

Here's our take on the theme:

Stef's Card

Stef says, "When I was thinking about my card, I couldn't get the silly image out of my head of Reindeer playing Monopoly or Scrabble. One of my favorite ways to spend a weekend afternoon is playing Scrabble on-line with my sister ... her go-to word is often YETI (usually with a triple word score), so this card is for her. Papers are from Echo Park's Everybody Loves Christmas Collection"

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "it's not as if i don't have ENOUGH holiday papers and accoutrements to wallpaper the entire northeast, but for some reason, on this card, the only "holiday" item is the tim holtz diecut reindeer. everything else is from my "regular" stash and was truthfully mostly leftovers and scraps including the michaels-special silver flowers (purloined from my aunt!), my beloved may arts leafy ribbon, and the journaling card of unknown origin whose awesome sentiment "dream of magical things" inspired the entire card!"

Remember, you don't have to use an actual reindeer, it's sort of a coincidence that we both did! In fact, any critter or animal that you like, with a holiday theme, will work: penguins, moose, polar bears, mice, monkeys, birds ... be creative, HAVE FUN and let's see your best REINDEER GAMES cards back here before next Wednesday, July 20th, at 6pm (EST). The keyword for galleries or our flickr group is JB29.

The Most Crave-able Leftovers Ever!

2011-07-14T05:47:00.007-04:00

Holy Wow, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! We thought it would be quite the challenge using scraps and offcuts to make amazing Holiday Leftovers cards, but clearly it was no problem at all for you everyone! Some of the best cards of the year were inspired by little bits and bobs that you Belles found laying about. Here are a few cards we found especially awesome this week!

Meg of Bits and Pieces

Based her "scrappy" card around a beautifully stamped and colored Christmas Mouse!

Kathe D of Kathe's Adventures

Raided her "Shoebox of Stuff That Will Be Useful Someday" to retrieve nearly all of the pre-assembled parts of this lovely card ... she only had to stamp a sentiment!

Lisa H of Recklinghausen Musings
Made not one but two simple cards ... that are each simply perfection!

Many thanks to *ALL* of you lovely cardmakers who came along and had a go! The gallery this week is even more than usually ♥FABULOUS♥ ... which you'll realize is really saying something in these parts! A brand new, super-fun prompt goes live at midnight, we hope you'll come back and check it out!

Holiday Leftovers!

2011-07-08T00:01:00.008-04:00

One of my favorite things about the holiday meal is the leftovers ... I always enjoy adding a little stuffing and cranberry sauce to my ham sandwich.

So this week at Jingle Belles, we're celebrating Holiday Leftovers. We're asking you to create a card using all of those little leftover pieces of paper, alphabet letters, stickers, ribbon ... you know, those things you save because they're just too cute to throw away.

Here's what we created with our leftovers:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i'm always inspired by the cool techniques quilters use to make amazing art from scraps, and i often lift & interpret sewing ideas on my cards. this time i went completely literally and made a small paper version of a string pieced quilt, using nothing but tiny strips of paper from my scrap box. there's a little step-by-step illustration... and a second card made with this method... on my blog!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I used my paper scraps from Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses papers to create a card using the Paper Bargello Technique (my tutorial here). I remember the first time I saw this technique on the Carol Duval show many years ago and was completely fascinated by the effect. Once I finished my card front, all I needed was a chipboard sticker with some ribbon to finish the design.

So go forth and find those neglected leftovers and turn them into a holiday masterpiece ... we can't wait to see what you create. InLinkz will be open until 6pm EST next Wednesday, July 13th. keyword for galleries or the jingle belles flickr group is JB28.

Shining Stars (OR Stripes)

2011-07-07T00:05:00.001-04:00

It's been another rockin' week at jingle belles. We were so inspired by the many different ways you incorporated Stars OR Stripes into your designs.

Here are a few of the cards that were shining stars (or stripes) this week:

Electra of Wishin' I Knew How to Blog

We love how she incorporated stars throughout her design ...

and seriously, who can resist that sweet reindeer cat?

Debbie of Debbie's Dash of This and That

We love the color combination and that large focal point star ...

not to mention the sweet little stars scattered throughout the card.

Sue from Random on Purpose

We loved how Sue incorporated stripes in her ribbon and that perfect

little star die cut at the top of her swing ... and the contrasting

stitching is such a great touch ... magical.

If you haven't skipped through the Stars OR Stripes gallery and shared a little jingle belles love, please take some time to check it out. And don't forget, another wonderful prompt for you at midnight tonight.

stars OR stripes, forever!

2011-07-01T00:01:00.011-04:00

here in the USA this weekend is, of course, the big holiday of the summer, so while we hope every single one of our fellow ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ will have a very happy forth of july on monday, we'd also like to wish our american friends a happy independence day as well!

this week, in honor of that holiday--and as you may have already guessed from the title--we're asking you to incorporate either stars OR stripes into your card design. there needn't be any red, white, or blue... just stars or stripes... or both... in any medium you choose!

here's what we did:

Stephanie's Card

Stef says, "I combined the candy cane striped paper from Echo Parks Everybody Loves Christmas with the snowflake paper that reminded me of stars. I added three glittery stickers for this week's Sketchbook Saturday Sketch. I finished with a CatsLife Press sentiment flag and a stamped border of tiny stars around the striped panel."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "i realize i just confirmed there is no need to use red, white or blue... and you don't need to have stars AND stripes... one or the other is GREAT! but i decided to go whole hog, and seeing as how i still i have little stash of well-loved basic grey "blitzen" papers, it was not hard to pull off! i also used last week's sketch #84 from cards & things challenges, which i totally adore, so this week was a breeze!"

so if you have a little extra time, grab YOUR favorite papers, embellies, stamps or dies... and show us your very best take on stars OR stripes! as usual, inlinkz will be open until 6pm EST next wednesday, july 6th. keyword for galleries or the flickr group is JB27. and whether it's a holiday for you or not, we'd like to wish ALL of our fellow belles a happy, safe and ♥CRAFTY♥ weekend!!! :)

No Longer Lonely

2011-06-30T00:05:00.006-04:00

We had a blast this week seeing all of the fantastic cards & very creative additional items you made that were inspired by the cards. A big jingle belles thanks to the fine folks from The Order of the Opus Glueii who tagged along with us ... we had such a great time creating with you this week.

Remember, the Challenge at Opus Glueii runs three more days, so if you haven't linked-up your projects with them, you still have time.

Here are a few of our favorites from this week's fantastic gallery:

Amy Tsuruta of Tsuruta Designs

We loved Amy's adorable little recycled Altoid Tin, which contains fun little copic-colored elements so you can make more adorable holiday cards (more photos on her blog).

Chat Noir of Black Cat's Miaow

We loved how she made lots of fun little tags by using the same layout and swapping out lots of fun little holiday images ... so easy to mass produce (more photos on her blog too).

Marianne of Marianne's Cards 'n Stuff

You know we loved how she rocked pink for holiday card designs ... but we also adored how she decorated all of those sweet little holiday trees.

And our Random Number Generator chose #8 as the prize winner this week ... Debbie of Debbie's Dash of This and That. Debbie - e-mail us your address & we'll get your fun holiday goodies in the mail.

If you haven't already, make sure you skip through the links this week and check out all of the fabulous inspiration ... nobody's lonely this week.

And come back and join us on Friday for another fun holiday prompt ... see you then.

jingle belles

Stuck on You!

Pushing Our Buttons

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button

All Buttoned-Up

banner banter!

another banner day

a banner holiday

Sketch-tacular

More Snowy Sketching

Sketching Through the Snow

it's a wrap!

MORE time like the presents!

No Time Like the Present(s)

'twas the week before new year...

new look!

wrapping it up!

talk about eye candy!!!

Candy Kisses

festival of lights

The Hanukkah Song

Stuck On You

Stick-y and Sweet

CLEARLY awesome!

it came upon a midnight *CLEAR*

Creature Feature

not a CREATURE was stirring!

Comfy Cushy Christmas

♥SOFTLY♥ Falling Snow

Fa La La La Fabulous

A Caroling We Will Go

Pretty in Pink

i'm dreaming of a ♥PINK♥ christmas (& a CURE!)

peaceful abundance!

PEACE on Earth

♥SNOW♥ much fun!!!

here comes suzy snowflake

Dazzling Digital Designs

Happy Hybrid Holidays

CARD sharks!

DECK the Halls

labor of love!

Love's LABOR DAY Lost

goin' for the gold... and silver... :)

Midas Touch

Fall To Fabulous

Holiday Fall To Layout

oh how you *SHINE*!

bling on the holidays

Fit & Fabulous

Shape-Up for the Holidays

true blue

blue christmas

HOLE-y moly!

Oh HOLE-y Night!

Triple Word Score

Reindeer Games

The Most Crave-able Leftovers Ever!

Holiday Leftovers!

Shining Stars (OR Stripes)

stars *OR* stripes, forever!

No Longer Lonely

it came upon a midnight CLEAR

oh how you SHINE!

stars OR stripes, forever!