HOLE-y moly!

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!

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!