♥ Pink Christmas... for the Cure! ♥

If you've played along with us in other years, you may already know we always devote the first ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ theme of each October to making pink holiday cards as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that for each card that gets linked up, we each donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. There are really no rules for this challenge other than the fact that each card has to be newly made, it has to have a winter holiday theme and it has to feature PINK prominently. Does your whole card have to be pink? Certainly not. Can you combine other colors with the pink? Of course! Should you have more pink than say two or three baubles on your green tree set against a snowy white background? Well, yeah... that'd be good. :) But other than that, we'll leave it to you to decide how much pink, what shade, and how to employ it!

We're not generally huge on self-promotion around here, but this cause is near and dear to our hearts and we'd love to get GREAT participation, so be sure to tell all your cardmaking friends, and feel free to share the graphic and our link on your blog or social media.

But now let's get right to the cardmaking! Here's what we've made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says,"I started with this fun Christmas Kitty Stamp from Technique Junkies and colored his hat & nose with a combination of pink markers.  The sentiment stamp is a favorite from CatsLife Press (which seemed appropriate).  The reminder of the card was made using paper scraps from my stash, including the vertical border that was recycled from a mother's day card."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've gone with a bunch of shades of pink, from cerise to salmon to the soft pastel shade my sister calls, "sky blue pink", but I've added in white and cream in lots of lovely torn layers. The flowery chipboard letters are definitely "older stash" but I still really like them and I was pretty psyched that I had enough to make a seasonal sentiment! The rest of the card is older bits of paper, including some of my favorite Basic Grey grungy solids, a bit of washi, a bit of doily and a little machine stitching. In other words: all my favorite things in honor of my favorite challenge!"

You can link up as many ♥PINK♥ holiday cards as you'd like, and yes, you can put pics of more than one design into the same blog post... we will be sure to count the multiples! Link up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, October 25th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:17:21. ♥

An InLinkz Link-up

Embossing Around the Christmas Tree

This week we're celebrating the creative art of Embossing ... dry embossing, heat embossing, or even textured or embossed papers ... whatever you can do to add a little texture to your holiday project. 

Here is how we embossed this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I tried embossing one of my Gelli Prints with a Darice Fancy Snowflakes embossing folder, and the results were pretty much lost in the pattern of the background.  Next I tried applying Lawn Fawn Blue Jay ink direct-to-paper and the embossed texture came to life.  I love the results.  Sentiment is from The Ton Holiday Lyrics and Flower Bling that is new from Eyelet Outlet (I thought the shape echoed the snowflakes in the background)."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I confess that although I have plenty of beautiful embossing folders, I tend to forget all about them until there is a specific challenge that involves embossing, lol. Luckily, this one gave me a chance to use one of my favorite snowflake folders, on watercolor paper, then dry blend gelato crayons onto the raised snowflake areas. I've also used some beautiful hand-dyed crinkly ribbon that for some reason looks terribly odd and a bit grimey in the photo, but is quite lovely IRL. Meanwhile, my layout is based on the awesome current (#482) Sketch Saturday."

Of course we cannot wait to see what you will make! Link up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, October 11th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:17:20.

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas Tic-Tac-Toe

Yes, it's that time again, when we bust out the ever popular holiday Tic-Tac-Toe game and invite you to pick a row, a column, or a diagonal; then make a card using those three things and link it up! 

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose the left hand column, "red... glitter... santa". The red is pretty visible, and the Santa element is on that sweet Eyelet Outlet Santa and Snowman washi tape. Admittedly the glitter is a little hard to see, but the Doodlebug snowman and some of the the snowflakes are glittery stickers. I mention this because I know some people do not enjoy having loose glitter in their homes, and these are a great "work around". As are Eyelet Outlet glitter washi tapes and American Crafts "POW" glitter papers; both of which also diecut beautifully!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I usually avoid glitter like the plague, but this week I built my card around it ... I used Bo Bunny Silver Glitter Paste with my ARTplorations Oh My Stars! Stencil on black cardstock for my background.  I went with the left column too with Red & Santa as my other two Tic-Tac-Toe elements (I always find it awesome when Lauren & I use the same inspiration, but get such different results) and threw in some deconstructed Eyelet Outlet Red Swirl gem bling & glittery red wired ribbon as finishing touches."

Of course we cannot wait to see what you will make, so choose any consecutive strip and start creating! Link up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, September 27th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:17:19.

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PEACE on Earth

I'm always seeking peace in one way or another ... peace of mind, peace & quiet ... and Peace on Earth.
Our next prompt 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.)

Here are our PEACEful creations.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "This was the perfect opportunity to ink-up the new Stampin' Up set Carols of Christmas set (that I was able to buy early as a Demonstrator ... it will be available soon).  I used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment four times using two differing shades of Navy ink to get the deep blue solid color I wanted.  The background is Simon Says Stamp Falling Stars Craft Die layered over silver glitter paper.  I added a pop of red with the paper banner to finish the design."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I was headed in a completely different direction when i re-discovered my stash of colorful Eyelet Outlet peace sign brads which for some reason, seemed to me to go PERFECTLY with this fun Doodlebug Santa on a scooter, lol. My layout was inspired by this awesome "road map" from Tuesday Morning Sketches:"

So break-out those PEACE-ful images and show us your creations.  Link-up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 16th.  Keyword for galleries & our JB flickr Gallery is JB:17:16
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Snowflakes Hanging on an Open Fireplace

This week we're bringing you some vibrant Fireplace Inspiration to inspire your design.

Maybe you'll be inspired by the fireplace itself or the vibrant color palette ... or perhaps the white silhouettes against a bright blue background ... or maybe even the firewood or cute little doggie.  Whatever inspires you, we want to see it.

Here's how we interpreted the inspiration:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I may have gone a bit overboard with incorporating elements from the design including firewood, the rich color palette, snowflakes, and even a cute little dog (courtesy of Doodlebug's Polar Pals).  Layout is from Try Stampin' - or Not - on Tuesday."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Meanwhile, my focus is very general, I've basically just used the palette and the sparkly snowflakes! My background was created using ColorBurst pigment powders in Cerulean, Ultramarine and Indigo; I've added snowflakes via stencilled copper embossing paste, with glitter paper punches and diecuts on top. Finally, a few sparkly Eyelet Outlet Jewel Brads and Gems notch up the glam factor!"

Link-up by Wednesday, July 19th at 6pm (EST). Keyword for galleries or our Flickr Gallery is JB:17:14.

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Pinstripes & Super Novas

We are still celebrating holiday cards that feature stars or stripes or both and you still have time to join the fun, which we hope you will! Meanwhile, here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "Every year I manage to make at least one card and when I'm finished I say *Who on earth am I going to send that one too?* ... I combined some patriotic designer paper (combining both Stars & Stripes) with Lawn Fawn's Winter Unicorn ( for some reason, the lighting made my white iridescent sequins look pink in the photo)"

(I think you'll find, Miss Stephanie, that the answer to your question is *Lauren* lol!!!!!!) :) :) :)

Lauren's Unicorn-less and Thus Not Nearly As Awesome Other Card

Lauren says, "I made as cute a card as was humanly possible without a unicorn, having discovered a couple of Basic Grey dimensional felt stickers that i *think* may have been brought to this country on The Mayflower, lol. Ok, maybe they are not quite as old as that, but they're pretty old. They're still flippin' adorable though, imo, and thanks to an awesome sketch (PP350) from the Paper Players i knew exactly how to use them!" 

 Scroll down to the original post for complete details and to link up your own masterpiece!

Sketch-O-Licious

This fortnight we have an extra-fab challenge, thanks to our resident Sketch Mistress, Stephanie, who has whipped up an especially lovely sketch to inspire us:

Feel free to rotate or flip the sketch, use different shapes, play with the proportions or otherwise make it your own; as long as we can see "the bones".

Here are our sketch cards:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I created my sketch card using a sheet of puffy snowman stickers on a teal glitter background ... so much fun."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Clearly I'm still a little bit stuck on the Bling theme from last fortnight, so there's a lot of sparkly white, silver and gold on my card! I've compressed the sketch a bit to fit my square card, so I've staggered a few of the shapes horizontally, but otherwise, I've done a pretty straightforward version of the sketch... Well heck, that's the best thing about a great sketch, it saves you time and energy, right?!"

Stephanie, who is a Stampin' Up demonstrator (e-mail her if you'd like to place an order), also has a fun little present for one lucky, randomly drawn cardmaker who links up with us this week. It's a brand new --but retired-- Stampin' Up set of sentiments - SUITE SEASONS - that can be used for a variety of occasions, including Christmas:

To be eligible to win, just link up one or more sketch cards right here, before 6pm (EST) on Wednesday,  April 12th. Keyword for galleries or Flickr is JB:17:07.

An InLinkz Link-up

Let the Flakes Fall Where They May

We've got a brand new prompt at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this week, suggested by our lovely guest star, Leslie Turner, who is the owner and hostess of the Love To Scrap Challenge Blog and the Love To Craft Challenge Blog as well as a design team member at House of Cards and Let's Craft and Create! We were thrilled when this very busy lady wrote in and suggested such a cool (sorry, for once the pun was unintentional!) challenge idea, so let's let her say hello and explain this fortnight's theme:

 Hi everyone! I'm Leslie and super stoked to be guesting for Jingle Belles this fortnight. My theme is Let The Flakes Fall Where They May and my challenge to all you Christmas crafters is to create a project that includes snow... snowflakes, snowmen or a snowy landscape! I chose this theme because of very wishful thinking. This winter we've had to run the air conditioning several times here in north Florida! That's not what I'd call winter, lol! 

Here at Jingle Belles, we kind of prefer our snow on holiday cards rather than our local roads, and are just slightly jealous of a "winter" that needs air conditioning; but we're thrilled that Leslie is joining us, and she's made an amazing card, so let's get right to that: 

Leslie's Card

Leslie says, "My opening project is a twisted gate fold. I am a fancy fold fanatic and when I found this fold on the web, I just HAD to make one! I absolutely love the super easy construction that packs a powerful punch, and using the cool snowflake papers and snowflake sequins was an added bonus! Please see my blog post at Love To Scrap 2 for more details and photos. We can't wait to see what you create!"

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I went with the traditional snow colors of Merlot and Copper. obviously. :) Ok, so, it's not a traditional card in any sense of the word. But i found two funky panels leftover from experiments involving Color Burst pigment powder, stencils, gesso and Dreamweaver's luscious copper embossing paste, and one of my crazier card ideas was born. I even think I already know to whom I will send this card, so I feel especially prepared and "ahead" of the Xmas rush this week!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with an embossed piece of acetate that reminded me of the way the ice breaks when you step on a frozen puddle.  After that I layered on the snowflakes ... clear stickers and lots of layered felt snowflakes topped with icy blue Eyelet Outlet Round Jewels."

So now it's your turn to break out those snowman stickers, snowscape stamps and snowflake dies and compose a holiday masterpiece that shows the snows! Link up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, February 15th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:17:03.

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STICK-y & Sweet

We're getting all STICK-y and Sweet this week ... which means we're creating cards that feature at least one STICKER ... or perhaps many more!

Stickers were my (Stephanie's) first love when I discovered card making almost 20 years ago, and I still have quite a stash today (and I'm sure you do too).  Perhaps break out your oldest stickers ... or ones you just picked-up on Christmas clearance ... just use some stickers in your design.

Here's what we created:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Penny Black Stickeroos are my absolutely favorite and I have a rather (ahem) large collection of them.  I decided to use the oldest sticker in the bunch ... Snowflakes Falling from 2007 with the layout from Sketch Saturday.  These stickers are so awesome, the card almost makes itself (and since it was so easy to assemble, I made three more on my blog and used the entire set of stickers)."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I went with the "perhaps many more" strategy, lol. I've got three beautiful (ancient!) baubles from the late, great Hambly Screen Prints and four-- count 'em four-- different, layered, border stickers! Luckily I had the latest Atlantic Hearts sketch to tell me exactly where to place them!"

So after you've completed your sticker sensation, make sure you link-it-up at below before Wednesday, February 1st at 6pm EST .  Keyword for our Flickr Gallery (and others) is JB:17:02

An InLinkz Link-up

No Time Like the *Presents*

It's January first... time to start making Christmas cards, right ♥JINGLE BELLES♥??! Ok, yes, we realize that might sound like a crazy thing to say, but if you're a papercrafter who spent the beginning of this (or any other!) December stressfully mass-producing holiday cards, then you're aware of the fact that it's a chore which can totally sneak up, and make your spirits anything but bright. OR... you could make one or two cards every fortnight, between now and Thanksgiving, in the company of friends... and TAKE DECEMBER BACK! Since you're reading this post, we suspect --like us-- you'd much prefer the latter scenario. So without further ado, let's get this card-makin' party started!

If you've read the title of this post, you already know that the first official ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ prompt of 2017 is called "No Time Like the PRESENTS" so we'd like to see holiday cards that include the image of an actual present... OR which include some upcycled giftwrap that you've used in place of (or in addition to) patterned paper. Easy, right? Here's what we made:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "When I received this texty tissue paper wrapped around a gift, I knew immediately it would become some holiday cards.  I used the Faux Silk technique to create my background adding a Stampin' Up Bauble & punched bow."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I decided to do both parts of the prompt, so my card has a cute little Crate Paper cardstock diecut present AND I've used some pretty pink croc-embossed giftwrap as a backdrop behind my little collage. I've even worked in an unofficial third aspect of the prompt by using one of the beautiful snow flurry transparency sheets by Hunkydory Crafts that were part of Stephanie's Christmas gift to me! Cool, right?!"

Now it's your turn to make your very first holiday masterpiece of the year. Link up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, January 18th... because yes, we're giving a little bit of extra time to this first prompt; but we'll be fortnightly the rest of the year like usual! Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:17:01.
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An InLinkz Link-up

Dreaming of a WHITE Christmas

For our final Jingle Belles prompt of 2016 (can you believe it) we're bringing you a holiday photograph to inspire your designs ... and there are so many possibilities for finding inspiration.  

Maybe you'll be drawn to the white & neutral color palette ... the fun spelling of NO*L ... the Christmas tree decorated with white owls ... possibly even the quatrefoil design in the rug ... or the plaid on the pillow.  We can't wait to see how all of the gorgeous elements in this photo inspire you.

(Source)

Here is how we were inspired by the photo.

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I loved the neutrals + naturals color palette of the inspiration photo, and for supplies I was definitely feeling in quite a vintage mood. So I've loaded my card up with sheet music, an old postcard, some cancelled postage, text paper, doilies... a little bit of everything I love that felt like it would "fit" in that pretty, cosy room!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I wanted to start by capturing the gorgeous white-on-white feel of the mantel decor, so I die cut my Hero Arts Tag from textured white cardstock and then attached it with foam to white cardstock embossed with Taylored Expressions Nordic Holiday design.  Next I pulled in the wood-grain from the wine rack and the touches of blue on the wine labels and the mantel to finish my design.  I love how it captures the peaceful rustic feel of the photo."

Link-up your inspired cards here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, November 30th.  The keyword for galleries & Flickr is JB:16:24.  

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Mele Kalikimaka

If you're a Bing Crosby or Jimmy Buffet fan, you probably already know that "Mele Kalikimaka" is Hawaiian for "Merry Christmas". but don't panic because we're not asking you to make a full-on tropical-themed holiday card! In fact, we just want to see cards with flowers on them. Poinsettias, Amaryllis, Roses --or whatever flowers you happen to love-- in their traditional colors will work just fine.

Here's what we created:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "This week I featured the traditional holiday flower the Mondo Poinsettia all blinged out with gems & pearls.  The sketch is from Just Add Ink."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Once again, I'd like to stress the fact that you DO NOT have to make a tropical-themed holiday card this fortnight, we just want to see cards with flowers on them. On the other hand, if you to WANT TO make a tropical-themed holiday card, we definitely won't try to talk you out of it. And I seriously doubt that anyone will be too surprised that OF COURSE I wanted to do just that, lol. I took advantage of the fifth Saturday rule at Sketch Saturday to choose a sketch from the archive; I've used #249 this time."


Link your floral masterpieces here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, November 16. keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:23.

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While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

This week we're breaking out the animals … it could be a sweet little sheep, a cardinal in a snowy tree, or perhaps one of Santa's reindeer … okay, or even a monster if you're in a Halloween mood and want to stretch the theme (and your name is Lauren).

Here are our animal creations.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I couldn't resist featuring one of the super-cute Holiday Grumplings from Taylored Expressions.  I colored him with Spectrum Noir markers and used this week's Mojo Monday Sketch."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I know it's shocking to everyone who knows me well, but my card's got a perfectly normal, perfectly adorable reindeer! (Don't worry, there's a MONSTA on deck for next week, I promise!) Meanwhile, I'm still pretty smitten by the adorable Doodlebug reindeer stickers, and I still had a set of eyelet outlet antler brads, and the pairing is apparently quite irresistible to me at the moment. I've used my favorite "washi tape letters" trick (details on my blog) as well as this week's layout from Retro Sketches."

Link your amazing animal creations here by 6pm (EST) Wednesday, November 2nd. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:22.  

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(gah!) Pink Christmas

Woohoo! It's time for our favorite prompt of the year, Pink Christmas! If you've ever hung out with us in October, you already know the drill, and there's an FAQ type post just above this one, but basically: each year in October, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Stephanie and Lauren host a challenge where we ask everyone to make holiday cards that are, (as the title suggests, lol) *PINK*... and then we each donate $2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each card that gets linked up. 

If you're wondering why this year it's (gah!) Pink Christmas, you may remember that our friend Leslie Hanna (aka the Crooked Stamper) who passed away last December, was always a big cheerleader for this event, despite being a famously ardent NON-fan of what she always called, (gah!) pink. So it just seemed like this year we should make it a bit of a tribute and remembrance of that lovely, snarky, crafty, fun lady. In fact, we've asked a few of her teammates from Shopping Our Stash, to come along and help out. So without further ado, here's the bumper crop of (gah!) Pink Christmas cards we've assembled:

Stacey's Card

Maria's Card

Barbara's Card

Barb says, "House Mouse angel framed by an off-cut from a top note I had in my Christmas scrap from last year, edged in pink for dimension and coloured with alcohol markers."

Deena's Card

Chris' Card

Chris says, "Leslie was truly a one of a kind lady. I loved her incredibly sarcastic sense of humor, and her distaste for the color (GAH!) pink always made me laugh. Her blog posts were always funny and it was wise not to drink or eat anything while reading them, as you'd most likely be spitting whatever was in your mouth out form laughing so much! I miss you, sweet friend! ((HUGS!))"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "There are lots of fun holiday papers that feature pinks ... like DCWV Jolly Whimsy ... so if you use those, the designs can come together quickly.  A stamped sentiment and a few snowflake embellishments finish the design."

Lauren's Card
Lauren says, "I've really missed Leslie this year. She, the lovely June Houck and Tracy Parlett were my very first blogging friends, and ever since, our online lives did a fair amount of overlapping. We knew a lot of the same peeps; we were on SOS together; we chatted and joked via email a couple of times a week. It's tempting to complain how unfair it is that she's gone waaaaaay too soon, but when I really stop and think, the thing I marvel most about, is that I was given the incredible bonus of a friendship that lasted nearly a decade, purely based on the fact that I like to make cards, and in 2007 I decided to start posting them on a blog. Seriously. HOW COOL IS THAT?! For that matter, Stephanie and I --and most of the rest of the people reading this-- met the same way. I'm amazed and grateful for all of the fun, inspiration, friendship and love that has come my way because of this hobby. It blows my mind. Thank you Leslie, and thank you, fellow Jingle Belles, for all of the *FUN* we've had together. I'm looking forward to all of the good things still to come!"

Ok, so, the one thing that would make this event even better, would be if we could break our 2014 record of 144 cards, for which we donated $576.00. Tell your friends, tell your fellow crafters, heck, tell your Granny if she likes to make cards! Feel free to link, share and repost the graphic and the FAQ in the post above. Then grab your fuchsia papers, your cerise embellies, your salmon ink, your bubblegum florals... well, you get the idea: THINK PINK and LINK PINK right here on this post between now and 6pm (EST) Wednesday, October 19th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:21. 

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Christmas Bells, Those Christmas Bells ...

It's probably no surprise that the Jingle Belles love BELLS ... so for this prompt we're asking you to create a card that features at least one BELL ... it might be a Jingle Bell, a Sleigh Bell, a Church Bell, a Silver Bell ... just make sure we see a BELL.

Here are our jingly cards this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I found this vintage image of a cute little kitty with a jingle bell collar (remember digital images are always an option if you don't have any bells in your stash), and I couldn't resist featuring him on a holiday card for one of my cat-loving friends.  I used this week's Sketch Saturday with some Eyelet Outlet Champagne Bling and a gold glitter die cut sentiment from Essentials by Ellen."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "The very first year of Jingle Belles, my lovely blogging friend and fellow Jersey girl Lorraine of Paper Vernissage gave me this beautiful Memory Box "Jingle Bell Border" die and it is still one of my all-time faves! In this case I've used it-- and most of the other elements on the card-- to make my oversized sentiment even more prominent; a task for which the adorable (brand new!) Eyelet Outlet Cardinal Brads are admirably suited, imo. My layout was inspired by this week's sketch (#178) from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge."

Link your bell-laden creations right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, October 5th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:20.

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O' Little TOWN of Bethlehem

This week's prompt is called, "O' Little TOWN of Bethlehem" and if you're wondering why we emphasized the "TOWN", it's because we want to see holiday cards with at least one building on them. We confess that at first the assignment seemed kind of tough, but when we started looking through our stash of holiday ingredients, we found patterned paper with cozy christmas cottages, stamps of gingerbread houses, stickers with Santa's magical castle at the North Pole; not to mention cityscapes, eskimo igloos, lovely snow-covered churches and yes, even a stable with a manger in it! So there's a lot of ways to go with this, and we hope you'll have fun discovering at least one you'd like to pursue.

Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My buildings are courtesy of this pretty Christmas Magic holiday paper by Shimelle.  I used a sketch from The Challenge at a sticker sentiment to finish the design."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Something I didn't realize until I started looking for "ingredients" for my card is that another great source of Christmas building images is snowglobes... and I had a bunch of them! This one --and its attendant embellishments and sentiment-- came from a pack of My Mind's Eye cardstock elements. I combined papers from a few different manufacturers' Christmas collections that just happened to match, and used this week's Sketch Saturday layout (#428) to help me arrange everything." 

Link your cards right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, September 21st. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:19.

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Hark the Herald Angels Sing

This week's holiday card prompt is all about MUSIC ... you might incorporate sheet music, musical instruments, music-themed stamps ... or even make a card inspired by your favorite Christmas Carol. Just make sure you let us know what your MUSICAL elements are.

Here's how the music moved us this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I scanned in a piece of vintage Christmas Music from my collection and sized it down to fit on my card front.  I combined it with velvet ribbon, some holiday flair, Eyelet Outlet Champagne Bling and Authentique papers with this week's Retro Sketch."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose this lovely older 6x6 patterned paper by My Mind's Eye because its pre-made collage had a bit of sheet music in it. Then I added some chipboard letters made by fusing vintage sheet music to thin chipboard (with my Xyron) and diecutting with Provocraft's "Tag Sale" alphabet. The poinsettia diecuts were leftover from a 'Christmas In July and August' class I taught at my LSS... all I had to do was choose a few different patterns which went well together and load the whole deal onto a couple of mats. Easy, peasy!

And now it's your turn to select your favorite MUSICAL elements, use them to create a brand new holiday card, and link it up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, September 7th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:18.

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Rudolph the RED Nosed Reindeer

This fortnight's prompt is called "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" BUT... it's not the critter, it's the COLOR we'd like to see on your holiday cards this week, Jingle Belles! In fact we'd like to see cards that are predominantly red. Does that mean you can't use any other colors? Certainly not. But your card should be, if not MOSTLY red, at least definitely, decidedly and noticeably red. Other than that you can do anything you like... including add an absolutely optional reindeer if you so desire!

Here's what we made:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "This is one of my favorite shades of red ... Ranger Archival Vermillion.  When it is combined with an awesome Artistic Outpost image, you don't need much more (although I did add a few coordinating pearls on the corner & some foam tape for dimension)."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I based my design around this older chipboard embellishment I found lurking in my Xmas stash. I fell in love with this week's Sketch Saturday layout, because it had a prominent circle that allowed me to accent the tag really well, while still staying firmly in the category of 'mostly red' in terms of palette." 

And now it's your turn to ransack your RED stash, whether you choose Carmine or Crimson, Cranberry or Carnelian... or even all of the above if you're feeling particularly well red! Link up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 24th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:17.

An InLinkz Link-up

We Three Kings

We Three Kings - this week we're creating in multiples of THREE.

That means create a card with THREE of one element … three circles, three reindeer, three packages under the tree … you get the picture.

Here are our triple-play creations:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I designed my card around THREE rectangles cut from designer paper ... each containing a holiday icon.  For some bonus points, I also included a brad with a THREE word sentiment and three snowflakes above my Santa."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose to build my card around three tiny trees, diecut from three tiny scraps of patterned paper. Once I had them ready to inhabit a card, Week #422 at Sketch Saturday helped me determine their placement and accoutrements."

Link your "We Three Kings" cards here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 10th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:16.

An InLinkz Link-up