Superlative Stash-Shopping!

Soooooooooooo many gorgeous holiday cards linked up this fortnight! Here are a few feats of stashly derring-do which especially caught our eye:

Bobbi of Bobbi's Treasure

...stamped a previously uninked partridge onto vellum and layered it over sheet music, for a card that'll put a song into anyone's heart!

Pink Unicorn of Invisible Pink Cards

...mastered her previously unused spritzer tool to create this incredibly cool snowflake-bedecked background!

Janis of Her Peaceful Garden

...revived this beautiful Angel stamp from several years ago and created this fabulous metal effect (it's called Molten Double Embossing) to really show her off!

I suppose we'd all love to know who won those super-fun goodies, as well, eh? Be sure to hop over to Shopping Our Stash to see who won that prize; meanwhile as for the ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ portion of the festivities, the fine folks at Random.org have chosen #37... which means that

♥Carol L♥ 

of Our Little Inspirations
is our lucky winner!

(please send your snail mail to lauren via llaurenb @ hotmail (dot) com to claim your prize!)

Many thanks to everyone who played along, and a big cyber high-five to our lovely friends at Shopping Our Stash, for co-hosting with us! Stephanie and Lauren will be back at midnight with a brand new prompt guaranteed to give you more than eight crazy nights of fun, be sure to pop back then! ♥

Stashing through the Snow

Let's face it, we *all* have more supplies than we need, but they're sooooooo much fun! Luckily, Shopping Our Stash posts a new challenge every Tuesday, specially designed to encourage us to use a few older items. This fortnight, we Jingle Belles are proud to help in that particular mission, and we invite you to make a holiday card using something at least a year old, link it up here and at SOS, and be eligible for two different prizes. Sound like fun? Scroll down to last week's post for full details. Meanwhile, here's what we made this week:

Donna's Other Card

Donna says, "Designer paper is from a 2013 kit; stockings, twine and sentiment are at least a year old!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I think I could probably shop my stash every day for a year and find something new each time.  I found these gorgeous Darkroom Door Noel Stamps I'm sure have been stashed away for several years without ever seeing any ink ... until now.  I combined them with some ancient green designer paper and some new designs from Simple Stories Claus & Co."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I could *definitely* shop my stash every day... and in fairness, I do make it a point to do so most of the time, not just for my SOS design team cards. I really do like a mix of old and new stuff together. For this card I've combined some vintage sheet music, Studio Calico holiday paper from a few years ago, an absolutely ancient sequin and brad, plus a brand new Memory Box snowflake border die. Oh and the ornament is made using my two newest obsessions: Ken Oliver's Color Burst Powders and Viva Glitter Paste!"

Be sure to check out the other fabulous design team cards at Shopping Our Stash!

Shopping Our (Jingly!) Stash!

Long-time readers are probably aware that in addition to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ Lauren also makes cards each week at Shopping Our Stash, where the crafty mission is to re-discover and creatively use the neglected or forgotten older supplies we already own. You may also remember that last year our two blogs teamed up for a super-fun "Christmas in July" event. So fun, in fact that we're doing it again... though not the July part, obviously. :)

Would you like to make one card and get two link-ups, plus a chance at two lovely prizes?! We thought you might! Can you predict what we're going to ask for? We bet you can! The Jingle Belles part is to make a brand new holiday card, of course; the SOS part is to use something from your stash that is at least a year old and be sure to tell us what that item is, so we can marvel at how cleverly you've used it!

In addition to all the other "twos" this fortnight, we've got gorgeous and inspirational cards on both blogs, so be sure to check out what Barbara, Chris, Donna and Stephanie have done over at Shopping Our Stash. Meanwhile here are the rest of our design team cards:

Leslie's Card

Click through to Leslie's blog, "The Crooked Stamper" to find out what her stash items are!

Deena's Card

Click through to Deena's blog,  "A Deena Card" to find out what her stash items are!

Jessi's Card

Click through to Jessi's blog, "One Crafty Mama" to find out what her stash items are!

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Since Stephanie and I got to spend some crafty time together last week, we decided to add a little *extra* level of challenge to our own cards by using the same stamp. This Christmas tree qualifies as senior stash, since it's from D.O.T.S. --a company that's been gone for at least a decade! For my card I decided to stamp it on several different scraps of green paper, then piece them all back together. When my tree didn't quite fill up the green panel, it occurred to me I could stretch it a bit by stamping and cutting out a few extra layers, which I think worked pretty well. I used Sweet Sunday Sketch #285 to guide my layout."

You may recall that we mentioned *prizes*? Be sure to check out SOS for the details of that one; meanwhile here at Jingle Belles one randomly chosen card-maker who links up with us this fortnight will win this little bunch of (appropriately) brand-new-but-older goodies from the prize box:

Now it's time to search through your stash, find something that's at least a year old... (though we bet you can find something reallllllllly elderly if you put your mind to it!!!) ...and use it to make a brand new holiday card. Link it up here and at Shopping Our Stash before 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, September 23rd. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:15:19.

An InLinkz Link-up

Stash-o-licious!

If anyone ever doubted that older products could still look *AMAZING* in brand new cards, all they have to do is check out the gorgeous readers' gallery from our collaboration with Shopping Our Stash to see the proof! Here are a few especially fine examples of that phenomenon:

Diane of Lydia's Post

...combined many fun and festive elements and easily scoops the award for oldest stash item with her beautiful *FORTY* year old (!!!) book paper background!

Maura aka beesmom at Split Coast Stampers

...used an older die set in a new way by creating this clever silhouette snowscape!

Jess of Jess Crafts

...dipped into some treasured hoarded papers and combined an older stamp with a brand new coloring technique to produce this masterpiece of adorability!

Now it's time to find out who's scored the little packet of holiday goodies that was up for grabs. The fine folks at Random.org have chosen the number 35 which means our lucky winner is:

♥SHAUNA♥
of Creating With Paper

please email your address to us at jinglebellesrock (at) hotmail (dot) com so we can get your prize right out to you!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, and especially to the lovely ladies of Shopping Our Stash for teaming up with us this fortnight. Remember there's a new challenge on that fine blog every single Tuesday morning, so be sure to check that out! Meanwhile, WE will have a brand new challenge headed in your direction at Midnight... with a brand new lovely guest star to inspire you!

Shopping ... and more Shopping

We're still embracing the wonderful premise of Shopping Our Stash to make holiday cards which utilize items we've owned for at least a year... though some of our ingredients are quite a bit older than that! In addition to the lovely greetings below, there are more at SOS-- including Stephanie's-- so be sure to check them out, too!

Barbara's Card

...features a snowman image from The Stamp Barn which is no longer in operation, this snowman is one of a set of four. This image I had stamped a bunch for making kits for a few friends and this was a left over. In keeping with the SOS criteria everything here is well over a year old.

Jessi's Card

...uses stamps which were a gift about a year and a half ago, papers which are scraps from 2 years ago, and the Pearl mist is also about 2 years old.

Lauren's Card

...is built around some dimensional felt poinsettias which are at least 3-4 years old, (at least!) a scallopy half-moon journaling card of about the same vintage, and as a scrap of flowery "Nordic Holiday" paper that was positively longing to be used up!!!

Remember you can link your new-but-stashy creations on the original posts both here AND at Shopping Our Stash! Since there are prizes on both blogs for lucky random cardmakers, you'll definitely want to do that!

Shopping Our Jingle Belles Stash

This fortnight we are incredibly excited to welcome the lovely ladies of the weekly challenge blog Shopping Our Stash to a special crossover event! Just in case you've never played along at SOS, here's a little bit about the concept:

Shopping Our Stash (or SOS) 

is a weekly challenge blog which evolved from a personal desire by our founder, Carla, and the rest of us, to focus on using the supplies we have on hand, or "shopping our stash" instead of always thinking we have to have something new! Shopping Our Stash posts a brand new challenge every single Tuesday morning, and would love for you to grab some of your older supplies and join the fun!

Isn't that a fantastic idea? Yep, we think so, too! So in honor of this special event, we've got a special "two-fer" challenge for you. Here's what to do: 

1. Make a holiday card that uses something from your stash 

which is at least a year old.

2. Post the card on your blog or gallery, and be sure 

to tell us what your older stash item is.

3. Link your card at the bottom of this ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ post 

and also at this Shopping Our Stash post.

4. Check back at both blogs on July 17th to see if you've won 

one of the lovely prizes! (More on that in a minute!)

Since this is an extra-special challenge, we've got more than the usual amount of inspiration to share, and we're spreading it around! Shopping Our Stash design team members Leslie, Donna and Alica, and our own Stephanie have some lovely items to show you right here; whilst Lauren's card is proud to be featured over at SOS, with those of design teammates Jessi, Barbara and Chris.

Leslie's Card

...features a totally hilarious (and totally TRUE!) stamp from 2000!

Donna's Card

... is made from a 2012 card kit, she just added some sequins, which she's pretty sure are at least a year old, also!

Alica's Flower Tree

...is an amazingly lovely use of paper scraps and brads!

 Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "One of the good things about moving are all of the great *discoveries* you make while packing ... like this lovely Christmas Card Stamp I purchased on Etsy in February 2011.  Not only had it not seen ink ... I hadn't even cut into the rubber sheet and mounted the stamps.  Well that has been remedied ... and as I thought when I purchased the stamp, it makes a very quick and mailable holiday card."

Now what about those prizes? Well, here's what one lucky random cardmaker will win who links up here at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥:

Crate Paper "Peppermint Collection" 6x6 paper pad and buttons; Hero Arts "Snow Much Joy" clear stamps; Recollections sparkly chipboard snowflakes and Christmas tree ribbon spool

...to find out about the prize at SOS you're going to have to mosey on over to Shopping Our Stash and read about it there! :)

Be sure to link your stash-using holiday cards both here and at Shopping Our Stash between now and 6pm (EST) on July 16th, 2014. Keyword for galleries and our Flickr group is JB:14:14. ♥

An InLinkz Link-up