Walking in a VINTAGE Wonderland

This week we're asking you to create a card that features retro or vintage products, a vintage style, or you can go for extra points and do both.

Here are our Vintage creations for this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Most of the items in my Vintage mailable collage are Tim Holtz vintage-reproduced items (except for the truly vintage S&H Green Stamps & the Simon Says Stamp sentiments).  I love layering all of those items together for a completely mailable holiday card."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've used a fun retro 1950's style journal card from Authentique (one of my fave manufacturers for a vintage vibe; Graphic 45 and Carta Bella are good too!) with coordinating distressed gingham background; plus an ancient paper poinsettia, 7 Gypsies velvet leaves and an MME brad that might have been purchased during the last century. The fun and snarky sentiment are snipped from another journal card; and the ribbon, which is new, from Paper Anthology, was impossible to resist because how often do you get to put red AND green gingham on the same card?!"

♥♥♥

One randomly-selected cardmaker who links up with us this time will win a 

Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment 

and a $15 gift card to choose anything else they'd like 

from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff

♥♥♥

Link your vintage or retro-inspired card(s) right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, September 7th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-22-18.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have Yourself a Very Vintage Christmas

For this prompt, we're asking you to create a card with a vintage or retro vibe … either by using new products that are vintage-in-style or by incorporating actual vintage items into your design... or heck, really go for it and use both!

If you've got absolutely NOTHING to use, don't despair, there are a few scans below, from Lauren's personal collection/hoard for you to use if you'd like. Also, one lucky random cardmaker who links up with us this time will win some fab and funky Christmas Ephemera from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff!

Here's what we made:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I pulled together all sorts of vintage elements from my stash ... game card, ektachrome slide, trading stamps, postage stamps, wildlife stamps, a doily, and a dictionary page.  I had fun layering it all together and finishing with some modern vintage sentiment strips."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I went with mostly real vintage because it's sorta my thang, lol! I went collage-y for the same reason. But of course there are loads of fabulous brand new stamps and paper lines that will get you a similar effect; for that matter you could use vintage elements in a CAS card! There are lots of ays to go with this! I've combined a poinsettia fussycut from a vintage Ideals Magazine, a collage of sheet music and text papers overlaid with some fun Red Stamps and at the end I added ancient lace and brand new (but I've had them awhile) 7 Gypsies velvetty leaves for texture."

♥♥♥

Right-click and save an old-fashioned Belle-centric image to use if you'd like; print at full-size, as a mini, or anywhere in between!

♥♥♥

In addition, one lucky cardmaker will be randomly selected to win:

A Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment

AND a $10 gift voucher to

Lauren's Etsy Shop

Just Enough Stuff!

♥♥♥

Link up your old-fashioned masterpieces right here, by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, April 8th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:20:07.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

An Old-Fashioned Christmas

This week at Jingle Belles we're going back in time ... we're asking you to create a card with a vintage or retro vibe … either by using new products that are vintage-in-style or by incorporating actual vintage items into your design (or heck, really go for it and use both).

Here's how we went vintage this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I recently returned from California where I was able to attend a Print-makers' Fair.  At one booth, I picked-up a few tiny vintage cards including this vintage boot in a roller skate filled with roses.  I wasn't sure how I would use it ... but I loved it.  I love how it paired perfectly with several designer papers with vintage designs including some numbers, text, flourishes and holly.  Sentiment is once again Bluebird Typed Christmas (apparently my go to sentiment set)."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My card was inspired by this week's Sketch Saturday (#562) because that funky-cool angle is just so awesome! My vintage bits are actual vintage, from my stash of goodies, and include that lovely Jingle Bells sheet music from an old songbook, the (well-hoarded!) German-Scrap bells; plus a red doily that may have been "liberated" from my mom's dining room, so shhhhh don't tell her lol! I've mixed in some modern patterned paper in semi-muted shades that went well with the bells, and finished off with loads of dimensional flowers and leaves."

♥♥♥

Just in case you have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING even vaguely vintage-inspired in your stash, here are a couple of scans from Lauren's personal collection of ephemera for you to use if you'd like:

♥♥♥

To further inspire you, we've got a little prize for one (randomly selected) lucky cardmaker who links up with us this fortnight:

A Christmas Ephemera Assortment

 like this one, as well as a $10 credit to select anything else you'd like from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff

♥♥♥

Link up as many times as you want, between now and 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, May 22. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:19:10.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Old-Fashioned Perfection

Clearly we are not the only cardmakers who enjoy a vintage vibe at Christmas. Judging by the amazing gallery, everyone was especially inspired this fortnight! Here are a few cards that made us particularly happy:

Sue C of Paper Pleasure
...combined many gorgeous bits and bobs in a beautiful "collagey" style, made even better by the uniquely shaped card base!



Susan B of Cardmaker's Garret
...stamped what might be the Best Sentiment Ever, then let it shine by making it the star of this lovely card!

Barbara of The Knackered Grouse
...posted three of seven (!) cards she made featuring gorgeous vintage Santa illustrations teamed with just the right embellishments!

♥♥♥

And now what about that fun prize from Lauren's Etsy Shop,
Just Enough Stuff?

Prize includes a Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment
like this one and  a $10 credit to select anything else
you'd like from Just Enough Stuff 

The fine folks at Random.org have selected the magic number of...
*22*
which means our Lucky Winner is:

*Janis Lewis*

please email Lauren at llaurenb@hotmail.com
to claim your prize!

Many thanks to everyone who played along this fortnight! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new inspiration we hope will color your holiday cardmaking world in a brand new way! ♥

Spirits of Christmas PAST

It's time for a brand new prompt, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and this fortnight we are celebrating all things vintage! As you know, we loooooooove vintage paper and ephemera, and in fact Lauren even built her Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, around it! But for this challenge you needn't have actual OLD stuff; you can use vintage-style products or images; we've also put a few digital scans of some favorite items from Lauren's personal collection at the bottom of this post that you are welcome to test drive! But basically, we just want to see holiday cards using whatever conveys an "old fashioned" vibe to you! 

Warm Washi Wishes

So many amazingly lovely tape-centric creations in the gallery, and every single one of them is a WINNER! You guys sure do make it hard to only choose a few to "feature", but here are some that especially warmed our washi-loving hearts:

Electra of Wishin' I Knew How To Blog

...made not one, not two, but *NINE* beautiful, unique, fabulous tape-based holiday greetings. If you haven't already seen them, you must GO... go NOW! 

Kim M of Art Keeps Me Sane

...combined a bunch of gorgeous tapes-- some holiday ones, some not-- to beautiful effect, then went for bonus points by cutting some of them into arrows to point out her stamped sentiment!

Steffi H posting on Flickr

...proved that you don't necessarily need a lot of tapes --or a lot of ANYTHING, for that matter-- if you've chosen wisely and well!

I think we're all longing to find out who'll be getting that fun prize from our wonderful friends at Eyelet Outlet, right? According to Random.org the lucky number is... *4*! Which means that

♥MISS ELECTRA♥
is our lucky winner, congrats!
(ok, yes, this is the very first time that we've ever had someone be in the shout-outs and then ALSO turn out to be the prize winner, which just goes to show you, it really *is* a RANDOM draw done by the little widget thingie at Random.org!!!)

Please email your address to Lauren at llaurenb @ hotmail.com so we can get that prize to you ASAP!

Once again we'd like to thank Eyelet Outlet for sponsoring us and providing the prize; our Eyelet Outlet Design Teammates Barry Lynn Snarr and Dawn Mercedes Barrett for being our lovely guest stars; and of course we are always grateful to have such wonderful, creative readers who share their inspiration with us each fortnight! ♥ 

We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt and another very talented "co-star" we hope will really shake up your holiday cardmaking!

Here We Come a-WASHI-ing

We're still celebrating the many joys of decorative tape, and there's still time for you to link up a tape-centric card (or cards, plural!) for a chance at the fun prize from our lovely sponsor, Eyelet Outlet, so please scroll down to the original post for full details and to link up your own masterpieces!

Meanwhile, we're very excited to have another of our Eyelet Outlet Design Team cohorts joining the fun this week: please welcome our amazingly talented friend, Dawn Mercedes Barrett; she's made two gorgeous cards and there are even more lovely things to see on her fabulous blog, Sunnyside Up, so be sure to check it out!

Here's what we all made this week:

On her first card, Dawn Mercedes used Glitter Green and Glitter Gold Tape as well as Pearl Flourishes; her second card features Holly Brads, Ornament Brads, Wreath Brads, Red and Green Pearl Bling Strips plus a few varieties of Holiday Washi Tape that were exclusive to the Eyelet Outlet Booth at a recent trade show-- another great reason to be sure to visit EO in person when they come to your part of the country with Scrapbook Expo or CKC or other craft shows! ♥

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I used two kinds of glitter washi (glitter red & glitter green dots) both from our sponsor Eyelet Outlet.  I covered scraps of cardstock with washi and trimmed the pieces to work with the sketch at The Paper Players.  Instead of a circle, I used a black chipboard ornament that I decked out with adhesive white jewels."

Lauren's Other Card(s)

Lauren says, "The 'quilt squares technique' (for which there are more details on my blog) is one of my go-to's for tape because it's easy, it comes out differently each time, and you get to combine a whole bunch of tapes! Here I've used Holiday Dots, Ornament Washi, Pink Foil with White Dots, and Music Notes; I've added Bumpy Heart Bling and Pink Flower Jewels to stacks of Red and White Paper Flowers as well as a few Pearl Strips."

Be sure to scroll down to the original post for full details on the challenge, the prize and how to link up ♥YOUR♥ holiday tape creations!

Walking in a ♥WASHI♥ Wonderland

We're thrilled to have a fantastic sponsor joining us this week, please join us in welcoming... Eyelet Outlet!

We (Stephanie and Lauren) both have the privilege of being on the Eyelet Outlet Design Team, so they provided both of us with Washi Tape to use on our cards, as well as a prize for one lucky participant that will include these adorable holiday sock monkey brads, as well as red glitter washi tape (which Stephanie used on her card this week) and holiday glitter brads. Of course, one of the best things about being on a great design team is getting to meet the other team members, and we're pretty excited to have our fellow EO designer, Barry Snarr playing along with us this week. Be sure to check out the fabulous creations on his blog, The Prince of Paper, and leave him some love!

Meanwhile, here's what we created for our WASHI wonderland:

Barry's Card

Barry used these cool Eyelet Outlet goodies on his card:  

Glitter Silver Washi Tape, Glitter Dark Blue Washi Tape and a Snowflake Brad  

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I used the gorgeous red glitter washi tape (which is all of the sparkle & none of the mess) together with stippled gem brads and a blingy flourish to decorate a journaling card.  I added silver shimmer paper and a blue card base to match my wrap of twine using this week's Retro Sketch."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Eyelet Outlet's ornament washi tape might be my current favorite, but don't tell the other tapes, ok?! ;) It inspired me to make some baubles similar to the ones on the tape. The green one has a base of patterned paper, adorned with eyelet outlet paper flowers and clear edge bling; the golden one is made of plain white cardstock, gussied up with glitter gold washi tape; and the third is composed of holiday dots washi tape applied in neatly lined-up strips, to make an all-over pattern. For hangers I've used white pearl strips; I also have smaller pearl strips in red to highlight the original piece of tape I started with. I knew exactly how to arrange everything because I used the super-cool current (#408) Sketch Saturday!"

Now it's your turn to grab your favorite washi tape (deco tape, glitter tape, packing tape and fabric tape are also fine!!!) and make as many gorgeous new holiday cards as you feel inspired to create! One lucky card-maker who links up with us this fortnight will be randomly chosen to win the super-fun Eyelet Outlet prize described above. Deadline is 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, May 4th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:16:09.

An InLinkz Link-up

Pretty in Pixels

We were in hybrid heaven this fortnight, checking out all the fabulous ways you guys came up with to use your digital treasures! Here are a few cards that made us especially giddy:

Pauline of Crafting with Cotnob

Paired a gorgeous image and paper from a crafting cd with real life touches like skinny mats and that luscious red bow!

Eemeli of Eemeli's Home

Layered a perfectly colored pair of digi-stamped snow people over a beautiful background of text in a simple but lovely font!

Mel C aka Cards by Mel

Cleverly replicated the jingle bell image from that fab Deedee's Digis "Jingle All the Way" kit to make a garland, then layered it over a super-cute snowman digi stamp! (Be sure to check out her other cool jingle bell card, as well!) 

And now it's time to find out who's going to be having a little shopping spree later today at Deedee's Digis. The fine folks at Random.org have chosen #1 which means that...

♥EMA MARTINEZ♥

...is the lucky winner of the $15.00 gift certificate at the Deedee's Digis shop! Ema, please email Lauren at llaurenb @ hotmail (dot) com to received the codes you need to GET SHOPPING!

We hope everyone who played along will join us in thanking the lovely ladies at Deedee's Digis for their sponsorship, for sending along the fun "Jingle All the Way" kit for us all to play with and for the stellar work of their awesome design team; we really appreciate all off the above. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt to help make your Memorial Day weekend super cool! :)

We Wish You a Digital Christmas

...and so does our lovely sponsor, Deedee's Digis, who are giving ♥YOU♥ an early holiday present by placing a brand new, super-fun, super-festive kit called "Jingle All the Way" in the very cool freebies section of their shop for the duration of this challenge! Of course you can use ANY digital element to make your own hybrid holiday card, and be sure to link it up on the Hybrid Holiday post (right below this one) before next Wednesday night for a chance at a fabulous $15.00 shopping spree at Deedee's Digis!

Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "One of the fun things about digital images is that you can manipulate and re-orient them.  I erased the white background and then horizontally rotated my image in PhotoShop, so I could have two Jingle Bells for my card ... I also used the scraps of my digital paper from my first card for my layout."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My favorite trick with digital elements is to try them out on all different types of printing media. In this case I've layered the "Jingly" sentiment on top of the "Bells" paper in Photoshop, then printed the whole thing on an inkjet transparency. Apart from giving it a cool new look, I'm pretty sure this is the easiest way ever to make a shaker card! I did some machine stitching over the beautiful script of "Jingly" to make it stand out even more, and added a few flowers held with a jingle bell brad, before backing the edges of the panel with foam tape to hold the tiny heart confetti inside the shaker part of the card. 
Easy Peasy!"

Happy Hybrid Holidays

We are extra excited this fortnight to have Deedee's Digis as our fabulous sponsor! 

Please join us in extending a warm welcome, and let's learn a little bit about them:

"Deedee's Digis offers wholesome digital "stamps" and printable digital papers that are the original creations of Deedee Anderson. All of our sets include both outline and pre-colored images, in both JPG and PNG formats. Our products are offered in high 300dpi resolution so that they are fully resizable to meet your crafting needs. We are a Christ-centered company, and you will find that many of our sets include KJV Scripture verses, in addition to encouraging sentiments of all sorts. We feel very blessed to be part of such a talented community of paper crafters, and thank you for allowing us to sponsor this challenge! 

One lucky, randomly-chosen cardmaker who links up a brand new "Happy Hybrid Holidays" card with us this fortnight will win a $15 shopping spree at the Deedee's Digis Shop. To be eligible, all you have to do is make a brand new holiday card that includes some sort of digital element... such as a digi-stamp, brush, paper, etc. Don't have anything fabulous? Well, Deedee has created a brand new, super-festive kit just for this occasion called "Jingle All the Way" and it will be available to our readers FOR FREE during this challenge! Just jump on over to the "Try Before You Buy" section of the shop, where it... and a bunch of other cool (free!) goodies... await you!  Here's a little preview of what's inside:

We're thrilled to have four members of the Deedee's Digis Design Team with us to help us kick off what we know will be an especially festive fortnight. Please be sure to visit their blogs and leave them some love!

Marji's Card

Features the "Mouse and Cat" and "Jingle Bell" image, as well as the "Jingly" sentiment and the grid and bell papers!

Faith's Card

Features the "Jingle Bell" image and all three papers from the kit!

Tamara's Card

Features the "Mouse and Cat" image and the "Wish" sentiment!

Donna's Card

Features the "Jingle Bell" image and the "Jingly" sentiment.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I used the colored "Mouse and Cat" digital image, the "Jingly" digital sentiment and the plaid digital paper with this week's Retro Sketch ... all I had to do was find a few scraps of coordinating cardstock and a snip of Christmas ribbon."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I printed the grid paper and "Jingle All the Way" in the traditional way, on plain paper and sand colored cardstock, respectively. I printed the "Jingle Bell" image on plain copier paper and used it as a template to paper piece twice: once on colored cardstock and once on gold glitter paper. I used my Cropadile and a craft knife to cut out the holes in the bells and backed them with scraps of black paper. To bump up the texture factor, I swapped out the printed bow in the image for a "real life" version in red satin, embellished with dimensional florals and velvetty leaves. All of the above are popped up on textured red cardstock layered with a scrap of chunky metallic ribbon for my stash. The result is a bit lumpy-bumpy, so I'll be mailing this card with a gift in December, but I love how it turned out!"

Now it's time to see what ♥YOU♥ will create! Use your favorite digital stamp, brush or paper OR download the festive *FREE* "Jingle All the Way" kit from the "Try Before You Buy" section at Deedee's Digis and go to town! Remember, one lucky, randomly chosen cardmaker who links up a brand new holiday card with us this fortnight will win a $15 shopping spree at the Deedee's Digis Shop, so be sure to link up before 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, May 20th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB:15:10.

An InLinkz Link-up