While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

For our next Jingle Belles prompt, we're asking you to break out the animals … it could be a sweet little sheep, a naughty kitty, or perhaps a Reindeer … okay, or even a monster or a Yeti if you're in a Halloween mood and want to stretch the theme.

Here are our animals for this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I built my card around the adorable Christmas kitty from Spellbinders Oh What Fun! Rub-ons (from their event).  I paired it with papers from Carta Bella Merry Christmas collection, each framed in gold mirror cardstock and a Sketch from Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers {BYSHC}  I finished with a Savvy Stamps Woodblock Make Merry sentiment."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I went semi-traditionally; or at least, I've chosen animals that actually exist, lol, namely the moose, narwhal and walrus from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Arctic. I really like paper-piecing these guys, so that's what I did here. I built a little winter landscape for them to inhabit; then all I needed was a diecut sentiment and a few snowflakes, et voila!

♥♥♥

Just in case the theme isn't inspiring enough, here's a very fancy reindeer die (Elegant Reindeer from Sizzix) who'd LOVE to come and live at the home of one lucky, randomly-selected cardmaker that links up with us this fortnight:

JB2622: While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks runs until 6pm (Eastern) the evening of Wednesday, November 4th. Link up your own critter-centric masterpiece(s) right here!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Think Pink!

It's always an exciting moment to announce the total for our annual donation to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, so before we show some of our faves from Pink Christmas, let us proudly announce that we had 21 cards in total, and since our donation is $2 each for every card, we'll be sending $84 to BCRF this year! Many thanks to all who linked up and helped us reach this total!

Literally EVERY Pink Christmas card is a great one, so if you haven't yet taken time to scroll through all the entries, we highly recommend the trip. But meanwhile, here are three cards that especially caught our eye:

Lesley G of Lesley's Craft Room

...created a seemingly *simple* card; but every element is perfectly judged. From the embossed text in the background; to the perfect shades of pink for hat, mats and gems; and of course that sheer pink ribbon as a finishing touch. This card really has it all!

Becca Yahrling who posts on Flickr

...made three gorgeous cards, but this one-- with the floral diagonal stripes, adorable skate (with dimensional furry topper!) and fancy diecut sentiment --is especially charming!

Suzanne H who posts on Flickr

...created this showstopper of a background by heat embossing the oversized stamp in white, then stenciling the colors on top; it's an incredible effect, therefore all she needed on top was that beautifully framed sentiment!

♥♥♥

Shifting gears q little be before we go: what with all the fun of Pink Christmas AND our (Lauren and Stephanie's) NYC vacation, one of us (LAUREN!) totally forgot to award the prize from the last challenge, JB2620: The Stockings Were Hung, so let's do that right now:

The Random Number Generator has selected 

Lucky Number 6 

which means that

Denise Bryant

is our Lucky Winner!

Denise, please send your snail mail info to 

llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com and we'll get that winging its way to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who played along, we loved seeing every card and we're grateful to you for helping us raise a little bit of cash for a worthy cause. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope won't leave you feeling sheepish... ;)

♥ Pink Christmas... for the Cure! ♥

We're still creating Pink cards for the Cure ... This is the fortnight where Stephanie and Lauren each donate $2 per linked-up card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, so if you're only going to join us here at Jingle Belles for ONE challenge, let it be this one!

Here is how we went PINK this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Frank Garcia's Candy Cane Lane collection for Prima Marketing might be my all-time favorite Pink Christmas set; it came out in 2022 and I've used the heck out of it ever since/ Luckily, I still had a few goodies left, like the adorable Santa journal card, and that pretty pink floral background with metallic accents. I paired those items with some pink washi; oversized Pink Stippled Jewel Brads from Eyelet Outlet attaching ancient velvetty flowers; and a mat I ran through Dina Wakley's Stars and Fronds 3D Embossing Folder. IRL, this card has more texture and more sparkle than you can see in the photo, but I guess you'll have to take my word for that!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I shopped my stash for pink holiday paper and found this lovely Mackenzie Christmas from LDRS Creative.  I used two different papers to pull this one together ... with that little tear drop trailer, I know exactly who this card will be going to."

♥♥♥

JB2621: PINK Christmas runs until 6pm (Eastern) next Wednesday, October 21st. If you'd like to help us raise some extra cash for BCRF, Link as many newly made, predominantly PINK holiday cards as you possibly can on the original Pink Christmas post (directly beneath this one) before then!

We're Dreaming of a PINK Christmas!

It's early October (aka Breast Cancer Awareness Month) and therefore time for one of our favorite Jingle Belles events: Pink Christmas! This is the fortnight where Stephanie and Lauren each donate $2 per linked-up card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, so if you're only going to join us here at Jingle Belles for ONE challenge, let it be this one!

Does your card have to be ALL PINK? Nope; but the pink should be kind of predominant. Can you add in other colors, too? Yep. Can you link up more than one card? Yes, please! Does each card have to be in a separate post? No, we'll make sure to count however many cards you've made, whether you post them all at once or one at a time, so the logistics are completely up to you.

Here are our PINK CHRISTMAS cards for this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I love using non-holiday papers for holiday cards.  I thought these pink flowers & leaves worked well with the tiny 3-D glittery gifts.  I finished with a red embossed sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio Christmas Sentiments."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I found this Oxide Ink-Blended panel, the large pink dotty circle, AND the 'Let it Snow' flag in my leftovers box, which seems like too much serendipity to ignore. I generally position an ombre panel so that the darkest shade is on the bottom, but this time I decided to go vertical and I think it looks pretty cool. The trees and stars are from an absolutely ancient sheet of Pebbles stickers that I found when we did the sticker challenge a few weeks ago and I added tiny Doodlebug enamel hearts plus some Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads. Skinny white mats and YES, a PINK cardbase complete my A6 design."

♥♥♥♥♥

JB2621: We're Dreaming of a PINK Christmas runs until the evening of Wednesday, October 21st. Link as many newly made PINK holiday cards as you possibly can, right here: 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

ALL of The Stocking Cards...

...are absolutely awesome; so if you haven't taken a scroll through the Stockings Were Hung Readers' Gallery, we highly recommend the trip! This week Lauren and Stephanie are hanging out together in the Big Apple, but we'll have a brand new prompt as usual on Friday, and regular Shout Outs will resume afterwards. Many thanks to all who played along, we hope you'll stop back tomorrow, we think you'll be tickled PINK! (PS: We'll announce the winner of the dies over the weekend, in a separate post.)

Sticking With Stockings

It's the second week of our Stocking-centric fun, so we're still making cards which showcase that beloved holiday gift-giving tradition. Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I got to use my Simon Hurley Mantel Decorations die set from Spellbinders for the first time, and I had a lot of fun. I embossed a brick background using an ancient embossing folder, cut a scrap of woodgrain paper into a mantle-shaped chunk and got down to adding dies from the set: the banners, the stockings, the large deer and greenery. Then, for some additional texture and interest to this little scene, I attached Eyelet Outlet Deer, Poinsettia, Nutcracker and Gift Brads; plus a few red Round Brads to hold the stockings and the banner."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I built my card around this journaling card from the Echo Park Happy Holidays collection.  I paired it with snowflake paper from the same collection.  I topped it with two silver Love from Lizi Peel Off stickers and a bow sticker from the same collection.  I finished with a silver font sticker sentiment to balance out the bottom of the card."

And remember, one lucky participant will receive the Memory Box Knotted Circle Wreaths dies.

♥♥♥

JB2620: The Stockings Were Hung runs until next Wednesday evening, October 7th. Link your own Stocking-centric card(s) on the original post, directly below this one.

The Stockings Were Hung

If you've already guessed that this fortnight we want to see cards which feature Christmas Stockings, then HOORAY you're right! If you're feeling ambitious, you could make a stocking-shaped card, for which we've found you some excellent templates; but of course a card with a stocking stamp, diecut, or journal card also works!

Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "When I found this cute little stocking on the Pinkfresh Studio Happy Holidays Wood Accent, I knew it would be perfect to build my card around.  The September Pinkfresh Studio Challenge is Again & Again (using repeated elements), so I added two more of the Wood Accents as my first repeated element.  Then I paired them with two Pinkfresh Studio papers that had repeated elements (squares and rectangles) and finished by repeating clusters of  Pinkfresh Gold Glitter Dots and a tiny believe ephemera sticker."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "That's an Authentique journal card from a year or two ago, and as soon as I saw it in my journal card stash, I was already pulling the colors and the vibes out for a little collage. I've got some nicely patina-ed sheet music; a page from an old Ideals Christmas magazine plus some poinsettias from another page (backed with cardstock and adorned with Sunflower Stickles in the centers); some text paper; a little border strip with the days of the week; a Graphic 45 sentiment; some miscellaneous holiday washi and a few super-skinny red mats." 

♥♥♥

And for one lucky participant, we will be gifting the Knotted Circle Wreaths dies from Memory Box.

JB2620: The Stockings Were Hung runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 7th. Link  your own Stocking-centric masterpiece(s) right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter