Think PINK!

It's another week of PINK creations to support Breast Cancer Research. Remember, for every predominantly PINK holiday card you link-up in the post directly below this one, Stephanie & Lauren will each donate $2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (and just a reminder to do those self-exams and get your annual Mammogram).

Here's how we created in PINK this week.

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "The Santa Baby papers from Prima are some of the most lovely holiday papers. I used them (together with one vertical piece from Dress My Craft Christmas Bells).  I used the layout from The Sketchy Challenges to put it all together.  The finishing touches were some pink enamel dots and some gold sticker strips." 

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week's card was as fast to make as last week's Pink Couch card was slow! After I made a design of seven or eight miscellaneous washi tapes featuring every shade of pink and red in my collection and topped it with pink poinsettias from MME's (older) Sugar Plum collection, all I needed was an anonymous diecut sentiment, a few Eyelet Outlet Glitter Enamel Dots and a bit of machine stitching, et voila!"

♥♥♥

I'm dreaming of a PINK Christmas

If you've played along with us in other years, you may already know that at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we always devote the first 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 (Stephanie and Lauren) each donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (yep that's $4 total for each card linked-up). 

There aren't many 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. Of course your whole card need not be pink, and you can combine other colors with the pink. 

Here is how we celebrated went PINK CHRISTMAS this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with a pile of pink designer papers that I assembled using a World Cardmaking Day sketch from Sketch ~N~ Scrap.  When I pulled in the floral holiday paper, I decided it reminded me of the Taylored Expressions In Bloom Background, so I stamped it in pink on my background designer paper.  Then I pulled out the Taylored Expressions Mythical Grumplings and Simple Strips Christmas to finish my design.  My final embellishment was a pink glittery snowflake to complete the sketch design."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "When I saw Lawn Fawn's 'Window Scene, Winter' stamp set at Paper Anthology I let out a little squeak of joy, because as a matter of fact, I own a couch a bit like that one (there's a pic on my blog) which sits directly in front of a large and dramatic window. The real-life couch truly is pink, though the rest of the room is a bit more neutral. And we've never had a plaid tree, but the blue spruce that I cover with my vintage ornament collection each year sits exactly where the tree from LF's 'Joy to All' is in the card. There are Eyelet Outlet Pink Pearls on this tree, and (white) snowflake sequins in the shaker that's behind the window frame, which is diecut using the add-on 'Window Frame' die set."

Link your beautiful PINK CHRISTMAS cards right here, by 6pm (est) on Wednesday, October 20th. Keyword for galleries and flickr is JB-21-21.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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SNOW Much Fun!

There was so much SNOW-y goodness in the Jingle Belles gallery.

Here are a few of our favorites featuring the white stuff.

Hilary from Fiddling About

stole our hearts with her plaid reindeer on her unique snowy background.

Sherri from Sherri's Flip-Floppin' Blog

shared this amazing snowman with these fun sledding mice ... super-cute.

Sandra from Sandma's Handmade Cards

used stamps from three different companies with masking and inking to create this fabulous snowy scene.

Come back at midnight for our annual October cause.

Let is Snow! Let it Snow!

This week we're still asking you create projects that celebrate the white stuff - you know ... SNOW however you like it ... snowballs, snowmen, snowflakes ... you get the picture.

Here's how we played with SNOW this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I made a funky snowy background for my sweet Doodlebug Snowman, using an older Impression Obsession Cover-a-Card stamp and some ancient KI Memories Snowflake Lace Paper on top. I don't think Core'dinations makes that woven-effect cardstock any more (which is a bit of a pity, imo) but I still have a few scraps left and this rich purple/indigo was perfect both for framing my Lawn Fawn sentiment and the snowy panel, as well."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started with the Hero Arts Every Which Way Stencil in two shades of blue Distress Oxide Ink (Speckled Egg & Tumbled Glass). Next I stamped lots of snowflakes from Hero Arts Stacking Snowflakes using Black Ink.  I finished with a snow-filled snow globe from Hero Arts Make Your Own Snow Globe stamped in Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and a sentiment from Stacking Snowflakes."

Dashing through the SNOW

For our next prompt we're asking you create projects that celebrate the white fluffy flakes of snow … it might be snowmen, snowflakes or just snowfall, but include some snow on your cards.

Here's how we got SNOW-y this week.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "This Penny Black Snowman Joy is my favorite snow person.  I feel the same joy when I'm outside feeling snowflakes falling on my face.  I'm a full-on four-seasons gal, but Autumn and Winter are my favorites.  I started with Core'dinations Cardstock that I embossed with Sizzix Winter Snowflakes 3D Embossing Folder and then sanded to expose the core.  I sprayed on some iridescent shimmer spray for over all sparkle and then splattered with white acrylic ink after I had attached my snowman and the Penny Black Merry Christmas Sentiment."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Every six months or so, I remember that I own quite a few truly beautiful embossing folders... luckily, this is one of those times. I embossed some dramatic purple Core'dinations cardstock and then sanded it to get a cool two-tone effect. I matted it on purple shimmer paper and then a scrap of one of my favorite (older) Blue Fern Studios "Eclectic Charm" patterned papers from Paper Anthology and stacked my Tattered Snowflakes layers, topped with an Eyelet Outlet XL Snowflake Bling, et voila!"

Link your snowy masterpieces right here, by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, October 6th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-20.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Everyone's a Winner...

...when we all play Christmas Tic-Tac-Toe and get some wonderful new cards made! Here are a few that especially caught our eye this time:

Allisa of Rocky Mountain Paper Crafts

...chose the diagonal which included Glitter + Diecuts + Stamping and combined this beautifully stamped and colored floral with a cleverly shaped cut and shimmering inky accents!

Susan B of Cardmaker's Garret

...selected the column to the far right and combined Stamping + Ribbon + Gold in a single, perfectly colored, stamped still life image!

Eliz Stewart of Paper Sweetness

...made a gorgeous CAS card that combines TWO selections: combining both the middle column (Bling + Diecuts + Trees) as well as the bottom row (Glitter + Trees + Gold) with utterly luscious results!

♥♥♥

We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that we really hope won't leave you cold...

Let's play Christmas Tic-Tac-Toe!

We're still playing Tree Skirt Tic Tac Toe this week.  You have until 6pm EST on Wednesday to join our game; link up in the post directly below this one.

Here's how we played this week:

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I went horizontally across the top with Santa, Bling & Stamping.  I stamped images from Artistic Outpost Snowy Woods onto a piece of purple hand-marbled paper from my stash ... I thought the marbling reminded me of blowing snow.  I finished with two Eyelet Outlet Silver Pearl Bling Swirls across the top that continued with the swirly feel."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "My card which incorporates the central row, with Brads + Diecuts + Ribbon. There's an Eyelet Outlet Poinsettia Brad tucked slightly under the cardinal, as well as a scattering of some red Round Brads; the cardinal and the poinsettia he's perched against constitute my diecuts (they're by Taylored Expressions and Penny Black, respectively) and I've stacked three or four ribbons leftover from an ancient Doodlebug collection.

Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe

This fortnight, we're playing Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe, which is kind of like "Beach Blanket Bingo"... but Christmassy... and with a lot more embellishments!

We'd love for you to join us; all you have to do is pick a row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) and create a lovely new holiday card featuring all three elements in that row. There are *lots* of possibilities, so let's get started!

Here's how we played the game this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I went straight down the middle with Bling, Die Cuts & a Tree.  I die cut the Memory Box Marvelous Pine twice from two colors of green cardstock, offsetting slightly for a shadow.  Then I attached it to one of the Alcohol Ink Gel Press Prints from my stash with Stripes (vertical & horizontal) for the current Memory Box Stripes Challenge.  For the bling in this Tic Tac Toe, I used green bling strips from Eyelet Outlet to decorate my tree and then an Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling for the *star* on the top of the tree.  The sentiment is from Memory Box Typewriter Holiday."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Here's yet another time in which (completely without conferring!) great Jingle Belle minds have thought alike, lol! I've also chosen the central column and used Memory Box's Marvelous Pine and Eyelet Outlet Bling, though my card also includes Tim Holtz's Reindeer Flight die and the bling is a Champagne Swirl, taken apart and pieced back together a bit more compactly. My sentiment is an ancient sticker strip; I added a few mats in coordinating colors, plus a tiny bit of machine stitching, and I was all set."

Link your Tic-Tac-Toe masterpieces right here, by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, September 22nd. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-19.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Photo Inspo Goodness

Such clever takes on our photo inspiration challenge, but then those sweeeeeet cookies (& the striking color palette) gave us lots of great ideas. Here are three cards we especially loved:

Loopyloo of Loopyloo Cards

...combined a bright, colorful background, sweet snowman characters and textural white embossing in her sweet confection of a card!

Karen Finkle of Karen's Card Korner

...added dimensional (and sparkly!) tiny trees to a circle element that captures the snowy theme, as well as the scale of the cookies!

Valerie of Le Scrap de Vava

...found the perfect stamps, dies and papers to recreate the snowman cookies... and then incorporated a current card sketch to perfection!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who participated, we loved seeing every single card! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will tick all the boxes of your creative mojo!

Cookies & Milk

We're still creating cards this week inspired by these fabulous Snow Globe Cookies from Missy's Sugar Shop.

Remember, you can be inspired by the colors, characters, shapes or cookies ... just make sure your post lets us know what inspired you.  Link-up by 6pm EST on Wednesday to join the fun.

Here's how we were inspired this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I've used the snowglobes as my inspiration; along with a little nod to some of the colors, especially the purple sky and background, which I truly would never have thought to use, otherwise! But I swapped out the cute factor in favor of something a bit more sophisticated, featuring Tim Holtz's Snow Globe #2 Thinlits Dies. I tend to use this set somewhat rarely, because this card has literally FIFTY tiny diecut pieces! Having said that, it's hard to argue with the results, and once you've assembled all the bits, you don't need anything else on a 6" square card."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I chose the four colors from the cookie backgrounds for my starting place of inspiration and created a paper strip background for my card base.  Then I went hunting through my stash and found these adorable Doodlebug Design Winter Wonderland Snowman Sprinkles Enamel Snowman that also included lots of fun snow stickers that looked like the snow on the cookies.  There were enough to cover the card.  With all of those smiles, I paired them with the perfect sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Reverse Holiday Sentiment Strips."

Cookies for Santa

This week we have this adorable Christmas Cookie inspiration photo from Missy's Sugar Shop to inspire your designs. You might make a card featuring cookies ... or snow globes ... one of these adorable characters ... or the bold pastel color palette; just make sure you tell us in your post what inspired your design.

Here's how we were inspired this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with snow globe inspiration using the Memory Box Snowmen Snow Globe Die.  I die cut two of the clouds and colored the snowman accessories purple inspired by the colors of the snowman cookie.  I created my background by sponging Catherine Pooler Inks, spraying with water and shimmer spray and then a spritz of Distress Oxide Spray and splatters of white acrylic ink.  I attached it to purple Memory Box Cardstock inspired by the background of the cookie picture.  I finished with a sentiment from Memory Box Typewriter Holiday Elements."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I adore the bright non-traditional color palette, as well as the adorable critters and characters. I used multiple shades of my go-to Bella Besties Dot and Graph papers (from Paper Anthology) to mimic the snowy background and some older Doodlebug stickers in the starring roles. I also love how much texture the icing gives to the cookies, which I've interpreted in the form of machine stitching and Eyelet Outlet Multi Size Pearl Bling accents."

Link your cards right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, September 8th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-18.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Taking (Card) Stock

Clearly a ban on patterned paper holds no fears for our Jingle Belles! There were so many beautiful cards in the Cardstock Christmas gallery, we had a hard time picking just three to feature.

Darlene Pavlick of Dar's Crafty Creations

...made three cards, in three different colorways, featuring this beautiful Holly Baubles stencil. This dramatic black and white version miiiiight be our favorite!

Debi B of That Might Look Good on a Card

...used a holly branch stamp, a snowy embossing folder and some cardinal stickers to create a minimalist snowscape that's lovely as can be!

Kylie of Makyaibe Crafts

...takes stamping, coloring and diecutting to Olympic Medalist levels, with her "Night Before Christmas" tour de force!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who played along, we loved seeing every single one of your beautiful and clever ideas! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will give you Sweet Dreams!

12 Days of Cardstock

The Jingle Belles are still creating with only cardstock this week (designer paper is a no-no). 

Here's what we made with our cardstock colors.

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie say, "I used three colors of Memory Box Green cardstock to create my background and then I embossed it with the Memory Box Pinpoint Snowflake Plate.  On top of that I attached the Memory Box Reindeer Window for their August Challenge to feature a White Focal Point in your design.  I finished with a sentiment form Memory Box Holiday Greenery stamped in two shades of green & a Memory Box Fairy Jewel on the reindeer's nose."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I definitely took the long way round, and I cannot possibly recommend it, unless you're absolutely longing to draw at a time when what you actually need to do is make a holiday card, lol. My wonky snowflakes are doodled in Pitt Artist Pen on watercolor paper, smooshed with Cerulean and Violet ColorBurst, then adorned with Hero Arts Enamel Dots." 

Scroll down to the original Cardstock Christmas post to see the readers' gallery and link up your own masterpiece!

Cardstock Christmas

For the next prompt, we're asking you to step away from the designer patterned paper … yes, put it away … none allowed … not even a scrap … because the next prompt is to create a card using only CARDSTOCK. 

You can tear it, ink it, stamp it, spray it, emboss it … but stick to only cardstock for your holiday card design.

Here's how we used our cardstock this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "When I thought of cardstock ideas, my memories took me back to the first innovative cardstock product I remembered - Core'dinations and the magic of embossing it. I made some card samples for them way way way back in the day, so I knew somewhere I still had quite a stash of their paper.  I chose the blue cardstock and embossed it with the Echo Park Mini Triangles embossing folder that reminded me of tiny Christmas Trees and then got out my nail file and sanded away to reveal the light blue Core'dinations core.  Next I sprayed the cardstock with shimmer spray and splattered with white acrylic ink to bring in a snowy effect.  I die cut my STAMPlorations Sentiment from the same blue cardstock, but the contrast didn't work ... I tried a lighter blue, which didn't seem to work either ... but when I combined the two to create a drop shadow ... Voila!.  After gluing them together, I added some more shimmer spray.  My choice of the blue color palette and clean & simple design was inspired by the Less is More Shades of Blue Challenge."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Having been craft besties for so many years, Stephanie and I often embark in the same direction without conferring at all, and this is one of those times! I also immediately thought of both Core'dinations and sanding, so I used an ancient snowy e/f on some pale blue cardstock, then sanded it lightly to let the darker blue core show up better. I layered lots of torn cardstock pieces and diecut with one of my oldest xmas tree dies, and added a reindeer diecut from thin wood veneer. Glitter paper snow, Eyelet Outlet Pearl accents and an embossed dotted blue cardstock mat complete my texture-centric design."

♥♥♥

 Link your cardstock creations right here, by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 25th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-17.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Red & Green Greatness

We loved seeing the gallery filed with cards made from the traditional holiday hues of Red & Green.  Here are the three that caught our eyes:

Feisty Crafter

combined two holiday classics for these colors - Holly & Berries and the Perfect Plaid.

LeAnne of WeeInklings

perfectly combined embossing, die cutting, stamping & designer paper for

this banner-licious design.

Judy V of Created Just 4 U Designs

rocked the gift card holder x 2 with these adorable critters and papers

Join us at midnight for the next paper-centric prompt.

Red & Green Redux

We're still asking you to create cards featuring primarily Red & Green this week.  Link-up your designs by 6pm EST on Wednesday.

Here's what we created for our second cards:

Lauren's Other Card(s)

Lauren says, "This week I was so inspired, I made two (admittedly quite similar) cards. I broke out all of my favorite Eyelet Outlet holiday tape styles that were red or green (or both) and lined them up on my graph paper backgrounds. Once all the tapes were affixed, I added little clusters of holiday stickers and diecuts, not to mention a few EO Brads and some Heart Pearls et voila!

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I had fun gel press printing with Florescent Green paint and Dark Green with a new polka dot foam stamp I found at the used craft store.  I took my inspiration from the card sample at the Inspire.Create.Challenge using a favorite vintage Catslife Press sentiment and vintage red & green bird image."

Red & Green All Over

This week we're asking you to create your card using primarily the traditional Christmas Colors: Red & Green. You might use cardstock, designer paper, inks or paints, but keep it mostly Red & Green!

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I went through my Gel Press Print collection and found a red and green that I thought worked well together.  My image was a freebie included with my STAMPlorations Christmas in July order.  I paired it with one of their great clear sentiment stickers."  

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've been trying to whittle away at my Christmas scraps by diecutting and making paper-pieced backgrounds. This card has both! I cut a bunch of mostly red shapes, using my ancient Nestability Diamons; matted them, and made them into a background. I added a green Memory Box tree, with a darker green shadow so it stood out better. Finally a sentiment cut from an ancient Echo Park Journal card and I was done."

♥♥♥

Link your Red and Green masterpieces right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 11th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-16.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Story Stars

So many wonderful holiday memories that inspired your cards this fortnight, and we loved hearing every single one of them. Here are a few cards that we especially loved:

Jenni of Wish I Was Scrappin'

...perfectly captured one of our favorite scenes from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with her tiny tree and the verse from Saint Luke that Linus quotes... we can almost hear his voice!

(ps: Jenni did a cool take on the film "Elf" as well!) 

Patrice aka aph664 on Instagram

...combined a beautiful Bayou background, olympic-level fussy-cutting, and a verse from "The Cajun Night Before Christmas" in which Santa's sleigh is pulled by alligators; making that book an instant holiday wishlist necessity!!! 

Amy Marshall aka Kalla Walla on SCS

...was inspired by "Frosty the Snowman" to create her super cool... not to mention perfectly colored and composed... holiday card!

♥♥♥

A Storied Holiday

We're still making holiday cards inspired by our favorite holiday books, tv shows and films, and you're invited to join the fun! Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "My family read Clement C, Moore's, "The Night Before Christmas" together every Christmas Eve of my childhood. So perhaps it's not surprising that since then I've collected several dozen copies of the poem. For this card I scanned and reduced a page from one of my favorite vintage editions and paired it with North Pole inspired papers from Pebbles and Elle's Studio. There's an Eyelet Outlet Holly Brad on there, but the illustration is so lovely I didn't want to add too much embellishment."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week's card is another Christmas movie classic that I will confess I had never watched until a few years ago.  Stamps are from Leg Lamp by The Ink Road."

♥♥♥

Scroll down to the original post (directly below this one) to see the amazing readers' gallery and link up your own card!

A Christmas Story

This fortnight we're asking you to create a card inspired by one of the many holiday books or movies that we all adored in childhood... and likely still adore them today. So whether you love “Frosty the Snowman”, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” or “It's a Wonderful Life” we're asking you to create a card inspired by your favorite holiday book or movie.

Here is how we were inspired:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie say, "So many possibilities, but this week I went with the classic Chevy Chase line from Christmas Vacation. The stamp is from Are you serious Clark? by The Ink Pad.  All I added was a white glittery Peel-off from Love from Lizi keeping it CAS for the Less is More Christmas in July Challenge."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I'm a big fan of “A Christmas Carol” (I revisit both the original novella and several film adaptations most Decembers) so I was pretty excited to have found this ancient Graphic 45 tag to use as the centerpiece of my card. The background collage consists of vintage sheet music, a page from an old garage sale holiday story anthology, and some cancelled xmas postage; plus a scrap of plaid ribbon from my stash."

♥♥♥

Link your holiday book, tv or movie-inspired creations right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, July 28th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-15.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter