SKETCH-ing in a Winter Wonderland

We're still getting SKETCH-y this week (link-up here by 6pm EST on Wednesday) with our wonderful Jingle Belles Layout.

Here are the Belles' designs for this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Again I capitalized on the efficiency of using a sketch by translating the various shapes into readymade items like stickers and diecuts. I flipped the sketch, so that the focal point and the intersecting lines are reversed, just to change things up a little. I've used five different Eyelet Outlet Washi Tapes to make the strong vertical line, and an older Crate Paper sticker that says "Winter" for the horizontal. I've clustered a few items to make up the focal point: a sweet jar diecut from Pebbles, embellished with EO Holiday Tree and Snowflake Brads; a couple of chipboard xmas trees that I think were Echo Park from several years ago. The whole thing is on a base of music-lined paper that is ancient, but still looks fab to me!" 

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I thought if I flipped the sketch, it would be the perfect way to nest a Snow Globe into my design.  I went searching through my holiday tag collection and found this adorable Merry T-Rexmas one that fit the bill.  I paired it with Gina K. Designs Winter Whimsy designer paper, which had the perfect colors & almost exactly matched the Christmas Tree in the snow globe.  I decided to run my vertical & horizontal pieces all the way across the card and finished with some glittery green Love from Lizi Peel-off Strips."

Merry SKETCH-mas

It's Sketch time at Jingle Belles, so we've got a beautiful, flexible layout devised by our very own Stephanie Severin to help you design this week's holiday card.

The circle element can of course be any shape, and you're welcome to rotate, flip, or stretch the design; just make sure we can see the "bones" of the sketch in your card. Here's how we were inspired by the Sketch:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I couldn't resist combining papers from adorable Doodlebug Polar Pals Paper.  I added some purple bling to the sky and a sticker sentiment to finish the design."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I *love* card sketches because they streamline the design process so brilliantly, especially if you stick to readymade items. I used wintery Echo Park stickers from last year to make up my focal point, as well as the strong horizontal element up top. For the vertical on the left, I used self adhesive, super-thin wood veneer that came in a roll, which is absolutely my new favorite thing. A couple of coordinating patterned paper mats and some Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads complete the design."

Link your sketch cards here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, March 10th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-05.

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Spread the Word!

There are some especially awesome cards for our Text Me Christmas challenge, so you should really scroll down and check those out if you haven't already. Meanwhile here are three that particularly caught our text-loving eye:

LeAnne Pugliese of Wee Inklings

...used a whimsical text paper background and a bold sentiment which combines THREE different, beautifully balanced, fonts in a way that makes us feel holly jolly for sure!

Kathe D of Kathe's Adventures

...made a scripty sentiment die the star of the show on her maginificently minimal ombre card!

Ans Gilbert of De Kaarten Van Ons Mam

...added a vintage postcard with a sweet little verse to her bright and beautiful slimline design!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we genuinely love seeing every single card. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt that's frankly a little bit sketchy... :)

Oh Christmas WORDS

We're still celebrating all the fun uses for text on holiday cards: texty patterned paper or book-page backgrounds, oversized sentiments, creative use of letter stickers, or... well, however you would like to interpret this fun prompt! 

If you need more ideas, scroll down to the original Text Me Christmas post to check out the fab cards already in the Readers' Gallery. Meanwhile, here's what we made this week: 

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I found this fab white-text-on-black scrap of Pebbles paper, so of course I went with the "texty background" option, as you can see! I've added a few pre-made diecut elements on top, with some handcut snowy hills and a cute car I fussycut from jounral cards that came in an older American Crafts collection. Definitely not an elaborate card, but fast and fun... and it'll mail with ONE STAMP!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "For this week's card, I started with the Christmas page from a children's dictionary.  I stamped snowflakes from Concord & 9th Snow Flurry.  I finished with a sentiment from the same set."

TEXT Me Christmas

This week's Jingle Belles theme is TEXT ME – create a holiday card that prominently celebrates text. 

That might mean using some letter stickers, dictionary pages, texty patterned paper, or just creating a card where the sentiment is the star. Great creative with your words and make sure you get TEXTY.

Here is how we got TEXT-y this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie's says, "I started with an all-over texty piece of designer paper (which I then managed to over-up 3/4 of it using this week's Sketch Saturday).  I used coordinating Pink & Red Striped paper as the backdrop for Pink & Red Valentine's Thickers for the Red & Pink Color Hue Challenge. I paired my JOY with a Doodle Pop Cookies for Santa Mug of hot cocoa and Cathy Zielske Simon Says Stamp Good Cheer sentiments & die."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I made my punny sentiment and giant alphabet stickers the stars of the show, but I also wanted a text-centric patterned paper, so I made my own by typing, "yeti or not" over and over until I filled a 4x6" area of white cardstock. I layered snowy hills, pink trees and Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads, then populated my festive landscape with adorable Lawn Fawn yetis."

Link your terrific texty cards here by 60m (EST) on Wednesday, February 24th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-04.

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Colorful and Clever!

One of our favorite things about a photo inspiration challenge is how many very different ideas can be suggested by the same picture. Some folks choose the colors and overall vibe; some focus on one or two specific elements within the scene. But in this case, absolutely everybody rocked it!!! Here are a few takes that especially caught our eye this time:

Toni from Frankie Helps Craft

...made two completely different cards that we love equally, so you really need to hop over and see the other one, too. In this one, she captures the amber color as well as the more prominent pinks and greens,  the stripes and dots that recur within the photo, and of course that fun reindeer icon.

Bonnie of Stamping with Klass

...did a fantastic job of interpreting the color scheme, the positioning of the elements and of course she  beautifully recreated that amazing sparkly tree in miniature form!

Tonia J (who posts on Instagram) 

...focused on the mantel area, with amazing attention to detail; she's got clustered bottle brush trees against a woodgrain/shiplap background, colorful wordart and even a sweet reindeer in a circular frame!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who joined the fun, we truly love seeing ALL of your cards! We'll be back at midnight with a word or two about the next prompt!

More Colorful Christmas

This week we're creating our second cards inspired by the fabulous Boho Christmas from Love the Day. Scroll down to the original post to see the readers' gallery and link up your own take on this fun challenge!

Here's how the Jingle Belles were inspired this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I was inspired by the bottle brush trees on the the mantel and the cute deer. I've also brought back the color scheme of lots of white with "bright pastels". And plenty of sparkle is ALWAYS a good idea, in my opinion!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I took my inspiration from the word art on the mantel.  I inked the Unity Stamp Company Rejoice for our SILENT NIGHT in three colors of PinkFresh Studio Ink inspired by the design (masking each section with painters tape while inking).  I added some scalloped stickers from Pretty Little Studio to ground the image (like the mantel).  I die cut two Contempo Trees & Backdrops from Frantic Stamper Inc. to give the feel of the bottle brush trees in the picture.  I finished with bits of tiny bling on my stamped image & the tops of my trees."

Colorful Christmas Inspiration

This week's Jingle Belles prompt is filled with inspiration ... we're asking you to create a card inspired by this whimsical BoHo Christmas Scene from Love the Day (you can click through for more pictures of the scene).

So many things to inspire you in this Colorful Christmas photo from @lovetheday … the fun deer head, the pillow, the super-modern Christmas stockings, bottle brush holiday trees, the fun ornaments or even the beaded garland on the tree … just remember to tell us how the photo inspired your holiday card design.

Here is how we were inspired:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I couldn't resist taking the inspiration for my first card from that adorable deer hanging over the mantle.  I started by die cutting the largest Waffle Flower Embroidery Hoop Die from bright pink cardstock & one of the papers I made using Gesso, Watercolors and Salt.  Next I added a thin pink Alexandra Renke Rectangle Frame and die cut the scarf from the Impression Obsession Snowman Die from White Felt.  I die cut the retired Essentials by Ellen Prize Stag twice from brown cardstock & then die cut the anglers three more times from the colors in the picture.  Next I decorated the stag head with teal gems. I finished with a sticker sentiment before attaching to a piece of white shiplap designer paper."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I was inspired by the many shades and textures of white in the room; as well as the colorful, bauble-encrusted tree, which I've interpreted as Eyelet Outlet Round and Heart-Shaped Pearls, Jewel Brads, Snowflake Brads, and Clear Jewels. I've also sort of incorporated the "sketch" of the photo into my card, by placing the tree over towards the right side and the sentiment at about "mantel" height, lol!"

Link your cards right here, by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, February 10th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-03.

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you're all *INCHIE-LICIOUS!*

So much Inchie & Twinchie fun in this week's gallery ... we love seeing all the ways you can go SMALL.  

Here are a few of our favorites:

Karen Macszewski of Creativeseconds

created four different yet coordinated inchies for this fantastic monochromatic design.

Chris Dring of Chrispy's Creations

repeated her inchie theme with super-fun jingle bells for a fabulous slimline card design.

Coby of Coby's Cards

upcycled adorable little images from an old holiday card with added stitching for wonderful framing and texture ... love the button & twine too.

We'll be back at midnight with another *colorful inspirational* prompt for your holiday cards.

Inchies & Twinchies & Rinchies* Oh My!

We're still celebrating a merry *LITTLE* Christmas, making cards that feature Inchies or Twinchies. If this prompt has you scratching your head, here's a great article on the PaperArtsy website, with lots of great twists on incorporating you tiny art into cards! 

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I've gone DOUBLE or nothing, lol, by taking on the two-inch square, aka "Twinchie". Again I've made my squares coordinate, though of course that is not a requirement and a grid of lots of random small squares in different styles would be really cool. But I wanted to used my Pretty Pink Posh "Holiday Pals" stamp set, so I colored them with neutrals and added trees from the same set, as well as patterned paper sky and snow, to tie them all together. I love the way three Twinchies fill a slimline card... this is definitely an idea you'll be seeing again!" 

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, " I used stamped sentiments from three different tiny wood-mounted stamps on a Karin BrushMarker Background.  Then I added an Eyelet Outlet Holiday Coffee Cup (for the Shopping Our Stash Need a Cup of Coffee Challenge) and mounted the squares with foam tape on a 1 1/4" white square and 1 3/8" black square before nesting them inside the Heffy Doodle Slimline Dies."

Scroll down to the original post to link your Merry *LITTLE* Masterpieces in the Readers' Gallery.

*RINCHIES are round inchies... and super fun to make. Just sayin'... :)

Think Big but Go Small

We're celebrating a merry *LITTLE* Christmas this fortnight at Jingle Belles; by making cards that feature Inchies or Twinchies. Traditionally, we think of inchies as artsy one inch squares, but you can use other shapes, like circles, or perhaps even snowflakes or small embellishments. You might contain your entire image within the inch... or perhaps break a single holiday image into a grid of smaller shapes? Feeling stumped? Here are a few ideas from Pinterest to get you started. Just get creative and go LITTLE! 

Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I cut three twinchie squares from some Tim Holtz Packaging and then used a collection of Tim Holtz Ephemera, stickers and one rubber squire to create three little mini-collages for my design.  I backed them on some poinsettia paper, added a wrap of twine, and finished with two scatterings of some teal gems to tie it all together."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've embraced the original "Inchie" concept by making three, one-inch, decorated squares. In this case, the three are "kissing cousins" which all feature dictionary paper backgrounds, diecut foliage and Eyelet Outlet holiday brads. To make the inchies stand out against my vintage collage background, I framed them up with two layers of patterned paper and popped the whole thing on foam tape."

Link your Merry *LITTLE* Masterpieces here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, January 27th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-02. 

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Old + New = Awesome

It's never been an easy job to choose just three cards to feature, and our lovely Jingle Belles have not started 2021 by suddenly making uninteresting cards. Still, as problems go, this is one we absolutely LOVE having! With big thanks to everyone who played along (because we do genuinely love seeing every single card!) and showed off their creations incorporating Something Old and Something New, here are a few that especially tickled our fancy:

Jane Willis of Onions and Paper

...cleverly combined old and new "freebie" stamps to make this showstopper of a card! (PS: the reindeer/stag with the winter scene embedded is ONE amazingly awesome stamp; but that cool grove of trees is one small stamp used repeatedly!)

Jan R of Huh... So This is a Blog...

...combined a bunch of older stash items with a brand new "25" numeral die in the coolest font everrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, especially set inside a square mini-card.

Nora N from A Creative Touch

...combined old and new snowy elements from a variety of companies and extraordinary ink blending and coloring skills to make a super-cool (pun intended, lol) card by any standard!

Once again we thank EVERYONE who played along, and invite you to join us when we come back at Midnight with a brand new assignment we hope will have you thinking *small*... :)

it's RESOLUTION-ary!!!!

We're still asking you to use both the Old & the New ingredients for your card this week. Scroll down to the original post to link your creations!

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Stephanie gave me a fabulous set of Retro Ornament dies from Impression Obsession, which I used on scraps of my well-hoarded 6x6 Basic Grey 25th and Pine paper pack, with little touches of glittery and metallic papers for the accents. A few assorted Eyelet Outlet gems serve as finishing touches, as well as hangers for the baubles to dangle from. My sentiment is from another "new" acquisition, a stamp set called Deck the Halls from Gina K Designs."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "For my New this week I broke out the limited-release Gina K. Designs Gnome dies & stencils with Therm-o-Web ... I just love that cute little guy and couldn't resist cutting a second *nose* from white for a Santa pom pom..  Gina K. Designs Monthly Mix Challenge is to create with Red (I also used Color Hue's Red & Grey Challenge), so I added more red to my background with Cherry Red Ink Stenciled through the Gina K. Festive Stencil.  For the old, I used a sentiment from Gina K.'s Holiday Wreath Builder with three different dies from Gina K. Designs Master Layout Die Sets."

Something Old ... and Something New

The Belles are back for our Eleventh Year of Holiday Mayhem, can you believe we've been doing this for a decade?! We're hoping to see lots of old friends re-joining the fun, and of course we'd love to welcome plenty of new friends, too! Once again we'll be posting a new prompt each fortnight, but there's no obligation to participate every time. We (Stephanie and Lauren) will be making one card per week, which means that by December first we'll each have 48 unique holiday cards! Not quiiiiiite enough to cover our entire lists, but definitely a solid start! 

For our First Prompt of 2021 we're asking you to create a holiday card that features BOTH something OLD and something NEW.  For example, break out an item (or two) that Santa brought you, or something you acquired in those awesome Black Friday sales...  (Alternately you can use NIMBUS items; aka things you've had for a bit, but not used yet) ...and combine your new goodies with something older from your stash. Link up your creations at the bottom of this post. We can't wait to see what you make!

Here are our OLD & NEW creations:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I couldn't resist breaking out my new Simon Says Stamp Santa The Man Dies.  I combined Santa with new sentiments from Simon Says Stamp The Man, The Myth.  The OLD in my creation is the Gina K. Designs Double Stitched Circle Die for Santa's Face, the Adhesive Felt for the mustache, beard & cap, and my beloved Puffs with Vicks Tissue Box for the reflective lenses in the Santa's Ray Bans.  The background paper is also new from Honey Bee Farm Fresh Holidays."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My new stuff consists of a set of American Crafts "Cozy and Bright" washi tape from my friend Gina; plus a sentiment from the terrific Gina K stamp set Stephanie sent me called, "Deck the Halls". My older stuff includes an Authentique journal card, some Echo Park and My Mind's Eye patterned paper, vintage sheet music, and ancient but beautiful piece of fancy diecut K and Co Lace Paper. As is common for me at the beginning of the year, my card is flat and mailable, because the memory of 2020's 'extra postage' costs are very fresh in my mind!" 

♥♥♥

Link your "Old and New" masterpieces here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, January 13th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-01. Remember, if you have an idea for a holiday prompt, just e-mail us at jinglebellesrock@hotmail.com and you could be a Guest Designer with us in 2021.

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