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

Stars of Stripes and Stars!

So many fabulous ideas in the Stars and Stripes gallery, if you haven't cruised through yet, we highly recommend the trip! Here are three cards that particularly caught our eye:

Lindsey M-P of Bashful Blogging

...went for stripes in a non-traditional color, a glittery snowflake and a a non-denominational greeting, which means this beauty can be used for ANY winter holiday!

Dawn of Welcome 2 My Happy Place

...has incorporated both stars and stripes in her sparkly card that definitely lives up to its sentiment, "Merry and Bright"!

Elizabeth Stewart of Paper Sweetness

...doesn't just have beautifully graphic stars on a masterfully minimal CAS background; one of her stars actually has stripes, too! 

♥♥♥

Pinstripes & Super Novas

We're still creating with stars and/or stripes (of any color!) for the holidays.  Make sure you link-up and join us by 6pm EST on Wednesday.

Here's how we incorporated those into our designs this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Three biggish scraps of striped paper do most of the work this time. One of them got itself diecut with my largest star shaped Nestability and became home to the adorable Doodlebug Santa and Missus Claus. An ancient sticker sentiment and a scattering of red and white Eyelet Outlet Star Brads round things off nicely."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week's card shines with striped stars from the Uniko Ltd. Stars Background Block.  I paired it with a starry strip from Uniko's Background Builder Seeing Stars and a sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Block Christmas Stamps."

Stars & Stripes For Christmas

With the upcoming Independence Day celebration in the United States, we're creating holiday cards that feature STARS and/or STRIPES on our card designs this week (they do not need to be red, white or blue - although that's okay too) ... just STARS or STRIPES (or both) in any medium you choose.

Here is what we created this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My card started with the epitome of stripes for the holiday - that cute heart made of Candy Canes on the journaling card from the Merry and Bright Collection by Mintay Papers.  The star paper on the background and wonderful burlap paper are both from the same collection.  I added some vintage BasicGrey Evergreen papers together with a striped border from Authentique and then finished with some holly bling and a tiny sentiment from Flora & Fauna Bottlebrush Snow Globe Set using the layout from this week's Sketch Saturday."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I combined stripes (and bunnies and text) from Lawn Fawn's Snow Day Remix with stars from My Mind's Eye's Merry and Bright; then added some glittery foam stars and an Eyelet Outlet Candy Cane Brad. I couldn't resist using my older Mitten Brads even though they're out of stock; and I gave the bunnies Santa Hats because... well, just because I could, lol! And yes, I also used this week's Sketch Saturday, though I rotated it and rearranged it a bit, so they may disqualify me, though I thank them for the inspiration!"

Link up your own Starry and/or Striped Masterpiece right here, by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, July 14th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-14.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Palette is Neutral...

...but the cards are OUTSTANDING! This may have been a challenging assignment, but those who chose to accept it did an amazing job, making it even harder than usual to feature just three of them:

Jenni of Wish I Was Scrappin'

...made not one but two beautifully layered holiday cards in shades of tan and brown that raise the bar for all things neutral!

Bonnie of Stamping with Klass

...proves that you can make any theme or style neutral by switching into black and white mode; her sweet paper pieced gnome is every bit as fun and festive as his colorful cousins!

Liz Williams of Old Right Brain Madness

...shows us that CAS elegance is the perfect approach for a neutral palette; she's also added lots of texture and sparkle, which is a brilliant (in every sense) substitute for color!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who joined the fun, we loved seeing every card! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt, specially tailored to the upcoming Independence Day Weekend!

Leave it in Neutral

Rather than the traditional red & green, we're still asking you to feature your favorite NEUTRAL papers, inks and embellishments this week for your holiday card. Let those whites, ivories, tans, browns, blacks & greys shine in your creations. And don't forget the metallic neutrals: silver, copper and gold are all fair game, too!

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I punched a bunch of hexies from scraps of white, off-white and tan patterned paper; arranged them on a nicely patinated page from an ancient and partially water-stained copy of 'A Christmas Carol'; then added machine stitching, a big chunky wood veneer sentiment, and some Eyelet Outlet Heart Pearls and Snowflake Brads."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "My process was to grab my scrap bin and start trimming papers for a neutral collage.  I added some vintage sheet music and a bit of transparency before wrapping with some golden threat.  I finished with some Idea-ology ephemera and holiday sticker sentiments."

Neutral Noel

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're creating holiday cards which embrace only the neutral color palette: white, cream, ivory, ecru, black, gray, charcoal, obsidian, brown, tan, kraft, camel, oatmeal, sienna... ok, you get the picture! Use them all together, or chose just one hue and rock the monochromatic design. As long as it's NEUTRAL it's in. Need some texture to replace the missing color? There's burlap, jute, paper bags, cork, chalkboard, sandpaper, lace... so many choices! 

Here are our Neutral Noel creations:

Stephanie's Card (or cool layered tag gift-card holder)

Stephanie says, "My card was inspired by Ardyth's Layered Tag Card Tutorial that she recently shared on SplitcostStampers.  I used two Manila and one Kraft tag and tied them together using lots of non-holiday neutral items including three coordinated journaling cards, neutral hexagon tags and papers from Ciao Bella Blue Note Collection.  I finished with three sizes of snowflake buttons, SRM Clear Stickers and Tim Holtz Holiday sentiment stickers.  I used a die on the journaling card on the front card and attached it with foam tape created a side opening gift card pocket.  You can click through to the blog to see the individual tags."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I combined a bunch of different browns and tans, with accents of silver and white. My focal image is once again an older Ciao Bella patterned paper; plus I've got some copper-enhanced specialty cardstock; silver metallic mats and diecut sentiment; rounding off with a few Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads and silver Star Sequins on a dark brown A7 card."

 

Link your amazing creations right here, by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, June 30th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-13.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Luxurious Layers

So many beautiful bunded-up wonders in the Jingle Belles gallery ... here are a few that rocked the layered theme.

Helen of Helen's Craft Haven

used color to unify all of her wonderful patterned papers ... 

and how cute are those Christmas Carolers.

Granmargaret's Cards 'n Stuff

overlapped these adorable snow globes for her awesome

layered design ... such lovely colors.

LoopyLooCards

turned her layers into this adorable holiday scene

with trees, candy canes and a gingerbread man parade.

Thanks to everyone for layering-up with the Jingle Belles.  We'll be back at midnight with a colorful prompt to inspired your designs.

More Layers? (Yes, Please!)

We're still celebrating "All Bundled Up" cards at Jingle Belles; by which we mean cards that have three or more layers. We both happen to love layers (especially Lauren!) but for all you minimalists out there, remember that you only need to add a few skinny mats to achieve instant layeryness in a way that embraces a CAS aesthetic!

Lauren's Other Layery Card

Lauren says, "The tag at the center of this week's card is a combination of layered leftover elements (a pretty thumbnail image from a Ciao Bella paper pack, half an embossed label shape, part of a punched border, a vellum poinsettia that I drew, cut out and then didn't use, etc); then I layered all of that onto a card base which has two more layers: some Echo Park plaid paper into which I punched EK Success snowflakes, and a larger piece of Ciao Bella bokeh paper. I finished off with Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling and silver Star Sequins; not to mentions a little machine stitching."

Stephanie's Other Layery Card

Stephanie says, "My layers come from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Mini Christmas Paper Stash Pad.  The strips were cut from one of the plaid designs and there's an extra layer of black cardstock to frame the sentiment from Stampers Anonymous Bold Things Number Three.  I used the layout from the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown swapping the smaller square for some vintage candy cane ephemera.

Scroll down to the original post to link your card in the "All Bundled Up" gallery.

All Bundled Up

We're All Bundled Up this week ... which means we're asking you to create cards with lots of layers (at least three).  Break out your favorite papers, ephemera and embellishments and layer it on.

Here is how we got bundled up this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie say, "I decided to break out a favorite vintage paper collection from BasicGrey and see how many layers I could put together.  I used six different papers from the Evergreen Collection including the sentiment cut from one of the pages.  I finished with a layer of bling and a Christmas sticker to finish the design."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "It was Fifth Saturday at Sketch Saturday, so I took the opportunity to browse through the archive and choose one that leant itself towards layers. I also made sure to mat pretty much every piece of paper I touched! The pattern of tiny houses and that fun brad are from MME's "Cozy Christmas" collection of several years back; the green damask-y pattern is a luscious bit of Blue Fern Studio (non-holiday) paper; the red cardstock is Gina K; the dies are all ancient, but you could basically put ANYTHING in the center of such a great sketch and be good to go!"

♥

Link you layer-laden loveliness right here, by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, June 16th. 

Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-12.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Bling-a-licious!

So much sparkle in our "Bling on the Holidays" gallery, it does our glitter-loving hearts good. Here are just a couple of "gems" we especially loved:

Cass of Cass Creating Now

...added the perfect amount of hand-painted silver glitter accents to her impressive Copic Coloring; and though it's not part of the "bling" brief, we can't help but adore that sweet vintage kiddo, too!

Darnell of DJ Kard Kreations

...made us gasp with her dramatic rainbow of shimmering foil, set against that bold black frame; not to mention the perfect accent of those three little jewels.

Aimeslee of Paper Paisleys Art Adventures

...incorporated EVERY type of sparkle: glitter cardstock, gold embossing, metallic diecuts, and shimmery organza ribbon; and we love absolutely all of it!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we love seeing every single card. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will pile on the inspiration! 

Bringing the Bling!

We're still celebrating our deep love for all things sparkly and we'd definitely love for you to join the fun; scroll down to the original post or click on the link to add your bling-based creations! 

Meanwhile, here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This beautiful Ciao Bella "Snow and the City" collection came from Paper Anthology the winter before last, but I still really love it... for both cardmaking AND staging! I did a bunch of distressing and layering, then added a metallic diecut sentiment, and a poinsettia adorned with some oversized Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week's card is a reminder that your bling doesn't have to be holiday bling to go on a holiday card.  This card features a Prima Say it in Pearls Spring Flower Branch.  However when you pair it with vintage sheet music, a kraft doily and the perfect vintage Santa, it all works together for a bling-tasitic holiday card."

BLING on the Holidays

This week at Jingle Belles we're celebrating BLING in a big way, by making cards that incorporate jewels, gem, beads, pearls, glitter, stickles or anything sparkly. Add a little or a lot, but do come and show us how your holidays can be bling-a-licious.

Here's how we Belles blinged it up this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with this adorable Santa image and then mounted him on a card base covered with holly designer paper.  My bling is the wonderful Holiday Bling from Eyelet Outlet ... love those blingy leaves & berries."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My Eyelet Pearl Silver Swirl Bling is understated, but I love how it adds instant elegance. Out of the package, the flourish was not quite the right shape for the torn Simple Stories musical patterned paper I layered over an ancient piece from Elle's Studio, so I snipped it apart and reassembled it to fit better. That peacock blue poinsettia from the big box store also has a little glitter on it, and the Papaya Art sentiment sticker has more. "

Link your bling-centric creations right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB-21-11.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Vintage Valedictorians

We loved seeing all of the vintage goodness in the Jingle Belles gallery.  

Here are a few particularly lovely designs that caught our eyes.

Patrice - aka Instagram aph664

used perfect vintage-like washi tape as the background for this lovely vintage family holiday image.  The wreath is the perfect finishing touch.

Toni of Frankie Helps Craft

did a spot-on mid-century modern vintage vibe right down to those fabulous colors.  

That little vintage deer is too cute.

Tina Z of Treebug

combined vintage lace, a vintage carol, and fun layers.

And Drum Roll Please .... the winner of the vintage goodies from Lauren's Etsy Store Just Enough Stuff is ... 

#11 - Lorraine of Paper Vernissage.  

Send us your mailing address & we'll get the goodies on their way.

And we'll be back at midnight with some sparkling new fun.

Have Yourself a Very Vintage Christmas

We're still sharing Vintage or Vintage-inspired creations at Jingle Belles this week. 

Remember you have until 6pm EST on Wednesday to link-up your holiday card design for a chance to win a bag of vintage goodies from Lauren's Etsy Store Just Enough Stuff.

Here are the vintage cards we created this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I'm still in a serious collage phase, so I will basically take any excuse to tear and combine vintage text paper and sheet music! That's what I did here; then I used a Tim Holtz Mixed Media Xmas die to cut poinsettias into the card; and then I added some small paper ones with Eyelet Outlet Poinsettia Brads and some velvet holly leaves. An appropriate sticker sentiment (Simple Stories, I think?) and I was good to go."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started with a card base college of vintage papers including a picture of holly & berries from the same vintage ideals magazine I used this week.  Then I found a vintage replica postcard in my stash that coordinated perfectly (and also managed to cover a large portion of the college - you can see the college before it was covered on my blog)."

Days of Old

We're celebrating "The Spirit of Christmas Past" which means we're creating cards with a vintage vibe. That might mean incorporating actual vintage items; OR using new papers, dies or stamps with an old-fashioned feeling. 

What do we mean by "vintage"? Pretty much any timeframe in history! Your "days of old" could be Regency England, Midcentury Palm Springs, or even just the fond days of your childhood Christmases. Just in case you have nothing that will suit, Lauren's scanned a few vintage postcards and some sheet music from her own collection and placed them below. Just right-click and save to your computer, then print them out at whatever size you'd like.

To add a little extra incentive, this week we're sponsored by Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, and there's a sweet little pack of holiday ephemera for one lucky cardmaker who links up their vintage card design at the bottom of this post.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My go-to starting place for Vintage is my collection of Ideals Christmas Magazines that were rescued from the recycle bin.  I found this image of poinsettias that I detail-cut around the edges.  Next I added ephemera from Tim Holtz the kind of vintage reproduction items to help complete the layout.  The last touch was adding clear Crystalline Drops to the Poinsettia centers and a scattering of golden gems."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Two of my all-time favorite items to use on vintage-style holiday cards are sheet music and doilies. There are lots of modern versions of both, and I love music-inspired patterned paper and doily dies. But in this case, I went with actual OLD sheet music, paired with the doilies I found at a thrift shop over the weekend. The postcard image on my card is also vintage, but in this case I scanned the original and printed it slightly smaller, to be a better fit on my A7 card. Torn mats of patterned paper, machine stitching and a little bit of Eyelet Outlet washi tape add texture and interest."

Vintage items for you to use:

A fun prize from Just Enough Stuff, to be awarded randomly 

to one lucky cardmaker who links up with us this fortnight:

A Deluxe Christmas Assortment 

featuring sheet music, illustrations, 

text paper, playing cards, postcards, tags and more!

♥♥♥

Link your Old Fashioned Masterpiece right here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, May 19th. Keyword for galleries, social media and Flickr is JB-21-10.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Gift Card Creativity!

It's always been our dream to be able to send a shout-out to EVERYONE who participated in one of our Jingle Belles challenges, and this fortnight, that dream has come true! :)

Martina of U Martiny

...designed a clever little wallet in which the giftcard stand up when the folder is opened!

Lorraine of Paper Vernissage

...used a very clever die to make two adorable holders into which the gift cards get sealed, and the recipient pulls a perforated tear strip to release their gift!

Patrice posting on Instagram

...one of our newest Jingle Belles has gone all out with an extra special gift card POCKET; who wouldn't love to have a holiday outfit featuring red jeans adorned with lots of golden sparkles?!

Deanne Saunders of A Little Bit O' Paper 

...used her Cricut to design a clever fold-up pocket with a sentiment cut right into the flap; we love both the concept of this and the finished design!

♥♥♥

We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt, we hope you'll be ready to have some good old-fashioned fun! 

the gift(cards) that keep on giving

We're still creating ways to send gift cards across the miles (or maybe hand it to them in person) and we can't wait to see your clever gift card holder ideas! You have until 6pm EST on Wednesday May 5th to join the party; scroll down to the original post to link up.

Here's how we are giving our gift(cards) this week.

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I found a cute little Gift Card Envelope Die from The Cat's Pajamas in my stash (apparently long-ago discontinued but similar to this one from Hot Off the Press), and it was perfect for the top element in this week's Sketch Saturday.  I used 3/8 inch Velcro dots to hold it closed to make for easy access to the gift card.

The sticker sentiments and stitches are from Pretty Little Studio.  Paper is from Memory Box Garland paper collection (I love how there is pattern on one side and solid with corner patterns on the other side)."

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "There's a fab IG account called @LoveForPaperGoodies who makes really cool origami-style folded paper pockets. I used this video tutorial and was pleasantly surprised to find the technique is quite easy. I've put a bit more detail about the process on my own blog today." 

"There are three sections in the pocket, once it's folded. Working from back to front, I've got: a large shipping tag decorated with torn paper, vintage postage, a fussy-cut Authentique reindeer and miscellaneous blooms held on with ancient brads. In the middle section, there's a smaller shipping tag, with an Authentique Santa; and then the gift card tucks into the pocket right at the front."