A Christmas Story

This time we're asking you to create a card inspired by the many holiday books or movies that we all adored in childhood (and likely still adore them today). 

So whether you love “A Christmas Carol”, “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 are the Christmas stories that inspired us this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My card is literally inspired by the movie A Christmas Story, which I didn't actually watch all of the way through until a few years ago.  I sprayed my papers with Fortune Teller & Cocktail Party Distress Mica Stain Sprays with my Leg Lamp stamps from The Ink Road.  The die cut panel is Pinkfresh Studio Rounded & Braided Rectangle Die.  I'm also linking-up at the Red/Purple Color Hues Challenge and V is for Vivid at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.  I finished with some Pinkfresh Studio Glitter Drops."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "Growing up, my favorite holiday story was "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and it still is today. Over the years I've found or been gifted a number of editions, all of which I treasure. A few years ago, I scanned in some of my favorite illustrations and reduced them so that I could use them on cards. Here I've paired a Santa page with a (digital) Jenni Bowlin Holiday Bingo Card, a small cardstock tree diecut and some coordinated patterned papers from my stash. Three Eyelet Outlet Peppermint Candies and a scrap of embossed cardstock add a little extra texture."

♥♥♥

Link your card(s) right here, by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 4th. 

Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2320.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Spectacular SKETCH-mas

With such a beautiful sketch to work from, it's hardly surprising that every single card in the Readers' Gallery is a knockout. But it's our tradition to select just three on these occasions, so here they are now:

Kez of Crafts by Kez

...proves that caffeine and Christmas work perfectly together, as does a neutral palette with just a few hits of red; we're awarding bonus points for the supercute gingerbread folk on the coffee cup sleeve!

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...swapped the hexagon for a golden star and made the circle element into a dangly bauble that coordinates perfectly with her beautifully minimal embossed background!

Gail aka IonaBunny of Crafty Nomad

...found a piece of white glitter paper which had a snowflake diecut from it, and there was just enough room to use her favorite hexagon die... chalk this one up for serendipity!

And now let's find out who's won that fabulous Simon Says Stamp holiday stamp and die bundle!

The Random Number Generator has chosen #11 which means that...

LeAnne Pugliese is our Lucky Winner, Congratulations!

Please email llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com with your snail mail info 

so we can get that on its way to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single one of your gorgeous cards. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope you'll find inspiring... hope to see you then!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like SKETCH-mas

We're still making holiday cards based on this fabulous sketch designed by Stephanie, and you still have time to join the fun. Scroll down to the original post to link your card and check out the Readers' Gallery. 

Of course you can flip it, stretch it, smoosh it or change shapes, just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch! Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I've gone VERY literal, thanks to a set of Hero Arts' Hexagon Infinity Dies I got recently at Paper Anthology and couldn't wait to use! The Santa image, tree sticker, heart and sentiment strip are all Doodlebug, from a few different collections. I've added Eyelet Outlet Wreath, Gift and Star dies, as well as a bunch of random EO enamel dots. The texty background of this A6 card is from Carta Bella's Christmas Cheer collection."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week's card is brought to you by the Mintay White Christmas paper collection.  I used a rectangle, circle & hexagon stitched dies on three different papers, and I attached a fourth to the card base, finishing with a Simon Says Stamp Christmas sentiment strip and Pinkfresh Studio Champagne Glitter Drops (which seriously coordinate with everything)."

♥♥♥

Link your sketch-centric cards on the post below. Challenge ends next Wednesday, September 20th at 6pm EST.

And remember, one lucky participant will receive the Simon Says Stamp / CZ Design Let It Snow Stamps & Coordinating Die Cuts, so come join the fun.

Merry SKETCH-mas

This week at Jingle Belles we're bringing you a Sketch to inspire your holiday card designs. Of course you can flip it, stretch it, smoosh it or change shapes; just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch in your card!

We can't wait to see how this layout inspires you.  Here's what we made:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I combined a collection of festive Doodlebug holiday papers with a fun candy theme, which works for the current Caffeinated Christmas Challenge to create with candy or cookies.  I added an Eyelet Outlet Holiday Coffee Cup & Candy Cane brads, together with a stamped sentiment from Impress."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "As you can see, I changed some of the shapes, but other than that I've been quite faithful. I used ancient Nestabilities Labels for the hex shape (it's an Authentique journal card) and the large rectangle; added a Hero Arts' "Joy" diecut in place of the sentiment strip and dangled a little My Mind's Eye taglet from the Idea-ology flair which is my circle element. As always, I love working with a sketch because it makes life easier; and I love Stephanie's sketches because they're always both beautiful and flexible!"

And because who doesn't love a prize - one lucky participant will receive the Simon Says Stamp / CZ Design Let It Snow Stamp Set & Coordinating Die Cuts (yep both).

Link your own gorgeous sketch card(s) right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, September 20th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2319.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Good Old-Fashioned Fabulousness

Vintage and retro stylings seem to be quite popular and inspiring to our fellow Jingle Belles; there are some VERY cool cards in the Readers' Gallery, so if you haven't yet taken time to scroll through, we highly recommend the trip. In the meantime, here are a few cards that especially caught our eye:

Liz from Old Right Brain Madness

...did an excellent job coloring these sweet vintage holiday kiddos, then paired them with some beautiful foliage and a pair of patterned papers with just the right retro patina! 

Deb Horst of Sendable Sentiments

...blew us away with a card that's full-on vintage and 100% CAS! We're saving this in our inspo file, to prove you can combine the two and wind up with an amazing card!!! 

Pinky from Pinky's World Stamping Projects

...chose a patterned paper with beautiful, old fashioned baubles; then she constructed a larger bauble as centerpiece and sliced the background into very cool radiating segments!

♥♥♥

And now it's time to award that fun vintage-themed prize!

The Random Number Generator selected Lucky Number 16

which means that...

Becca S from Becca's Heart for Creativity 

is our Lucky Winner!

Congrats, Ms. Becca, if you email llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com 

we'll get that prize right on its way to your house, ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we truly loved seeing every single card. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt which, it seems to us, just miiiiiight be a little sketchy...?

Have Yourself a Very Vintage Christmas

We're still creating with a theme of Christmas Past - incorporating vintage elements and/or vintage style into our holiday cards.  

Our prompt is sponsored by Lauren's Etsy Shop Just Enough Stuff with a fun vintage giveaway for one lucky participant.

Here's what we created this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I found a partial sheet of vintage-themed circle icons from a Ciao Bella holiday collection several years ago, which I matted out with a couple of circle mats, added an older Prima flower in sage green, a wooden snowflake, and a chipboard snowflake circle, then made a background from this gorgeous white Photoplay woodgrain paper and topped it all off with a Tim Holtz sticker sentiment and a kraft card base."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I incorporated actual vintage paper elements into my card.  My tag is die cut from a vintage holiday card I found at an estate sale.  The vintage music on the background is from my collection of vintage hymnals.  And finally, some vintage S&H Green Stamps for good measure.  The layout is this week's Atlantic Heart's Sketch & the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strips."

Our luck participant will win the prize below, so link-up below on the original post by 6pm EST on Wednesday, September 6th.

The Spirit of Christmas Past

This fortnight we're celebrating the Spirit of Christmas Past, which is to say, we're creating cards with a vintage or retro vibe. That could mean incorporating actual vintage elements, using new products that have a vintage style, or using stamps or images that convey a retro vibe; whatever says vintage to you.  

And to add a little extra incentive to your endeavors, this week we are sponsored by Lauren's fantastic Etsy Shop Just Enough Stuff, so there's a sweet little pack of vintage Christmassy things for one lucky card member who links-up their vintage design.

Here are our vintage creations for this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie say, "I went with some Tim Holtz papers that are marvelous vintage reproductions.  I paired them with a big bold sentiment in a vintage-like font from Unity Stamp Company holiday. faith. hope. love and stickers frim Simple Stories Vintage Rustic Christmas using a layout from Sketch~N~Scrap."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I recently found a little stash of well-hoarded German Scrap that I had put aside, including this gorgeous Father Christmas. I've made a distressed background from vintage sheet music, accented with red and green patterned papers, set off by a strip of Eyelet Outlet Washi Tape that features images of vintage postcards."

And now let's hear more about that prize!

One randomly selected cardmaker will receive: 

A Deluxe Christmas Assortment of holiday-themed vintage and found papers from Just Enough Stuff, plus a set of Christmas Word Art clear stamps, some very fun holiday Stickpins, and a collection of doilies in various shapes, sizes and colors. 

Link your vintage-inspired holiday creations right here by 6pm on Wednesday, September 6th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2318.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TREE-mendous!

Evergreens are endlessly inspiring, and if you have any doubt at all about that, please take a few moments to cruise through the Readers' Gallery where evergreen trees, boughs and branches can be found in every size, shape, color; each one more creative and beautiful than the last. Here are just a few that caught our eye this time:

Marina of My Perfect Life

...layered triangle trees in several shades and sizes, stamped a sentiment, and framed her simple-yet-stunning CAS masterpiece in another shade of green. 

Wies of Wies Creablog

...made an incredibly clever "Never-Ending" card that folds backwards and forwards into many interesting shapes including... yes! A Christmas Tree!

(Her post also has a link to the video where she learned this cool method!)

Elaine aka Kraftikards

...stamped several amazingly intricately snowscapes, all of which embrace beautifully unexpected color palettes; this one, in black, white, grey and purple, miiiiight be our favorite!  

(Check out those amazing shadows!)

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing ALL of your amazing ideas! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will inspire some good old-fashioned creativity!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

We're still celebrating the wonderful Christmas Tree (or evergreen boughs; or pine branches) at Jingle Belles this week.

Here's what we created this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "My card features Honey Bee Stamps' Layering Holiday Bells diecut in pink and gold, dangling from an evergreen bough, on a pierced background made with Pinkfresh Studio's Ornate Medallions Coverplate die, with a fun accent of pink argyle washi tape. Coincidentally, this card is the sample for August's Paper Anthology Holiday Jumpstart Card Kit, which you can read about HERE.";)

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I decided to turn the ICAD (Index Card a Day) into this week's card.  It featured Christmas Trees from Simon Says Stamp framed in green and red on a grey snowflake card base."

♥♥♥

Scroll down to the original post to see the Readers' Gallery and link your own card(s)!

Oh Christmas Tree

This week we're asking you to feature a Christmas Tree (or Pine Branches) on your card. Here's how we featured Christmas Trees this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I cut triangles from four green papers from BasicGrey Evergreen Collection to form my wonky tree with a brown designer paper trunk.  I decorated my tree with gold gems and topped it with a gold glitter star attached to a red Christmas Tree covered card base. I finished with a Simon Says Stamp Reverse Christmas Sentiment Strip."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've only just acquired Simon Hurley's "Treescapes" set from Ranger, but it's already a very strong favorite! I was so in love with the stamped layers of color, I kept my embellies really sparse: just a diecut snowflake (and an Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brad), a simple sentiment, and a few mats of plain and patterned paper. Easy, peasy!"

♥♥♥

Link your TREE-mendous creations right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, August 23rd. 

Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2317.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Noteworthy Neutrals

It turns out a neutral palette can be as elegant, exciting and glamorous as a more colorful selection, as a wander through the Readers' Gallery will demonstrate. Here are a few Neutral Noel cards that especially caught our eye:

Prudence N aka Penguin Parade on Instagram

...not only embraced the neutral palette but managed a one-layer CAS masterpiece with just intricate gold embossing and a few perfectly placed copper sequins.

Vicky of Crafting Clare's Paper Moments

...used an embossing folder and ink daubers to create this incredibly realistic and totally textural slimline pine perfection!

Melissa Miller of Mel's Card Corner

...artfully torn paper in multiple tones of taupe, grey and white make this beauty a super-star stand-out in any company!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your amazingly creative ideas! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new theme that we hope you'll think is TREE-mendous! ;)

Keep it in Neutral

We're still embracing a neutral color palette this week and you still have until Wednesday evening to join the fun. You can choose from white, ecru, ivory, beige, tan, brown, gold, copper, bronze, silver, grey, charcoal, ebony, black and everything in between. Make it monochromatic... or mix it up. As long as you keep it in neutral, you're good to go!

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I had intended to go with more of a silver/grey/white scheme this time, but I still had some of the tan/cream/brown items out from last week; then I discovered an entire herd of adorable tan Impression Obsession diecut reindeer, which sort of clinched the deal. I used Penny Black's Trees and Hills dies to make a landscape and my trusty Nestabilities Diamonds to frame them up, with some highly patina-ed vintage sheet music and Carta Bella starry patterned paper to round off the design."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I combined recycled packaging (mostly covered with glittery poinsettias) with handmade paper and some vintage BasicGrey grid paper using this week's Sketch Saturday layout.  I blinged-it-up with some pearl flourishes and two sentiments from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips - Christmas.

Neutral Noel

This fortnight we're asking you to create holiday cards which embrace only the neutral color palette – white, cream, ivory, ecru, silver, gold, black, gray, charcoal, obsidian, brown, tan, kraft, camel, oatmeal, sienna (you get the picture). If you're feeling limited by lack of color, why not think texture? There's burlap, jute, paper bags, cork, chalkboards, sandpaper or lace... Use them all together or chose one hue and rock the monochromatic design  as long as it's NEUTRAL it's in.

Here's what we made for our Neutral Noel:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with a piece of upcycled Tim Holtz packaging on an ivory cardbase, and then I built my collage from there with lots of neutral bits and bobs. I finished with some Eyelet Outlet Black Pearl Swirl Bling and a neutral poinsettia."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I raided my well-hoarded stash of Ciao Bella's Snow and the City papers (from Paper Anthology a couple of winters ago) from which I took the bokeh paper, the brick paper and tag, and I was even able to make my focal point by punching a circle from one of the thumbnail pictures on the collection's cover sheet. I mixed in a fabric poinsettia, Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling, some Pavilio White Lace Tape, a Tim Holtz sticker sentiment and lots (seriously LOTS!) of distressing and machine stitching."

♥♥♥

Link your Neutral Noel masterpieces right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, August 9th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2316.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Hats Off to Santa

And hats off to everyone who participated in the Santa's Hat challenge, for which the cards were particular creative and wonderful. Here are just a few that especially caught our eye:

Donna Scholz of Devised by Donna

...discovered she had NO stamps or dies featuring a santa hat, so she made her own from appropriately fuzzy fabrics and made it the star of her gorgeous CAS card!

Meghan of Made By Meghan K

...made this sweet baby polar bear's santa hat the one eye-catching spot of color on her elegant monochromatic card!

(Bonus Points for the super-cool use of paper clips!)

Carrie Sheridan of Carrie's Custom Cards

...made quite a few cards, all of which are well worth hopping over to have a look at; on this one, she cleverly added a Santa Hat to the sentiment strip of  fabulous grid-style card.

♥♥♥

And now it's time to award our fun little prize:

The Random Number Generator has selected (drumroll, please)...

 Lucky Number #43

which means that Susan of Cardmaker's Garret is our lucky winner!

please send your snail mail info to llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com 

and we'll get that out to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who participated in this challenge, and to all who joined us for our special Christmas in July festivities. A special shout-out goes to the lovely ladies at the Double Trouble Challenge Blog for teaming up with us this month and adding even more inspiration to the mix!

As always, we'll be back with a brand new prompt at Midnight; if your Mojo is in neutral, we'll help you rev it up a bit!

Santa's Hat: Week Two

We're still joining our friends at the Double Trouble Challenge this week by making cards that feature a Santa Hat.

Here's how we showcased our Santa Hats this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "When it comes to critters who can wear an Eyelet Outlet Santa Hat Brad (or an Elf Hat!) most adorably, it's gotta be hard to beat Pretty Pink Posh's Holiday Pals, right? Plus, it was an excellent excuse to do a bit of coloring and use a very cool sketch I saw online."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I couldn't resist dressing-up the cute little bear from Gina K. Designs Woodland Friends in a big Santa Hat (to join her Christmas in July Monthly Mix challenge)."

♥♥♥

Scroll down to the original Santa's Hat Post to see the Readers' Gallery and find the Link Up... plus take a peek at the little prize one lucky random cardmaker will receive just for linking up with us!

Santa's Hat

The newest Jingle Belles prompt is to create a card that features a Santa Hat... it might be on Santa himself, or you might want to dress-up another person or creature in a Santa Hat. Possibly you'll even want to make a card that's shaped like Santa's Hat? There are quite a few possibilities. Whatever you choose, after you link with us, remember to head over to the Double Trouble Challenge Blog and link up there, as well, where Christmas in July continues through the end of the month!

Meanwhile, here's how the Belles created with Santa Hats this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I chose to dress-up Taylored Expressions Big Grumpy Cat with a Santa Hat, Cocoa, Candy Cane & grumpy holiday sentiment from Taylored Expressions Big Grumpy - Christmas.  I used the layout from Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers (BYSHC) and papers from Dress My Craft Christmas Bells and Fancy Pants Cookies for Kringle.  I'm also linking-up at the Caffeinated Christmas Stars Challenge.

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose to start with a cute fussy-cut image of Santa wearing his hat... and then I built out into a sort of collagey card with lots of smaller circles, squares and wordfetti, in an attempt to polish off a few ancient sticker sheets and scraps of paper."

♥♥♥

As our Christmas in July celebration continues, again we have a sweet little prize for one randomly selected cardmaker who links up with us this time:

Link your Santa Hat card creations here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, July 26th; then head on over to the Double Trouble Challenge and link up there, as well!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter