Holiday Shape-Up Continues

We're still Shaping Up for the Holidays, and as you'll recall, that means we're making shaped cards, for which anything other than a square or rectangle will do. Though some holiday ideas might be a star, stocking, candy cane, circle, ice-skate... ok, you get the idea, right? If not, jump down to the original Shaping Up post and take a scroll through the Readers' Gallery. Meanshile, here's how we SHAPED-up this week:

Lauren's Other Card(s)

Lauren says, "A few years ago I had downloaded a photo of a beautiful mitten-shaped card, printed it out on cardstock at 4x6" size, used it as a template and raided my stash of ancient Basic Grey holiday patterned paper to make THIS CARD. Luckily, I had saved the template and still had some nice big chunks of BG, so I'm back with the same idea... times two! Basic Grey flower layers, Recollections flair, scraps of felt  trimmings, 7 Gypsies velvet holly leaves, and a couple of buttons from my stash complete this pair of mixy-matchy mitten cards."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "As a child, I loved making snowmen.  I think I had just as much fun making this paper version.  I started by die cutting two circles from white glitter paper.  I attached the circles to a card base (overlapping the fold slightly on the left) and then cut around my circles to create my snowman-shaped card base.  Next I hand-cut the hat from black cardstock with a wonderful gold shimmer.  I used the same black paper for the eyes, mouth and buttons.  I hand-cut the carrot nose from a scrap of orange designer paper.  The arms are made from a thin strip of brown woodgrain embossed paper.  I finished with some holly leaves and berry stickers and a fun little ice cold treat.

This challenge runs through Wednesday evening (6pm EST), July 3rd, 2024.

SHAPING-up for the Holidays

Since this prompt finds us half-way to Christmas, we figured it was a good time to start SHAPING-Up for the Holidays.  

What that means is we're making shaped cards … anything other than a square or rectangle will do.  You might try a circle, star, stocking, candy cane ... we can't wait to see your SHAPE of Christmas creativity.

Here's how we SHAPED-up this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie say, "I have no idea how long I've had this never-before-used Jolly Santa Shaped Gift Card Holder die cut set from Crafter's Companion, but it was certainly well past time to give it a go.  Rather than just use cardstock for my Santa, I created my own papers on my GelliArts Press for the face/nose and the red (with a tiny bit of gold paint mixed in) for Santa's outfit.  I added gold metallic paper for Santa's belt.  This will be a fun little way to share some gift card love for the holiday."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I used the second largest bauble in an older set of older Hero Arts Ornaments Infinity Dies to diecut this charming, vintage-inspired Santa from Prima's Candy Cane Lane collection, then traced and handcut a few additional layers to make a slightly larger and sturdier card. I used Wendy Vecchi's brilliant "hinge" method to add another diecut piece to the back (with a crease scored at 3/4" from the top before affixing) and thus make this into a card that actually opens!* A few Impression Obsession diecut snowflakes, a seambinding bow and a scatter of golden star sequins complete the design."

♥♥♥

Link your SHAPED masterpieces right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Keyword for galleries etc is JB2413.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Three by Three

There are some truly AMAZING cards in our Jingle Belles' We Three Kings Readers' Gallery, so if you haven't taken time to scroll through, we highly recommend the trip. In the meantime, here are three takes on three (or more!) patterned papers that especially caught our eye:

Becca S of Becca's Quest for Love and Country Creativity

...combined three patterned papers, one diecut tag, one washi tape and enough glittery glimmery snowflakes to make us forget the current "heat bubble" in the Northeast!

Liz of Old Right-Brain Madness

...constructed such a clever, quilt-inspired, scrap-using, pattern-combining masterpiece that we've saved it to our inspiration files as a secret weapon for the next time we do a similar challenge!

Cindy Major aka @encrepapierciseaux on Instagram

...linked up several AMAZING multi-patterned makes, all of which you really need to see, but this fun and fabulous holiday sweater design miiiiiiight be our fave!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we enjoyed seeing every single card! We'll be back at Midnight with a few ideas for getting IN SHAPE for the holidays... don't worry, there's NO diet or exercise involved!!! :)

Three of a Kind

We're still celebrating "We Three Kings" and thus creating cards with at least THREE designer papers this week; here's how we combined our patterns this week:

Lauren's Other Card(s)

Lauern says, "This week, I've used five patterned papers, across two cards: two shades of Lawn Fawn's Knit Picky line, plus a piece from Let it Shine; ancient MME Trees; and the Lawn Fawn Yeti are pieced in one of Bella Blvd's fabulous tone-on-tone plaids. The snowflakes are, of course, Eyelet Outlet Brads. I'm awarding myself bonus points for using both the positive and negative parts of the Dare 2B Artzy Stitched Framelits dies, instead of putting the unused pieces in the ever-increasing leftover die cuts pile."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I actually combined five different papers from the Echo Park Santa Claus Lane Collection including a mug of hot cocoa for the Caffeinated Christmas Masculine Card Challenge.  I added a little ink around the die cut star paper to give it a bit more contrast and finished with a Hero Arts Holiday Meal sentiment and a few enamel dots using a layout from the Sketch~N~Scrap Challenge."

Remember you have until 6pm EST on Wednesday, June 19th to join the fun. Scroll down to the original post to link your cards!

We THREE Kings

This week at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to dig into your stash of designer papers (we know you have one!) and use at least THREE different patterned papers in your card design (hence the prompt name of We THREE Kings).

It might happen by cutting into your favorite hoarded sheets of paper ... or by digging through your scrap paper pile.  You can combine three different patterns from the same paper collection ... or maybe branch out and choose unrelated prints that you just happen to love. Just be brave, be colorful, and have fun.

Here's how we combined at least THREE patterned papers this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I chose three designer papers from the Mintay White Christmas collection for my card this week.  With that great holiday scene on one of the papers, all I needed to do to finish the design was at a few bits of bling and a sentiment from Kerri Bradford's Oh What Fun stamp set.

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "It's no surprise that I love 49 and Market's Christmas Spectacular 2023 collection, so all four of my papers come from that set. I especially love it with lots of distressed layers and machine stitching, as my card reflects. In addition to four different patterns from the collection, I've got four strips of washi tape (admittedly hard to see... they're wrapped around the decorative band that's mostly hidden by the flower) as well as a sentiment sticker, and an ancient Petaloo velvet flower."

We THREE Kings runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday evening, June 19th. Keyword for galleries, etc is JB2412.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tic-Tac-Toe Titans

Crafty Tic-Tac-Toe is always one of our favorite events, because those nine boxes seem to hold an infinite amount of inspiration! Here are three takes that especially caught our eye this time:

Gail of What's Normal?

...selected the top row, which gave her Snowman + Embossing + Ribbon; each of which she's used to great advantage; with bonus points for the fun, fresh purple and white color palette!

Aimeslee of Paper-Paisleys Art Adventures

...used the center row of Glitter or Bling + Red or Green + Stamping to create a kraft and copper design with loads of texture and interest!

Liz Williams of Old Right Brain Madness

...chose the center column of Embossing + Red or Green (in this case both) + Diecuts and came up with this vibrant, elegant design in traditional holiday colors!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single inspiring card. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope you'll find especially inspiring!