Home for the Holidays

There's just something about being Home for the Holidays … so that's the theme (and feeling) we're celebrating at Jingle Belles with our next prompt. 

That means we're asking you to make a holiday card that includes a House, Housing-like materials (wood-grain paper, a brick embossing folder), or the word Home.

Here's how we "built" our Homes this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I built my house using the Concord & 9th Home for the Holidays Stacks Dies together with a sentiment and banner die from Concord & 9th Festive Blooms using the colors from the current Color Hues Challenge palette of Sage Green and Smokey Blue."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "As a cardmaker who sometimes feels silly saving all my off-cuts of patterned paper and cardstock, this design is a bit of a triumph because, apart from the 5.5" square cardbase, it's made entirely of scraps! I used both dies from Penny Black's Trees and Hills set; both curvy dies from MFT's Stitched Basic Edges 2; and the house, fence, trees and snowflakes from Spellbinders' Winter Label Motifs set. The diecut flag sentiment is also Spellbinders and was in my leftover diecuts box, glued up and ready to roll."

♥♥♥

Link your HOME-made masterpiece(s) right here!

JB2520: Home for the Holidays runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 8th.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Merry Metallics

It is ALWAYS difficult to only choose three cards, and this fortnight it was especially hard. Therefore we highly recommend you take a good scroll through all the entries, so as not to miss any of the fabulous inspiration! Meanwhile, here are three marvelously metallic cards that caught our eye:

Helen of Helen's Craft Haven

...embossed a beautiful woodmount stamp with gold powder on a dramatically dark background, then painted it with metallic watercolors to stunning effect!

Kathy K of Purple Princess Diaries

...does indeed display some gorgeous purple, as well as three other glittery metallic washi strips, cleverly framed up by the negative space of her pretty Christmas Tree die!

Susan B of Cardmaker's Garret

...painted this lovely holly stamp with a special adhesive, stamped it onto white cardstock, then applied gold gilding flakes for an effect that is pure, off-the-charts elegance!

♥♥♥

And now to find out who is the winner of that very cool cover-plate die, we've consulted the Random.org and they've selected Lucky Number 13 which means that...

Denise Bryant 

is our Lucky Winner!

Denise, please send your snail mail info to

llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com 

and we'll get that on its way to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who played along, we loved seeing every single card. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will have you feeling right at *home*! ;)

GOLD-en Years

We're still celebrating a Metallic Christmas at Jingle Belles this week. Create a GOLD (or silver or copper or bronze) card ... just make sure we see your metallics.

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Laurenb says, "This card has FOUR different styles of silver metallic cardstock: matte, sparkly, glimmery and full-on reflective metallic silver... a personal best, lol! It's also got three different metallic tapes and some deep blue shimmer paper that isn't quiiiiiite metallic but adds to the vibe of the card, I think. I've paired Penny Black's Glorious poinsettia die (cut three times, clustered together and blinged up a bit) with Altenew's splendid Perfect Poinsettias 3D Embossing Folder... that I highlighted with a bit of metallic rub-on paste in a rich blue shade."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I went with silver this week by die cutting the Memory Box Tall Pine from Silver Metallic Cardstock.  Next I attached it to Teal Metallic cardstock before adding a star and Pinkfresh Studio Teal Gems.  I finished by attaching it all to a silver glittery card base and adding a sticker sentiment.  My other color inspiration was from the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Silver & Teal Challenge."

And remember, one lucky participant will win this new Mid-Century Ethereal Plate background die cut by Simon Says Stamp.

Baby it's GOLD Outside

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to incorporate some GOLD into your card design. Okay, we'll stretch it a bit and allow silver, bronze, copper, platinum and brass as well ... just make sure we see your metallics!

It can be ink, paint, metallic paper, embellishments, embossing powder ... just make sure it has the Midas touch.

Here's how we got golden this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie say, "I started by die cutting a gold GelliArts print with the Simon Says Stamp Mid-Century Ethereal Plate and attaching it to a metallic teal and gold GelliArts print.  Next I stamped the Circle Tree from Simon Says Festive Trees is black ink on another metallic gold GelliArts print positioning it on a Pinkfresh Studio Nested Oval Double Stitched die cut from brushed metallic gold cardstock and topped with a gold star.  I finished with a Savvy Stamps Happy Holidays Block sentiment."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I also embraced gold this week; it's in a bunch of different elements: the vintage postcard I scanned and re-sized is framed with a gold diecut and matted on part of a gold doily; the strip of music paper and the scalloped piece beneath it are both gold metallic (I have recently re-discovered my collection of ancient border punches!); it's impossible to tell from the photo, but the reindeer sticker has glittery accents, as well."

♥♥♥

One lucky participant will win a brand new Simon Says Stamp Mid-Century Ethereal Plate die that Stephanie used for her card today, so break out those metallics and come join the Jingle Belles fun.

♥♥♥

JB2519: Baby it's GOLD Outside runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, September 24th. Link up your own Metallic Masterpiece(s) right here!   

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Cardstock Creativity

It turns out that the lack of patterned paper is NO obstacle at all to your amazing creativity! Thus, this fortnight it is especially difficult to only choose three cards, and we highly recommend you take a good scroll through all the entries, so as not to miss any of the fabulous inspiration! Meanwhile, here are three cards that caught our cardstock-centric eye:

Heather Mills of Wire Wrapture

...collaborated with her daughter to make this adorably creative, beautifully composed card, with arguably the best holiday pun EVER!

 (PS: We're stealing the mistle-toad sentiment for sure!!!)

Debbie of Debbie's Dash of This and That

...added an extra level of texture and interest to her already beautifully artful card: after smooshing, dipping and blending beautiful inks, she randomly added clear embossing ink and powder!

(Minds blown; we're definitely trying this brilliant idea!)

Fiona W of Crafty Stamping

...created this amazingly elegant and artful stamped collage on top of a gel print experiment and we are a bit obsessed with every beautiful detail!

(Bonus points that this card is perfect for ANY winter holiday!)

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who played along, we loved seeing every single card. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will get a gold star from the readership! ♥

The 12 Days of Cardstock

We're still celebrating a Cardstock Christmas this week ... making cards with absolutely no designer paper.

Here's how we got Cardstock Creative this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Not only is this card entirely free of patterned paper, I've used mostly scraps and leftovers! When I was making the Dressed to Chill kits last week, I made a few different versions of the sign and the happy snowperson from Simon Hurley's Spellbinders North Pole Sentiments Die Set; the white-embossed watercolor panel (made with Hero Arts' Christmas Rose cover stamp) was made probably a year ago and (mysteriously?!) never used; the sparkly snowflakes were in my diecut organizer; and the background is made of thin, random-width strips of coordinating pink cardstock, stuck to an adhesive sheet and stitched around the edges."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I cut a number of gelliarts prints on white cardstock into 1/4" stripes and then I wove them together to create my background.  I topped it with three white cardstock Christmas Trees cut using Memory Box Tall Evergreen Circle.  I finished with a brushed gold star cut using a die from Simon Says Stamp CZ Design Clean Line Christmas and a Memory Box Foiled Christmas Greetings (I shared a second bonus card with the leftover strips on my blog)."

♥♥♥

    

JB2518: Cardstock Christmas runs until next Wednesday evening, September 10th, so there's still time to join the fun! Link your cards on the original post... directly below this one!  

Cardstock Christmas

This prompt, we're asking you to step away from the designer 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 our Cardstock Christmas:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I created my card base using white cardstock with an ink smooshing technique using three colors of Distress Oxide Ink (Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint & Mowed Lawn).  I stamped the images and sentiments from Simon Says Stamp CZ Design Clean Line Christmas.  I used a die cut from the set on brushed metallic gold cardstock and finished with some brushed gold embellishments."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "One of my favorite ways to make a fast, easy background is with Wendy Vecchi's Build a Plaid Layering Stencils from Spellbinders and her Ranger Archival Inks. In this case I used Carnation, Goldenrod, Mulberry and Fern Green. As I often do, I built my plaid on a diagonal, and at the end I added some gold pen lines as well as two coordinating (cardstock!) mats, plus some poinsettia and foliage diecuts from the Christmas Add-On set for Wendy's Not Your Ordinary Card Collection. I couldn't resist finishing off with a few white velvet holly leaves and some glittery gold enamel dots."

♥♥♥

 

link up your own cardstock-centric masterpieces right here! JB2518: Cardstock Christmas runs until 6pm (Eastern) on the evening of Wednesday, September 10th.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Old-Fashioned Awesomeness!

There are some incredibly lovely cards in the Spirit of Christmas Past Gallery, so we highly recommend you take a little scroll through for extra inspiration! In the meantime, here are three cards that especially caught our eye:

Jolanda Johnstone of The Inque Spot Studio

...upcycled a very pretty card she received last Christmas by diecutting it into an oval, then pairing it with a beautifully muted collection of patterned papers which coordinate perfectly!

Bonnie of Stampin' with Klass

...stamped her sentiment directly onto vintage-vibed patterned paper, added soft inking to the edges and the perfect horse-drawn sleigh as focal point; all of which adds up to a lovely and elegant card!

(Bonus points for fabulous holiday staging!)

Suzanne Harkinson Posting On Flickr

...used a beautiful set of vintage-style patterned papers and a fabulous sketch from Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers to create this lovely (& wonderfully mail-able!) greeting! 

♥♥♥

And now we need to find out who's won the fun little Vintage Holiday Ephemera pack from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff. The fine folks at Random.org have selected...

Lucky Number 4

which means that Diane of Diane's Country Cards & Crafts is our Lucky Winner!

Congrats, Diane! If you'll send your snail mail info to llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com we'll get that prize to the post office ASAP and on its way to you!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to every one played along, we loved seeing all of your gorgeous cards. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt; we hope you'll stop by to take STOCK when we do! ;)

An Old-Fashioned Xmas

We're heading into the second week of The Spirit of Christmas Past, which means we're still creating cards with a vintage or retro feeling. That could mean incorporating actual vintage elements, using new products that have a vintage style, or using stamps or images that convey a vintage vibe; whatever says vintage or retro to you. 

To add a little extra incentive to your endeavors, this fortnight we're sponsored by Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, so there's a Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment of vintage holiday goodies for one lucky card member who links-up their vintage-inspired design. You can see a pic of the prize and find the Linky tool on the original post... directly below this one.

Here's how we went vintage/retro this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I've got a background comprised of actual vintage bits (the vintage poinsettia illustration from an old Christmas Ideals Magazine, book paper, sheet music, etc) with a few images cut from Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Pocket Cards, a couple of golden rub-on transfers, some wordfetti stickers and coordinating washi tape. The frame is also TH/Idea-ology and it's surrounding a little vignette from Ideals. I inked the edges and machine-stitched the whole collage to a white 5.5" square card."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I started my design with the vintage ephemera of Christmas Snow from Tim Holtz and paired it with a vintage birdie wildlife stamp and vintage S&H Green Stamps from my own stash.  I added papers that I thought had a vintage-y feel and finished with lots of sticker sentiments."

 

Just a reminder that JB2517: The Spirit of Christmas Past runs until the evening of Wednesday, August 27th. 

The Spirit of Christmas Past

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

And to add a little extra incentive to your endeavors, this fortnight we're sponsored by Lauren's fantastic Etsy Shop Just Enough Stuff, so there's a Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment of vintage holiday goodies (see photo below) for one lucky card member who links-up their vintage-inspired design.

Here are our vintage creations for this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I built my card around the vintage photo image from Tim Holtz Layers & Paper Dolls that I covered with clear Gesso and then colored with Derwent Inktense Pencils.  I layered it with a vintage doily, vintage dictionary page and vintage trading stamps.  I finished with a combination of vintage-like elements from Tim Holtz and sticker sentiments."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "This week I chose to use only commercial products to make my vintage-inspired collage, but the absence of actual OLD stuff didn't slow me down at all! I raided my stash of Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Pocket Cards, matted them on red shimmer paper and arranged them into an interestingly stacked compilation. A trimmed down TH Vignette Box Cover frames up a beautiful Authentique old-fashioned Santa journal card as focal image. I added everything to a background of older Ciao Bella plaid patterned paper, and finally affixed the whole thing onto a brushed gold A7 card." 

♥♥♥

But what about that PRIZE we mentioned??!

One lucky cardmaker will be chosen randomly to receive a Deluxe Christmas Ephemera Assortment like this one, full of vintage holiday goodies from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff. All you have to do is link a newly made vintage- or retro-inspired holiday card using the linky tool below!

♥♥♥

JB2517: The Spirit of Christmas Past runs until 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, August 27th. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sensational Sketch Cards!

It's no surprise that Stephanie's beautiful sketch inspired gorgeous cards, but that does lead to our favorite Jingle Belles "problem" of narrowing down to just three cards in the shout out post! If you haven't seen ALL the cards we highly recommend the trip, but in the meantime here are a few that especially caught our eye:

Valerie Kaye of Inkspirations

...says she had the entire idea for her wondrous card as soon as she saw the sketch and what a FAB idea it was; in retrospect, that circle is so OBVIOUSLY meant to be a moon with the silhouette of Santa's sleigh stamped onto it!

Lee Ann Barrett of Greyt Paper Crafts

...used soft stenciling and subtle paper-piercing to add extra texture and interest without taking anything away from her lovely (& beautifully colored) focal image. Bonus points for clever stacking and framing of diecuts that perfectly fit the sketch!

Jenn Borjeson of Stampin Angel Jenn 

...swapped this adorable donkey on a bauble for the sketch's circle shape, then added bold patterns and bright colors to every layer, for a card that is as fun and festive as it is fanciful!

♥♥♥

And now we all want to know where that fun Uniko stamp set will be heading off to, right?

The fine folks at Random. org have chosen

Lucky Number 7

and thus...

Jenn Borjeson of Stampin Angel Jenn 

is our lucky winner, congrats!

♥

Jenn, if you could send your snail mail info to

llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com

we will get that prize to the post office ASAP!

♥♥♥

Once again we thank everyone who participated, we loved seeing ALL of your clever and inspiring sketch cards! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will send your vintage-lovin' vibes into high gear, so stay tuned!

Merry SKETCH-mas

The Jingle Belles are still getting SKETCH-y this week.

Here is how we celebrated SKETCH-mas this week:

Lauren's Other Sketch Card

Lauren says, "This week I raided my stash of holiday cuuuuuteness, including some adorable Doodlebug stickers and papers, plus coordinating items from Elle's Studio, Carta Bella and Pebbles. My card is all about Santa getting ready for the holidays at the North Pole and I've been about as faithful to the sketch as I could possibly be! (Of course *YOU* do not need be as literal as this; feel free to swap shapes; flip, rotate or stretch the sketch; just so long as we can see "the bones"!)"

Stephanie's Other Sketch Card

Stephanie says, "My Sketch Card started with a Concord & 9th Cup of Kindness adorned with an Eyelet Outlet Retro Christmas Tree brad.  I paired it with papers from Pebbles Cozy and Bright and a sentiment from STAMPlorations Caffeinated Christmas.  I finished with two enamel dots. I'm also joining the Caffeinated Christmas Challenge.

 ♥♥♥

Remember there's a fun little prize for one lucky random cardmaker who links up with us this time. Check it out (& find the Linky Tool!) on the original 'Twas the Sketch Before Xmas post, directly below this one.

'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas

...and all through the blog, we're busy making new holiday cards based on this clever and inspiring layout by our own Jingle Belles Sketch Diva, Stephanie! 

As always, you can interpret the sketch using any colors, stamps, papers or supplies; and you can flip, rotate, stretch or smoosh it; even swap the circle for a different shape... just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch in your design!

Here's how we got SKETCH-y this week:

Stephanie's Sketch Card

Stephanie says, "I went searching for a circular tag in my stash to use for my sketch, but instead fell in love with this round-topped penguin gift tag.  I paired him with a coordinating teal scrap of designer paper and some red glitter paper.  I finished with a vintage woodblock Memory Box sentiment ... because clearly he's too cool for yule."

Lauren's Sketch Card

Lauren says, "As you can see, I flipped the sketch upside down (unintentionally) and I shifted things (on purpose) a bit to the righthand side to accommodate my square card format, but otherwise I was quite faithful to Stephanie's beautiful sketch. Unusually for me, ALL of my items not only come from one manufacturer (49 & Market) but from one collection, "Christmas Spectacular" with which I am a bit obsessed. I used parts of three patterned papers and built my focal collage from the "cut outs" sheet that's included in the collection. I did lots of distressing and a bit of machine stitching and called it a day."

♥♥♥

And we've got a fun little prize for one lucky (randomly selected) Sketch participant - the Winter Foliage Stamp Set from Uniko.

Link your Sketch-centric card(s) right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, August 13th. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tic-Tac-Toe Triumphs!

We thought our crafty holiday Tic-Tac-Toe board might be TOO challenging, but as usual, our fellow Jingle Belles rose to the cardmaking occasion! ALL of the takes are worth seeing, but here are three that especially caught our eye:

Julia Aston of Create with Me

...chose the lefthand column of Animal + Diecut + Red by adorning a beautiful pine frond with perfectly pieced male and female cardinals!

Sandy J of Adventures of a Stamping Writer

...went with the top row which she populated with an adorable House Mouse (Animal); a vibrant dotty pattern (Designer Paper); and an accent that is perfectly on point: Ribbon with twinkly lights!

Meg of Bits and Pieces

...did a most impressive job of CAS cardmaking with the challenging bottom row which consisted of Red + Santa + One Layer: Nailed it!

♥♥♥

As we mentioned above, the Readers' Gallery for the Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge (on the original post RIGHT HERE) is definitely worth the trip, so we hope you'll check it out. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt you might think is just a teeny bit *sketchy*... ;)

St. Nick Tic-Tac-Toe

We're back this week continuing our game of Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe.

Here's how we played the game this week.

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "My stash of classic Basic Grey holiday papers is dwindling, but being a top-notch hoarder, I do still have some medium-sized pieces (from which my two background pieces hail) and lots of little scraps (from which I diecut all of the shapes to paper-piece these adorable Impression Obsession Retro Ornaments. By which you may well have already deduced that this week I chose to work the middle row of Diecuts + Paper Piercing or Piecing + Ornaments."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week I went vertical down the left side with Animal, Die Cut & Red.  I stamped, colored & die cut Big Grumpy from Taylored Expressions and positioned him on my Red background created with the Taylored Expressions Take Two Stencil and Picket Fence Studios Silver Paper Glaze."

♥♥♥

JB2515: Tic-Tac-Toe runs until next Wednesday evening, July 30th. Check out the original post for all the info and the Linky tool to add your own Tic-Tac-Toe creation(s)!

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. (Please note that you can, of course, use more than one animal, more than one ornament, etc etc.)

There are *lots* of possibilities, so let's get started!

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My Tic-Tac-Toe is vertically down the right side with Ribbon, Ornaments and a One-Layer Card.  I started with a large Dina Kowal Large Pixel Christmas Tree background image from Impression Obsession that I stamped in green inks on natural ivory cardstock.  I used watercolor markers on the red berries and the brown pinecone.  For the ribbon element, I added tiny gold ribbon bows to two of the ornaments hanging on the tree."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose the left-hand column, which gave me: Animal + Diecut + Red, so I went with the sweet bunny (plus a couple of trees) from Pretty Pink Posh's Holiday Pals stamp set; Diecuts in the form of Penny Black's Trees and Hills in the background and MFT's Happy Holidays frame; and three different patterned papers (plus a mat) in Red."

♥♥♥

Link your Tic-Tac-Toe masterpieces right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 30th.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter