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!

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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."

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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."

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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

Bloomin' Beauties

Christmas in July has never looked so lovely; if you haven't yet scrolled through the bumper crop of festive flowers and foliage in the Poinsettia Perfection Readers' Gallery, we highly recommend that inspiring trip. In the meantime, here are three cards that especially caught our eye:

Darlene Pavlick of Dar's Crafty Creations

...inked her gorgeous poinsettia embossing folder in timely shades of red, white and blue for a showstopper of a CAS Christmas card!

Karen Walker of Random Reflections

...went with a bold, black, textural background that makes the delicate diecut blooms on her beautiful bauble pop even more!

Barbara G of Barb's Creative Corner

...went big with a card-covering image embossed in gold and delicately watercolored for a look that abounds with elegance!

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A big shout out to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single card! We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will have you "TIC"-ing all the boxes! ;)

Merry Mistletoe

This week we're continuing with our Poinsettia Perfection theme - asking you to make cards featuring Poinsettias or other holiday blooms; plants or greenery like Mistletoe or Holly; or even a Pine Branch wreath.

Here are our creations for week two:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Way back in February, for the "Midnight Clear" prompt, I had made a card built on a well-hoarded, super-sturdy Hambly Screen Prints transparency base, which reminded me how much I love those AND generated an interesting idea involving washi tape which I've finally gotten around to right here! As you can see, I just added strips of red and green washi dangling down from the topfold of the card. I've wrapped them around to the back as well, but trimmed those edges slightly shorter than the ones on the front so that they don't show. I was on the point of attaching some poinsettia diecuts when this hand-painted, machine-stitched poinsettia (that I made a while ago but for some reason didn't use) literally fell out of an envelope full of crafty "leftovers" which seemed like a pretty clear SIGN, so of course I used it, lol."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I loved the gorgeous poinsettia paper from the Mintay Merry Little Christmas Collection.  I paired it with the pink snow design that was on the reverse side and a poinsettia decked mug of hot chocolate using the July sketch from Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers.  I'm also joining the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge.  The sentiment is a vintage woodblock from Hero Arts."

Remember, you have until 6pm on Wednesday, July 16th to link-up your festive foliage cards on the original Poinsettia Perfection post (directly underneath this one).

Poinsettia Perfection

This fortnight's Poinsettia Perfection prompt is asking you to create a card that features a Poinsettia or other holiday blooms; plants or greenery like Mistletoe or Holly; or even a Pine Branch wreath.

Here are the blooms we're sharing this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "This was the perfect opportunity to break out my never-before-used Hero Arts Color Layering Poinsettia Window Stencils.  I used four colors of Distress Ink - Candied Apple, Fired Brick, Distress Oxide Mowed Lawn and Rustic Wilderness.  I die cut the blooms with the Hero Arts Nesting Rounded Rectangle Infinity Die and finished with a sentiment in the window from Hero Arts Comfort and Joy Messages."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I have a few choices for holiday foliage and flowers, but one of my favorite options is the Christmas Add-On set for Wendy Vecchi's Essential Envelope dies from Spellbinders. I used the triple holly leaf die on two shades of glimmery yellow/gold cardstock to build double-layer poinsettias, which the set's  feathery foliage die complements beautifully. I broke out Wendy's Studio 490 Perfectly Plaid stamp to use as the background (embossed in Ranger's Vintage Pearl powder) and again on a Statements Chippie (in Marigold powder). A sage green mat and some WV Washi Tape complete the design of my 5.5" square card."

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Link your own poinsettia-centric masterpieces right here, by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 16th. Keyword for galleries and socials is JB2514. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Fa-La-La-La Frames!

It turns out there really is NO bad way to use a frame... especially in the hands of our expert cardmaking Jingle Belles! Here are a few that especially caught our eye this time:

Brenda B of Brenda's Scraps of Life

...framed her lovely vintage-style sentiment with an elegant and intricate white frame, thus making her bold and beautiful blooms stand out even more!

Cindy Major aka @encrepapierciseaux on Instagram

...set off her adorable Santa in the perfect fancy frame; he's the perfect star of her wonderfully vibrant and festive card!

Chris of And Here's One I Made Earlier

...chose a bold plaid frame in black and red to highlight the perfection of her coloring on the lovely lady image! 

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Many thanks to all who participated, we loved seeing all of your beautiful and inspiring cards. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt and we hope you'll see the "point" of it and join in the fun once more! ;)