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."

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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."

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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!