PINK Christmas (Week 2)

It's the second week of Pink Christmas; the annual event where we ask YOU to make and link up as many predominantly PINK holiday cards as you possibly can, because WE (Stephanie and Lauren) are each going to donate $2 per card to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation! So how can you participate? Just make as many new cards as you'd like, each with a winter holiday theme, which feature PINK prominently. Then link them at the original Pink Christmas Post ... directly beneath this one. Easy peasy! 

Here's how we celebrated PINK Christmas this week:

Lauren's Other PINK Card

Lauren says, "This week I'm secretly a bit proud that I haven't actually used ANY official Christmas/holiday product! In fact, all of the papers (except the background) were from my scrap box. The adorable narwhal is an older Doodlebug 3D Doodle-pops Sticker and the little fishes plus the hearts were part of the set. I made the sentiment using some older Lawn Fawn alphabet dies and my trusty Dymo Labelmaker."

Stephanie's Other PINK Card

Stephanie says, "This week I started my Pink card with the On His Way Bella-Pop sticker of Santa in his fun little decked out Pink car and built my card around it.  used a Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders die cut for my snow and attached it to a piece of pink ombre cardstock from Scrapbook.com Ombre Patterned Paper.  I attached the car & the accompanying cloud stickers and finished with a sentiment from Kristina Werner Winter Greenery."

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We'd love for you to join us in celebrating PINK CHRISTMAS and of course it's for a very good cause, so start making and linking those PINK holiday cards today! JB2521: I'm Dreaming of a PINK Christmas runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October22nd.

I'm Dreaming of a PINK Christmas

It's the first week of October and thus it's time for PINK CHRISTMAS at Jingle Belles; the annual event where we ask YOU to make and link up as many predominantly PINK holiday cards as you possibly can, because WE (Stephanie and Lauren) are each going to donate $2 per card to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation! 

So what qualifies as a PINK CHRISTMAS card? It's pretty simple: the cards should be newly made, with a winter holiday theme, and they should feature PINK prominently. Does your whole card have to be pink? Certainly not. Can you combine other colors with the pink? Of course! 

Should you have more pink than say two or three baubles on your green tree set against a snowy white background? Well, yes... that would be good, lol. But other than that, we'll leave it to you to decide how much pink, what shade, and how to employ it! Can you link up more than one PINK CHRISTMAS card? Yes, indeed, please do!

Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started by cutting 3/8" strips from my collection of bright pink GelliArts prints and attaching them to a thin piece of white cardstock.  Next I stamped on top of the painted strips with Gina K. Designs Merry Everything and cut out the tree.  I cut two more trees from the strips edging the triangles with pink ink and attached them to a light pink GelliArts print using the October Sketch from 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.  I finished with a sentiment from the same stamp set and added a silver star on top of the tree."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I've recently remembered how much I love the technique of adding salt to a wet panel of watercolor; it makes a pattern/texture similar to Jack Frost painting our windows in the winter. This panel looked so pretty that I didn't want to cover it up very much; thus I only added some Wendy Vecchi holly leaves (from last year's Christmas Add-On to her Not Your Ordinary Card Collection) cut from two luscious shades of self-adhesive felt paper; plus a few Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads and tiny Pearl Bling. A dark pink mat and a bit of machine stitching complete my A6 card design."

♥♥♥♥♥

We'd love for you to join us in celebrating PINK CHRISTMAS and of course it's for a very good cause, so start making and linking those PINK holiday cards today! JB2521: I'm Dreaming of a PINK Christmas runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October22nd.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

There's No Place Like Home

Home IS where the heart is, especially at holiday time. Thus it was hard to only choose three cards, and we recommend an inspiring scroll through all the entries, so as not to miss any of the fabulous ideas from this fortnight's crop of cards! Meanwhile, here are three that especially caught our eye:

Julene of Julene by Design

...chose woodgrain paper, an amazingly intricate snowflake, and a washi tape sentiment for a card that beautifully sums up the whole winter holiday season!

Tracey of Copics, Stamps and Inky Fingers

...cleverly combined several different sets of dies, cut from the perfect shades of cardstock, to "make a scene" in the best possible way! 

Jolanda Johnstone of The Inque Spot Studio

...brilliantly added this tiny cabin to a holiday wreath, and tied everything together with consistent ink colors and pierced circle dies for a card that says, "WOW" in all caps!

♥♥♥

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 find you tickled pink! ;)

I'll be HOME for Christmas

We're still creating cards inspired by HOME this week - you can include a house on your card, incorporate home-like products (bricks, woodgrain, etc.) or include the word HOME.

Here's how we built our HOMEs this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Another super-scrappy creation here. It's got a couple of designer paper off-cuts, a random tag, chipboard as well as ordinary stickers, five (5!) styles of ancient washi tape and a tiny car cut from patterned paper. Fun fact: I think the "12 Days" chipboard sticker has been in my stash for AT LEAST ten years... and I cannot decide if that fact is triumph or tragedy...?"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I used a Penny Black Masterpieces Image for my Home this week.  I attached it to a natural card base with foam tape over a dotted image for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.  I finished with a greeting from Penny Black Banner Sentiments."

♥♥♥

Remember you still have until next Wednesday evening (9/8/25) 

to join the fun for JB2520: Home for the Holidays.

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.