Tic-Tac-Toe Triumph

Possibly the only thing more fun than playing Treeskirt Tic-Tac-Toe is seeing the amazingly creative ways our fellow Belles have used the Tic-Tac-Toe Board to inspire their beautiful cards. Every single one is worth a closer look, so we highly suggest a scroll through the Readers' Gallery, but in the meantime, here are three that especially caught our eye: 

Jenn Borjeson of StampinAngelJenn

...didn't just rock the Tic-Tac-Toe board in ONE direction, she's got two complete rows (die cut/red or green, heat embossing on the diagonal; and heat embossing, ribbon + stamping going down) as well as a boatload of  adorability and style!

Trina of Phamtastic Design

...also pulled off an impressive double play... on a CAS card (top row - snowman, glitter/bling, dry/heat embossing & bottom row - die cut/punch, santa, stamping) and made our jaws drop by virtue of her fabulous stamping, masking and coloring skills!

Crystal O. Minkler of Tawny Owl Paperie

...took the board straight down the middle with Glitter + Red or Green + Santa; then gave us the best and most elegant version of all three!

♥♥♥

Special Note:

If you LOVE holiday card challenges as much as we do, please be sure to check out our friend Jo Avery's fun, fresh and fab Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the current theme is FRIENDSHIP and we (Lauren and Stephanie) are honored to be the Guest Elves!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who played along, truly every card linked up was an emphatic winner of this fun Tic-Tac-Toe game! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new challenge we hope will prove to be a manly splendored thing! ;) 

Saint Nick-Tac-Toe

We're still playing a game of Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe this week; here's a reminder of what the board looks like:.

Here is how we played the game this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I chose the right-hand vertical column, which gave me: Dry or Heat Embossing + Ribbon + Stamping. I'll admit I did that partially because I unexpectedly rediscovered my Dina Wakley Soaring embossing folder and once I saw it, I HAD TO use it immediately. My ribbon is of the gorgeous, pink, semi-sheer May Arts variety (which I think you'll agree stages really well!) And finally, my stamping is just the sentiment (from Taylored Expressions' Flip the Snowflake set) but I chalked up a second type of embossing by using Ranger's lovely Pink e/p. I diecut Hero Arts' Snowflake Corner twice (from pale pink and also silver glitter cardstock) and added a single Eyelet Outlet 1.5" Snowflake Bling to give it even more sparkle."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started with the BYSH Cardmakers Sketch and decided to go diagonal down from the top left side with dry embossing, red/green and a die cut.  I used the Penny Black Geometric Embossing Folder for my wavy panel (using the debossed side) and then I die cut using a stitched hilly landscape die on each side.  I used a red and green color palette featuring a Penny Black Woodland Splendor Stickeroo image (for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge Things with Wings) and finished with some enamel dots and a stamped Penny Black Banner sentiment."

♥♥♥

Scroll down to the original Tic-Tac-Toe post to link your card(s) today!

Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe

This fortnight, we're playing Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe, which is a bit like "Beach Blanket Bingo"... but much more 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 snowman, more than one diecut, etc. etc.)

Sound like fun? We thought so! Here's how we played the game this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I went with vertical down the left side with a Snowman Die and a Flower adorning her cute little cap.  Dies and Stamps are all Memory Box with one of my woodgrain Gelliarts prints used for the arms ... and of course, I never pass up and opportunity for googly eyes."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose the center horizonal row, which gave me: Flowers + Red or Green + Ribbon. I couldn't wait to use my new Simon Hurley Festive Holly Layering Stencil set for the "red or green" portion; I used Simon's Iced Out and Tropical Tango Stellar Inks for the holly leaves and stems, with Prom Queen for the berries. My "flowers" consist of the single white silk poinsettia I had left, stacked with two layers of Tim Holtz's Tattered Poinsettia die, which I cut from deep pink felt and held on with an ancient holly themed brad. For "ribbon" I used two different patterns from an older set of Doodlebug Design holiday ribbons. At the very end I sewed around the perimeter (those ribbons are ON THERE lol!) and added a couple of mulberry paper ivy leaves of unknown origin."

♥♥♥

JB2616: Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe runs until 6pm (Eastern) on the evening of Wednesday, August 12th. Link your totally terrific Tic-Tac-Toe cards right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Unicorn Magic

We had so much fun creating cards with the fun Unicorn Holiday color palette, and we're glad to see that you did, too! Every single entry is most definitely worth a look, so we recommend scrolling back to the original post and checking out the FAB Readers' Gallery. In the meantime, here are three cards that especially caught our eye this time: 

Meghan of Made by Meghan K

...used all of the colors, not to mention an amazing selection of adorable patterns; with an extra award for terrific coloring skills!

Cindy Major aka @encrepapierciseaux on Instagram

...not only used all the colors from the board in this super-detailed nutcracker diecut, she also managed to combine several different challenges very impressively!

Charmaine Stack of Tweedcurtain Productions

...creatively blended three of the colors to make the sky behind her handsome snowpeople look like the Aurora Borealis; bonus points for an excellent take on the postage craze!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who played along, we hope you loved this fun palette as much as we did. We'll be back with a brand new prompt at Midnight... when we'll let the games begin! ;)

Unicorn Colors Christmas

This week we're still asking you to create a holiday card using at least three of the colors from our Unicorn Holiday graphic. You can also be inspired by the image, but it's not required!  Neutrals (brown, black, white, kraft) are also allowed. 

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I couldn't decide between recreating Stephanie's amazing card from last week or using my new Simon Hurley create Tangled Lights Layering Stencil Set; so I did a bit of both! I used Simon's Inks for the lights; and a set of nested dies to make the four graduated circles from Stephanie's design. I considered a yeti... or a narwhal... even Hello Kitty; but in the end I chose the snow person in Simon's North Pole Sentiments set from Spellbinders, and had fun dressing him up using scraps from the same colors of cardstock that make up the circles."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I cut cardstock from four of the colors into 3/4" strips for my angled card base.  I used the fifth color for Santa's hat and the stamping ink.  I'm also linking-up my card up at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers X is for Xmas in July, since I believe Simon Says Stamp Santa Man dies paired with sentiments from CZ Design's Sassy Christmas are the perfect snarky fun."

♥♥♥

Scroll down to the original post to link your Unicorn Holiday cards.

Unicorn Holiday

This fortnight we're asking you to create a card that is made using at least three of the colors from this fun Unicorn Christmas color palette from Artsy Fartsy Life (your card does not have to be inspired by the image, but certainly can be as long as it includes at least three of the five colors) … additional neutrals are allowed.

Here's how we used those colors this week.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started by using the darkest color to accessorize my adorable little Lawn Fawn Winter Yeti adding a Santa Hat from Lawn Fawn Hats Off to You (that I've embarassingly had FOR-ever and never used).  I embossed the Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake Backdrop on the other four colors cutting out circles for my background.  I finished with an outline Happy Holidays sentiment from Lawn Fawn Offset Sayings. I'm also linking-up this cutie at the Lawn Fawnatics Christmas in July Challenge."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I was excited to find this ancient piece of SEI "Twitterpated" striped paper which had all of the colors in the palette! Then I pulled out some pale green paper to coordinate and grabbed some diecuts and stickers from the serendipitously matching Simple Stories' Snow Pine Lodge collection. Finally I added Eyelet Outlet Poinsettia and Holly Brads for a little extra texture. Et voila!"

♥♥♥

JB2615: Unicorn Holiday runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 29th. Link your magical cards right here:  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Stars of the Stars and/or Stripes!

How fantastic to see so many gorgeous Stars OR Stripes designs in the Readers' Gallery. We thank the gang from the Double Trouble Challenge Blog for including us in their Christmas in July festivities; and Try a Sketch on Tuesday for not one, but two fabulous layouts. As always, we're grateful to our regulars for linking up such inspiring cards. Whether you've just found us or are an old friend, we hope you'll keep in mind that we post a new holiday card prompt every fortnight, January through November, and you're welcome to come and play along as often as you wish!

Now, without further ado, here are three cards that especially caught our eye:

Le Anne from Wee Inklings

...made us say, "Hooray for the red, white and GREEN!" in a big big way; we love the bold simplicity of her CAS design!

Kim Crouch of Tuff az Nailz

...included stars, stripes and SNOWFLAKES in a patriotic palette of red, white, blue and neutrals; while combining the Double Trouble Recipe and one of the great sketches from Try a Sketch on Tuesday!

Debbie B of Paws to Scrap

...stenciled a red and green peppermint stripe sky as the perfect background for her adorable reindeer-driven holiday train to traverse. Bonus points for her amazing coloring skills, too!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who participated, we loved seeing every single card. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will color you happy! ;)

Stars OR Stripes, Forever (Week 2)

It's our second week of Stars or Stripes, Forever; plus we are also the "Twisted Sister" option on the Double Trouble Challenge Blog's Christmas in July event, where there is a basic recipe: (three colors + two layers + one holiday image) required for all entries at Double Trouble. Then there's a TWIST: to add Stars and/or Stripes and also link with us here at Jingle Belles. Then there's a DARE: to use one of two sketches from Try a Sketch on Tuesday.

Remember, you only need Stars or Stripes to enter here at Jingle Belles, but if you're up for a bigger challenge, consider hopping over to Double Trouble for all the details!

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I elected to attempt all of the aspects of the Double Trouble challenge. Therefore, I used one of the sketches from Try a Sketch on Tuesday; I also incorporated the basic recipe from Double Trouble: three colors (red, green and blue); two layers (blue and striped papers from Basic Grey) and one or more holiday images (a cluster of MME diecuts). And of course I've got stripes and stars (admittedly just two stars lol) for our own Jingle Belles challenge. Woohoo!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I used this week's Just Add Ink Sketch adding "stripes" of striped & star designer papers from Echo Park Happy Holidays collection.  I added one of the journaling cards that has a more traditional star on the top of the tree and finished with a favorite Catslife Press stamped sentiment."

♥♥♥

JB2614: Stars OR Stripes, Forever (for which you need only... as the title says... stars OR stripes!) runs until next Wednesday evening, July 15th. Link your cards on the original post (directly below this one).

Stars OR Stripes, Forever (Week 1)

Since July 4^th is Independence Day in the United States of America, this fortnight we're asking you to incorporate the USA flag elements of either stars or stripes into your card design. It doesn't need to be red, white or blue, but certainly can be… just stars or stripes (or both!) in any medium you choose.

In addition, we are also the "Twisted Sister" option on the Double Trouble Challenge Blog's Christmas in July event, where there is a basic recipe: (three colors + two layers + one holiday image) required for all entries at Double Trouble. Then there's a TWIST: to add Stars and/or Stripes and also link with us here at Jingle Belles. Then there's a DARE: to use one of two sketches from Try a Sketch on Tuesday.

Remember, you only need Stars or Stripes to enter here at Jingle Belles, but if you're up for a bigger challenge, consider hopping over to Double Trouble for all the details!

Here's what we made this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Since I had my patriotic cardmaking supplies on my studio table, I decided to see what I could find to use this week.  I combined a scraps of red swirls, blue stars and blue stripes for my layout.  Then I went looking in my holiday papers and found these neutral toned tags.  I finished with red gems."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "My stars and my stripes are in the form of two different (ancient!) patterned papers, the red is DCWV and the green is Carta Bella. I found half a pack of Pebbles' diecuts and made them into a cluster that connects the four staggered background panels. There are a few elderly chipboard stars courtesy of Echo Park; and the sentiment sticker is from Doodlebug."

♥♥♥

JB2614: Stars OR Stripes, Forever runs until 6pm (Eastern) on July, 15th. Link your starry and/or stripey masterpieces right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sketch Stars

Everyone did an amazing job making gorgeous cards based on Stephanie's superb sketch! If you haven't checked out the Readers' Gallery, we highly recommend a little scroll through all of the fine inspiration. In the meantime, here are three sketch cards that especially caught our eye: 

Sandy J of Adventures of a Stamping Writer

...colored this lovely image with pencils and made it her focal point; then chose just the right elements to fill in the sketch!

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...stretched the sketch into a landscape format to hold an amazingly well coordinated snow scene for her adorable critters to inhabit!

Darnell of DJKard Creations

...streamlined the sketch into a CAS masterpiece with her choice of subtle papers, a bold sentiment, and lots of breathing space for that super-cute snowman! 

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who participated, we loved seeing your superb sketch cards. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt and we hope you'll flag the occasion! ;)

Merry SKETCH-mas

We're still making cards this week using this fun sketch layout:

This is how we got sketchy this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I only have a couple of Penny Black's pre-printed Masterpieces Made Simple journal cards left, but luckily one of them was landscape oriented, because I wanted to rotate the sketch this time. I found this stencil-printed piece of white on dark blue cardstock in my "ufo" box and loved the way the colors and branches sort of echoed the background of the deer illustration. I added a strip of glitter silver tape to serve as the strong line inside the sketch, and a small glittery snowflake is swapping in for the circle piece. The tiny white pearls get a little bit lost in the white branches at the bottom left, but the ones on the top right show up well. Finally I chose a Tim Holtz Idea-Ology wordfetti sticker as my sentiment, and placed it towards the top of the snowscape scene."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I wanted to use this fun tag from Simple Stories All Wrapped Up Big Bits, so I flipped the sketch on it's side.  I paired with with Simple Stories All Wrapped Up papers and a fun little Bella Boulavard St. Nick Bella-Pop 3-D sticker for the "circle" element in the sketch."

JB2613: 'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas runs until next Wednesday evening, July 1st. Details and Linky Tool are on the original post.

'Twas The SKETCH Before Christmas

For our next holiday card prompt we're using a sketch to build our cards, designed by our very own Sketch Scholar, Stephanie!

Here's how we got sketchy this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "When I first saw the sketch, I thought of a scrapbooking journaling card as the focal image, so I opened the never-before-used Carta Bella Merry Christmas Flora Collection and used it to build most of my card.  I decided to part with a piece from my hoarded Flair collection for the circular element and also added a few wraps of red metallic card on the horizontal paper strip."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I started by embossing Hero Arts' Christmas Rose in white on kraft cardstock; then colored the blooms with Prismacolor Pencils. I trimmed the panel to slightly smaller than journal card size, and matted on a scrap of shimmery hot pink cardstock. The background of the sketch is composed of three coordinating papers: the top and border are actually giftwrap I had saved and backed with thin cardstock; the pink stripey paper is ancient Kaisercraft. I did some machine stitching, punched a circular sentiment from a journal card, added some Eyelet Outlet White Matte Enamel Dots and called it a day. I've been very nearly 100% literal in my interpretation of the sketch, though I did have to move the sentiment circle as it was covering up too much of my fancy coloring!"

♥♥♥

JB2613: 'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 1st. Link your sketch-centric cards right here: 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Flat Out Fabulous

The single layer card is quite a challenging category, but the folks who linked up this time have definitely rocked it! If you haven't checked out the Readers' Gallery, we definitely recommend the trip; and maybe a couple of right-clicks that you save for the next time this type of assignment pops up. In the meantime, here are three Flat Feliz Navidad cards that especially caught our eye: 

Robyn Oliver of Waterlily Cards

...not only stamped this beautiful image exactly at the center of her card front, she colored and shaded it beautifully with watercolors! 

(So carefully that it didn't even bleed through to the inside!)

Helen of Helen's Craft Haven

...not only made one layer work, she took the vibe even more CAS by omitting color as well. 

(It turns out that white embossing on kraft cardstock creates an instant gingerbread village!!!)

Deb Horst of Sendable Sentiments

...not only stamped and colored her focal image to really stand out... she masked and stamped; then masked and stenciled; then masked and stenciled some more to fill the whole cardfront! 

(Making the most impressively maximalist and detailed single layer card we've ever seen! Brava!)

♥♥♥

Many thanks to all who participated. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt that might just be a tiny bit "sketchy"! ;)

One Layer Wonderland

We're still creating for the Flat Feliz Navidad theme ... one layer cards for the win.

Here is how we created flat this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week, I got out my Simon Hurley Bold Holiday Blooms background stamp. It’s one of the great Ranger "Peel Apart" stamps that you can use either as a whole 6x6 background; or remove some of the flowers out and stamp them on their own; which is what I’ve done this time. I stamped the big poinsettias in Simon’s Prom Queen Stellar Ink; and stamped the smaller ones in Rosy Cheeks. I stamped the big poinsettias in Simon’s Prom Queen Stellar Ink; and stamped the smaller ones in Rosy Cheeks. I’ve got a small branch from Penny Black’s Nature’s Garlands set; and a sentiment from Taylored Expressions’ Flip the Snowflake set. When I finished stamping, I added some big and small dots with my Zig Dot Markers, et voila! Job done."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I started by Die Cutting the next-to-the-largest Star from Hero Arts 5-Point Star Infinity Dies from lightweight cardstock.  I placed the mask over my ivory card base and blended two colors of yellow and one orange Distress Oxide Ink and then splattered some water for a bit more visual interest.  I stoped the large sentiment from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Bold Tidings 3 in black ink and finished with a few holly leaves & berries from Hero Arts Greetings Christmas Messages."

♥♥♥

Scroll down to the original post to link YOUR Fabulous Flat cards; this challenge runs until next Wednesday evening, June 17th.

Flat Feliz Navidad

With this fortnight's Flat Feliz Navidad prompt, we are asking that you make a one layer (or some call it "no layer") card ... which means that everything should be directly on the card base, with no additional layers on top of that. 

If you're not sure, you can't go wrong by avoiding taping or gluing anything on! We're looking for completely flat cards this time!

Here's how we were FLAT this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My card layers two stencils from Kristina Werner's Simple Christmas Stencil Pack.  I used the all-over diamond stencil first in Speckled Egg Distress Oxide. Next, I rotated the stencil and used Seedless Preserves Distress Oxide.  I stenciled the words on top using three different colors of Distress Oxide Inks - Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet and Villainous Potion.  I finished my single layer by blending more Seedless Preserves on the edges."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "As everyone who knows me even a tiny bit will realize, this is NOT my forte. I'm the queen of lumpy, bumpy, multi-layered (and then let's mat those layers!) cards. So yes, I did a lot of surfing, googling and scrolling to get ideas. And I confess that it took me more than one (!!!) try. But, eventually, I broke out the uber-cute bears (& small sentiment) from Simon Hurley's create. Skating By Stamp Set and stamped everything in Ranger's Jet Black Archival. I colored the bears with Prismacolor Pencils and added a tiny bit of Cry Baby Stellar Ink to the curve of the pond's edge, then toned it down just a little with Shadow Grey Archival. I stamped just a couple of Simon's Peel Apart Stitched Snowflakes (sadly out of print) in the sky and then forced myself to call it a day before I was tempted to add... well... lumpy, bumpy, layery things lol."

♥♥♥

JB2612: Flat Feliz Navidad runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 17th, and YOU are invited to link up with us... if you dare!!! ♥

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Ombre Wonderful

There are some amazingly lovely and very clever cards in the Readers' Gallery, we highly recommend a little scroll through all of the fine ombre inspiration. But before you go, here are three cards that especially caught our eye this time:

Brenda B of Brenda's Scraps of Life

...stenciled green ombre holly leaves with red ombre berries; added a gorgeously blended green ombre mat; and while her stripey sentiment might not technically be true ombre, it's a delightful little extra wink at the prompt!

Cindy Major aka @encrepapierciseaux on Instagram

...didn't just incorporate a soft pink ombre background; her stenciled tree blends two shades of texture paste that constitute a second gorgeous ombre which contrasts beautifully!

Susan Pero posting on Pinterest

...kept a solid white background, but ombred her lovely evergreen frame from palest chartreuse to a lovely pine; then added golden branches for a bit of sheen on top!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your brilliant takes on ombre. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will leave you feeling FLAT-out inspired! ;)

The Ombré and the Ivy

We're still creating in an Ombré Wonderland this week at Jingle Belles ... creating cards with wonderful blends of color.

Here's how we blended this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I've taken the ultimate ombre short cut: I've diecut my tiny trees from paint chip color cards! My Perfect Pearls background has a bit of gradient to it... radiating outwards from the center; whether it's actually ombre is up for debate, but I thought it made a nice "sky" for my funky scene. I cut some snowy hills from sheet music and diecut my sentiment from another Perfect Pearls experiment that has a beautiful shade of blue so soft you admittedly can't actually see it in the photo. Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads and Sticky Back Pearl Bling adorn the sky; a skinny blue mat and some machine stitching complete the design."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This week my card started with Ombré designer paper from Pinkfresh Studio: The Simple Things collection.  I topped it with a rainbow of snowflakes and coordinating tree from Doodlebug Design.  I finished with a Pinkfresh Studio Holiday Sentiment Ephemera."

JB2611: Ombre Wonderland runs until the evening of Wednesday, June 3rd. Link up your Ombre card(s) today on the original post... directly below this one.

Ombré Wonderland

This fortnight we're asking you to walk in an Ombré Wonderland with us ... creating a card that features an Ombré blend. Ombré is literally French for "shaded" ... a gradient effect where colors smoothly blend into each other, usually transitioning from light to dark or between different hues.

Here is how we got colorful this week.

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started by blending four shades of Green Distress Ink to create my Ombré ink blend. Next, I die cut the Memory Box Marvelous Pine and blended a bit more ink for a higher contrast from bottom to top.  I decorated my tree with pearls and added a star on top. I used the Pinkfresh Studio Notched Corner Frame with Tim Holtz Idea-ology Red Paper. I used a solid red from the same paper collection and ink blended darker ink along the bottom to get an Ombré ink blend on my background.  I finished with Merry Christmas sticker sentiment."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "When I found a white-embossed snowflake panel in my UFOs box, I immediately knew it'd make the perfect start to an ombre emboss/resist background. I blended four shades of Simon Hurley pink inks (Piggyback, Rosy Cheeks, Stupid Cupid and Prom Queen) over the embossing; added some Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads and then loaded on lots of adorable Doodlebug Design stickers. Job done!"

JB2611: Ombre Wonderland runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 3rd. Link your OMBRE cards right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter