Wrap Stars!

It's wonderful to see so many of our fellow papercrafters getting a jump on 2024's holiday card production AND upcycling some of the beautiful giftwrap received in 2023; it seems like the perfect way to start a new year! As always, we loved seeing ALL of your cards, and it was difficult to only pick a few to feature, but here are three that especially caught our eye this time:

ArtMBR of Od Materiala Do Izdelka

...fussycut the beautiful flora and fauna ornaments from one style of giftwrap and layered them on a background made out of a second paper. She also made several cards, so be sure to check them out!

Kathe D of Kathe's Adventures

...made marvelously minimalist inchies by affixing supercool snowflake tissue to white cardstock, then combined a few challenges, including a FAB sketch to produce this CAS masterpiece!

Tracy of Small Smackerels

...has just re-booted her blog, and started the crafty year off big with EIGHT cards featuring three styles of giftwrap and several different types of tag, as well. Welcome back, old friend, we're happy to see you!

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And now it's time to find out which lucky random cardmaker will be getting that very cool Simon Says Stamp Mid-Century Holiday die plate!

The Random Number Generator has selected #22 which means that...

Barb Housner of Paper Therapy Ponderings 

is our lucky winner!

Congrats, Barb!

Please send your postal info to

llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com

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

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your beautiful, creative cards! We'll be back at the same old time (midnight) with a brand new prompt that we hope will inspire you to keep building your holiday card stash!

It's a Wrap

This week we're still asking you to create cards using leftover wrapping paper, ribbon or tags before you put them away for the season.

Here's how we Wrapped it Up this week:

Lauren's Other Card(s)

Lauren says, "There was quite a lot of teeny tiny fussycutting involved in this week's endeavor; enough to make TWO cards. But since the repeats are so small, there were LOTS of Santas on my "rescued" wrap and it seemed a shame to just toss them in recycling. I made faux-polariods from offcuts of white Kromekote inset with little squares of cloud patterned paper; added the Santas and accessories; mounted the design elements on my own leftover sandy/snowy wrapping paper; added red skinny mats, washi, and glittery diecut sentiments... et voila!"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "Did you know that Lauren is the world's best package wrapper?? ... and I am the world's worst.  I like to think I'm a great gift buyer, but when it comes to wrapping, it's probably not happening.  However, when I gift arrives from Lauren, I will place it in a position of reverence where I can admire it for days before I finally open it to see what is inside.  This gorgeous metallic snowflake ribbon was on a holiday gift from Lauren this year, so I saved it to incorporate it into a card.  I wrapped it around a piece of cardstock I had used to clean alcohol ink from a stencil (gotta love those leftovers).  I went through multiple possible embellishments before settling on a big bold seashell carved button from my step-mom's collection (this card will likely got to one of my siblings who will appreciate the keepsake).  I added a bit of blue twine, a strip of glitter paper, and a vintage woodblock sentiment from A Muse Artistamps."

And remember, to sweeten the pot for a good start to 2024, we're offering a little prize to one random participant - the Mid Century Holiday Die Cut Plate from Simon Says Stamp.  You have until 6pm EST on Wednesday, January 17th to wrap it up with us.

Wrap It Up!

We've just WRAPPED up 2023 and are embarking on our fourteenth (14th!) Jingle Belles season; many of us have also just WRAPPED and/or UN-WRAPPED a gift or two, so before you put away your wrapping supplies, pull out some of your favorites (or some of that paper from a present you unwrapped that was just too pretty to recycle) and make a card featuring wrapping paper or gift tags. 

If this is your first time here, your Jingle Belles hostesses are Stephanie and Lauren, we're avid cardmakers who started this holiday card inspiration blog so that we could avoid the stress of mass-producing holiday cards in December. We post a new theme every other Friday (with reminder posts and new inspiration cards in between) and you can link up as many NEW holiday cards as fit the prompt. We're mostly a Just-For-Fun challenge, but we throw in a prize every now and then, just to keep it interesting. There's no need to participate every time, but if, like us, you'll need quite a few cards when the holidays roll around, you should know that starting now and making one card per week means you'll have FORTY-EIGHT done by December first... a considerable advantage in terms of stress-busting! 

And now it's time to show you how we incorporated gift wrap into our first holiday cards of 2024:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I remember going on a hunt one holiday for my treasured roll of Birch Bark wrapping paper. I thought it paired nicely with the Pinkfresh Studio Folk Snowflake in muted wintry hues.  I adorned it with a few gems and paired it with one of the sentiments from the same Folk Snowflake stamp set."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I still have quite a bit of this Santa-centric paper from last year, which has five or six different, easy-to-cut-out medallions, of which I chose four and backed them with plain white cardstock which I had run through my Xyron machine, and fussycut. I chose four off-cuts of patterned paper in appropriate colors to serve as backgrounds on my 5.5" square cards; them selected four smaller, coordinating pieces to trim into smaller squares, round corners, and back with skinny cardstock mats. I added Tim Holtz Idea-ology Christmas Label Sticker sentiments et voila! My 2024 holiday card stash is already looking pretty jolly!"

And to sweeten the pot for a good start to 2024, we're offering a little prize to one random participant - the Mid Century Holiday Die Cut Plate from Simon Says Stamp.

♥♥♥

Link your "Wrap It Up" cards right here by 6pm (Eastern) on January 17th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2401. 

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