Have Yourself a Merry *LITTLE* Christmas

For our second prompt of 2014, we're going *little* ... specifically, we're asking you to create cards that feature Inchies (1 inch) or Twinchies (2 inch).

Traditionally, we think of inchies as squares, but you can use other shapes or perhaps even snowflakes or small embellishments.  You might contain your entire image within the *Inch* ... or perhaps break a single holiday image into smaller shapes ... just get creative and go LITTLE.

Here are our creations for this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "My squares are actually 1 1/4" because I wanted a bit more of a frame around my pretty little Hero Arts Snowflake set I found at Michael's.  I decided to go non-traditional with my colors using navy, deep pink and metallic silver from the Sunday Stamps Challenge."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I opted for round twinchies, and layered each of my 2" circles with part of a clear pine bough border sticker, some music note deco tape, red berry rub-ons, and trimmed down dymo label sentiments, finishing off with small florals anchored with Jingle Belle (lol) brads. For the rest of the card I went quite monochromatic... with a pop of red... so the twinchies would be the stars of the show!"

So break out those tiny stamps and show us all of *little* ways you can get creative with your holiday designs.  Link-up your card by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, January 29th.  The keyword for galleries and our Flickr Gallery is JB:14:02.   

What's Old and New and Beautifully *YOU*?!

The amazing array of stunning holiday cards made by our lovely *JINGLE BELLES* over the past fortnight, that's what! Holy moly, you guys have certainly started 2014 off right! Here are a few entries we found especially swoon-worthy:

Anni of Annikarten

Paired an old stamp with a new die and added in her amazing coloring skills for results as lovely as they are festive!

Marie Bingaman of ANOTHER Card-making Blog?

Combined older papers, a new die and a boatload of gorgeousness to create her incredibly beautiful, layery and detailed ornament!

Loll of Stamping With Loll

Gave an older die brand new life with golden cardstock and the subtlest of new patterned paper to assemble her dramatically clean and simple card!

Many thanks to everyone who participated, it's so exciting to start the year off with so many familiar faces *AND* so many new friends! We'll be back at midnight with a new prompt we hope will offer you a little more inspiration! :)

Make New Friends and Keep the Old

We're still celebrating old & new at Jingle Belles this week.  We are so thrilled to have so many people joining us at the beginning of our 2014 journey ... trust us, taking back December one holiday card at a time is the only way to go.

Here are our creations for this week.

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "My sister sent me some cool Fabric Duck Tape for Christmas, which I adhered down the center of my snowflake embossed panel ... those colors were perfect for a vibrant, happy Christmas card.  I paper-pieced my Stamps Happen Jolly Snowman, which I've had in my stash for as long as I can remember.  I've had the sentiment stamp from Stamp Francisco for at least a few years ... and embarrassingly, this is the first time it has seen ink.   I added a little glitter pen and silver sequins for holiday sparkle."
 

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "My card has a few fab Xmas presents on it, in the form of the Crate Paper background as well as both gorgeous washi tapes. The brad is quite an old one from my stash, and the poinsettias are old and repurposed... I plucked them from a holiday garland that was hanging in our hallway! But my favorite ingredient is both old AND new: I scanned a beautiful vintage postcard that came in my awesome Christmas box from Stephanie, and I think it makes the perfect focal point for the whole card!"

Remember, link-up your cards by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, January 15th.  The keyword for galleries and our Jingle Belles Flickr Gallery are JB:14:01.

Something Old ... Something New

For our first prompt of 2014, we're asking you to create a holiday card using something old AND something new! For example, combine an item (or two) you've had in your stash for some time with some of the goodies you received for Christmas, or something you've purchased recently. This should be a fun one, because we *KNOW* Santa was good to all of you lovely ♥JINGLE BELLES♥; and heck, we've all got plenty of stash, right?! :)

Here's what we created to start the New Year:

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I treated myself to some very nice pre-Christmas deals at Crafty Steals, which is where I got both the super-fun cardstock stickers and the elegant red velvet blossom. The focal image of my card (which, irl, is SUPER-sparkly!) is trimmed from a vintage holiday card in my stash. For bonus points, I've got that gorgeous doily, which is vintage... but was given to me by Stephanie as part of my lovely holiday gift, so of course I had to use it ASAP! My layout was inspired by this week's Super Sketchy Sunday sketch at 365 cards, though you can see it's a pretty loose interpretation!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I received these fun little stickers for Christmas, so I combined them with a Unity Silent Night Stamp from my stash that has never seen ink.  I added a wrap of ribbon and some holly berries to finish.  The layout is from Sketch Saturday."

We're giving you a bit of extra time to get that first card done.  Link-up your card by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, January 15th.  The keyword for galleries and our Flickr Gallery is JB:14:01.

Let's Get ♥RESOLUTIONARY♥!

Another holiday season has come and gone amidst much celebration, and a lot less stress for those of us who made our cards throughout the year! We hope you've all had a marvelous time and that you'll join us for another year of creativity and fun when we start up again, just as soon as the clock strikes midnight on january first! We think 2014 is going to be FABULOUS... especially if you'll join us. In the meantime, we're excited to show off a new header and a new badge that we hope you'll display proudly! See you next week, ♥JINGLE BELLES♥!

(image credits for 2014 header and badge: paper: antique prints, jen allyson, design house digital; elements: christmas joy kit, mary pop designs, o'scraps; brushes: snowsprays #3, anna aspnes, o'scraps; glitter layer style: over the rainbow, studio flergs, scrapbook graphics; font: vogue, dafont.com)

♥2013 Wrap-up and Linkfest!♥

Can you believe,  ♥JINGLE BELLES♥, that another year is nearly over, and the holidays are fast approaching! Before we sign and mail all of the fab cards we've made, we thought it would be fun to see the entire year's production... in one big pile!

Stephanie's Card Pile

Lauren's Card Pile

Once again we thank every single one of you for your participation, your awesome comments, and of course for the amazing inspiration of your gorgeous work. We wish you the happiest-- and most stress-free-- of holiday seasons! We'll be back on New Year's Day to kick off a brand new year of card-making fun, and we hope to see you then. Meanwhile, if you're still making cards, we'd love for you to show them off here; but if you're finished, why not take a photo of your own card pile so we can all congratulate you?!

Gratitude-fest

Thanks to everyone for sharing 2013 with us at jingle belles ... we've truly had a blast, and you're the reason why.

Here are a few of our favorite thank you cards.

Brenda of Brenda's Crafty Corner

totally rocked multiple thank you card design, but this clever use of text just blew us away ... so many possibilities, and so easy to make in bulk.

Joy Rozema of Joy in a Jar

made this elegant holiday design featuring flourishes, embossing and ivory silk ribbon.

Sarah T of Aunt Bee's Pickles

added a sweet little Gingerbread Topper to a bag of truffles for a fantastic little thank you gift.

And the winner of our Thank You Prize is .... (drum roll)

#4 - Julene Matthews of Julene by Design

who made this lovely thank you card

Julene - e-mail us your mailing address, and we'll get your goodies on their way.