JB2502: Candy Christmas

It's a fabulous photo inspiration this fortnight at Jingle Belles, so we're asking you to create a holiday card (or cards!) inspired by this fun Candy Cane Christmas image from Turtlecreek Lane. You can use as many or as few aspects of the photo as you'd like: maybe you love the the white tree smothered in ornaments; or the red and blue stockings could be your fave; perhaps you'd just like to create a mantel with stockings and decor; or you might adore that handsome Nutcracker. Anything and everything in the pic is fair game, just make sure you let us know what part(s) of the photo inspired you.

Here's my card and then I'll tell you my inspo:

I was immediately drawn to the photo's gorgeous white tree, smothered in candy-themed, candy-colored ornaments, so luckily I remembered that I still had stickers left from Doodlebug's Candy Cane Lane collection of a few years ago. I employed one of my oldest dies (Sizzix's Christmas Tree #2) to cut a tree shape from white cardstock, then spent an enjoyable half hour adding pastel candy canes, gum drops and hearts, plus some tiny pearls, before adding lots of colorful presents under the tree. I made my background a soft blue similar to the wall in the inspo photo and added another mat of red and blue as a little salute to those bold stockings.

Visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and link up your own photo inspiration greeting. JB2502: Candy Christmas will run until 6pm (Eastern) on January 29th.

Something Old, Something New (Week 2)

It's the second week of our first Jingle Belles challenge of 2025, so we are still making cards that feature Something OLD from our craft stash as well as Something NEW from Santa or the post-xmas sales, etc. Here's what I made and then I'll tell you which is which:

At the end of November, I was lucky enough to win a $30 gift card from Sunny Studio Stamps in the Coffee Loving Papercrafters' Fall/Winter Blog Hop, and the very first thing I chose was their adorable Holiday Hugs set, because I just LOVE that bear! I was already planning my card when I saw that January's Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge was "Snowflake" so I went sifting through my many (many!) snowy patterned papers and found this scrap of ancient green and white that I think was from My Mind's Eye's Bohemian collection (that's going back a bit, eh?!) and which just happened to have the perfect spot to place a coffee- or cocoa drinking bear.

I paper-pieced his knitted scarf and adorned the cup with an Eyelet Outlet Polar Bear Brad; then built in a few extra layers of soft green, tan and brown... all from older collections... before adding a sentiment from the stamp set and a few extra glittery snowflakes using a tiny die that was included as an "extra" with my Sunny Studio prize!

Our Jingle Belles Something Old, Something New challenge (JB2501) runs until next Wednesday evening, January 15th. Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge's Snowflake theme (CCCC37) wraps up the day before. Check out Stephanie's fab card and the Readers' Gallery at Jingle Belles; then start planning what you'll link up with us this time!

Another Year of Holiday Cards...

...in the bag! Ok technically, they're on the floor at the moment, so I could get the traditional group photo of ALL my Jingle Belles cards from 2024 as the season comes to a close. Next up: pairing them with envelopes, adding sentiments and deciding about which card I'll send to whom!

Many thanks to everyone who played along throughout the year; whether you made a couple of cards or finished your entire list, we hope that starting early helped you beat a little bit of December stress. Stephanie and I will be back at Jingle Belles on January 1, 2025 to start a brand new season of inspiration and fun! ♥

Banner Holiday (Week 2)

It's the second week of holiday cardmaking inspired by our Jingle Belles Blog Header:

And here's my card:

This week I've made a less literal version, but I've still embraced the colors, the florals, and the red glitter and golden metallic accents. My florals are Hero Arts' Christmas Roses, embossed with Ranger Gold Embossing Powder and watercolored. The diecut sentiment is Penny Black. The tiny star sequins are Eyelet Outlet.

You have until next Wednesday evening, December 4th, to link up with us for this last 2024 Jingle Belles challenge. There's even a little poinsettia-centric prize which will be randomly awarded to one lucky cardmaker. Read all about it at Jingle Belles!

JB2424: Banner Holiday

It's hard to believe we're heading into the last official 2024* Jingle Belles challenge; hasn't this year flown past?! We're wrapping up the year with an inspiration challenge; we'd like to see new holiday cards based on any aspect of the 2024 Jingle Belles Blog Header that inspires you. Maybe it's the glittery letters and frame; the red poinsettias and candy canes; the jingle belles (or jingle bells, lol) ...just make sure you include what inspired you in your post.

And here's my Banner-Inspired card:

For my inspiration I chose the poinsettias, the foliage, and the red + green + gold color palette. I used Wendy Vecchi's Build-a-Plaid Layered Stencils and the Christmas Add-On Stamp and Die Set (both from her 2024 Spellbinders' NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection) to make the background and focal point, respectively. For the plaid I used Wendy's Archival Inks in Carnation, Red Geranium, Fern Green and Sunflower, with a little extra sparkle from a glittery gold pen.

Here's how I used the triple holly leaf die to build the diecut poinsettias, if you'd like more detail:

Step 1: Diecut five deep red holly leaves, five medium red holly leaves and one golden cluster of berries. (By using a double layer of cardstock you'll get SIX leaves in one pass, so it's very quick!)

Step 2: Punch a small circle of sticker paper or scrap cardstock that has edge-to-edge adhesive. Peel the release paper and place the circle on your worktop with the ADHESIVE UP. Add the five dark red holly leaves to the circle, so that their points meet at the center.

Step 3: Add the five medium red holly leaves in between the dark red ones. I like to use slivers of foam tape for this round, so the flowers have some dimension, but you can put them on flat if you prefer.

Step 4: Adhere the golden berry cluster to the center of the flower, and gently curve the petals a bit for a more realistic look.

TA-DA you've got a poinsettia in exactly the right shade to match your project! ♥

Head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and a photo of the prize that one lucky random cardmaker will snag, just by linking up with us this fortnight. JB2424: Banner Holiday runs until the evening of Wednesday, December 4th.

*Just to be clear, this is only the end of the 2024 season; Jingle Belles will be back for a brand new year of holiday cardmaking, starting January 1, 2025! ♥

Christmas Feast: Week Two

It's the second week of our Jingle Belles' celebration of holiday sweets and treats and you've still got plenty of time to join the fun, so let's get right to it!

The mini journal cards from Carta Bella's Christmas Cheer collection were absolutely perfect for this theme. I chose four, made them into a grid, rounded the outer corners, added a few stickers et voila! Job done! 

The Christmas Feast challenge (#JB2423) runs until next Wednesday evening, November 20th. You can link up on the original post at Jingle Belles.

JB2423: Christmas Feast

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we are celebrating one of my very favorite aspects of the holidays: The Christmas Feast! There are lots of iconic holiday foods, from cookies and candies to gingerbread in all its forms; sugar plums, Christmas pudding, Buche de Noel, even the Grinch carving the Roast Beast! Make a holiday card in any color, style or size you like... just make sure it features a tasty treat!

As often happens when I get out my stash of adorable Doodlebug Design holiday items, I couldn't just make ONE card. In my defense, D-bug always includes a lot of sweet (in every sense lol) treats, which are perfect for this particular theme. For these cards I raided the patterned papers and sticker from the aptly named Gingerbread Kisses and Candy Cane Lane collections. I used coordinating papers from my scrap box, and couldn't resist adding a few Eyelet Outlet Gingerbread and Candy Cane Brads.

The Christmas Feast challenge (#JB2423) will run at Jingle Belles until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, November 20th and we'd love for YOU to join the fun!

Happy Narwhal-idays!

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, the prompt is called, "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" which is a nice musical reference to the fact that we want to see critters (lambs, reindeer, penguins, robins) or creatures (yeti, monsters) in any style you'd like. I went with narwhals, as you can see:

As I was getting out my much-loved Lawn Fawn Winter Narwhal mini stamp set, I also found a sadly neglected Critters in the Arctic set, as well as Jen Long's Tons of Love Sizzix stamp and die set and Rubber Moon's adorable Nerdy Narwhal. (Those latter two, sadly, are out of print though the Lawn Fawn sets are still available.) And since obviously it'd be IMPOSSIBLE to just choose one of the above, I decided to stamp my own little pod of narwhals to star in their own punny card inspired by my favorite Narwhal and Jellie book, "Happy Narwhalidays"! I used stripey Thickers and Doodlebug My Type alphas to create the sentiment, clustered the paper-pieced pod around it, added a few mats and called it good!

"While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" (JB2421) will run until Wednesday, November 6th and you're invited to link up with us at Jingle Belles!

PINK Christmas: Week 2

It's the second week of our gala PINK CHRISTMAS celebration at Jingle Belles, in which we are asking YOU to make holiday cards that are predominantly pink and WE will donate to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each card that gets linked up! Visit the original PINK CHRISTMAS post at Jingle Belles for all the details as well as the Linky Tool to add your cards. Meanwhile, here's what I made this week:

I raided my happy little stash of Doodlebug Design papers, journal tags and stickers to make this sweet (in every sense, lol) little card that's mostly pink... with touches of tan gingerbread and reindeer; as well as some fun green Christmas tree cookies. I used an ancient pink background paper with a strong horizontal element to it, which made lining up the decorative strips super-easy!

Link your gorgeous PINK CHRISTMAS creations (because YES, you definitely can make as many as you'd like!) on the original post at Jingle Belles. This challenge (#JB2421) runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 23rd. 

Pink Christmas!

It's that time again at Jingle Belles, our favorite prompt of the year: PINK CHRISTMAS! In which you make and link new holiday cards that are predominantly PINK and we (Stephanie and Lauren) donate $2 (apiece!) per card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation! Yes, you can link as many cards as you'd like to and no, your cards don't need to be entirely PINK but we'd like the pink to be the main color. Options regarding size, shape, themes and additional colors added in with the PINK are up to you! 

Sound good? Then without further ado, here's my card:

You know how it is when you have NEW crafty goodies: you just cannot wait to use them, then you can't stop, right? I am currently obsessed with Wendy Vecchi's NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders, so for this card I broke out the Christmas Add-On Stamp and Die Set and used the triple holly leaf die to very quickly cut lots of layers from textured pink cardstock; which I then inked and stacked, in two five-petal layers for each flower, into poinsettias, finishing off with the three berry cluster at the center, and finally a few tiny stick-on pearls plus a few cuts of the beautiful, delicate greenery die. I used the sentiment stamps from the set and a Build-a-Plaid background made with the second smallest stencil and Pink Peony Archival. A little bit of lace, some darker pink mats and a bit of machine stitching and I was good to go! There's a little more detail about the making of the poinsettias and the use of the Build-a-Plaid Stencils on my blog.!

The poinsettia-making process is made much easier by starting out with a 3/4" circle of adhesive cardstock, upon which you stack your first layer of five poinsettia petals; then you add five more petals... (staggered between each pair on the first round) ...and make them immobile with a second 3/4" circle of adhesive cardstock on the back.

Speaking of EASY: of course you can use the Build-a-Plaid Layering Stencils without any special equipment but... IF you happen to have the MAKE ART Stay-tion, not only do you never have to worry about securing the stencil edges with any sort of adhesive, you can also do things like an evenly spaced diagonal plaid background with NO measuring or worrying about keeping the stripes parallel. I do like to place a small tape loop behind my paper before I begin, so that it doesn't shift as I change stencil directions, but other than that the four super-strong, never-pinchy magnets that come with the Stay-tion are more than adequate to the task of holding the stencils no matter how many times you re-arrange them.

I do hope you'll head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's gorgeous PINK CHRISTMAS creation and then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. This challenge (#JB2421) runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Gettin' Sketchy

Stephanie and I are still making cards based on her awesome card sketch this week at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join the fun! First here's a reminder of the sketch:

And now, here's my card:

I went a bit vintagey this week; actually I went almost entirely vintagey! Only my sentiment is cut from a modern Simple Stories mini journal card... oh and there's a silver metallic cardstock layer... but otherwise the background collage is all vintage paper; the postcard is scanned and re-sized but it's from my IRL collection of vintage postcards. Maybe my favorite things are those beautiful vintage Plaid Trading Stamps that Stephanie found and gifted to me!

You've got until next Wednesday evening (10-9-24) to link your sketch-inspired cards at Jingle Belles; remember you can flip it, stretch it, rotate it, smoosh it or change shapes; just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch in your card!

Don't Make Me Laugh!

Unless you're participating in this fortnight's Jingle Belles challenge, "Ho Ha Ha" in which case, making us laugh, chuckle or smile is EXACTLY what we'd like you to do; by making a card that's funny, punny, silly or snarky. Here's what I made this week:

I loved Stephanie's Taylored Expressions Grumpling card from last week, and it reminded me that I own the Mythical Grumplings stamp set, with it's supercute sourpuss of a yeti, to whom I've given an Eyelet Outlet Santa Hat Brad. I used my (sadly out of print) Stamplorations' "Jingle All the Way" die for the top part of my sentiment panel, and computer-generated the rest, using a free font called Bohemian Typewriter. I used a nice big Nestabilities label die on the panel and matted it on coordinating cardstock; then added the whole thing to a piece of offset chevron patterned paper... (so ancient I have no idea who made it) ...which I augmented with some skinny washi tape strips.

You still have until next Wednesday evening (9-25) to link up your own humorous holiday card(s) at Jingle Belles!

JB2419-Ho Ha Ha!

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to create Humorous Holiday Cards; they can be funny, punny, snarky or silly but make sure they induce a smile, a chuckle or a laugh. 

Here's my card:

Something I only tend to realize when a humor challenge arrives is that I don't have a vast quantity of funny stamps, especially holiday-themed; I'm not sure HOW this is possible, but there ya go! As I was considering what to do, I found this TINY (1" square) HUMBUG stamp which I think has to be 20+ years old and I wondered if I could make it into a full-sized A2 card. And it turns out, YES, though it's definitely a bit more pared down than my usual style. A little matted diecut frame, some foam Thickers, a few patterned paper panels in appropriately coordinating "Humbug Green" et voila!

Hop over to Jingle Belles to see what Stephanie has created and start planning your own smile-worthy card to link up with us. JB2419 Ho Ha Ha will run until the evening of Wednesday, September 25th.  

CASE-ing Christmas, Week 2

This week at Jingle Belles, we're still asking you to CASE (Copy And Selectively Edit) any of the cards that Stephanie or I have made for any of the previous Jingle Belles prompts (yep, you've got 13 1/2 years of cards to choose from!). Be sure to link to the card that inspired you and tell us the selective edits you made to the design. Here's my inspiration... scroll down to see my version!

This week I was inspired by Stephanie's Neutral Noel collage card from June of 2021 (above) I swapped the cool "found relatives" style photo for a scanned and re-sized vintage postcard of appropriate colors that is portrait rather than landscape-shaped; and of course my collage and vintage bits are different, but I kept to the footprint of the original card and made sure to include some sheet music, some softly patterned paper, a small piece of transparency, and... my favorite... that cool wrap of twine!

Visit Jingle Belles to see ALL of the cards we've made over the last thirteen seasons, choose one you like, make your own version and link it on the original post, Love's Labor Day Lost! This prompt runs until next Wednesday evening, 9/11/24.

JB2418: Love's Labor Day Lost

September 2nd will be Labor Day here in the United States, so at Jingle Belles we've decided to celebrate by saving you some work with regard to this week's card design. We're asking you to "CASE" (Copy And Selectively Edit) any of the cards that Stephanie or I have made for any of the previous Jingle Belles prompts (yep, you've got 13.5 years of cards to choose from!); be sure to link to the card that inspired you and tell us the selective edits you made to the design.

I chose this card of Stephanie's from July of 2022, featuring a Penny Black Masterpieces Made Simple illustrated panel: 

I loved the way the clean lines and the plain white card base of Stephanie's card really keeps the focus on the pretty illustration. The Eyelet Outlet Fancy Bling Strip adds just enough sparkle and the Tim Holtz sticker sentiment is charmingly apt.

I didn't have the exact same Penny Black illustration, but I did have three other horizontally oriented ones from various Masterpieces Made Simple sets, so rather than try to choose my favorite, I decided to make three cards this week. I used a different style of Eyelet Outlet Fancy Bling, but luckily it was long enough to cover all three cards, though I couldn't quite take it to the edge. I added very skinny mats in a shimmery cream cardstock and chose to put the sentiments on top of the panels instead of beneath.

Before you head over to Jingle Belles to see which card of mine Stephanie chose to inspire her, I should mention that NO, we really NEVER confer beforehand, and we're as surprised as anyone else by what each other have made. If you're wondering why I've spent an entire paragraph on this disclaimer, you might want to POP OVER and see her card... just sayin'... 

A Very Vintage Xmas

We're still celebrating a vintage/retro vibe at Jingle Belles and since there's a nice little prize of holiday vintage goodies from my Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, you might like to join the fun.

This week my card is composed of nearly all genuine vintage and found papers, similar to those that are in the Deluxe Christmas Assortments in my Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff; in fact, the reason I started my shop was because I had collected such an extensive stash of goodies, it seemed like I should probably try to share a few of those, lol. For my card, I made a largely random collage of vintage text paper and sheet music, though I confess that I did take care to let the title of "The Holly and the Ivy" have a prominent position. A bit of foliage cut from a vintage illustration and some lovely torn Christmas seals from 1957 complete the background, which I lightly edged with Antique Linen Distress Ink and matted on both red and white cardstock before machine stitching around the perimeter. The handsome cardinal is from a piece of giftwrap I saved last December; I backed it with plain white cardstock before fussy-cutting, then popped it up on a bit of foam tape for extra dimension.

Pop over to Jingle Belles to see the gorgeous card Stephanie made, check out the Readers' Gallery and take a look at our fun prize, which will be awarded randomly. This challenge runs till next Wednesday evening, August 28th.

JB2417: The Spirit of Christmas Past

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're celebrating the Spirit of Christmas Past, which means creating a card with a vintage feeling. That could mean incorporating actual vintage elements, OR 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 week we're sponsored by my very own Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, so there's a sweet little pack of vintage Christmassy things for one lucky random cardmaker who links-up their vintage design; be sure to check that out over at Jingle Belles!

Meanwhile, here's what I made:

This week, I elected to go use new (well, new-ish, lol) commercial products that have a vintage/retro flair. My journal card and patterned papers are Authentique, the sentiment is Simple Stories and those luscious velvet holly leaves are absolutely ancient 7 Gypsies. I did lots of distressed edges and a bit of machine stitching to add to the worn, old-fashioned feeling.

Be sure to check out Stephanie's beautiful collage card, plus the cool little prize that's on offer this time at Jingle Belles!

More Leftovers? Yes, Please!

We're still endeavoring to use up some of our (crafty) Holiday Leftovers at Jingle Belles and if, like Stephanie and I, you have envelopes full of extra diecuts, little stacks of pre-embossed backgrounds or offcuts of patterned paper too pretty to throw away, you should probably join us!

Periodically, I get in the mood to make these sort of quiltish, paper-pieced strip backgrounds, so I'll make a bunch, use a few, put the rest aside, and... forget all about them, lol. So in a way, this is a story about DOUBLE leftovers, because the background itself was made from offcut strips; and then it, too, became a leftover! On top of the background I've got a blue patterned paper offcut from last week's card; some poinsettias embossed with Ranger's Red Glitter Embossing Powder; the last three brads from an ancient My Mind's Eye brad set; and a glossy red metallic Cut-plorations' Jingle Bells diecut. I added all of the above to a white A6 card, machine-stitched around the whole thing et voila!

Visit Jingle Belles to see the Holiday Leftovers Readers' Gallery and link your own masterpiece!

JB-24-16: Holiday Leftovers

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're celebrating Holiday Leftovers... by creating cards using all of those little leftover pieces of papers, alphabet letters, stickers, ribbon; you know, all of thosebits and bobs we've saved because they were just too lovely to throw away or recycle. It's time to retrieve those (well, a few of 'em, anyway!) and use them to make some fun holiday leftover cards. 

Here's my batch of leftovers:

As you can see, I had an already paper-pieced version of Spellbinders' Snowman Hugs die set; a background where I stamped and masked with several different Wendy Vecchi background stamps and her gorgeous Leaf Green Archival Ink; a few paper strips that had been border-punched; and the de-bossed side of a panel of green cardstock on which I had inked the em-bossed side... but then not liked it. And here's my finished card:

All I had to do to make the "leftovers" into the card was round the corners on the two panels, add one more layer of patterned paper and machine-stitch around the edges. Easy, peasy!

Be sure to head over to Jingle Belles to see what Stephanie has made and then start thinking up what YOU will link up! This "Holiday Leftovers" challenge runs until the evening of Wednesday, August 14th.

Dashing Through the Snow (Week 2)

It's week two of our snow-centric Jingle Belles challenge for which we've teamed up with our friends at The Double Trouble Challenge. Thus giving you a chance to participate in TWO challenges with ONE card! As the title implies, for "Dashing Through the Snow" the brief at Jingle Belles is merely to make a card that features SNOW, whether it be snowflakes, snowmen or a snowy landscape.

As you may know, the "Double" in "Double Trouble" refers to the fact that there are several parts to their challenges, though the only requirement is to play along with Thing 1, which in this case is to make a window or aperture card. But the Double Trouble Gang encourage you to add some fun... try their options by participating in Twisted Sister's Thing 3 and/or Double Dare's Thing 2 to earn additional chances in their random drawing. This time, those twists are as follows:

Here's what I made this week:

I had made a few extra white-embossed panels during our Jingle Belles' "EMBOSSING" challenge, and since they happened to be snowy, when I found them again, I decided they were perfect for making an aperture card. I used an ancient set of Nestabilities' Labels 20 to cut the largest size from a panel I had inked with Wendy Vecchi's Night Sky Archival; then the next size down to cut a smaller version of the same shape from a  Sky Blue Archival Panel; then I layered both of those over a third panel inked with Violet Archival. I embossed the "Noel" from Wendy's Statements Chippies, inked it with Night Sky, added it on top, embellished with a few diecut snowflakes, et voila. Since all of my supplies were still sitting there, including the beautiful label shapes cut from the apertures of card one, I decided to build a second card with the leftovers and another Chippie from the same set.

Head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and a picture of the prize and all the links to Double Trouble's half of this special Crossover Challenge!