Holiday Hilarity

So many fun and funny holiday cards in the Ho Ha Ha gallery, if you haven't already had a look, we highly recommend the trip. In the meantime, here are three that especially caught our eye and tickled our funnybone:

Pat G posting on Instagram

...made an adorable SHELL-ebration with a cute and clever desert theme, including a stenciled sandy background, a cactus xmas tree (with appropriately tan/brown lights!) and amazing coloring!

Becca Yahrling posting on Flickr

...sums up many of the qualities we OWL-ways love in a friend, at Christmas and the rest of the year; and gets bonus points for her fab coloring and a fun layout!

Meg of Bits and Pieces

...paired the perfect digital image and sentiment for a beautifully clean and simple MEOW-y Christmas card that definitely made us chuckle!

♥♥♥

And now we'd all love to know where that super-fun, 

Santa-centric Hero Arts stamp set will be going, right?

The Random Number Generator has selected...

(drumroll, please!)

Lucky Number 6

which means that

Julissa Sargo

(who made two beautiful and hilarious cards, btw!)

 is our Lucky Winner!

Julissa, please send your snail mail info to:

llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com

and we'll get that right on it's way to you!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing EVERY card! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt that might seem a liiiiiiittttttttle bit sketchy, but we think you'll like it! :)

Vintage Virtuosity

We loved seeing ALL of the amazing cards in the Spirit of Christmas Past Readers' Gallery, so if you haven't scrolled through them yet, we definitely recommend having a look. Meanwhile, here are three cards that especially caught our eye:

LeAnne Pugliese of Wee Inklings

...chose traditional colors, an elegantly worn background, and an utterly gorgeous Father Christmas image to make what might be the ultimate vintage-style holiday card!

Majda of Majdinustvarjalninemir

...combined the sweetest vintage snowpeople with a palette of earthtones, lots of perfectly considered distressing, and a wisp of beautiful fabric to make heart-shaped card we LOVE!

Loopyloo of Loopyloo Cards

...cleverly used layers of one of the COOLEST washi tapes we've ever seen to create her focal image, which she has framed, matted and added a sentiment!

♥♥♥

And now to award that fun little Vintage Christmas Assortment from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff! The random number generator has chosen... Lucky #16 which means that Bonnie Lynn is our lucky winner. Bunny, please send your snail mail info to llaurenb (@) hotmail (dot) com and we'll get that on its way ASAP!

We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt that we hope will give you a CASE of inspiration! ;) 

An Old-Fashioned Holiday

We're still celebrating a vintage/retro holiday vibe and since there's a nice little prize of holiday vintage goodies from Lauren's Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, you might like to join the fun by making a new holiday card featuring vintage or vintage-inspired items or a theme/graphics that feel vintage to you. 

Scroll down to the original Spirit of Christmas Past post to link your cards and get a look at the prize.

 Meanwhile, here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "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."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I found this vintage holiday card at an estate sale.  I die cut the poinsettia image from the front of the card, and then I stamped the Savvy Stamps Happy Holidays Block on the back of the card and die cut it with a circle.  I added some gold thread using the current Atlantic Hearts Sketch."

The Spirit of Christmas Past

This week we're celebrating the Spirit of Christmas Past … which means creating a card with a vintage design. 

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 week we are sponsored by Lauren's fantastic 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-inspired design.

Here's how we brought on the Spirit of Christmas Past this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I went to my vintage drawers and pulled out all sorts of bits to create my glue-as-I-go collage.  I started with a vintage hymnal page of a Christmas Carol (which ended-up almost completely obscured when I was done).  There are vintage trading stamps, a vintage hand-written cake recipe, a vintage dictionary page, a vintage holiday stamp, a translucent lily and lots of Tim Holtz vintage-y bits.  I finished my stamping a few sentiments from Tim's Stampendous Tiny Text Christmas."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "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."

♥♥♥

And now how about a peek at that prize from Just Enough Stuff?

It's a Deluxe Christmas Assortment featuring 20+ different sheets of vintage and found holiday-themed papers; including sheet music, text, children's illustrations, recipes, and much more. Use the originals as is or scan and re-size them for perfect card-sized embellishments!

♥♥♥

Link your vintage-inspired or retro-centric holiday cards RIGHT HERE by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, August 28th. Keyword is JB2417.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Dashing Through the Snow (Wrap-Up)

Many thanks to everyone who played along in our special Christmas in July crossover with the Double Trouble Challenge Blog, including the Double Trouble Design Team whose cards are incredibly inspiring. It you haven't had a change to check out the Readers' Gallery here at Jingle Belles and also at Double Trouble, we highly recommend the trip. Meanwhile, here are a few SNOWY masterpieces that especially caught our eye:

Lia of Lia's Design

...constructed a beautifully intricate and detailed snowy landscape scene with a fully functioning window and a sleigh-load of vintage style!

Jacinda of Lazzie J's Crafting Corner

...has completely mastered the art of "flat layers"! By virtue of foiling, ink blending, masking and stamping she's created an impressively dimensional-looking scene, that's entirely postal-friendly!

Jeanne J of A Kept Life

...proves that snowy cards can totally embrace lots of BRIGHT colors; while incidentally also presenting perhaps the best ever version we've seen of the Postal Collage trend!

♥♥♥

Now we need to know where our fun little snowy prize pack will be heading off to! 

The Random Number Generator has chosen... 

Lucky Number 16 

which means that Susan Sudbury of Eden Land Designs is our lucky winner!

Congrats, Susan, if you'll send your snail mail info to llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com those goodies will be on their way ASAP!

Stay tuned because we'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we think you'll find especially useful right after all the wonderful Christmas in July festivities we enjoyed this summer!

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:

And here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card(s)

Lauren says, "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."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "For this week's Double Trouble window card, I used Lawn Fawn Stitched sentiment banner to die cut the sentiment (which I attached to the inside of the card) and again on the front of the card, so the sentiment could peek through.  The sentiment & snow jar are both from Woodware Snow Jar stamp set."

Scroll down to the original Dashing Through the Snow post to find the linky tool, not to mention a photo of the fun little prize one random cardmaker will receive, just for linking up a snowy card with us here at Jingle Belles. If your card is snowy AND has a window, be sure to link up at Double Trouble Challenge #171 too, for a shot at their prize!

The EMBOSS-able Dream

So many wonderful, clever, beautiful takes on our embossing theme this fortnight; here are a just few that especially caught our eye; but we highly recommend scrolling through the entire Readers' Gallery if you haven't done so yet!

Leslie M of LRoseCreates

...used an embossed background and an embossed sleeve, paired with traditional holiday colors and several different star motifs to make this fun and festive coffee card shine!

Chris of And Here's One I made Earlier...

...added a white embossed panel behind her beautifully framed stamped image, with bonus points awarded for her exceptional coloring and shading skills!

Darnell of DJ Kard Kreations

...used the same embossing folder for both the crisp white background and the elegant framed focal image, but made them look entirely different by painting the latter with translucent gold ink!

♥♥♥

And now let's see who's won that very fun Gina K Holiday Embossing Folder:

The Random Number Generator has chosen...

Lucky Number #2

which means that...

Bonnie of Stamping with Klass

 is our lucky winner!

Please send your snail mail info 

to llaurenb@hotmail.com so we can get that on its way!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing ALL of your beautiful cards. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt AND a special "Christmas in July" crossover challenge! 

Spectacular SKETCH-mas

With such a beautiful sketch to work from, it's hardly surprising that every single card in the Readers' Gallery is a knockout. But it's our tradition to select just three on these occasions, so here they are now:

Kez of Crafts by Kez

...proves that caffeine and Christmas work perfectly together, as does a neutral palette with just a few hits of red; we're awarding bonus points for the supercute gingerbread folk on the coffee cup sleeve!

Fabiola of Mon P'tit Monde

...swapped the hexagon for a golden star and made the circle element into a dangly bauble that coordinates perfectly with her beautifully minimal embossed background!

Gail aka IonaBunny of Crafty Nomad

...found a piece of white glitter paper which had a snowflake diecut from it, and there was just enough room to use her favorite hexagon die... chalk this one up for serendipity!

And now let's find out who's won that fabulous Simon Says Stamp holiday stamp and die bundle!

The Random Number Generator has chosen #11 which means that...

LeAnne Pugliese is our Lucky Winner, Congratulations!

Please email llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com with your snail mail info 

so we can get that on its way to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single one of your gorgeous cards. We'll be back at midnight with a brand new prompt we hope you'll find inspiring... hope to see you then!

Good Old-Fashioned Fabulousness

Vintage and retro stylings seem to be quite popular and inspiring to our fellow Jingle Belles; there are some VERY cool cards in the Readers' Gallery, so if you haven't yet taken time to scroll through, we highly recommend the trip. In the meantime, here are a few cards that especially caught our eye:

Liz from Old Right Brain Madness

...did an excellent job coloring these sweet vintage holiday kiddos, then paired them with some beautiful foliage and a pair of patterned papers with just the right retro patina! 

Deb Horst of Sendable Sentiments

...blew us away with a card that's full-on vintage and 100% CAS! We're saving this in our inspo file, to prove you can combine the two and wind up with an amazing card!!! 

Pinky from Pinky's World Stamping Projects

...chose a patterned paper with beautiful, old fashioned baubles; then she constructed a larger bauble as centerpiece and sliced the background into very cool radiating segments!

♥♥♥

And now it's time to award that fun vintage-themed prize!

The Random Number Generator selected Lucky Number 16

which means that...

Becca S from Becca's Heart for Creativity 

is our Lucky Winner!

Congrats, Ms. Becca, if you email llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com 

we'll get that prize right on its way to your house, ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we truly loved seeing every single card. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt which, it seems to us, just miiiiiight be a little sketchy...?

Hats Off to Santa

And hats off to everyone who participated in the Santa's Hat challenge, for which the cards were particular creative and wonderful. Here are just a few that especially caught our eye:

Donna Scholz of Devised by Donna

...discovered she had NO stamps or dies featuring a santa hat, so she made her own from appropriately fuzzy fabrics and made it the star of her gorgeous CAS card!

Meghan of Made By Meghan K

...made this sweet baby polar bear's santa hat the one eye-catching spot of color on her elegant monochromatic card!

(Bonus Points for the super-cool use of paper clips!)

Carrie Sheridan of Carrie's Custom Cards

...made quite a few cards, all of which are well worth hopping over to have a look at; on this one, she cleverly added a Santa Hat to the sentiment strip of  fabulous grid-style card.

♥♥♥

And now it's time to award our fun little prize:

The Random Number Generator has selected (drumroll, please)...

 Lucky Number #43

which means that Susan of Cardmaker's Garret is our lucky winner!

please send your snail mail info to llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com 

and we'll get that out to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who participated in this challenge, and to all who joined us for our special Christmas in July festivities. A special shout-out goes to the lovely ladies at the Double Trouble Challenge Blog for teaming up with us this month and adding even more inspiration to the mix!

As always, we'll be back with a brand new prompt at Midnight; if your Mojo is in neutral, we'll help you rev it up a bit!

Santa's Hat: Week Two

We're still joining our friends at the Double Trouble Challenge this week by making cards that feature a Santa Hat.

Here's how we showcased our Santa Hats this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "When it comes to critters who can wear an Eyelet Outlet Santa Hat Brad (or an Elf Hat!) most adorably, it's gotta be hard to beat Pretty Pink Posh's Holiday Pals, right? Plus, it was an excellent excuse to do a bit of coloring and use a very cool sketch I saw online."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I couldn't resist dressing-up the cute little bear from Gina K. Designs Woodland Friends in a big Santa Hat (to join her Christmas in July Monthly Mix challenge)."

♥♥♥

Scroll down to the original Santa's Hat Post to see the Readers' Gallery and find the Link Up... plus take a peek at the little prize one lucky random cardmaker will receive just for linking up with us!

Santa's Hat

The newest Jingle Belles prompt is to create a card that features a Santa Hat... it might be on Santa himself, or you might want to dress-up another person or creature in a Santa Hat. Possibly you'll even want to make a card that's shaped like Santa's Hat? There are quite a few possibilities. Whatever you choose, after you link with us, remember to head over to the Double Trouble Challenge Blog and link up there, as well, where Christmas in July continues through the end of the month!

Meanwhile, here's how the Belles created with Santa Hats this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I chose to dress-up Taylored Expressions Big Grumpy Cat with a Santa Hat, Cocoa, Candy Cane & grumpy holiday sentiment from Taylored Expressions Big Grumpy - Christmas.  I used the layout from Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers (BYSHC) and papers from Dress My Craft Christmas Bells and Fancy Pants Cookies for Kringle.  I'm also linking-up at the Caffeinated Christmas Stars Challenge.

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose to start with a cute fussy-cut image of Santa wearing his hat... and then I built out into a sort of collagey card with lots of smaller circles, squares and wordfetti, in an attempt to polish off a few ancient sticker sheets and scraps of paper."

♥♥♥

As our Christmas in July celebration continues, again we have a sweet little prize for one randomly selected cardmaker who links up with us this time:

Link your Santa Hat card creations here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, July 26th; then head on over to the Double Trouble Challenge and link up there, as well!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Stars or Stripes... or Both? (Week Two)

We're back for another week with our friends at the Double Trouble Challenge creating with Stars and/or Stripes. You don't have to use red, white & blue, but we're asking you to use either stars or stripes (or both if you're feeling like an over-achiever).

And we also have a prize for one lucky (randomly selected) participant.

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "I've gone a bit wild this time: my card features diecut stars that are striped; some tapes that are starry and some that are striped; ancient silver star brads and enamel star stickers; even my sentiment strip is striped! Plus there are some adorable Lawn Fawn bunnies and birds, which aren't really based on the theme but they're super cute, right?"

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "I went with both stars & stripes again this week.  I started with silver star stickers on a striped gel printed background.  I combined a coffee cup sticker with a sentiment from STAMPlorations Caffeinated Christmas and more silver stars for the Caffeinated Christmas Stars Challenge. I used papers and a little tag from Doodlebug Designs Night Before Christmas."

Link your card(s) at our original Jingle Belles post; then be sure to head over to the Double Trouble Challenge Blog to link again for a chance at another fun prize!

A (Masculine) Caffeinated Christmas

For the month of June, we Jingle Belles will be teaming up with the amazingly talented gang at the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge, for their "Challenge #18: Coffee + Masculine" to make holiday cards that feature both a caffeinated beverage (coffee, tea or cocoa) and a masculine vibe. Note that for our first Jingle Belles challenge of June, your card only needs coffee & Christmas to link-up; but why not add a masculine element and join both?!

This month's Caffeinated Christmas Super Sponsor is Rubbernecker Stamps, so you'll definitely want to link your cards here AND at CCCC for a chance at some cool prizes! 

We've also got our own little prize, so one lucky person who links-up with us will get A Very Silly Season Stamp set by Gina K. Designs.

And now here's a little Coffee + Masculine inspiration to get you going:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I started with the Rubbernecker Coffee Bean Background stamp in Brown ink on a kraft card base.  Next I die cut the Rubbernecker Coffee Cup from Red with a black lid.  I die cut the cup sleeve from Simple Stories Claus & Co. Holly paper and then used a tiny journaling card that also featured red & holly, where I stamped a Holiday Cheer sentiment from Impress Holiday Word Set."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "To convey a masculine vibe, I used darker colors, concentrating on neutrals and a rich deep blue, plus lots of texture. My focal point is a "snowflake" made of Eyelet Outlet Coffee Cup Brads, interspersed with various shapes and sizes of Pearl Bling, surmounted by a Snowflake Brad. The sentiment stamp and Cable Knit Embossing Folder are from Taylored Expressions; the woodgrain vellum is from Lawn Fawn."

♥♥♥

Post your newly made Coffee + Christmas cards right here AND remember, if you've added a masculine element you can also link up at the Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge, for a chance at some cool prizes from their Super Sponsor,  Rubbernecker Stamps. Deadline for this Link-Up is 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 14th. Keyword for galleries and socials is JB-23-12.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter