Friday, March 15, 2024

BLING on the Holidays

This fortnight we're BLING-ing on the Holidays - making cards that incorporate jewels, gems, beads, pearls, glitter, stickles or anything sparkly.

Here is how we got BLING-y this week:


Stephanie says, "When I think of BLING, I think of Eyelet Outlet Swirl BLING Flourishes.  For my card, I deconstructed several Jewel Pink swirl flourishes to decorate my die cut Christmas Tree to coordinate with one of my favorite GelliArts Prints.  I topped it with a clear jewel star and an Impress Rubber Stamps Holiday Words sentiment."



Lauren says, "This card has a lot of elements (and A LOT of sparkle!) but it came together quickly because nearly everything on it was a leftover! The background was stamped with Simon Hurley's Bold Holiday Blooms and embossed with Ranger's Green Tinsel and Lime Tinsel Embossing Powders. It was one of several panels I made while playing around with said glittery e/p's to create this post on the Ranger Project Page. The stacked strip featuring the Eyelet Outlet Fancy Long Bling I found in my EO box when retrieving the tiny Pearls and the Jewel Brad that's holding the silk poinsettias and glitter paper snowflakes. I have no idea where that giant pale green holly leaf came from, but it was the perfect size, shape and color so on it went!"

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And now, here's a peek at a little blog candy that one Lucky (Random!) Cardmaker will score, just by linking up their own blingy masterpiece with us this time.

♥♥♥

Link your sparkly, glittery, BLING-centric cards right here by 6pm (Eastern) on March 27th.
Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2406.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Diecut Delights

We were DIE-ing to see all of your diecutting creations and they most definitely did not disappoint! As always, the hardest part of our job is narrowing down for all the amazing cards to just three that especially caught our eye as amazing examples of the theme.

 


...designed and cut these elegant oversized shadowed letters using her electronic diecutting machine, then added the most adorable critters imaginable!


...used (almost) nothing EXCEPT diecuts on her delightful card, and each element is perfectly thought out; notice the two shades of red adding dimension to the mug, the way things are affixed at different heights, and how that beautiful embossed background very nearly fills the cardfront.


...made a sweet collage of several diecuts on top of a diecut background that's layered over paper just a shade lighter... making for extra depth and dimension galore!

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we hope you had a chance to hop around and see the inspiring cards your fellow Jingle Belles created! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we hope will bring a SPARKLE to your eye! ;)

Friday, March 8, 2024

Prepare to DIE(cut)

This week at Jingle Belles we're still creating cards that primarily feature Die Cuts; shaped images made with craft punches or electronic systems (like Silhouette or Cricut) are also acceptable in this context.

Here are our "to-DIE-for" cards that we made this week:

Lauren says, "This week I've used three dies to make two versions of one card. Penny Black's Glorious Poinsettia is my focal image; for each card I cut it several times from both green red, to make it more substantial and to emphasize the petals and leaves. I also used two of the three dies in Tim Holtz's Sizzix Mixed Media Christmas set to create background patterns using negative space, then layered the pierced backgrounds onto contrasting colors. As you can see, I love combining multiple patterned papers; and NO, for the record, I've never met a Christmas plaid I didn't love!"



Stephanie says, "I combined four different Impression Obsession die cut sets (all linked in my blog post) together with googly eyes and Eyelet Outlet Holiday Coffee Cup & Candy Cane Brads for a fun green winter scene for the Caffeinated Christmas Challenge."

You have until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, March 13th to link-up and join us.

Friday, March 1, 2024

Holiday Cards to DIE(cut) For

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to make cards that primarily feature Die Cuts... (we'll also allow punches or items cut from electronic cutting machines like Cricut or Silhouette) ... just make sure the dies are front & center in your design.

Here's how we created our Christmas CUTs this week:


Stephanie says, "I started with the Trinity Mini Slimline Woven Die Cut from White Cardstock & thin marbled & gelliprinted paper, that I attached together for sturdiness.  I attached it to another gelliprinted background piece before adding lots of other die cuts using a sketch from Try a Sketch on Tuesday.  There are four different Simon Says Stamp Snowflake Die Cuts (Jewel, Kinley, Bliss & Alicia) together with the CZ Design Joyful die cuts.  I finished with Pinkfresh Studio Gems."



Lauren says, "I adore my Tim Holtz/Sizzix Snowglobe #2 die set, but it has 26 separate dies, so as much as I love it, realistically, I only actually attempt it a couple of times per year. But there is NO arguing with the results, because seriously HOW CUTE are those tiny houses?! Apparently, the last time I used it, I organized the dies into three groups and wrote a cheat sheet (more about this on my blog) which streamlined the process, so it's possible you'll be seeing it a lot more in future!"

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Link your diecut-centric creations right here! Our Jingle Belles Holiday Cards to DIE(cut) For challenge will run until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday evening, March 13th. Keyword for galleries and Flickr is JB2405.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thursday, February 29, 2024

What's the Good Word?

There were LOTS of good words in our "Text Me" Readers' Gallery, so if you haven't taken a spin through to soak up the inspiration, we highly recommend the trip! Meanwhile, as usual, it was hard to just pick three cards to feature, but here are a few that especially caught our eye:


...made an over-sized sentiment the star of the show by embossing it in glittery gold, diecutting it into its own scalloppy panel, then adding just enough embellishment to let it shine!


...chose a dynamic brush-lettered text-y patterned paper as a background for a super-cute Santa Shaker and added whimsical red and white fungi to her magical card!


...backed a bold diecut Christmas tree with tiny text paper that's beautifully echoed in her background panel and sentiment, with red mats to add definition to each level!

♥♥♥



And now let's see where those gorgeous Memory Box Celeste Snowflake dies 
will be heading out to!

The random number generator has selected 
Lucky Number #13
which means that

is our Lucky Winner, congrats!

Please email llaurenb @ hotmail (dot) com with your snail mail info, 
so we can get that out to you ASAP!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing every single card and, as always, we were inspired by your amazingly creative ideas! We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new prompt we think is to DIE for! ;)

Friday, February 23, 2024

Getting TEXT-y With It

This week at Jingle Belles we're still creating Text-y cards - cards that prominently feature some TEXT.

Here's how we got TEXT-y with it this week:



Lauren says, "Stephanie gave me this beautiful Uniko Christmas Block Party Cover Stamp a couple of years ago and I don't use it nearly enough! I stamped it once (in Ranger Jet Black Archival) on plain white cardstock; then re-stamped the Santa, the Merry and the holly leaves on scraps of patterned paper which I fussycut and pieced into the design. I worked in a little more color with markers and pencils, then added a couple of Eyelet Outlet Matte Finish Enamel Dots, lots of tiny White Pearls, and five styles of EO Brads Star, Gift BradPine TreePoinsettia and Candy Cane Brad."



Stephanie says, "I went with another dictionary page this week, this time containing the word Winter and sprayed with Hero Arts.  I die cut the Memory Box Stitched Merry Christmas Square Frame from white cardstock and ink blended some green Distress Inks for the Memory Box ink blending challenge. I finished with a white glittery reindeer and a few clusters of white gems."

Make sure you link-up by 6pm EST on Wednesday for a chance to win a set of Memory Box Celeste Snowflake Trio Dies.




Friday, February 16, 2024

TEXT Me

This fortnight's Jingle Belles theme is TEXT ME – create a holiday card that celebrates text. 

That might mean using some letter stickers, dictionary pages, texty patterned paper, or just creating a card where the sentiment is the star; but bear in mind that just using a small sentiment doesn't count... text of some kind should be the star of the show. 

Get creative with your words and make sure you get TEXTY.

Here are the TEXTs we are sending this week:


Stephanie says, "I started by spraying a vintage dictionary page (with the word NOEL) with Dina Wakley Evergreen Enamel Gloss Spray.  After it dried, I die cut it with a horizontally positioned stitched rectange.  Next I die cut the Joy Crafts Sketch Art ~ Christmas Tree from dark brown cardstock & then cut the inside of the star with gold glitter paper.  I decorated it with Pinkfresh Studio Sparkle & Shine Glitter Drops in the openings.  I finished with a vintage My Sentiments Exactly! Woodblock I've had since at least 2008 stamped in brown ink and a few Love from Lizi Brown Peel Off Stickers to balance the design before attaching it to a kraft stitched rectangle."



Lauren says, "A couple of weeks ago I used a Memory Box's two-layer Brilliant Joy die set to make holiday card kits for Paper Anthology, and wound up with... I suppose you could say... an excess of joy! I glued them into little stacks of three, so they'd have a little more depth, then used them to create a text-y background on a piece of Photoplay plaid paper, which I augmented with vellum poinsettia stickers, as well as Eyelet Outlet PoinsettiaCardinalCardinal Profile and Female Cardinal Brads. I trimmed a sentiment from a red texty patterned paper (Elle's Studio, I think?) and matted the whole thing on another alphabet-patterned paper from Recollections. It's definitely different from anything I've made recently, but I love how it turned out!"


And we've got a fun little prize for one lucky participant - Memory Box Celeste Snowflake Trio of dies.


Jingle Belles' Text Me challenge runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday evening, February 28th and if you're reading this, you're officially invited to join us! Link your TEXT-y cards right here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter