Jingle Belles JB12:01

No Time Like the Present(s) is our first theme of the year.  I bet if you are a paper fanatic like myself that you probably have some of your favorite wrapping paper from this year, or any year for that matter, stashed for putting to "some good use" in the future.  Well, let that future be now - the present!

"Make a holiday card that incorporates GIFT WRAP:

as a background, as an accent, or using motifs cut from your favorite wrapping paper

OR

Make a holiday card with an image of present(s) on it!"

If you've never heard me say it, IKEA happens to be one of my favorite places to go, and not just for the meatballs!  I really love checking out their holiday decorations and papers and, case in point, I used some of the gift wrap that I had picked up there last year. 

Aren't these Gnomes with Clogs just too cute! 

These motifs came from two sets of bags that they had.  One with the snowflakes which had a coordinating striped bag, and the other with the gnomes.  As you can see from the strip across the top of the gnomes, the bags had pinked edges on top and I decided to keep that pinked edge as part of my card.  The bottom is scalloped by hand so I didn't have to cut through the hats of the gnomes below. 

I punched an additional snowflake out of the back side of the bag and edged it with a red glitter pen and then mounted it on a Real Red circle.  The button has a bow of linen thread and the holds the tag - the only stamped part of this card - on the Very Vanilla cs.

I also added some glitter pen to the outside of the snowflake layer though it's barely visible in the photo.  Three shades of red were used in this card - Poppy Parade, Real Red, and Cherry Cobbler. 

If you don't have any paper leftover it's not too late to score some in the After Holidays Clearance Sales.  As a matter of fact, this very afternoon I picked up some very pretty gift bags at Target that I definitely will be using in cards.  At $.60 a bag it's cheaper than scrapbook paper and just as, if not prettier than!

So, this year there will be a Jingle Belles Challenge every two weeks and that may mean you will see more than one card being made by me for each challenge, but don't hold me to it! 

Okay, are you ready to check out the designs of the week?  I am happy to let you know that I was asked to help start things off this year with a card in the preview.  You can join me by clicking here.