Jingle Belles - Banner Holiday

It's the end of November and that means that the Jingle Belles have guided us through 2021 with a plethora of nifty challenges to be able to "Take Back December" and not have to scramble to make all those cards that we need to send for Christmas.  And yes, I did say need.  Even if I didn't make my own cards I would still send cards as a way to let the people I know and love that I am thinking of them around the holidays.  That they are handmade gives me a little pride that I can share the talent that I have with them.  I'm not saying that it's a bad thing if you don't send Christmas cards.  I understand that there are many reasons, good reasons why someone would choose not to, but I do and I enjoy it.

This challenge revolves around the blog banner for the Jingle Belles.  They always come up with something beautiful and this one is no exception.

I had several ideas ruminating about this one and then when i was purging my e-mails I came across an e-mail from Linda Dalke with a video tutorial on making these textured trees with SU's cotton paper.  I do not have SU's cotton paper but I thought that I could use something else in my somewhat neverending stash.  I thought I rememberd having some green tissue paper - the heavier kind that comes with floral bouquets or wrapped fruit, which in this case was the latter.  I have about five 10" circles of it and decided to give it a try.  Fortunately I have a few tree dies that I knew I could try.  I used Old Olive cs as a backing for my trees.  I really like the way the one on the right came out - that was cut with an open die.  The ones on the left were more of a die plate and flattened out the texture a little more but there are slits in the body of the tree which I was able to open up a little.

I used and SU snowflake die for the snowflakes adding white glitter pen to themto have them sparkle a little (which is not really evident in the picture).  The background was something I literally tripped over in my craft room. I was moving things out of the way in front of the storage closet so HWNSNBP can get to the Christmas decorations and there were several rolls of textured paper that someone had given me while I was still working.  This roll is almost full and so textural, I thought it would make a great background.  I did lightly "finger-paint" it with some green and teal ink which is barely noticeable in the picture but more obvious IRL.

And the last touch was the bow which I hemmed and hawed over but decided to go with.  Sorting through supplies the roll of this antique ribbon caught my eye so I used that instead of a sentiment.

This may be the last Jingle Belles challenge of 2021 but it's not my last Christmas card.  I did fall behind a little and need a few more cards, but had I not partaken of these wonderfully thought-out challenges I would be in not so great shape.  

Once the tree goes up this week (per HWNSNBP) I will sit down and get the sentiments inside these, put my little sticky notes on them as to who gets what, and make sure that I have envelopes that they will fit in.  I'll try to get those last one's I need done too before the weekend so that they all can go out in the mail.  

Please visit the Jingle Belles blog and see what beautiful inspiration cards both Lauren and Stephanie have made for this challenge for week one and week two.  They are wonderfully done!