Jingle Belles - Baby It's Gold (or Silver) Outside

Anyone else do any "Black Friday"/"Small Business Saturday" shopping?  There were some pretty good deals on art supplies if you were an early shopper.  Luckily Rachel was up and out early enough on Friday morning to do an errand for me and grab a set of 72 Prismacolor Pencils with a complimentary set of 12 watercolor pencils for.........$20.00 at ACMoore.  That's a savings of over $100. 

I was out-and-about shopping with a friend on Saturday doing some "Small Business" shopping and we decided to stop in at ACMoore to check if they had any more of those sets that were on sale (it was advertised as a 2-day sale or while supplies lasted).  Needless to say, there were no pencils left. But I did have a coupon for 50% off any item not on sale.  It seems almost sad to say that the only thing in my basket not on sale was a piece of scrapbook paper.  This black paper with silver embossed music on it.  I thought it would make an elegant addition to a Christmas card and since this week's Jingle Belles challenge was to use metallics I was able to use it right away. 

I took the picture against a red sheet of origami paper and now I'm regretting not having put this on a red card base.  Maybe I'll cut the front off and just do that!

You know how tricky it is to get pictures of shiny paper so you'll have to take my word for it that this is much prettier IRL.

Okay, not sure I'll be getting another card done for this challenge, so in case I don't I want to thank Lauren and Steph for another wonderful year of Jingle Belles challenges.  I am so much better off doing these all year long and not waiting until December and I have them to thank for it!!! Merry Christmas ladies!

Jingle Belles - Not A Creature Was Stirring

Well, I bet you can guess what this challenge is all about.  I have several stamp (sets) that have creatures that I haven't used yet and I had such good intentions of using at least one more of them before tomorrow - let's just see about that.  In any case, this bear, the holly and sentiment is from a Hampton Arts set I picked up last year for myself after buying one for a gift for a friend.  I can't remember if it was a trip to the Target Dollar Spot that encouraged me to do it or not.  You see, they had some pretty nifty washy tape in this black and red combo and another in a black, red, and gray combo which I thought would be perfect to use on Christmas cards.  There's another bear stamp in the set that's Buffalo checked, but I thought this one would stand out more. 

I had a little baking mishap tonight which put me off schedule, but if I hurry home after my dentist appointment tomorrow (the second in two days [consultations - ugh] I might just get that second one in under the wire.  

If I don't, I know I'm going to enjoy checking out the gallery over at the Jingle Belles.  I took a preliminary look and there's a ton of "creatures" lurking about.  

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas II

For my second Jingle Belles Pink Christmas card I tried something new. I saw the Try a New Technique challenge at Splitcoast this Monday was "Spots of Color" and I wanted to give it a try.  I stamped the Amuse poinsettia in Strawberry Slush and then, using some daubers and Pretty in Pink and Pink Pirouette inks spot colored the image and the background.

I added some silver glitter gel pen highlights and used clear Wink of Stella on all the flowers.  Not sure you can see the sparkle in the picture below, but IRL it is quite sparkly.

Remember, the Jingle Belle Hostesses Stephanie and Lauren are each donating $2 a piece for each card created for this challenge.  Aren't they the greatest!  Click here to find out more.  

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas for the Cure

Each October the Jingle Belles run their Pink Christmas challenge. The requirement - the color pink has to be prominent on the card.  The prize - they will donate $2 each for each card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  How can you resist entering with a prize like that.  Having fun, getting ahead on your Christmas cards, and paying it forward to research.

Here's my first card for this week.  I experimented with a little bit of Fuchsia Colorburst on watercolor paper. The little scarf-wearing penguin is from Unity Stamps.  I usually avoid glitter, but the urge to give that oval some kind of frame pushed me into glittering it.  I know.  It's a bit of a mess, but it'll do.  

So all my card-making friends out there, and even those of you who don't normally, but would like to give it a try, why not give this challenge a go?  I know you've got it in you!

Check out the gallery so far by clicking here.  

 

Edited to add:  The total donation for each card is $4.  Love those Jingle Belles Hostesses!

Jingle Belles - Dreaming the Embossible Dream

Those Jingle Belles are so punny.   The "embossible" dream.  Well, I can't seem to get enough of this Hero Arts background stamp which lends itself so well to heat embossing and using Color Burst and I thought it would make a great van Goghesque background for a Christmas star.

I wrapped that embossed panel with some silver stretch cording purposely skewing it a bit before I added the star popping it up with some dimensionals.  It really is more sparkly IRL than it looks here.  I added a clear jewel to the center to complete it.  

I think I'm going to have to step up my Christmas card production a bit because I'm a little behind at this point.  I can't imagine where I'd be though if I didn't take part in the Jingle Belles challenges.  They really do make the holidays a lot less overwhelming knowing that I have a head start on my Christmas cards.  

Now it's time to go and check out all the other "embossible" dreams.  Join me by clicking here.

Jingle Belles - Tic-Tac-Toe

Leave it up to the Jingle Belles to make a fun game into a fun challenge.  How, exactly, would I like to earn my Tic-Tac-Toe, three in a row?

I showed this to HWNSNBP and after I explained it to him, I mistakenly asked him how it fits.  I won't throw him any further under the bus but will tell you that it's the row across the top.  It's got red, snow in the form of snowflakes, and flowers.  

This is a Unity stamp that's been hiding out in the stamp cave for a looooooonnnnngggggg time and finally saw the light of day.  Kind of a Christmas mandala.

Okay, I'm heading over to the Jingle Belles blog to see all the other winners.  You can come along by clicking here.

Jingle Belles - A Caroling We Will Go

I love Christmas carols.  Some more than others.  And I do have a couple of few sentiments and stamp sets that would fit perfectly with this theme.  However, this is what jumped off the shelf tonight for the Jingle Belles caroling theme - the Fa-la-la-la-llama.  

I had to do some, uh hum, straightening up before I could get started, and whilst I was doing so, I found two notecards from IKEA that I thought I could use.  This one pictured with the stripes, and another one with polka dots.  So I set out to create two cards.  You're only seeing one though.

The notecards have a bit of a glossy finish to them and when I stamped the sentiment onto them I found the ink wasn't drying so I sprinkled some clear EP on them and took out the heat gun.  The black ink promptly turned gray and looked okay on this one, but the other one was half gray and half black.  I'm not sure why that happened, but I couldn't use the second one (at least not tonight - I probably can cover over it for another project in the future).  

And then, since I hadn't really learned the lesson about the finish of this card, I decided that I would use a gel pen to add a line of sparkle down the left side of the stripes.  I should've realized that it wouldn't dry and it smeared a bit but I was able to cover over that mess with some silver ribbon.

The trees weren't even in my plan until this point.  I couldn't see that llama just standing there wrapped up in Christmas tree lights without a tree, or two, or three.  

Now I realize that he doesn't have enough lights for all those trees!  Maybe that's why he looks that way.  It will be fun to see who gets this one.  

Time to check out what all the other carolers have added to the play list.  You can join me by clicking here.  

Jingle Belles - Peace on Earth

Somehow I missed the last Jingle Belle prompt and I'm just kind of sneaking in at the last minute with this one.  Phew!  The theme is Peace on Earth and I had such high aspirations for this card. Instead of going into a long-winded explanation, I'll just say that I need to investigate how to use masking fluid a little more - and probably investigate one that is not so SMELLY!  Thankfully I had colored a second image so I was able to get this together after work today.  

The dove is from SU's Dove of Peace and colored with Zig Clear Color Markers.  The sentiment is from Stampendous "Glory to God".  It was stamped with VersaMark and embossed with white EP which is looking very vanilla to me in IRL.  Does anyone know if this yellows after a while unused?

I actually do love the colors of this, I just wanted the dove to be in a watercolor cloud.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Won't you join me to see all the other lovely entries in the Jingle Belle challenge this week?  Click here to tag along.   

Jingle Belles - Beautiful Blue Christmas

Isn't this a beautiful inspiration photo?  I wish I was bold enough to have walls that color.  And doesn't the white look so fresh and pristine with it?  Those pops of green are the perfect accents.  Way to go Jingle Belles!  

Here is my rendition.  I got a chance to open up the roll of birch bark wrapping paper that I bought at Pier 1's after Christmas clearance.  I had to laugh when the saleslady said she thought it was the most beautiful gift wrap she had ever seen and she wrapped all her gifts with it.  I didn't dare tell her that no gifts would be wrapped with this roll.  Oh no.  This was to be hoarded to be used on cards and craft projects only.  I loved using it as the background here.  I used a window box die as my mantel and found a menorah stamp in my stash to add to that mantel.  The snowflakes were die cut from royal blue glitter paper.  And the sentiment is another die doubled with silver foil and green cardstock.  I added a couple other pops of green to the mantle for balance because my first version pictured below was a little too bland.   

I tried to take a close up so you could see that the birchbark paper has a texture to it making it all the more yummy.

Okay, time to bop over to the Jingle Belles blog to see all the other lovely blue beauties!

Jingle Belles - Stars and Stripes

Here I am again squeaking in by the skin of my teeth.  This week's Jingle Belles theme is Stars and/or Stripes in honor of our countries birthday on July 4th.  I managed to come across some paper that had both stars and stripes (even though the stars are 8-pointed, they still are stars). Finding the extras to put on the card is what took the longest, but I'm pretty pleased with it.

My skills photographing lately have been challenged.  I've been using my cell phone and holding it level isn't the easiest thing to do.  The sides of a rectangle sometimes come out all cockeyed if you're looking down, but trust me, the card is a rectangle.  

I had to put a service call in today for our brand new copier in the office because when they set it up last week when I was out, the tray the paper feeds onto was all cockeyed and when I said that to the service desk, the woman laughed at me and said "no one uses that word anymore".  She said she was going to put that on the report to see if the technician knew what that meant.  Tell me I'm not that old that the word cockeyed has become obsolete.  Next they'll be telling me that they don't know what catty corner is or there is some alternate meaning that I'm not aware of that is questionable.  Ugh!

Anyhoo,  time to visit the Jingle Belles to see how everyone celebrated the 4th of July with their Christmas card.  Click here to join me!.

Jingle Belles - O Hole-y Night

If you can't tell by the title, our cards need to have an opening/window/aperture of some kind.  I had the perfect stamp set featuring an opening........ but it's for the spring and wouldn't make a good holiday card.  So, after mulling it around for a while, this is what I came up with.  

A wreath has a hole in it right?  But then I thought there should be something in that hole and I remembered this card that I had pinned and how I loved that deer.  I searched and found my deer die cut and then found a scrap of some woodgrain paper that vaguely mimicked the deer on the pinned card (well not really, but it's interesting in itself).  

I had embossed the berries on the wreath with gold EP so I added a bow in gold too to complement it. The birch paper looks kind of plain so I may add a "Merry Christmas" die cut to the front, but for now this is another card for the Christmas card stash.

Won't you join me to take a look at all the entries for the Jingle Bell challenge this week?  You can by clicking here.

Jingle Belles - Blue Christmas

This Jingle Belle challenge is Blue Christmas and our cards have to be predominantly blue.  

No, this is not a sheriff's badge.  Funny, I hadn't thought it resembled one until I looked at these photos. (And I probably shouldn't have mentioned that because you'll probably think the same now.) The sides are straight, just showing where the crease is for a fancy-fold on my mostly blue card.

It's an easel card. I used Star of Light clear embossed with blue ink as the center image and then backed that with a silver glitter star die cut.  The sentiment comes from SU's Wonderful Blessing. Three shades of blue were used along with white and silver.  

Here's a side view so you can see how the "easel" works.  

I love blue cards for Christmas and you really have to see the cards that our hostesses made - beautiful!!!!  Click here to check out their's and the rest of the Belles too!

Jingle Belles - My True Love Gave to Me

The challenge is to make a card relating to the 12 days of Christmas, or has hearts on it, or is for someone you love.  

I know there's a stamp set out there that has all the 12 days of Christmas. I know because my friend Sabrina made me a wonderful little folding book one Christmas using that set.  But I looked long and hard through my own stash and could not come up with anything.  Well, not entirely true.  I did have a stamp from the $1 bin at Mike's that would have worked, but it was way too small.  So instead of using the stamp I used paper to create the scene that was on the stamp.  

I used a flower punch that had 5 pointy petals and made each petal into a leaf in three shades of green.  Then I outlined each leaf with some gold glitter marker.  The leaves were added to a circle of green to make a tree.  Next I cut out some little pears and a partridge from some gold paper.  The trunk is also of that same paper.  I embossed the sentiment on the darkest shade of green paper in gold.  I used that dark shade of green for the card base, layered a gold frame next and then the red background paper which happens to have hearts on it.  I kind of like the way this came out.  

Now it's time to head over to the Jingle Belles blog to visit all the other ladies and see what they're giving or getting from their true love.  Please click here to join me.  

Jingle Belles - Recycling II

So I promised another card for the Jingle Belles prompt for Earth Day.  This card is very "Laureny" with all the doilies - she's a great inspiration.  On the blue card base is a panel that is a piece of recycled wrapping from a recent birthday gift.  I love the colors.  Great for any time of the year, but I loved them for Christmas too.  The tag was on the gift that my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson gave me for Christmas.  I was torn whether to reuse this or not, but if I still want to keep it I'll make this HWNSNBP's card. 

A few years back, maybe longer than 10 actually, our form Librarian at school gave me a stack of paper doilies that she inherited from her mother.  I was at least 4" high.  And every now and then I stumble across them.  I say that because I'm still reorganizing things and coming to the conclusion that that will never really happen.

The snowflake sequins, green sequins, and the snowflake button (minus the shank), were in the bottom of my catch-all container on my work space.  They have now found a home.  

Here's a little close-up of the tag so you can see all the sparkle it has.  

So now I must run to get my Scribble Picnic project done to post that tonight.  But when I'm done there I'll definitely be heading back to the Jingle Belles blog to check out all the other Earth Day lovelies.  Click here to join me why dontcha!

Jingle Belles - Peace on EARTH Day

This is one of my favorite Jingle Belle prompts.  I get to recycle some of the things that I have saved from Christmases past and also from previous projects.  This card has some of both. 

The wreath was not a wreath to begin with.  It was a string of wire with red and green beads on it that was used to wrap up a package.  I just wound it around my fingers to make a wreath out of it, using the beadless ends of the wire to hold it together.  The bow is some elastic cording that was also on a package.  The wreath sits on a piece of gold embossed cherry cobbler paper that was left over from a card I made a few years ago.  And the green card base was also a leftover.  

The beads are so much prettier IRL, trust me.  I shall try to be back before next Wednesday with another EARTH Day card.  Goodness knows I have a lot of stuff I can recycle.  

Want to see what's in the Jingle Belles gallery so far?  Click here.

Jingle Belles - Getting Sketchy

Our Jingle Belle Stephanie has given us a sketch to work with this time on the Jingle Belles blog.  

I had a couple of ideas for this but nothing was working on paper.  I thought I wanted to use this Unity tree stamp with snowflakes, but all the snowflakes that I had were too big.  And then when HWNSNBP and I were doing some errands on Monday - I had birthday coupons to several places that were about to expire, Michael's being one of them - I happened down the clearance aisle and found these snowflake stickers. (They were a steal and I have enough left to make another card!) Just the snowflakes are stickers, I added them to the silver foil discs. But my tree was so big I had to turn the sketch around.

I opted for some Concord Crush paper as my background and edged the panel with silver EP.  The tree, by the way, is also embossed with silver EP.  This is a very clean sketch and I like how this looks, but HWNSNBP thinks it needs a sentiment somewhere.  Will he get his way or not?  Time will tell.  

Please join me whilst I grab a cup of Chai Latte and make my way back over to see what all the other Jingle Belles have come up with this time.  

Jingle Belles - Blinging on the Holidays

I'm a little smitten with this card for the Jingle Belles Challenge this week.  The challenge is to use sparkly, shiny things and I think I have that covered.  The hardest part of using these bejeweled stickers was finding a background on which they wouldn't get lost.  So I chose this white snowflakes on kraft heavy cardstock as my base.  Both the snowman and the Christmas jeweled stickers were purchased from a Christmas clearance bin at Michael's some time ago.  The "merry" was die cut from red glitter paper. 

Once again I'm going to try to get a second card done in the next couple of days before the challenge closes for this week.  But actually, if I can find another piece of that paper, I think I'll do another card just like this because I really took advantage of that clearance bin ....... know what I mean? ;)  

You can check out all the other blingy cards on the Jingle Belles blog by clicking here.

Jingle Belles - Festive Foliage II

I have a small stash of cards that I periodically look through to find something to use for an upcoming occasion.  This week I decided to look for something springy for a friend whose birthday is on the first day of spring and I found this one.....

.... then it struck me that I should CASE myself for my second card in the Jingle Belles theme this week.  So I did.  I used SU's Watercolor Winter to stamp the poinsettias in Cherry Cobbler ink.  Then I used a square die to get them into shape.  The area surrounding the flowers and the flower centers were painted with some GansiTambi Starry Colors.  I also used that on the centers of the embossed flowers on the background panel.  The extra dots on that panel are dabbed with a Riding Hood Red marker.  The ribbon behind the poinsettias is metallic jute from Create It and the striped grosgrain is retired SU in Riding Hood Red.  

Here's a little close up so you can see the shininess a little better.  The ribbon will fold down nicely to be mailed.

So now I'm ready to go visit the Jingle Belles again to view all the lovely creations from the last two weeks.  Click here to join me.  

Jingle Belles - Festive Foliage

We're celebrating the holly and the ivy - festive foliage of the holidays with the Jingle Belles this time.  I used this string of bells die to decorate with some holiday foliage which was also die cut.  The background panel is embossed with tons of poinsettias.  

I also used a piece of vintage ribbon with more poinsettias.  The white is a lot white IRL.  The bells were cut from silver metallic paper.  

Since we're having a snow day tomorrow with a March blizzard forecasted for our area I am going to try to get another card done for this challenge.  Stella is the name of the storm.  They're using all kinds of adjectives for this one - historic being one of them.  And I hope that it doesn't turn out to be as historic as the last storm that began with an "S" - Sandy.  We are in the 18-24" path.  Thank goodness for snowblowers.  

We have a pool going with our Table 7 crew as to the final accumulation total using our house (the furthest north) as the measuring point.  Might as well make it interesting, although I think that all our guesses will be less than what we actually get according to all the weather service hype.  

You can check out all the other festively foliaged cards on the Jingle Belles blog by clicking here.  

Jingle Belles - I Can See Clearly .....Again

These are really bad pictures - so sorry.  I decided to use a sheet of transparency film and just could not get a good photo.  Even the washi tape looks bad here, like real old cellophane tape.  But IRL it is much nicer.........really. 

 

As you remember, if you saw my card from last week, the Jingle Belle challenge for this week is to use a clear element on your card.  

The story behind this card - it's inspired by a card that my son gave me for Christmas last year.  I loved the glittery snowflakes against the aqua background - there were 6 of them on that card.  I also loved the way the acetate was wrapped around the front of the card not hiding but highlighting those snowflakes.  It wasn't until I looked at it again just before making this that I realized that it was there to protect the card and was supposed to be removed.  Aha!  Well this acetate is meant to be part of the design.  

The snowflakes are popped up with dimensionals.  I added some flat lace alongside the panel and then decided to add the glitter washi tape which isn't as yellow in real life as it appears in the picture. The jewels are stuck on top of the acetate and the silver cording is tied around it.  

 

I guess you could say, by looking at this picture that the washi tape is see-through - oh, and the lace, but I'll settle for the acetate strip. 

 

On my way over to see the other wonderous creations at the Jingle Belles blog.  And please, if you get a chance, check it out - not only the entries for the challenge but the beautiful cards by the Belles-in-Charge, Steph and Lauren.  Week after week they come up with prompts and gorgeous sample cards to inspire us.  What would we do without them!