Jingle Belles - More Figgy Pudding for the Christmas Feast

Well, with all the Thanksgiving feasting behind us, I had one more idea for another Jingle Belles card - this one a little healthier than the last.  Some holiday fruit.  Pears and strawberries fussy cut from a sheet of scrapbook paper in a filigree box made from the remnants of a fancy pastry box.  I stuck in lots of die cut greens, a twig wreath, and some self-created candles with flames.  The paper the fruit was cut from had a black background and it really popped so I thought I'd use black here hopping to get the same effect.  I edged that black paper with a glitter pen, and the sentiment is another die cut out of the pastry box paper.  

I know there's a Russian name/technique for brightly colored fruit and flowers on black but I couldn't think of it.  Originally this was to be a wreath with the pink and orange flowers from that sheet of paper also. I spent a day trying to remember the words Della Robbia, but when I looked at some photos of Della Robbia, I didn't think it lent itself to Christmas that well.   These these other dies were right in front of me on my work table and they coaxed me into using them - no shouting involved this time.  It was like putting a floral arrangment together and IRL the greens are very loose.

So now I will visit the other feast offerings at the Jingle Belles blog.  This is the last challenge for the year and I'm so grateful to Steph and Lauren for doing this all year and helping to keep a little of the crazy out of December.  Jingle Belles really do rock!

Jingle Belles - Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding

Festive Food - that's the prompt for this fortnight's Jingle Belles Challenge.  Do you think that my bacon is festive enough adorned with the tiniest of holly sprigs?   I actually did stamp them with Ink on 3's Fadeout ink so I could color them with no lines with my Prismacolor pencils.  Then, whilst watching a bio on Netflix about Hedy Lamarr (she was more than just an actress!), I fussy cut them out to add to what I was assuming was bacon on this paper I found at Michael's.  (I had HWNSNBP's input on what he thought it looked like and he did agree with me.)

 

 

I used the pig stamp from a SU set and the sentiment was from a Unity KOTM which I altered to say HOGS instead of HUGS.  (I really was trying to come up with something punny regarding BAKIN and BACON but I struck out with that.)

 

I know this isn't much of a layout and frankly, I'm not even sure who I will send this to, but the idea for it just kind of took residence in my head until I got it out of my system.  I promise to make another card with festive food before the due date - hopefully it will be fruitful!

Jingle Belles - Mele Kalikimaka

I have been purposely staying out of craft stores because my "stash" at home is more than well stocked, however, I was in need of something in particular and found myself once again wandering the aisles checking out all the "new" stuff that I hadn't seen and this paper with the pineapples was so noisy (you know how something screams to you in a store, like the Oreo's you don't need to eat or the shoes that pinch but they look cool and they talk you into buying them anyway) that I had to buy it - sale or no sale price.  And it struck me, as I was already adding it to my basket, that this might be perfect for this fortnight's Jingle Belle challenge, except a pineapple is not a flower.  But it came home with me nonetheless and I made it work (or so I like to believe). 

I had a totally different flower in mind for this, but after I spent way too much time die cutting them with all their little bits, they looked way too busy. So I grabbed this poinsettia from Ink on 3 and embossed them in gold.  The leaves are actually the tops of a pineapple stamp that I had that I also embossed in gold to mimic what is on the background paper.  You can see from the photo below that there is some sparkle to this and also that the flowers, leaves, and sentiment are raised to give it more dimension.  

Now I have to figure out who is going to have a pineapply good Christmas this year!

I have one more idea for a card for this challenge - something again a little out there - let's see if I get it done in time!

Please mosey on over to the Jingle Belles blog to see the gorgeous floral creations for this challenge.  You won't be disappointed!

Jingle Belles - Creature Feature Revisited

Got this die recently and it was sitting on my work table almost screaming at me to be used, so I let the voices have their way and thus have another entry for the Jingle Belles creature prompt for this fortnight.  It helped that I had a scrap of Bermuda Bay cardstock in the vicinity and had just gone through some patterned paper and put this plaid aside for possible Christmas card use.  These colors together are one of my favorites.

Yes, I know that baker's twine is not that "hot" anymore, but I like it and I think it works here.  So much so that I made two of these.  (But if you look closely at that second card you will see how misplaced the plaid background is - something I thought I could live with but alas, I think it will be trimmed off the base and remounted properly.)

Dare I ask whether those berries should also be red?  

Okay, so there's more Christmas creature cards over at the Jingle Belles.  I'm going to get there soon and give out some Halloween comments - what about you!

Jingle Belles - Not a Creature Was Stirring

Leave it to Laurel Burch to be able to herd those cats into a Christmas tree.  I've been waiting for a good time to use this stamp from Stampendous and had a lot of fun coloring it for the Jingle Belles challenge this fortnight.  I have a second one stamped and ready for trying alternate colors when I get a chance.  Maybe when I'm watching one of the new Hallmark Christmas movies (which btw began tonight.....and it's not even Halloween yet!).

I'm also going to post this card at Janis' blog - Her Peaceful Garden for the Cat Lover's Hop and squeezing it in just in the nick of time.  

I have a few Laurel Burch cat items that I've gotten through Zulily.  The sets of make-up/jewelry zippered pouches are a pretty way to carry craft supplies too. 

So won't you check out those links above and see what other creatures are Jingling and if you're a cat lover you have to check out all the creative cat entries.   

One More Pink Christmas for the Cure - Jingle Belles

One of the more recent Unity Kits of the Month contained this lovely ornament and I pictured it in pink so I thought I'd better hurry up and get this card done for the Jingle Belles Pink Christmas Challenge.  

Kudos to Lauren and Stephanie for once again hosting this challenge for such a worthy cause.  Read more about it here.  Jingle Belles definitely ROCK!

World Card Making Day and Jingle Belles Pink Christmas

Yes, yesterday was World Cardmaking Day and we spent the better part of the day away from home at the Kite Festival (separate post).  But we managed to get back with enough time for me to get these two done before the Yankee game started last night.  I just ran out of energy to get these posted yesterday.  

Each October Lauren and Stephanie - the fabulous Jingle Belles - challenge us to use Pink in our Christmas cards.  For each card that is linked up they each donate $2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Pretty cool, eh!  And although you might not first think of pink as a Christmas color, there have really been some stunners over the years.  I love this challenge.  And I love Stephanie and Lauren for doing this.

I recently purchased a roll of clear double sided adhesive from Scrapbook.com specifically to use with delicate dies.  I love it!  I got the 81 ft. roll of 6" adhesive on sale for a great price and I believe that it is on sale again this weekend.  I've been cutting a piece of cardstock to the size of the die I'm using and then unroll the roll a little to stick the cardstock down before I cut just that piece out.  (I would recommend using a pair of teflon scissors for this if you have them.)  Then I roll the adhesive-backed cardstock through my Big Shot with the die.  You may have to roll back and forth if the die is really delicate, or use a metal plate.  The backing peels off so nicely and there's no rushing to add glue to the die cut or smushing of glue when you place it on your creation.  I do have a suggestion about those tiny tittles over the i's - don't pop them out of the die.  Instead, carefully remove the the backing while it's still in the die and then place the die over the word where it should be and use a needle tool or tweezer to press the tittle in place.  I learned this after I lost the first tittle and had to use the little push out piece from the y in Merry.  

Now, if you're ready to be dazzled by some Pink Christmas beauties join my by clicking here.

Jingle Belles - Peace on Earth

I have a container on my work table that I put new purchases/gifts in so I have them easily at hand to give them a try.  Due to some "retail therapy" I now have two containers that are chock full of goodies that I treated myself to or was gifted by someone else.  This Memory Box Peaceful Dove die was in there.  And, since this Concord & 9th Geode stamp set was in there too I tried putting them together along with the PEACE sentiment die for this fortnight's challenge at the Jingle Belles.  

I stamped the geode in VersaMark on watercolor paper using my MISTI and first sprinkled some silver EP in places and then went back with white EP for the rest of it. Then I used some Color Burst powders for the geode and the background.  The spotty background was just water droplets left to stand for a bit and then mopped up.  

The dove is popped up on slivers of dimensionals and I have already made note to pick up some sticky back foam sheets to use in the future with these delicate dies that I want to be more dimensional because it was a bit time-consuming cutting up little pieces of dimensionals and trying to find places on the die cut to use them where they wouldn't be too noticeable.  Perseverance won out though.  

Going to scoot over to the Jingle Belles and have little look at all the Peaceful creations there.

Jingle Belles - Sketching a Winter Wonderland

The lovely Jingle Belle Stephanie created this sketch for the challenge this fortnight.  Pretty cool, eh!  There is a little leeway in sketch challenges.  Shapes, sizes, direction of design can all be variable as long as the the basic bone structure of the sketch can be recognized.

I opted for ovals rather than circles and added a strip of gold ribbon behind the trees the length of the panel.  I also stretched this sketch out to make a long, skinny card which should fit in a business-size envelope.

When I was looking through my stash for possibilities of backgrounds and stamps to use, I had a fairly good idea of where I was going with this but was a little stumped with the banner part.  A trip to Michael's this afternoon for something for school gave me a chance to look around for some inspiration.  As it turned out, the item that I went there to buy was excluded from coupons, so I had a 40% coupon to use for myself.  I was looking for some ribbon that might look a little like woodgrain, but found this gold woven ribbon in with the Christmas ribbons they were just putting out and were still regular price so the coupon worked for that.  Then I found the woodgrain paper in the scrapbook paper section which I thought I could use with a word die.  So "Bingo"!  Here you go.  

And since I'm a little, well probably more than a little behind in my Christmas card stash, I cut out and stamped enough ingredients for two more cards like this.  

Thanks Steph, for the sketchy inspiration!  Now, you'll want to head over to the Jingle Belles to see what other interpretations there are.  Just click here.

Jingle Belles - Banner Inspired

In case you've never visited the Jingle Belles, below you will see the beautiful blog header that is theirs this year.  Our mission this week is to let the banner inspire our cards.  

I happened to look up from my work table to the area where I keep my paper and paper cutter and sticking out of the scraps was this crazy chevron-like paper and a scrap of the reindeer paper.  What did that remind me of?  I was wracking my brain whilst working on something else when it suddenly came to me.  This week's Jingle Belles challenge.  This was as I was getting some things ready to take along for an extended weekend.  So they sat there until we returned yesterday at which time I took some self-imposed vacation time up in the stamp cave to finish this up.  (Currently watching Doctor Foster on Netflix - she's an odd one!) Then, when I came down for some nourishment, I promptly forgot to post it.  But here you have it at last.  

I know you cannot tell from the picture that those deer have some gold sparkle to them, but I did see something just now that I hadn't realized was there before.  The words "Jingle Bells" are faintly on the paper and I didn't put them there.  Serendipity!

That tree is die cut from a sheet of SU balsa wood which I'm not sure they carry anymore, but it does work well with dies even as intricate as the tree.  

Okay, okay, quickly over to post at the Jingle Belles.  And now since I've shown you the header if you hadn't seen it yet, take a look at the rest of what's there by clicking here.  You know Lauren and Steph never disappoint with their wonderful creations.

Jingle Belles - Stars and/or Stripes AND Scribble Picnic - STARS

Woohoo! I don't usually do a card for Scribble Picnic, but as the themes this fortnight was the same as Jingle Belles it seemed written in the STARS. 

 

When I saw the theme for Jingle Belles I thought I remembered having recently purchasing a star die with a scene in it.  But not being able to put my fingers on it quickly, and with time running out, I decided to go with another die, or dies.  I used my SU layered star, along with a Hero Arts star ornament die, and I'll have to look up that twig wreath die if you need to know.   The stamps on the top star and the sentiment also go along with the Hero Arts set.   

 

 

I wanted to stay away from a brown twiggy wreath and luckily found a matte gold piece of a fancy pastry box I had in my recycling stash.  The sentiment is embossed in gold and the secret I will divulge here is that it is covering the hole in the star point that makes that star an ornament. 

 

I've been in a card-making funk lately with some rather uninspired designs, but I'm very happy with this one.  Despite it having 6 layers, it came together pretty easily if you don't count the time I spent frantically searching for that little sentiment stamp which had attached itself to the die package.  HWNSNBP came up to ask me something whilst I was looking for it and quickly exited the room after asking me what I was doing.  But the good news was, while I was searching for that I found the new star die!  Well, maybe I might have time for one more Jingle Belle Star card.

 

In the meantime, I hope the Picnickers don't mind me sharing this at the picnic this week.  I'll come back to add the link to Scribble Picnic so you can visit along with me.  But now I need to see all the Stars and/or Strips over at Jingle Belles.

 

Edited to add the link to Scribble Picnic.  And next week the theme is HOT DOG. 

Jingle Belles - White Christmas

Our Jingle Belle challenge this time involves cards that are predominately white.  I almost missed this deadline (yet again) as I've been very distracted these last couple of weeks.  Last week was the last week of school for the students and staff and there's always so much that has to be done before they leave for the summer.  It didn't help me that I have a "staycation" scheduled for this week and though I have a list of things that I want to get done, there are still so many distractions.  You know, like when the weather is so nice that you just have to get outside and weed rather than hide out in the stamp cave.  Things like that.  

But I managed to get upstairs and pull this together taking liberty with the shades of white that I was using.  The dove is recycled from a card that we had received from my cousin and his wife who now live in Indiana.  He is a minister and for several years their Christmas cards featured doves and I've saved every one of them.  The ribbons came out of my scrap bag and the wooden snowflake is shinier IRL but I just might have to give it a coat of something a little more glittery before Christmas.

Trust me, it's just the lighting.  There is no gray to that lace.

I think I set a personal record for the time it took for this card.  If I didn't forget that I have a little craft iron upstairs I could have saved some time setting up the iron and ironing board to tidy up that ribbon.  See how distracted I am.  Or would you call it focusing so much on getting something done?

I took a peek and there are some beautiful white creations on the Jingle Belles blog including the gorgeous samples that Lauren and Stephanie provide for inspiration.  They just take my breath away sometimes.  If you feel like getting a little breathless yourself (without too much physical activity involved) click here and you'll get a real treat.

Jingle Belles - Christmas Bells

I'm sneaking in with this bell-laden creation today.  I apologize for the poor photo but the weather here has been less than perfect for picture taking of shiny things and there are some shiny things on this card.  Namely the bells, which were the required element of this fortnight's challenge.  But just so you know, the striped paper and the sentiment are also glittery.  That sentiment might have been better with the green glitter paper, but I was too tired last night to search it out.  (When I do the second one - and I do plan on doing a second one - I will try the green instead.)

I know.  Excuses, excuses.  But in my defense it is the last two weeks of school and we are one tent short of a three-ring circus right about now.  In fact, I think tomorrow I will pull out the red noses just to lighten the mood a little.  And then there's ICAD and Scribble Picnic - which I am happily fitting into these crazy days also.  So, I hope you bear (or is it bare? I can't grammar right now) with me for only having one simple "bell" card to share today.  

I will be heading over to view the lovely creations by the other Jingle Belles participants later this evening.  You can take a look also by clicking here.  

Jingle Belles - Tie a Holiday Ribbon Around the Christmas Tree

Ribbon.  Ribbon.  Who has ribbon?  Funny how I was recently thinking about how I could use some of the ribbon that I've been stashing away.  Seriously, I have probably spent a small fortune on pretty ribbon.  It's part of the "I'm going to need this someday and it's not that expensive" mentality. Until, of course, you sit back and look at all that you've accumulated.  Not to mention ribbons that have been rescued from gift packaging, out-of-fashion craft projects, hang tags, etc. 

So when I started pulling out possibilities of ribbon to use I came across these stamped and cut out pieces of mandalas.  These, believe it or not, were probably my first introduction to serious rubber stamping.  Anyone out there remember the Carol Duvall Show?  I don't remember who the guest was, but they did a segment using Outlines stamps and for whatever reason, I wanted to give them a try.  

I searched online for a source close by.  Wasn't it lucky that a brick and mortar store not too far from the University of Delaware, where my daughter was going to school at the time, carried Outlines stamps - along with a plethora of others.  She was a freshman at the time and I would often drive down on Friday afternoons to bring her home for the weekend.  So a plan was hatched.

Being younger, and much more adventurous back then, I planned on leaving early one Friday to check out that store before she was done with her classes.  It was called White Swan Stamps and it was located in New Castle, DE.  Up until then I had never been in a store entirely dedicated to one craft.  (Okay, if you don't count fabric or yarn stores.)  They had a whole selection of these mandala stamps to choose from and I built a small pile of them in my basket and only flinched a little when they tallied up my bill.  I was hooked.  

I stamped and cut out scads of them in all different colors.  I've only shown what I found in red, green, and white.  Like I said, there were different mandalas, and they could be mixed and matched and layered.  I know I used them for Christmas cards one year and had all those extra pieces left.  I wanted to use some of these again and started thinking about how to incorporate ribbon.  

I found a salvaged length of this pretty red ribbon and got out some red metallic embroidery floss.  Using a pin, I punched holes on the green piece in each segment. Then I "sewed" the ribbon into puffs all around.  I searched for a background paper that wouldn't compete too much with the ribbon mandala.  

Not only is the ribbon dimensional, the mandala segments are all at different heights.   I'm very pleased with how this came out.  I'll have to think about using more of these - in all the colors, for all occasions.

Want to see all the other ribbony creations?  Join me by clicking here to visit the Jingle Belles.  

Jingle Belles - Peace on Earth (Day)

One of my favorite challenges from the Jingle Belles is the Earth Day challenge where you get to recycle items to make a card.  Of course, this might be in part due to the fact that I save things like old cards, wrapping paper, tissue boxes, pretty packaging and more hoping to one day give them a new life.  My card uses some recycled wrapping paper from a gift I received and some elements punched out from a Christmas card I've been saving for a few years because it was so pretty. 

The wrapping paper is what you see in red with those beautiful gold embossed polka dots. It feels handmade and most likely is specialty paper of some sort.  I just couldn't see balling it up for the trash and knew I would find a use for it again (even if it was to wrap a smaller gift, or is that too tacky?).

The little animal circles are what I punched from the card and I popped them up on dimensionals. I also recycled those green triangles from squares I had cut out many moons ago for these cards.

At the corners I added some unwound metallic red embroidery floss.  The card is on a red base that I wish I could have made bigger, but it's a 6" square I don't have any red paper larger than 12".  But now that I'm thinking about it a little more, I guess I could have made it an easel card and had the base little smaller.  Hmmmm.  There's still time for that before Christmas fortunately. 

There's gold embossing all around those little animals and the botanicals with them - I hope you can see that in the picture below.  I think you can see the shine of the gold circles for sure.

It's nice to put a dent in that pile of things to reuse, even if it's only a little one.  There is so much beauty in the things that we often throw away.  People make a living designing packaging and wrapping, and even when you think about it, the beauty in the cards that we, ourselves create and send forth into the world can be reused.  I don't think I'd have a problem with someone dismantling a card that I sent them and using it again as a whole or pieces of it.  

One of the things that really bothers me at work is when the librarian orders bookmarks.  Yes, they have catchy phrases for the students to encourage them to read, but they're not as inexpensive as one may think and they're so expendable.  Just thinking that maybe next year, for a 365 project, I'll do my mini scrap collages on strips to be used as bookmarks instead of the ovals I've been working on.  Maybe before I retire in a couple of years........

Okay, let me get off my soap box and get over to the Jingle Belles to see how the belles are celebrating Earth Day for Christmas.  

Jingle Belles Take II - An Orange in Your Stocking

Wouldn't you love to get closer to that tree to see the decorations?  I know I would.  This is, once again, the photo inspiration for this fortnight's Jingle Belle challenge.  

The closest I've come to an out-of-the-box, non-traditional Christmas tree is the skinny, candy apple green, metallic tree we've had for our Merry Fishmas in July.  

I was playing around with some Mermaid Markers in a teal and coral shade and it reminded me of the beach and then I remembered the stamp set I had bought - SU's Beachy Little Christmas.

And this was born. 

A tree kind of like our Merry Fishmas tree (but in very different colors).  You can't really see in the picture, but the shells on the tree and the ornaments have a little Wink of Stella sparkle on them.  

I'm going to head on over to the Jingle Belles blog and check out all the other "orangy" creations.  You can join me by clicking here.  

Jingle Belles - Orange You Glad it's Christmas

Isn't this a fresh look for Christmas?  The orange and white with the bits of lime green and aqua/mint are really outside the realm of tradition.  But it's so pretty.  So pretty as to be the inspiration for the prompt for Jingle Belles this fortnight.  Of course, with any inspiration photo, you get to pick the parts that inspire you, so there are really no limitations.  

I did find the colors inspiring.  I think I've used orange before once or twice on a Christmas card but not this much.  It was only sparingly in the background.  This time I decided to be a little more bold about it.  

The tree is die cut from white glitter paper and I added gems of various sizes in orange and lime green for the ornaments.  The bow is orangey/copper metallic elastic cording.  The orange glitter you see is ribbon already glittered.  

I enjoyed working with these "non-traditional" Christmas colors.  Not sure who's going to get this card, but that's usually not my decision.  HWNSNBP is responsible for choosing who gets what card unless I've specially marked them.  

This challenge will be open for another week so I might just get inspired one more time.  You can check out all the other wonderful interpretations of this cheery room by clicking here.  

Jingle Belles - Spirit of Christmas Past

I absolutely think I spend more time looking for things than I do creating.  When I saw this prompt (2 weeks ago mind you), I remembered that I had come across some vintage Christmas postcards that I thought would be perfect.  So in some spare moments I poked around hoping to find where I had so cleverly put them so that I would know exactly where to look for them.  Sometime during that search I became aware of the theme for Scribble Picnic this week (watering can/s) and I knew I had a picture of a collection of watering cans that I had taken a few years back.  So that search kind of overtook me and I spent several hours going through all my picture files looking for it.  (To say that I have such a vivid memory of stopping to take that photo was driving me nuts that I couldn't find it.)   Jump forward to today when I realized that I never found the postcards and I hadn't done my card yet.  

Scrambling around in the stamp cave I did come across this digital scene that I feel embodies the vintage theme.  I had to fussy cut it out wanting to keep those pretty holly leaves and berries intact.  And then I decided it looked a bit flat, in color that is.  So I took a gold paint marker and went over all the gold lines in the leaves, berries, and star.  But it still needed a little punch.  

Velveteen red paper was my first choice for the background, but it was not to be found.  Luckily this shiny red, silk-like paper fell out of the pile.  Okay, so it's a little plain, but IRL it looks a lot more luxurious.  Still thinking it needed something, I hit the ribbon bins and came up with the holly and berry ribbon that is bordered in gold.  Two little loops at the top was all that I had time for, but I think that's all it needs.  Except for the metallic gold trim that I also found in the ribbon bin.  It's very spring-like and does remind me of the metallic decorations on old Christmas ornaments.  I'm just hoping that it will not rust from the glue, which you might notice is not entirely dry.  

So when I finally do come across those postcards again (which will probably be tomorrow) I am going to put them in the box with all the finished cards that I have for this year.  Something I probably should have done to begin with.  

Now, I must head over to the Jingle Belles to check out all the other lovely vintage goodies. Please join me by clicking here. 

Jingle Belles - Sing a Song of Christmas

Some of you that visit might not realize that the Jingle Belle challenge is a two-week theme.  Besides giving us two weeks to finish a card or two, they also provide us with beautiful inspirational cards of their own that they feature in the second week posting.  This would be Sing a Song of Christmas (see it even has it's own title).  

We're snowed in yet again today, so I got some time to play in the stamp cave uninterrupted.  (I've also been binge-watching Longmire on Netflix so it's been twice as enjoyable.)

The designer paper has a subtle sheet music background and even though the words that are stamped with the deer are not a Christmas song, the sentiment that came with this is a line from "Silent Night" - all is calm all is bright.  In the picture the black stamping looks a little drastic, but rest-assured, it's not as emboldened IRL.  

Okay, now I really have to get going to view all the other contributions from the last two weeks.  Please take a look at the wonderful samples from Lauren and Steph along with the entries for this week.  I'm sure you'll enjoy them all.  

Jingle Belles - Hark the Herald Angels Sing

This fortnight the Jingle Belle theme is musical.   I've had this planned in my head for the last week but, true to form, I let this go practically to the last minute.  You know how it is when you plan something in your head and then you can't find what it was that you wanted to use? Well, that's unfortunately what happened here.  I really wanted to use some sheet music that was more condensed, but I couldn't find that stash and had to go with this one.  The tree stamped in the star are the words to one of my favorite carols "O Holy Night".  

Word of caution, don't look at it too long, you might get a headache thanks to that busy background.  What was I thinking!  Well, there's always time before December to have a redo.  

So let me scurry off to finish up the second card and get them both posted in time.  You can check out all the other musical-themed cards by clicking here.