Christmas Down to EARTH (Day)

At Jingle Belles, we're still celebrating EARTH DAY by creating cards featuring recycled materials. 

We also encourage you to check out your local Earth Day events on and around April 22nd (in my neighborhood we're having a big public spaces trash clean-up party).

Here's how we recycled this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "Unfortunately I can't remember who gave me the gorgeous holiday-themed napkin which is the centerpiece of this week's card. I carefully peeled apart the layers, stuck it to a piece of Xyron-ed cardstock, and then discovered that there was ONE MORE layer I'd been unaware of. Having (even more carefully) peeled that one off, it turned out I had a semi-translucent layer of those lovely, whimsical critters, to which I (very VERY carefully) applied gluestick and stuck to a piece of navy-blue sheet music from an old Christmas Ideals magazine. A patterned paper mat, metallic diecut snowflakes and a Tim Holtz sticker sentiment complete the design of this not-quite-A7 card."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "This card started with a piece of rainbow painted packaging from Viki Boutin Mixed Media Stencils that I die cut with a large tag die, adding a Doodlebug Design Candy Cane Lane Puffy Santa sticker over the hole at the hole at the top.  My Art Impressions Java Gift Card Holder was die cut entirely from three different pieces of saved packaging (can you see the swirls on the cup from Tim Holtz).  I used two more Doodlebug puffy stickers to decorate my cup and attached it to my rainbow tag with foam tape. STAMPlorations Caffeinated Christmas is my coffee-themed sentiment (designed by my uber talented friend Becca Cruger).  I finished with the absolutely perfectly coordinated rainbow paper from Simple Stories for the card base).  I'm also joining Amy T.'s Caffeinated Christmas Challenge."

Link your recycling-centric cards on the original Earth Day post (directly below this) and be sure to check out the inspiring cards in the Readers' Gallery.

Peace on EARTH Day

April 22, 2024 marks the 54th celebration of Earth Day, so this fortnight we Jingle Belles are asking you to help us celebrate by creating holiday cards that feature at least one recycled element.

Here's how we recycled this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "Last year when I recycled my holiday cards, I die cut this lovely cardinal image from the front of one of them and put it into my recycle/reuse box.  For my card, I positioned the cardinals on top of a recycled piece of American Crafts packaging, cut with a stitched square die cut, using foam tape.  I finished with a red scrap of cardstock from my off-cut folders and a stamped sentiment from Impress."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I managed to incorporate a few recycled items into my card: the pink leopard tissue and snowflake paper were saved from holiday gifts (I adhered them to plain white cardstock to make them sturdier); the white and silver layer is the front of a greeting card I received last year; and I made a shaker box using Hero Arts' Woodgrain Frame Infinity Dies cut from the backs of old greeting cards, covered with a piece of clear plastic packaging. In fact, the stamped Sunny Studio bear, ancient glitter snowflake, and Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads (plus Sequins) are the only new items I've used."

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Need more inspiration? Check out the Jingle Belles Earth Day thread to see what we've made for this theme in years past! Then create your own masterpiece featuring a recycled element and link it right here by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 24th. Keyword for galleries, etc, is JB2408.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Cookie-Inspired Creations

Everybody loves holiday cookies, right? But as it turns out, in addition to being a tasty snack, cookies are excellent inspiration for making cards, as well! 

If you haven't visited the Readers' Gallery yet, we highly recommend the trip. In the meantime, here are three creations inspired by that fabulous photo from Kristen's Cookies which especially caught our eye:

Marina of My Perfect Life

...was inspired by the cookie with a silhouette of Santa's sleigh across the full moon, which she expanded out into a scene that fills her whole card!

Susan B from Cardmaker's Garret

...was inspired by the cookie with the realistic tangle of holiday lights and had the PERFECT stamp to recreate the look!

Barb G of Barb's Creative Corner 

...was inspired by the cookies with Santa against a pink frosting background; she matted and stretched the shape to fill her adorable mini-slimline card!

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Many thanks to everyone who played along, we adored seeing all of your creative takes on the theme. We'll be back at Midnight with a brand new seasonally-appropriate prompt that we're pretty sure you can guess if you've ever Jingled along with us in any previous April! ;)

More Cookies, Please

We're still creating holiday cards inspired by this fabulous collection of holiday cookies from Kristen's Cookies, and you're still invited to join the fun. Remember, when you share your card, we'd like for you to let us know which cookie you chose, and how it inspired you! 

Here's what we made this week:

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week I went with the pink cookie (how could I not?!) that has the cute Santa, and once again my inspiration was partially informed by the fact that I was under the impression that I had a very similar Santa image. As it turns out, I had a Doodlebug Santa that was in a completely different style, but... it was already on a PINK journal card, so I just went with the flow! I began with the intention of going super-minimal and using a plain pink background, but then I remembered I'm *ME* lol, and added a few pink patterned paper layers as well as the sentiment that I'd cropped off of the journal card."

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "My card is clearly inspired by the cool Candy Cane Cookies.  I used stamps from Reverse Confetti (retired) and colored them with my markers.  Since my Candy Cane image didn't have the pretty pink bow, I created a pink gelliprint background for them to pull in that fun color combination."

This challenge runs until Wednesday evening, March 10th. Scroll down to the original post to see the super-sweet Readers' Gallery and link your delicious cookie-inspired creations! 

Cookie Inspired Christmas

This fortnight, we're asking you to create a card inspired by this fabulous collection of holiday cookies from Kristen's Cookies. When you share your card, make sure you let us know which cookie you chose, and how it inspired you!

(source)

Here's how we were inspired this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "When I saw the elegant "Merry" turned into a holiday tree in the bottom center, I thought I had something like that in my stash.  I did indeed in the form of Unity Stamp Company Say It Big Holiday Die Cut.  I die cut it three times from one of my green Gelliprints and stacked them-up to give some dimension like the cookie.  I used the Hero Arts Rounded Corner Rectangle Dies for my layers bringing in another green Gelliprint from my stash.  I finished with two punched stars from each of the Gelliprints."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I chose the cookie with the Charlie Brown-ish xmas tree inside a snowglobe, and I have to confess that part of the reason was that when I saw it, my Cardmaker's Brain kicked in and went, 'you've got Memory Box Nested Globe dies and Spellbinders' Bottle Brush Trees!' Then, when I was retrieving said dies, I found my Honeybee Layering Holiday Bells set, which has that cool two-part bow, so all that was left to do was find some teeny Hero Arts enamel dots, a Doodlebug sentiment and a coordinating blue scrap of patterned paper for the background. Job done!"

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Link your cookie-inspired deliciousness right here, by 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 10th. Keyword for galleries, etc is JB2407.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Beautiful Bling

We were pretty sure our fellow Jingle Belles would know exactly how to Bring the BLING... and we were absolutely right about that! As always, it's very difficult to only choose a few cards to feature, but here are three that especially caught our eye:

Urska of Ustvarjalni Oblacki

...placed tiny gems at the center of each swirl, to act as ornaments on her intricate diecut Christmas tree!

Meghan of Made by Meghan K

...used Picket Fence Studio's Glitter Paste through a stencil to create a beautiful and unique glittery coffee bean background!

Bonnie of Stamping with Klass

...chose to diecut that gorgeous skinny sentiment from red glitter paper, and made it stand out even more by using white for the rest of her elegant elements!

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And now it's time to see where our fun little prize pack will be heading out to!

The Random Number Generator has selected Lucky Number #3 which means that Deb Horst of Sendable Sentiments is our Lucky Winner. Congratulations, Deb! Please email your snail mail info to llaurenb (at) hotmail (dot) com and we'll get that on it's merry way, ASAP!

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Many thanks to everyone who played along, we loved seeing all of your beautiful, bling-centric cards! We'll be back at Midnight with an inspiring little holiday snack we hope will get those creative juices flowing! 

BLING-le All the Way

We're still BLING-ing away this week at Jingle Belles... creating cards featuring jewels, gems, pearls, stickles, glitter paper or any other sparkly element(s) that catch our fancy. Here's what we made this week:  

Lauren's Other Card

Lauren says, "This week, I applied Izink Diamond Glitter Paint (in a luscious shade called Rose Foudre) through an older TCW snowflake stencil, let it dry, then matted it on white Non-Shed Glitter Paper, I added multiple fussycut layers of a snowflake-looking Stamplistic Mandala stamp, each of which I had embossed with a different Ranger Embossing Powder (Love Letter, Gold Tinsel, Pink Tinsel and Copper, to be precise) and then I stacked up and adorned with sticky-back rhinestones.

Stephanie's Other Card

Stephanie says, "For my BLING this week I went all-in with Glitter die cutting my card base from green glitter cardstock using a stitched rectangle and die cutting my Jingle Bells from gold glitter cardstock.  I added some green bling to the center of my glitter bow and finished with a rub-on sentiment directly onto the glittery paper."

Be sure to visit the original BLING On the Holidays post to see the Readers' Gallery; then start planning your own sparkly, BLING-y masterpiece! Remember there's a fun little prize for one random cardmaker, so link up your glitter-centric card today!