The MAN with the Bag

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're asking you to create cards that feature - The MAN with the Bag - aka Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle (you get the picture). Make sure Santa is front & center on your design.

Here is how we celebrated Santa this week:

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I picked up a piece of 12x12" journaling cards paper from Echo Park's The Magic of Christmas Collection together with the 6" paper pad from the same collection at my local scrapbooking store last week.  I have no idea why Santa has a Christmas Cake in his hand, or why his other hand was empty as if he was saying - Ta da - but I felt like he needed something in the other hand.  I settled on the perfectly sized Bottle of Beer brad from Eyelet Outlet - it will be perfect for several of the people on my Christmas card list.  I paired it with one of the papers from the 6" pack as well as a scrap of coffee swirled paper for the card base that matched the chocolate in the cake."

Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "I’ve combined a bunch of different Doodlebug collections and elements: the Santa, tree and a few presents are cut from journal cards; the presents and candies are stickers; the sentiment is from a the super-useful page full of tags and sentiments. The red text paper is Elle's Studio... I think... it’s ancient, and was in the scrap box so I'm not positive. The blue graph paper is Photoplay. There are Eyelet Outlet Enamel Dots and an Enamel Star on the cute Christmas tree and a Matte Dot on Santa's hat."

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Link your Santa-centric masterpiece(s) right here by 6pm (Eastern) on May 8th. 

Keyword word for Flickr, galleries, etc, is JB2409. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Earth Day Celebration

The annual recycling challenge is always a favorite at Jingle Belles; we love seeing the pretty/ interesting/ useful things other crafters have saved... and we especially love seeing how they get used to make inspiring holiday cards. Every single link in the Readers' Gallery is worth a visit, and we hope you'll take time to scroll through. Meanwhile, here are three masterpieces of recycling that especially caught our attention:

Lorraine of Paper Vernissage

...has been Jingling along with us since the very beginning (in 2011!) and has basically NEVER made a card we did not love. But she is always especially "hot" when it comes to our Earth Day celebration, and this year is no exception. Hop over to her blog to read all about this adorable Rescued Reindeer AND... the other two cards she made from almost 100% found and recycled ingredients!

Heather of Wire Wrapture

...upcycled parts of a lovely holiday card she received AND the gloriously inky, shimmery blotter paper from her crafty work station to make a card that is both artful and elegant!

Deanne of A Little Bit o' Paper

...raises a caffeinated cup of Christmas Cheer and reminds us that long before we ever heard of Kraft Paper, many of us would save and re-use those lovely, sturdy brown grocery sacks from the Supermarket... which still work beautifully for creative purposes!

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Many thanks to everyone who played along, we'll be saving quite a few of your brilliant ideas for next year's Earth Day Special! Jingle Belles will be back at Midnight with a brand new challenge featuring a holiday hero we suspect needs no introduction!

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."

♥♥♥

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!